AMIGAMAN BBS The AMIGAMAN BBS was first conceived by Ron Carruthers in about 1980. Although Ron had the idea, he didn't have the computer to run it. Six years, 3 computers and several dollars later, the AMIGAMAN BBS became a reality. Although a long time coming, I think Ron would be the first to admit it was worth the wait. I first stumbled across Ron in 1985, at a Commodore 64 User Group meeting. I guess I should have realized then that anyone who communicated only in ASCII was a dangerous person to be associated with. We drifted in and out of touch over the next few months, progressing to C128's, mutually and independantly searching for software for a hybrid machine. In July '86 I married an Amiga; having no software didn't pose a problem as I couldn't figure out how to use the machine anyway. I would spend my days hanging around computer shops that sold Amigas, telling everyone how great they were. I soon met other Amiga owners doing the same thing. Ignorance became our common bond. The AAUA was born! Ron's dream of running a BBS on the C128 was foundering. Too slow, too small, too limited, he cast a forlourne figure in the shop doorway the day that we met again. By this time I had a one man Incorporated Association, he had a BBS with no computer, the solution was obvious, Ron bought an Amiga, I bought a modem. We had two things going for us: an amazing computer and a great group of people forming around us. The AAUA has blossomed to a well respected, influencial spokesman for the Amiga owner. The BBS is about to explode. AMIGAMAN is 100 per cent Amiga. During its development, we despaired that this would be the case. Software crashes, modem failures and disk storage limitations lured us towards a "clone". Sidecar was considered, purchased and discarded. During this time the dollars mounted. Trials started in October 1986. My tireless modem would ring Ron's "secret" number and on a good day I would be greeted with half a dozen menus, leading me to sections that were full of hope but void of substance. On a bad day.... the line would fizz and whistle, but the cursor wouldn't budge. The modem had died again or the software was lazily exploring the darkest corners of the Amiga's memory with no intention of coming out to play. A phone call to the US solved the software problem. We'd been ripped off, the version Ron had spent all the house-keeping on had been scrapped months ago. Two months mortgage payments righted the wrong. If only the modem would work! With the Amiga safely strapped into the back seat, Ron would journey into Sydney, wallet in hand, searching for the Guru that would make his baby talk. As the wallet shrank, the baby's vocabulary grew. The trial runs held up longer, the messages were legible, we had a BBS! We began to whisper the secret number to other Amiga users. Calls came from North Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia, EVERYWHERE! By now I was buried in paper, trying to keep the AAUA up to speed. Ron had forgotten what sleep was like, his wife had forgotten what Ron was like. We needed HHHelp! In January 1987 we made two important steps forward. 1..We formalized a steering committee for the AAUA, freeing me to "freelance" for a while, and 2..We found Marty. The BBS continued to grow. The empty menus I'd skimmed through only a few months ago were now full of informatiom. The membership file contained names of Amiga users across the country. Friendships developed between people that had never met, never even spoken to each other! We had run out of disk storage. During this time Commodore had been our silent guardian; (without CBM I doubt if the AAUA would exist today). When we struck a dead end we would ring Lane Cove. So as Ron busily purged the disk files, Marty went to Commodore. He explained that: 1.. although Ron had owned an Amiga for six months, he had only run one program on it, and 2.. although we could squeeze 880K on a disk, we had run out of room. Thanks to Commodore's help and influence and support from Expansion Systems, Ron now has an Amiga to play with and 20meg of storage on the BBS. It wasn't for free, but at least Ron can still afford the phone bill. The AMIGAMAN BBS is the electronic communication section of the AAUA and is closely tied to that organization. In fact, they both have the same parentage. AAUA members receive discount membership and have a closed section of the BBS for their own use. AMIGAMAN is also providing storage for CLUB AMIGA, Commodore's new product support club. The AAUA and AMIGAMAN pride themselves on remaining independant, representing the Amiga User, not the retailer. The AMIGAMAN system is: Amiga A1000, 512K RAM X-1000 Add on Board with: 512K RAM, Battery Backed Clock/Calender, DMA controller, Host SCSI Port. X-HD 20 Meg Hard Drive. 2 Amiga A1010 880K External drives NICE MODEM 2 AMIGAMAN Software: Micro Systems Software BBS-PC! 4.13. An additional line is soon to be added to the system incorporating a NETCOM 1234A modem. AMIGAMAN will then support 2400/2400 bps transfer. AMIGAMAN Number: (047) 588006 (DATA) AMIGAMAN operating times: Continuous. AMIGAMAN services: Free Visitors Section. Public Message Base. Private Email Service. Full File Upload/Download facilities. Free Trading Post Section. Closed AAUA Members Section. Amiga (PD) Software available for download. Amiga Tips & Hints Section. (Including competitions for AAUA members). Amiga Question/Answer Section. Amiga Software/Hardware reviews. Listings of over 100 disks of Public Domain Software available from AAUA. AMIGAMAN BAUD rates: 1200/1200, 1200/75, 300/300 2400/2400 available soon AMIGAMAN Membership Base: National. Anyone interested in the AMIGA. We don't catagorize our membership (other than members of AAUA). AAUA & AMIGAMAN Subscriptions & charges: AAUA Joining fee: $5.00 AAUA Annual subscription: $30.00 AMIGAMAN (per annum)(AAUA Members): $10.00 AMIGAMAN (per annum)(Non AAUA Members): $15.00 AMIGAMAN 26 page user manual & Amiga communication software: $10.00 AMIGAMAN Postal Address: AMIGAMAN BBS 12 Dunoon Drive, HAZLEBROOK NSW 2779 We have heard of several Amiga User Groups that are trying to develope a BBS service. To date, we know of only one that is operating, running on MSDOS! AMIGAMAN is the product of Ron's imagination and many thousands of hours of hard work. If you have an Amiga and a modem, you're crazy if your not benefitting from the service AMIGAMAN is offering. Ian Preston