T.A.G. is a
DOS-based
bulletin board system
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...
(BBS)
computer program, released from 1986 to 2000.
History
T.A.G. was written in
Borland Pascal
Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment (IDE) for the Pascal (programming language), Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS. It was originally develo ...
and is free for business or personal use. The authors considered it fun to give the program away while others tried to charge for BBS programs. The software was a fork from an early version of the
WWIV source code.
A quote from one of the authors:
: ''We all poured countless hours into the development and support of people running BBSs. Even today I don't think the internet has come close to the sense of community and simple accomplishment that BBSing provided. Building and running a complete environment on your local computer and watching people use it is a far different experience than putting up a web page on some remote server. We all made and still have a great many friends from being sysops and BBS developers.''
Other Notes:
: ''No one ever got them to answer definitively on what their name stood for, but there was a reasonably reliable rumor that it was from "The Adventurer's Guild" which was a
Dungeons and Dragons sort of reference.''
The last known running T.A.G. BBS, 'The Diskbox ][' is available using a telnet program at tag.diskbox2.net on port 23.
Intro Screen
The intro screen to the T.A.G. BBS login was:
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/ [>> Welcome to <<] \/\/\/\
, /\/ ______________ ______ ___________ \/\ ,
, / / / /, / /, / /\ \ \ ,
, / / TTTTTTTTTTTTTT/ AAAAAA /, GGGGGGGGGGG\/, \ \ ,
, /\/ /\ TT , AA, ___AA /, GG , GG/ /\ \/\,
, -< < > TT , AA/ AA /, GG , _____ < > >-,
, \/\ \/ TT , AAAAAAAAAAAA , GG , / /, \/ /\/,
, \ \ TT , AA , AA , GG , __GGGGGG , / / ,
, \ \ TT , AA , AA , GG/ GG , / / ,
, \/\ TT/ <> AA/ AA/ <> GGGGGGGGGGG/ <> /\/ ,
\/\/\/\ /\/\/\/
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Authors
Victor Capton, Randy Goebel, Alan Jurison, Paul Loeber, Robert Numerick and Paul Williams.
All live in the
Detroit (MI)
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the ...
area except Alan Jurison who lives in
Syracuse (NY).
Users
Peak number of running systems: Just over 1000, mostly in the
United States and
Canada. The largest concentration was in the Detroit area, where it was one of most popular BBS software run in the area. There was a somewhat friendly rivalry with the
Telegard team, which also started in the same area.
Locations
*
Michigan:
Detroit (where it started),
Lansing,
Flint and
Battle Creek
*
California:
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
*
Connecticut:
Hartford
*
Florida:
Jacksonville and
Cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
*
Maryland:
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
*
New Jersey:
Newark
*
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
:
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
*
North Carolina:
Raleigh
*
Ontario,
Canada:
Windsor and
Hamilton
*
Pennsylvania:
Pittsburgh
*
Texas:
Houston,
Beaumont and
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
*
Virginia:
Norfolk
The last known T.A.G. BBS still operating can be contacted by telnet at tag.diskbox2.net. Note: ANSI support is required to connect to weed out port scanners.
References
Bulletin board system software
DOS software
Computer-related introductions in 1986
{{DOS-stub