T\\/iLiGHT Zo]\[e BBS History: Every BBS has to start from somewhere. Each one has its own origin. Let me tell you about how Twilight Zone evolved into a full-fledged bbs. My first ecnounter with bbs was in the magazines. I've read about them before but never really bought a modem since it was expensive during those days (circa 1987-1988). It was only when I found an article in PC DIGEST (local pc magazine) on local bbs in Metro Manila in 1989 that got me hooked on bbs. I started out as a caller of other bbs during the latter part of July 1989. I had just bought a 2400 baud SmartLink external modem. It was a rare experience for me, the first time I called a bbs. Everything was new and I had a lot to learn then. I was amazed at the tons of information you can find on the bbs. I logged on bbs like FoxCorp, Oilers, Gateway and met a lot of people online. I became addicted to it first time I logged on. I then had this curiosity to open a board and be a sysop since it seems like a lot of fun. On the first week of September 1989, I opened my bbs for test run daily for 3 hours at night and steadily increasing the online hours till early morning. I fiddled for a name and format for my bbs. I liked reading about the occult and I felt there was no such board yet, thus the birth of Twilight Zone. TZ was using an XT (4.77 mhz) and went to AT (80286) only after a few months. TZ started with a Seagate 40mb MFM hard disk and 20mb MFM HD backup. The BBS here were using fido-techonology and echomail was just between Manila BBS. There was Oilers BBS, Psyche Net, Xerxes, PDAF, FoxCorp, Fisherman's Whars, Night Chambers and a few others. There were no Subic Based or Clark Based BBS then. Everyone was using Fido and only Phoenix,Gateway and Oilers were using QBBS. TZ started on September 1989 using Fido 12g. TZ used to run from 9pm-10pm only and soon enough, callers grew and users wanted the Master to extend the time, TZ then became a stand-alone regular bbs. Getting into the local PFiNix was the next target. The Master was able to set-up for echomail with the help of then Psyche Net Host Hub Charles Asuncion of Net 2. Several sysops also help the Master like Peter Que of Lighthouse and Randy Gonzales of Phoenix BBS. Using Fido bbs software, TZ joined the local Fidonet October 1989. Switching to quickbbs was the next target and it was achieved on December 1989. There were ups and downs in TZ's history, TZ was down at the most for about 2-3 months at a time, due mostly to hardware problems. Opening a bbs requires a great effort. TZ had even installed online games during time when only SCAN INTERANTIONAL BBS was the only bbs with online games. A good bbs system should continuously improve and it is with this in mind that changes are made from time to time. A great leap had been made when BillBoard was able to link up with Japan via SpaceCom's sysop Norm Joseph. Norm Joseph eventually found out there was a real Fidonet international network. The whole fidonet system in the Philippines then was not really linked to Fidonet worldwide. With the Japan Fidonet International link, we were reorganized and merge into Region 63 of Japan in the Fidonet international nodelist. For over 2 years, the Philippines was under Region 63 of Japan in the Fidonet nodelist. Problems cropped up as our entries disappeared once in a while only to reappear a few weeks again later. Incoming international netmails and outgoing international netmails were non-existent with this set-up. So, I made the arrangement to contact the zone 6 coordinator Honlin Lue in Taiwan for inclusion of a separate region for the Philippines. Honlin Lue appointed me as the Regional Coordiantor for the Philippines and assigned Region 64 for the Philippines. This was a major break for the Philippines in Fidonet. Twilight Zone registered Remote Access on April 1991. Most of the software I use are registered, such as GOLDED , Gecho and several other bbs utilities and shareware. Twilight Zone supports the concept of shareware... HighLights : (Includes Major BBS Events / Conferences in the Philippines) 컴컴컴컴컴컴 September (1st week)- The Birth of TZ - Fido 12 G - Stand Alone September 1989 - Joining Fidonet - Fido 12 G - PFiNiX 3:2/2 local chapter not linked to fidonet international September 1989 - BBS Upgrade - Fido 12 N - PFiNiX 3:2/2 September 15, 1989 - BBS Upgrade - Quickbbs 2.04 - PFiNiX 3:2/2 January 1990 - Online Games - Quickbbs 2.61 - PFiNiX 3:2/2 February 1990 - Hooked Up Japan Military Net Via BillBoard BBS March 1990 - - Quickbbs 2.62 - PFiNiX 3:2/2 April 1990 - - Quickbbs 2.64 - PFiNix 3:2/2 August-November '90 - TZ was down due to hardware problems November 1990 - TZ Back On-Line - Quickbbs 2.64 - PFiNiX 3:2/2 December 1990 - FIDONET WORLDWIDE - Quickbbs 2.64 - IFNA 6:751/2 Philippines was linked to Fidonet International January 1990 - BBS Upgrade - Quickbbs 2.66 - IFNA 6:751/2 March 1991 - BBS Upgrade - RA 1.00 - IFNA 6:751/2 April 1991 - Registered RA - RA 1.00 + - IFNA 6:751/2 April 25, 1991 - US ROBOTICS DUAL HST 9600V32 / HST 14400 Online April 26, 1991 - BBS Upgrade - RA 1.01 + - IFNA 6:751/2 July 1991 - Twilight Zone Becomes Host Hub 755 - IFNA 6:755/0 July 1991 - Mt. Pinatubo erupts... August 1991 - Monolith BBS Joins Net 755 As Node 2 August 1991 - Binary BBS Joins Net 755 As Node 3 August 1991 - Clark Gateway And Subic Gateway are cut off due to Mt. Pinatubo eruptions and evacuation of Clark Air Base. All lines including Fidonet echomail are suspended. September 1991 - PC DIGEST BBS Joins Net 755 As Node 4 September 1991 - Binary BBS Offline - Net 755 Node 3 Vacant October 1991 - Metronet Conference Activated through NLSO BBS in Subic while the Manila gateway is Bytelag BBS. November 2 1991 - Majesty BBS Joins Net 755 As Node 3 December 1 1991 - Hiker's Board BBS Joins Net 755 As Node 6 December 1991 - Billboard BBS (Subic Bay) resumes normal polling and Fidonet echomail is back... January 15 1992 - ZyXEL FAXMODEM V32bis 14,400 External Modem Online January 28 1992 - Mr. Honlin Lue of Modem Way BBS (6:720/13) sent netmail to TZ. Mr. Lue who is Zone 6 Coordinator of Fidonet has extended his help for reorganizing of Philippines from Region 63 (Japan) to its own Region proposed as Region 64. January 31 1992 - BBS Upgrade - RA 1.10 + - IFNA 6:755/1 March 1992 - BBS Upgrade - RA 1.11+ - IFNA 6:755/1 March 13 1992 - Major Reorganization of Net/Node Address - 4 Networks For Philippines under proposed Region 64. - Twilight Zone New Net/Node Address - IFNA 6:750/2 - Manila divided into 2 networks (North And South) - Twilight Zone becomes the Regional Coordinator for Region 64 feeding echomail and netmail to 2 Manila networks, Cebu and Subic networks. March 13 1992 - Philippines Recognized As REGION 64 in nodelist.073 after I made the necessary arrangements with Zone 6 Fidonet Coordinator Honlin Lue of Taiwan. This included several e-mail exchange and voice calls to Taiwan. March 30 1992 - BBS Upgrade - registered GECHO 1.00+ /Beta May 1992 - BBS Upgrade - registered GOLDED 2.40+ May 1992 - PsycheNet of Singapore operated by Charles Ang Asuncion of 6:600/413 (former Philippine sysop who now works and lives in Singapore) polls Twilight Zone for test run of Fidonet echoes in preparation for the departure of Billboard BBS (Subic Bay) Fidonet Gateway in Philippines. June 6-7 1992 - Attended the 4th Asian BBS Convention in Taichung City, Taiwan and represented the Phillippines during the convention. Mr. Honlin Lue acted as Host for the event with Taiwan as Host country. Sysops from Taiwan, Korea and Japan also attended the conference. June 11-18 1992 - Went To Singapore to arrange for the link of various echomail conference areas with PsycheNet of Singapore operated by Charles Ang Asuncion. June 20 1992 - Net 751 (operated by PC Guild BBS of Arnold Bagabaldo) polls Japan for echolink of some of the Fidonet area directly to 6:730/9 Avxia BBS of Mr. Kazuyoshi Shinada. Asian Link was being received from this system. New gateways must be established pending the closure of the US Subic Base... July 1 1992 - Last intenrational mail packet was received from Billboard BBS. July 2 1992 - Billboard BBS Fidonet gateway was officially closed down since the sysop Mr. Bill English will be leaving for Atsugi, Japan due to the closure of the U.S. Base in Subic. - Twilight Zone becomes the official Region 64 Philippine Fidonet Gateway. July 5, 1992 - Twilight Zone now becomes member of Internet 59:606/1 And Doornet echo with node address 76:8110/1. Doornet Coordinator And Internet Coordinator For Philippines. July 9, 1992 - Mr. Bill English of Billboard BBS 6:753/2 departs Subic Base and leaves for vacation at his hometown Tennessee , USA for a month before moving to his official station at Atsugi, Japan by August of 1992. July 19, 1992 - 2nd General Sysop's Meeting at Mister Donut, Greenhills. All sysops agreed for the need to start generating by restricting access of all international echomail areas only to paid subscribers. Implementation date is August 1, 1992 August 1, 1992 -start of the implementation for restricting access to international echomail only to paid subsribers. October 1992 -Twilight Zone BBS joins WORLDNET. January 17, 1993 -3rd General Sysops Meeting (Famous Parking Lot Meeting) Major Issues - Discussed - Most Well Attended Fidonet Sysop Meeting. Differences between sysops regarding the payment scheme were discussed and settled including the issue of freenet and Fidonet local chapters. BRE Players also attended this meeting. February 1993 -PODNET Member (Pagan Occult Echo Network) International March 1, 1993 -BBS Major Hardware Upgrade Micropolis 2 GIG SCSI Installed on the bbs system. March 28, 1993 -BBS Upgrade Remote Access 2.00 Gamma March 30, 1993 -ZyXEL Plus Modem Major Bios Upgrade to 19.2 K Baud, Twilight Zone now supports the maximum and fastest modem in the Philippines together with Monolith Bitstream BBS who also uses a ZyXEL Plus (19.2k). June 1993 -David Schepper polls TZ for direct phone link of Asian Link and the newly linked Gaming echo. August 1, 1993 -First Year Anniversary - Fidonet Philippines September 13, 1993 -New BBS Opened - ONE TOUCH BBS 6:750/108 Sysop - Carlos Legaspi October 22, 1993 -TWILIGHT ZONE ! Now Operating 24 Hours A Day 7 Days A Week November 23, 1993 -Registered Frontdoor 2.20 Commercial December 1993 -Start of Soc.Culture.Filipino internet feed from Jim Ayson. December 24, 1993 -TZ CMOS TIME is now fully synchronized with NIST Atomic Clock in Boulder Colorado, USA via CEBU BBS who polls NIST for the exact and precise time. January 5, 1994 -First Chinese Language Echo in the Philippines T-CHINESE originating from Twilight Zone. January 9, 1994 -4th General Sysops Meeting held at Purity Supermarket. Discussion related to organizing a non-profit organization or bbs cooperative for managing the Fidonet subsscription payments. March 26-29, 1994 -STACNET Conference in CEBU at the University of San Carlos Technological Center. Major Internet symposium with talks by several key speakers from STACNET, PHILNET, FIDONET, FREENET and other e-mail companies. Some of the noted speakers were John B. Rule Jackie Foo, Jim Ayson, Jojo Sybico, Rommel Feria and others. April 17, 1994 -One Touch BBS renamed to 13th FL(o)(o)R BBS. 13th Floor BBS new Co-Sysop is Jim Ayson. Twilight Zone BBS new Co-Sysop is Aquino Tee aka The Grim Reaper. New message areas for 13th Floor BBS and TZ linked. Renaming of T-Chinese and T-Online echo tags to TZ.CHINESE and TZ.ONLINE.SHOPPER June 10, 1994 -Officially Listed in PSINET Network Nodelist. Twilight Zone now member of PSINET - PerSoft Echomail Network Based in New York. TZ's PSINET Network Address is 67:500/100. Official Hub For Philippine PSINET Region 500 nodes. July 11, 1994 -BBS Upgrade RA2.02 August 15, 1994 -Fidonet-DLSU UUCP Link for the soc.culture.filipino March 19, 1995 -Fifth Fidonet Sysyop's General Meeting / Fidonet Eyeball Discussion and Formalization of a non-stock non-profit User Organization to handle subscription/membership fees April 5, 1995 -TZ now using US Robotics Courier V.34 V.Everything External FaxModem upgrade. Callers can now enjor real 28.8 k V.34 connect speeds. April 29, 1995 -Activated Fidonet link via PAONLINE.COM through George Peace' commercial fidonet service link for fidonet echomail conference. Link was established through our own shell account at Philnet. May 1995 -New Fidonet conferences are linked/relinked through PAONLINE.COM windows, gaming, asian link, and others. July 1995 -CyberPhil formally organized as non-stock non-porift organization duly registered under SEC to manage the funds collected for maintaining Fidonet international link. It's main purpose is to promote the exchange of electronic information through advance computer technologies and telecommunications. Twilight Zone BBS is a proud member of CyberPhil. August 1995 -Major System Upgrade Now running 3.5 Gig of Hard Disk Space soon to be 4 Gig. -CyberPhil internet gateway activated. CyberPhil members can avail of sending and receiving their internet email at Twilight Zone with user.name@tzone.cyber.org.ph as their internet address. Gateway is activated by sending netmail to UUCP at 6:751/5. December 10, 1995 First CyberPhil Christmas Party. There were over 90 guests who came over to attend the dinner buffet. Internet Seminar was held by Dave Deluria, game contest of Command and Conquer (networked for 4 players) with Rebel Assault 2 as the prize for the winner. Raffle prizes comprising of soundblaster cards, 14.4 external modems were given away by CyberPhil President Albert Godinez to lucky guests. Overall, it was a very successful evening. Some of the guests included Bill English of Billboard BBS Japan who donated P2,600 for the CyberPhil Fund. Corporate sponsors who donated some of the prizes were Netlink and Lamco, New Asia Computer donated the special lechon. January 31, 1996 New menus, bbs upgrade to RA 2.50g. Lots of enhancemnets and bbs redesign being implemented. March 1996 Upraded the system to Pentium 133 with 256k Burst Pipeline Cache Ram. Memory upgrade to 32 MB EDO Simms. Fast PCI S3 Trio64 2MB VGA Card. April 4, 1996 Web Page For Twilight Zone! finally online. The URL for TZ's web page is http://www.tridel.com.ph/user/carlos I'd like to thank Peter Ng for his assistance in developing the web page for Twilight Zone. June 1996 Upgraded the system to Diamond Edge PCI Vga Card with 2 MB VRAM. This is a 3D VGA multimedia accelarator card. July 26, 1996 2nd Web Page For Twilight Zone! via Sky Internet. http://www.skyinet.net/users/monolith. July 30, 1996 Twilight Zone ! Main Web Page now linked as http://super.zippo.com/~twilight The old pages of Twilight Zone will be linked to the above page. Added background music on the web page. August 9, 1996 Major System Upgrade - now running 64 MB EDO Memory on Pentium 133 with 512k Burst Pipeline Cache. November 22, 1996 Several changes to bbs bulletins, rotating screens implemented. Upgrading of Callers arranged with FileBank BBS!. New welcome screens and log off screens. November 25, 1996 Tended Irrevocable Resignation as Vice-President of CyberPhil and RC64 of Fidonet. February 22, 1997 Twilight Zone! Shutdown BBS Indefinitely. Drop out of Fidonet to become point 6:751/321.555