Many BBSes had "file sections", where you could use XMODEM (and later YMODEM, ZMODEM, KERMIT, and a bunch of other specifications) to download programs and files to your local machine, and run them. This was amazing; use the modem, get a program! Of course, over time, it became a point of pride to say how many programs you had online, and file sections grew to enormous sizes. Some captured file listings are presented below.
Why include such a mundane aspect of the BBS world? Well, for the same reason that it was great that people took random street shots of cities thoughout the last century. Even though they seemed boring and uneventful, the progression of time away from when the picture was taken gives it interest. Maybe someone will browse a file list and see a program that was their favorite; maybe they'll see that there was a embryonic version of a program they use to this day, that was billed a lot different. No matter; there's a thousand stories buried in these listings. You might hear them tell one to you.
| Filename | Size | Description of the Textfile| 170-609.asc | 134646 | Master Filelist for the Big Dreams FAXable CEC
| ajfafile.txt | 723820 | The Damage Incorporated File List and Collection of Paradise City BBS, from Blackened
| allfiles.lst | 682403 | Filelist of the Richwood BBS
| asblist.txt | 159562 | Listing of Files from the Altered States BBS
| cybahq.lst | 228635 | File List: CYBERSPACE Headquarters BBS (June 1993)
| filearea.txt | 3891 | Altered States (BBS) Files Areas as of May 25th, 1992
| files.bbs | 26787 | Large File Listing of all sorts of Typical Textfiles a BBS Might Have (Phreaking Oriented)
| liberty.txt | 8186 | File System of the Liberty Bell BBS
| north444.lst | 104898 | Filelist for the Northern Lights BBS
| sysop.txt | 49626 | Complete File Listings of the Psychotronic BBS (March 31, 1992)
| wfobbs.lst | 130602 | FILELIST: Werewolves From Outerspace (1,300 Files)
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| There are 11 files for a total of 2,253,056 bytes. |