Through eight episodes, director Jason Scott covers the 25 year history of the Dial-Up Bulletin Board System, a modem-connected computer system that let others connect to a computer over a phone line and leave messages and trade files. Containing 200 interviews, episodes mostly consist of elaborate montages of dozens of people composing a narrative.
BAUD is an introduction to the start of the BBS. SYSOPS AND USERS is a montage of stories and thoughts on running BBSes. FIDONET covers the amateur network of computers called Fidonet. MAKE IT PAY covers the BBS Industry. ARTSCENE covers the ANSI art scene of the 1990s. HPAC covers Hacking and Phreaking BBSes. COMPRESSION discusses the ARC-ZIP battle of 1988. NO CARRIER discusses the “end” of the dial-up BBS.
- BBS The Documentary, Part 1 - Baud, The Beginning (39m20s)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 2 - SysOps and Users, The People (44m48s)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 3 - Make It Pay, The BBS Industry (46m55s)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 4 - FidoNet, The Greatest BBS Network (44m)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 5 - ArtScene, The ANSI Art World (42m45s)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 6 - HPAC, Hacking Phreaking Anarchy Carding (38m28s)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 7 - No Carrier, The End of the BBS (21m36s)
- BBS The Documentary, Part 8 - Compression, The ZIP Vs. ARC Story (20m47s)