So what would you need to run BBS today? No, I don’t mean those crappy forums  that float in every corner of internet.

Generating ISO image for VMWare

I aqcuired old DOS boot floppy image from the internets. It was in IMG format so my VMWare wouldn’t like it. What to do? Who has floppy drives or disks any more? You guessed it: Use virtual floppy drive of course!

Ok, let’s create that ISO 9660 image. Open up CDBurnerXP and go to Disc -> Boot options and load up the IMG file. Now Burning software will scrape it for necessary boot stuff. Browse to that virtual floppy drive and throw all files to disc. Next thing is to “burn” it as ISO image. Easy.

Installing operating system

I’m using VMWare Server for this. Create new virtual machine and select Windows 98. I used 64 MB of memory, 1 GB of disk space and no networking. Use the generarated ISO image as virtual CD/DVD drive. Don’t add virtual COM ports just yet, let’s test this thing first.

Aargh! MS-DOS is horrible! Where’s scrollable screen or auto completion for commands? But show must go on. Run FDISK to create partition C:. After you’ve created the partition, reboot (CTRL-ALT-Insert). Go to BIOS (F2) and set CD-ROM drive as first bootable device. Next thing is to format C:. Run FORMAT C: /Q. Next thing is to copy OS to C:. Run COPY *.* C:. Go to C: drive and write the Master Boot Record with command FDISK /MBR. Go back to A: drive and run SYS C: which restores system. Next go to virtual RAM drive and copy some necessary software like EDIT with COPY *.* C:. It was in my case drive D:. Reboot. Change first bootable device to hard drive from BIOS. Now you’re running DOS from C:. Easy isn’t it?

Install PCBoard

First, you need to download PCBoard. Unzip the file. Open up the generated ISO image and add all unpacked files to some subdirectory (I used PCBOR11). Also, if you don’t have XCOPY.EXE anywhere in your ISO image, get it. Save the ISO file again. Reboot from CD.

Go to CD drive. In my case it was E:. Run XCOPY /S pcbor11 c:. Go to C: drive. go to install directory and run install.

*insert hours after hours of frustration here*

Installing Windows 98

This should be pretty basic stuff.

Installing virtual modem

Install virtual modem to your actual OS. I found and used Virtual Modem Pro. I created Virtual COM1 port with it and then used the “Use physical serial port” from VMWare configuration for my guest OS.

Installing BBBS

Fetch BBBS from it’s site.

Configure BBBS by running bcfg4

Start node 1 by running BBBS 1

BBBS should be now in “Waiting for calls” state. Or if not, install “Standard 56k modem” to W98 and try again.

But that’s not enough

You can’t run that virtual modem over VoIP. VoIP is designed for human voice. Modem’s noise is garbled and connection cannot be made. There’s hope though, ITU V.150.1 AKA V.MoIP (Modem over IP) is coming. Some hardware boxes seems to support it already. So let’s try someday again when MoIP support is available.

Setup in the end

Windows XP is running virtual modem and VMWare. VMWare is running Windows 98 and it’s running BBBS which is connected to virtual COM1 port via VMWare’s “physical” COM1 which is connected to that virtual modem.