Oh well, olePigeon, then I guess that my Hermes II BBS is not really a BBS after all, because I don't have any games or any doors/externals installed of any kind.
However, it is not that I don't want to.
If one uses Hermes II 3.5.9 or earlier, there are piles of externals/doors available which can enhance the core BBS package.
However, with Hermes II 3.5.10, Michael Alyn Miller -- the current owner of the Hermes II software, and its most recent developer -- deprecated THINK Pascal-based externals, and switched to Python-based externals inside. Sadly, with the next release of Hermes II, he only included one external which he had converted to the new Python external development environment. That was a Python version of the old BBS standby LEECH game.
By carefully studying the structure of LEECH, I was able to write a new external called "Get-to-Know-You", which was an ice-breaker external which gave each BBS member the opportunity to answer 35 different questions. The user could answer the questions at his leisure, and was not even required to answer them all. By so doing, he created his own unique profile on the BBS, which other BBS members could view. Thus, the name "Get-to-Know-You". As hard as I worked on that thing years ago, I no longer have it anywhere. I must have trashed it at some point when I thought that I was done with BBSing years ago.
But then, with Hermes II 3.5.11 -- which was released two years ago -- Michael again changed the external development environment to the Forth language. He did not include any Forth-based externals with Hermes II 3.5.11. Neither did he ever release his new Forth-based external development environment, so that Hermes II SysOps could learn to write their own externals for the BBS. Thus, if one is using the current version of Hermes II, there are zero externals/doors for it.
Despite Michael making the Hermes II BBS code open source two years ago, no one has taken up the challenge to keep Hermes II alive; and to date, it still has not been ported to Mac OS X. Thus, as I do, one must run either Basilisk II or SheepShaver in order to operate a Hermes II BBS on a modern Mac OS X machine. Older Macs which still have the Classic environment can run Hermes II just fine . . . and they get to use all of those old externals.
Of course, doing so comes at a price. The newest versions of Hermes have some bug fixes and other worthy improvements, including with a few stability issues.
However, it is not that I don't want to.
If one uses Hermes II 3.5.9 or earlier, there are piles of externals/doors available which can enhance the core BBS package.
However, with Hermes II 3.5.10, Michael Alyn Miller -- the current owner of the Hermes II software, and its most recent developer -- deprecated THINK Pascal-based externals, and switched to Python-based externals inside. Sadly, with the next release of Hermes II, he only included one external which he had converted to the new Python external development environment. That was a Python version of the old BBS standby LEECH game.
By carefully studying the structure of LEECH, I was able to write a new external called "Get-to-Know-You", which was an ice-breaker external which gave each BBS member the opportunity to answer 35 different questions. The user could answer the questions at his leisure, and was not even required to answer them all. By so doing, he created his own unique profile on the BBS, which other BBS members could view. Thus, the name "Get-to-Know-You". As hard as I worked on that thing years ago, I no longer have it anywhere. I must have trashed it at some point when I thought that I was done with BBSing years ago.
But then, with Hermes II 3.5.11 -- which was released two years ago -- Michael again changed the external development environment to the Forth language. He did not include any Forth-based externals with Hermes II 3.5.11. Neither did he ever release his new Forth-based external development environment, so that Hermes II SysOps could learn to write their own externals for the BBS. Thus, if one is using the current version of Hermes II, there are zero externals/doors for it.
Despite Michael making the Hermes II BBS code open source two years ago, no one has taken up the challenge to keep Hermes II alive; and to date, it still has not been ported to Mac OS X. Thus, as I do, one must run either Basilisk II or SheepShaver in order to operate a Hermes II BBS on a modern Mac OS X machine. Older Macs which still have the Classic environment can run Hermes II just fine . . . and they get to use all of those old externals.
Of course, doing so comes at a price. The newest versions of Hermes have some bug fixes and other worthy improvements, including with a few stability issues.
