About Demonic

Demonic font by Kargus

Demonic (frequently stylized as “Demonic Productions”) was an underground BBS modding and coding group founded in late 1996 and remaining semi-active until around 2006.

In BBS terms, modding describes making modifications to BBS software (or an individual BBS setup) in order to customize its appearance and/or functionality. The modding scene consisted of SysOps, programmers, and other hackers with a passion for producing these modifications for public consumption, typically releasing and distributing them as part of a modding group, similar to the other groups, such as art scene groups, demo groups, and warez/cracking groups, that sprung out of the underground computer scenes in the 1980s and 1990s. These modifications themselves were released in a wide variety of formats, from source code snippets and guides and tutorials, to compiled programs such as standalone utilities and “door” programs.

Demonic originally sought to pair simple yet creative mods based on replacement display files, menu files, and scripts for specific BBS software with larger, more complex, multi-software doors and utilities, with an early focus on above average artwork and releasing source code, which was relatively uncommon at the time. Uniquely, Demonic also had the support of many BBS software authors, with members involved in closed testing for projects like iDT’s Iniquity releases, Team ITC’s INSTiNCT BBS, and Nivenh’s (and later Horrid’s) Impulse, and even counting Voivode (Illusion) and g00r00 (Mystic) among our ranks.

Unlike many such groups, Demonic sought to carry on the tradition of releasing art scene style mod “packs” as popularized by groups like Illness, FiRM, Cream, and TRiC, collecting various unreleased productions into a single archive. We originally released packs every other month but quickly lost any semblance of a consistent release schedule, ending up with 7 total packs before switching to an individual release model in late 1998. By the time the group finally burned out we had over 220 releases under our belt, supporting BBS software such as Daydream, Eternity, Illusion, Impulse, Infusion, Iniquity, Instinct, Mystic, Nexus/2, Oblivion/2, PCBoard, Renegade, Synchronet, Telegard, and WWIV.

As of September 2022, Demonic has been resurrected!
View and download our current releases here (updated 12/2024)

Stay tuned for articles about Demonic’s history, information about its releases, both new and classic, and much more in the coming months!

Other notable articles related to Demonic:

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1. Demonic by Kargus, released in Demonic #6 – 6/98 (1998)

BBS Related Podcasts

I’d been meaning to write a quick post on vaguely BBS scene related podcasts for quite awhile now, but a couple of things transpired at nearly the same time which meant the time was right.

While there are a number of good retro computing and gaming related podcasts out there (several might even feature the odd interview or other segment related to BBSing) and maybe a couple centered around the demo scene, there aren’t any actually about the BBS or art scenes. Fellow SysOps and textmode artists Smooth and Anachronist are attempting to correct that with the launch of Textmode Underground. The plan is to focus on a particular subject each episode, along with news and other updates, with the first one focusing on tips for setting up a unique BBS. With only one episode out so far, there’s a lot of potential for this to be a mainstay of the scene if the guys are able to keep it up. The podcast doesn’t seem to have been spread to the usual platforms yet, but you can find it on YouTube here and its RSS feed here.

Coincidentally, I recently added a new show covering stories related to infamous hackers and related HPCAV shenanigans called Modem Mischief to my podcast feed. While any good underground story taking place before the late 90s is going to at least mention BBSes, the podcast is definitely not BBS scene focused in any way. That said, shortly after listening to the episode about the Legion of Doom (a story I was familiar with as one of the subjects of the absolute classic The Hacker Crackdown) my friend Esc mentioned that the creator had been posting on /r/bbs and mentioned being the cofounder of Zer0net. An email or two later, and sure enough, I’ve confirmed that this is none other than Marlon Brand0, former SysOp of Black Hole Cafe and the legitimate cofounder of Zer0net. Small world! So, next time you listen to an episode of Modem Mischief, know that the dude talking actually knows a thing or two about what he’s talking about! Check out the Modem Mischief podcast here, or wherever you prefer to grab your podcasts.

Finally, I want to give a shoutout to Jason Scott of BBS: The Documentary and textfiles.com fame’s podcast, Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It. With well over a hundred episodes, not many of them are focused on BBSing, but often semi-autobiographical, a great many of them mention BBSing, retro computing, digital archiving, hacker culture, and a number of other “scene adjacent” topics. Not everyone in the scene loves Jason for various reasons I won’t bother to get into, but I’ve always related to and appreciated the passion that he puts into his personal writing, talks, and now these podcast episodes, and there are a lot less entertaining things you could be doing than listening to his unscripted anecdotes about subjects you likely have at least a passing interest in. Jason’s homepage for the podcast is here.

Twenty Twenty-two

It’s been far too long, almost an entire year in fact, since I’ve posted anything to this blog. While I wouldn’t say I’ve been inactive (for instance, I’ve done a lot more work on my Amigas and expanded my collection much more than detailed here) I’ve definitely been spending less time on BBS and other retro computing related pursuits in the last year or so. Fortunately, my lack of writing on these subjects reflects that more than a lack of interest in this blog.

That said, I still have tons of planned and half finished projects, and each one of those should produce at least one post, many of those are already half written as well. I also still have a lot of other content planned and even more beyond that I’d love to see make it here. It’s really been a matter of free time, energy, and the lack of motivation to push beyond those limitations. With the new year, I’ve decided to make one of my many informal New Year’s resolutions to improve that; I’ve made it a goal to make at least one significant post a month here.

Although I hate teasing anything that could wind up as vapor, I feel like I owe it to my few regular readers to give a glimpse behind the curtain. Here are some of the things in the pipeline:

  • More articles about BBS history from my perspective, including the long overdue overview of my BBS, various groups I’ve been a part of, etc.
  • Retro game and software overviews/reviews – mostly my favorite era of late 80s – mid 90s DOS and Amiga games.
  • The occasional article on misc. retro hardware, emulation, and other projects.
  • More updates on my Amiga 500 and related projects including upgrades, repairs, more acquisitions, software, and emulation.
  • Hopefully news on Darkness 2.1 and perhaps at least one more planned door game.
  • A series of deep dives into some of my favorite old BBS software packages and interviews with their authors.
  • An ongoing series of (currently accessible) BBS reviews and interviews with their SysOps.
  • Brief reviews of related books and movies, since I tend to ingest a lot of those.
  • More smaller updates about releases (such as art packs) and updates (such as Zer0net nodelist revisions.)
  • Possible compilations of this content into some old school text format zines.

Stay tuned!