(Above screen shots designed by John Barker (top) and John Barker with Karyzma (bottom))

1992-1997
(Incarnations: Silver Blue Enigma (May 12-21, 1992); Silver Blue Experience (May 21, 1992-January 1, 1997); SBE II: Almost Unreal (May 21, 1994-January 1, 1997); Call Of The Wild (January 1, 1997- May 21, 1997); Walk On The Wild Side (January 1, 1997-April 14, 1997).)

For those who care.... I used to run a BBS (Bulletin Board System)   in Hampton, VA. On May 21, 1992, I started my first computer bulletin board (BBS) [some of you old-timers may remember them as the pre-cursors to the WWW], called "The Silver Blue Experience" (actually, the first name was "The Silver Blue Enigma" but only a couple people would ever have remembered that).  I had been a "joint-SysOp" on the Frost Land BBS (Frosty was the other SysOp) based in Virginia Beach from January until April 1992.

My one-line BBS evolved into Silver Blue Experience and SBE II: Almost Unreal (as well as a number of spin-off BBSs run by other people, including the Collage, Red Light BBS, Popcorn Palace, Capt Jake's Playboat (run by noneother than Capt Jake), Dad's Kitchen, Infinite Shades of Grey, and The Shadoe Zone).  At it's peak, I was running 14 CDs online, catering to everyone from the novice user to the adult purveyor, and running 100+ doors (which were online games). I was awarded International BBS of the Month by Mike Woltz and Jacque Shipley (author and file manager of the "Spitfire" BBS Software I use for the BBS). I ran my own Mail Network (SBENet) which had nodes (links) in Iowa, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.  I merged SBENet with Karyzma's PassioNet (which was internationally known for messages), and it became "Blue PassioNet".  We had close to 100 SIGs (special interest groups) until I sold it all to Marilyn Dean in December 1996, who changed the BBSs to "Call of the Wild" and "Walk On The Wild Side".  She also changed to the Telegard BBS software.  I stayed on as creative consultant, but the fun had left.  The Internet was calling, and in doing so, was killing the local BBSs.  0n May 21, 1997, five years to the day that I had started the BBS, we dismantled it, and went our separate ways.

And now we're on the Internet....the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Screen shots from Call of the Wild and Walk on the Wild Side.

(Thanks to Karyzma for designing the Call of the Wild and Walk on the Wild Side Screens)