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The quintessential signature of the BBS era was the sound of data that you heard coming out of your phone receiver.

One of my useless skills back then was being able to recognize modem speeds, brand and sometimes (especially Motorolas and USRs) model just from the handshake noises they made.

For a little while, I could recognize my old man's BBS' individual subscribers calling in just by turning up the volume of the modem on top the 386 box...

in the days of 7-digit dialing, dialing the Compuserve access number in Watertown MA (which one used from Cambridge MA) played "camptown ladies sing this song"

I was the Compuserve rep for Interplay back in the day, and the account number (76702,1342) will be forever burned in my memory. That account was free for some areas of CIS, but not all of it (much to the chagrin of one of producers, who ran up a $1,500 bill in one month of gaming).

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