RoboBOARD/FX
Welcome to RoboBOARD/FX by Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. RoboBOARD/FX has grown from the shareware experience of ROBO-BOARD Pro and Plus, into a Bulletin Board System loaded with features and innovations.
When Seth Hamilton introduced the original ROBO-BOARD series, it sent shock waves through the BBS community. A BBS completely graphical, faster than ANSI systems, with icons, pictures and menus sent in real time? Was this possible, with every system original, and in DOS too? ROBO-BOARD's true Graphical User Interface certainly was a shock, especially at a time when many ANSI system developers were bragging about colorizing their text screens. We proudly continue the tradition of innovation in the BBS community by announcing RoboBOARD/FX, our third generation of Graphical BBS software.
When we set out to create RoboBOARD/FX we studied existing graphical protocols and found they did not match our vision of a GUI based BBS package. These other protocols were either designed to port text based BBSs to graphics or they were lacking in user interface. RoboBOARD/FX is based on the lightning fast Tel-FX protocol developed by us specifically for this project. Having gained previous experience in protocol development we were able to build on our knowledge and create a protocol that is both powerful today and designed for the future.
We wrote new OOPs based code for RoboBOARD/FX, in fact 100% of the code is new. OOPs code gave us the power to create Online Software similar in look and feel to windowed software seen in modern operating systems. RoboBOARD/FX boasts a familiar looking GUI for DOS, complete with dragging windows, clicking buttons, scroller bars, pop up dialogue boxes and templates. In this GUI environment RoboBOARD/FX supports graphics modes of up to 1024 x 768 in 16/256 SVGA color. Photographic imaging is not an expensive add on that costs you or your users extra more money, it's built right into the RoboBOARD/FX system! We can't think of one category of BBS that will not benefit from this feature. It can be used for GIF previewing, introductions between individuals, marketing, education, and newspapers just to mention a few ideas.
Everyone will appreciate our message editor, which takes any of the inconvenience out of messaging by letting a user print messages, upload pre-prepared messages and quote or write messages using the power of a built in word processor. RoboBOARD/FX has a files database that is so fast a ten thousand file search is near instantaneous under normal conditions, whether the files are on CD-Roms or not. We have included powerful, wildcard and date-based searches complete with keywords highlighting. Even your least experienced BBS callers will have no trouble mastering batch uploads and downloads with our point and queue interface.
RoboBOARD/FX was designed in part for your BBS callers without whom there would be no BBSs. With every package we include an elegant terminal package that is powerful yet lightweight. There aren't menus dropping out of menus and Ctrl-Alt key combinations, just a clean interface a novice can understand and a seasoned user will appreciate. It has been brought to our attention that users want to get involved in drawing screens for their favorite RoboBOARD's and for that reason we are allowing you to distribute FXdraw, our polygon based 256-color drawing and design package. It comes complete with splines, three point arcs, fly out side bar menus, an icon editor, and edit mode just to mention a few features. There is one little catch. You must agree to the Tel-FX Terminal and the Tel-FX Draw license agreement found in the back of these DOCs. This is no big deal; the license agreement just protects our trademarks and ownership, and defines your rights as SysOp.
Real-time graphics for the online community have always been our goal and RoboBOARD/FX stays right on track. Our real time photographic images, icons, menus, and templates are testimonials to that. When we refer to real time we mean the images are sent by the BBS to the terminal when the user needs them. With a RoboBOARD system users DO NOT have to download icons and photos before they begin an online session, every time they log onto a different BBS or every time you make additions or changes to your BBS. We realize that users expect real-time graphics and will not tolerate less for long.
If you are running a commercial BBS, a support system, a special interest group (SIG), or a hobby board, RoboBOARD's Real-time Online Graphics will make your system more accessible and friendlier to more users. Thank you for choosing RoboBOARD/FX as your Bulletin Board System.
