Kalgoorlie Retro runs a LORD Server that any BBS can link to. Your callers play Legend of the Red Dragon in a realm shared with players from other boards, straight from a door on your BBS. You don't need to install LORD or ask us first: you sign up once for a BBS key, and put the key in a door.

What you need:

• BBS software that can make an outbound rlogin connection: Synchronet, Mystic, and most others.
• Your BBS able to connect out to bbs.theiguru.au on TCP port 5130.
• About ten minutes.

Your players get their own accounts on the server, named after their name on your BBS with your BBS's tag added: Bob@EXB. A Bob on another BBS is a different player, so nobody can play as one of your users. In the game each player picks their own character name.

You sign up by connecting to the server once with the rlogin server user name register. The server asks for:

• your BBS's name, 3 to 40 characters, for example The Example BBS;
• a tag, 2 to 8 letters or digits, for example EXB. It goes after your players' names (Bob@EXB) and can't be changed later, so pick something short that says which BBS it is.

Then it shows your key, once, and the door command line to use:

  Signed up.  Your BBS key is:

      7KQ2-M9XD-4TPW-H3NC

  Write it down now: it isn't shown again.

Copy the key somewhere safe before you press a key. If you lose it, see lost or leaked keys.

How to make that connection depends on your BBS software:

The quickest way: log in to your BBS as the sysop, and at the main menu type

;EXEC ?rlogin bbs.theiguru.au:5130 -s register -P

(Synchronet asks for your system password first.)

Or make a temporary door: in SCFG > External Programs > Online Programs (Doors), add a program with the command line ?rlogin bbs.theiguru.au:5130 -s register -P and no drop file, run it from the BBS once, then delete it.

Add a temporary menu command (see step 2 for the menu editor), with command IR and data:

/addr=bbs.theiguru.au /port=5130 /user=@USER@ /pass=register

Run it once from the BBS, sign up, then remove it or change it as in step 2.

Use its rlogin door, gateway or menu command with the address bbs.theiguru.au, port 5130, and register as the server user name (some software calls it the password). If your software can't do that, email slaterm@theiguru.au with your BBS's name and the tag you'd like, and we'll send you a key.

Sign-ups are limited to 3 a day from one address. A sign-up that you leave before saying yes doesn't make a key; just connect again.

The door sends your key as the rlogin server user name, your caller's name as the client user name, and xtrn=A as the terminal type, which takes the caller straight into game A and back to your BBS when they quit. (Leave xtrn=A out and they get the server's game menu instead.) In the examples, replace 7KQ2-M9XD-4TPW-H3NC with your own key.

1. Run scfg (on Windows, scfg.exe in sbbs\exec).
2. Go to External Programs > Online Programs (Doors), and choose the section your games are in (for example Games).
3. Add a new program (Insert, or the first empty line) and set:

^ Field ^ Value ^

- Save and leave SCFG. Synchronet picks up the change by itself (or recycle the BBS).

The options of ?rlogin: -s the server user name (your key), -t the terminal type, -P don't pause before connecting. Add -q to hide the “Connecting” message. Synchronet sends the user's alias as the client user name, so your players' accounts are named after their aliases.

1. Run the configuration: mystic -cfg (mystic.exe -cfg on Windows).
2. Go to Editors > Menu Editor, choose your theme, and open the menu your doors are on (for example doors).
3. Insert a new menu item, and set its hotkey (for example L) and its text (for example LORD - Kalgoorlie Retro).
4. Give the item one command:

^ Field ^ Value ^

- Add the item to the menu's display (or rebuild the menu's ANSI screen, if your menu uses one) and save.

@USER@ is the caller's handle. /term=xtrn=A takes them straight into game A; leave /term out for the game menu. Mystic sends the user and password fields in the order BBS servers usually expect; LORD Server accepts them either way round (from version 1.4.1), so you don't need to swap them. Add /prompt to the data if you'd rather not show Mystic's connecting messages.

Use the rlogin door or menu command, with:

Log in to your BBS as an ordinary user and run the door. You should go straight into Legend of the Red Dragon and be asked to make a character. Quit LORD, and you are back on your BBS.

If it doesn't work:

Keep your key between you and us: anyone who has it can play as your players. If it is lost, or you think someone else has it, email slaterm@theiguru.au from the address you sign your BBS's messages with, giving your tag. We'll make a new key (the old one stops working at once) and send it to you; put it in your door in place of the old one. Your players and their characters are kept.

To host LORD for your own players (and let other BBSes link to you), install LORD Server on a Windows computer: see Quick start and Linking a BBS. Everything above works the same with your server's address and rlogin port.