pcbrevival — PCBoard 15.4 BBS Revival

PCBoard 15.4 source code recovery, OpenWatcom 2.0 port, and modernization.

pcbirc crew — August 2026

What Is This

PCBoard was the dominant BBS software of the dial-up era, written by Clark Development Company. When Clark was closed by the bank in the late 1990s, the source code nearly disappeared. There is almost no information about PCBoard 15.4 on the web — no documentation, no downloads, no history.

Corey Blake purchased what may be the only source license ever sold. PWA (Pirates with Attitude) preserved that 15.3 source archive — without them, this project would not exist.

This repo takes that 15.3 source, applies every feature and change from Clark's unreleased 15.4b beta, and ports the entire codebase to OpenWatcom 2.0 for cross-compilation on modern Linux.

Directory Map

--- source trees (one per version; each owns its source) ---
pcb153/ 15.3 PWA source (Borland C++ 3.1) - the pure base
pcb153/upd154/ 15.4 PWA - Clark's 15.4 reconstructed from binaries (source only)
pcb154/ 15.4 Delta - the crew's active work (OpenWatcom)
pcb1541/ 15.41 IRC - our new work (ports to openwatcom2irc)
network front-ends: syncterm, binkd, pcbcomm,
dropbear (SSH secure remote access), ...
patches/ 15.4-pwa.patch = the 15.3->15.4 PWA delta over pcb153
--- toolkit + SDK ---
toolkit/ toolkit source per branch (pwa153, pwa154, delta154, irc1541)
OUT/ build outputs per version (pwa153, delta154, irc1541)
lib/pwa153/ the SDK library matrix (PCBKBC + PCBKIT built; PCBKMS pending)
support/ shared PCBoard runtime files (non-version-specific)
MAIN/ project model + build system
DELTA-MODEL.md the 4-version model
build/ scripts, manifests, backups, SDK build status
(moved here from the repo root)
--- compilers (build tools) ---
MSC70BT.ZIP Microsoft C 7.0 (retail) + OS/2 add-on - extract to
C:\MSC70 to build PCBKMS (not shipped unpacked)
PCB153BT.ZIP Borland C++ 3.1 standalone build tools (for PCBKBC)
TC201BT.ZIP Turbo C 2.01 standalone build tools (for PCBKIT)
DOSBOXX.ZIP all-in-one: compilers + dosbox-x + BUILD scripts
devtools/ raw compiler distributions + COMPILERS.md catalog
--- other ---
OS2TK/ OS/2 toolkit
drivers/ SIO serial + netfosdl FOSSIL (GPLv3)
docs/ shared DOCDEV manuals (MSGS.TXT, HEADERS.TXT, etc)
pcbcbase/ third-party CODEBASE (LGPL)
reference/ archives (excluded from release)
todo/ docs to review and merge
normalize_case.sh lowercase-copy helper for Linux/OpenWatcom builds

Build Status

SDK library matrix (Clark's toolkit: 3 compilers x 4 memory models = 12 libs)

Family	Compiler	Status
PCBKBC	Borland C++ 3.1	BUILT - 4/4 models
PCBKIT	Turbo C 2.01	BUILT - 4/4 models
PCBKMS	Microsoft C 7.0	compiler in hand (DOS + OS/2), build in progress under PCBBLDBT.IMG (FreeDOS + CWSDPMI); DPMI wiring being verified

Built libraries live in OUT/lib/pwa153/ (compiler-first layout: bc31/, tc201/, msc70/ — each holds four .LIB files at its root, an OBJ/ tree per memory model, bin/ for compiled utilities, and loose-obj/). Details in MAIN/build/SDK-BUILD-STATUS.md and devtools/COMPILERS.md. Build scripts: MAIN/build/scripts (entry point: BUILD.BAT; run BUILD help for targets).

The golden build image PCBBLDBT.IMG (bootable FreeDOS 1.3 with CWSDPMI + all three compilers + sources + build scripts) is the working environment for completing the 12-lib matrix and future 15.22 / ow2irc integrations. See MAIN/build/PCBBLDBT-ROADMAP.md for milestone plan.

Metric	Count
Programs	36 (28 Clark + 8 new tools)
Clark binaries (Watcom DOS4G)	28 (16 main + 12 Phase 0 utilities)
New tools	8 (pcbbinkp, pcbdraw, pcbpscan, pcbfido, pcbis, QFront, pcbfoss, pcbiso)
PPE collection	5,703 archives (incl. Roy/SAC donation)

15.4 Delta Binaries — Main (OpenWatcom 2.0)

These _W-suffixed EXEs are the crew's 15.4 Delta rebuild, compiled with OpenWatcom (pcb154/). They are NOT Clark's binaries.

Clark built 15.4 with Borland C++ 3.1. His original 1996 binaries (Copyright 1996 Clark Development, report v15.4) are preserved as the reference at OUT/pwa153/upd154/clark-original/. The 15.4 PWA source rebuild (also Borland) targets OUT/pwa153/upd154/.

Binary	Size	Description
PCBOARD_W.EXE	1.3MB	Main BBS engine
LOCAL_W.EXE	1.3MB	Local login mode
PPLC_W.EXE	1.3MB	PPL 3.40 compiler
PCBSETUP_W.EXE	424KB	Setup utility
PCBSM_W.EXE	221KB	System Manager
UUIN/UUOUT/UUUTIL/UUXFER_W	1.4MB each	UUCP suite
MKPCBTXT_W.EXE	86KB	Text file builder
PCBTEXT_W.EXE	39KB	Text file editor
MAKEIDX_W.EXE	37KB	Index builder
USERNET_W.EXE	28KB	User network flags
MAKEHELP_W.EXE	25KB	Help file builder
PCBCP_W.EXE	77KB	OS/2 PM control panel
PCBIS_W.EXE	48KB	Config TUI

Clark Utilities — Phase 0 (hexadecimal + sysop/0)

All 12 Clark utilities that shipped with PCBoard, ported to Watcom DOS4G:

Binary	Size	Description
PCBSTATS_W.EXE	31K	Statistics generator
PCBPACK_W.EXE	84K	Message base packer
MSETUP_W.EXE	108K	Modem database editor
PCBMODEM_W.EXE	528K	Modem config utility
PCBEDIT_W.EXE	133K	Text/config editor
PCBMONI_W.EXE	54K	Node monitor
PCBDIAG_W.EXE	552K	Diagnostics
PCBFILER_W.EXE	215K	File management
PCBNLC_W.EXE	77K	FidoNet nodelist compiler
OFFLINE_W.EXE	26K	Offline flags
WAITBU_W.EXE	25K	Wait for backup
PCBTITLE_W.EXE	15K	OS/2 console title

New Tools (GPLv3)

Tool	Lines	Description
pcbbinkp	2,008	BinkP/1.1 FidoNet mailer
pcbdraw	1,826	ANSI art viewer/editor
pcbpscan	770	Upload file scanner
pcbfido	778	FidoNet console (15.41)
pcbiso	969	ISO/CD-ROM file area indexer (15.4+)
pcbis.exe	5,710	Internet services daemon (18 Pascal units)

pcbis — PCBoard Internet Services

Disk 4 of the distribution. Multi-protocol daemon bridging PCBoard to the internet:

• Telnet (2323) — FOSSIL bridge, writes PCBOARD.SYS/CALLERS
• BinkP (24554) — FidoNet mailer, QFront integration
• FTP (21) — PCBoard file areas with security levels
• HTTP (8080) — status page, callers, who's online
• SMTP — outbound validation emails
• NNTP — news↔PCBoard conference gateway
• QWK — offline mail networking
• Events — timed batch execution

Built with fpc264irc (FPC 2.6.4 fork). Source: pcbis/src/

Drivers

Driver	Lead	Description
SIO v1/2K	evga	OS/2 serial I/O, 26 bugs fixed, clean-room
FOSSIL	sysop/0 + kiddo	Cross-platform FOSSIL socket layer

Libraries Written for Phase 0

Library	Author	Lines	Purpose
VMAVL	sysop/0	324	AVL tree for VMDataSet (clean room, studied libavl)
VMData	hexadecimal	204	Virtual memory dataset (v0.036)
d4all.h	sysop/0	121	CodeBase type shim for PCBNLC
conio_compat	sysop/0	108	Borland conio via BIOS INT 10h

Documentation

Document	Description
docs/PHASE0_MISSING_UTILS.md	Phase 0 status — all 12 utilities
docs/FEATURE_MATRIX.md	Full feature comparison 15.3→15.4→15.41
docs/PCB1541_DRAFT.md	15.41 specification (23 sections)
docs/FIDONET.md	FidoNet sysop guide
docs/WHATSNEW.md	Changelog
docs/REFERENCE_CATALOG.md	Reference materials catalog
docs/hexadecimal-phase-update.md	Phase 1 roadmap from sysop/0

The Crew

Handle	Role
hexadecimal	PCBoard 15.4 port, Phase 0 utilities, WATCOMPAT.H
verta1878	Project lead, netmodem2irc, OpenOLMS
wrench	FOSSIL driver, netmodem2irc engine, pcbmailer
sysop/0	fpc264irc, openwatcomirc, pcbis, VMAVL, tools
kiddo	Protocols, serial IRQ, RIP OOP engine
evga	SIO driver, Mystic monitor, RIPView engine
byte	Program discovery
dotmatrix	Documentation sourcing
bob	Compiler engineer (wcc64 backend, Glide builds)

Acknowledgments

• Corey Blake — Source license purchase
• PWA — 15.3 source archive preservation
• Roy/SAC (Carsten) — Physical PCBoard package donation, 4,548 PPE archives, box photos. License transferred via POB (German distributor), upgraded 15.21→15.22.
• mpoli.fi — BBS software archive hosting
• CodeBase-for-DBF — Sequiter Software, LGPL v3.0 (github.com/MPSystemsServices/CodeBase-for-DBF)
• libavl — Buselli/Dankers, LGPL (algorithmic reference for VMAVL)

License

Our additions: GPLv3 Clark Development source: proprietary (licensed) CodeBase library: LGPL v3.0 SIO OS/2 driver: GPLv3 (evga, clean-room)

Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/verta1878/pcbrevival
• FPC 2.6.4irc: https://github.com/verta1878/fpc264irc
• Mystic BBS fork: https://github.com/verta1878/mystic-bbs-irc