In one of his most eventful sessions yet, The 300-Baud Guy welcomes a visitor who quite literally dialed in from the other side of the planet. The guest? Troy Duncan from Melbourne, Australia. His goal? To log into the Hamburg-based SnobSoft BBS from roughly 10,000 miles away—an attempt that now stands as the most remote connection in the board’s history.
The visit wasn’t just notable for its distance. It was a real-time handshake across hemispheres, marked by live chat glitches, a long-standing BBS bug involving emoticons, and some nostalgic hardware quirks. While most users sign off with “LOF,” Troy tossed in a triple plus (+++), a modem command that predictably caused a hiccup—something longtime viewers might recall from David Murray’s own SnobSoft mishap.
Despite a bit of digital turbulence, the connection held. Troy chatted from his SX-64, shared footage of his end of the session, and even threw in a cheerful “G’day mate” before logging off. The transcontinental chat was an impressive feat for a near-40-year-old system held together by user passion and a bit of technical trickery.
But the story didn’t end with the chat. Back in Hamburg, the 300-Baud Guy decided to test an old metal tape game from his collection. The tape, which hadn’t been loaded in decades, was popped into a Llamaceta dataset kindly donated by a SnobSoft user. The game? A poser-style title called Storm, complete with a soundtrack by David Whitaker.
Despite some justified skepticism and plenty of fingers crossed, the tape loaded without complaint. No fused reels, no mechanical jams, and the trusty C64 blinked to life with the game’s opening screen. Even better—Storm’s soundtrack eventually made its way into the video, thanks to some post-production editing.
The entire experience is a reminder that vintage hardware still has some surprises left. A session that began with a casual Facebook chat led to a world-record connection attempt, BBS hiccups, and a successful tape game load test—all wrapped up in music, PETSCII screens, and a healthy dose of 8-bit charm.
