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ATDT 1.8.1

Free and MIT licensed. No account, no telemetry, no upsell, no paid tier waiting behind a feature you want. Take it, run it, change it.

Download atdt-bbs-latest.zip Try the demo board first

Version1.8.1

ReleasedOctober 17, 2026

Release notesSee the changelog

LicenseMIT

SourceIncluded in the zip

1.8.1 polishes the SysOp console. UI enhancements, and no new features.

1.8.0 opened the file section. Callers upload and download right from the terminal, and you can stock an area by FTP and scan it in.

1.7.9 gave the console a way back: the whole board in one zip, database and all, and a restore for when an upgrade goes somewhere you did not want.

Read the changelog →

What your host needs

PHP 8.1 or newer Extensions pdo · mbstring · json · openssl · session Database pdo_sqlite (recommended) or pdo_mysql Hosting any writable web directory · cron optional, never required

If you are not sure whether your host qualifies, upload the folder and open install.php. The first screen checks everything above and tells you plainly what is missing, if anything. Nothing is written until you get past it.

Installing

Upload the contents of atdt/ to your web space. The web root or a subdirectory both work.
Visit install.php in a browser and follow the four screens.
Pick SQLite unless you have a reason not to. It needs no setup at all.
Name your board, pick your handle and password, choose a timezone. Done.

The installer prints a cron line at the end. Adding it is optional: with no cron entry at all the board runs its own housekeeping on caller traffic instead. The full walkthrough is chapter 2 of the manual.

Upgrading from an earlier version

Upload the new files over the old ones. The zip carries no data/ folder, so an overwrite cannot touch your board.
Any database migration runs by itself on the next page load, under a lock, and every step is safe to re-run.
Skipped versions are fine. The migration is a ladder. A board arriving from any older release climbs every rung in one go, so there is no need to install intermediate versions and no penalty for sitting out a few.
The console footer shows the running version, so you can confirm the upgrade landed.
install.php reappearing is harmless. It sees the existing board and locks itself.

Backing it up

Everything that is yours lives in data/: the configuration, the database, your themes, the art gallery, your door storage. Copy that one folder and you have the whole board. Copy it back and it is running again. On MySQL, dump the database too. The one thing outside data/ is any door you installed yourself, which lives in doors/.

Know when the next one lands

New versions do not announce themselves. Leave your address and you will hear when there is a release worth upgrading for.

Release news only. Never sold, never shared. One click to leave. Past issues and RSS if you would rather not hand over an address at all.

Already running a board?

ATDT reads the message history out of the software you have now and brings it across with the areas, authors, dates and reply threads intact: Mystic, Synchronet, ENiGMA, Talisman, Magicka, RemoteAccess, Telegard, QuickBBS, Maximus, EleBBS, ProBoard and WWIV, or the raw JAM, Squish, SMB, Hudson, FTS-1 and QWK bases directly.

If your board was something rarer, a C64 or an Apple II or something homebrew, there is a documented open format that any exporter can write.

You preview before anything is written, map each area by hand, and there is an undo. Read the chapter.

Starting from nothing?

Upload, visit install.php, answer a web form. The installer checks your server, sets up the database, and asks for a board name and a SysOp handle. Nobody touches a config file or a command line.

The board arrives with two message areas, a welcome bulletin, two door games and a theme, so there is something to look at from the first call.

About ten minutes, start to finish.

If you get stuck

There is a Support Forum for ATDT and the other BBS Preservation Project software. Installing, hosting, doors, themes, imports: ask there and the answer stays up for whoever hits the same wall next.

The SysOp's manual covers every screen and every setting, and it is worth a search before you post.

What you can do with it

ATDT is released under the MIT license. Run a board for anything, modify the engine, write and sell door games, redistribute your own build. The only condition is that the copyright notice travels with the code. Read the license →