Editing Robinson Technologies (section)

===The BBS era===

In 1989, Seth Robinson created a game that he called ''[[Legend of the Red Dragon]]'', or ''LORD'', in an effort to attract new users to his Amiga-based [[Bulletin board system|BBS]] that he ran at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lord.nuklear.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9157|title=Nuklear LORD Forums|website=lord.nuklear.org|language=en|access-date=2017-04-14}}</ref>  He was only 14 years old at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://diygames.com/index.php?p=718&more=1 |title=DIY Games |last=Games |first=DIY |website=diygames.com |language=en |access-date=2017-04-15 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506111055/http://diygames.com/index.php?p=718&more=1 |archive-date=2006-05-06 }}</ref>  He later allowed others to port the game to other operating systems and BBS platforms.

The game exemplified how simple a game could be while still being fun. It is a text-based menu-driven fighting game, allowing players to take on the role of a potential dragon-slayer. It featured multiplayer options if its BBS host had multiple [[Node (networking)|nodes]] (or phone lines). The gameplay style that it featured was in many ways a predecessor to the MMORPG genre. The game would later feature a form of graphical menus, created and displayed by [[RIPTerm]].

Another feature of the game was In Game Modules or IGMs. These were little add-ons to the game, allowing for expansion. IGMs could be written by anyone and allowed for a lot of gameplay to be added on. Some IGMs even allowed "mischievous" game play, almost allowing players to cheat. Robinson only released a single IGM of his own, called ''Barak's House''.

Shortly afterwards, Robinson released a game called ''Planets: The Exploration of Space''. Commonly referred to as ''Planets: TEOS'', it was a [[space trading and combat simulator|space trading]] game that had players flying to various kinds of planets, buying, selling, and trading items in order to make money. The game allowed fights that were very similar in style to ''LORD'', allowing players to attack others when they were offline. Players could also attack planets in order to take control of them. Robinson describes the game as "kind of like LORD mixed with [[Trade Wars|Tradewars]]".<ref name="Robinson">{{Cite web|url=http://rtsoft.com/pages/lordfaq.php|title=Robinson Technologies - LORD/BBS Frequently Asked Questions|last=Robinson|first=Seth A.|website=Robinson Technologies|language=en|access-date=2017-04-14}}</ref>

The game featured two sides, the Alliance and the Maraken. Players could join and fight for either side. Players could own planets for whichever side they belonged to. However, they could also play independently and start their own "guilds" called cartels. The game had a notable ''[[Star Trek]]'' influence, including references to the [[Borg (Star Trek)|Borg]] and characters from different ''Star Trek'' shows.

''Planets: TEOS'' also featured IGMs, the major difference being that players had to travel to a particular planet to enter into that IGM.  Robinson only released one ''TEOS'' IGM of his own, called "Landfill", which was a ''[[Tetris]]'' clone.

In various releases of ''Planets: TEOS'', Robinson advertised a new game he had been working on. This game, ''New World'', would never see release due to reasons that were never made public. Instead, another of Robinson's games inherited the name, [[Legend of the Red Dragon#Legend of the Red Dragon II|''Legend of the Red Dragon II: New World'']]. Fans wanted a new game from Robinson and wanted ''New World'' as well, so he released the official sequel to his original hit, ''Legend of the Red Dragon''.

This game is completely different than the original ''Red Dragon''. Instead of a text-based menu concept, the game had an ANSI-based graphical map concept. Players controlled a smiley face-like character that could roam around, much like modern [[MMORPG]]s. The game was never as successful as the original ''Red Dragon'', but it did gather a cult following.

Eventually, Robinson sold the rights to the three BBS games to [[Metropolis Gameport]] in 1998.<ref name="Robinson"/>

====List of RTSoft BBS Door games and programs====
* ''[[Legend of the Red Dragon]]''
** ''Barak's House'' (a ''LORD'' IGM)
* ''Planets: The Exploration of Space'' (or simply ''Planets: TEOS'')
** ''Landfill'' (''TEOS'' In Game Module ''Tetris'' clone)
* ''[[Legend of the Red Dragon#Legend of the Red Dragon II|Legend of the Red Dragon II: New World]]''
* ''RTReader'' (BBS door that ran from a scripting language)
* ''BradyBunch Adventure'' (multiplayer .DLL for MBBS/Worldgroup)
* ''Tournament LORD'' (MBBS/Worldgroup .DLL port)