IDCCOM

IDCCOM was a shareware telecommunications package developed by Gary Conway and Shawn Merrick of Infinity Design Concepts, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. Written entirely in assembly language using Microsoft MASM 5.1, the program was notable for its small footprint — roughly 80K — at a time when competing communications packages often exceeded 200K. It supported COM ports 1 through 4, BPS rates up to 19,200, and included built-in XMODEM, YMODEM, YMODEM-G, ZMODEM, MEGALINK, and ASCII file transfer protocols, along with support for two user-defined external protocols. IDCCOM ran on IBM PC compatibles and supported MGA, CGA, EGA, VGA, MCGA, and Hercules video adapters.

Beyond its use as a terminal program for calling bulletin boards, IDCCOM included a fully featured host (BBS) mode with password-protected logon, up to 26 access levels, multiple file directories, a message database system, a bulletin system, up to 10 doors, and a built-in ANSI driver that automatically filtered ANSI sequences for non-ANSI callers — eliminating the need for the sysop to maintain separate ANSI and plain-text menu files. Registration was $50 and unlocked the COMCFG configuration utility, the IDCSYS sysop management program, and script language support. The software was distributed through the IDC BBS at (502) 635-5471, operated by sysop Chuck Crumpton.