Last Call BBS on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Boot up your Z5 Powerlance and dial into Last Call BBS, the last game from Zachtronics! The Barkeep’s loaded up his retro computer with a full set of puzzle games for you to download and play. No need to worry about copy protection, they’re all fully cracked and ready to enjoy!
Last Call BBS is a puzzle, retro and automation game
developed and published by Zachtronics.
Released on August 03rd 2022 is available in English on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
It has received 1,384 reviews of which 1,280 were positive and 104 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.8 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 19.50€ on Steam, but you can find it for 1.00€ on Instant Gaming.
The Steam community has classified Last Call BBS into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
- Processor: 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 960 x 540
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 250 MB available space
MacOS
- OS: macOS 10.9+
- Processor: 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 960 x 540
- Storage: 250 MB available space
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04+, SteamOS
- Processor: 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.3, 960 x 540
- Storage: 250 MB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
It's Zachtronics, so the puzzles are obviously brilliant and challenging and there's a solitaire variant (two actually). But what puts this collection into my 5 star range is in its presentation. Last Call BBS is a paradox, an authentic celebration of a bygone era made up of faux-retro programs. I loved waiting for the games to download in-universe via dial-up internet. Clicking on "virtual desktop icons" to launch games that pop up in little "virtual windows." Reading the little bits of lore on the cracktros. I can practically feel the smooth, grey plastic PDA that the narrator sends us messages on. As you progress through the eight games, you get to hear stories from the narrator about the little ways their life intersected with the histories of these games and their developers. There's a bittersweet tone throughout each story. They've all got their ups and downs, but they're all just distant stories now. That whole world is gone, and at some point, we likely celebrated its death to welcome in the new, updated world. These games have become artifacts, perfectly preserved in time, but fragile by nature of being niche and frankly, old and dusty. So much gets lost in the dust. A lot of worthless stuff and stuff we'd like to forget, but good stuff too. I would never use such an old computer nowadays. It's just not practical. But I completely understand the appeal of the simplicity and the never-before-seen freedom that it would have offered at the time. Sure it was clunky, but it was the wild west. Anyway, here's some reviews of the actual games. I consider X'BPGH, ChipWizard, and 20th Century Food Court to be the major games, while the rest are more like minigames. X' BPGH: The Forbidden Path Truly unique and unlike any puzzle game I've ever played before. The most difficult to comprehend at first, but ultimately the easiest of the major games. I love the fleshy, meaty aesthetic and the depth of complexity that can be achieved while maintaining simple elements in a limited space. Actually, that describes all of the major puzzle games, minus the aesthetic part. And I am so glad there isn't some handholdy tutorial to show you how the UI works. Figuring it out myself was supremely rewarding. And because it's got a custom level editor, this game can truly be immortal. ChipWizard Professional This, along with the mecha builder, had me asking "is this even a game?" The answer is, "it is, if you think of it as one." Because it looks a lot like my circuit design homework, and that was no game. It's not presented as a game in-universe. It's a CAD program to teach basic circuit design that the narrator found because they were having a hard time learning from a textbook. The level select is a file browser. It's problem solving. There's a difficulty curve. You use the knowledge gained in early stages to iterate on in later stages. It's a game. It's so simple that it makes me feel idiotic for thinking that it's incredibly challenging. I learned more about my relationship with learning. Maybe I'll check out Shenzhen I/O... 20th Century Food Court Almost certainly the biggest game in the collection, and the toughest too. There is something meta about its emergent gameplay. Sometimes it feels like you are making clockwork out of sticks and stones and a terrible tangle of wires. Sometimes, your designs will have to account for every possible permutation of an order, likely including ones you won't even manually test for. If you do it right, it'll work anyway. Best of all, it contains a narrative within the narrative, within the narrative, within the narrative. Someone at Zachtronics circa 2020's, telling the stories of the narrator, who is telling a story about a fake game developer in the 90's, telling a story about an entertainment company in the 2700s, telling a story about what food courts were supposedly like in the 20th century. It seems terribly complex when taken in all at once, but just like the machines you design, you can follow the thread back closely to see how everything is connected, and how all of these stories and parts interact at each junction. A marvelous game. The rest: Dungeons & Diagrams is a fun little logic game to play in between the more mind-bending puzzles. I like that it does not rely so much on certainty because then it would become too simple to solve algorithmically. Kabufuda and Sawayama Solitaire are cool twists on the immortal PC staple. Kabufuda has a particularly pleasing art style. HACK*MATCH is an awesome Puzzle League type game that has you download an arcade emulator and insert virtual coins before you play. Once again, lovely authenticity. The campaign is brutally hard, and the game is reaction-based, which makes it stand out as difficult in a different way than the other games. Finally, STEED FORCE Hobby Studio is a curiosity. This was perhaps the entry that I was most skeptical about, and correspondingly the one with the largest impact on my mindset. Is this a game? As I assembled the figures with minimal guidance, it had me thinking about the term "puzzle game." Puzzle and Game. Because a jigsaw puzzle isn't really a game in my mind. But if you say, set a time limit, then it'll feel more like one. Is building a Lego set a game? No. Is doing custom builds a game? Kind of. You get to make your own design. MS Paint isn't a game, but Gartic Phone is. Playing music isn't a game, but Guitar Hero is. Human Benchmark is totally a game with high scores presented as a measurement tool. Is STEED FORCE a game? What truly is a game? The answer hit me like a bolt of lightning from the ChipWizard himself. To me, a game is anything that makes me want to try harder to learn and improve, to create new designs and develop new techniques. Life is hard, but games are fun. And they're more fun when they're harder.
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sick chiptunes. excellent puzzles. cool pixelart. pure 90s nostalgia
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A final fanfare for the Zachtronics studio that presents a handful of projects from the cutting room floor. While not strong as a stand-alone entry if you're a fan you'll likely enjoy the majority of this collection. The game is presented through the trappings of an 80's PC system that you use to connect to a simulated BBS and download the game's entries one at a time. It includes all the anachronistic elements like having to dial up to the internet and wait a few minutes for an entry to 'download'. As much as I found it charming I appreciate it won't resonate with everyone. As for the collection you have a mix of games that were too small or short to justify their own release, and some tacked on activities. The hack*match game from exapunks, a couple of solitaire games, and a gunpla simulator that lets you cut out, assemble, and paint mecha models. These don't add much beyond padding the content. There's also a series of memos to unlock from the 'former owner' which weave a story through the apps and adds a little extra flavour to the premise. The four main titles are 20th Century Food Court, Dungeons & Diagrams, ChipWizard Professional, and X'BPGH: The Forbidden Path. D&D is sort of a picross meets sudoku puzzle game which is minimal but entertaining. Food Court is the most fleshed out title and feels like it could be a Zachtronics stand-alone game, but the premise does get repetitive. ChipWizard was perhaps the most inscrutable being built around constructing microchip architecture using pure logic. While X'BPGH is a more experimental entry that feels Cronenburgian and explores a bio-mechanical body horror programming puzzle game. You can see each title's unique pro's and con's - but they certainly each have potential and plenty of levels to justify the combined release. X'BPGH gives literally no instructions and still ended up feeling more accessible to me than ChipWizard despite being so much more alien. Food Court was definitely my favourite and D&D + Solitaire made for nice warm ups before each puzzle session. And as always it has the beautiful art style and music that Zachtronics is known for. It's definitely a collection aimed at the fans and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, but if you've got the others you'll find something of value here for sure.
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With Zachtronics, you should always expect the unexpected - so it's not surprising how surprisingly unique their last game turns out to be. Geekishness has always been a big component of their games, but with Last Call BBS, they went into total overdrive, and created the geekiest game ever. It's a retro journey in an imaginary world, with an imaginary old school computer, to an age where games were painstakingly downloaded via dial-in modems, and storage also was at a premium. The game features 8 retro games (all readily cracked, of course), some of which would even stand on its own as a commercial offering, some are more like an afterthought. Putting all these things together into a single package should have ended up a horrible mess - instead, it turned out to be some near-magical nostalgic experience. I mean, how can you be nostalgic of something that has never existed? Last Call BBS managed to pull off this obvious impossibility perfectly, though. As many, many other players, I'm sad that this is the last game from this unique, talented studio. Starting with SpaceChem, they had produced a string of brilliant games, each bringing dozens of hours of brainy entertainment. There are many talented puzzle game devs out there, but no one quite makes these kinds of construction games, and this will be a big hole in the indie gaming market. But all things have to come to an end, I guess - thank you Zachtronics, it's been a tremendous ride.
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I've always really enjoyed Zachtronics games, and this one was no exception. This will be the last game made by Zachtronics and that feeling pervaded the game. The protagonist sits alone with a computer that strongly vibes with other Zachtronics aesthetics found in schenzhen io, exa punks and Tis 100. They download small puzzle games online and play them for their own enjoyment. The entire experience feels like one last hurrah as you got through a list of ideas that could have been full games, though never will be.
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Last Call BBS is currently priced at 19.50€ on Steam.
Last Call BBS is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 19.50€ on Steam.
Last Call BBS received 1,280 positive votes out of a total of 1,384 achieving a rating of 8.77.
😎
Last Call BBS was developed and published by Zachtronics.
Last Call BBS is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Last Call BBS is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
Last Call BBS is playable and fully supported on Linux.
Last Call BBS offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
Last Call BBS offers both Co-op and PvP modes.
Last Call BBS does not currently offer any DLC.
Last Call BBS does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Last Call BBS supports Remote Play Together. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
Last Call BBS is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Last Call BBS.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 23 April 2025 16:22 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 23 April 2025 04:42 |
| Steam price | 30 April 2025 04:37 |
| Steam reviews | 28 April 2025 12:06 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Last Call BBS, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Last Call BBS
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Last Call BBS concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Last Call BBS compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
27
Developer
Zachtronics
Publisher
Zachtronics
Release
03 Aug 2022
Platforms
Remote Play
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