CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System) was a computer program created by Ward Christensen to allow him and other computer hobbyists to exchange information between each another. In January 1978, Chicago was hit by the Great Blizzard of 1978, which dumped record amounts of snow throughout the midwest. Among those caught in it were Christensen and Randy Suess, who were members of CACHE, the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists' Exchange. They had met at that computer club in the mid-1970s and become friends.