I got on... just like the good 'ole days! All I need to do now is find a font that supports ANSI graphics for PuTTY...
Try SyncTerm. While not as robust as Putty, it's pretty much designed from the ground up for calling/telnetting/ssh'ing into BBS's. Works a real treat and supports Win/OS X/Linux.
http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/
