Slashdot Mirror
Commodore BBSes Return using the Internet.
oldbitcollector writes "Several Commodore 64 enthusiasts have developed a method for putting Commodore BBS sytems on the Internet. Users can "dial" using a standard 64 connected to the Internet or by using a "CG Term" for the PC. Details can be found here."
No VIC-20 support? Darn, and I've even got a tape drive.
Just what the world needs-- more underpowered computers connected to the internet so that we can all DoS *ahem* I mean Slashdot them.
Hip hip Horray!
What's with that period? It makes the headline seem so...threatening, ominous.
I belong to the ______ generation.
One has to wonder about an implimentation for "fringe" computers when the website (http://www.petscii.com/) supports IE but only gives a blank page if opened in Netscape.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
HAH! my 28.8 modem days finally pay off! now I actually can do something that people with broadband can't do. there is nothing like a carrier signal to lift the sprits.
How can this be very useful? The C64 has about 32K of useable RAM and about an 800K floppy... am I missing something, have they come up with larger mass storage systems for the C64 or something?
(This isn't intended as a troll or flamebait... it's a genuine question....)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Wow, this brings back memories. I ran a BBS for years, Bladerunner BBS. It started out running on an Osborne Executive (2400 BPS! 2 double-sided quad density drives!) and then was upgraded to an Atari ST (20 MB SCSI HD, 19,200 BPS Telebit Trailblazer!). The amusing thing was that the CPU in the Trailblazer was much faster than the ST itself.
One thing I really miss from those days is the sense of community, and the games. I ran a number of games on my BBS, and it was always a lot of fun watching people interact. Unlike modern online games, anyone could write a test-oriented BBS game if they knew a little BASIC, so there were all sorts of cool games. I remember in particular a drag racing game where you could race, earn money, buy upgrades, and compete against other drivers (i.e. other players on the same BBS). The integration of the game into real-time was fascinating -- most BBS games let you make a limited number of moves a day, so people would play a single session of a game for _weeks_. And there were tons of cool timing tricks, like dialing into the BBS at 11:30 so that you'd have the last move before midnight and then the first game after midnight, which could give you a nice advantage (and leave you vulnerable as everyone else moves after you).
Hey, thanks for the excuse for the flashback. Fun days!
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
And just in case there was any lingering doubt that Slashdot editors might not derive some sort of malignant glee from watching servers go down, now we are posting links to COMMODORE 64s! C'mon, let's be more forthcoming - News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, Harnessing the Power of Geeks to Set Protozoan Servers on Fire. BOO-YAH!
A Commodore 64 BBS is not the same over a high speed connection. I long for the days of my 300 baud modem when I could read the text in real time as it came across my TV screen. It was all down hill after the 1200 baud modems came out.
Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=
You really need to look into this more, a 33Mhz system with a 14.4 modem actually has a lot of uses. It'd make a decent (but very low bandwith) home firewall, for one.
Just because it's old doesn't mean it's not useful!
10 PRINT "FUCK"
20 PRINT "YOU"
30 GOTO 10
END
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
(And there're a lot of old BBSes available through telnet, though I dunno about C64-based ones.)
Been using sigs for 20 years. Nothing funny left to say.
AT&F&C1&D2
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Actually, it's a very secure system to go on the internet with, for one thing: even the smallest Windows virus won't fit in 32K.
Not quite true. One counterexample: Win32.Driller, a memory-resident virus which is 8K in size.
The coolest voice ever.
We've been running a Commodore like BBS program on a BSD box for a number of years. It's called The Shack and you can get to it by just a CLICK!
It's been a fun project and we hope to continue it's development whenever spare time is available.
It's been done. 2002. Just not up now, unless it is running at another address somewhere.
But I haven't heard of any earlier Apple IIs being accessible via Telnet, and not any `GBBS "Pro"' systems.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Flat out wrong.
Where we've been determines where we're going. "Those who don't pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it" and all that. Use that machine, so you can see why things developed the way they did - maybe you'll avoid some of the miskates made prior to you.
That 33/66 you have contains half of the reasons things are the way they are now. Your new Athlon64 can run DOS, after all, just like the old stuff. Study the older machines, friend, they'll show you much about today's "new" technology.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Having writen BBS programs for the Vic20. C64 and C128 (Actually same program evolved as I switched systems.. Also ported to Dos and would have gone to Linux but the BBS died on Dos as the phone company ripped out the wires to my phone line and offered to charge me to fix there own mistake.
Intrestingly enough I wasn't supprised to discovere I had no callers. I was only supprised as to WHY)
If the trick is handled all on the PC side (and I expect it is) then it dosen't matter.
If they are doing it the way I think
(Commodore userport to RS232 to null modem to PC sereal (rs232) then PC forwards to telnet etc...) this should also work on the Vic20.
For that matter it should also work for CP/M, Apple II, TSR-80. Pritty much any old BBS.
Dos BBSes can be done on the same Linux or Windows box that provides the Internet access making it much easier.
I don't actually exist.
Commodore was unbelievably stupid, and made some things harder for programmers. For example, the C-64 and C-128 computers both had a software-emulated UART chip, instead of a real one (to save money, as I understand it, about $5), limiting the baud rate to how fast the computer could process code in what was called a "non-maskable interrupt". The C-64 allowed a max of 1200 baud. The C-128, because it could run at double the clock speed of the C-64 ("Fast Mode", or about 2Mhz), could in theory run at 2400 baud, but you had to write your own version of the UART emulator using well-optimized machine language. Faster connection speeds were out of the question.
As the author of a few C-64 programs (e.g., "Prototerm"), I can't tell you how many times I wanted to drive to West Chester, and strangle someone. Nowadays, of course, I periodically get the urge to strangle a person or two in Redmond. Fortunately, it's too long a drive.
Nothing every changes, just the names and faces.
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
I've been waiting for Commodore BBSes to return to the net for a long time.
The thing I liked the most about Commodore BBSes was the color and graphics. Every BBS had little custom color schemes and graphical flourishes here and there. And, of course, the phreakers' boards had the most flamboyant designs. With the popularity of ASCII art today, you can just imagine what Commodore users could accomplish with PETSCII, and what Atari users could accomplish with ATASCII now that you mention it.
Color64 and C-net boards had a charm that was hard to match.
>> a national BBS I think called Q-Link(?).
They later moved to the PC market and changed their name to America On-Line. I hear they might still be in business.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
...my very first introduction to local Commodore BBS's was shortly after I purchased a Datalink 2400 internal modem for my Apple IIGS.
One of my dad's coworker friends ran a board called "The Ivory Tower", and passed the info along to me. Let me tell ya, up until that time, I had no idea how my life was going to change. I miss the small community feel of old BBS's like "The Ivory Tower".
I remember also the frustration of hearing those blasted 'busy' signals when trying to call up a popular board. As I made my way around the various BBS's of Knoxville, TN, I came across "The Volunteer BBS" -- it was one of my favorite hang-outs -- it was a PC based BBS, but they had great online games like Millway's Casino and Tradewars 2002. With the Internet being so global, it's getting harder to find such cozy little places to hang out anymore.
Bring back Millway's Casino!
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
Both you and the parent poster obviously don't have any actual experience with the machines. I ran a bulletin board on a C-64 using a 2400 baud modem for years. Further more, the local computer shop ran a massive multi-user bulletin board a couple years later and all the computers in the store were hooked to it. The Amigas were connected at 56k and worked flawlessly as such.