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.
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.
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!
Actually, IIRC the 1541 was single-sided, single-density, around 160kb of storage.
But yes, there are various different expansions available, including hard drives and more memory. There were various 3rd-party options, and now someone has developed a way to hook up an IDE drive to a C64. It also can be used to access CF cards.
I believe that apps had to support the memory upgrade peripherals. I seem to recall them being fairly popular with GEOS users.
A buddy and I wrote an ran a BBS program for the Commodore 64 (the Spence XP BBS).It ran, successfully, on a single 160K floopy drive. It even have a full-screen editor. I was selling it commercially while I was still in highschool.
:)
We even had to renumber the BASIC line numbers, because they were stores as strings. Many calls to "GOSUB 55000" took up way too much so we did silly things like change that to "GOSUB 3", then line 3 said "goto 55000" Woo hoo! we recovered 200 bytes!
As the BASIC program grew we ran out of memory and started re-writing bits of it in 6502 assembler. We had bits of machine code stuck in unusual places like the cassette drive buffer, ram under the basic ROM, unused ram between the basic ROM and the OS rom, on the screen RAM, you name it.
You'd load up the program, then swap the floopy, putting in your "download section" disk. Hey, good programs where 32K back then
Later some company made a proprietary SCSI controller and a 10MB external hard drive. I had two of them for a while. Yup, a C64 with 20MB downwload section.
I also ran the BBS list for Toronto Computes!, and had a monthly column on BBSing that I wrote between 1985-1995. I was a big supporter of the BBS scene back them.
- James.
(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.
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.
Back when I was at high-school, we had a 'network'; 16 weird-ass brand computers, connected by 1200 baud RS232 to a Z-80-based 10m 'fileserver'
There was also a network printer; it even beeped if you sent it a ^G.
So one afternoon, we carefully crafted up a file full of ^G's and pagefeeds (^L), queue'd the file about a hundred times while the printer was turned off, and went to our next class. Since the network didn't have any kind of 'queue management', nobody had any idea what the problem was and after chewing through about half a box of paper, the printer got sent back to the shop for servicing.
Good times..
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