C128 CP/M BBS

RobertB · December 15, 2008, 02:23 AM

Last night at the #acug chat on irc.eskimo.com (held every Saturday at 6 - 9 p.m. Pacific Time and every other Monday 7 - 9 p.m. Pacific Time), talk drifted to CP/M. Rick E. mentioned about a C128 CP/M BBS and that he lived near its author. I sent the author, Jack Winslade, a message right away, and this is his response today:

"I wrote the DRBBS BBS system, not specifically for the Commodore 128, however. The source code to this has been released to the
public domain and is floating around on the net. It requires the Aztec c compiler to build on CP/M systems."

"I also did the Ybbat CP/M Fidonet mailer, and the sources of that are floating around as well."

"The one thing I did for the C128 is to quickly hack together a stub to allow the common BBS programs to run on it, since at the time, BYE would not run on it. Unfortunately the source for this (assembler) seems to be long gone. I did release this to the public at the time, so it may be floating around."

"Hope this helps."

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore/Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org/

Andrew Wiskow · December 21, 2008, 12:54 AM

Interesting... This is one that I've never heard of. This page states that the author's BBS is still online at http://www.drbbs.com/drbbs ... Unfortunately, I got nothing when I tried to go there, so I guess the page is outdated.

RobertB · December 21, 2008, 02:53 PM

Quote from: Andrew Wiskow on December 21, 2008, 12:54 AMUnfortunately, I got nothing when I tried to go there, so I guess the page is outdated.

I sent a follow-up e-mail to him but never got a response.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore/Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org/

Andrew Wiskow · December 21, 2008, 04:32 PM

Quote from: RobertB on December 21, 2008, 02:53 PMI sent a follow-up e-mail to him but never got a response.

Too bad... That reminds me of the guy I met at the SC3 arcade party last year who said he was the original author of Color 64 BBS, before Greg Pfountz (I can't remember was his name was now). He told me he'd make copies for me of all the original versions that he wrote. He said he'd need some time to track the disks down, and that he'd get back to me. He never did.

Golan Klinger · December 21, 2008, 04:49 PM

Quote from: Andrew Wiskow on December 21, 2008, 04:32 PM
Too bad... That reminds me of the guy I met at the SC3 arcade party last year who said he was the original author of Color 64 BBS, before Greg Pfountz (I can't remember was his name was now).

Anthony Tolle? I wonder what has become of him and his BBS Sonic Temple (which was pretty nice).

RobertB · December 21, 2008, 04:57 PM

Quote from: Andrew Wiskow on December 21, 2008, 04:32 PMThat reminds me of the guy I met at the SC3 arcade party last year who said he was the original author of Color 64 BBS, before Greg Pfountz (I can't remember was his name was now). He told me he'd make copies for me of all the original versions that he wrote. He said he'd need some time to track the disks down, and that he'd get back to me. He never did.

I remember that. I will dig back in my e-mail and see if I have his e-mail address.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore/Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org/

Andrew Wiskow · December 21, 2008, 05:39 PM

Quote from: Golan Klinger on December 21, 2008, 04:49 PMAnthony Tolle? I wonder what has become of him and his BBS Sonic Temple (which was pretty nice).

No, Anthone Tolle was the guy who took over Color 64 and wrote v8, I think. This guy was the one who wrote v1 through v3 or 4. I'll have to look through my old e-mails on my computer at home to find his name.

RobertB · December 21, 2008, 05:52 PM

On Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, I wrote the article, "First Visit to SC3 Arcade Party", and I said,

QuoteAndrew and I tracked down Jason Forster and listened to his stories of BBSes and C= BBS programs in the 1980's. Jason had worked on the Color 64 BBS program and still had all the versions, including the last telnettable one, version 6.2.

I can't find an e-mail I sent to him, if any. I think I was leaving all the follow-up with you, Andrew.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore/Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org/

Andrew Wiskow · December 26, 2008, 08:42 PM

Quote from: RobertB on December 21, 2008, 05:52 PM
On Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, I wrote the article, "First Visit to SC3 Arcade Party", and I said,
QuoteAndrew and I tracked down Jason Forster and listened to his stories of BBSes and C= BBS programs in the 1980's. Jason had worked on the Color 64 BBS program and still had all the versions, including the last telnettable one, version 6.2.
I can't find an e-mail I sent to him, if any. I think I was leaving all the follow-up with you, Andrew.

Yup, that's the guy... Jason Forster. I finally got around to looking through my old e-mails from last year, and I found his address, so I sent him an e-mail asking if he was ever able to track those disks down. I've searched the Internet for any mention of his name in conjunction with Color 64, and as far as I can tell, there isn't any.

RobertB · February 04, 2009, 06:15 PM

Quote from: RobertB on December 15, 2008, 02:23 AMRick E. mentioned about a C128 CP/M BBS and that he lived near its author. I sent the author, Jack Winslade, a message right away, and this is his response today:

"I wrote the DRBBS BBS system...

At the Feb. 2 #acug chat, Lord Ronin stated that he had a C128 CP/M BBS on one of his many CP/M disks. However, he would have to look for it.

He also had a CP/M game,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
Catch the Fatman and Circuit Girl at
http://vimeo.com/jeri

Andrew Wiskow · February 05, 2009, 03:42 AM

Quote from: RobertB on February 04, 2009, 06:15 PMAt the Feb. 2 #acug chat, Lord Ronin stated that he had a C128 CP/M BBS on one of his many CP/M disks. However, he would have to look for it.

Hmm... I think we both know how long that could take!

RobertB · February 09, 2009, 06:59 PM

Quote from: Andrew Wiskow on February 05, 2009, 03:42 AMHmm... I think we both know how long that could take!

I will re-emphasize to Lord Ronin to look for those disks. The CP/M game would be good to show at the various meetings/shows I will attend this year.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
CommVEx v5 info - http://www.commodore.ca/forum and click on ComVEX

fuf · April 15, 2009, 01:37 AM

Dear friends,

Very surprised and happy to find a C128/CPM/BBS section somewhere in the world !

Thought I was the only guy in the universe having commit such a thing ...

Well - For the history, I've been involved in the "French Minitel" (French BBS like) and commodore for years between around 1984 and 1996, and I've written numerous things, including C64 minitel emulations, C128 "Minitel Micro-Servers" (BBS), file transfer programs using minitel modem. My last Commodore version (called ABB V3 - ABB meaning Au Bon Bug - (with the idea to be in the top of alphabetical lists) - Try to translate that !) was running on CP/M side of the force.

This last version wasn't written directly by me (as I wasn't a Z80 addict) but a friend of mine, Alexandre Montaron, who used an Amstrad 6128 for developpemnt purpose and 2 CP/M computers as "Minitel Micro-server" - One Logabax (don't remember what - it was red & black) and one Philips P3500 MP/M. What a wonderfull world ....

I must write somewhere this (small) part of history ...

That to say that I've read somewhere that "France Telecom" would stop this month the "Yellow pages" services on minitel - Thing that used each French people in the 80' 90'. This made me take the decision to restart what I could have kept as computers and set ABBV3 on the web. I've taken from the attic my C128D, my 1581, found the floppy - Everything's still operationnal - I just need to write something as a "telnet minitel modem emulator" starting with the code source from "Telnet BBS" and it should go it's way.

I've found that I kept a lot of things but may be not everything. I'll need to restart my 8050 and find / rebuild my IEEE488 board - It was home made, using a 6821 (as found on the QuickSilver picture in the hardware section) and a reserve engenered kernel replacement - I still got source code but can't recall how I was assembling it.

... That's a long post going in every directions - I know that - Sorry for the inconvenance but so much to say.

To be back on the subject, there is another CP/M C128 BBS program !

Regards - Hervé

RobertB · April 15, 2009, 02:06 AM

Quote from: fuf on April 15, 2009, 01:37 AMMy last Commodore version (called ABB V3 - ABB meaning Au Bon Bug - (with the idea to be in the top of alphabetical lists) - Try to translate that !) was running on CP/M side of the force.

(snip)

To be back on the subject, there is another CP/M C128 BBS program !

It sounds like good news!

When our resident BBS person, Andrew Wiskow, comes back from vacation, I'm sure he would be very interested in it.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

Blacklord · April 15, 2009, 02:53 AM

Excellent!

Andrew Wiskow · April 18, 2009, 10:19 AM

Quote from: RobertB on April 15, 2009, 02:06 AMIt sounds like good news! When our resident BBS person, Andrew Wiskow, comes back from vacation, I'm sure he would be very interested in it.

While I am interested in making all Commodore BBS programs available for historical purposes, I've never used CP/M, so I guess I'm a little torn here. Still, it does sound interesting.

RobertB · April 21, 2009, 05:12 PM

Quote from: fuf on April 15, 2009, 01:37 AMMy last Commodore version (called ABB V3 - ABB meaning Au Bon Bug - (with the idea to be in the top of alphabetical lists) - Try to translate that !) was running on CP/M side of the force.

Herve, is it available so that we can try it out?

Back from Notacon/Blockparty,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 25-26 CommVEx v5 info - http://www.commodore.ca/forum and click on ComVEX