RS232 Emulation

[Excalibur]

I remember seeing on the petscii forums where Anthony Tolle had fixed some of the ACIA emulation routines in Vice but I haven't found anyone really working on the userport RS232 routines to get them in working order.  Anyone come across anything relating to the userport rs232 emulation being worked on???

[xlar54]

Just curious, what problems are you trying to solve with the RS232 routines?  If Im not mistaken, are you Excalibur of Excalibursstone BBS?  Are you trying to get DMBBS working on VICE?

I had mixed success with VICE and C-Net 64 a few months back. I was able to get VICE to run C-Net 64 v 10.x, but only at 300 baud. Cute for the nostalgia trip, but it wouldnt keep people coming back. I fought with the routines for VICE for quite awhile, trying to get 1200 working, but no luck.... btw, I had to hack the code quite a bit to get it to handle DTR, DSR, an RI (ring) signals.  Actually what the hack involved was custom code in VICE, and using an external C# program which wrote directly into VICE's C64 "memory", when new data came into the TCP/IP port. All I had to do was, when there was an incoming connection, set the RI value so thatr CNet would answer, and keep CD (or one of them, i forget which) set, so it thinks there is a carrier.  Then using the C# program, "poke" the incoming data into the proper C64 memory location for RS-232 input, and "peek" the input buffer for RS-232 output. Wacky, but it worked. Like I said, the big thing was 1200 baud.

I even tried Image BBS and CNet 128, but it simply didnt work at all.  Even Hayes compatible modems still somehow sensed no carrier in a weird way.  (I could get it running, and it would answer, but immediately disconnect because it wasnt detecting carrier constantly).

Honestly, I think I was VERY close to making it work, but just got tired and frustrated, so I abandoned it.

[Blacklord]

Just curious, what problems are you trying to solve with the RS232 routines?  If Im not mistaken, are you Excalibur of Excalibursstone BBS?  Are you trying to get DMBBS working on VICE?

I had mixed success with VICE and C-Net 64 a few months back. I was able to get VICE to run C-Net 64 v 10.x, but only at 300 baud. Cute for the nostalgia trip, but it wouldnt keep people coming back. I fought with the routines for VICE for quite awhile, trying to get 1200 working, but no luck.... btw, I had to hack the code quite a bit to get it to handle DTR, DSR, an RI (ring) signals.  Actually what the hack involved was custom code in VICE, and using an external C# program which wrote directly into VICE's C64 "memory", when new data came into the TCP/IP port. All I had to do was, when there was an incoming connection, set the RI value so thatr CNet would answer, and keep CD (or one of them, i forget which) set, so it thinks there is a carrier.  Then using the C# program, "poke" the incoming data into the proper C64 memory location for RS-232 input, and "peek" the input buffer for RS-232 output. Wacky, but it worked. Like I said, the big thing was 1200 baud.

I even tried Image BBS and CNet 128, but it simply didnt work at all.  Even Hayes compatible modems still somehow sensed no carrier in a weird way.  (I could get it running, and it would answer, but immediately disconnect because it wasnt detecting carrier constantly).

Honestly, I think I was VERY close to making it work, but just got tired and frustrated, so I abandoned it.

Do you plan on taking it up again ? Methinks this would be somewhat useful......

cheers,

Lance

[Excalibur]

If someone gets the userport and the ACIA emulation fixed in Vice then watch out because I truly believe you will see Commodore boards popping back up all over the place.  Atolle just got a version of Color64 running in VICE but he's only patched the ACIA emulation.

[xlar54]

Thats really the reason why I decided to abandon the project. It was a nice hack, but quite honestly, the user base isnt big enough, in my opinion, to warrant BBSs running under VICE.  Consider, with VICE you have nearly unlimited harddrive space and exceptional speed, at very little cost. My fear is that it would lessen the number of callers overall, since anyone could run a D81 image and "poof" they have a board running.  Those folks who go the distance to put together real hardware BBS systems do so at a cost, and I think we should support them rather than compete in such a way.

Dont get me wrong, Id LOVE to see the emulation fixed.  I just think we should tread carefully here, and really think about what running an emulator could possibly do to those who put $ into running a real system. Personally, Id like to see one or two VICE systems running, but any more than that might hurt the overall scene.  Probably a more interesting approach would be utilizing VICE to manage multiple line systems.

This is all opinion of course...Im curious what WinUAE has done to the CNet/Pro world.  You certainly can run a BBS from WinUAE. In CNet/Pro's case, I think the difference there is that I believe it's still a selling system, and is being supported by its new owner.

[Blacklord]

Im curious what WinUAE has done to the CNet/Pro world.  You certainly can run a BBS from WinUAE. In CNet/Pro's case, I think the difference there is that I believe it's still a selling system, and is being supported by its new owner.

I don't think there are a great many boards being run under WinUAE - I've certainly considered it as the first BBS software I ran back in '87 was BBS-PC! on the Amiga - I've actually got it fully installed & running too - just not 'live' to the world (besides, it has a date problem, it thinks that the year is 106 which might irritate some people, curiously, the PC version doesn't suffer the same issue).

Certainly I'd consider running a board under Vice especially if i can do some trickery & cross-post from this to that (even if I have to do it manually). I was playing with a simple php script last night that extracts the messages from here to a couple of text files (poster name & body), I've already managed to import to BBS-PC! (which can be made to look like anything) - it'd be great to do the same with an 8 bit BBS - but I ain't no expert on 'em, I never did run the BBS on an 8 bitter, so no idea which would be the easiest to do this to - unless, of course, I write my own

cheers,

Lance

[xlar54]

Some BBSs have offline QWK capability.  If you could get the messages packed up into a QWK file each day and shuttle it to the BBS, that would work out pretty well.  Id like to see more of this.  Bringing not only BBSs together via a network of sorts, but also WWW message forums.

[Blacklord]

Some BBSs have offline QWK capability.  If you could get the messages packed up into a QWK file each day and shuttle it to the BBS, that would work out pretty well.  Id like to see more of this.  Bringing not only BBSs together via a network of sorts, but also WWW message forums.

Vortex has this ability doesn't it ? Any others ?

cheers,

Lance

[Excalibur]

I think the ability to run commodore bbs programs under VICE is very important.  Nobody wants to readily admit it but our beloved hardware has a limited life span.  Already some key components are getting scarce and even worse the last outlet of fantastic hardware for the Commodore (cmdrkey.com) is seemingly unreachable since it takes so very very long to get a single piece of hardware that's ordered.  I suspect he (Maurice) will suffer the lack of availability of the necessary components at some point in time as well.  As the VICE program continues to evolve it's blended power reached from the current hardware and technology and the continuing merger of the old ROMs makes it more and more the logical choice to give many many more years of fun revisiting our old hobbies.  In addition it paves the way for new things that couldn't be done before such as multiline bbs' based on the old schoold bbs programs.  In short, when time has it's way and it will, VICE will probably be the last avenue we'll all have to revisit this wonderful hobby and despite there being some things that it lacks I view it more of an upgraded Commodore rather than merely just an emulator.

[xlar54]

I do agree that we want to get the emulation down, no doubt about that.  Mine is just more of a concern about running too many BBSs via VICE.  Certainly there will come a day when the last C64/128 breathes its last breath (strange methaphor...lol). And really, the RS232 emulation is the last BIG piece of making it work well.  

Incidentally, I see an option for IDE64 emulation.  Does anyone know how this works?

[Brendon]

Incidentally, I see an option for IDE64 emulation.  Does anyone know how this works?

You need the IDE64 ROM image.

[Electroflash]

Well folx the answer to getting DMBBS to run from within VICE at 2400 baud has been taken care of. Excal and I got it running about 5 days ago, and you can call Fantasia's Return to prove it. the BBS is located at 65.80.188.195 Port 6400. Call with a Petscii compatible term for the best experience. Have fun!