Post by Darkstar BBS 30 Darkterm 4 on Mar 9, 2004 22:20:09 GMT -5
I have been lurkin this board and the rest of the commodore scene spots for a long time. So I finally decided to surface and do something to contribute -- as usual there so many questions and issues ;D
I wired up my BBS through a Null modem cable and modified the TelBBS source to work with my setup. which is:
(Testing)
SX64 with Darkstar BBS v3.0
IEEE Busmaster with and SFD, MSD and 8050
2 1571's and 2 1541's.
Connected to a PC using w2k and another PC (486) for Star Commander (networked together)
I picked up a copy of the darkstar 3.0 off a site that had alot of BBS software on it. His version was incomplete/hacked; seemed like it was a freeze dump, to avoid the annoying copy protection Darkstar has. So the freeze dump version will load and configure the BBS but the prog asks at the end for the BBS disk -- and bammo it dies. I have a copy of the real disk here (which has the program on both sides) but side one is damaged (cofffee stain in 88) and other side works -- but I get scared everytime I boot the BBS it will be the last. So problem one is to try and back the disk up which also permit me to do development on it through emulation. I have a dx66 with a xe1541 cable, but the disk will not copy. Any thoughts?
The original BBS software doesnt have a null modem cable driver -- but I wrote an assembler driver for it (I still have the paper docs and it has a few examples of how to write drivers for the BBS). The connection works well, but I am trying to write an AT command interface for the driver as well.. as the system has to time out due to the hangup is not being picked up properly.
Darkterm (which is the prefered method of viewing Darkstar BBS's) has a lot of extensions to the c64 BBSing toolbox. It can send border/background colours along with C=/Shift Uppercase/lowercase switching. It was a very heavy graphics intensive system. It also supported a co ordinate based psoitioning system for text so that you didnt need to do full screen updates or a lot of cursoring around. You needed later versions of darkterm (4.c or 88) fo that to work.
Unfortunately it seems that not many of the current telnet terms support the above functions. I have been doing some dumps of what Darkterm/Darkstar output for control codes; when I have the list I'll post it here. Maybe someone can help me extend the few c64 telnet clients to be a bit more compatible Darkstar Emulation.
Its very funny, my BBS was probally the most hidden -- mostly a programmers board (and teenager frustration dumpzone) but it seems to be the last of this type left. I can't seem to find ANY info of files on anything made by darkstar. The closest thing is Zipcode which was developed by Alan Peters; the guy who wrote all the darkstar stuff. In the 416 area code darkstar BBS's were really popular and there must been a minimum of 146 nodes out there (as I am node 146) and bought my BBS software in 85/86 (I think) so there has to be a whole slew of them out there. But alas nothing. It was a pretty cool system with some awesome features.
Anyone have any of the BBS disks? i am missing the overlink disk, which permits some of the BBS game doors etc. I also do not have the lastest version of Darkterm, I have 4.b which came with the BBS software.
Wolfgang-Aaron Bochar
spamspamspamadmin@wbochar.spamspamspamcom
remove la spam for a valid address.
I wired up my BBS through a Null modem cable and modified the TelBBS source to work with my setup. which is:
(Testing)
SX64 with Darkstar BBS v3.0
IEEE Busmaster with and SFD, MSD and 8050
2 1571's and 2 1541's.
Connected to a PC using w2k and another PC (486) for Star Commander (networked together)
I picked up a copy of the darkstar 3.0 off a site that had alot of BBS software on it. His version was incomplete/hacked; seemed like it was a freeze dump, to avoid the annoying copy protection Darkstar has. So the freeze dump version will load and configure the BBS but the prog asks at the end for the BBS disk -- and bammo it dies. I have a copy of the real disk here (which has the program on both sides) but side one is damaged (cofffee stain in 88) and other side works -- but I get scared everytime I boot the BBS it will be the last. So problem one is to try and back the disk up which also permit me to do development on it through emulation. I have a dx66 with a xe1541 cable, but the disk will not copy. Any thoughts?
The original BBS software doesnt have a null modem cable driver -- but I wrote an assembler driver for it (I still have the paper docs and it has a few examples of how to write drivers for the BBS). The connection works well, but I am trying to write an AT command interface for the driver as well.. as the system has to time out due to the hangup is not being picked up properly.
Darkterm (which is the prefered method of viewing Darkstar BBS's) has a lot of extensions to the c64 BBSing toolbox. It can send border/background colours along with C=/Shift Uppercase/lowercase switching. It was a very heavy graphics intensive system. It also supported a co ordinate based psoitioning system for text so that you didnt need to do full screen updates or a lot of cursoring around. You needed later versions of darkterm (4.c or 88) fo that to work.
Unfortunately it seems that not many of the current telnet terms support the above functions. I have been doing some dumps of what Darkterm/Darkstar output for control codes; when I have the list I'll post it here. Maybe someone can help me extend the few c64 telnet clients to be a bit more compatible Darkstar Emulation.
Its very funny, my BBS was probally the most hidden -- mostly a programmers board (and teenager frustration dumpzone) but it seems to be the last of this type left. I can't seem to find ANY info of files on anything made by darkstar. The closest thing is Zipcode which was developed by Alan Peters; the guy who wrote all the darkstar stuff. In the 416 area code darkstar BBS's were really popular and there must been a minimum of 146 nodes out there (as I am node 146) and bought my BBS software in 85/86 (I think) so there has to be a whole slew of them out there. But alas nothing. It was a pretty cool system with some awesome features.
Anyone have any of the BBS disks? i am missing the overlink disk, which permits some of the BBS game doors etc. I also do not have the lastest version of Darkterm, I have 4.b which came with the BBS software.
Wolfgang-Aaron Bochar
spamspamspamadmin@wbochar.spamspamspamcom
remove la spam for a valid address.