Hey how goes?
I used to be into the BBS scene way back when, had a lot of fun, was in the WWIV, Telegard and then Renegade Realms, was into warez and Trade Wars!
Really cool to see this technology is still in use and on the modern web.
Was very cool to discover this tonight, brought back a lot of good memories!
Steve Helm
I used to be into the BBS scene way back when, had a lot of fun, was in the WWIV, Telegard and then Renegade Realms, was into warez and Trade Wars!
Really cool to see this technology is still in use and on the modern web.
Was very cool to discover this tonight, brought back a lot of good memories!
I used to be into the BBS scene way back when, had a lot of fun, was in the WWIV, Telegard and then Renegade Realms, was into warez and Trade Wars!
Hey how goes?
I used to be into the BBS scene way back when, had a lot of fun, was in the WWIV, Telegard and then Renegade Realms, was into warez and Trade Wars!
Really cool to see this technology is still in use and on the modern web.
Really cool to see this technology is still in use and on the modern
web.
Thanks to SBBS it is...
which warez groups were you active in?
Was very cool to discover this tonight, brought back a lot of good memories!Hope to see you around. We try to create lively conversations.
Well here in NL :)
I used to be into the BBS scene way back when, had a lot of fun, was
in the WWIV, Telegard and then Renegade Realms, was into warez and
Trade Wars!
Yeah those old good times LOL
Really cool to see this technology is still in use and on the
modern web.
Thanks to SBBS it is...
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still in development.
which warez groups were you active in?
I don't think you can assume everyone was involved with warez groups. :)
dmxrob wrote to Thedude007 <=-
I used to be into the BBS scene way back when, had a lot of fun, was in the WWIV, Telegard and then Renegade Realms, was into warez and Trade Wars!
Telegard - man, had almost forgotten about that one!
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still in development.
Thanks to SBBS it is...SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still in development.
which warez groups were you active in?I don't think you can assume everyone was involved with warez groups. :)
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still in development.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too.
On 05-04-19 15:12, Nightfox wrote to Hawkeye <=-
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also
still in development.
which warez groups were you active in?
I don't think you can assume everyone was involved with warez groups.
:)
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Dumas Walker to NIGHTFOX on Sun May 05 2019 08:03 am
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still in development.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too.
A PCBoard clone is in development. There is a difference.
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Digital Man to Dumas Walker on Sun May 05 2019 01:39 pm
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Dumas Walker to NIGHTFOX on Sun May 05 2019 08:03 am
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still in development.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too.
A PCBoard clone is in development. There is a difference.
where's the info on that
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still
in development.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too.
A PCBoard clone is in development. There is a difference.
Telegard - man, had almost forgotten about that one!
That was my first board, back in the day... wish I had a backup of it
now.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also a few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to name a few.
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is
in development.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too.
A PCBoard clone is in development. There is a difference.
Is it a clone? Sounded to me like maybe someone got the source for
it but maybe I completely took that wrong. I was under the
impression that there is a clone and an actual continuation project
going on.
dmxrob wrote to Dumas Walker <=-
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also a few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to name a few.
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't
hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line
boards ran it.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also a
few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to name
a few.
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line boards ran it.
going on.
Apparently they bought the rights to PCBoard but are rewriting it in
"Modern Pascal" It's a clone that's meant to look and behave like
PCBoard, but it's not really the same.
dmxrob wrote to Dumas Walker <=-
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line boards ran
it.
Apparently they bought the rights to PCBoard but are rewriting it in
"Modern Pascal" It's a clone that's meant to look and behave like
PCBoard, but it's not really the same.
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line boards ran it.
Apparently they bought the rights to PCBoard but are rewriting it in "Modern Pascal" It's a clone that's meant to look and behave like PCBoard, but it's not really the same.
i'm not even sure it's possible to buy the pcboard rights. ---
Thats cool that PCBoard is making a comeback. I never used it but I have played around with it. Quite a few ran that back in my area back in the 80s. I have logged into an Enigma system also.PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also a
few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to name
a few.
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't
hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line
boards ran it.
I'm sure it was different in other parts of the country, but PCBoards
in the San Francisco bay area were typically for-pay, multi-line "shareware" boards. Not really my cup of tea. Are there any PCBoards running nowadays?
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: dmxrob to Dumas Walker on Mon May 06 2019 08:42 pm
Thats cool that PCBoard is making a comeback.PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also a
few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to name
a few.
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't
hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line
boards ran it.
I'm sure it was different in other parts of the country, but PCBoards in the San Francisco bay area were typically for-pay, multi-line "shareware" boards. Not really my cup of tea. Are there any PCBoards running nowadays?
I agree. I was never a big fan of PCBoard. It wasn't that popular by me (Long
Island) and as you said they were Pay boards. I know a nice Pcboard you check out called Danger Bay BBS. Telent to dangerbaybbs.dynds.org port 1337.
pcboard had a big following and it has some awesome mods.
Re: Re: Hey how goes!?
By: MRO to Hustler on Thu May 09 2019 12:49 am
pcboard had a big following and it has some awesome mods.
PCBoard was not an amateur-based BBS software as the cost was significantly higher than other products on the market such as Wildcat!, GAP, and Synchronet. I found it interesting how ridiculously inflexible PCB was yet the maturity was second to none.
PCBoard was not an amateur-based BBS software as the cost was
significantly higher than other products on the market such as
Wildcat!, GAP, and Synchronet. I found it interesting how ridiculously
inflexible PCB was yet the maturity was second to none.
Apparently they bought the rights to PCBoard but are rewriting it in
"Modern Pascal" It's a clone that's meant to look and behave like
PCBoard, but it's not really the same.
I can't wait to see what they roll out for PCBoard. It wasn't
hugely popular in the St. Louis area, but a few of the multi-line boards ran it.
There's a live alpha version available to see at:
saltairbbs.com
I think it's interesting that different BBS packages seemed to be more popular in some areas than others. I don't remember seeing Synchronet BBSes in my area back in the 90s, so I only learned about Synchronet in 2007 when I got back into BBSing (and Synchronet is what I run now). In my area, from
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>\
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>
Does it really matter? Geezus.
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: dmxrob to Digital Man on Fri May 10 2019 09:33 am
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>
Does it really matter? Geezus.
Maybe in some ways, maybe not. It seems like RemoteAccess and EleBBS. EleBBS is a clone of RemoteAccess, and RemoteAccess itself seems to no longer be developed anymore. But for many sysops, that might not matter.
Thats cool that PCBoard is making a comeback.PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also
a few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to
name a few.
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Digital Man to Brokenmind on Wed May 08 2019 11:36 am
Thats cool that PCBoard is making a comeback.PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too. There are also >>> a few new packages in development... Magicka, Enigma, and Titan to >>> name a few.
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>
Didn't someone say the guy working on it bought the rights to PCBoard?
If
that's true, then it's PCBoard. Programs are re-written from the ground up all the time (as you probably know). If it's not, it's a clone and the jackhole should name it something different.
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Digital Man to Brokenmind on Wed May 08 2019 11:36 am
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>\
Does it really matter? Geezus.
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Nightfox to dmxrob on Fri May 10 2019 09:47 am
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: dmxrob to Digital Man on Fri May 10 2019 09:33 am
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>
Does it really matter? Geezus.
Maybe in some ways, maybe not. It seems like RemoteAccess and EleB EleBBS is a clone of RemoteAccess, and RemoteAccess itself seems to longer be developed anymore. But for many sysops, that might not m
Soft of my point: EleBBS is not RemoteAccess. The author did not name
it "RemoteAccess" and when EleBBS was created, that did not
constitent a "comback" for RemoteAccess.
But then, isn't that kind of like WWIV 5.0? I don't know my history well enough, but I thought rushfan rewrote it in C++.
But then, isn't that kind of like WWIV 5.0? I don't know my history
well enough, but I thought rushfan rewrote it in C++.
While the WWIV code was migrated from C to C++, it's still the same code base. You can still find plenty of Wayne Bell's legacy in that code. WWIV 5.0 was not a complete rewrite from 4.x and is not a "clone" of WWIV. It is WWIV. So, totally different. :-)
On 05-10-19 09:47, Nightfox wrote to dmxrob <=-
Maybe in some ways, maybe not. It seems like RemoteAccess and EleBBS. EleBBS is a clone of RemoteAccess, and RemoteAccess itself seems to no longer be developed anymore. But for many sysops, that might not
matter.
Re: RE: Hey how goes!?
By: Digital Man to apam on Sat May 11 2019 01:35 am
But then, isn't that kind of like WWIV 5.0? I don't know my history
well enough, but I thought rushfan rewrote it in C++.
While the WWIV code was migrated from C to C++, it's still the same code base. You can still find plenty of Wayne Bell's legacy in that code. WWIV 5.0 was not a complete rewrite from 4.x and is not a "clone" of WWIV. It is WWIV. So, totally different. :-)
Wasn't WWIV originally written in Basic, and then Pascal? From what I remember, it was re-written a copule times (including a re-write in C/C++), and they kept the name WWIV.
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>\
Does it really matter? Geezus.
yeah, it's a huge difference.
I'm all for encouraging new development, and if this new "PCBoard" turns
out to be something worthwhile then that is great. I don't see why it
needs to be called PCBoard though other than to borrow the fame of the original.
But then, isn't that kind of like WWIV 5.0? I don't know my history well enough, but I thought rushfan rewrote it in C++.
Maybe in some ways, maybe not. It seems like RemoteAccess and EleBBS. EleBBS is a clone of RemoteAccess, and RemoteAccess itself seems to no longer be developed anymore. But for many sysops, that might not matter.
Of it does the job, why not? A clone is better than no software of that type at all.
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: MRO to dmxrob on Fri May 10 2019 09:10 pm
It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>\
Does it really matter? Geezus.
yeah, it's a huge difference.
As dead as the BBS scene is nowadays, I don't think it really matters a hill of beans if you call it PCBoard, WWIV, GrapeWine or TinkerTotter.
Those of us who remember what PCBoard was, we might take notice, but the reality is that what few people we manage to get onto boards nowadays, the majority aren't going to care one way or the other.
To me it is like debating how the deck chairs were setup 30 years after the Titanic sank.
My thoughts exactly. I've seen so much back and forth about this whole PCBoard thing, and my response has been "So what?" It's not like the BBS
As dead as the BBS scene is nowadays, I don't think it really matters a hill of beans if you call it PCBoard, WWIV, GrapeWine or TinkerTotter.
well, that's your opinion. my opinion is that things like this shouldnt be misleading.
not caring is what got us into this situation.
As dead as the BBS scene is nowadays, I don't think it really matters a hillyeah, it's a huge difference.It's a clone. PCBoard is not making a comeback. <shrug>Does it really matter? Geezus.
Re: Hey how goes!?
By: MRO to dmxrob on Sat May 18 2019 12:00 am
I agree, just because there aren't many people into bbses, and the majority of people don't care, doesn't mean the few of us who are still into this shouldn't care.
It's like building a new computer and calling it a commodore 64, you get all the people who are into commodores interested and excited, only that when they get it it's just a PC with an emulator and a logo on it.
Building a new BBS, calling it something that was very popular (and still is popular within the scene) in order to build hype is in my opinion pretty bad form. Let this new BBS stand on it's own merits, call it something new.
SBBS isn't the only player.. There's also Mystic, and WWIV is also still
in development.
PCBoard is apparently back in development now, too.
A PCBoard clone is in development. There is a difference.
Is it a clone? Sounded to me like maybe someone got the source for it but maybe I completely took that wrong. I was under the impression that there is a clone and an actual continuation project going on.
It's like building a new computer and calling it a commodore 64, you get all the people who are into commodores interested and excited, only that when they get it it's just a PC with an emulator and a logo on it.
Building a new BBS, calling it something that was very popular (and still is popular within the scene) in order to build hype is in my opinion pretty bad form. Let this new BBS stand on it's own merits, call it something new.
Re: RE: Hey how goes!?
By: MRO to dmxrob on Sat May 18 2019 12:01 am
not caring is what got us into this situation.
The proliferation of Internet access and the WWW got us into this situation.
I used to run PCBoard 15, Synchronet is way better IMHO and I just don't think there is a need for a PCBoard clone.
Most BBS's these days run either Synchronet or Mystic, I run one of each Both are great.
razzpie.ddns.net:2300
outwestbbs.com:23
It would be nearly impossible for a new BBS package to topple the kings of BBS.
The proliferation of Internet access and the WWW got us into this situation.
that's an easy, unthoughtful cop-out.
the truth is, sysops didn't see the internet as a threat or tool. they were short sighted and didn't give the users what they wanted.
It would be nearly impossible for a new BBS package to topple thewell it's not a competition. i think the more bbs softwares there are, the more options, the more interesting things get.
kings of BBS.
we just dont have users anymore, that's a big problem.
Re: RE: Hey how goes!?
By: MRO to dmxrob on Sat May 18 2019 10:43 am
The proliferation of Internet access and the WWW got us into this situation.
that's an easy, unthoughtful cop-out.
Ok..... whatever.
Keep living that dream that the great BBS resurection is coming and good luck with that!
On 05-17-19 18:39, dmxrob wrote to Vk3jed <=-
My thoughts exactly. I've seen so much back and forth about this whole PCBoard thing, and my response has been "So what?" It's not like the
BBS scene is packed with users/sysops. Nobody is going to know/care if
it is the "real thing" or a clone (and honestly, 99% of the people wouldn't know the real thing anyway).
yes), and more importantly, how realistic is it to remain compatible as FTN standards are updated to suit modern environments? (my answer: I don't know).
Evolve or die. True in everything else in life, and should be for FTN as well.
Pretty much nowadays if I were going to jump in on a rewrite I'd get rid of everything FTN related. All networked message forums would use APIs, webservices and messaging queues to talk between systems and queue up.
well it's not a competition. i think the more bbs softwares there are, the more options, the more interesting things get.
we just dont have users anymore, that's a big problem.
On 05-19-19 10:06, dmxrob wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Evolve or die. True in everything else in life, and should be for FTN
as well.
Pretty much nowadays if I were going to jump in on a rewrite I'd get
rid of everything FTN related. All networked message forums would use APIs, webservices and messaging queues to talk between systems and
queue up.
Nightfox wrote to MRO <=-
The more pessimistic side of me says there's a reson BBS users moved on
to the internet & things,
The more pessimistic side of me says there's a reson BBS users moved
on to the internet & things,
BUSY SIGNALS.
Pretty much nowadays if I were going to jump in on a rewrite I'd get
rid of everything FTN related. All networked message forums would
use APIs, webservices and messaging queues to talk between systems
and queue up.
That would probably allow for more real time messaging between BBSs. I think there would probably need to be a FTN subsystem, but only used on dialup. While we in the West may no longer have true dialup anymore, that may not be the case in other parts of the world.
Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-
I feel a bit sad that our phone lines are mostly VOIP now, which
makes it difficult to get high-speed modem connections. Even
though I haven't used a dialup modem in many years (probably not
since 2001 or so), I thought POTS modem technology was fairly
cool, and it was cool that enabled the kind of electronic
communications that it did. I still find the whole story of how
BBSes started up to be interesting. Occasionally I've re-watched
parts of BBS: The Documentary, and I enjoy remembering those days
and hearing about how that technology started.
On 05-22-19 09:45, Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-
A message network based on web APIs sounds interesting.. I think it's good that we have internet-based FTN software though. It gives the
best of both worlds, were it could also work on dialup without much difficulty. I'm not sure if modern mailers such as BinkIt, Radius,
etc., can be set up for dialup, but it would be nice if they could.
I feel a bit sad that our phone lines are mostly VOIP now, which makes
it difficult to get high-speed modem connections. Even though I
haven't used a dialup modem in many years (probably not since 2001 or
so), I thought POTS modem technology was fairly cool, and it was cool
that enabled the kind of electronic communications that it did. I
still find the whole story of how BBSes started up to be interesting. Occasionally I've re-watched parts of BBS: The Documentary, and I enjoy remembering those days and hearing about how that technology started.
On 05-22-19 16:55, Dan Clough wrote to Nightfox <=-
A big "plus-one" on all of that.
I miss the modem days. It was a challenge to get things set up,
even as a BBS-caller, let alone a BBS sysop. Very satisfying when
it all worked. Loved the modem-negotiation sounds.
I may break out my old USR Courier external sometime soon and see
how she'll play with my old 486 running MS-DOS that I still have.
:-)
I miss the modem days. It was a challenge to get things set up,
even as a BBS-caller, let alone a BBS sysop. Very satisfying when
it all worked. Loved the modem-negotiation sounds.
Re: Re: Hey how goes!?on
By: Vk3jed to dmxrob on Wed May 22 2019 09:14 am
Pretty much nowadays if I were going to jump in on a rewrite I'd get
rid of everything FTN related. All networked message forums would
use APIs, webservices and messaging queues to talk between systems
and queue up.
That would probably allow for more real time messaging between BBSs. I think there would probably need to be a FTN subsystem, but only used
adialup. While we in the West may no longer have true dialup anymore, that may not be the case in other parts of the world.
A message network based on web APIs sounds interesting.. I think it's good that we have internet-based FTN software though. It gives the best of both worlds, were it could also work on dialup without much difficulty. I'm not sure if modern mailers such as BinkIt, Radius, etc., can be set up for dialup, but it would be nice if they could.
I feel a bit sad that our phone lines are mostly VOIP now, which makes it difficult to get high-speed modem connections. Even though I haven't used
dialup modem in many years (probably not since 2001 or so), I thought POTS modem technology was fairly cool, and it was cool that enabled the kind of electronic communications that it did. I still find the whole story of how BBSes started up to be interesting. Occasionally I've re-watched parts of BBS: The Documentary, and I enjoy remembering those days and hearing about how that technology started.
Nightfox
---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dan Clough <=-
I miss the modem days. It was a challenge to get things set up,
even as a BBS-caller, let alone a BBS sysop. Very satisfying when
it all worked. Loved the modem-negotiation sounds.
I remember the first time I got my Front door taking calls,
handing off to Telegard, messages tossing without error, message
bases automatically maintained and nodelists compiling from
diffs, all with one ginormous batch file.
I'd realized one day that it had worked for a couple of days
without any intervention. It was exciting.
I haven't had that level of "everything working" since. :)
I remember the first time I got my Front door taking calls, handing off to Telegard, messages tossing without error, message bases automatically maintained and nodelists compiling from diffs, all with one ginormous batch file.
I'd realized one day that it had worked for a couple of days without any intervention. It was exciting.
I haven't had that level of "everything working" since. :)
On 05-24-19 09:18, Nightfox wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
Yep, I remember feeling like that when I got my first BBS set up on FidoNet, and I was using FrontDoor, which passed the connection to RemoteAccess. I felt happy when I got the batch file(s) all working
and it could basically run without intervention.
some really cool things that work great..... but there was
something about that period of time (386's, UARTs, modems, DOS)
I haven't had that level of "everything working" since. :)Yep, I remember feeling like that when I got my first BBS set up on FidoNet, and I was using FrontDoor, which passed the connection to RemoteAccess. I felt happy when I got the batch file(s) all working and it could basically run without intervention.
That feeling is such a buzz. I remember when I got my "bbs.bat" working with BinkleyTerm and RA unattended. Talk about a feeling of achievement. :) Then I got Fidonet working - tosser, netmail packer, outbound manager, etc. And later, on my point, I added GIGO and UUPC to my systems. :)
I still have a copy of my bbs.bat kicking around. :)
Dan Clough wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
Honestly I think of it as the "high water mark" in my
computing "career". :-)
On 05-27-19 00:17, Hawkeye wrote to Vk3jed <=-
I become old... lol... I still dont have Fidonet working with
SynchroNET BBS and I'm sure it is far easier than back then....
I still have a copy of my bbs.bat kicking around. :)
I dont any of my old files of the BBS anymore... sad. Good you kept it. HAWKEYE
On 05-26-19 10:09, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dan Clough <=-
@VIA: VERT/REALITY
Dan Clough wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
Honestly I think of it as the "high water mark" in my
computing "career". :-)
I'd never thought of it that way, but -- yeah. Add to that the black
magic of optimizing DOS memory, caching BIOS memory, non
plug-and-play, and doing something that hardly anyone else knew of
added to the feeling.
Hawkeye wrote to Dan Clough <=-
some really cool things that work great..... but there was
something about that period of time (386's, UARTs, modems, DOS)
Yep... 16550A, IRQs.... those were the times :)
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dan Clough <=-
Honestly I think of it as the "high water mark" in my
computing "career". :-)
I'd never thought of it that way, but -- yeah. Add to that the
black magic of optimizing DOS memory, caching BIOS memory, non plug-and-play, and doing something that hardly anyone else knew
of added to the feeling.
something about that period of time (386's, UARTs, modems, DOS)
Yep... 16550A, IRQs.... those were the times :)
Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original
UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
And don't forget having to properly set up about a MILLION little
jumper connectors on some motherboards, and on expansion cards, especially serial/parallel cards.
That was the fun of setting up a new system. Today it's so.... boring! :D
Yep... 16550A, IRQs.... those were the times :)Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original
UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
And don't forget having to properly set up about a MILLION little
jumper connectors on some motherboards, and on expansion cards, especially serial/parallel cards.
Memory management (LOADHIGH), tweaking config.sys and
autoexec.bat.... ahhhh the list goes on. Good times.
One of my "great accomplishments" was once adding an external
multi-disc CDROM drive to add shareware CDs to the BBS's file
areas. Something the users LOVED, and getting a new CDROM
(NightOwl, etc) was like GOLD. This thing had a SCSI interface
too, which was not trivial to get working under DOS.
Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original
UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
And don't forget having to properly set up about a MILLION little
jumper connectors on some motherboards, and on expansion cards, especially serial/parallel cards.
Memory management (LOADHIGH), tweaking config.sys and
autoexec.bat.... ahhhh the list goes on. Good times.
On 05-27-19 22:54, Hawkeye wrote to Vk3jed <=-
@VIA: VERT/MASHBBS
Re: Re: Hey how goes!?
By: Vk3jed to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon May 27 2019 21:25:00
That was the fun of setting up a new system. Today it's so.... boring! :D
True. Also reason I love retro computing as a hobby.
HAWKEYE
On 05-27-19 07:47, Dan Clough wrote to Hawkeye <=-
Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original
UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
And don't forget having to properly set up about a MILLION little
jumper connectors on some motherboards, and on expansion cards,
especially serial/parallel cards.
Memory management (LOADHIGH), tweaking config.sys and
autoexec.bat.... ahhhh the list goes on. Good times.
On 05-27-19 16:27, HusTler wrote to Dan Clough <=-
Then came "Plug and Play" and we all lost our job. :-(
Especially with DV and OS/2 it was mandatory to get a decent 16550A otherwise you were not able to run multiline.Off topic... did anyone ever mess with DesqView/X? Man that software was cool as crap. The rough part is that you had to use Wacom C to write for it. I mean you could do DOS and Win16 natively... but to write to all the cool X stuff you had to have a Wacom compiler. But when it ran Win16 apps it was converting
One of my "great accomplishments" was once adding an external
multi-disc CDROM drive to add shareware CDs to the BBS's file
areas. Something the users LOVED, and getting a new CDROM
I remember those days.. 16550 UARTs, math co-processors, jumpers, and messing >with config.sys and autoexec.bat.. And I remember with MS-DOS 5 (or was it 6?)
when they added the ability to add menus to config.sys and autoexec.bat so you >could make multiple system configurations to boot up with to run different >software that required different system settings. I thought that was pretty >cool at the time.
On 05-27-19 16:27, HusTler wrote to Dan Clough <=-
Then came "Plug and Play" and we all lost our job. :-(
It was "Plug and Pray" for a while and took a bit of skill to get it working, but today everything "just works" when you put it all together.
On 05-28-19 21:32, MRO wrote to Vk3jed <=-
for a quite while plug and play wasnt true plug and play. you had to
get drivers for something sometimes.
i like everything working. i didnt like cracking open a computer to
move a jumper to play a certain game.
Vk3jed wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
That was the fun of setting up a new system. Today it's so.... boring!
Dan Clough wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
One of my "great accomplishments" was once adding an external
multi-disc CDROM drive to add shareware CDs to the BBS's file
areas. Something the users LOVED, and getting a new CDROM
(NightOwl, etc) was like GOLD. This thing had a SCSI interface
too, which was not trivial to get working under DOS.
Dan Clough wrote to Hawkeye <=-
Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original
UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
That's my "when I was your age, I walked half a mile in the snow to school" story.
for a quite while plug and play wasnt true plug and play. you had to get drivers for something sometimes.
i like everything working. i didnt like cracking open a computer to move a jumper to play a certain game.
The first real plug and play was simply unreliable. Often it was better to run the configuration tool and run the card in "jumperless mode", and using it like an old school manually jumpered card.
Offline file libraries were cool - I never got to play with one,
though. DOS SCSI was simple, I'd claim - you'd use the Adaptec 1520
cards in desktops for CDROMs and the 1542 to boot or in servers, and
it was all SCSI-1 with the same connectors and terminators. When you
got to EISA and PCI SCSI, that's when you'd get wide, narrow, SCSI-2/SCSI-3, etc and it got exponentially complicated. I'd always
have the wrong cable and terminator.
I had always heard SCSI was better/faster, etc., but in retrospect, SCSI did seem fairly complicated. Around 1998 or 1999, I bought an Adaptec Ultra SCSI-160 controller and (I think) a 4GB SCSI hard drive, but after that, I never bought anything SCSI again. I thought it was a good drive
Re: Re: Hey how goes!?
By: MRO to Vk3jed on Tue May 28 2019 09:32 pm
for a quite while plug and play wasnt true plug and play. you had to get drivers for something sometimes.
I wouldn't expect the OS to include drivers for all possible devices that might be produced. It's nice when things just work though.
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dan Clough <=-
Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original
UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
It's amazing what you can accomplish when you haven't a clue as
to what you're doing. I had a clone 8 mhz AT motherboard,
desoldered the crystal and added a 12 mhz crystal. 150% speed for
a trip to Radio Shack.
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Vk3jed <=-
That was the fun of setting up a new system. Today it's so.... boring!
I got a second-hand AST Multi-IO card at a swap meet, with the
holy grail for me at the time, a 16550 UART. A ton of jumpers and
no documentation. I ended up calling their faxback system,
navigating the voice menus, and getting a copy of the manual
faxed to my work fax number.
That's my "when I was your age, I walked half a mile in the snow
to school" story.
On 05-27-19 10:51, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Vk3jed <=-
@VIA: VERT/REALITY
Vk3jed wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
That was the fun of setting up a new system. Today it's so.... boring!
I got a second-hand AST Multi-IO card at a swap meet, with the holy
grail for me at the time, a 16550 UART. A ton of jumpers and no documentation. I ended up calling their faxback system, navigating the voice menus, and getting a copy of the manual faxed to my work fax
number.
That's my "when I was your age, I walked half a mile in the snow to school" story.
On 05-29-19 10:05, Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-
One time, around 1996 or 1997, I was running OS/2 for a little while
and wanted to upgrade my modem. I bought an internal Cardinal modem
from a local mom & pop computer shop, and I think it was a jumperless semi-plug-n-play card. I got it to work with OS/2, but I found that
with OS/2's plug-n-play, its settings (COM port and IRQ) could change
when the computer rebooted. That wasn't really good, as I'd have to change my software settings every time that happened.
I brought the modem back to the store to return it, and the guy laughed when I said I was using OS/2. They were a bit sketchy too - At first
they said "We don't buy used hardware." I told them I had just bought
it from them the day before, and they took it back and wrote me a check for the money (rather than giving cash back).
I chose SCSI because you could "Daisy Chain" them. Can't do that with IDE.
I had an Amiga back then. It was all SCSI but it was very easy to add drives to an Amiga compared to the IBM compats. Foolin with jumpers and rebootin, repeat. Power off, power on. Reboot, kick it. Say things about someone's mother. I don't know why it too so long to make things easy for consumers.
One time, around 1996 or 1997, I was running OS/2 for a little while
and wanted to upgrade my modem. I bought an internal Cardinal modem
from a local mom & pop computer shop, and I think it was a
jumperless semi-plug-n-play card. I got it to work with OS/2, but I
found that with OS/2's plug-n-play, its settings (COM port and IRQ)
could change when the computer rebooted. That wasn't really good,
as I'd have to change my software settings every time that happened.
Hmm, that's rather unusual. Every "jumperless" or PnP in jumperless mode card I've seen came with a DOS based utility that would fix the I/O and IRQ settings, when you put it in jumperless mode.
On OS/2, these cards had to be in jumperless mode. In PnP, OS/2 wouldn't see them at all. Your experience sounds rather unusual.
I brought the modem back to the store to return it, and the guy
laughed when I said I was using OS/2. They were a bit sketchy too -
At first they said "We don't buy used hardware." I told them I had
just bought it from them the day before, and they took it back and
wrote me a check for the money (rather than giving cash back).
At least you got your money back - hope the cheque didn't bounce. :)
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dan Clough <=-
Indeed! I actually bought a few 16550's and replaced the original UARTs (8250's) when modem speeds got up to 9600 and above. Huge improvement on throughput. I once also added a math coprocessor
to a motherboard. ;-)
It's amazing what you can accomplish when you haven't a clue as
to what you're doing. I had a clone 8 mhz AT motherboard,
desoldered the crystal and added a 12 mhz crystal. 150% speed for
a trip to Radio Shack.
Very cool (and brave)!
On my very first PC, which was a "Kaypro PC", 1986-ish, running
MSDOS with (2) 360KB 5.25" floppies (and no HD), monochrome video,
a whopping 512Kb of main memory, I replaced the CPU. The original
was an Intel 8088 clocked at 4.77Mhz, and I replaced it with the
NEC V20 (same clock rate) which was a pin-compatible upgrade. Not
even sure now what was "better" about it, but it did make it seem
faster.
It was a socketed chip so not that big a deal looking
back at it now, but at the time it was adventurous... :-)
On 05-29-19 20:41, Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Maybe I wasn't configuring it properly.. Once I started to have that issue with it, I just decided to return it and get more of a real
hardware-configurable modem that wouldn't do that. For internal
modems, I ended up sticking with US Robotics, since they still made jumper-configurable internal modems into the late 90s. They weren't WinModems either, they were real hardware modems.
At least you got your money back - hope the cheque didn't bounce. :)
It didn't bounce. :) It was a weird experience though. That store
ended up closing not too long after that.
On 05-29-19 17:30, Dan Clough wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
On my very first PC, which was a "Kaypro PC", 1986-ish, running
MSDOS with (2) 360KB 5.25" floppies (and no HD), monochrome video,
a whopping 512Kb of main memory, I replaced the CPU. The original
was an Intel 8088 clocked at 4.77Mhz, and I replaced it with the
NEC V20 (same clock rate) which was a pin-compatible upgrade. Not
even sure now what was "better" about it, but it did make it seem
faster. It was a socketed chip so not that big a deal looking
back at it now, but at the time it was adventurous... :-)
for a quite while plug and play wasnt true plug and play. you had to get drivers for something sometimes.
i like everything working. i didnt like cracking open a computer to move a
Digital Man wrote to Dan Clough <=-
On my very first PC, which was a "Kaypro PC", 1986-ish, running
MSDOS with (2) 360KB 5.25" floppies (and no HD), monochrome video,
a whopping 512Kb of main memory, I replaced the CPU. The original
was an Intel 8088 clocked at 4.77Mhz, and I replaced it with the
NEC V20 (same clock rate) which was a pin-compatible upgrade. Not
even sure now what was "better" about it, but it did make it seem
faster.
Apparently, faster effective address calculation, along with
faster loop counters, shift registers and multiplier (according
to Wikipedia). I had a few of them too, but only after any less
than 12 MHz was considered "way slow".
It was a socketed chip so not that big a deal looking
back at it now, but at the time it was adventurous... :-)
I know what you mean. I learned early on that even replacing
socketed chips was no "no brainer" as an 80387 can be inserted in
multiple orientations and only one of those orientations won't
result in the chip "releasing its smoke". :-(
Vk3jed wrote to Dan Clough <=-
On my very first PC, which was a "Kaypro PC", 1986-ish, running
MSDOS with (2) 360KB 5.25" floppies (and no HD), monochrome video,
a whopping 512Kb of main memory, I replaced the CPU. The original
was an Intel 8088 clocked at 4.77Mhz, and I replaced it with the
NEC V20 (same clock rate) which was a pin-compatible upgrade. Not
even sure now what was "better" about it, but it did make it seem
faster. It was a socketed chip so not that big a deal looking
back at it now, but at the time it was adventurous... :-)
2 things:
1. The V20 was slightly faster, enough to be noticed and
measured.
2. The V20 was capable of running 8080 instructions, which made
CP/M emulation easy. Only issue was a lot of CP/M systems ran on
the Z80, which meant some apps wouldn't work on the 8080 or
emulation, because the Z80 had extra instructions.
That was the big dividing line back then as I recall, between an
XT and an AT (4.77 vs 12). Also maybe the AT was an 80286 CPU....
can't remember for sure.
On 05-30-19 08:42, Dan Clough wrote to Vk3jed <=-
I just missed the CP/M era and never used it. IIRC, the Kaypro
mentioned above ran MS-DOS version 2.<something> (maybe 2.11?). I
ran various versions of DOS for several years and then moved on to
Windows (3.11?) and later W95, and finally Linux. Never jumped
onto the OS/2 wagon either, although I have seen it running on a
friend's computer. Pretty much all Linux here now.
That feeling is such a buzz. I remember when I got my "bbs.bat" working withGetting WWIV and Fidonet working was crazy times. People in my area
BinkleyTerm and RA unattended. Talk about a feeling of achievement. :) Then I
got Fidonet working - tosser, netmail packer, outbound manager, etc. And later, on my point, I added GIGO and UUPC to my systems. :)
On 06-01-19 03:25, MATTHEW MUNSON wrote to VK3JED <=-
Getting WWIV and Fidonet working was crazy times. People in my area thought i was freaky for going FTN.
Then came "Plug and Play" and we all lost our job. :-(
messing with config.sys and autoexec.bat.. And I remember with MS-DOS 5 (or was it 6?) when they added the ability to add menus to config.sys and
Off topic... did anyone ever mess with DesqView/X? Man that software was cool as crap. The rough part is that you had to use Wacom C to write for it. I mean you could do DOS and Win16 natively... but to write to all the cool X stuff you had to have a Wacom compiler. But when it ran Win16 apps it was converting it to X Windows so you could serve Windows 3.x apps to a X terminal running Unix.
messing with config.sys and autoexec.bat.. And I remember with
MS-DOS 5 (or was it 6?) when they added the ability to add menus to
config.sys and
Yeah forgot about that, that was awesome! CONFIG=1 or something....
of boot configurations that you could choose from (and you could have a default too, I think).
I chose SCSI because you could "Daisy Chain" them. Can't do that with IDE.Well with IDE you sort-of could. Each IDE channel supported up to 2
I had an Amiga back then. It was all SCSI but it was very easy to add drives to an Amiga compared to the IBM compats. Foolin with jumpers and
Sometimes technology takes time to progress. Technology goes through its various versions and tends to get easier over time. :)
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