BBS program for the VIC?

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ral-clan
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BBS program for the VIC?

Post by ral-clan »

Hi,

Does anyone know if there are any surviving examples of BBS software for the VIC-20?

Apparently, one of the few known ones - called VIC-Net - has been lost (see AtariAge forum thread):
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/24106 ... he-vic-20/

There was also one called RAVICS, which too has been lost:
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ ... S/adam.txt

In this 2010 Denial thread, Smokingirl was working on one, but it doesn't look like it was ever finished:
http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... 6&start=30
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cobracon
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by cobracon »

I noticed the Tandy Model 100 had a bbs written in basic. Maybe it could be converted to the vic. Here is the link: ftp://ftp.whtech.com/club100/tel/pbbs.ba
trevoz
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by trevoz »

Back in the early 1980s, before FidoNet, I ran a BBS on a VIC-20 and an SFD-1001 1MB floppy disk drive. The various programs chained to each other because of the VIC's low memory. The original programs on which it is based were in Apple BASIC which I ported to CBM BASIC and then enhanced.

I still have the printed dot matrix program listings which I've scanned to PDF and some variable explanations. There is one piece missing as when decommissioning the BBS I forgot to print it out -- the 6502 machine code routine I wrote for converting PETASCII to ASCII and vice versa. My callers tended to be using IBM PCs :)

If anyone is interested,PM me and I'll email the archive to you.
trevoz
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by trevoz »

Nostalgia got the better of me - I'm about 75% of the way through typing the BBS in using VICE.

It took me hours to realise (admittedly after 36 years!) that the INPUT* statements were not an artifact of the CardCo user port printer interface I'd used to print the program listings, but rather a new BASIC command lodged in the cassette buffer. It then took a couple of hours to realise that I'd modified the routine for the SFD-1001. Now working with a 1541.

For the two people who PM'd me (such interest after all this time!) it should be up and running again in the next week, at least in local mode. No chance of testing it for real as (1) no VIC-20 anymore and, impossible to remedy, (2) no copper phone lines, the area is now all fibre and VOIP. Progress!
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ral-clan
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by ral-clan »

It's still pretty neat you are reviving this software. It might be the only surviving BBS software for the VIC-20.
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RobertBe
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by RobertBe »

trevoz wrote:For the two people who PM'd me (such interest after all this time!) it should be up and running again in the next week...
I would be interested, too!

Truly,
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trevoz
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by trevoz »

It's getting close ... here's the waiting for phone call screen as a teaser :-)

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ral-clan
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by ral-clan »

I hope you post this as a download so many people can archive it and save it for posterity (and maybe someone will actually use it, too).
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by cbmeeks »

ral-clan wrote:I hope you post this as a download so many people can archive it and save it for posterity (and maybe someone will actually use it, too).
Agreed. It would also be nice to post the source on GitHub if you were so inclined. :-)

Thanks for doing this.
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prowlr
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by prowlr »

I recently got one of those WiFi modems for the Vic20/C64 and would love to play with something like this in my free time. I used to run a BBS on my Amiga back in the 90's so trying something similar on the Vic20 would be interesting.
alterus
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by alterus »

I'm working on a new BBS for the C64, based on Contiki BBS. Its still under heavy development, but it currently supports VIC20 22 column screens. You can checkout a preview video I made using an emulated VIC20. In the near future, when its further along, it will replace the software currently running on Centronian BBS.

https://youtu.be/_MdEHJOSpRM
cobracon
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by cobracon »

Wow, one bbs for the vic 20 and one that supports it. This is total vic 20 pron. :D
trevoz
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by trevoz »

UPDATE ... the end is nigh

Joy of joys, I've found a commented asm listing of my ASCII-PETASCII-ASCII machine code routine at the back of the filing cabinet :-)

Still to do:
- 320 lines of the 3 part online Adventure (Secret of Bastow Manor)
- finish a new message renumber prg - 80% done (the old one could not have worked methinks :roll: )

I also spent too long with the disk rename command which does not work unless true drive emulation is enabled (at least in the current FreeBSD xvic v3.1 version). My copy typing also sucks these days :shock:

[Edit] I'll make it available on my site at https://www.sentry.org when it's finished.
trevoz
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by trevoz »

UPDATE progress slows...

- message renumber prg done
- 300 lines of online adventure to go

Progress has slowed as I'm currently away from home and only have access to a remote X-Window copy of xvic (every second character tends to not appear) and a local Mac Mini macOS copy of xvic with the original VIC-20 keyboard mapping which plays havoc with my copy typing. It doesn't seem possible to change the macOS copy from positional keyboard to a symbolic keyboard and the format of the keyboard mapping file defeats me.
alterus
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Re: BBS program for the VIC?

Post by alterus »

Trevoz,

When you finish with your software, I'll setup a VIC20 BBS for sure. I've got the hardware all ready to go, just need something to run :)
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