Commodore C64 Wi-Fi Modem | Hacker News Reader

Commodore C64 Wi-Fi Modem

jammingsignal.wordpress.com

42 pointsdoener18 comments

The trick, of course, is actually finding places with content the 64 can actually "consume" beyond just the novelty factor.

If, for example, folks started to build BBS-style communities like back in the day where they could communicate and even share files - but now with no long distance charges - that would be really cool.

I've been considering starting a Color 64 BBS on the web, in my copious free time. I ran one when I was a kid, and still have (one of) the floppy disk(s) it ran off of. I doubt it is still readable, and most of the stuff I did with it back then (piracy, phreaking, and PETSCII art) doesn't hold any interest for me now. I did write some games for it that I'd probably be interested to look at again, just for the amusement.

I have a real C64, but I wouldn't want to run it off of that, since I don't have always-on Internet or power (I travel full-time)...I'd go with an emulator running on a server somewhere. I have my doubts it would actually garner a community, however, which is the primary thing preventing me from putting the effort into it. It'd be fun to tinker, regardless, and I believe Greg Pfountz made Color 64 free software a few years back, so I wouldn't even need to pirate it to obtain it (since I don't have a 1541 or 1571 drive to read the disk, even if it is still readable).

Edit: Color 64 info here http://www.zimmers.net/bbs/c6bbs.html Downloads here: http://software.bbsdocumentary.com/COMMODORE/C64/COLOR64/

Well, if you do, let me know. I'd hit it especially if you get a MUD or two up and running, although that might be more than a 64 or 128 could handle. ;) I have a "museum quality" C64 with an Ultimate II cart for storage, but also a 1541, 1571 and 1581 so I can read disks for you if you want to go snail-mail. A lot of disks can be transferred. I also have a "never used, never sold" Amiga 1200 (which I do indeed use) that I've been beefing up, since I can... CF HDD, extra RAM.

I haven't put either online yet even though there are ways out there. But if you got a BBS going, I'd partake in that. There just isn't anything out there. Everyone has moved to forum software these days (and places like HN!).

See my profile here on HN if you ever want to get in touch.

"I'd hit it especially if you get a MUD or two up and running, although that might be more than a 64 or 128 could handle."

I think most MUDs came about on bigger systems (UNIX systems on campuses, predominantly, but they made their way to PCs) but I seem to recall there were a couple for C64, or at least I know I had friends with C64s that logged into systems that offered MUDs. I never caught the MUD bug, though I did play a number of the games offered on various BBSes.

Anyway, with VICE, one can readily emulate a C64 or C128 with tremendous resources (hard disks, huge RAM disks and expansion, etc.), so I'm certain running a MUD would be possible and reasonably usable, if any exist. In my digging, I found there's a more recent fork of Color 64 called Centipede 128, which is a native 128 application, and can make use of a lot of advanced resources, like hard disks and extended RAM.

While we're shooting the shit about this stuff, I wish more of this development was happening for C128 native. The more I tinker with it, the more annoying it is having such a low res display. Having 80 columns makes it entirely comfortable to use for almost anything, even with my modern 1080p+ habit (hell, I even expect my next phone to have 1080p or better). I use my C64 primarily with MSSIAH for music stuff, and the display is awful. They cram so much on the screen that it's hard to read (but, removing stuff from the screen would make it less useful). A C128 80 column mode would be perfect. Finding programming resources for C128 is also much more difficult. Nonetheless, I'm still looking for a reasonable deal on one. I had a C128D, which I loved, and was a real beast for an 8 bit machine.

Back in the day, I wrote a vt100/220 emulator in assembler for the C64. It ran in graphics mode using my own bitmapped font to give an 80 column display. Sadly, I don't think I have the code any more.

Yeah, I had an 80 column terminal for my C64 or dialing into PC BBSes, but it was really difficult to read. It also used a custom font on a bitmap display such to cram 80 characters on the screen. I don't remember what it was called, but probably was downloaded from a random BBS. I pretty much never used it, because of the ugliness of it.

But, the 128 80 column mode was entirely usable (it was at 640x200 or 640x400 interlaced, so it was quite legible, and comparable to PC displays of the time). So, I was able to use PC BBSes comfortably from the 128, but not from the 64. I'd be happier, if more software took advantage of the 128. There aren't even any music trackers for the 128, that I can find.

Do any Usenet newsreader programs currently exist for the C64?

If a telnet or (preferably) ssh client exists, you could use tin on a remote machine.

You could probably use IRC with it, which could be kind of fun.

I imagine it would be relatively easy to hook an ESP8266 board to the '64, and write a control interface for the ESP's AT command language - and those boards cost only a few pounds/dollars each.

Having a Hayes(-like) command set/interface should be the goal of more hardware. Get rid of the in-band command switching (that Hayes has with the +++) by having a separate interface/serial-line for commands. I know some 3G wireless USB controllers do this, show up as multiple serial devices with one designated as a control channel, but it would be great if it was more common and wasn't just for modems.

Yea, I know many 3G modems also uses the Hayes command set.

It is great that they are making Wifi devices for the Commodore 64. It is Hayes command set compatible so it should be able to work with any terminal program.

Now we just need Quantum Link ;)

You're in luck. It is reborn.

http://orrtech.us/qlink/

http://www.lyonlabs.org/commodore/qlink/

I would like to see someone write a web browser for the Commodore 64 using the Wifi modem or something. It would be limited in colors but it would be good to see what some websites look like on the Commodore 64.

The C64 has at least one web browser as part of Contiki OS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contiki#Features

I couldn't find any screenshots of the C64 version of Contiki, but here is the Apple ][ version browsing the web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMzgp7xTp1k

you'd almost literally have to send the C64 an image: it only has only 64k of memory (maybe that was obvious, but just in case)

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