bobotech Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I have an old Northstar Horizon from around 77 or so. It was one of the first S100 computers (think Altair) that didn't have the front programming switches. I have never powered it on or used it due to just not knowing much about it. Anyway, I wonder if it would be possible to somehow use the Atari as the keyboard/terminal for the Northstar? Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 It's possible, because that's how I run CP/M on my Indus GT dsk drive (i.e., using the Atari as the dumb terminal). However, it would require custom software to be written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobotech Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Well wouldn't the drive only be used to load the terminal program? I mean my Northstar already has 2 floppy drives in it. I know I will need the CP/M floppies for the Northstar so it can at least boot, but I just don't know if its possible to hook up the serial port on the N* to the serial on say my P:R: Connection device. Are you somehow loading CP/M off of your Indus GT drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 you would just need to use a term program on the atari that does VT52/101 emulation... and hook it up to the Horizon console port... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobotech Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Do any term programs support VT52/101 emulation? I have no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox-1 / mnx Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Bobterm (v1.23) does ATASCII, ASCII, VT520 and VT52E. Don't know the difference between VT52/101 and VT52E but I'm sure you can look that up. http://www.mixinc.net/atari/download_a8/datacom.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Do any term programs support VT52/101 emulation? I have no idea. Ice-T XE does, I believe Flickerterm also does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Well wouldn't the drive only be used to load the terminal program? I mean my Northstar already has 2 floppy drives in it. I know I will need the CP/M floppies for the Northstar so it can at least boot, but I just don't know if its possible to hook up the serial port on the N* to the serial on say my P:R: Connection device. Are you somehow loading CP/M off of your Indus GT drive? The Indus GT runs everything. CP/M is running on the drive's Z80 and internal 64K of RAM (upgraded). The Atari is simply used for its keyboard and video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox-1 / mnx Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Ice-T XE does, I believe Flickerterm also does. Ice-Term (2.71) does ANSI and VT-102. But as above, don't know the difference between VT52/101 and VT-102. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobotech Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 The Indus GT runs everything. CP/M is running on the drive's Z80 and internal 64K of RAM (upgraded). The Atari is simply used for its keyboard and video. Really? Wow! That is quite something. Is that something that has been done before? I have never heard of it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 The Indus GT runs everything. CP/M is running on the drive's Z80 and internal 64K of RAM (upgraded). The Atari is simply used for its keyboard and video. Really? Wow! That is quite something. Is that something that has been done before? I have never heard of it before. See http://trub.atari8.i...ref=cpm_en for more info. It has been available for a very long time, but also extremely rare. I have a small bit of info on my blog here http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/341/entry-8630-indus-gt-cpm-experiments/ with more tutorials to follow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Thanks for the blog entry and videos Stephen - they're absolutely fascinating. Gotta get me one of those drives one day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Thanks for the blog entry and videos Stephen - they're absolutely fascinating. Gotta get me one of those drives one day! No problem - I must say though, that after using Last Word on IDE+2.0, going back to WordStar on slow floppy drive is a big step backwards in speed and usability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobotech Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 If this is doable for the fun of it, I just might hack one of my 4 indus drives to do this with. Neat stuff, now to go study the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobotech Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Stephan, the first link you posted is a corrupt link. It looks like you copied the partial link text from a forum posting and pasted it here rather than copying and pasting the actual link. Do you have the proper link? Thanks.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) It's this: http://trub.atari8.i....php?ref=cpm_en Edited October 19, 2011 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Thanks for posting the proper link - I was posting from a training class, and I was having trouble editing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I use a terminal cart, Best had it for $10 plus a couple of bucks shipping, use it with my Altos machine, not sure if it would work with your Northstar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Northstar eh? My dad had that operating system on his Sol Terminal 20. Remember the "North Star DOS" on the load up. Freaking awesome. You have Trek 80 on your Northstar based computer? Anyway, as a terminal, have both running term programs, a serial cable with a null modem adaptor, should be no problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Here's my latest blog post, showing two CP/M word processors running on the Indus GT. Sorry for the terrible cell-phone shaky cam, I'll soon be taking & posting much cleaner videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobotech Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Northstar eh? My dad had that operating system on his Sol Terminal 20. Remember the "North Star DOS" on the load up. Freaking awesome. You have Trek 80 on your Northstar based computer? Anyway, as a terminal, have both running term programs, a serial cable with a null modem adaptor, should be no problem. I have never fired it up. Actually that will be my first probglem. How to get bootable floppies for the machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I just remembered I have a kit that let you take an S-100 card and implant it into a keyboard and it is a total terminal. Could you use this? I'll get specs for you with part numbers and everything in a bit, have to dig it up. Not sure where to get floppies, might want to ask over at vintage-computer forums, see if anyone can burn you off a few. Great bunch of guys over there. Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Here's my latest blog post, showing two CP/M word processors running on the Indus GT. Sorry for the terrible cell-phone shaky cam, I'll soon be taking & posting much cleaner videos. That's great Stephen. That 80 column handler could probably be speeded up greatly by using the display list to scroll sections of the screen. What's editing feel like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potatohead Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 CP/M really was portable. That's cool, running it on the disk drive. Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.