Tillek

https://www.cbmstuff.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=60 It's all about the firmware... Jim Drew is the one who makes them, and the only one who distributes them far as I know (and if someone else did, they'd probably mark it up). His firmware is what makes them special. You can get similar devices, but it's hard to find one that handles the Hayes set so well, and is so responsive to users when things aren't right (ask Mr. Polka and the Dark Lord Ron). Now that said, no reason we can't try with what you have first, to get it working and then you throw down the d'argent for the WiModem232. Though you probably will end up wanting two... One for the BBS and one for the machine you use to call BBS's (I'm up to 5 right now, and probably going to get at least 3 more in the near future... my Lantronix boxes are crying). But just out of curiosity again... what Lantronix box(es) do you have?

In the opinion of some (including me) if the keyboards work, they're the best keyboards on the A8 line. (I'm saying this as a BBS guy who runs and calls BBS's (and ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTES BY TYPING MESSAGES) and that keyboard has some great features.... like a backspace key that is big enough to hit... and a BREAK key that is on the top level of the flat keys like option and select.... so you don't accidentally hit it). Trust me... if the keyboard works, it's a gem for those who actually use it. Also, the case is big enough to handle most upgrades with ease. If you actually care to have them around, don't let them go. It should be easy enough to see if the motherboard revision is easily upgradeable (my 1200xl was a cinch to put a U1MB into, others... not so much).

Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet. But even if they have... can't hurt to say it again. While you're going through all this. Just keep in mind (and be grateful). You're getting your dad's collection under much better circumstances than most of us got our dad's collections. Don't forget to call him and tell him how much fun we're all having helping you sort this out. Because... you actually can.

Running a BBS off a TNFS server is the worst idea ever. If you're going to run it off FujiNet, run it off the SD card at least. If you're going to run it as a "private" TNFS, you may as well be running it off the SD card. If you're running it off a public TNFS server... I don't even have words.

I probably should say, in all fairness... my main reason for going to the WiModem 232 was the fact that it presents a "busy" message when someone is calling. Saved me some grief when people would say "the bbs is down" when actually... "No, you won't believe it, but someone was actually CALLING it!!!!!"

Actually. I don't recommend anyone run a BBS on Fujinet. Despite whatever my issues with "that guy" you may or may not have heard about... I still stand by the recommendation, even if he was my bestest friend in the entire universe. Fujinet is still an SIO device at the end of the day, and such... too slow for the disk access for a serious BBS. The R: device is still a work in progress, and the guy doing the work is.... well... "busting his ass to try to obsolete the R: device" if I recall his quote directly. APE, unfortunately (and anything SIO), while much more "Time Tested" is... still SIO for the disk access. (And as such, the all the SIO solutions on the list). In fact, I tried running TVAG off APE as a last resort after the great Hard Drive Crash of 2020-1.... I couldn't even tolerate it enough to test it when I was running it locally and could hear the SIO sounds to know it was "doing something". The delays were intollerable with Carina. You have an 850, and a P:R:C.... I would recommend a WiModem232 (as I ran two BBS's off Lantronix and switched to WiModem 232's...) but I still like the Lantronix boxes enough to go with that if you prefer and don't want to drop the d'argent. You didn't list the model number, so you might want to do that so we can help with specifics. Your biggest problem is the need for Basic XE. A problem I had with Carina II as I wanted to run Zenobia, and online games which required it and the general speed increase. If your "storage solution" takes up the cartridge port (Side 2 or MyIDE][) you're kinda screwed. You can run a version of the MyIDE][ that has Basic XE as part of it's image. For me, it didn't work because MOE and Carina wouldn't run (memory location conflicts). But I never tried it with Forem XEP. It might work. SIDE2 might also work with Forem XEP. It didn't with Carina, but that might be more MOE than anything, so I'd give it a try. Start with which you prefer and we'll do our best to help with it. So my recommendation (from someone who kinda danced this dance). Start with that MyIDE ][ with the Basic XE (I think it was all OSS carts) and try it with the P:R:C/Lantronix I'm guessing you'll have more "general use" for your SIDE2 that you won't want to dedicate it to the BBS first thing. Whether you use the u1mb 800xl or not depends on your needs for the R:Time8 clock. If you don't need it, and are cool with entering the time/date on each boot... I'd say go with the stock 130xe (this is again, assuming you choose the MyIDE ][ and not SIDE 2). For the record... TVAG is on an IDE2+ for stoage, P:R:Connection with WiModem232 (actually, going to be running with dual WiModem232's, but we'll talk about that some other day) and a stock 130xe since my 800xl didn't play well with the IDE2+ My PBI adapter has 2 cart slots, so one is for the Basic XE and one for the R-Time 8. But that's just for the low shelf, since on an 800xl, I'd just stack them like I did when it was on my Rambo 256k 800xl (from my childhood years) with an MIO and real spinny hard drive and Lantronix UDS-10. And the floppies... yeah, maybe back in the day we could get away with that... but for now... My BBS has one use for floppies. Copying text files and such that I work on using my daily driver to the BBS machine.

Or for that matter... was that strip mall even what was in that location back in the day? All those businesses list that as the address, so I'm wondering if at one point, that wasn't a single building that got knocked down during the "build strip malls" craze. /s

Refresh my memory.... that's not an Atari BBS is it?

Yes.

That's because you took the half-assed route and got a 600xl. If you had gone all the way and got the 1200xl, you wouldn't be having this problem.

Great work... will have to try it out on one of the AtariMax carts.... assuming I can find my programmer.

Yeah, kinda going the same route. Been busy here in the club today.

Starting to wonder if there are any other kind. *Hits reset on the TT* *Black Screen* *Will have to wait 20 minutes*

I've had this on SFHQ since... maybe actually back in the 90's. Never checked to see if it had the same problem with loading the last guy's game... I'll have to check on that. Of course, the way people play games, there will likely only be one guy playing anyway. I did notice it mentioned "Further versions available" but never saw any. We seem to be running the same version according to the loading screen. My files listing also seems to have a "manifest" text file that looks like there was a bigger archive (with source). Wonder if that's out there somewhere.

Well, I certainly can understand. If people don't feel safe, it isn't worth the risk.

Nah, just keep hitting start right away during the Russian winter!

Yeah, but I want to know if Forum ST Elite was a real thing that was released, or was it just a "planned but never saw the light of day". Tired of starting a hunt for things that never existed.

As an old Catholic lady one exclaimed.... "BINGO!"

Uh... were you using a Ouija Board?

Think I might have found the YouTube vid (or one of them)... thanks. This has been a big help.

Well, it can't hurt... Thank you. He also mentioned he ran across it on YouTube... Maybe that can help too if we can find that.

No... but it's interesting... could we get a link to where you found this?

Where did you even come across that screen?

Probably from someone who used up their 999 dl/ul quota. /s

What? It's in code! Just have to decipher it.