Triads Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 There is a generic help file in those folders, but the [H] Help MOD is looking for >HELP>A.HLP thru Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 There is a generic help file in those folders, but the [H] Help MOD is looking for >HELP>A.HLP thru Z That's right, those should be a breakdown of each function... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triads Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 That's right, those should be a breakdown of each function... If it came down to it, and a little bit of time, the HELP.txt can be broken down into single files.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 There is a generic help file in those folders, but the [H] Help MOD is looking for >HELP>A.HLP thru Z I've copied six of the eight partitions, and none of them have a HELP directory. I have to assume it's not something I ever implemented because I didn't care if the help function worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 (edited) Well some good news. On one of the partitions I seem to have made a copy of the Oasis IV master diskettes, so I'll ATR them up and post them in a bit. Edit: Reading some of the download file descriptors, I was rather harsh in some cases: "A poor mans menu program, runs basic programs from a menu. A pathetic effort in this case." hahaha Edit again: OMG, I may have to run the BBS to extract my file area comments, some of them are just golden. Edited March 30, 2018 by Alfred 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triads Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 I've copied six of the eight partitions, and none of them have a HELP directory. I have to assume it's not something I ever implemented because I didn't care if the help function worked. Thats ok, the help system is fixable. Missing 1 MOD so far, SYSMENU.MOD. Which is supposed to be an extension of the SysOp commands. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Thats ok, the help system is fixable. Missing 1 MOD so far, SYSMENU.MOD. Which is supposed to be an extension of the SysOp commands. Thanks Ok, well if there are mods missing and they also aren't in that NEWMODS arc file, then I have to assume they are something Bob neglected to ever send me, because that partition and the arc file are everything I have related to the Puff BBS. Now I suppose there might be something on a diskette somewhere, in the dozen or so plastic holders I have but I doubt it. I only rarely copied stuff to diskette once I had the MIO and a hard disk, either to give somebody a copy or to sneaker net it to one of my non-mux machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Also missing are UPDATE.MOD and NETWORK.MOD... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 Also missing are UPDATE.MOD and NETWORK.MOD... Well NETWORK.MOD will be missing because he never did implement networking. Must have updated it thinking it was coming soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 (edited) Well NETWORK.MOD will be missing because he never did implement networking. Must have updated it thinking it was coming soon. Very possible. It also checks for the "M:" Device in the modules, which must be a Multi-Link... Edited March 31, 2018 by AtariGeezer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 Very possible. It also checks for the "M:" Device in the modules, which must be a Multi-Link... M: will be the multiplexer. He used the mux pipes for inter-bbs chatting, if you ran multiple boards on separate machines. I think I had something crude working where I could chat with people on the BBS from another system with a mux connection. I only ever had maybe three or four slaves because it was a nuisance getting the cards to seat properly in the cartridge connector. The boards tended to lean towards the back of the machine because of the drag of the 40pin cable, and thus didn't always make good connections with the motherboard connector. It's why my main machine I just stacked the chips and the 6522 right inside the case. Bob did my first machine at his place and when that machine died, I carefully dissected what he did and wrote it down, and then replicated it on another machine and it worked great. The multiplexer was really a great tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 (edited) Well some good news. On one of the partitions I seem to have made a copy of the Oasis IV master diskettes, so I'll ATR them up and post them in a bit. This would be cool to play with too Edited March 31, 2018 by AtariGeezer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triads Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 This would be cool to play with too I agree.. These BBS's were feared lost forever.. Thanks Alfred! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndusGT Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 (edited) I agree.. These BBS's were feared lost forever.. Thanks Alfred! Great to bring these back from the brink of cyber oblivion! Edited March 31, 2018 by IndusGT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 Unfortunately these are not sector image copies. I thought the originals were all SS/SD but when I tried to copy the files they didn't fit, so that's why these are goofy XF551 disk images. I'm not sure the disks constitute a runnable system without modification. They should be, but I have some batch files that merge three of the sides together, and I'm not sure if that's just something I did to build me a working system, or if that's what you need to do. Anyway, I think all the docs are there, mostly ARCed and it looks pretty complete to me. I've long since forgotten how 4.7 works, if I ever really did, because Glenda really broke 3.09 (which I did know) when she created version 4. I don't even remember if I ever ran Oasis 4, because after Forem I wrote my own BBS system and ran that for a while until I met Puff, and then I ran his system. Anyway, for you diehards, have at it. OAS47DSKSET.zip 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndusGT Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 Unfortunately these are not sector image copies. I thought the originals were all SS/SD but when I tried to copy the files they didn't fit, so that's why these are goofy XF551 disk images. I'm not sure the disks constitute a runnable system without modification. They should be, but I have some batch files that merge three of the sides together, and I'm not sure if that's just something I did to build me a working system, or if that's what you need to do. Anyway, I think all the docs are there, mostly ARCed and it looks pretty complete to me. I've long since forgotten how 4.7 works, if I ever really did, because Glenda really broke 3.09 (which I did know) when she created version 4. I don't even remember if I ever ran Oasis 4, because after Forem I wrote my own BBS system and ran that for a while until I met Puff, and then I ran his system. Anyway, for you diehards, have at it. thanks for posting this !!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triads Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Unfortunately these are not sector image copies. I thought the originals were all SS/SD but when I tried to copy the files they didn't fit, so that's why these are goofy XF551 disk images. I'm not sure the disks constitute a runnable system without modification. They should be, but I have some batch files that merge three of the sides together, and I'm not sure if that's just something I did to build me a working system, or if that's what you need to do. Anyway, I think all the docs are there, mostly ARCed and it looks pretty complete to me. I've long since forgotten how 4.7 works, if I ever really did, because Glenda really broke 3.09 (which I did know) when she created version 4. I don't even remember if I ever ran Oasis 4, because after Forem I wrote my own BBS system and ran that for a while until I met Puff, and then I ran his system. Anyway, for you diehards, have at it. Got it running.. Have to find some text files and move them around, but working... Thanks Again Alfred! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted April 21, 2018 Share Posted April 21, 2018 (edited) This is a diagram of what the basic wiring is for the Puff BBS Dongle: Edited April 21, 2018 by AtariGeezer 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 What bbs software did you write? Do you have a copy? Unfortunately these are not sector image copies. I thought the originals were all SS/SD but when I tried to copy the files they didn't fit, so that's why these are goofy XF551 disk images. I'm not sure the disks constitute a runnable system without modification. They should be, but I have some batch files that merge three of the sides together, and I'm not sure if that's just something I did to build me a working system, or if that's what you need to do. Anyway, I think all the docs are there, mostly ARCed and it looks pretty complete to me. I've long since forgotten how 4.7 works, if I ever really did, because Glenda really broke 3.09 (which I did know) when she created version 4. I don't even remember if I ever ran Oasis 4, because after Forem I wrote my own BBS system and ran that for a while until I met Puff, and then I ran his system. Anyway, for you diehards, have at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 What bbs software did you write? Do you have a copy? I never distributed the code to anyone. It was all written in assembler, and I called it AIDS (Alfred's Information Distribution System). This was before the MIO came out, it ran with 3 1050 Doublers and a PR:C I think. I very much doubt I have the code, although it's possible there's a diskette here somewhere that has it, but I wouldn't even know what to look for now. Same as I know I have a copy of a Robotron clone that a friend of mine wrote because I bought all his stuff. It's three diskettes somewhere in the stockpile. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 I'd love to see the code, but we might want to do something about the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 I'd love to see the code, but we might want to do something about the name. Yeah, I have a black sense of humour. The name came from the idea that it could spread. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 (edited) Stumbled upon another BBS program while searching the Page6 listing called ECABBS By Matthew Jones http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/mirror/www.page6.org/pd_lib/utilities/pd_ecabbs.htm ecabbs.ATR Edited January 4, 2019 by AtariGeezer 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talanthalus Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 For what it is worth, I'm ever closer to possibly reviving my old BBS, which I will probably put up for fun. I currently have a version running Carina that seems to be complete, but I'm going to have to dig through to figure out how to get it working, so I can actually look around at it again. I cannot recall passwords from last week sometimes much less whatever I had going on back in the mid-80s. I also seem to be having a problem with this particular version running properly. I load it up, get the M.O.E splash screen and a prompt to hit any key to continue, then it continues to load and jumps to a solid yellow screen after appearing to try to initialize something. I still have my old physical modems, so I'll connect one up to see if the board is looking for it specifically, which may be the case. As for more complete versions, I had them all on 8" disks, so I believe my latest boot disk to auto-run everything is on there. I hope I have some luck to be able to boot that up, but I'd long since tossed the four 8" drives and two cabinets when I got tired of moving them everywhere. I was really smart about it and didn't think to go copy data off at the very least. (Honestly, I didn't have the space, time, or patience to try to be interested in it...) I just ordered some 8" drives out of California complete with power supply, so I'm going to hope for the best in regard to their stated condition (ran when parked - Yes, I'm also a car guy.), and see how that goes. Once I have it all sorted, or I've given my best effort, I'll be happy to share what I have. I have many copies of the message boards, etc., it seems, so it should be fun to see what nonsense was being discussed over 30 years ago. I have also come across the originals for ForemXE. I had BBSExpress and NiteLite and possibly a few others handed off to me along the way, but I don't remember where I landed in the end of which ones I ran versions of the BBS on. I was just learning my way around, so there probably isn't anything too exciting, but it is a personal adventure at the moment I may be able to share with this group. --Todd-- 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 To be clear people have a copy of MarshWare now right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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