JohnPolka Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 (edited) 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. I'm not very familar with Carina, but what operating system are you using? What are you using for a serial interface? Unless you're using an MIO for the serial interface, you may need to load an R: handler first. Also if you're using SpartaDos, try turning off the keyboard buffer (enter "key off" in the SpartaDos prompt). Original 850 BBS Express, for example, will lock up if you try running it with SpartaDos' keyboard buffer on. -JP Edited January 29, 2019 by JohnPolka 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talanthalus Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 I'm not very familar with Carina, but what operating system are you using? What are you using for a serial interface? Unless you're using an MIO for the serial interface, you may need to load an R: handler first. Also if you're using SpartaDos, try turning off the keyboard buffer (enter "key off" in the SpartaDos prompt). Original 850 BBS Express, for example, will lock up if you try running it with the SpartaDos' keyboard buffer on. -JP I'm running on an 800XL with a Newell 256k RAM upgrade only. I believe the key off option in SpartaDOS might be the trick, and I was headed in that direction after some reading today as well. My interface is the ATR-8000, and I'm presently running a Wimodem232, so the AT_RS232 handler is loaded by default on nearly every disk I ever created. However, back in the day, I would have run an Avatex 1200, XM301, and an MPP1000C depending upon the year, so I will have to figure out if I'm loading a handler specific to one of those on this particular version of the board. I simply don't recall from one version to the next. I know my latter creations would have been on the ATR with the Avatex or something faster at least, so I think that version (on 8" disks) will be easier to bring up if the data has survived and the drives are good when they arrive. Another minor challenge is, that I ran multiple drives, and I can see in the code where I'd placed things in specific locations to optimize performance between modules, so I may either have to go through and make adjustments to the code, or I will have to figure out where each piece needs to load from. Good times ahead. (*laugh*) I'll get it all sorted out. I just have to figure out what I left myself back then to figure out now and also remember some of the basics, which I've clearly forgotten along the way as well. --Todd-- 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 SO to sum up on this thread.. is there now a complete ish archive of all this software?? I am playing with BBCSII right now.. and would love to play with others.. BBSing when I was a kid was my favorite thing to do on the computer. More than playing games. We have several people who I know through following threads are also big collectors, but I would like to make sure its available somewhere?? Geezer were you not going to make a WORKING Puff ATR? would be fantastic to have an archive of working BBS softwares. I have played with AMIS, which I seem to get running.. but at the moment I cannot get my UDS100 to respond to its "waiting for a call" It runs.. sees the PR: so assumes there is a Hayes comptible modem there.. but I have not successfully logged in. SO - Nitelite.. anyone played with its hardware requirement level? Geezer your diagram of the dongle.. what does Ring refer to? where is that point going to? James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 On 1/29/2019 at 1:24 PM, doctorclu said: To be clear people have a copy of MarshWare now right? sorry for reviving such an old post - but no, I do not have marshware - and since that is a bbs I ran (blitz bbs/214) I would very much like to have it in my collection.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 9 hours ago, Bikerbob said: Geezer were you not going to make a WORKING Puff ATR? would be fantastic to have an archive of working BBS softwares. Geezer your diagram of the dongle.. what does Ring refer to? where is that point going to? I thought we did... Did you try the last ATR I posted???, Did you make a dongle or plug a joystick into Joy Port 1 and hold down the Trigger button while running to test??? RING comes from a Modem's RS-232 port or a dedicated Ring Detector circuit for Atari Modems... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted September 2, 2019 Share Posted September 2, 2019 On 8/31/2019 at 9:49 PM, AtariGeezer said: I thought we did... Did you try the last ATR I posted???, Did you make a dongle or plug a joystick into Joy Port 1 and hold down the Trigger button while running to test??? RING comes from a Modem's RS-232 port or a dedicated Ring Detector circuit for Atari Modems... Ok so using a UDS-10 I need to pull a single signal physically (bummer) to wire into a little dongle? wonder how the original looked? would not have thought you were cutting open a cable end. james Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 2, 2019 Share Posted September 2, 2019 be easier to fix the code or run a wire from cd to joyport Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (edited) Well Bob Puffs bbs is not basic and is compiled code, so dongle it is. Not hard to make - just debating how to grab the signal from CD. James Edited September 3, 2019 by Bikerbob fix error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfalcon Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 (edited) On 3/4/2018 at 4:33 AM, Farb said: Hi all, I've been trying to scrounge up more information about the various commercial BBS packages that were offered such as version number, release years, etc. Here is what I have so far for the following packages: BBCS: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/88 BBS Express!: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/3263 BBS Express! Pro: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/2808 Carina: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/681 Nite Lite: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/4268 OASIS: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/4269 If anyone can help me fill in some of the blanks, it would be most appreciated. Thanks! So I don't see a few on here... FoReM XL/XE Addressed AMIS and the *many* variants like TODAMIS by Trent Dudley of AMODEM fame. - You should add these to your list as well as BBCS ones. Think of it this way, AMIS was originally published in ANTIC (I believe). Therefore it sold thousands of copies of the issues the source code was featured in. Some took this code and created variants which evolved it and spawned other projects like what happened with Trent Dudley. AMODEM by far he was known for. But he did write both sides of the system so that's kinda cool. OASIS 4 which there were like maybe 3 systems that actually were running as I recall. Then Oasis Jr of course was near easy to setup and get running half way decent from one download but never really got developer support. - Way addressed and bummed. What are the chances of reverse engineering the earlier code? As always I'd love to see source code for any and all programs so that they can be modded and rebuilt for future evolution. Also, has anyone ever tried to see if the message bases between various BBS's could be templated into a common format so that maybe the possibility of QWK and Fido can come to 8bit? Guess it could apply to commodore 8 and 16 bit systems as well. Edited September 21, 2019 by jfalcon because i scan before I read :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oo7 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 On 3/5/2018 at 6:22 PM, Alfred said: There's a chance. Been a while since I spun up that drive, so we'll see. IndusGT, the bbs I ran, with various software was called The Programmer's Aid. It was mostly neglected, and low usage, except after I released AlfCrunch and bought Oasis from Glenda. In the end I ran the Puff BBS and we were talking about adding networking for the message bases to it. I still have the printout of his proposed spec, but then he got busy with the BlackBox and took over CSS and nothing ever came of it. I was a user on that bbs! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 STILL waiting for a copy of Marsh BBS...... please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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