So, since Brian had mentioned that he hadn't had any traffic to the BBS for a few days, I thought that tonight might be the night to check it out. I'll admit that I was a bit apprehensive about the technicalities of connecting, given previous discussions, but it all worked astonishingly well. That isn't a comment on the way the BBS is provided but the way I was connecting, but more on that shortly.
Upon logging in, I may or may not have provided my full details as guest, mentioned in an earlier post, but pressed Return and seemed to get asked for my last name and a password, followed by some other details. I then got the welcome screen but was a bit baffled about what to do next. I never used Prestel back in the day, and reading up about it more recently is like peering back into another world. Fortunately, pressing Return again brought up the main screen/menu.
I managed to navigate around by pressing the keys indicated next to various topics, then pressing Return to navigate through sequences of screens. I read the history of the endeavour along with some other content, but found myself wanting to go back to the main screen and not knowing how to. The terminal software indicated that *800 followed by Return might work, but it didn't. Either Brian saw me flailing and put up the help screen or the software does that after a while, or if it keeps getting unrecognised page requests. That introduced me to the essential commands *MAIN, *HELP, and *90 or *BYE. I had previously seen *HELP written on the main screen but thought it was just another Acorn reference rather than an actual Prestel command.
I rounded off the visit with a quick chat with Brian and promised to update this thread about my experience. Now for the unusual elements...
First of all, being an Electron devotee, I was using the Jafa Mode 7 Simulator ROM, meaning that my experience was somewhat different to the average Viewdata experience. After enabling the ROM using *MODE7ON, the terminal emulator can be started with *MCOMM. This is a ready-to-go Prestel terminal, apparently, and I can imagine that this would have been invaluable to Electron online service users back in the day.
Although the simulator uses mode 2 and therefore requires the kind of low-resolution 40-column font that is familiar from various games, the text is still readable if somewhat challenging on the eyes for larger volumes. Some characters are difficult to represent, like # losing one of the vertical strokes. Interestingly, the terminal maps Return to # by default, apparently to make the experience more fluid, and maybe that is a common Prestel terminal feature on computers, as opposed to dedicated terminals.
Previous discussions have been had about the readability of the SAA5050's font, seemingly justifying the additional complexity in the Beeb's circuitry, and I can imagine revisiting the BBS with the Pace Commstar software (Electron version, known as Tellstar in publicity), which would provide a monochrome genuine 40-column experience, or with one of the mode 7 adapters for the "true" Viewdata experience. But that leads me to the twist in the tale...
I actually managed to connect to the BBS using Elkulator via a telnet relay, as opposed to any real hardware. So, any mode 7 adapter would be an emulation, which would provide a more Beeb-like experience. However, we've all seen Beeb-style Viewdata many times already, so it is nice to take a look at something different.
The astonishing aspect of all of this is that it relies on the serial cartridge emulation I added to Elkulator just over a year ago. I've given this emulation some exercise and written some software to use it, but I haven't been completely certain that it does the right things. I was actually rather wary of plumbing this up to a telnet connection, and I was also uncertain as to whether telnet was being used here, but the connection was made and all the data went there and back without any obvious difficulties.
Maybe this must be one of the more unusual clients that has visited the BBS, but it suggests that anyone with an Electron, Plus 1, serial cartridge, Mode 7 Simulator ROM, and modem would be quite able to visit, too. Without all of that, I'll add the telnet relay program to the Elkulator repositories so that it can provide something of a substitute.
Thanks to Brian for entertaining my visit!
Upon logging in, I may or may not have provided my full details as guest, mentioned in an earlier post, but pressed Return and seemed to get asked for my last name and a password, followed by some other details. I then got the welcome screen but was a bit baffled about what to do next. I never used Prestel back in the day, and reading up about it more recently is like peering back into another world. Fortunately, pressing Return again brought up the main screen/menu.
I managed to navigate around by pressing the keys indicated next to various topics, then pressing Return to navigate through sequences of screens. I read the history of the endeavour along with some other content, but found myself wanting to go back to the main screen and not knowing how to. The terminal software indicated that *800 followed by Return might work, but it didn't. Either Brian saw me flailing and put up the help screen or the software does that after a while, or if it keeps getting unrecognised page requests. That introduced me to the essential commands *MAIN, *HELP, and *90 or *BYE. I had previously seen *HELP written on the main screen but thought it was just another Acorn reference rather than an actual Prestel command.
I rounded off the visit with a quick chat with Brian and promised to update this thread about my experience. Now for the unusual elements...
I actually managed to connect to the BBS using Elkulator via a telnet relay, as opposed to any real hardware. So, any mode 7 adapter would be an emulation, which would provide a more Beeb-like experience. However, we've all seen Beeb-style Viewdata many times already, so it is nice to take a look at something different.
The astonishing aspect of all of this is that it relies on the serial cartridge emulation I added to Elkulator just over a year ago. I've given this emulation some exercise and written some software to use it, but I haven't been completely certain that it does the right things. I was actually rather wary of plumbing this up to a telnet connection, and I was also uncertain as to whether telnet was being used here, but the connection was made and all the data went there and back without any obvious difficulties.
Maybe this must be one of the more unusual clients that has visited the BBS, but it suggests that anyone with an Electron, Plus 1, serial cartridge, Mode 7 Simulator ROM, and modem would be quite able to visit, too. Without all of that, I'll add the telnet relay program to the Elkulator repositories so that it can provide something of a substitute.
Thanks to Brian for entertaining my visit!
Statistics: Posted by paulb — Thu May 16, 2024 11:52 pm