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Author Topic: BBS terminal to Amiga 500  (Read 5878 times)

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Offline Tenacious

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Re: BBS terminal to Amiga 500
« on: February 13, 2015, 10:15:15 PM »
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;783879
Make a separate copy of your Workbench disk, delete any tools and utilities you don't need to free up space, copy NComm on there and the required libraries to make it run, ...

+1.  That really is the way many of us started.  If you are going to be a floppy only operation for a while, you really should make a vastly trimmed down version of the WB disk as a standard you can duplicate as required for all of your favorite apps.

If you add FAST ram (upto 8 Megs. See Kipper2K's offerings), a system like yours really starts to feel more spacious after booting (easily the slowest part of using the system).  With a spacious Ram Disk:, you can de-archive there, execute them there, and only if you like them - commit them to permanent floppy.

A RAD: drive becomes possible and makes the system even more livable (much faster than a HD) after the first boot.  Sadly, I suspect this option gets explored by very few people.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2015, 10:20:43 PM by Tenacious »
 

Offline Tenacious

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Re: BBS terminal to Amiga 500
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2015, 01:06:34 AM »
Quote from: Dr. Chef;783903
...I was able to delete the different applications that came bundled with Workbench that I didn't need, to free up to a little more than 100KB's...

The following are files that can usually be deleted from a copy of Workbench 1.3 to make a customized bootable disk for other applications.  I'm sure no one needs to be reminded to NOT modify the original!

from C:
Avail, Break, Changetaskpri, Diskchange, Diskdoctory, Edit (you might keep Ed), Else, Endif, Endskip, Eval, Failat, Fault, FF, Filenote, Getenv, IconX, If, join, Lab, Lock, Protect, Quit, Relabel, Remrad, Rename, Resident, Search, Setlock, Setdate, setenv, setpatch, skip, sort, stack, status, wait, which, why.  These are mostly used in scripts.

from Devs:  clipboard.devise, narrator.devise,

from Fonts:  Everything. Keep the empty directory for App specific fonts to be added.

from L:
Aux-handler, FastFileSystem, Pipe-handler. Speak-handler

from Libs:  the math libraries if the app doesn't need them, translator.library

from Prefs:   CoipyPrefs, Prefs (with the proviso from Mike, above)

from S:
Dpat, PCD, Spat, Startup-Sequence.HD, StartupII,

from System:
Fastmemfirst, Fixfonts, Initprinter, Mergemem, NoFastMem

from Utilities:  Everything with the possible except of More, in case you want to read the app's documentation.

Some programs like astronomy, rendering, calculators, etc might need the math libraries.  I hope this helps.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2015, 01:22:32 AM by Tenacious »
 

Offline Tenacious

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Re: BBS terminal to Amiga 500
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2015, 01:14:43 AM »
I forgot to mention, many floppy drives can be brought bake to life with a little cleaning (gentle!, use a cleaning disk) and lubrication.
 

Offline Tenacious

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Re: BBS terminal to Amiga 500
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2015, 06:15:12 AM »
Quote from: Dr. Chef;784085
I can ran the software, but when I attempt to connect to a server, I get errors on BoycoT

Code: [Select]
2/14/2015 11:02 AM - Loading Character Code Translations
2/14/2015 11:02 AM - Opening COM5,19200,8,None,1,XOnXOff
2/14/2015 11:04 AM - ModemCommandString = ? ? ??? ????? ATDTBBS.AT2K.ORG
2/14/2015 11:04 AM - Modem Error Code = 4
2/14/2015 11:04 AM - ModemCommandString =  CSDADAXZAZCZXV
2/14/2015 11:04 AM - Modem Error Code = 4

Sometimes I can connect, then I get an error code 1.

Would you confirm your signal path again. Amiga to Null-modem to serial2USB converter to Windows laptop running BoycoT?  Did you construct the Null-modem cable youself?

It's been a very long time since I've used Ncomm or a null-modem cable.  Shooting from the hip, I'm guessing that BoycoT (Terminal program on the other platform?) is expecting a real modem at the end of your USB2serial converter.  Isn't there a Null Modem option in BoycoT when connecting?  It seems that there was one in Ncomm.

Have you successfully used this USB-to-serial converter in the past?
« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 06:27:27 AM by Tenacious »
 

Offline Tenacious

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Re: BBS terminal to Amiga 500
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2015, 02:53:55 PM »
I'm glad you got them talking.  The image, while blurry, was nostalgic for me.  ;)  I first acquired Ncomm from a BBS as a solution to see PC-style ansi graphics for playing Tradewars.  Ncomm required an ANSI font to do that.  Prior to that, I had been running the Amiga terminal program Access!  Just before BBSes went extint, a new graphics protocol came out that was much superior.  IIRC, the Amiga program was called RipTerm.

In my area, there was easily more than a dozen free local BBSes. Most were Dos based, but many had Amiga sections with software.  There were even a few based on Apple products.  It was really cool connecting for the first time and seeing the possibilty to exchange files and info. :)

Have you search the keywords "BBS" and "Terminal" on Aminet?  :)
« Last Edit: February 18, 2015, 03:04:51 PM by Tenacious »