DarkForce! BBS Info/News/Prizes

[+Stephen]

14 hours ago, DarkLord said:

I will be pulling DarkForce! offline later today for some much needed

file backups/maintenance/upgrades. Hopefully, everything won't

take longer than a day or two...

 

I'll post as soon as we are back online. Thanks all.   

 

Re-programming the AI bots to prevent those bastard maple syrup eating Canadians from winning prizes?

[+DarkLord]

LOL

 

Thought had crossed my mind...  

 

[Atari8guy]

10 hours ago, Stephen said:

Re-programming the AI bots to prevent those bastard maple syrup eating Canadians from winning prizes?

When I hacked the prize AI, I through in some extra u's (colour, favourite, neighbour, etc..), converted the math to metric, and forced the football simulator to punt on third down.  Plus if you play the telnet music you now only get God save the King!!

 

Good luck cleaning all that out!

[+DarkLord]

There's this thing called back ups...and revision rollbacks...and it's

a good thing I've got backups since before the Civil War, eh? 

 

God Save The King? Seriously - you couldn't have picked something

with 4 chords, power guitars and rock vocals?   

 

 

God Save The King... interesting section from the Wiki entry:

 

Computer music[edit]

The anthem was the first piece of music played on a computer, and the first computer music to be recorded.

Musical notes were first generated by a computer programmed by Alan Turing at the Computing Machine Laboratory of the University of Manchester in 1948. The first music proper, a performance of the National Anthem was programmed by Christopher Strachey on the Mark II Manchester Electronic Computer at same venue, in 1951. Later that year, short extracts of three pieces, the first being the National Anthem, were recorded there by a BBC outside broadcasting unit: the other pieces being "Ba Ba Black Sheep", and "In the Mood". Researchers at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch restored the acetate master disc in 2016 and the results may be heard on SoundCloud.^[127][128]"

 

 

[Tillek]

I'm just kinda saddened how quickly they all abandoned "God save the Queen" and jumped on this whole "new King" bandwagon.

 

Trust me, he's just a passing fad.  I give it like... 20 years tops.

[Bikerbob]

16 hours ago, Stephen said:

Re-programming the AI bots to prevent those bastard maple syrup eating Canadians from winning prizes?

Im one of the few that does not like Maple flavor, TOO sweet for me.

 

James

[Tillek]

25 minutes ago, Bikerbob said:

Im one of the few that does not like Maple flavor, TOO sweet for me.

 

James

I didn't think any of you liked it or ate it.  I thought it was all part of the Master Canadian Plan (MCP) to get all the Americans hooked on it so that it would be easier to take over the US by controlling the supply.

 

Like how the drug lords never touch the merchandise.

 

 

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, Tillek said:

I thought it was all part of the Master Canadian Plan (MCP) to get all the Americans hooked on it so that it would be easier to take over the US by controlling the supply.

Damn - never thought of that - and I am hooked on it too.

[+DarkLord]

Folks, I'm happy to announce that the RSVE mod is now working!

 

 

Everyone please check it out and please report any issues. Thanks!  

 

[doctorclu]

On 1/8/2023 at 8:15 PM, DarkLord said:

Folks, I'm happy to announce that the RSVE mod is now working!

 

 

Everyone please check it out and please report any issues. Thanks!  

 

Now that looks interesting.   Allows you download files over telnet?

 

 

[Tillek]

56 minutes ago, doctorclu said:

Now that looks interesting.   Allows you download files over telnet?

 

 

That's generally always been a thing*... this just lets him do it faster (> 19.2k)

 

* Some people/devices/networks have more issues with it than others.

[+DarkLord]

2 hours ago, doctorclu said:

Now that looks interesting.   Allows you download files over telnet?

 

 

 

Well, yes. As Tillek mentioned, downloading by telnet from BBS's has always been

available - at least at DarkForce! it has.

 

We had some problems before with the "telnet vs raw" mode issue but DarkForce!, like

almost all BBS's these days, uses raw mode and callers should be using that as well.

 

I am in a little bit of a conundrum at the moment. The 38.4k speed is awesome, especially

for downloading files, but it is *rigid* in that so far, I've not found a way to allow any speed

slower than that to work for downloading.

 

I also lost one game - "Iron Bomber III". It requires being able to recognize the callers speed.

It apparently wasn't coded with higher speeds in mind. It thinks everyone is trying to play it

at 300 baud and won't launch. 

 

Now it's only 1 game, and honestly, I don't think many people were playing it (or hardly any

other games for that matter) but in the words of Queen, "I want it all and I want it now!".

 

 

 

 

 

[doctorclu]

8 hours ago, DarkLord said:

I also lost one game - "Iron Bomber III". It requires being able to recognize the callers speed.

It apparently wasn't coded with higher speeds in mind. It thinks everyone is trying to play it

at 300 baud and won't launch. 

 

Oh that is hilarious.  Why would they do that?  Was it something to do with how the game was drawn or animated?

 

 

[+DarkLord]

6 minutes ago, doctorclu said:

 

Oh that is hilarious.  Why would they do that?  Was it something to do with how the game was drawn or animated?

 

 

 

Well, I think it's because of what it does. It's basically a space invaders game using ASCII.   

 

They probably felt that anything less than 1200 baud was too slow to play...

 

[Tillek]

36 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

 

Well, I think it's because of what it does. It's basically a space invaders game using ASCII.   

 

They probably felt that anything less than 1200 baud was too slow to play...

 

I believe it also does the scoring based on baud too.... (Reaction time becomes a factor at higher speeds).

 

[JamesWD]

Got my WiModem232 today, awesome piece of kit, using a BBS like i used to in the early 90s.

 

Been browsing DarkForce @DarkLord today also, very nice speed with it too, just one question, having problems with file transfers. Tried :

 

xmodem

ymodem

zmodem (external ttp)

 

Which are the only options the BBS gives when downloading. Using uniterm (as i used to) but all protocols have same behaviour errors/checksum/crc

 

I noticed you have said use RAW enabled which i do on the WiModem232 AT*T0

 

I have also enabled hardware flow control RTS/CTS but to no avail, running at 9600 baud and HSMODEM loaded too.

 

Any ideas?

 

thanks

Edited January 20, 2023 by JamesWD

[Tillek]

27 minutes ago, JamesWD said:

Got my WiModem232 today, awesome piece of kit, using a BBS like i used to in the early 90s.

 

Been browsing DarkForce @DarkLord today also, very nice speed with it too, just one question, having problems with file transfers. Tried :

 

xmodem

ymodem

zmodem (external ttp)

 

Which are the only options the BBS gives when downloading. Using uniterm (as i used to) but all protocols have same behaviour errors/checksum/crc

 

I noticed you have said use RAW enabled which i do on the WiModem232 AT*T0

 

I have also enabled hardware flow control RTS/CTS but to no avail, running at 9600 baud and HSMODEM loaded too.

 

Any ideas?

 

thanks

Might want to try the other ST BBSs too and see if you have the same issues there.

 

http://www.sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php

[+DarkLord]

10 hours ago, JamesWD said:

Got my WiModem232 today, awesome piece of kit, using a BBS like i used to in the early 90s.

 

Been browsing DarkForce @DarkLord today also, very nice speed with it too, just one question, having problems with file transfers. Tried :

 

xmodem

ymodem

zmodem (external ttp)

 

Which are the only options the BBS gives when downloading. Using uniterm (as i used to) but all protocols have same behaviour errors/checksum/crc

 

I noticed you have said use RAW enabled which i do on the WiModem232 AT*T0

 

I have also enabled hardware flow control RTS/CTS but to no avail, running at 9600 baud and HSMODEM loaded too.

 

Any ideas?

 

thanks

 

I just recently upgraded the Mega ST4 running DarkForce! with the RSVE mod. It allows the standard ST serial port to support speeds of

38400. However, it seems it "locks" that speed in. Once I put the mod into play, things have changed.

 

If you can logon with anything that does 38400, downloads seem to work fine. I've successfully downloaded with the following:

 

Window 10 - SyncTerm

 

Kubuntu Linux - SyncTerm

 

Atari Mega STe - serial2/LAN port using CoNnect95 and STalker.

 

I'm still experimenting with 19.2k and lower with various combinations to see what works and what doesn't.

 

Whether or not I can get downloads to work again at 19.2k and lower will be part of my decision-making process on whether or not to

resume operations at 19.2k.

 

Sorry you had problems. I am working on it though.

 

[+DarkLord]

Okay, on my Mega STe, but using modem1, 19200, and Flash I was able to successfully download using xmodem-1k.

 

However, trying to download with the above setup but using CoNnect95 or Freeze Dried Terminal, failed...

 

I wish I could figure out what the common denominator is for success/failure?

 

[JamesWD]

Tried again today on a few BBS and again a bit hit and miss with file transfers (text only files seem ok on any protocol just binary the problem), the only way of any reliability is original Xmodem 128 packet size.

 

So i tried DarkForce again @19200, all protocol except Xmodem 128 would fail.

 

Switched off hardware flow control went down to 9600 and same only Xmodem 128 would only work, but work it did so nowt to do with baud and flow control it seems.

 

Strange, will try some more tests when i get time but great fun this WiModem232, proper nostalgia trip for me 

 

[+DarkLord]

What system are you using to call in with?

 

Jim Drew, the WiModem232 guy, advises leaving flow control on all the time.

 

I think the WiModem232 is a wonderful device. I think I just have a crappy WiFi setup at home. 

 

 

[Tillek]

12 hours ago, JamesWD said:

Tried again today on a few BBS and again a bit hit and miss with file transfers (text only files seem ok on any protocol just binary the problem), the only way of any reliability is original Xmodem 128 packet size.

 

So i tried DarkForce again @19200, all protocol except Xmodem 128 would fail.

 

Switched off hardware flow control went down to 9600 and same only Xmodem 128 would only work, but work it did so nowt to do with baud and flow control it seems.

 

Strange, will try some more tests when i get time but great fun this WiModem232, proper nostalgia trip for me 

 

Assuming you're Jwd... Were you able to get a download on SFHQ?  I'm showing there were two yesterday (Wednesday) and that you had called.  I also use a WiModem232

 

[JamesWD]

12 minutes ago, Tillek said:

Assuming you're Jwd... Were you able to get a download on SFHQ?  I'm showing there were two yesterday (Wednesday) and that you had called.  I also use a WiModem232

 

Yes that was me and yes seemed all good for download from SFHQ. 

 

Again will try some more methodical tests when i get time as i was playing with the settings not only on the WiModem232 but my terminal.

 

Currently using a Mega 4 with Uniterm using both internal xfer protocols and external .ttp (hsmodem loaded also). 

 

Will also have to try it on my falcon with Connect95.

 

Thanks for the feedback also. Gives me an excuse to sit at my Atari's more

 

[+DarkLord]

There are several decent term apps out there. Try these:

 

Freeze Dried Terminal

ANSITerm

TAZ

STalker

Flash

 

You really should try them so you can figure out which one(s) suits you best.

 

I've heard of Uniterm but I've never used it. I'll have to take it out for a test

drive sometime. 

 

Here's some pictures of Flash successfully downloading from DarkForce! at 19.2k,

Xmodem (1K), via a WiModem232.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamesWD]

Had some time to do some more tests.

 

WiModem232 settings kept same across all test : 9600 - 8N1 - AT&K1 (hardware flow control enabled, not sure what 2 or 3 do?? ) AT*T0 (translation mode off), using Uniterm on a Mega 4 with HSMODEM loaded.

 

Test was downloading a binary file (zip,lzh etc.) trying xmodem(128), ymodem(1k) and zmodem.

 

Darkforce - xmodem(128) only works

STarfleet - xmodem(128) and Ymodem(1k) both work.

BasementBBS - xmodem(128) and Ymodem(1k) both work.

 

Couldn't get zmodem to work on any, using external xyz by Alan Hamilton 2.01 & 2.02b

 

Tried Connect97 and same results as above except Zmodem did actually work at StarFleet, failed at DarkForce and Basement doesn't have Zmodem.

Note on Connect97 unless you have an original copy if you download a version now most on the internet (English versions) you have to edit connect.num if and hash out the includes (6 i think) at the beginning otherwise will crash on startup. 

 

If anyone wants me to try any other combos?

 

I'm sure whatever terminal you use with WiModem232 it seems the most basic Xmodem will work for file transfer.

 

Will try with my Falcon next week but expect same results as above.

 

Loving this WiModem232.

 

Anyone got it to work with Platoterm?