Multi-Viewterm?

[+slx]

Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

Multi-Viewterm

 

Can't find any references but it's a bit steep.

 

[+MrFish]

Works with the "65XEM". That's positive thinking.

 

[+MrFish]

25 minutes ago, slx said:

Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

https://www.page6.org/archive/issue_23/page_67.htm

 

[bfollowell]

I didn't find a lot, but there's a little info here, along with links to several Page6 issues with articles.

 

https://gury.atari8.info/detail.php?id=7243&src=1

 

And here's a link to the user's guide.

 

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/59704/Multi-viewterm-Plus-Datatari-Serial-Interface-User-Guide/

Edited June 18, 2023 by bfollowell

[cx2k]

28 minutes ago, MrFish said:

Works with the "65XEM". That's positive thinking.

 

And 65XEP!

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, cx2k said:

And 65XEP!

Yeah, they have all the bases covered.

 

[+MrFish]

I guess it's compatible with air too...

 

[+slx]

Apparently terminal software with the extra ability to capture PRESTEL screens of a British equivalent of French Minitel or German Btx.

 

Found this gem about those state-telecom-designed long defunct precursors of the internet. 

[GreyHobbit]

I used to have one of those interfaces back in the 80s.  It was cheaper than an 850 but had to be the last item on the SIO daisychain because it did not have SIO passthrough.

 

Miracle Technologies sold a quite popular modem in the UK called the WS2000.  It could manage 300 baud full duplex and 1200/75 baud split rate (1200 baud download/75 baud upload)  This 1200/75 mode was used in Europe (I don't think it was widely used in the US) for the Prestel/Minitel ViewText systems, but also many BBSes allowed access at 1200/75 for faster download speeds at the expense of a pretty terrible upload rate.

 

Modems capable of 1200 baud full duplex were ridiculously expensive at the time in the UK.

 

It was accepted that the 850 interface and most Atari 8-bit comms software weren't able to use different rates for upload and download, so MultiViewterm and the Datatari interface were developed to fill this gap.  The Datatari interface worked with the R-Verter driver so it could be used with other comms software such as Amodem or Bobterm.

 

It turns out the 850 can do split baud rates, if you set up the connection and then directly store the values into the Pokey registers AUDF1-4.  In Basic, that meant setting up the connection with the XIO 36 & 40 commands and then POKEing the relevant timer values into $D200, $D202, $D204, $D206 *after* concurrent mode is active.

[cx2k]

4 hours ago, MrFish said:

Yeah, they have all the bases covered.

 

Reminds me of when I would see software that listed the 1400XL and 1450XLD as compatible systems. 

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, cx2k said:

Reminds me of when I would see software that listed the 1400XL and 1450XLD as compatible systems. 

Yeah, but at least those two machines actually existed. 

 

[cx2k]

3 hours ago, MrFish said:

Yeah, but at least those two machines actually existed. 

 

65XEP exists. 🙂

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, cx2k said:

65XEP exists. 🙂

Where?

 

From the Atari 8-bit FAQ:

The 65XEP never shipped, and possibly only the single original mockup display prototype unit ever existed.

 

So, I assume these pictures are of that mockup, with no guts (aside from the keyboard and crt screen).

 

 

 

[TGB1718]

10 hours ago, slx said:

Found this gem about those state-telecom-designed long defunct precursors of the internet. 

My Grundig TV had an RS232 port which allowed you to attach a printer and print CEFAX or ORACLE text pages,

don't think I ever saw any other TV that could do it.

[+slx]

58 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

My Grundig TV had an RS232 port which allowed you to attach a printer and print CEFAX or ORACLE text pages,

don't think I ever saw any other TV that could do it.

My father had a dedicated „BTX“ terminal both in his office and at home. Initially the telecoms administration sold them for about the same amount of money as a C64 but in the end they gave them away for the equivalent of what was then less than 5$. They had a proprietary modem that could only do 1200/75 and you could buy an eye-wateringly expensive floppy unit that would transform the terminal into a CP/M machine. 
 

We bought a serial module for our FX-80 to be able to print bank statements obtained via BTX. As you needed to set a dipswitch to change between Centronics and RS-232 I added an external switch. (I still regret giving that FX-80 away.)
 

At about 20 I was our local bank branch‘s only online customer and the head of the branch consulted me about its workings and my experience. 

[TZJB]

16 hours ago, slx said:

Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

Multi-Viewterm

 

Can't find any references but it's a bit steep.

 

 

This is an R-Verter type device which was the first DTE serial cable that I ever actually made myself.

 

From memory, it's a very simple 2 chip design and handles 19200 bps with the right terminal package. It is 5V powered and relies on the modem seeing 5 Volts as a binary 0 and 0 Volts as a binary 1 on the transmit pin 2. Strangely this normally works.

 

As @GreyHobbit mentioned, V.23 standard 1200/75 asymmetrical full duplex asynchronous speech band modems were a very popular option in Europe for services like Prestel and BBS as they were relatively cheap relying on plain Audio Frequency Shift Keying with no fancy phase shifting.

 

I can remember back then that the V.23 standard was also very popular with businesses too as it only needed a 2 wire private circuit to link a terminal or server back to a main frame computer.

 

3 hours ago, TGB1718 said:

My Grundig TV had an RS232 port which allowed you to attach a printer and print CEFAX or ORACLE text pages,

don't think I ever saw any other TV that could do it.

 

I can remember owning a PYE 26" TV with a 3" thermal printer built in next to the front speaker. I could print the Teletext pages out for reference. Teletext from analog TV was a very popular service that was phased out with the introducion of always on Broadband Internet. Then we went to digital TV anyway.

 

[cx2k]

5 hours ago, MrFish said:

Where?

 

From the Atari 8-bit FAQ:

The 65XEP never shipped, and possibly only the single original mockup display prototype unit ever existed.

 

So, I assume these pictures are of that mockup, with no guts (aside from the keyboard and crt screen).

 

 

 

Well, it's a bit of semantics, the 65XEP is a working computer just like there are working 1400/1450XLD. None of them were actually released. To call it a mock up is a little misleading - if you turn it on, it works. Maybe they're calling it a mock-up because it's just a regular 65XE board inside hooked to B&W monitor and keyboard?

 

[+mytek]

2 hours ago, cx2k said:

Well, it's a bit of semantics, the 65XEP is a working computer just like there are working 1400/1450XLD. None of them were actually released. To call it a mock up is a little misleading - if you turn it on, it works. Maybe they're calling it a mock-up because it's just a regular 65XE board inside hooked to B&W monitor and keyboard?

Did you actually see it working? Are there videos of it in action? Just curious

[cx2k]

10 minutes ago, mytek said:

Did you actually see it working? Are there videos of it in action? Just curious

I haven't turned it on in many years and through many moves but last time I did it worked. I would be hesitant to power it on now without opening it up first and making sure everything is seated properly and not loose. Unfortunately, I didn't take video back in the day. I'll have to put it on my list to do.

 

[+MrFish]

2 hours ago, cx2k said:

Well, it's a bit of semantics, the 65XEP is a working computer just like there are working 1400/1450XLD. None of them were actually released. To call it a mock up is a little misleading - if you turn it on, it works. Maybe they're calling it a mock-up because it's just a regular 65XE board inside hooked to B&W monitor and keyboard?

2 minutes ago, cx2k said:

I haven't turned it on in many years and through many moves but last time I did it worked. I would be hesitant to power it on now without opening it up first and making sure everything is seated properly and not loose. Unfortunately, I didn't take video back in the day. I'll have to put it on my list to do.

 

That's the first I've ever heard of it being a running machine of any sort. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd heard before that it wasn't a running machine. But you obviously have something more than that. So, yeah... that's cool if it at least got to point of being wired up with a board and was/is working.

 

So, now it's time to get a copy of this software and fire that thing up!

 

Seriously, though... I'm kinda curious now, how the ports and everything looked.

 

Also, you might want to contact the 8-bit FAQ curator and set him straight on what it actually is that you have.

 

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

15 hours ago, TGB1718 said:

My Grundig TV had an RS232 port which allowed you to attach a printer and print CEFAX or ORACLE text pages,

don't think I ever saw any other TV that could do it.

 

When "teletext" as we call it in the Netherlands was new, Philips had a TV with a built in printer.  I guess about the size of a printer that you'd find in a calculator with a printer.  AFAIK it never was very popular, since that was the only TV I ever saw with a printer built in.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

PS can't remember of it printed in color or just back and white.

 

 

[TZJB]

19 hours ago, Mathy said:

Hello guys

 

 

When "teletext" as we call it in the Netherlands was new, Philips had a TV with a built in printer.  I guess about the size of a printer that you'd find in a calculator with a printer.  AFAIK it never was very popular, since that was the only TV I ever saw with a printer built in.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

PS can't remember of it printed in color or just back and white.

 

 

 

That's the TV I had but branded PYE, a Philips brand. It printed in black and white most assuredly. It was a good TV and had a stereo audio path which was good for SCART stero inputs output to my amplifier. We seldom used the printer though and it never ran out of the supplied paper in it's lifetime. It was unique in having the Teletext printer feature.

[+hunmanik]

On 6/19/2023 at 10:21 AM, MrFish said:

 

Also, you might want to contact the 8-bit FAQ curator and set him straight on what it actually is that you have.

 

 

Indeed I had the impression that what Atari previewed at the January 1985 CES was not a working unit, that's why I called it a mockup.

 

I noticed this morning that available photos show the 65XEP in three different forms. 

1. The modern pictures have three empty holes on the front of the console. 
2. The two pictures from Atari Gaming Headquarters show those holes occupied by switches or buttons of some kind: http://www.atarihq.com/museum/atcomp/index.html  
3. Finally, the only image from the January 1985 CES shows nothing where the switches/buttons/holes are in the other images: https://www.stcarchiv.de/hc1985/04/ces-1985-kampf-der-kolosse 

So if there's really just the single prototype unit, it seems it has seen modifications over time.  Either that or there's more than one unit out there.

[+MrFish]

55 minutes ago, hunmanik said:

I noticed this morning that available photos show the 65XEP in three different forms. 

One of those images seems to have a gaping hole where the disk drive is supposed to be; whereas the others look like there is a drive inside.

 

[cx2k]

2 hours ago, hunmanik said:

 

Indeed I had the impression that what Atari previewed at the January 1985 CES was not a working unit, that's why I called it a mockup.

 

I noticed this morning that available photos show the 65XEP in three different forms. 

1. The modern pictures have three empty holes on the front of the console. 
2. The two pictures from Atari Gaming Headquarters show those holes occupied by switches or buttons of some kind: http://www.atarihq.com/museum/atcomp/index.html  
3. Finally, the only image from the January 1985 CES shows nothing where the switches/buttons/holes are in the other images: https://www.stcarchiv.de/hc1985/04/ces-1985-kampf-der-kolosse 

So if there's really just the single prototype unit, it seems it has seen modifications over time.  Either that or there's more than one unit out there.

What you're seeing is the same machine. Original photo of the unit as shown at CES. After the project was cancelled, Bob Puff from CSS obtained the unit and unfortunately drilled holes to accommodate the hardware upgrades he did to the unit (2nd picture you mentioned). When I bought the unit from Bob, he took the upgrades out and put the unit back to original but then it had the 3 holes he drilled.