Last year I created an account on Twitter to create a targeted feed for my hobby content and tweets for like-minded retro-gaming folk, separate from my personal account. On this hobby account I mainly follow retro-gaming and Commodore fans. When you use Twitter in a very targeted way like this, it actually can be extremely useful and enjoyable. In any event, during this time I began to see a healthy amount of discussion around BBS’es (Bulletin Board Systems) becoming “a thing” again for retro-computing nerds. And, amazingly, a few popular BBSes were being served off of 8-bit machines.
“8-Bitters” were connecting to them, having virtually “off the grid” discussions and playing games outside the watchful eye of Google and the rest of the internet. I wanted to connect to them, too.
The only think I may had done is put a Red Filter over that display on the WiFi Modem just because Blue LED were not around then.
That’s a screenshot of a Synchronet instance, which is an 80-column PC BBS system using cp437 and the old IBM VGA font. You’re not going to get that on a C64.
In-fact I use a C64 terminal program that used graphics (programmed characters) to display 64 columns and 80 columns on the C64.
Note: it used only 2/3 of the screen. The bottom third had standard size characters to display status info.
See for example: mikenaberezny.com/hardware/projects/c64-soft80/
Edited 2016-12-10 05:38 UTC
Hi – author here.
The photos (not screenshots) were all taken of my actual C= monitor using the setup described in the article. The Particles BBS is run off a Commodore 128D – and C64s absolutely can connect to it. You can pick 40 col or 80 col when you connect.
There is one screenshot of a BBS – if you’re referring to the one of Alterus discussing the modem. And that shot is indeed from the Particles BBS. It’s a bit ironic because Alterus is the sysop of the Centronian BBS. He just happens to be very active on Particles, too.
The Centronian BBS is an Ivorymod BBS. It only is in 40 col mode as it runs off a C64.
The only board I linked to (no screenshots) that is not on native Commodore hardware is Level 29. Neither Centronian nor Particles run off Synchronet.
Edited 2016-12-10 16:14 UTC
intric8,
Just for kicks, I connected to it with putty and it did ansi fine too. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever logged into a C64 BBS.
There was a local BBS service in our area that did newsgroups and email, and supported graphics via ripterm. Shareware was hugely popular and it look hours to transfer, haha. It doesn’t serve much purpose today but it brings back many fond memories
Edited 2016-12-10 19:18 UTC
I have a Tandy 200 Laptop. I’d like to get some kind of adapter that would appear to be a modem to the Model 200, but has Wifi, so I can dial a BBS via my LAN from the Model 200. Why? Because.