by Flack » Mon Apr 26, 2021 6:16 am
Last night I felt like a kid again for the first time in a long time.
On of my podcast's sponsors (Retro Rewind) recently mailed me a "goodie package" that contained several items they sell, one of which was a wireless modem for the Commodore 64. Last night I got an opportunity to dig it out and play with it.
The Commodore 64 BBS scene is thriving. There are dozens (hundreds?) of Commodore-centric BBSes online today, connected to the internet. Like any telnet BBS you can connect to them using the most basic of applications (Putty), but to experience the Commodore's colorful PETSCII graphics, you'll need a terminal program written with the Commodore in mind. You can do this on your PC, but something about the experience seems... unauthentic.
Some C64 emulators support TCP/IP, and the C64 Ultimate comes with an ethernet port build-in, but getting a vintage C64 connected to the internet is a bit trickier, and most of the solutions available are expensive and wired. Desk real estate is at a premium these days, so my C64 has been relegated to the other side of the room, which doesn't make running a network cable to it particularly convenient.
The C64 WiFi modem is kind of an all in one solution. The modem plugs in to an original Commodore computer, and... that's it. From there, you'll need a terminal program that's been modified to connect to IP addresses rather than phone numbers, but there are several free ones to choose from. While in the terminal I had to enter a few new Hayes-esque commands to configure my modem to connect to my wireless router, set a new default baud rate, and save the configuration. There's something oddly exciting about getting an IP address from DHCP on your computer from 1983.
A few minutes after that I was connected to one of my favorite BBSes in Canada (no long distance charges these days!), downloading a couple of games. The 1541 Ultimate allows me to save games to a USB stick so that I can move them to my PC, or I could just as easily save them to a floppy disk. I don't know how practical all of this is in 2021 (actually I do), but it sure is fun. I spent a lot of the 80s and 90s hanging out on BBSes, and doing so again from a real C64 provided a rush of nostalgia and excitement.
(I won't post the link because it feels spammy, but if anyone has an interest in picking one of these modems up, I have a 10% off code.)
Last night I felt like a kid again for the first time in a long time.
On of my podcast's sponsors (Retro Rewind) recently mailed me a "goodie package" that contained several items they sell, one of which was a wireless modem for the Commodore 64. Last night I got an opportunity to dig it out and play with it.
The Commodore 64 BBS scene is thriving. There are dozens (hundreds?) of Commodore-centric BBSes online today, connected to the internet. Like any telnet BBS you can connect to them using the most basic of applications (Putty), but to experience the Commodore's colorful PETSCII graphics, you'll need a terminal program written with the Commodore in mind. You can do this on your PC, but something about the experience seems... unauthentic.
Some C64 emulators support TCP/IP, and the C64 Ultimate comes with an ethernet port build-in, but getting a vintage C64 connected to the internet is a bit trickier, and most of the solutions available are expensive and wired. Desk real estate is at a premium these days, so my C64 has been relegated to the other side of the room, which doesn't make running a network cable to it particularly convenient.
The C64 WiFi modem is kind of an all in one solution. The modem plugs in to an original Commodore computer, and... that's it. From there, you'll need a terminal program that's been modified to connect to IP addresses rather than phone numbers, but there are several free ones to choose from. While in the terminal I had to enter a few new Hayes-esque commands to configure my modem to connect to my wireless router, set a new default baud rate, and save the configuration. There's something oddly exciting about getting an IP address from DHCP on your computer from 1983.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ixbnM3j.jpg[/img]
A few minutes after that I was connected to one of my favorite BBSes in Canada (no long distance charges these days!), downloading a couple of games. The 1541 Ultimate allows me to save games to a USB stick so that I can move them to my PC, or I could just as easily save them to a floppy disk. I don't know how practical all of this is in 2021 (actually I do), but it sure is fun. I spent a lot of the 80s and 90s hanging out on BBSes, and doing so again from a real C64 provided a rush of nostalgia and excitement.
(I won't post the link because it feels spammy, but if anyone has an interest in picking one of these modems up, I have a 10% off code.)