WiFi232 Wireless Modem: BBS Fun on Retro PCs!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2017
- Ever wanted an easy way to get classic computers onto a Telnet BBS using a wi-fi network? This board by Paul Rickards lets you do just that on a wide variety of vintage machines! It's like stepping back in time, man.
● Here's the website for the modem:
biosrhythm.com/?page_id=1453
● Check out the Telnet BBS Guide:
telnetbbsguide.com/
● Consider supporting LGR on Patreon:
/ lazygamereviews
● Social links:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● Music used in order of appearance:
Whiskey On The Rocks 1, Things That Matter 3
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Small technical correction:
I mixed up baud rate and bit rate a time or two. Like when I said I set it up using 1200 baud, I meant 1200 bit/s!
Isn't baud = 1 bit/sec?
Hmm... baud is symbol/sec. And symbol can mean several bits.
Lazy Game Reviews Thanks for stirring up some great memories! From 1988 to 1992, I ran The Eagle's Nest BBS, a board that welcomed anyone, but especially those involved in Scouting. It used Wildcat BBS software, running on an old XT clone with a single 2400 baud modem, later upgraded to a USR 19.2K. We exchanged email nationwide through RelayNet. During our 4 years of operation, we received over 50,000 calls, often with a better than 70% off-hook rate. I got a chuckle seeing the splash screen for Trade Wars. That was the most popular "door" on the board.
Baud is the symbol rate, not the character rate. At the serial port each symbol is a bit, so bit rate and baud are the same thing there. A telephone line in the US actually carries 8,000 symbols per second, 8 bits each symbol (mostly). For various technical reasons you can't actually use the whole 64kb/s, the best you can do is 53.3kb/s. As standards were developing they progressed from V.21 where each symbol was 1 bit (thus 300 baud was 300b/s) to V.22 where each symbol was 2 bits (600 buad for 1200b/s), and upward until V.90.
That's ok, most people make that mixup and even did back in the day when it was relevant.
My video buffered at "This slowness leads to an exciting feeling of anticipation"
Oh the irony
Perfect timing.*
It would be ironic if he said "The speed is amazingly quick!".
More like a coincidence.
It's not more like, its about the same. The irony is there in force given the video, that point of it and Galahad presumably using something more modern, faster...then that happens. They back each other up.
ender_scythe yr mom's ironic
eg who gives a fuck if it's not proper grammar, everyone understood what Galahad was saying
The production quality on LRG's videos are through the roof!
Rounak Dutta Indeed! 😍
LGR'S
That's Lazy Review Gamer.. totally different channel.
***** Some of LGR's videos are in 4K, I remember because I have a 4K display and there are only a number of channels who make 4K content.
BBS - Big Beautiful Systems
shadoom Big Black Systems?
When I was 11 in the eighties I went onto a bbs, mostly to search for solutions to Sierra adventure games or copy protection cracks. You often had to upload stuff to get download rights, but as a kid I obviously had little to offer. So i downloaded my 5 free files and then tried to make a new username to try again. That moment when suddenly the computer was TYPING BACK to me ON ITS OWN! (a sysop that caught me and wanted to have a chat) was both very scary and the most awesome thing I expierienced with computers. I then would went on to go study computer sciences in the nineties, arriving just in time for the first web browsers
I bet you were calling Proton Palace !
What did the sysop say?
@@CaptainX2012 I don't remember but it felt like I was busted by the headmaster . But he was very friendly and explained a bit about bulletin boards. I couldn't visit them often because I could not use the phone line much.
The ESP8266 is probably more powerful than some of the machines you connect this adapter to. lol
Haha, yeah no kidding. Wild times we live in.
It's a 32 Bit 80 MHz RISC! Compared to the Commodore 64s 8 Bit 1 MHz "CISC". So most definitely this chip is more powerful.
160MHz just flipping one bit :) but!
but you can overclock all the way to 378MHz (losing wifi). Check out CNLohr video titled: ESP8266s without the big SDK "nosdk8266"
Using traditional libraries of congress to make this more relatable -
378MHz is almost as fast as first iPhone (412MHz).
ESP8266 is an amazing $2 chip.
No way! You watch CNLohr too? That's a super obscure channel... What are the odds.
not that obscure if you're an EE or hardware hacker ;)
mmmpancakes... 10/10 best password
"it lacks a number"
mmm10pancakes...
mmm10penises
Pen15?
Cornholio
I found LORD at an old office job. Telnet wasn't blocked for some crazy reason. good times.
If i recall correctly, telnet just sends unencrypted plain text. So using it for these purposes is a very bad idea. It's been replaced by ssh, which is, surpirse, encrypted.
MrSuperskyman1234
Yeah, your right, use telnet on my network and your in trouble! :) SSH replaced telnet and is very secure.
BLACK HAT but it can still be handy, if you just want to experiment with your network api, because you can talk to unencrypted network services directly.
Remember the troll lady who wanted to procreate with you??
"for some crazy reason"
Because who'd have thought some guy would use an old protocol to join a bbs just to play an old and now obscure game.
So much nostalgia, how i miss LORD, going into the woods, searching for weird mobs, fighting in text was so exciting, simple times, and part of me wish to go back to ANSI-text online community, i still think there is a place for simple mostly-text online tech, not necessary BBS but modern version of it .... anyway, i could talk forever here, thank you Clint, this video made me go back to 1990s.
Look up Legend of the Green Dragon, it's a browser based variant. I played it all summer a few years ago, had an absolute blast.
Thank you, i played it years ago, but thanks for the reminder, i'm going to do it again :-)
A BBS episode coming up? Aw yes GET HYPE.
All LGR needs is sunglasses and a trench coat to become the greatest 80's computer hacker.
This is my favorite kind of tech: Something new that recommissions something old. Like those adapters that allow you to use original NES controllers on the NES classic.
Man, do I ever miss going on the BBS after school and playing some good 'ol text based games. That is where I first learned about and downloaded "mods" for Doom of Wolf 3D. Good shit.
Oh.. man this device is exactly what I wanted for a long time.
I was even thinking about playing with two old computers connecting each others to simulate some sort of BBS ..
Thank you for the review and I will look forward to see more great reviews!
Coincidentally I've been thinking that it would be cool to have something like this for getting on BBSes using original hardware. I had looked at using a Raspberry Pi with tcpser (also awaiting an actual US Robotics serial dial up modem for those BBSes that are still dialup) but this sounds like a much easier solution!
Thank you for this video! :D
I would but I ordered one a few days ago. I do appreciate the offer though, thank you! :)
I'm not a computer guy, but your descriptions of things are so interesting that despite the fact that I have no idea what much of the stuff you mention is that I'll keep watching, and learning about things!
I had a 300 baud for 2-3 years before upgrading to 1200. Before much longer 2400s were commonly available but it didn't seem worth upgrading for a mere 2x increase in speed. I think my next modem was a 14.4, and I stayed there until the post BBS era when I finally upgraded to a modern 57.6. I've upgraded lots of equipment over the decades but nothing is as satisfying as a multifold jump in bandwidth.
Jumping from 28.8k to cable in early 1998 blew me away... I think it was only 3 Mbps or so, but still, having web pages load instantly was crazy cool. Nowadays I'd be pissed at getting that, but only because I'm paying for 100 Mbps.
Great little piece of tech! I am constantly amazed at the love shown to classic computers. Look just how LONG the disk magazines were published for the C-64. Insane to even think about.
Oh man started on a 300 baud myself. Loved BBS and couldn't wait for internet to drop. Thanks for the nostalgia sir.
Love your videos, and I leave the old ones playing on my TV indefinitely as i go to sleep, and its still playing your videos when i wake up. Its like playing Final Fantasy on PS1, without a memory card!
(I do this every night, and hope others do too, you deserve the hits!)
Thanks for posting this! It really brings back memories!
I used to run a FidoNet BBS system, and also set up a couple of systems for others.
This is, like, the coolest thing ever! I'm blown away that BBSes are still a thing. I really hope more of these modems are made.
or you can just telnet to those addresses what eva computer you on
I absolutely love how EVERY video something pops up that gives me great joy and nostalgia. Today's entry - L.O.R.D. and Trade Wars. I spent HOURS (and making a lot of names/accounts) playing those growing up.
Looking forward to that BBS video! so many good memories!
This video made my week. There's something about the combination of new and old technology that "amuses me to no end", to use a famous quote.
This particular video spurred me onto learning more about electronics and I'm just about finished with my own version of this board.
Appreciate the shout out to The Nexus BBS on the video. Online for 3+ years and loving it.
I'm really glad you enjoy this thing. I was really excited to see if you would get it and how your review would go when i sent the info about it to you on twitter!
Ah, BBSes... Found memories! I met my wife on our college old BBS system!
Keep up the good work!
What a brilliant product. Thanks for showcasing it. Hope he ends up making some more. I guess this'd also be real handy for archiving disk images off of old computers (for future use in an emulator) without having to go the null modem route (and of course most modern computers don't have serial ports).
great video! i miss the old bbs days of the late 70's and early 80's. there was nothing like dialing up a 110 baud bbs on my apple II in the originate mode, waiting for the bbs to 'answer' so i could manually switch to answer mode also.
This brings back the memories! I ran a PCBoard BBS back in the day.
BBSes are a significant memory for me from the 90s. Especially playing LORD. Seth Able was my first developer idol, and his success story always inspired me.
Looking forward to your BBS video! Those were the days!!
Dude... Legend of the Red Dragon. Blast from the past there, I miss BBSes, haven't used one since Win95 was still the thing. Thanks LGR for always bringing the nostalgia, it's why we love you.
Great episode LGR. Thank you!
That is truly a wonderful piece of technology that will let us relive those days. I truly enjoyed this video and by seeing this wifi board, makes me wanna assemble an old pc from scratch and make it work again. Man, I love to see this at home, amaaazzing. Shut up and take my money.
That little device is simply amazing. And kudos to the fellow who came up with it.
Boy, this sure brings back memories! A friend and I ran a small BBS in highschool. Good times!
Thank you for sharing this. DIdn't realise the opportunity to experience this was still available.
What a great video.. So many memories. Well done !
For those that are still looking for one of these, check out the WiModem232. You can even get one with an optional OLED screen, and has files to 3D print a case. Even has hardware flow control.
oh man, listening to you being this excited makes me excited!!!
I think this is really awesome. I am a huge fan of BBSes, and I currently use an old computer running Linux to act as a serial gateway for my vintage systems to connect to telnet BBSes over. This however, looks far more convenient, and it would also be ideal for vintage laptops, since it works over WiFi! Hopefully the guy will have more of these in stock soon.
I can't believe BBS' are still around, I had no idea. I used to love surfing different BBS' back in the day. I'd love to relive some of those nostalgic times, however, it looks too complicated and I can't be bothered to figure it out. But this was a nice treat.
Always nice waking up to some LGR :)
BBS's relevance was a little before my time, but I've been fascinated by it as someone who grew up in the tail end of the DOS era. I didn't even know they were still a thing! Gotta try this out someday.
I never had a PC during the BBS times...so I'm really looking forward to your "BBS Experience" video.
My first online experience was about the same time I was playing Hover in my Windows 95 pc. I feel glad for you!
So much nostalgia in this video. Thanks for making this one!
You bet, I'm glad you enjoyed!
I started The Silicon Sysop on a single line with RBBS on Long Island in 1988. Down the road I had put in DoubleDos, bought PC Board and activated a second line. Eventually I was running 3 lines on a 486. I tried to do it with Windows 386 but there were too many issues. I ended up with Desqview doing the multitasking chores. It's still amazing to me that DV was so fast and stable for the time. A few years in I moved upstate and while I tried to keep the BBS alive, the telephone service upstate was horrendous at that time. Eventually I just shut the whole thing down. :(
your videos always have the best music
I wish a modern bulletin board was a thing, I just want to have proper conversations on sites other than very specialized forums.
This is an awesome idea, I really hope he makes more of those.
Spitfire. ProComm Plus. Offline mail readers. Door games. ASCII/ANSI and/or RIP graphics. FidoNet and InfoNet feeds. The screech and buzz and bongs of modems (and the flickering lights of externals!). Configuring said modems. The excitement of installing a new CD-ROM drive so you can offer mass warez to your users. Building my very first network so I could throw more resources at the BBS.
The SysOp pages at 3am (boo!). The cost of dedicated phone lines for each node (boo!). The constant noise generated by those power-hungry AT type machines.
It wasn't a hobby. It was a freaking OBSESSION.
I ran a Renegade BBS on my IBM PS/2 for years... My love of BBSes is why I still love forums to this day. I spent HOURS on the discussion boards, let alone the door games. Everyone played LORD and BRE, but I preferred Usurper. It was like a more tactical LORD. I really miss those days.
Oh wow telnet. That takes me back to the time of the mid 90s, back when we got our first home computer. I use to play so many MUDs through telnet.
really looking forward to the bbs episode!
Holy cow Clint, that brings back memories, LORD, I used to run a BBS using Spitfire
I used to run a bbs called Beavis and buttheads trailer park bbs. Back in the day if you wanted news, software, or fidonet email a good bbs was the way to go. The bbs's run on Atari computers always had the best games like empire. I used to look very forward to playing my turn for the day and sending messages across the country. Loads of fun. Great video!
My first experience with BBSes was with Digital: A Love Story - which is still a favorite game of mine, even though I don't look favorably nowadays at its' creator, but that aside.
Every now and again, I wished I could go back to '92 or so for a night and chat with people on a BBS, and I even set one up on a LAN once when learning about networking using Mystic and Netrunner.
I have considered, just for the hell of it, buying a USB modem, making a small DOS VM, turn off my other monitors and take a trip back in time, before I was born.
I look forward to your BBS video, Clint - and I wouldn't mind seeing you host a BBS - I'd probably drop in and talk and download games and what not from there :D
More of this please. Way more of this. I love the old BBS content.
My dream is to find someone live streaming BBS text games on twitch.
It's like you turned a game engine into a website. I love it!
I need one of these yesterday. so cool!
You definitely deserve over 1 million subscribers.
This looks amazing!
I am most definitely using one of these with my calculator that supports rs232, this is amazing!
Thank you for the video it really brings back the memories. Calling up BBSs across the world. having to know what 8n1 meant. I might try and get my hands on one of those wifi232s, I hope they come back into stock.
I might try telneting into some tomorrow.
holy crap I've been looking for something like this forever
Far out I did not know BBS still exists and you can connect! Ok that is back on my bucket list.
You really are a masochist. I lived through 150-300-1200-2400, etc baud and don't miss it all all! But the BBS world was exciting at the time...
True story: Yesterday the internet in my doctor's office went down and everyone had to circulate paperwork by Fax. I just smiled and told them that it's good to see that older tech is still useful today.
Great video, brings back a lot of memories. Just realize i can still type in AT commands from memory :)
excellent video, may just have to get one for my Amiga for the old bbs's that are still up.
That's a nifty little device! I ran a BBS back in the day and recently in my spare time, I've been working on getting it back up via Telnet. The problem I have with connecting to BBSes on modern computers is the ANSI emulation is pure crap. The ANSI you're getting is how it should be displayed. Very nice!
I must get this. I REALLY hope he makes more.
Love this retro hardware. The retro computers you mention in your video included a RS-232 serial port or had an proprietary adapter to allow you plug in a serial device. These machines didn't understand the Hayes command set directly, that was built into the modem hardware.
So much nostalgia.... much of my early university years were spent on BBSes and playing MUDs. Lots of good memories on my C64 as well...
BTW, I do have a TCP/IP stack for my Amiga 2000 (purchased from a company in Finland circa 1994) to get native support for protocols like telnet et al. but getting a stack to run on a C64 would be _challenging at best_ so this serial-WiFi adapter method is the only practical way to get on line.
The device looks pretty simple, if the original seller does not make more than likely it will turn up elsewhere... emulating Hayes command set using a CLI is not that hard. The ESP8266 is a cheap way to get the WiFi part up and running and the IC is everywhere these days...
Overall, a good review Clint. Thanks for highlighting this device.
- Eddy
I miss BBS games.
LORD, TLORD, farwest trivia, majormud, swords of chaos, it was all so amazing.
I'm glad somebody else out there loves this esoteric technology. :)
Sindome is an awesome mudm
Oh man, remember when the Sysop would randomly break in and chat with you? That was so awesome. I felt so... important. And connected.
That is an awesome little device. Hope more do get made to keep old PCs running around on BBS sites.
It's funny that I made this post a year ago, because I have a WiFi modem that I bought recently for my C64 and play on bbs sites.
I just ordered one of these for the Mac SE! Stoked!
Nice, enjoy it! I really have to try this on one of my black and white Macs.
Should be interesting. Growing up I was a "PC" kid, but I always (secretly) admired compact Macs. Now that I have one it should be fun to mess with.
Oh the memories =) I used to run a BBS back in the early 90's, it was called Hellfire and ran on my AST Cyrix 586/100 with an 850MB HDD running RA at first, then PCBoard and a 19200 modem =)
I REALLY hope ol' Paul makes more of those WiFi232s. The site says more are on the way so that is great news. For the true dial-up experience, I ended up snagging a Telephone Line Simulator, and used a USB 56k modem on my Win10 PC to transfer files over to my Compaq Deskpro 386. However those simulators can sometimes be costly. Lucky to be friends with an old Verizon technician. Otherwise, this WiFi232 looks amazing and I definitely want one. Anything to make the vintage computering more funner.
I don't know about bulletins, that is before my time, but when I was 7 years old I remember it was all about Mosaic.
Very neat. Something to look into, for sure.
This is pretty impressive. L.O.R.D. was so fun!
I run a Mystic telnet bbs to this day. There's still quite a community today for what's considered to be the "Internet ham radio".
I miss the days of playing around on my dad's co-workers bbs and downloading endless shareware video games.
This device is really cool!
mmmpancakes
I remember accessing our public library's BBS... That was about my limit to my experience with BBS
I did the same a whole lot in the 90s to access their digital catalog service!
not going to lie this video was good, LGR production is on point
Thanks!
I do miss the 1980's PC magic. Cool to see new tech for old computers. I hope more WiFi232 wirelsss modems arrive soon.
5:33 This sentence sums up everything. Now that I'm *cough* 29 years old, theres so much things that are not that great anymore. Its become really rare. But back then, it was exactly how you said it.
man the ESP chips are amazing. Looks like an ESP-01 on the top of that board that enables the wifi/bluetooth connections
Omg amazing. Brings back memories. Only thing I ever hated was a download ratio or “credits”. We all used to do dummy text files remember? :)
oh man, this brings me back...
That soothing unmistakable voice of Clint. Just as I remember from 2010 lol
Loaded the site. "Sold out, but more are on the way". Feels good.
Pretty neat stuff. Playing around with this kind of thing (and maybe an actual game of LORD or somesuch) would be a pretty neat thing to have an LGR Plays type longer video about, if you're ever in the mood for that sort of thing!
Awesome. My grandfather had paper TTY at the first and he connected to his local Unix service from which he connected to the Internet, worked, dialed BBS'es using this service as proxy and sometimes playing games. Then he moved to TV terminal. Computers were way too expensive for him.
I did not know this existed. How cool!