Toni Westbrook dot Com

The Joy of Computer Science and Engineering

Just a heads up, if you’re around the Portland, OR area this weekend (September 18-19), stop by the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Not only does it promise to have TONS of retro games, hardware, and general awesomeness to play and buy, but the Commodore Computer Club and Users Group of Vancouver, WA will be at the Expo demonstrating Shredz64 and the PSX64 in action! They’ll also have lots of other Commodore goodness to check out.

The expo is located at:

Portland Crowne Plaza
1441 NE 2nd Avenue
Portland, OR
503-233-2401

And full details can be obtained on the website. Personally I’m very jealous of everyone who gets to attend, I wish I could be there myself – it looks like its going to be a blast! Check it out if you can!

As some of you might have guessed by now, I’m pretty heavily into retro computers. I love them all in different ways, but the C64 holds a very special place in my heart in particular. It was my very first computer (and my only machine for 8 years) – and it introduced me into a world which I never escaped. I learned how to program on it, played my first computer game on it, and spent a great deal of my childhood on it. So while I might be biased as I write this, I’ll try to be as objective as possible.

1. The Game Library

The C64 has always been known as a gaming machine, and for good reason. While the computer has been used across all areas of computing, from music composition and graphic design to business management and financial accounting, its library of games is MASSIVE. Estimates come in at over 21,000 titles, and new titles are still being developed all the time (Check out the most comprehensive database at GB64). And like any media, from music to movies, just because the title is older doesn’t mean it’s not still enjoyable – there are some simply great games for the C64 that are still lots of fun to play.

2. Quantity Produced

The Commodore 64 is still the best selling computer to this day – and most likely will be forever. Saying it sold well would be a gross understatement – it crushed the home computer market. Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, did a lot of things right in his day, and one was the price point of the machine. While it started at $595, it eventually dropped to $200, and estimates of units sold range from 17 to 30 MILLION. Even with a large portion of owners throwing their machine away over time, 30 million computers simply don’t disappear. It is still extremely easy to pick up a C64 off of eBay, Craigslist, or other online sites.

3. The Community

While this is true of a lot of the classic computers, it is especially true of the Commodore line – there is still a huge following for this machine. It’s likely if you look enough online, you’ll still find a user’s group, yearly convention, or informal get-together that includes, or even focuses on, the C64. I’ve personally attended a couple conferences (TPUG‘s World of Commodore and ECCC), and have been in close contact with other groups (Commodore Computer Club and Users Group in Vancouver, WA) – and they’re all friendly guys and gals who have a common love for all things Commodore (and Amiga, and Apple, and Atari, etc…). They are the true heart that continues to drive the C64 onward!

4. The SID Chip

The MOS 6581/8580 SID is arguably one of the greatest sound chips to ever be produced. During its time, there was no other 8-bit computer that had the sound capabilities of the C64. Even in contemporary times, the unique sound quality of the SID is still a desired effect that modern musicians seek to take advantage of. Newer dedicated hardware, such as the SIDStation, has been used by groups such as Timbaland and Machinae Supremacy to produce the sweet C64-style synth sounds that can’t be gotten anywhere else.

5. Hackability

While computers today can render 3D worlds while playing a 20 part symphony and downloading a set of encyclopedias, this comes at a cost – and that cost is complexity. The beauty of a machine like the C64 is a hardware or software developer’s ability to interact directly with the machine. You can read and write directly from/to memory, tie into the system bus, and do a whole other array of low level things that 62 layers of hardware and operating system don’t allow you to do on a new PC. For those who love to tinker, this is a dream.

6. New Capabilities

Due in large part to #2 and #5, new hardware still being made constantly, which breathes incredible new life into the machine. From SD/CF card readers and Ethernet adapters, to mp3 players and accelerators, the Commodore 64 of today is a different beast than in its 80s heyday. When a machine with a 1 MHz processor and 64K of RAM can surf the web, tweet on Twitter, and can access files on an 160GB IDE hard drive, that’s truly amazing.

7. Strong Emulator Support

Using a Commodore 64 doesn’t necessarily mean you need the hardware anymore. Since the advent of faster machines with emulation capabilities, many developers have been working on virtual versions of the hardware counterpart. Many years have passed, and these are now solid, amazing, and free applications that allow you to use a C64 on a variety of devices, from computers and laptops to PSPs and iPhones. Even if all the hardware one day disappeared, emulators never will. Two of the most popular ones are VICE and CCS64).

8. FPGA Implementations

In the same vein as #7, some hardware wizards have gone the emulation route, but instead of producing a software version, have reimplemented the machine in FPGA hardware. In this manner, the C64 exists as firmware on a programmable chip, which allows for smaller, cheaper, and easily upgradable/hackable versions of the C64. And since the machine exists as firmware, many of these devices have different models of computers on the same device – flip the switch and go from using a C64 to an Amiga 500. Examples include Jeri Ellsworth’s DTV and the MCC (Multiple Classic Computer).

9. The Scene

Since the beginning, due to its powerful sound and graphics capability, the C64 has been used to demonstrate elite programming skills through dazzling shows of animation and music. While it started in large part as intros to software cracks, the demo scene grew into a beast all of itself. Some of the greatest artistic, musical, and programming talent to ever hit a computer has gone into software demos. And to this day, programming gurus continue to show off their talents on the C64 – not only because it’s a great platform to program for, but feats are all the more impressive when accomplished in minimal space/computation. A list of upcoming Demo parties can be found at Demo Party.net

10. The Shameless Plug

And the C64 is the only place to find Shredz64 (Guitar Hero for the C64)! It’s just fun to show your friends that a machine made in 1982 can do the same things that a new PS3 or Wii can do. (Sorry, had to do it)

So if you’ve never tried a C64, or haven’t touched one for a long time – find an emulator, pick one up off eBay, or borrow a friend’s – and find out for yourself why it’s still the most amazing computer ever made!

The idea of computers communicating with each other has fascinated me from the very beginning. When I was little, the world of networking was a “mysterious” one, as I didn’t own a modem until I was 12 and had only experienced the idea of computers talking to each other from TV and movies (read: War Games). When I finally did get my first 2400bps, I got huge into BBSes and ran my own (Pig Pen Forever!), learned everything I could about serial communication and modems. Then when I was older and had access to equipment, I got into Ethernet, TCP/IP, and the wonderful world of modern day networking. But it always goes back to that magic of seeing something pop-up on your screen that didn’t originate from the local machine – it came from somewhere else, either another computer in the room, or half way across the world.

Because of this, a favorite activity of mine is connecting my vintage machines up in one way or another so they can share data and download programs from the rest of my network. These connections range from a sophisticated TCP/IP stack over Ethernet on my Amiga 4000, to a simpler TCP/IP over PPP over serial on my Apple IIGS, to a very simple Kermit over serial on my Osborne-1.

The Problem With This

With the exception of the Amiga which actually makes use of Ethernet, there are a few issues with this setup – all of which originate from these links being RS-232 serial.

1. RS-232 is physically point to point, each end needs a dedicated serial port for that connection.
2. RS-232 is also logically point to point, a device can only directly communicate with the device on the other end of the serial link.
3. Assuming the computers are DTE devices, a crossover adapter (null modem) needs to be used on the serial connection to flip the send/receive pins.
4. Serial cables tend to be bulky and expensive, especially when you add in gender changers and null modems. Add a few of them and you have cables everywhere.

A Neat Solution

While the best way to tackle this situation is obtain a native Ethernet network card/adapter for the machine in question, this can be difficult, expensive, or impossible in many cases since for many of the lesser known vintage machines, network cards were simply never made, and there isn’t enough of a community to build one. Luckily though, most vintage machines tend to have serial port – wouldn’t it be great if we could convert that serial port into an Ethernet port? Or even better, include a range of network oriented services integrated into that network port?

Enter the Digi PortServer

For the record, I’ll say that I have no affiliation with Digi, I just think they have a really cool product and wanted to share it. Digi produces a line of hardware devices known as the “PortServer” which basically converts a serial port into a network port. What’s better, it can combine multiple serial ports onto a single network connection, so 8 machines can be plugged in over a serial link, which connect to the network via the PortServer only using a single network cable. More importantly, the PortServer supports the following to make networking vintage machines a reality:

1. Virtual COM/TTY ports – Digi provides drivers that create a virtual COM port on your Windows box (or TTY on your Linux box) which transparently connects over a network to a PortServer serial port. So you can be two countries away, but as far as Windows, your software, and the software sitting on your vintage machine is concerned, you are connected over a hard serial link. This is great for applications made for serial communication that need a com port.
2. Outgoing TCP connections – The PortServer can be set to automatically connect to an IP and port when serial traffic originates on the vintage computer – e.g. when I open my terminal up on my Apple IIGS, the port server will automatically connect the serial port to a telnet session on my Linux box, or on my favorite BBS.
3. Incoming TCP connections – The PortServer can listen for connections made on a specific port, and then connect that traffic to the vintage computer – e.g. I can telnet to port 2002 on my PortServer from my Linux box, and it will connect me to the serial port of my Osborne 1. Now you can access your vintage machine from at work!
4. Modem Emulation – The Port Server can emulate a Hayes compatible modem, while passing traffic via TCP – which means you can run your favorite old BBS like new over telnet without fear of strange compatibility issues or rewriting any code.
5. PPP – The PortServer supports the PPP protocol, which means if you have a machine capable of speaking PPP (such as an Apple IIGS running Marinetti), your PortServer can take care of handling the PPP traffic. There are configuration options for IP address assignment and negotiation attributes in the PortServer setup.
6. Chat Mode – The PortServer can also combine multiple sessions together at once, so more than one computer can be connected to your vintage machine at the same time. This can be a good way to monitor traffic or create a shared environment for 2+ person communication.
7. Lots more – The PortServer also has options for serial printers, industrial applications, power over serial, remote waking, wireless, users and security – the list goes on and on.

I had known that serial IP extenders existed, but when I finally picked up one of the Digi boxes, I was truly amazed by how many options the firmware provides – it’s really impressive.

A 4 port wireless Digi PortServer

It’s Not All Roses

There are a few issues though:

1. Latency – since the data is being converted from a hardwired RS-232 to packet based back to RS-232, there is definitely an increase in latency, and issues with the network can mean lost or slow data, which isn’t a problem for a direct, hardwired link.
2. RJ-45 Ports – The PortServers don’t have DB-9 ports, rather RJ-45 ports akin to Cisco or other networking equipment console ports. They understandably do this so any range of converter cables can be used with a wide variety of ends, but in most cases you’ll just want a DB-9. I ordered a two port PortServer and it came with a single RJ-45->DB-9 cable, so I’ll need to get/build another if I want to use the other serial port on the box simultaneously.
3. Price – They can get a bit expensive. A two porter can go anywhere from $250-$340 depending on the options it’s equipped with. Also available are 4 port, 8 port, and 16 serial port models, the latter which gets close to $1200. However, depending on how many machines you actively would like “networked”, 2-4 would probably suit most peoples’ needs – I know I’ll be fine with 2.

The Sky’s the Limit

I’ve only had mine hooked up for the last few hours, and already I’m thinking about a dozen uses for this thing. And while it isn’t a miracle product for anything modern that features a network jack – it is an amazing buddy for vintage computers in need of network communication.

Well, I’m off to surf some BBSes on my Osborne-1!

Digi Official Website