Oricutron with serial port emulation

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iss
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Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by iss »

Being provoked by the expensive Atmos-set on eBay which includes Oric modem,
I decide to implement the "poor man's" alternative - to add ACIA support to Oricutron -
just to see how it would be if I owned it... and it worked! 8)

It works perfectly with:
* awesome Vagelis Blathras terminal program (info) and (download).
* Tea For Two from Fabrice Francès.

Unfortunately, I can't find any other communication related programs except these two.
So, is there available any other software to test this new feature before I commit it to svn?
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Xeron
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by Xeron »

Awesome work! Thank you again for your contributions to oricutron :)
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Hialmar
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by Hialmar »

And now I want to make an MMORPG for the Oric :)

Awesome work indeed !
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Symoon
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by Symoon »

Long ago, Fabrice had begun a TCP/IP stack called BIP.
The project was dropped but I remember having PINGed a FTP site with it (using Euphoric as I have no serial interface for real Oric).

Don't know if it's still available somewhere.
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Dbug
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by Dbug »

Yeah, he had a small HTTP server for it. BIP stands for BASIC IP :)
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iss
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by iss »

First, thanks for the nice words!

I found only Atcomms/Oricomms as communication related software for Oric. Unfortunately it's only info from 2003 :( and no actual files for download. Probably this software is lost forever.

Anyway, here is more info about what is done in Oricutron.
From emulated machine's point of view ACIA is emulated at #31C. This is the standard address for Telestrat and can be used for Oric and Atmos too without conflict with Microdisk and Jasmin.

Than ACIA connects to the real word trough (I'll call this....) back-ends.
They are:
* none - Oricutron runs without ACIA
* loopback - every transmitted byte is returned to receive buffer (for testing purposes)
* com - Oricutron uses any real or virtual COM port in the host machine and communicates with the hardware attached to this serial port (like Euphoric).
* modem - unites ACIA with attached modem linked to internet with server and client sockets (like real Oric with real serial card connected to Internet PC with 'gateway' program from Fabrice Francès) :)

Backends can be selected and configured from command line and from 'oricutron.cfg' like this:

Code: Select all

; ACIA emulation back-end name:
;   'none' - no serial present
;   'loopback' - for testing - all TX data is returned to RX
;   'modem[:port]' - emulates com port with attached modem,
;                    only minimat AT command set is supported and
;                    data is redirected to TCP. Default port is 23 (telnet)
;   'com:115200,8,N,1,<device>' - use real or virtual <device> on host as emulated ACIA
;                   baudrate, data bits, parity and stop bits can be set as needed
;     ex.:  Windows: 'com:115200,8,N,1,COM1'
;           Linux:   'com:115200,8,N,1,/dev/ttyUSB0'
serial = 'none'
'com' back-end can be used for experiments with TCP/IP stacks (like BIP or the one from Contiki).

'modem' back-end emulates small subset of AT commands making easy to connect to any host on LAN or Internet!!!
Simply type in the terminal program: atd xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx[:port] and you are 'telneted' to the this IP.
Or: atd telehack:23 and you are connected to the telehack.
You can connect to any public telnet server on Internet. Here you can find many still available BBS's.
The biggest problem is Oric's 40-column mode, but this is the reality...

So, I think this feature of Oricutron will allow development of new software for Oric - everything that requires connectivity - including MMORPG :).
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by Dbug »

iss wrote:The biggest problem is Oric's 40-column mode, but this is the reality...
There was a word processor on the Oric which emulated a 60 column mode using HIRES.
Was a bit slow, but usable :)
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by barnsey123 »

I really like the sound of this. Multiplayer internet gaming? :D
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iss
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by iss »

@Dbug: Actually Vagelis Blathras terminal program support 80-columns but the user must switch between left/right 40-columns with FN+S (which means Atmos should be selected for emulation). Hm, having 60-cols is good idea! :).

@barnsey123: What about 'The Return of Viking Chess (Hnefatafl)' adapted for p2p :). So I'll have chances to win - playing vs computer is to hard for me :).
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by iss »

I committed ACIA support to svn.
You can check Readme.txt, oricutron.cfg and modified source files for more info about the ACIA emulation.
ACIA emulation works for Windows and Linux. I think OSX support can be added easily.
I'm ready to respond to questions, comments and suggestions. Of course critics are welcome too!

Here is quick start guide how to play 'Tea For Two' - left hand vs. right hand :).
First things first: download TAP file (and sources):
tea4two.tap
(24.03 KiB) Downloaded 761 times
tea4two.zip
(7.61 KiB) Downloaded 699 times
Change in 'oricutron.cfg' the line:

Code: Select all

serial = 'modem'
Start first instance of Oricutron - this will be the server (or in answering mode) and load the TAP.
shoot1.png
Select in screens above: 1) #31C, 2) Modem Link, 2) Answer.
Start second instance of Oricutron - this will be the client (or in calling mode) and load the same TAP.
Select in screens above: 1) #31C, 2) Modem Link, 1) Call.
Last edited by iss on Thu Sep 11, 2014 2:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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iss
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by iss »

(continue....)
Now type the 'phone number' i.e the IP of the server - 127.0.0.1 (or type 'localhost')...
shoot4.png
shoot4.png (8.96 KiB) Viewed 23187 times
And start playing:
shoot5.png
The 'caller' has the first turn. Use arrows+ENTER to make selection, than arrows+ENTER on empty field.
You got it... Switch to 'server' and make your move, than back to 'client' ... - fun isn't it? Who will win?

Thanks to:
Xeron for Oricutron.
Dbug for OSDK.
Fabrice Francès for Tea For Two (with sources - now fixed for recent OSDK).
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by ibisum »

Amazing - thanks for this! As someone who yearns to get my real Oric/Atmos/Telestrat collection connected to each other somehow, I'm very keen on this ..
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by barnsey123 »

iss wrote: @barnsey123: What about 'The Return of Viking Chess (Hnefatafl)' adapted for p2p :). So I'll have chances to win - playing vs computer is to hard for me :).
Curse you iss, I have to do it now! :D
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by barnsey123 »

Have compiled latest oricutron ok. I really like the graphical, clickable keyboard option. :D nice feature.

Have started to build an online version of hnefatafl based on Fabrices routines from teaForTwo. There's a few complications but hopefully should have something to show in the next week or two (time allowing).

@iss: thanks for your work on this...got lots of ideas now... :D
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Re: Oricutron with serial port emulation

Post by Hialmar »

It works on Mac OS X as well.

However, could I change your code in order to use getaddrinfo instead of gethostbyname and inet_addr so that it works on IPv6 ?
Yes an IPv6 compatible Oric would be awesome ;)
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