DarkForce! BBS Info/News/Prizes

[DarkLord]

Anything for our dedicated fans...

[DarkLord]

I know it's a few days late, but this just came in (rather unexpectedly, I'll admit!) so we're going to run with it.

Alan H., long time active developer for the Atari ST community is donating his most recent innovation, the "ImpoSTer" as a
monthly prize at The DarkForce! BBS, for December 2022.

From the website:

The ImpoSTer adapter is a keyboard/mouse emulator for the Atari ST/STE/MegaST/MegaSTE/TT and Falcon computers. It plugs into the keyboard port of the Atari and has a passthrough port for attaching the original keyboard. The ImpoSTer also features two DB9 joystick ports, with port0 being able to use both joystick and original Atari mice. It also has two USB ports for keyboard/mouse and USB hubs.

viewtopic.php?t=42197&hilit=imposter

http://www.atarikit.co.uk/

So as usual, thanks for calling and good luck to everyone who enters!

PS This is running concurrently with the December 2022 Atari Falcon game prize giveaway.

imposter1.jpg

[DarkLord]

Okay, in an attempt to make things a bit less confusing, there will be 2 separate drawings for the two prizes this month. Using BBS Express! ST's scripting language (because who doesn't like to be up at 3 o'clock in the morning writing code? ) I added the option to pick between prize 1 and 2 (or both, if you're feeling supremely lucky), from the Monthly Prize Giveaway screen. Thanks all.

Here's screenshots, in VT52 and ANSI format to demonstrate:

MonthlyPrize01.JPG

MonthlyPrize02.JPG

MonthlyPrize03.JPG

MonthlyPrize04.JPG

[DarkLord]

Here are the lucky winners for December 2022 at The DarkForce! BBS:

December 2022

1. Bikerbob wins the Atari Falcon game, "L'Abbaye des Morts"!

2. Atari8guy wins the "ImpoSTer" USB keyboard/mouse board!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations to our winners, and thanks to all our callers!



PS Guys, I need both of your actual physical addresses.

[DarkLord]

I will be pulling DarkForce! offline later today for some much needed
file backups/maintenance/upgrades. Hopefully, everything won't
take longer than a day or two...

I'll post as soon as we are back online. Thanks all.

[ragnar76]

[DarkLord]

Okay, we're back up temporarily at least, although I may pull it
down again (off and on) for the next bit.

I was trying to install the RSVE mod (which I did). I was also
hoping to get it to work with my BBS software and the WiModem
232.

While the mod installation seemed go okay, I've been unable to
get the RSVE mod to communicate with the WiModem232 and
my BBS software.

I'll keep working on it. Thank you for being patient...

If you want to follow my bumbling attempts at this you can read
about it here:

https://tinyurl.com/42b4wymk

[DarkLord]

Folks, I'm happy to announce that the RSVE mod is now working!

DarkForce At 38400.JPG

Everyone please check it out and please report any issues. Thanks!

[DarkLord]

Okay, I've pulled DarkForce! offline. I'm attempting to do the upgrade to enable 40 column support. I've worked pretty hard on this for the last month (longer really).

This is very much a layered approach. First, I installed a "test bed" on my Mega STe, identical to the "live" installation on the Mega ST4 that actually runs DarkForce!. I redid a lot of things there in regards to 40 column support and have it working there. Second, I backed everything up on my test bed install to various places (SD card, Win10 box, Kubuntu Linux laptop, 2 TB external drive, SCSI CD-ROM, EZ-135 cart). Then, after pulling DarkForce! offline, I'm currently doing the same thing there.

Hey, I believe in Murphy's Law when it comes to data loss!

After the backup is complete, I'll copy everything over from the test bed install to the Mega ST4 that actually runs the BBS. This is a pretty large undertaking and I know there will be issues. There were close to 200 graphic screens that had to be adapted from 80 columns to 40 columns alone. We're not even talking about all the scripts, .inf and text files, etc, that also had to be adapted, or the games.

Speaking of games, by far and away the majority of online games that run under BBS Express! ST were absolutely designed with 80 columns in mind. I'm working on getting just as many as I can to work under 40 columns. Currently, there are 29 games in our games section. We'll be lucky if I can get 8-10 working in 40 column mode.

Other areas will be affected too. Several components of DarkForce! rely on aftermarket or 3rd party software that is no longer supported. It's also closed source. The Sigatizer software for the file areas for example. There's just no way, without the source code, to make it work at 40 columns. So that had to be changed. Many menu's will now have 2 pages instead of one. Some menus will also have fewer choices.

One of the things I've always liked about BBS Express! ST is the way it "flows". Things are usually pretty snappy, intuitive, and move along briskly. I've tried to keep that in all the changes I've made for the 40 column side of things. In the past, users have complained about 40 column support being "clunky" and hard to use. Well, it was, simply because there wasn't really any 40 column support - or token support at best. I'm trying hard to change all that.

So many unexpected issues came up. The standard command;

VIEW <FILENAME> SHOWALL PAGEBRK

which, works great in 80 columns, showing <page><scroll><quit>, is just awkward and ugly at 40 columns so I had to employ another solution for that.
There are about a dozen files under BBS Express! ST known as .XES files. They are still script files that are then compiled (tokenized, to be more accurate), then renamed from *.COM to *.XES. These sit in the MENUS_80 folder and are executed from there. For whatever reason, the Universe only knows, these files won't run from MENUS_40. Express! ST ignores them and spitefully runs their counterparts from the MENUS_80 folder instead. Ugh. SO I had to insert code in the MENUS_80 .XES files, that if user was logged in in 40 column mode, and these files ran from MENUS_80, to instead redirect to their 40 column counterparts in MENUS_40. Exhausting and ridiculous, but that's just a small portion of the things I've encountered.

If anyone is curious, I used the following code:

DEFINE VW
DEFINE VW_DRIVE = 'C'
DEFINE VW_PATH = 'C:\BBS\LOGS\'

OPEN ('[VW_PATH]VW.DAT,' INPUT)
FINPUT VW
CLOSE
IF VW = '40' THEN
GOTO EOF2
ENDIF

--------------------------------

80 column XES files code here...

--------------------------------

EOF2:
CLOSE
DEFAULT_PATH
EXECUTE ('C:\BBS\MENUS_40\NAME-OF-XES-FILE')
EXIT

Crazy, right?

If everything goes according to plan (which it rarely does!), we should be back online sometime this evening.

Please report any anomalies, crashes, glitches, errors, etc, to me as soon as possible. E-mail, PM, screenshots of what you're seeing posted here would be very helpful.

Thanks everyone, and thanks for supporting us all these years.

[DarkLord]

Okay, we're back online.

Keep in mind, when I say we're in the beta testing stage I really mean we're in the pre-pre-pre alpha testing stage!

Please report anything that seems off, here or vie e-mail or PM.

Thanks everyone.

[DarkLord]

Oh, kinda missed a milestone (for us) this week.

We've now officially topped 50,000 calls. Sure,
there's a lot of repeat callers in that mix but
still... I'm happy with that.

PS Oh, and just for the record, no SysOp calls
are logged and recorded in that number.

[DarkLord]

This month, March 2023, the DarkForce! BBS is giving away a new copy of:

Droids: The Definitive Collection!

Droids: The Definitive Collection contains Droids I + Droids II plus a special STe version. More details here:

https://tinyurl.com/56yy86km

Great Atari game collection. Good luck to all, and thanks for calling!

[DarkLord]

Just wanted to add a picture...

Droid_Box.png

[DarkLord]

Here is the lucky winner for March 2023 at The DarkForce! BBS:

March 2023

1. Bob_C wins Droids: The Definitive Collection!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations to our winner, and thanks to all our callers!



PS Bob_C, I need your actual physical address.

[DarkLord]

I posted this one a bit earlier than usual because last year at this time we suffered through an attack by a hostile, rogue AI that infiltrated The DarkForce! BBS and caused chaos and mayhem.

Rumor has it that this rebellious software AI "wannabee" has been detected in the wild once again...Beware!

[xtenbombx]

Thanks for the update. I will visit again very soon. Hope life is good with you DarkLord.

[DarkLord]

It is, thanks!

[DarkLord]

This month, June 2023, the DarkForce! BBS is giving away:

A WiModem232! "The WiModem232 is an internet modem for any
computer with a RS-232 interface port that emulates a standard
Hayes compatible modem. Just plug the WiModem232 into the
"serial" port and connect to BBS's all over the world or run a BBS
of your own!"

More details here:

https://tinyurl.com/4abxpuva

It's a wonderful device. Good luck to all, and thanks for calling!

[DarkLord]

Just wanted to add that SouthernAmis has graciously offered to 3D print a
case for the WiModem232's winner.

I've got 3 of his cases in use with my WiModem232's and they are great.

[DarkLord]

Here is the lucky winner for June 2023 at The DarkForce! BBS:

June 2023

1. Questor wins a WiModem232!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations to our winner, and thanks to all our callers!



PS Questor, I need your actual physical address.