Is a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal functionally usable?
Greetings! A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS? Thanks! Joe Giliberti
On 2/18/22 11:09, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS?
Wow, that's quite a rare unit. Despite Videotex' great functionality and good market penetration in other countries, it never gained much acceptance in the US. If memory serves, the TRS-80 Videotex terminal speaks the NAPLPS (North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax) protocol, which won't be supported by many (if any) BBSs. It doesn't just move characters back and forth; it's a remote graphics control protocol that has quite advanced functionality, for the time. I fear that it won't be a usable device today, unless someone puts together a NAPLPS implementation. Which, now that this has come up, sounds like a very appealing project. Don't let anything bad happen to that terminal! -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
It looks like you can dial up with straight ASCII communication directly over the serial port (which'll require a DIN to RS232 cable). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_rkEoQ803k There's an online BBS that the folks on /r/retrobattlestations use for testing / dialup access like this, you should be able to connect to it and chat with the world :) https://bbs.fozztexx.com/ Getting 'videotex' working will be challenging, I don't know of an existing provider that will give you that experience. On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:10 AM Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Greetings!
A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS?
Thanks! Joe Giliberti
-- Dave Shevett shevett@pobox.com
Hey there Dave. So it will actually speak plan ASCII without starting up the NAPLPS protocol, to make a (pretty crappy) plain terminal? -Dave On 2/18/22 11:18, Dave Shevett via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
It looks like you can dial up with straight ASCII communication directly over the serial port (which'll require a DIN to RS232 cable).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_rkEoQ803k
There's an online BBS that the folks on /r/retrobattlestations use for testing / dialup access like this, you should be able to connect to it and chat with the world :)
Getting 'videotex' working will be challenging, I don't know of an existing provider that will give you that experience.
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:10 AM Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Greetings!
A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS?
Thanks! Joe Giliberti
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
Yep - check out that video i linked. It's tricky because the text resolution is 32x15. Not exactly a standard. -d On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:20 AM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hey there Dave. So it will actually speak plan ASCII without starting up the NAPLPS protocol, to make a (pretty crappy) plain terminal?
-Dave
On 2/18/22 11:18, Dave Shevett via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
It looks like you can dial up with straight ASCII communication directly over the serial port (which'll require a DIN to RS232 cable).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_rkEoQ803k
There's an online BBS that the folks on /r/retrobattlestations use for testing / dialup access like this, you should be able to connect to it and chat with the world :)
Getting 'videotex' working will be challenging, I don't know of an existing provider that will give you that experience.
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:10 AM Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Greetings!
A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS?
Thanks! Joe Giliberti
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Dave Shevett shevett@pobox.com
Wow, yuck. So really not worth it unless NAPLPS is involved. -Dave On 2/18/22 11:25, Dave Shevett wrote:
Yep - check out that video i linked. It's tricky because the text resolution is 32x15. Not exactly a standard.
-d
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:20 AM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hey there Dave. So it will actually speak plan ASCII without starting up the NAPLPS protocol, to make a (pretty crappy) plain terminal?
-Dave
On 2/18/22 11:18, Dave Shevett via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
It looks like you can dial up with straight ASCII communication directly over the serial port (which'll require a DIN to RS232 cable).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_rkEoQ803k
There's an online BBS that the folks on /r/retrobattlestations use for testing / dialup access like this, you should be able to connect to it and chat with the world :)
Getting 'videotex' working will be challenging, I don't know of an existing provider that will give you that experience.
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:10 AM Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Greetings!
A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS?
Thanks! Joe Giliberti
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
I'm pretty sure the DIN connector you'd have on the back of a CoCo is RS-232. The connector on this comes out of an internal 300 baud modem to connect directly to the PSTN. I'd be curious as to how much of the CoCo is built into the terminal, but is inaccessible because there's no provision for the connector and nothing in ROM to make it work. If On Fri, Feb 18, 2022, 11:25 AM Dave Shevett via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Yep - check out that video i linked. It's tricky because the text resolution is 32x15. Not exactly a standard.
-d
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:20 AM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hey there Dave. So it will actually speak plan ASCII without starting up the NAPLPS protocol, to make a (pretty crappy) plain
terminal?
-Dave
On 2/18/22 11:18, Dave Shevett via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
It looks like you can dial up with straight ASCII communication directly over the serial port (which'll require a DIN to RS232 cable).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_rkEoQ803k
There's an online BBS that the folks on /r/retrobattlestations use for testing / dialup access like this, you should be able to connect to it and chat with the world :)
Getting 'videotex' working will be challenging, I don't know of an existing provider that will give you that experience.
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:10 AM Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Greetings!
A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a
very
limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS?
Thanks! Joe Giliberti
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Dave Shevett shevett@pobox.com
I should work fine (slow, low res) as a text terminal. I used one at 300 baud to connect to compuserve and GENIE in the 80s. ________________________________ From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vcfed.org> on behalf of Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Sent: Friday, February 18, 2022 11:09 AM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Joseph Giliberti <kd2dhp@gmail.com> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Is a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal functionally usable? Greetings! A friend of mine has a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal, which seems to be a very limited CoCo1, intended solely for use with dial-up services which no longer exist. Other than being a display piece, is there any way of actually using it? Could it dial in to a modem BBS? Thanks! Joe Giliberti
participants (4)
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Dave McGuire -
Dave Shevett -
Joseph Giliberti -
Kelly Leavitt