Subj : MS-DOS BBS Term roundup
To   : All
From : Retroswim
Date : Fri Dec 19 2025 01:36:56

Tonight I ran a series of not-very-scientific tests on 8 different terminals for MS-DOS, using the ao486 core on my MiSTer.

Using Hayes modem emulation:
Telix
QModem
ProComm
Terminate
TeleMate
BananaCom
Kermit

Using PPP:
mTCP Telnet

I'll be editing together a video of it all, but in summary, I found WAY bigger variance than I expected.

ANSI rendering quality: Some terminals had a harder time rendering ANSI screens created in modern tools like IcyDraw, with spurious/missing line breaks, and misinterpreting complex control sequences. The reference rendering
is SyncTerm.

Winner: TeleMate -- Rendered my entire board identically to SyncTerm.

Excellent: QModem, Terminate, BananaCom -- One control sequence incorrectly interpreted as blinking, otherwise looks correct.

Fair: Telix, ProComm, Kermit -- Some screens have incorrect line breaks

Poor: mTCP Telnet -- Many screens have sections with incorrect colouring.

Multi Relay Chat:

Good: ProComm, Terminate, TeleMate, Kermit, mTCP Telnet

Problems: Telix, QModem, BananaCom -- Prints control sequences [1;255;255 everywhere.

Note: In ALL terminals, PageUp/PageDown were either hotkeys to upload/download a file, or use the terminal's built-in scrollback buffer. Can't scroll back through messages.

Kannons and Katapults (ANSI Music):

Good: QModem

Good, but no sounds (even where music support is available): Everything else.

LORD2:

Good: Everything except Kermit and mTCP Telnet.

The latter two terminals do not print the smiley face character and have other issues rendering the play field.

ANSImation (20 for Beers):

"Missed it by that much": mTCP Telnet. Renders all screens correctly, but sometimes fails to send keystrokes, and sometimes stops sending ANSI until a key is pressed. Could be related to PPP on the MiSTer, but I doubt it.

Good: Telix, ProComm, Terminate, TeleMate, BananaCom -- ANSI isn't detected at connection, and the "Press X twice" screen doesn't render properly. No Topaz font support. Otherwise animations play OK. Some terminals can't have the status line disabled, and this has the expected outcome of breaking some screens.

Bad: QModem -- "PRESS ENTER" animation renders each frame beside the last.

Worse: Kermit -- Shows first 24 lines of screens, then screen doesn't scroll, so remaining lines are all shown on screen line 25.

The biggest surprise was TeleMate's handling of control sequences above and beyond what ANSI.SYS supports. For rendering quality, it was the clear winner.

The next biggest surprise was what an obtuse piece of shit Kermit is, and how badly it renders everything. It has a HUGE amount of configurability though, and perhaps if I cared to digest the **350 PAGE MANUAL** that goes with it, then the results could perhaps be improved.

In any case, there you go. If you wanna BBS from DOS with your WiFi232 modem thingie, use TeleMate.

I had originally planned this exercise to be on the Amiga, but being December, I thought it would be a cool #DOSember project!

Cheers,
RetroSwim

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 * Origin: >> Pool's Open - The RetroSwim BBS (21:2/121)

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