[HN Gopher] Ascending Mount FujiNet
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Ascending Mount FujiNet
Author : zdw
Score : 79 points
Date : 2024-12-18 02:27 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.leadedsolder.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.leadedsolder.com)
| emilamlom wrote:
| What a fun project! I think if I ever get around to opening my
| own makerspace/cafe, I'd like to have something like this running
| in the lobby for people to see how early computers looked and
| worked while still being somewhat useful with fujinet.
| xattt wrote:
| I'm still not quite sure what FujiNet is and how it is the last
| peripheral for your vintage devices. Gives me Zombo.com vibes.
|
| (1) https://zombo.com/
| tschak wrote:
| FujiNet is a multi-function network adapter. It was initially
| developed for the Atari 8-bit systems, but we started adapting
| its firmware, and building other hardware versions for other
| platforms.
|
| To date, we have implementations for Atari 8-bit, Coleco Adam,
| Apple // and ///, TRS-80 Color Computer, Atari Lynx, Atari
| 2600, Commodore (64/128/Plus4/VIC20). There are also system
| bring-ups happening for many other computers, such as ZX
| Spectrum, IBM PC (ISA and RS232 versions), RC-2014, BBC Micro,
| and more.
|
| It provides virtual disk, for loading software from the
| Internet, a virtual printer which rasterizes to PDF, a network
| adapter with tons of protocol offloading, and a whole host of
| other subdevices (e.g. CP/M emulation, speech synthesizer, and
| more)
|
| It is a public project, that anyone can jump in and hack on,
| and we want people to come in and help hack on versions for
| their favorite systems.
|
| The site is here: https://fujinet.online/
| mark_round wrote:
| The TNFS protocol used by FujiNet has also been used in other
| network cards for old 8-bit computers. My own ZX Spectrum is
| fitted with a Spectranet card which enables the same kind of
| connectivity and creativity. I wrote about it in my "DevOps For
| The Sinclair Spectrum" article[1] which featured here, and my
| TNFS site is now available through a JS emulator on a web page[2]
| if you want to see the kind of thing you can create. It's sort of
| like an old-school BBS, except the code is downloaded and run
| directly on your computer, which opens up a world of
| possibilities like multi-player games and even bridges to
| protocols like Gopher, Gemini and IRC which make communicating
| with the "modern" Internet possible even on an ancient tape-
| loading 8-bit micro from the 80s. Really fun stuff!
|
| [1]=https://www.markround.com/blog/2021/12/21/devops-for-the-
| sin...
|
| [2]=https://jsspeccy.markround.com
| stevekemp wrote:
| Your writeup was awesome, and couple probably be resubmitted
| since it has been a few years.
|
| I'm surprised to learn there was a Starstrike 2, I just
| remember the original "3D Starstrike", but looking at the
| videos online there's definite family resemblance! My history
| started with the spectrum too, like so many others:
|
| https://blog.steve.fi/how_i_started_programming
| mark_round wrote:
| Thanks! It was a lot of fun to put together, and the site has
| expanded in scope considerably since I wrote those articles.
| Whenever I get a few moments, it's one of my favourite
| projects to work on, there's just something very "zen" about
| going back to Sinclair BASIC and all the limitations which
| enforce some creative hacks. I was particularly pleased with
| the user preferences system[1] and articles code which mimics
| some of the early disk/tape magazines I remember from my
| early teens.
|
| So many of us of a certain age started with those early 8-bit
| computers, I guess "booting" straight into a BASIC prompt
| encouraged that exploration and experimenting which is a
| little harder to get at these days.
|
| I never played the original Starstrike, but Starstrike II is
| still one of my favourites - impressive to see a 3D engine
| running on an 8-bit micro with 48Kb of memory and makes you
| wonder what we're spending all those cycles on now!
|
| [1]=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11
| 776...
| stevekemp wrote:
| I wrote a simple BASIC interpreter based on happy memories
| of the speccy, but to be honest I have more fun these days
| writing toy projects in z80 assembly.
|
| I guess it's all about nostalgia either way though. The
| early experience in hacking games for infinite lives lead
| me to assembly, and z80 became x86. There was a lot in
| common removing anti-copying protection to getting infinite
| lives! Though modern games don't really appeal to me as
| much as Dizzy did, or the old-school fighting games.
|
| https://github.com/skx/gobasic
|
| https://github.com/skx/lighthouse-of-doom/
| Cheer2171 wrote:
| So this FujiNet we are ascending is unrelated to Mount Fuji?
| Wasted a click.
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