Upgrading old Renegade BBS reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stettin · 2019-07-21 19:09 Several years ago I was able to load up my old Renegade BBS message boards onto a DOS/Win32 updated version found on [http://renegadebbs.info/](http://renegadebbs.info/). Somewhere along they way through a few upgrades to eventually Windows 7 64 bit and finally Windows 10 64bit, that upgrade no longer works. Just a few days ago I tracked down the original backup of my BBS that I pulled from floppy before I got rid of them all. Unfortunately I only thought to save the Main (C:\\RG), DATA, MENU, MISC, and most importantly MSGS folders. I believe the last version I had installed was 10-05-94. I managed to get 10-05-94 upgraded to v5-19.4, but I'm stuck there. I have installed RENEGADE v1.10/DOS full but only message boards work. It is fully accessible with a telnet server and Dosbox on my Raspberry Pi. For some reason I'm not satisfied. I'd like to preserve the user list, voting, and a few other features that seem to work on v5-19.4. Does anyone know the next version that I can upgrade to? Or possibly, get that version working with Telnet? The later command line options to set up for a Fossil driver don't seem to work right. It still tries to initialize a non-existent modem. I'd eventually want to get it to a point I can run a fossil driver and connect via telnet. I've gone through just about all the files on [http://renegadebbs.info/](http://renegadebbs.info/) but the version names are really obscure and there's no coherent changelog of all previous versions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ​ BTW the BBS I am trying to resurrect is "The Black Lodge" from Phoenix (Peoria), AZ - Phone # was 623-###-1187, was active from January to October 1995. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Galileo228 · 2019-07-21 23:50 Wish I could help but please let me know when you're up and running! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- orexclusivo · 2019-07-22 18:12 Back in the day, I was attempting to write my own call back verification program for renegade, I had to read/modify the data structures directly. What I don't remember was if I had found them documented somewhere or if I figured out what I needed using a hex editor. Are you a programmer at all? If so it might be worth it trying to find documentation of the data structures. I tried a quick google but didn't find anything off the bat, but I didn't try too hard. Failing that, it shouldn't be too hard to use a hex editor to reverse engineer it. ​ If that sounds intimidating, maybe another approach could be installing one of the old offline mail reader doors like Blue Wave, try to export from your old version of renegade, and then see if it's possible to import them into a new install. It's a long shot, but those are two things I would try. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stettin · 2019-07-23 21:27 I have done programming, but that was a long time ago (PHP, Perl, JavaScript) I don't think web languages would help at all with my issue though. I chatted with a Renegade sysop last night that has had a board running since 1994, the longest around right now. I was advised to try to update from 10-05 to 5-9(???), then to 98-10d, them to y2k and I should be set. I cannot find any version close to the 5-9 other than the v5-19.4 that I was able to successfully update to. Based on that doc, it can upgrade from the y2k version, in addition to from a version as old as my 10-05, so I think the v5-19.4 is from 2004, just a few versions before 1.00. I am able to log on locally with v5-19.4 but it hangs on modem initialization. I will try an alternative fossil driver next. If that fails, I think I need to try an actual DOS installation on some older hardware. I was able to do some fiddling in Virtual Box VM and DOS 6.22 but I am getting EMS XMS errors on some of the later versions. Some upgrades fail with some odd errors I'll post as a reply here once I get home. Maybe it isn't clear but the most important thing is the message bases, and they seem to work fine with just overwriting folders of a fresh 1.10 installation. It seems kind of silly to obsess over getting the board cleanly upgraded with the users, voting, and bulletins intact, but that's what I'm trying to do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stettin · 2019-07-26 01:34 After probably 30 hours of fiddling, I finally have a working upgrade of my original board. I ended up using this fossil driver: [ftp://archives.thebbs.org/fossil \_drivers/x00153a.zip](ftp://archives.thebbs.org/fossil_drivers/x00153 a.zip) I renamed X00.SYS to X00.EXE per the documentation and ran it through as a batch file "X00 E 2" (Fossil Driver loading with copyright screen disabled, 2 COM ports) I upgraded my 10-05-94 to v5-19.4 from the file here: [http://renegadebbs.info/rgdl.html](http://renegadebbs.info/rgdl.html) (bottom file - [RGUPG519.ZIP](https://RGUPG519.ZIP)) The root of my connectivity issue was that somehow during the upgrade the IRQ and Address fields for the modem settings got flipped. It was set to listen on IRQ 3F8, Address 4. It should have been IRQ 4, Address 3F8. Full settings 1. Maximum Baud:57600 2. Port number: 1 3. Modem init: ATZ| <-- that's a pipe 4. Modem answer: ATA| 5. Modem Hangup: ATH0| <--zero pipe 6. Modem offhook: ATH1| 7. Com Port Locking: On 8. \-------------: (blank) a. XON/OFF flow: Off b. CTS/RTS flow: On c. ACS for this node: (blank) ... default settings d-g h. IRQ string: 4 i. Address string: 3F8 If hosting on linux, use this package to launch dosbox. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141019145914/http://demandred.dyndns.o rg/bbs/telnetbbs- 0.5.tar.gz](https://web.archive.org/web/20141019145914/http://demandre d.dyndns.org/bbs/telnetbbs-0.5.tar.gz) The documentation is pretty good, just put your X00.EXE in c:\\ and change the dosbox.conf.template to run "X00.EXE E 2" before launching the board. The sample template file refers to another Fossil driver that may or may not work. For now I'm reaching out to some old users that I've kept in touch with and I haven't decided if I'll open the board up to the public. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2019-07-28 05:24 for a lot of the files on renegadebbs.info i prefixed it with the date it was released. the rest of them are version numbers. you should keep your bbs as it was and run it instead of upgrading to the latest. there's not much benefit to upgrade. there's a lot of data files that changed and a few things that dont really work that great. furthermore, just wanted to say that renegadebbs.info is just a site we put up to keep the files easily accessible and renegade is no longer being developed. you can find a few renegade forks on github, though. again, steer away from the latest. it went in a bad direction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2019-07-28 05:31 nick's telnet script is in the renegade file listing. you are pretty good at finding old websites (or google is). i removed that rgdl.html one. it wasnt supposed to be there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UnaClocker · 2019-08-02 22:44 Did the source for Renegade ever make it's way to the public? It was one of many boards based off the old Telegard source code that came out. I know the newer Telegard, Renegard, and Iniquity were all based on that source, and I think there was one other but the name eludes me right now. Congratulations on getting your archived board back. I wish I had saved my backups. I had a board from Oct 1990 through probably 1994 or 1995 even. I ran a dozen different softwares, Renegade being one of my fondest memories. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2019-08-05 20:55 one version is on github. i prefer the cott lang versions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stettin · 2019-08-22 04:22 What was the problem with the rgdl link? It was actually helpful to me in finding the right upgrade path. The file names sorted alphabetically was tripping me up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2019-08-22 05:22 it was junk left over from the old rg site and not accurate in regards to having all the versions. please get renegade from github. you dont want to update from old versions to new (or use the version you are using now). it's a slippery slope ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stettin · 2019-08-23 16:03 I understand that the newest version has the best support and security, however I have zero desire to start from scratch. I really only resurrected my original installation to see if I could, and to offer connecting to old users. If I decided to do a new board from scratch, I'd likely do a Synchronet build from source on my Raspberry Pi. If you could point out the next upgrade after v5-19.4, i'm willing to try it, but I think I've gone through them all without any success. I'm thinking it is RG0630UP, then RG0930UP, then RGV100U, RGV110U, RGV118A, RGV119A, and finally RGV120UP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2019-08-23 23:08 the newest version has no support and a lot of the good things dont work with it anymore due to lee palmer changing data files. if i were you, i'd upgrade to rg511 i believe you can update correctly by the files i have prefixed with dates. you have to really know your shit, read the whatsnew/readme files and know what to update and what is defunct. you will end up with a big mess in your directories. this is a good example of bad development and programming.