[GreenKeys] Teletype over the Internet

[Bryan Brodie]

Folks,

I was very fortunate to receive an ASR35 from George Hutchinson. I
learned to program computers using BASIC at the tender age of 13 using
an ASR33, and the 'master console' of the Hewlett-Packard 2000
minicomputer was an ASR35 - to me they have always reminded me of the
car in the Stephen King story "Christine" - these beasts do seem to
have a life of their own.

They certainly did when you were playing games on them - I learned to
program by programming games. I wrote a program that played poker, and
had to make it 'cheat' 49% of the time to keep it entertaining.

Now, it just so happens that there is another group on the internet
similar to Greenkeys which is involved in resurrecting legacy
operating systems - HP2000, DG NOVA, DEC PDP & VAX, IBM1403, IBM1620,
etc. There is an emulator that can allow you to run your own version
of a (1970s) million dollar minicomputer on a windows or unix based
system. The software is called 'simh' and there are a fairly large
number of engineers and enthusiasts running these old timey operating
systems - but as for as I know, nobody has done it using a teletype.

'simh' uses TCP ports & telnet sessions to emulate the terminal
sessions of these old systems. There are people hosting these legacy
systems via the internet. I have played blackjack, slots and startrek
exactly like I did as a teenager, but without the smell of oiled paper
tape. It's my dream to be able to set up the ultimate 'retro gaming
system - text-based computer gaming on my teletype terminal. Who needs
a Wii or Xbox, when you have electromechanical technology?

It is interesting to note that in the Unix operating system and
derivatives, there is support for 'tty' devices, but most software
developers today do not have any understanding or appreciation of this
legacy of the Bell System.

I had George's ASR35 delivered to my office and installed in my
cubicle, and the 'youngsters' were absolutely astounded. On of them
said he thought the 35 was a 'George Foreman Grill'... :-)

>From reading some of these posts, it appears that HEAVY METAL may be
the bridge between the minicomputer emulator and simh. At this point I
am able to connect to a PC and type on its keyboard and have this
print on the teletype, but up to now I have been unable to reroute a
simh telnet session to the COM port on the PC using windows.

If anyone on Greenkeys is familiar with simh and using Teletypes I'd
love to know more about how to make it work.

I am in the process of relocating from Richmond Va to Denver Co, but
as soon as I am settled in I am going to make an earnest effort to get
this going.

...and once I do, if any of you would like to be challenged to a game
of blackjack over the internet, we can set something up - for fun, of
course!

Bryan Brodie