DarkForce! BBS Info/News/Prizes

[Darklord]

Okay, I've pulled DarkForce! offline. I'm attempting to do the upgrade to enable 40 column support. I've worked pretty hard on this for the last month (longer really).

This is very much a layered approach. First, I installed a "test bed" on my Mega STe, identical to the "live" installation on the Mega ST4 that actually runs DarkForce!. I redid a lot of things there in regards to 40 column support and have it working there. Second, I backed everything up on my test bed install to various places (SD card, Win10 box, Kubuntu Linux laptop, 2 TB external drive, SCSI CD-ROM, EZ-135 cart). Then, after pulling DarkForce! offline, I'm currently doing the same thing there.

Hey, I believe in Murphy's Law when it comes to data loss! :)

After the backup is complete, I'll copy everything over from the test bed install to the Mega ST4 that actually runs the BBS. This is a pretty large undertaking and I know there will be issues. There were close to 200 graphic screens that had to be adapted from 80 columns to 40 columns alone. We're not even talking about all the scripts, .inf and text files, etc, that also had to be adapted, or the games.

Speaking of games, by far and away the majority of online games that run under BBS Express! ST were absolutely designed with 80 columns in mind. I'm working on getting just as many as I can to work under 40 columns. Currently, there are 29 games in our games section. We'll be lucky if I can get 8-10 working in 40 column mode.

Other areas will be affected too. Several components of DarkForce! rely on aftermarket or 3rd party software that is no longer supported. It's also closed source. The Sigatizer software for the file areas for example. There's just no way, without the source code, to make it work at 40 columns. So that had to be changed. Many menus will now have 2 pages instead of one. Some menus will also have fewer choices.

One of the things I've always liked about BBS Express! ST is the way it "flows". Things are usually pretty snappy, intuitive, and move along briskly. I've tried to keep that in all the changes I've made for the 40 column side of things. In the past, users have complained about 40 column support being "clunky" and hard to use. Well, it was, simply because there wasn't really any 40 column support - or token support at best. I'm trying hard to change all that.

So many unexpected issues came up. The standard command;

VIEW <FILENAME> SHOWALL PAGEBRK

which, works great in 80 columns, showing <page><scroll><quit>, is just awkward and ugly at 40 columns so I had to employ another solution for that.
There are about a dozen files under BBS Express! ST known as .XES files. They are still script files that are then compiled (tokenized, to be more accurate), then renamed from *.COM to *.XES. These sit in the MENUS_80 folder and are executed from there. For whatever reason, the Universe only knows, these files won't run from MENUS_40. Express! ST ignores them and spitefully runs their counterparts from the MENUS_80 folder instead. Ugh. SO I had to insert code in the MENUS_80 .XES files, that if user was logged in in 40 column mode, and these files ran from MENUS_80, to instead redirect to their 40 column counterparts in MENUS_40. Exhausting and ridiculous, but that's just a small portion of the things I've encountered.

If anyone is curious, I used the following code:

DEFINE VW
DEFINE VW_DRIVE = 'C'
DEFINE VW_PATH = 'C:\BBS\LOGS\'

OPEN ('[VW_PATH]VW.DAT,' INPUT)
FINPUT VW
CLOSE
IF VW = '40' THEN
GOTO EOF2
ENDIF

--------------------------------

80 column XES files code here...

--------------------------------

EOF2:
CLOSE
DEFAULT_PATH
EXECUTE ('C:\BBS\MENUS_40\NAME-OF-XES-FILE')
EXIT

Crazy, right? :)

If everything goes according to plan (which it rarely does!), we should be back online sometime this evening.

Please report any anomalies, crashes, glitches, errors, etc, to me as soon as possible. E-mail, PM, screenshots of what you're seeing posted here would be very helpful.

Thanks everyone, and thanks for supporting us all these years. :)

[Darklord]

Okay, we're back online.

Keep in mind, when I say we're in the beta testing stage I really mean we're in the pre-pre-pre alpha testing stage! :)

Please report anything that seems off, here or via e-mail or PM.

Thanks everyone.

[PhilC]

Hoping to get connect with my C128 sometime soon just for fun.

[Darklord]

Hoping to get connect with my C128 sometime soon just for fun.

Absolutely - the more the merrier! Be glad to see you there.

We are Atari software and hardware based, but hey, it's all "retro"
in the end, right? :)

[PhilC]

@Darklord i've actually been on before but that was on my iMac. I just fancied trying something a little more complicated :lol:

[Darklord]

@Darklord i've actually been on before but that was on my iMac. I just fancied trying something a little more complicated :lol:

Go for it! :)

(oh, keep in mind, if you logged in previously at 80 columns, you'll still have to use [E]dit Parameters, option [J] from the
Main Menu to set your video width to 40, even if you picked 40 from the very first screen - it's just the way that Express ST
operates. After that, assuming you stay at 40 columns, you won't have to do that again)

[Darklord]

Oh, kinda missed a milestone (for us) this week.

We've now officially topped 50,000 calls. Sure,
there's a lot of repeat callers in that mix but
still... I'm happy with that. :)

PS Oh, and just for the record, no SysOp calls
are logged and recorded in that number.

[Darklord]

This month, March 2023, the DarkForce! BBS is giving away a new copy of:

Droids: The Definitive Collection!

Droids: The Definitive Collection contains Droids I + Droids II plus a special STe version. More details here:

https://tinyurl.com/56yy86km

Great Atari game collection. Good luck to all, and thanks for calling! :)

[Darklord]

Adding a picture for incentive. :)

Droid_Box.png

[Bikerbob]

I am in, and all over that!!!

James