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C64 Color Terminal Emulator
Copyright 1990 / 1991
by Greg Pfountz
V.4
January 5, 1991
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 1
* * * INTRODUCTION * * *
Welcome to the wonderful world of Commodore's color/graphics
telecommunications! C64 Color Terminal Emulator will allow many
IBM or compatible computer owners to join in on the fun that
Commodore users already enjoy.
The Commodore 64 family of computers does not use the standard
ASCII character set. It uses a customized character set known as
CBM ASCII. This alternate character set allows changing
character colors and cursor movements simply by displaying a
specific character code. For example, when the Commodore 64
prints a chr$(5), the cursor becomes white and all remaining
characters printed to the screen will be displayed white. And
when you print chr$(145), the cursor moves up one line and all
remaining text will print from this position. This method of
cursor positioning and setting screen colors is similar in
abilities to what ANSI can offer to an IBM or compatible, only
much simpler to use.
This program will allow users of IBM and compatible personal
computer systems to call any Commodore 64 or Commodore 128
color/graphics bulletin board system and view/send any of the
color and graphics. I know that there are several other terminal
emulators that offer similar abilities; it is my goal to produce
a terminal program that has more features and is easier to use. I
want to offer to any IBM or compatible user a terminal program
that:
1) works properly on their system
2) does the best job possible of CBM ASCII emulation
3) is easy for the end user to learn and operate
4) offers the features we have all come to expect
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 2
* * * HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS * * *
C64 Color Terminal Emulator was written with Microsoft's Quick-C
(v2.5) and should run satisfactorily at 2400 baud even while
processing a script and logging to disk on the slowest of
computer systems. On faster systems, the maximum baud rate is
110,000. It is required that your system be using a CGA,
Hercules, EGA or VGA display type - although an MDA option
(without color of course) could be added later if demand warrants
it. A color monitor is not required, but it definitely improves
the appearance of the display. If you are a DESQview user, C64
Color Terminal Emulator will automatically detect your DESQview
environment and write directly to DESQview screen memory. This
allows you to run C64 Color Terminal Emulator inside a small
window without any character bleed through and eliminates the
necessity to use BIOS screen writes or virtualize the screen (on
386 processors).
C64 Color Terminal Emulator requires DOS 2.1 or greater and about
256K bytes free ram (after DOS and any TSRs are loaded) to
operate. Additional memory will be required for any external
protocols or to shell out (either manually or via a script) and
run other programs. On systems with only 200K of free ram, C64
Color Terminal Emulator may still operate properly but without
the screen review capabilities. If at least 64K of expanded
memory is available, C64 Color Terminal Emulator will allocate
64K for the screen review buffer instead of using conventional
memory. This can be helpful when running C64 Terminal Emulator
in a shell of another terminal program.
Also required is a Hayes compatible modem with DCD (data carrier
detect) setup properly (eg. setup to be true only when the modem
is connected to a remote system). On most 2400 baud modems, this
requires that the modem be configured with AT&C1&W. On most 1200
baud modems, a switch will control DCD. Refer to your modem's
manual for details. The autodial routines will not operate if
DCD is configured incorrectly, but all other functions should
operate properly. If when you select the autodialer and the
cursor jumps over the dial and manual selections, your DCD is not
setup correctly. Another indication of an improperly setup DCD
is that the status line says ONLINE when you know you are not
connected to a BBS.
Non-Hayes compatible modems may be made to work, but no
guarantees are made here. If anyone has a unique modem and would
like help making it work, feel free to write me. If it is
possible, I will do my best to make it work with C64 Color
Terminal Emulator.
Standard COM ports 1 - 4 are supported as well as a user defined
COM port for those that have a non-standard modem/rs232 card.
Supported baud rates are 300-110,000.
Due to the differences between the Commodore and IBM character
sets, not all Commodore characters have an exact IBM character
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 3
replacement. And only the EGA and VGA display systems on the
IBMs allow using a redefined character set to allow emulating
these unique Commodore character codes. So CGA and Hercules
users will not see all the graphic characters exactly as they
should - but most will be close.
Also, the IBMs and compatibles allow 16 foreground colors and 8
background colors while in text mode. Any combination of
foreground and background colors are allowed. The IBM systems do
not have a specific reverse video mode. The Commodore 64 has 16
colors any of which can be normal or reverse video and only one
of the 16 available colors at a time can be the background color.
Both computer systems have very good text color abilities, but
each are different enough that an exact emulation is not
possible. The PC can only display 8 background colors (used to
emulate the reverse video mode on the Commodore 64) so not all
colors will be exact. For example, a line of yellow text on the
Commodore 64 will show as a yellow text on the IBMs and
compatibles, but when the yellow line is reverse video on the
Commodore 64, it will display as black characters on a red
background on the IBM (there is not a yellow background color
available on the IBM systems). I am sure that overall you will
find the emulation very good.
C64 Color Terminal Emulator supports the use of a mouse to
navigate it's menus. From terminal mode, press the left mouse
button to bring up the help screen. Then move the mouse cursor
over the desired function (eg. Screen Review, Download, F1,
RvsOn, etc) and press the left mouse button again to select.
While dialing, the left button will initiate either a redial or
begin a pause for redial cycle. Pressing the right mouse button
from terminal mode while a script is running or a capture log is
open, will cancel the script or close the capture log. At all
other locations, the left mouse button will act like the enter
key and the right mouse button like the esc key. And mouse
movements will respond like cursor keys (other then in terminal
mode).
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 4
* * * FILES * * *
The following files are contained in this archive:
C64TERM.EXE - C64 Color Terminal Emulator
C64TERM.DOC - this file
C64TYPE.EXE - displays Commodore files on screen
uses the same output routines as C64TERM.EXE
CBM2ASCI.EXE - converts a CBM ASCII file to ASCII
default output is STDOUT - can be redirected to
a disk file or printer
LBR64.EXE - dissolves Commodore .lbr files
AX.EXE - dissolves Commodore .arc files (by Chris Smeets)
LISTCBM.EXE - displays Commodore BASIC files (by Chris Smeets)
The following file will be created automatically:
C64TERM.CFG - config file for C64TERM.EXE
contains your configuration, phone list, function
keys, registration number, etc.
The executable files should either be placed in a directory that
is in your path or create a batch file that will make the
directory where these files are stored the default directory.
The C64TERM.CFG needs to be either in the default directory when
C64 Color Terminal Emulator is started or you need to assign the
environment variable C64TERM to point to where your C64TERM.CFG
is stored. For example
SET C64TERM=C:\TERMINAL\
will tell C64 Color Terminal Emulator to look for its
configuration file in the C:\TERMINAL\ directory even if
C64TERM.EXE is located in another directory and/or your default
directory is not C:\TERMINAL\.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 5
* * * STARTUP * * *
C64 Color Terminal Emulator was designed to be started in 1 of 2
ways. First is for it to be started from the command prompt by
typing:
C64TERM [SCRIPT] [/OPTIONS] [...]
It will initialize the modem and if applicable, automatically
execute SCRIPT. This is the way most term programs are started.
Alternatively, (and I feel will be the most popular) is to call
C64 Color Terminal Emulator from within another terminal program
(such as Telix, Procomm, Qmodem or any of the other popular
ANSI/ASCII terminal emulators for the MS DOS family of
computers). With this mode of startup, you might be using the
autodialer of your ASCII terminal program to dial a series of
bulletin board numbers waiting for a connection on any one of
several systems. If you get a connection on a Commodore
color/graphics system, a script from within the ASCII terminal
program would then execute through its system/dos/run command
C64TERM [SCRIPT] to start C64TERM and if SCRIPT automatically
execute SCRIPT. C64 Color Terminal Emulator will not send any
modem initialize commands, nor will it attempt to initialize the
UART when started in this manner. Instead it will query the UART
to determine its current baud rate and display that baud rate on
its own status line. And then SCRIPT will take over and begin to
log you into the Commodore color/graphics system.
The following script will load C64 Terminal Emulator from within
Telix and automatically start a script named DE.SCR:
main() {
dos("c64term de",0);
}
The following startup options are also available by typing them
after the program name:
/noems - do not use EMS memory if available
/nomouse - do not use mouse drive if available
/bios - use BIOS screen writes only
/snow - use routines that eliminate snow on CGA screens
/help - display a list of startup options
Example:
C64TERM DE /NOEMS /NOMOUSE
will start C64 Color Terminal Emulator without using EMS memory
(if available) or a mouse (if available) and then start running
the script DE.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 6
* * * SETUP * * *
Setup is performed via a series of pop-up menus. Initially the
Alt-Key sequence for SETUP is Alt-S. One of the options from
within SETUP allows you to redefine the Alt-Key sequences
themselves. If you should ever forget what sequence you defined
for SETUP, refer to the Help Screen. This help screen will
reflect the current Alt-Key assignments. Even the Alt-Key
sequence to pull up the Help Screen can be redefined. If
necessary, refer to the status line at the bottom of the screen
for the current Alt-Key sequence to call up the help screen.
The menu below indicates the options available in SETUP.
┌───────────────┐
│ Screen Colors │
│ Files/Paths │
│ Function Keys │
│ Alt Keys │
│ ASCII Pacing │
│ Modem Init │
│ Ext Protocol │
│ Registration │
└───────────────┘
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 7
* * * SCREEN COLORS * * *
The first option (Screen Colors) allows you to redefine any of
the menu and status line colors. By default, the color choices
are light grey on a blue background (or black background if you
are using a black & white monitor). Not the most interesting
color combination - but one that should be visible by all screen
types. This option allows each user to use whatever colors that
are best for your hardware and personal preferences. When
selected, the following menu will appear.
┌───────────────────────────────────┐
│ F1 - Text Foreground Color │
│ F2 - Text Background Color │
│ F3 - Border Foreground Color │
│ F4 - Border Background Color │
│ F5 - Title Foreground Color │
│ F6 - Title Background Color │
│ F7 - Selected Foreground Color │
│ F8 - Selected Background Color │
│ F9 - Shadow Foreground Color │
│ F10 - Shadow Background Color │
│ SHF1 - Status Foreground Color │
│ SHF2 - Status Background Color │
│ Selected Text │
└───────────────────────────────────┘
Simply press the Function Key indicated to increment the desired
color. The menu will immediately update to the new color.
Repeat selecting Function Key's until you find the combination
that best suits you and your hardware. There are 16 possible
foreground colors and 8 possible background colors. Press ESC
when you have selected the best possible color combination - the
new colors will begin being used immediately and automatically be
saved in the C64TERM.CFG file when you Exit C64 Color Terminal
Emulator.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 8
* * * FILES/PATHS * * *
The second option on the SETUP menu (Files/Paths) allows you to
define where C64TERM will find its SCRIPT files as well as where
to upload files from and download files to on your system. The
menu will look similar to the following.
┌──────────────────────┐
│ Download Path:A:\ │
│ │
│ Upload Path: A:\ │
│ │
│ Script Path: A:\ │
└──────────────────────┘
Leave the field blank to use the current directory.
In the case of the upload and download directories, the paths can
be overwritten during an upload or download simply by backspacing
over the path display and changing it as necessary.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 9
* * * FUNCTION KEYS * * *
The third option on the SETUP menu (Function Keys) allows you to
pre-define up to 20 function keys. Each function key can contain
up to 70 characters and when pressed, will send its contents at a
pace that is suitable for a Commodore 64 BBS. The exact pace is
defined in the ASCII SEND option (discussed later). Simply use
the cursor arrow keys to select the desired function key and type
the text you want to send. Use the ~ character to send a
carriage return and type \### to send any other non-ASCII
character codes.
┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ F1 │
│ F2 │
│ F3 │
│ F4 │
│ F5 │
│ F6 │
│ F7 │
│ F8 │
│ F9 │
│ F10 │
│ SH F1 │
│ SH F2 │
│ SH F3 │
│ SH F4 │
│ SH F5 │
│ SH F6 │
│ SH F7 │
│ SH F8 │
│ SH F9 │
│ SH F10 │
└───────────────────────────────────────┘
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 10
* * * ALT KEYS * * *
The next option in SETUP (Alt Keys) allows you to redefine the
Alt-Key sequences for C64 Color Terminal Emulator. This is handy
for those persons who are used to using a specific ASCII terminal
when calling other BBS systems and allows modifying C64 Color
Terminal Emulator to use the same Alt-Key sequences. For
example, maybe the terminal program you are used to using uses
ALT-O for Setup Options and Alt-J for DOS (such as Telix), this
feature will allow you to modify C64 Color Terminal Emulator to
use the same Alt-Key sequences. So instead of your having to
learn another terminal program, C64 Color Terminal Emulator can
be setup to operate similar to the terminal programs you
currently use.
The following menu is what you will see when you select Alt Keys.
Be careful to not assign 2 functions to the same Alt-Key
sequence.
┌─────────────────────┐
│ Setup: S │
│ Baud Rate: B │
│ Clear Screen: C │
│ Dos Shell: D │
│ Execute Script: E │
│ Log On/Off: L │
│ Phone Dialer: P │
│ Review Screen: R │
│ Hangup Modem: H │
│ Help: Z │
│ Exit: X │
│ Toggle Status: T │
│ Toggle Width: W │
└─────────────────────┘
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 11
* * * ASCII SEND * * *
The next option on the SETUP menu (ASCII Send) is where you will
define the character by character pacing as well as the line by
line pacing used by C64TERM when sending an ASCII file, text
assigned to a function key or text from within a script. The
default is a 30 millisecond delay per character with a 500
millisecond delay at the end of each line. These values should
work good when calling most Commodore systems. Keep in mind that
these values have nothing what-so-ever to do with an Xmodem
Upload or Download which will always transfer at maximum speed.
┌───────────────────────────────────┐
│ Char Pacing (1/1000 secs): 30 │
│ │
│ Line Pacing (1/1000 secs): 500 │
└───────────────────────────────────┘
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 12
* * * MODEM INIT * * *
Next on the SETUP menu (Modem Init) is where you define an
initial string to send to your modem, an initial baud rate to use
and the desired COM port. The modem init string and baud rate
will only be sent *IF* your system is not already detecting
carrier when C64 Color Terminal Emulator is started. This allows
C64 Color Terminal Emulator to be easily called from within
another terminal program and instead of having to be concerned
with making sure the baud rate is correct and avoiding the
results of the sending the modem init string to the already
connected system, C64 Terminal Emulator just quietly starts up
and even 'learns' your current baud rate. Below is the menu you
see when you select Modem Init.
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ Modem init: ATS7=60S8=2~ │
│ │
│ Baud rate: 2400 │
│ │
│ COM port (1-4,U): 1 │
└────────────────────────────────┘
Available COM ports are the standard COM ports 1 through 4 or U.
If you enter a U, you will be prompted for a user defined COM
port IRQ number and base address. Refer to your modem or RS232
interface documentation for this information. Be warned that if
select an invalid IRQ or base address, you may crash your system;
possibly even corrupt data on your hard drive. Do not define a
user defined COM port unless necessary and you know what you are
doing.
If you change the COM port number, you may need to exit and
restart C64 Color Terminal Emulator before the newly configured
port can be used.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 13
* * * EXTERNAL PROTOCOL * * *
Next on the SETUP menu is where you define any external
protocols. An external protocol is a piece of software that is
written to be called in a shell of a terminal program and will
perform a file transfer. A very popular external protocol is
DSZ. It has the Xmodem, Xmodem/CRC, Xmodem/1K, Ymodem, and
several versions of Zmodem protocols. There are also external
Punter protocols available (very popular with Commodore BBS's).
C64 Color Terminal Emulator allows defining up to 9 external
protocols for download and 9 external protocols for uploads.
Each definition requires both a description of 15 chars or less
that will be displayed in the download menu when you press PGUP
or PGDN and a DOS command that will start the protocol if you
select that protocol. You can either have the dos command call a
batch file or call the protocol directly. If you need to pass to
the protocol the port number, baud rate or filename, put %P%, %B%
and/or %F% in the command at the appropriate places. Example, to
start a protocol that requires its command to be:
xp /b:1200 /c:1 filename
you would setup your dos command as:
xp /b:%b% /c:%p% %f%
If the external protocol does not need a filename (either it asks
you directly or receives the filename directly from the BBS
(such as with multi-punter) do not use the %f% command and C64
Color Terminal Emulator will not bring up the filename selection
window.
Note: %P% will not work if you have defined a user defined COM
port instead of selecting one of the standard COM ports 1 - 4.
In this case, you will have to hard code the necessary
information.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 14
* * * REGISTRATION * * *
This is where you enter your registration number. This
registration number can be found on the label of your C64 Color
Terminal Emulator diskette.
As new updates are made available, simply download them from your
nearest bulletin board or communications service and enter your
registration number from your original disk.
If you find that you like C64 Color Terminal Emulator and are
using it on a regular basis, please do register your copy.
Support the shareware authors that support your computer
hardware!
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 15
* * * SCREEN REVIEW * * *
This feature will allow you to review text that has recently
scrolled off the top of your computer's screen. The reviewed
text will be redisplayed with full color and graphics.
Press the HOME key to jump to the top of the review buffer, END
to jump to the end of the review buffer. PgUp to move up 20
lines or PgDn down to move down 20 lines. CrsrUp and CrsrDn will
move one line up and down, respectively.
Unregistered users are limited to 50 lines in the screen review
buffer. This should be suitable for evaluation purposes.
Registered owners will have all 400 lines available.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 16
* * * DIALER * * *
C64 Color Terminal Emulator has a built in dialer capable of
storing and dialing up to 50 separate numbers. I personally feel
50 numbers is more than enough - but if anyone needs more than 50
just let me know how many you want and I will make sure our next
version will accommodate your needs.
The dialer system is very easy to use. Pressing the Alt-Key
sequence to activate the dialer brings up the dialer screen.
From here you can press D to select a number or numbers for
dialing, M to enter a number to manually dial, E to select a
number to add/edit, C to edit the dialer configuration
information or Q to quit back to terminal mode.
* * * DIAL * * *
If you press D for dial, press the space bar to mark numbers to
be dialed, and when you have selected all the numbers, press
RETURN. The system will dial each marked number one by one until
a connection is made. After a connection is made and that call
is complete, if you select Dial again the remaining selections
will still be marked for dial.
* * * MANUAL * * *
If you press M for manual, you will need to enter a phone number
to dial and the desired baud rate. The system will dial and
redial that one number until a connection is made.
* * * EDIT * * *
If you press E for Edit, use the up and down arrows to highlight
the number to add/edit and press enter. Then you will be
prompted for the system name, phone number, baud rate and script
name.
* * * CONFIG * * *
If you press C for Configure, you will need to enter your modems
dial command (ATDT if your phone line has touch tone service or
ATDP if your have rotary service), dial command suffix (normally
~ for a carriage return), seconds to wait for carrier (45 - 90
seconds is normal (the system will automatically redial earlier
if your modem detects a busy line and notifies C64 Color Terminal
Emulator with a BUSY message), delay between redials, and whether
you want the system to automatically adjust baud rate to match
the remote system.
The dial command prefix and suffix are user definable to allow
support of different modem types as well as support of different
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 17
long distance services. If your modem does not use AT command to
dial - you may be able to enter your modems dial commands here.
But more important is if you are in an area where you need to
dial extra characters before your number (eg. dial 9 to get an
outside line), you could define your dial command prefix as
'ATDT9,' (for example). And if you are dialing from an area
where you need to charge the call to your phone credit card, you
could put (for example) ',,,,,80055512121111~' as your modem
suffix (enough commas to delay until you hear the tone then your
credit card number followed by a ~ for the carriage return).
The auto adjust baud rate feature of C64 Color Terminal Emulator
reads the speed at which the modem has connected and adjust
itself to match. When a Hayes 1200 compatible modem connects to
another modem, it can be programmed to respond with CONNECT or
CONNECT 1200. If the modem is a Hayes 2400 compatible modem, it
can be programmed to respond with CONNECT, CONNECT 1200, or
CONNECT 2400, depending on the speed of the modem on the other
end. This allows us to always dial our modems at their highest
baud rate and if the modem answering is a slower type, C64 Color
Terminal Emulator will read the modems response and adjust itself
accordingly. For a Hayes 1200 compatible modem to be able to
respond with CONNECT 1200, you must first send it an ATX1
command. Some modems have a switch you can set to allow it to
default to this setting. And for those that do not, you can put
an ATX1 in your modem init string in the Modem Init section of
SETUP in C64 Color Terminal Emulator. For a Hayes 2400
compatible modem to be able to respond with CONNECT 2400, you
must first send an ATX2 command. Actually if your modem supports
ATX4 (most newer modems now do), this will allow your modem to
respond with BUSY, VOICE, CONNECT, CONNECT 1200, CONNECT 2400,
and NO CARRIER and is the recommended setting for all 2400 baud
modems. Most Hayes 2400 compatible modems allow you to define
your ATX? setting and store it in non-volatile memory using an
AT&W command. If you have a modem that will not save your ATX
command in non-volatile memory, you can put it in your Modem Init
section of SETUP in C64 Color Terminal Emulator.
If your modem does not support the ATX extended response codes,
make sure you put an N in the auto baud rate adjust field. Also,
a display of 300 baud when connected to a system that you know is
1200 baud or higher is a good indication you need to put an N in
this field.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 18
* * * SCRIPT COMMANDS * * *
C64 Color Terminal Emulator has a simple built in script
processor. All script commands are case insensitive with one
command per line allowed and a maximum line length of 80
characters. At any time you can abort an executing script by
press the ESC key or by pressing the Execute Script Alt-Key
sequence.
Following is a list of all script commands:
DELAY VALUE
Will delay the script processor (but not the terminal
emulator) for VALUE of 1/1000th's of a second.
EXAMPLE:
delay 3000
will force a delay of 3 seconds.
WAITFOR TEXT
Will delay the script processor (but not the terminal
emulator) until TEXT is received. TEXT may be multiple words
and the comparison text is case insensitive. TEXT should
not be enclosed in quotes unless quotes will be received
from the remote system. The maximum length of text is 72
chars. Use the ~ to wait for a Carriage Return.
EXAMPLE:
waitfor hit return
will force a delay of the script processor until 'hit return'
is received from the remote system.
TIMEOUT VALUE
This command will set the maximum amount of time that WAITFOR
will wait for a text match. A separate TIMEOUT should be defined
immediately before each WAITFOR. Failure to define a TIMEOUT
will cause WAITFOR to wait indefinitely.
EXAMPLE:
timeout 5000
waitfor hit return
will force a delay of the script processor until 'hit return'
is received from the remote system or 5 seconds has passed.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 19
IFTIMEOUT COMMAND
If a TIMEOUT command has terminated the previous WAITFOR
command, the rest of the line behind IFTIMEOUT will be
processed by the script processor. Otherwise the processor
will skip to the beginning of the next line.
EXAMPLE:
:l1
timeout 5000
waitfor command
iftimeout send \016
iftimeout goto l1
will wait for 'command' to be received from the remote system
or if 5 seconds has passed, will send a control p and loop
back to the :l1 label.
SEND TEXT
Will send TEXT at the character and line pacing speed as defined
in ASCII Send. Use the ~ to send a Carriage Return.
EXAMPLE:
send 123~password~
will send '123' followed by a new line and then 'password'
followed by another new line.
PRINT TEXT
Will print TEXT to the screen followed by a Carriage Return.
EXAMPLE:
print Sending MAIL.BBS
Will display on your screen (not to the remote system)
'Sending MAIL.BBS' followed by a carriage return.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 20
SENDFILE FILENAME.EXT
Will send an ascii file at the character and line pacing speed as
defined in ASCII Send. The file is expected to be in ASCII
format and will be converted to CBM ASCII as it is sent.
EXAMPLE:
sendfile user.msg
Will open the file 'USER.MSG' and will send it one character
at a time at the pace defined in SETUP.
UPLOAD FILENAME.EXT
Will send a file using the Xmodem/CRC protocol. If the file does
not exist, an error will print and the script will continue. To
write reliable scripts, use the IFEXIST command to determine if a
file exists before attempting to send it.
EXAMPLE:
upload mail.bbs
will begin an xmodem file upload of MAIL.BBS to the remote
system.
DOWNLOAD FILENAME.EXT
Will receive a file using the Xmodem/CRC protocol. If filename
already exists, you will be prompted if you want to replace the
file or not.
EXAMPLE:
download members.lst
will begin an xmodem file download from the remote system to
the MEMBERS.LST file on your system.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 21
LOGOPEN FILENAME.EXT
Will open FILENAME.EXT as a capture file and all incoming data
will be saved to this file. All captured data will be converted
to ASCII as it is saved to disk. If the capture file already
exists, new data will be appended to the end of the file.
EXAMPLE:
logopen messages.log
will open MESSAGES.LOG and store every character received
from the remote system into it after first converting each
character from CBM ASCII to ASCII.
LOGCLOSE
Will close an open capture file.
EXAMPLE:
logclose
closes an open capture file.
SHELL COMMAND PARAMETERS
Will shell out to DOS and pass COMMAND PARAMETERS to COMMAND.COM.
This is a handy way to delete files, rename files, etc.
EXAMPLE:
shell del c:\temp\*.*
will shell out to dos and del all files in c:\temp
BAUD VALUE
Will change baud rate to the value indicated by VALUE.
EXAMPLE:
baud 1200
will set the current baud rate to 1200.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 22
GOTO LABEL
Allows jumping to another place in the script file indicated by
:LABEL. For a line to be considered a label, it must be begin
with a : and contain any combination of characters and numbers.
Goto's and labels are case insensitive. Labels can also be used
for comments since the script processor skips all lines that
begin with a : for purposes other than as a target of GOTO.
EXAMPLE:
ifexist mail.msg goto sendmail
goto logoff
:sendmail
send f
delay 3000
sendfile mail.msg
send /s
waitfor command
:logoff
send o
delay 1000
send y
will check to see if MAIL.MSG exists and if so, will goto the
routine that posts the message onto the bbs. If the file
does not exist, the script goes to the :logoff line.
SCRIPT FILENAME
Allows chaining one script to another. The currently running
script will be terminated and the called script will start at the
beginning.
EXAMPLE:
send 123~password~
script color64
will send the id followed by a carriage return, then the
password followed by another carriage return then loads and
executes COLOR64.SCR from the directory defined in setup for
script files. This is handy when you have one script file
for a certain kind of BBS, you could create several small
script files to send the different logon data then they all
chain to the same script to execute code that is common to
all the BBSs of that type.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 23
IFEXIST FILENAME.EXT
If a line begins with IFEXIST FILENAME.EXT, the following part
of the line will only be executed if FILENAME.EXT exists.
EXAMPLE:
ifexist mail.msg goto sendmail
would only execute the 'goto sendmail' if the file MAIL.MSG
exists in the current directory.
Example Script
An example of a script that will automatically log you onto a
Color 64 BBS:
timeout 5000
waitfor hit return
send ~
timeout 5000
waitfor (y/n)
send Y
timeout 10000
waitfor ~>
send ###~ (put your user number here)
timeout 10000
waitfor ~>
send ********~ (put your password here)
This script can be started in one of 3 ways. If you are using
the built in dialer, put the script name in the dialer
configuration. If you are using a dialer in another term program
and running C64TERM as a script or in a shell, start C64TERM with
the script name as the command parameter (ex. C64TERM BBSNAME).
And finally you can start the script by pressing your Execute
Script Alt-Key combination.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 24
* * * COMMODORE 64 CHARACTER CODES * * *
The following are a few of the more popular Commodore character
codes. These codes can be used when programming function keys
and scripts.
CHR$ Result On Screen
5 White
17 Crsr Down
18 Rvs On
19 Home Crsr
20 Delete
28 Red
29 Crsr Right
30 Green
31 Blue
129 Orange
145 Crsr Up
146 Rvs Off
147 Clr Scrn
148 Insert Space
149 Brown
150 Lt Red
151 Dark Grey
152 Med Grey
153 Lt Green
154 Lt Blue
155 Lt Grey
156 Purple
157 Crsr Left
158 Yellow
159 Cyan
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 25
* * * COMMON PROBLEMS * * *
PROBLEM: C64 Color Terminal Emulator does not send the modem init
string when started. Or C64 Color Terminal Emulator will not
allow you to select DIAL or MANUAL from the dialer menu.
SOLUTION: C64 Color Terminal Emulator requires that your modem's
carrier detect circuits be working properly. That is, the
carrier detect signal is true only when you are actually
connected to a remote system. This signal must go false when you
are disconnected. If your modem is in internal 2400 baud modem,
all you need to do is type AT&C1&W from terminal mode. If your
modem is an internal 1200 baud modem, look for a switch on the
back of the modem that when set either ignores or forces true
carrier detect or sets carrier detect to monitor or tracks the
state of carrier from the remote modem and set this switch to
track the state of carrier from the remote modem. Finally if
your modem is an external modem, in addition to the above
suggestions, you will need to look at your modem cable. It
should have a wire that connects pin 8 from the modem to either
pin 8 on a 25 pin rs232 connector or pin 9 on a 9 pin rs232
connector.
PROBLEM: When running inside a window in DESQview, the mouse
cursor does not match up with the text in the window.
SOLUTION: If you are using a 386 or higher processor, virtualize
the screen. If you are using a 286 or less, do not use a mouse
inside a DESQview window.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 26
* * * SHAREWARE * * *
C64 Color Terminal Emulator is being released as shareware. This
is not free software. Shareware software gives you the
opportunity to try this software before you spend any of your
hard earned money.
I spent many months developing and debugging C64 Color Terminal
Emulator and will probably spend many more months improving it.
If you find that this software does meet your needs, $20 is all
that is required to register your copy. In return, you will get
the latest version and documentation on disk along with a
registration number necessary to expand the scroll back buffer
from 50 lines to 400 lines.
Please register your copy!
Mail to: For more information:
Greg Pfountz BBS# - 703 466 2120
14 Longdale Rd GEnie - COLOR64BBS
Bristol, VA 24201
Updates will always be available from me for free. To get an
update at anytime, send in a blank disk in a pre-addressed pre-
stamped mailer or download the latest copy from my BBS or GEnie.
If you prefer, I will supply the disk, postage and mailer and
mail you the latest copy for $5.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 27
C64 Color Terminal Emulator
Registration Form
Name: ________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
City: ___________________________ State: _____ Zip: ________
Total
QTY Enclosed
C64 Color Terminal Emulator _______ x $20.00 = ________
Desired Disk Size (circle one): 5 1/4 3 1/2
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 28
* * * Update History * * *
09/23/90 V.1
Beta Test Release
10/01/90 V.1A
Fixed COM4 incorrect base address problem
10/02/90 V.1B
Dos shell did not work on all systems. Instead of shelling out
with the contents of COMSPEC to execute, now I shell out with
COMMAND as the program to execute.
10/08/90 V.1C
First public release
10/24/90 V.1D
Fixed 'Auto adjust baud rate' to work properly at 1200 baud. On
faster CPU's, the system was picking up NULLs between the
characters of the connect message and confusing the program
logic. The system now strips out all but alpha/numeric
characters when looking for the connect messages.
11/25/90 V.2
Cleaned up the low level communications routines, added a user
definable communications port (irq and offset), added a screen
review option, and added support for external protocols.
11/26/90 V.2A
Fixed an intermittent lockup problem after using screen review
followed by a shell to DOS command.
12/20/90 V.3
Added code to open all files to allow shared read access with
denied writes only for LAN and multitasking systems (requires
DOS 3.0+ and SHARE.COM loaded).
Added Alt/T to toggle the status line on and off (useful when the
BBS requires all 25 lines of screen display available such as
with some online color/graphic games).
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 29
Fixed intermittent system lockups from occurring after exiting
C64 Color Terminal Emulator and eliminated transmit interrupts
from going to intermittently going to sleep.
Added code to minimize the amount of blank space in the review
buffer by not saving any rows of the screen where the cursor has
not been.
01/05/91 V.4
Added mouse support.
Sped up character insert routine.
Put in code to store numlock and capslock status in .cfg file.
If emm memory is available, 64K will be used for the screen
review buffer.
Fixed a character conversion problem that was not displaying one
of the graphic characters properly.
C64TYPE.EXE updated to include the character conversion fix
described above.
Fixed a problem where lines longer than 80 cols line were
confusing the screen review routines causing pieces of the screen
to not be saved properly.
Added /noems, /nomouse, /snow, /bios and /help command line
switches.
Added 40 column support for viewing c64 graphics that do not
display properly on an 80 column screen.
Changed screen review routines to minimize use of malloc,
eliminating fragmented memory and the related problems that go
with fragmented memory.
C64 COLOR TERMINAL EMULATOR PAGE 30