In recent weeks I've been playing "DDST," a fun adventure game for Atari ST BBSes that I had never tried before.
I *love* that it lets you save basically whenever you want. Makes it possible to avoid losing progress while exploring dungeons crowded with monsters and traps.
My wife took a quick peek while I was in a dungeon and asked if it was a QR code. Nope ... just some VT52 text art!
If you have the new SyncTerm, then check it out!
Telnet to GOF at guardian.synchro.net, port 23.
Set "Screen Mode" to "Atari ST 80x25" and "Font" to "Atari ST."
You can also see VT52 in action by visiting these other fine BBSes (running on actual Atari ST hardware):
Dark Force
darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org:1040
STar Fleet HQ
bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983
Biker Bob's Clubhouse
bbsclubhouse.ddns.net:1040
The Cellar
thecell.ar:1040
Due to the new Atari ST VT52 support in SyncTerm, I added a VT52 logon screen to my "Guardian of Forever" BBS today.
GOF is a Synchronet BBS. I love Sync's JS support ... makes it easy to code interfaces, doors, etc. It's how I added IGS support before.
Anyway, most menus are still the stock Sync ASCII, but I hope to slowly add VT52-specific ones eventually.
Deuce recently added support for the Atari ST flavor of VT52 to his SyncTerm program.
I first requested this feature 14 years ago. I was so excited it finally happened, that I made a new VT52 animation to celebrate.
Plus I dug up six more that I have never seen published anywhere else.
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2025/02/15/some-love-for-vt52-on-the-atari-st/
I just noticed the MiSTer FPGA has a VT52-core now. Must have been installed during one of the last updates and I just have seen it now. Yes, one can use minicom or something like that, but having some really stupid hardware displaying characters on a screen has it's own magic.
Here we go, @SDF comrades.
Got the background done, although I'm not 100% sold on what's on the screens. Also, thanks to @peron for a couple of those bits of line art.
Next on the to-do: character/terminal art for a few more characters. And yes, I think I need to get Milia in there, even though she's not a bridge operator.
Thinkin' about doin' some new art for @SDF . It's been in the back of my head for a while to do something with the Macross operators, but I had this particular idea while watching the ITS bootcamp orientation video the other day. With all the bootcamps, maybe SDF needs a recruitment poster!
But who should be on it? Misa? Claudia? Vanessa? ...?
Time to admit I’m never going to fire this beast up again. Can’t even remember whether it was coal-fired or clockwork! #retrocomputer #terminal #VT52
