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+--- Thread: Hive Works part 2 aka VibeDroneBeeWolfQueen (/thread-1109.html)
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Hive Works part 2 aka VibeDroneBeeWolfQueen - Graham72 - 09-10-2026
I decided to throw caution to the wind and with extreme hubris began using UZI as an OS for Hive Works.
That led me to discover FUZIX and I have got it booting but the keyboard is just crazy. I press a key and get 10-15 bounces.
Anybody succesfully using FUZIX?
RE: Hive Works part 2 - fathertedcrilly - 10-10-2026
Never heard of it before.
One to file onto the pile to look at later
Do you know how the tty driver in UZI talks to the keyboard hardware ?
RE: Hive Works part 2 - Graham72 - 10-10-2026
(10-10-2026, 04:51 PM)fathertedcrilly Wrote: Never heard of it before.
One to file onto the pile to look at later
Do you know how the tty driver in UZI talks to the keyboard hardware ?
no, UZI was way to hard.
I found that Fuzix was polling keyboard like crazy, so used the emulator to stomp on the polling.
Succesfully booting with over 231 files:
120 — core commands, editors, HIVE and tests
60 — additional utilities
and 51 games
plus helper files.
Impressive little OS - never heard of it until yesterday. Now to wrap my brain around all the commands and file structure. Hive is coming along.
RE: Hive Works part 2 - Graham72 - 11-10-2026
Telstar on Fuzix. If anyone is interested I can provide two .dsk images for minimal boot.
RE: Hive Works part 2 - fathertedcrilly - 11-10-2026
(11-10-2026, 09:47 AM)Graham72 Wrote: Telstar on Fuzix. If anyone is interested I can provide two .dsk images for minimal boot.
I wonder how compatible Telstar is with the bee Viatel client.
When I've finished the PIO module, I'm going to need to test it out with real-world data
Thanks
Tony
RE: Hive Works part 2 - Graham72 - 11-10-2026
Viatel is Australia's variant of Prestel/viewdata. Telstar is a modern viewdata server, so its pages are the same format: 40×24 text, ESC-coded colour and attributes, mosaic graphics, double height, flash, and * / # navigation.
The ROM only has to render that stream and send keystrokes, so it doesn't care which host is behind it.
Where they differ
Line speed: real Viatel is 1200/75 (V.23). The Microbee receives at 1200 and sends at 75. Telstar over TCP doesn't care, so the gateway fakes the modem handshake and carrier, and the data arrives as a plain byte stream.
Pacing: TCP can deliver faster than the 1200 baud the ROM expects. If pages garble or drop characters, the gateway needs to throttle to about 120 chars/sec.
Pages and features: Telstar pages are standard Prestel-style frames. Anything beyond that (telesoftware downloads, response frames, newer extensions) may not be handled by the Viatel ROM.
Connection setup: the ROM expects a dial and answer sequence. Telstar just opens a socket, so the gateway has to present "CONNECT" and carrier at the right moment.
On actual hardware speed may be of a real consequence.
RE: Hive Works part 2 - fathertedcrilly - 11-10-2026
(11-10-2026, 02:05 PM)Graham72 Wrote: Viatel is Australia's variant of Prestel/viewdata. Telstar is a modern viewdata server, so its pages are the same format: 40×24 text, ESC-coded colour and attributes, mosaic graphics, double height, flash, and * / # navigation.
The ROM only has to render that stream and send keystrokes, so it doesn't care which host is behind it.
Where they differ
Line speed: real Viatel is 1200/75 (V.23). The Microbee receives at 1200 and sends at 75. Telstar over TCP doesn't care, so the gateway fakes the modem handshake and carrier, and the data arrives as a plain byte stream.
Pacing: TCP can deliver faster than the 1200 baud the ROM expects. If pages garble or drop characters, the gateway needs to throttle to about 120 chars/sec.
Pages and features: Telstar pages are standard Prestel-style frames. Anything beyond that (telesoftware downloads, response frames, newer extensions) may not be handled by the Viatel ROM.
Connection setup: the ROM expects a dial and answer sequence. Telstar just opens a socket, so the gateway has to present "CONNECT" and carrier at the right moment.
On actual hardware speed may be of a real consequence.
Funnily enough, just paged over to the microbee facebook group and someone has build an serial to IP bridge
And then accessed a Telstar instance using the viatel client
Thanks
Tony
RE: Hive Works part 2 - Graham72 - 11-10-2026
Yes, that was my inspiration. See my Viatel Lives thread with PC85 version available for download.
RE: Hive Works part 2 aka VibeDroneBeeWolfQueen - Graham72 - 15-10-2026
One change here caused problems there. Fixing problems there caused issues in Pak games.
Anyway this build I hope allows a range of emulations using Basic Roms, Premium PC85 Roms, Game Pak Roms, CF cp/m boots, and FUZIX .5.
Test away and let me know what fails, please.
RE: Hive Works part 2 aka VibeDroneBeeWolfQueen - Graham72 - 16-10-2026
for those wanting to try FUXIX : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c7BoJwVmNm4wp0BKh3_iiqob8iXo1LqX/view?usp=sharing
BOOTDEV HDA1
PASSWORD root
VTX is the telstar client on the build.