Texting on an 80s Computer? Chat64!

There’s a new instant messaging Wi-Fi cartridge for the Commodore 64 that allows you to chat live in a public or private chat room, so let’s see what all the talk is about in this exclusive C64 playtest! Thanks to PCBWay.com - great PCBs from $5! 👾 Want double the ЯR content and a backstage experience? 🚀 Check out Retro Recipes PowerUp!: / perifractic 📼 Bonus videos, early access to main vids, jam to ЯR music, see your name in lights & more! ✨ By supporting ЯR you help us keep the channel & nostalgia alive 🙌
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RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
May include affiliate links for which the channel may be compensated, but all opinions are unbiased
• Get Chat64 (may be out of stock now - if so check back later): creatoriq.cc/3OMS5FH -or- www.chat64.nl/downloads.php
• Chat64 Homepage: www.chat64.nl
• Awesome-O Robot Control: • Robot besturing vanaf ...
🪛 Get all the gear we use: 🇺🇸 amzn.to/3LkYSF9 | 🇬🇧amzn.to/30y05lg
⚡️ Subscribe to ZZAP! 64 magazine: / zzapmagazine
MUSIC CRUDITES:
• Knight Rider music by Stu Phillips & Don Peake remixed under Fair Use by: / @enzomusic_de
• Other music by Perifractic: retrorecip.es/music
OTHER SAUCES & CHEERS:
• Theo & Bart
• All other credits shown on screen
• Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
• The Internet Archive
• Gardenside Prods., Clue Detectives & Paradise Radio
• Special thanks to Ladyfractic & Junifractic!
• All other media featured is marked as public domain on Google Images or used with written permission or shown under fair use law.
MENU:
0:00 Teaser & Intro
0:29 Unboxing and why it’s unique
1:51 Soldering mod
2:27 Playtest: Setup
4:41 First words
8:38 Some serious questions
10:24 ChatGPT?
11:05 Private Messaging
11:50 Made by PCBWay
14:20 Awesome-O Robot Control
14:45 Conclusion & Supporter Cred
THANK YOU MODERATORS:
• Conrad Vogel
• / @cubiclenate
• James Langridge
• Lee Volante
• Mauricio Tonnera
SOME INGREDIENTS BY:
• MattGrandis.net - designer of perifractic.com site
• / _gazmarshall - some graphics
• PaulKitching3d.com - some 3D models
🤖 Video / Thumbnail may contain A.I. elements: retrorecip.es/faq
© All original music & content Copyright & TM Retro Recipes™ LLC 1988-2024.
#retro #nostalgia #commodore

[@RetroRecipes]

🚫Hate ads? Watch *ad free* days early at patreon.com/perifractic 👾 Plus backstage content, jam out to ЯR music, see your name in lights & more! ✨ By supporting the heart & soul of ЯR you help us keep the channel & nostalgia alive 🙌

[@Ian-xo4vy]

Is there anything similar that will work the The C64?

[@peterw.4258]

I've met the designers Bart and Theo today at the Dutch commodore club day and seen their device (and tried the robot, too). Nice guys with cool inventions 😎

[@hermanbodewesNL]

It was a busy event, I was there as well. Is this integrated in Ultimate II+, do you know?

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

And as we all know PCB stands for Peri's Chat Box

[@RetroRecipes]

Doesn't it?!

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

@@RetroRecipes it does 😉

[@WistrelChianti]

@@RetroRecipes BTW off topic but are you aware of The Midnight's "Kids" album? I think you'd really like the opening tracks... some great computer nostalgia =D

[@Phoenix38m]

This bring back memories of my CNET bulletin board days in Nashville....this was 1982-1985 ish. We didn't know how big the C64 was "across the pond" back then.

[@alanw737]

Did you ever use The Nashville Exchange BBS?

[@Phoenix38m]

I must have...I don't remember it tho as much as The Guild and the Mother Board...I never owned a "fancy" 1200 baud job...lol @@alanw737

[@codingwithculp]

Yep. One of my main activities with the C64 was calling BBS's in the 80's. I dialed my first in the fall of 1983 and was hooked after that.

[@sailcat662]

Always a treat when Perifractic drops a new video! Makes so want to finishing repairing my rusting retro kit

[@TimmyJoe633]

Once again the good old C64 amazes us one again. By the way, love how you become the max headroom poster in the screen shot scenes 😂

[@RetroRecipes]

Haha thanks for commenting on that Tim - you're the first! I didn't quite plan it that way, but he was right there in the shot, and I wanted a fun way to show my camera, so the idea sort of made itself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@PeBoVision]

Although I may not get the Commodore context specifically (TI-99/4A user here), I certainly get your enthusiasm and excitement. This reminds me so much of the days of BBSing where, as a SysOp, I would pull people into chat. Of course that was not a multi-user environment , but certainly the excitement of chatting with someone on my computer was quite exciting back in 1982!! Technology may have progressed, but the innovation that the modern world (and homebrew community) is offering to our old systems never ceases to amaze. (I use my laptop as a file server for my '4A' over wi-fi with such ease these days, that it's easy to forget that would have been science fiction on this same computer 40 years ago - not to mention using my phone as a datassette player with no need to cue or rewind!! )

[@michaelcarey]

Thanks for exposing this project to a wider audience. Yet another project to build! I've checked the GitHub repository and everything is in there for anyone to build a CHAT64 cartridge. Not being one to shy away from SMD assembly I thought this would be the one for me to build... but 0402 capacitors and resistors scare me a little :-) those things are like specks of dust to 50+ year old eyes!

[@markmuir7338]

Loved the spitting out the candy gag. I’ve always wanted to see Adrian Black do that 😂

[@codingwithculp]

This is amazing, I just picked one up while watching the video! This reminds me of the BBS scene in the 80's. I probably spent more time calling BBS's, chatting with people and downloading software than almost anything else other than coding on my C64. I got my C64 in August of 1983 and dialed my first BBS in the fall of 1983 and was hooked at that point. I spent a few years programming my own BBS on my C64 and ran it for awhile on my C64, 2400 BAUD MODEM and dual 1MB 8050 drives for a total of 2MB of storage.

[@exidy-yt]

As I recall, transmitting at 2400 baud would blank the screen on the C64. That would make sysopping a C64 based BBS at that speed pretty tricky! How did you pull it off?

[@OldskoolK31]

Wow, imagine being able to do that in the 80s. I can see all sorts of uses for this, perhaps an 80s themed Cold War online adventure game ... ❌🅾❌ 🤯

[@mirkobuchmann3935]

Hi Peri, I ordered the kit immediately because the assembled version is out of stock and only one version of the kit was left! I remembered my first and only chat via Compuserve from Hamburg to Bavaria, my first remote control of a server in the USA and many chats via ICQ and it's following chat programs! It's amazing how close the world became!

[@LogicWheels]

we just ordered a new batch of PCB's, so keep an eye on it!

[@more.power.]

Thank you, Perifractic, for capturing the essence so eloquently: It's as though the spirit of the Commodore C64 has been reborn, breathing new life once more.

[@iRDaBrit]

Definitely need one of these. I remember getting my first C64 modem and connecting to Compunet for the first time.

[@chrisdixon5241]

Very impressive work! Incidentally, the ESP32 is much more than just a wifi module - I suspect it is actually pretty much running the whole show and the C64 is used as a "terminal" to present the screen and provide keyboard inputs. The cartridge port is a very impressive interface that has the power to reconfigure the C64 memory map, read and write any memory location, appear banked into certain parts of C64 memory so that the 6510 can view its contents / execute code from it and even halt the main CPU - which would allow the ESP32 to replace it

[@RetroRecipes]

Thanks for some clarification. I guess my point was that every modem I ever had or saw used the serial port, so it seemed so cool that they bypassed that altogether

[@keyboard_g]

Indeed. The ESP32 is many times more powerful than a C64.

[@adrianfox9431]

Yes - I've always wondered why no-one has made an accelerated game using a similar approach to this.

[@justanothercomment416]

@@keyboard_g 120-240Mhz, dual core, for the ESP32 vs the 6502's 1 to 1.8Mhz.

[@metatechnologist]

​@@RetroRecipes I actually had a 300 baud modem "cartridge" modem that I used to dial up CompuServe with. Iirc Compusrrve was charging $10 an hour and back then as a kid that was a virtual fortune for me!

[@umbrellacorp.]

This reminds me of the chat rooms we had back then. My wife and I used to chat in those places alot.

[@Greedygoblingames]

You've got me doing it again... 🎶 Message in a bott... err.. Commodore 🎶 😂

[@proteque]

That looks very smooth. I never left IRC actually and every now and then I go online there with my Amiga just to get the nostalgia buzz. This however is an awesome project. I think I need this :)

[@billyoung9538]

I don't remember my old Compuserve username and email from the 80's, but I definitely remember hanging out in the chat rooms on my C64 back in the 1985-1988 time frame.

[@RetroRecipes]

Yep but 1:04

[@davidmoore5925]

It's 11am 😂.

[@xbmc79]

Early in the morning 🤔

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Now then young man... I'll save this to my watch list, go grab some coffee, and watch this on the 'Big Telly' downstairs. Awesome 😇🕹👌

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

I wasnt disappointed. As always - keep the dream alive my friend 😇🕹👌

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Hey! Fancy seeing you here! It's funny how us retro nerds keep bumping into each other. Robin from "8 Bit Show & Tell" and David Murray "The 8 Bit Guy" stop by every now and then too.

[@deckofcards87]

So happy to find this video in my feed! I've actually become obsessed with getting old computers on the web or "networking." Recently managed to get a 25 year old Power Mac 2500 working through WiFi and that's been such a blast of nostalgia! There's a few folks trying to put together a small AOL community, and web browsing like it's 1996 is oddly blissful in it's simplicity.

[@RetroRecipes]

Oddly blissful is a great way to put it. All the fun without all the distractions.

[@albertu.9753]

This is awesome! I wish there were a version of this cartridge for THEC64 from 2019 which unfortunately doesn't come with an Expansion Port...

[@dariodzimbeg]

The rhyme: ICQ for 19 80 two. And yes, PCB stands for: Plastic Chat Box

[@wonderdog8895]

That's super cool. Liking the plug and play aspect, very clever.

[@ZijZijnZijnZoons]

Impressed with your knowledge of computing in general

[@RetroRecipes]

Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹

[@SuperCreen]

Just received the Ultimate II cartridge, but I think I need this one in my life as well! 😊

[@hicknopunk]

Was that the salty licorice? I love that stuff.

[@andreasklindt7144]

Nope, licorice with honey. Must be a specialty from The Netherlands. Here in Germany I've never seen anything like it, unfortunately.

[@Loudness84]

I still remember my first exposure to licorice as a child, I think they were Sallos. At first, I couldn't understand why my brother liked them but not much later... oh well, I couldn't resist anymore 😆

[@hicknopunk]

@@andreasklindt7144 ah

[@chrisrobson8540]

appreciate your personal sacrifice being up and about at such an ungodly hour.....must have been hell😉🤣🤣

[@retroarcade3552]

Another fantastic video Peri, as you say it is amazing the amount of things still being done with/for the C64. Just shows you what an incredible machine it is.

[@Smartzenegger]

This must be the same kit that was in KITT. Because that car had such a lot of wireless technology, it's insane!

[@Drew-Dastardly]

Dial up BBS "chatrooms" were basically "Page the sysop" which would alert me and we could have a fun two way text chat. 1980's. Dial up to Uni mainframes running a MUD. That was another world in text chat interaction.

[@jackiechan8840]

A FAX? Truly, you are living the dream fella

[@RetroRecipes]

Yep check out my recent video about getting back to fax!

[@pacbilly]

This looks great. I gotta get one. Also... You're having to blur out Darth Vader for copyright reasons? Unbelievable.

[@vineilan]

Thanks for another great video!

[@timmooney7528]

Pretty cool. I still sign onto BBS's and there's a few members with Atari 800's and 8 bit Apples connecting via wifi adapters. I have tried telnet through the mTCP suite in Dos, and it works well.

[@jessedunn3766]

...and as we all know, PCB stands for Pretty Chunky Bodgewire.

[@1066Loxley]

This is so cool, I yearn for the simple days of the commodre and spectrum. The retro scene is getting more popular, especially in Norwich where I live, we now have a pub called barcadia that is full of old arcade machines. What more could you ask for but beer and pong :)

[@Astronomikat]

As soon as you said "Netherland's candy", I imagined you spitting it back out, and then you did! lol. Icelandic candy is not dissimilar.

[@raythomas4812]

Great Video, I love seeing the C64 doing other stuff than playing games...even if they re in the future ! I would have stopped playing Bounty bob strikes back and chatted to people

[@Colin_Ames]

Awesome piece of kit. I don’t have a C64 to use it with, but I love to see new products such as this.

[@manuell3505]

Guessing how this works: it's a tiny computer like Raspberry Pico that syncs a serial/TTL datalink with a C64 cartbus address and provides TCP/IP and Wifi on the other side with it's own resources.

[@stevejennings3960]

As you know - PCB stands for “Perifractic can bodge” - doesn’t it?? Much love from the uk 🇬🇧

[@monkeystrong42]

11 AM? Bro, how are you able to function that early in the wee hours of the nearly afternoon. 😂😂😂

[@garyl5128]

I'd forgotten about ICQ - That takes me back! Was your Star Wars Arcade game blurred out? I'm guessing there was a reason for that. The things you have to think about...

[@RetroRecipes]

Just the iPhone camera was blurred a little. I just don't like showing the cameras as it destroys the feel I'm going for a little I think.

[@merman1974]

Very interesting, I like the idea and I hope there is more software/servers in the future.

[@drfrancintosh]

Wait - this is just one step from WiFi for the C-64. As much fun as the CHAT is - The INTERNET on the C-64 seems like a bigger win.

[@Robbnlinzi]

“Mum hang up the phone!! I need to go online.”

[@BradR86]

Impressive. Love how the esp controllers make for easy peripherals for our retro machines!

[@MistaMaddog247]

Wow, brought back sweet memories of chatting on IRC servers on my Atari ST and later IM on a PC. Having a chat client on the same cart as the WiFi32 makes it more convenient.

[@eskey691]

Man how cool is that cart other than the crashing now an then it seems to work real well and it's not a bad price as well. Haha love how they did the PCB-way ad as well gave me a good laugh. I so miss my old bread bin and yes that song is now stuck in my head just by that one line you had in the video (twice) thanks for that 🤣😂. Great video as always and am looking forward to seeing the next one, so until then have a great weekend and take care🙂

[@RetroRecipes]

Glad you liked! Morten's "ahhhhhs" are from another world.

[@spikey911usa]

First chatroom for me was on a Vic 20 on CompuServe with the 300 baud Vicmodem.. Paid by the minute back then..

[@Mrshoujo]

Chatroom? I think Fujinet for the Atari 8-bit has had that feature already for at least a year. It plugs on the SIO & does Wifi, storage drive emulation, & more.

[@Applecompuser]

Interesting product. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes to your family and you.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Kind of reminds me of the very first time I ever connected to a BBS (at a BLISTERING 300 baud!). It was like I had stepped into the future with its clever color character graphics (with clever ASCII animation even!) Downloading the latest games (ahem!) took forever and only worked about 50 or 60% of the time, but still have fond memories of those days. When my mom bought me a 1200 baud modem for Christmas I really thought I had died and gone to heaven.

[@005AGIMA]

I can't decide which is more awesome. That cartridge or your tshirt 😁

[@Kw1161]

Great new project! I just ordered a M5cardputer for under $40 based on the ESP32, but never pictured it as a WiFi modem for a C64…😊1 Well keep on Keeping on…😊! Have great day!

[@jamesparker4782]

So yeah.x I find your videos relaxing

[@swk38]

Diesel is another wonderful Netherlands band

[@swk38]

Sausalito summernight

[@GJ-mn9ly]

Great video as always!.

[@RafalPilat]

They should add a synth speech module, so we could have perfect War Games experience 😃

[@infamousJohn_thedoc]

This reminded me of the days of irc chat servers

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Dang it, now I need one for my SX-64! And I hope they make one for the VIC-20, as well. And for cross-platformness, a PCjr. And for maximum insanity, an Intellivision ECS keyboard component.

[@theviperman3]

2:08 Perifractic you're holding that Solderfractic thingy all wrong !!!! ... but we will let it pass this one time :)

[@AndreSjoberg]

10 year old me would have had his brain blown away, if not having seen wargames at the time ;)

[@SoulPoetryandOtherWorks]

11:00 am Peri? Have you got insomnia? Oh no, it's fatherhood, of course. 😉 For some reason, disabling my ad blocker on KZbin stopped KZbin from working properly, and it failed to notify me of your video. Re-enabling PB fixed it. Mind you, KZbin on Firefox is quite poor. As for the plug-and-play reference, having come from a Commodore Amiga, I prefer Autoconfig as a better term. Are you ready to live the dream? (ref: My Family "Pyramus") A wonderful video Perifractic.

[@RetroRecipes]

So glad you liked it! Just as an interesting point some maybe don't realise, if you use an ad blocker, you are taking away the income many small channels rely on to exist. Though I completely understand that ads are annoying. Just like on real TV :)

[@dcarlin3]

I'd love to know more about what processing is occurring where (on the C64, on the ESP32, on the remote server). With my existing ESP32 based modems, I can "telnet" to a server on the internet and chat with people already (example, via IRC). Thanks for the content! I love playing with modern add-on hardware for the Commodore.

[@bgsmember3650]

Nice! Next, can we have a LLM on the Commodore 64.. 🤔

[@crazykittenvideos855]

I wonder if any of the original Commodore C64 developer team are seeing this? If they are then channels like this that keep it going must make them very proud! I still remember the side scrolling game Scramble. Played it for hours but couldn’t beat my sister 😅

[@RetroRecipes]

Thanks for saying that

[@crazykittenvideos855]

@@RetroRecipes No I’m serious my sister was awesome at Scramble 😄

[@TheHandheldGamer]

So fantastic!!! Truly amazing!!!

[@stephanepiquemal8297]

I'm amazed by the creativity of the retro community bringing up new tech to those old 8bits platforms. Congratulations guys, thanks to you the C64 will live up forever!

[@Roblilley999]

I met my wife on ICQ, it was like... what u doing here? Seriously the Internet is a great thing

[@RetroRecipes]

That's amazing

[@illusions2142]

Ohhh a nice tape there A-ha ;)

[@JohnDlugosz]

"Don't know how the built-in software can use the cartridge port as a modem" *because* it is built-in software! The modem can be hooked up to whatever is exposed in the cartridge port; say, memory map to an address in the cartridge range. Then the software knows how to operate it. It's specifically written for that custom modem, which does not need to follow the standards for an attached device.

[@tommyovesen]

I heard A-ha. Great video!

[@CoZmicShReddeR]

Me and a friend had a game we could play together and wave at each other was silly but was very exciting to interact with a friend through dialup game. I forgot the name of the game tried to find it was for Commodore 64

[@grandmastermp64]

We are happy to see the WiC64 in your video. You already know the module, as can be seen in your video at minute 1:15? If not, we would be happy to send you one to test. 🙂

[@RetroRecipes]

That's very kind of you - wow! Please drop me an email: peri (at) perifractic.com

[@enkidu9989]

Great product and video, thanks.

[@al3k]

I love this. Any chance of a Sinclair version?

[@Soccergirly.and.VeloDad]

Bodge is such a British word.

[@RetroRecipes]

The wire was a bit wibbly wobbly

[@FingerBreakerWu]

I’m just in awe you’ve got a Star Wars sit down

[@RockyPeroxide]

Those honingdropjes are indeed an acquired taste. Pretty sure they packed it in just to mess with you (and now you can mess with your friends!). It's basically black licorice and honey, so even here in the Netherlands some people don't like 'em. We also have licorice coins, like the chocolate ones but funnier to give to foreigners. With different flavors for different denominations.

[@chrisoliphant]

Oh no! Already OOS. 😢 Will keep checking back tho.

[@TotoGuy-Original]

ICQ was the best messaging program ever it still is!! shame they didn't keep on with it as it was awesome!

[@AndreSjoberg]

and just as I types my last comment came the «WarGames»-reference up in the c64 chat ik the video, talk about a shared experience :D

[@jengelenm]

So this opens up possibilities for 8-bit online gaming on real hardware? Aaaa youth 🤣🤣

[@upthebuffer1921]

Coolest thing Ive seen in years love it

[@automan1223]

We would got to usenet groups at the public library trading cracked software between Apple & Commodore users & then talk on various BBS's that was our "fb" back in 1983-1987

[@RDJ134]

00:50 thats an cultural insult. My as a Dutch person is now very very offended!!! Nah' this is hard to eat for people outside The Netherlands, and you even had the Honing (Honey) drop, be glad you didd got the salted ones, those are awesome. On Topic: Great video, love this kind of tech, i saw chatting in the movie Jumping Jack Flash and tought it was movie magic, around 98/99 i came online hang in chatrooms, IRC etc etc . The good times :)

[@StayCoolKeto]

*This is cool! my first chat was ICQ. I miss those days* 💪👍😭

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Cool. Picked up a completed one and a kit.

[@kmp435]

Great video and enjoying all the great retro tech, just wondering what you recommend for making music on my old comordore 64, hope you are doing ok and having a good day 🎶

[@RetroRecipes]

I love CynthCart then record the output to multiple tracks in GarageBand or your preferred DAW / sequencer

[@kmp435]

@@RetroRecipes thank you I will look out for the cynthcart and try it out and thank you for help and advice and looking forward to seeing more of your great videos on the retro computers, I've been playing on a old megadrive mk1 it's a great console of the years gone by

[@StargliderGaming]

What a great value product! Loving the Elite Dangerous sign off. Do you play ED? Would be great to meet up in game wherever you may be in the Galaxy!

[@RetroRecipes]

Ahh I've only played the original not ED. One day!

[@StargliderGaming]

@@RetroRecipes oh you HAVE to play it! Both nostalgic and new at the same time!

[@janwiersma1449]

beter een pak stroopwafels te sturen. ik vind drop lekker. ik vind honing lekker. maar ik snap Chris wel. deze combi heb ik zelf ook nooit lekker gevonden. dan liever dubbel zout, LOL 👍😝

[@exidy-yt]

I still remember when the first multi-line chat and game BBSes were going up in my area, but at 300 baud I was at a serious disadvantage compared to the 1200, 2400 and even (gasp!) 9600 baud elitez. 😄 some of the arena duelling games were pretty fun at the time, although the numbers could get insanely high with buying high-end weapons and armour. It got to the point where I could drop enough money on new players to instantly shoot them up to the mid-high tiers without impacting my balance in the slightest. The chat was the best part however, even with only a dozen or so people at any given time maxing out the connections. A taste of the future.

[@ferdburful6352]

Still have my working C64 with matching monitor, disk drive, cassette drive, 300 and 1200 baud modems (yee ha !)

[@ashtonsretrocomputerroom]

Wow! Such a cool piece of hardware!

[@guystevens162]

Wow just amazing what we can do to these Awsome machines

[@horstboss7855]

Nice video... imagine this having support IRC...

[@RetroRecipes]

1. You're very observant. Are you an empath out of interest? That was a cut with Final Cut's "Flow" transition to disguise it. Sometimes I do that if I pause for more than a second to keep the flow feeling interesting. 2. That's actually my iPhone camera blurred out. I don't like to spoil too much of the magic.

[@linuxjedivideo]

Given how much the clock was jumping, I'm guessing it was a long day setting it up :)

[@RetroRecipes]

Actually because that's a UK TV the clock runs fast here due to the 60Hz power supply