6. Online With the C64 WiFi Modem
A considerable portion of Commodore's history in the 1980s and early 90s was written on 40-column bulletin board walls, scrawled in Sharpie marker on blank 5 1/4" floppy disk labels containing public domain demos or cracked and pirated commercial releases, and archived on the comparatively expensive, loud, and low-capacity hard disks of its time. Although traditional phone connections are quickly becoming somewhat of a historical curiosity, there are a surprising number of BBSes still taking calls and serving content to Commodore enthusiasts in the present day. The C64 WiFi Modem from Retro Rewind enables you to forego satin-silver phone cables and flismy RJ-11 connectors in favor of a Wi-Fi connection to the wide variety of online services available to contemporary Commodore fans.
The device feels professionally constructed and is housed in a durable sparkly-plastic case. It's worth noting that it worked fine in terms of fit and function with the TheFutureWas8Bit user port saver - an adapter board designed to pull power from the C64/128's user port whlie protecting the port from the wear and tear of devices being continually connected and disconnected. Due to the port layout on my C128D's motherboard, this adapter was required in order to connect an SD2IEC+ to my C128D (I'll also give that particular device a review in a future article, but back to the modem for now).
While the C64 sees and treats the device in the same way as a conventional modem, the device is best described as a serial-to-Telnet interface and simulates a Hayes-style modem using the "AT" command set. AT commands can be used to have the modem connect to a wireless access point, and then "dial" a connection to a Telnet server in the same manner as how you would have dialed a BBS via the phone network in the past. The device also includes port listening capabilities for incoming connections.
Though the modem ships with the CCGMS client, I found better results using the DesTerm software with its support for 80-column mode. This software gave me better results when I wanted to venture outside the world of C64-specific destinations with their 40-column display, as 80 columns seems to be a more universal standard for the vast majority of BBSes and hosts.
Connecting was a decently simple process, though I wouldn't call it 100% straightforward. Notably, As soon as DesTerm is finished loading (which takes about 1-2 minutes on a stock C128D), you'll need to use the Control-Run/Stop key to open the menu, then navigate to Modem Settings > RS232 Type and select "Cheap RS232" (the difference between "cheap" and "proper" RS232 is beyond me - I assume the cheap implementation is less forgiving). Without doing so, the software will eventually hang.
Next, you also need to configure the modem's baud rate using the "ATB9600" command, then similarly set the baud rate in Desterm through the menu. (9600 baud is the fastest baud rate which which I tested, though I did sometimes see some garbage characters/display output issues and found that rolling back to slower baud rates may be more reliable). Once the baud rate is set, you can complete the configuration process by using the AT+CONFIG command to set your modem to connect to a Wi-Fi network via a series of terminal prompts.
We're now ready to dial our host - this can be done with the ATDT command, followed by the host and telnet port in quotation marks. I tested with the Free Internet Chess server using the command ATDT"freechess.org:23".
To sum up, I feel this product is a valuable addition to the contemporary Commodore peripheral lineup and should be essential given it's low cost ($40 USD seems to be standard). It's just simple enough for a C645/128 novice to figure out, is fairly well-documented, and opens users up to the social aspect of Commodore ownership without having to either hop onto a PC with a web browser or wear a "READY" t-shirt in a public place and hope someone will strike up a conversation. However, this particular combination of modem and terminal software certainly isn't the only option for going online with these computers, and I hope I'll be able to review some other solutions like NovaTerm and StrikeTerm for comparison in the weeks to come.
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