Considering that DarkStar news items might be far a few between, I thought I might diversify the topics discussed here to keep things fresh.

I haven’t fully decided which directions to go yet, but I do have a few ideas in the retro-communication area. BBS reviews, Terminal Programs reviews, and perhaps a look at some C64 web sites.

Maybe we’ll take a few trips down memory lane. (If I can get my memory to work! )

Feel free to leave a comment if you’d like to see something discussed here.

Look what we found!

Yes! DarkTerm’88 [REV 3]! The absolute latest version.

I’d forgotten that the CG editor, "Black Magic" was included with DarkTerm’88, so that’s another piece of DarkStar software to complete our puzzle.

We are still seeking the BBS program itself: DarkStar’88. Please contact us if you have a copy, or if know the whereabouts of one.

We also found the documentation to both DarkStar V3.1 and DarkStar’88. Sweet find!

Kudos to golan, Eddie and others in #c64friends IRC for their help and late-night searching. You made my day, guys!

Also, thanks to IanC, tlr, and wbochar for their DarkStar efforts.

It’s amazing how much a person forgets over the years.

A few weeks ago I came across VICE, a Commodore 64 emulator for Windows. I instantly downloaded and ran the program.

I couldn’t believe my eyes! There is was! The familiar old blue screen announcing that it was "READY." I literally giggled with delight.

The giggle soon changed to a silent frown as I tried to remember even the simplest commands to get this thing to run. It wasn’t long before I found myself Googling for that information.

LOAD"*",8,1!! I actually had to look that up!

So, yeah. You can’t get much more "ground floor" as far as this project is concerned. lol I mastered the C64 once, I can do it again.

At this point, I’m still looking for both hardware and software. I intend to use an actual C64 to power the BBS. I want users to know they aren’t only accessing vintage software, but vintage hardware as well.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open locally, but I fear I may have to resort to the bidding wars of eBay. I’m not looking forward to that.

Be sure to drop by our Forums. I intend to do most of my posting there. I want to keep this blog for Project News and Breakthroughs regarding the DarkStar family of software.

Hope to see you there!