C64 client: first steps

I had a hard decision, and finally let the telnet concept go. It will be double work to implement the default planned byte based protocol, and in parallel develop and maintain telnet communication what is completely different. 

So I went with step 0 of developing my dream C64 client. 

I haven't programmed on a c64 for 25 years. How hard could it be? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

After a few (lots of) days of codebanging, screaming and real pain, I finally have my custom communication routines.

It uses only the KERNAL at the moment, but it can (and should) be extended later.

Currently (and probably in the future too) we are stuck with 300 baud speed. It totally resonates with the concept of V8id.

It should be accessible from ANY 8bit computer. 300 baud is the bare minimum, I think it's accessible on any platform what is capable of any modern era networking. And another important aspect is: 300 baud is easy to handle in pure BASIC too!

So anyone can write their own client if they wish. 😉 Which is also fully consistent with the main concept: to connect from every type of computer/OS/client/programming language/etc...

That's what I call the real crossplatform gaming. 😎

Let's take a look at the code. We have our fancy wrapper functions what makes everything easier for me in the future. It's short, readable and easy to use.

We are sending a "HELO" (as in SMTP 😉) and waiting for a response.

The server received the HELO with a terminating 0xFF byte what indicates the client has stopped its communication and is waiting for an answer.

And finally the answer has arrived to the C64:

It's clearly visible, we have a fully working communication between a C64 and a linux server over the network.

This is just the beginning of something big 😁😉