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Introducing the Vintage Pi Project a Raspberry Pi image designed to transport users into the nostalgic realm of vintage computers, recreating the authentic experience of bygone eras. Unlike the detached feel of running emulators on modern devices, Vintage Pi strives to bridge the gap, providing an environment that mirrors the genuine sensation of using historic computers. This project goes beyond the typical application on your computer, aiming to capture the essence of interacting with the actual hardware, rekindling the unique charm of computing from the past.
Getting Started
This guide assumes that you have successfully downloaded the Raspberry Pi image and flashed it onto an SD card.
Setting up the Raspberry Pi
After inserting the SD card into your Raspberry Pi and powering it on, you will encounter a basic Linux terminal login prompt. Here, you can log in to the system using a username that corresponds to the computer system you wish to emulate. For example, to use the Commodore 64 system, enter the username “c64” with the password “c64”. Before diving into the vintage computing experience, let’s set up your Pi’s Wi-Fi. Quit the emulator by pressing ALT-Q which will take you to the file browser. Go to the directory “Vintage Pi Tools and Help”, and then select Raspberry Pi configuration.
Within the configuration tool, you can establish your Wi-Fi connection if you plan to use Wi-Fi. Upon the initial startup of the image, the filesystem should automatically expand to fill your SD card. In case this did not happen, you can utilize the configuration tools to manually expand the filesystem. When exiting the configuration tool, you will be prompted to reboot your system.
Time to Have Fun
Once you’ve configured everything and completed the reboot, you’ll return to the login screen. Here, you can explore the various computer systems available for login. Each system comes with its own home folder, unique look, and feel. Enjoy the vintage computing experience!
How to connect to a BBS
Welcome to communicating with other computer systems, the way it was prior to the Internet. The Vintage Pi project is ready for you to visit other systems called BBS’s (Bulletin Boards Systems). Syncterm is a BBS terminal client used to connect to BBS’s that are running on the internet. I have provided directory to make it simple to visit each BBS. At the top of the directory is the Vintage Pi BBS, followed by BBS’s run on the same system that you are logged into. For example, if you are logged into any of the Commodore logins, all of the BBS directory listings above the dashed line are BBS’s that run on Commodore computers, and are pre-confired to display the proper fonts. as an example if you try to connect on the directory listing labled Vintage Pi (40col PETSCII), the terminal client will use the 40 column PETSCII display.
Have fun surfing the boards!