PLATOTerm99 is a terminal emulator to access CYBIS services now available on the Internet utilizing a WIFI Modem, or via a TIPI interface connected to Ethernet or WIFI.
For the purposes of this documentation. PLATO and CYBIS are interchangeable names for the same platform.
- TI-99/4A COMPUTER
- 32K RAM expansion
- Floppy Disk or equivalent storage
- Editor/Assembler Cartridge
- Some form of connectivity, either: ** TI RS232 Interface, connected to WIFI Modem, or ** TIPI connected to WIFI or Ethernet (not done yet)
As of writing this preliminary documentation (January 2019), there are two major CYBIS systems running. CYBER1.ORG and IRATA.ONLINE.
(from the PLATO wikipedia page:)
PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), was the first generalized computer-asisted instruction system. Starting in 1960, it ran on the University of Illinois ILLIAC I computer. By the late 1970s, it supported several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing were originally developed on PLATO, including forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multi-player games.
CYBER1.ORG is a CYBIS system initially set up in 2004, as a haven for ex-PLATO users to experience a classic PLATO author experience.
CYBER1.ORG is home to many thousands of classic PLATO lessons and notesfiles which have been restored from various sources, and have been made available in the interests of preserving PLATO.
IRATA.ONLINE is a CYBIS system that has been set up for the benefit of the greater vintage computing community, in the interest to provide a unique experience that can be accessed on a wide variety of vintage computers with a bitmapped graphics display. To this end, IRATA.ONLINE develops PLATOTerm for dozens of platforms, so that they can access CYBIS systems, as well as provide a community and learning infrastructure for vintage computing users of all types, in the hopes that as a cohesive community, something unique can hopefully emerge.
CYBER1.ORG and IRATA.ONLINE are independent of one another. With that said, the reason IRATA.ONLINE and PLATOTerm exist, are because of the efforts of CYBER1.ORG to not only preserve a running PLATO system, and provide the necessary information for interested parties to write terminal software to access CYBIS systems, but also in their effort to produce a publically available distribution of CYBIS that others who are interested may also run their own CYBIS installation. IRATA.ONLINE is a direct result of the public release of this distribution.
PLATOTerm99 can be loaded using option 5 of the Editor/Assembler cartridge. The filename is PLATO
This Pre-release version of PLATOTerm99 is configured for the following settings:
- RS232 Port 1
- 1200 Baud
- No Parity
- 8 Data Bits
- 1 Stop Bit
Once PLATOTerm is started, you can connect to CYBER1.ORG using your WIFI modem, using a command such as:
ATDTIRATA.ONLINE:8005
Once PLATOTerm is started, you can connect to CYBER1.ORG using your WIFI modem, using a command such as:
ATDTCYBERSERV.ORG:8005
The PLATO keyboard is mapped to the Atari keys, like so:
| PLATO KEY | TI Key |
|---|---|
| ANS | CTRL A |
| BACK | FCTN 9 |
| SHIFT-BACK | CTRL 9 |
| COPY | FCTN 1 |
| SHIFT-COPY | CTRL 1 |
| DATA | FCTN 2 |
| SHIFT-DATA | CTRL 2 |
| EDIT | FCTN 5 |
| SHIFT-EDIT | CTRL 5 |
| ERASE | FCTN S |
| SHIFT-ERASE | CTRL S |
| FONT | CTRL F |
| ÷ | CTRL 8 |
| HELP | FCTN H |
| SHIFT-HELP | CTRL H |
| LAB | FCTN L |
| SHIFT-LAB | CTRL L |
| MICRO | FCTN M |
| NEXT | ENTER |
| SHIFT-NEXT | FCTN ; |
| SUPER | FCTN N |
| SHIFT-SUPER | CTRL N |
| SQUARE | FCTN Q |
| ACCESS | CTRL Q |
| STOP | FCTN 0 |
| SHIFT-STOP | CTRL 0 |
| TERM | FCTN 3 |
| × | FCTN 8 |
| SUB | FCTN B |
| SHIFT-SUB | CTRL B |
| SIGMA | FCTN + |
| DELTA | FCTN - |
| ASSIGN | FCTN 4 |
| UNION | FCTN 7 |
| INTERSECT | CTRL 7 |
- '''Thomas Cherryhomes''' - Terminal coding, sleepless nights.
- '''Steve Peltz''' - original PAD protocol decoder from MacPAD.
- '''Ron Klein''' - Testing, testing, and more testing
- '''Gregory McGill''' - Testing, keyboard mapping help
- '''Tursi''' - libti99, and the needed rs232 routines
- '''jedimatt42''' - TIPI support code.
- '''insomniac''' - GCC for TI