So I've spent some time installing and configuring every possible iteration
of a centralized "door server" that seems to exist publicly. My notes:

GameSrv: Clear winner in terms of out-of-the-box utility. But as a linux
user, it requires me to run in Ubuntu 14.04, which is long past its support lifetime.

I'm able to run this on Google Cloud Platform and with VirtualBox, but
only with some digging to find available install options for 14.04.

But once installed, it *mostly* works pretty awesomely. I say mostly:
- Some doors, like LORD, took re-configuring
- Others, like Death Masters, simply won't run out of the box

It has the advantage of seamless host-system integration: users can be created automatically, and you can restrict RLogin access by IP address.

SBBS "door server" mode: it's not seamless--for me, was a bit jarring and obvious you are sending users to a different system. With the right config, users would never know they are leaving your BBS.

As a stand-alone option, Enigma 1/2 has great docs and BIFROST to run Win32 doors--plus built-in support for other Game Servers like DoorParty! and BBSLink, etc. But integration wise, like SBBS, it would require an account creation step that doesn't make sense if you are looking for integration.

For me, what really sells GameSrv is it's native ability to run DOS games. Takes some Dosemu fiddling, but it just (mostly) works.

What would be killer is--making GameSrv linux native (vs mono) and the ability to support modern Ubuntu versions--e.g. 18.04.

Cheers!

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

Oh, and you can check out a "bone stock" implementation of GameSrv from Card
& Claw's Door menu [D]. Haven't updated any screens, but it's pretty seamless IMHO. Register as a new user, you'll be be auto-approved FYI.

I also get some "why do you need a door server when things like BBSLink and DoorParty exist?" type questions.

Answer: I wants me own doors, I have multiple BBSs and I grow tired of configin' doors for each one :)

Game on!

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

On 05 Mar 2020, Alpha said the following...

I also get some "why do you need a door server when things like BBSLink and DoorParty exist?" type questions.

Answer: I wants me own doors, I have multiple BBSs and I grow tired of configin' doors for each one :)

This is exactly why I put together my Door Server, I run a CNet Amiga board
and a Mystic, once CNet has RLOGIN capabilities it will run on both of them seemlessly. If I decide to put up another PC board like SynchroNet again it will be seemless..

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

GameSrv: Clear winner in terms of out-of-the-box utility. But as a linux user, it requires me to run in Ubuntu 14.04, which is long past its support lifetime.

Is it opensource? Can we update it to work with modern components?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

GameSrv: Clear winner in terms of out-of-the-box utility. But
as a linux user, it requires me to run in Ubuntu 14.04, which
is long past its support lifetime.

Is it opensource? Can we update it to work with modern components?

I'm pretty sure it is.. it's on github.

Andrew

--- MagickaBBS v0.13alpha (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand - telnet://magickabbs.com:2023/ (21:1/126)

Is it opensource? Can we update it to work with modern components?

It's on github - https://github.com/rickparrish/GameSrv

A mono library is the main barrier at this point.

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

A mono library is the main barrier at this point.

Why not just pin the lib to an earlier version using a newer version of
Ubuntu?

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://scinet-ftn.org

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (21:4/154)

I'm pretty sure it is.. it's on github.

Quick glance and I don't see anything related to linux...

Is this https://github.com/rickparrish/GameSrv ?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

It's on github - https://github.com/rickparrish/GameSrv

A mono library is the main barrier at this point.

Ah, nice. Where are the instructions for running on Ubuntu 14.04?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

Ah, nice. Where are the instructions for running on Ubuntu 14.04?

I reached out the Rick, but he told me he didn't really have the time to revisit this old repo. So I just rummaged around in the files and came up
with this easy way to install from bone-stock Ubuntu 14.04:

- download the zip file from the /bin folder in the Githib repo
- extract to /gamesrv (paths are hard-coded unfortunately)
- chmod +x install.sh and start.sh
- sudo ./install.sh
- edit /config/gamesrv.ini to set ports (it uses privbind but I still had to use ports > 1000 to get it to work)
- tweak /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf and /root/.dosemu/drive_c/autoexec.bat to
your needs (e.g. so you can run dosemu to install new dos door)
- ./start.sh

The other files in /config folder are pretty well documented. I'd ignore the actual /docs folder -- super out dated.

Hope that helps!

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

Why not just pin the lib to an earlier version using a newer version of Ubuntu?

I didn't know this was possible. I'll dig in :)

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

I reached out the Rick, but he told me he didn't really have the time to revisit this old repo. So I just rummaged around in the files and came up with this easy way to install from bone-stock Ubuntu 14.04:

Sweet deal. Thanks! I'll see what I can work out later today.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

I reached out the Rick, but he told me he didn't really have the time to revisit this old repo. So I just rummaged around in the files and came up with this easy way to install from bone-stock Ubuntu 14.04:

Hey Alpha, I got this to work in Ubuntu 18.04. I haven't really tested it
much, though, so would love if you or someone else wants to test.

Grab the zip file https://github.com/rickparrish/GameSrv/blob/master/bin/GameSrv_v.zip

Create a directory /gamesrv (yes, directly on your root partition). Become
root and unzip all files to that directory.

sudo su
mkdir /gamesrv
cd /gamesrv
unzip <path/to/zipfile>

Modify install.sh. Change the apt-get line to say:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install build-essential cpulimit libglib2.0-dev mono-reference-assemblies-2.0 mono-devel libmono-cil-dev

Then scroll down to around line 70is. You'll want to add a line between the './configure' command and 'make'. I'll paste those three lines as they should look for clarity:

[ snip ]
./configure --prefix=/usr LIBS=lglib-2.0
sed -i 's/gmcs/mcs/g' pty/Makefile
make
[ snip ]

Then change ports or whatever else in /gamesrv/config/gamesrv.ini
Tweak /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf as needed for BBS doors on linux (many
resources already to pick for this information on the web)
Tweak /root/.dosemu/drive_c/autoexec.bat so that you, as root, can use the
same directories and stuff to install doors

Then, as root
./start.sh

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

Better yet (re: gamesrv) check out https://github.com/ryanfantus/GameSrv-linux

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

Better yet (re: gamesrv) check out https://github.com/ryanfantus/GameSrv-linux

Wow, fantastic! I'll spin this up and report back. Awesome.

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

Better yet (re: gamesrv) check out https://github.com/ryanfantus/GameSrv-linux

Hey Ryan, I did a quick install on an existing Ubunut 18.04 box. First pass notes!!

- Needed to apt install privbind as ./start.sh still uses it and wasn't installed during the deps process (bunch of errors when running mono without it)
- After that, telnet/RLogin/etc/ servers started up as expected
- Telnet in, after connect the main ansi screen had odd line breaks that made them render each line in a kind of stagger, diagonally (could be a term
setting on my end)
- None of the doors would actually launch, just black screens, then exit back to the Door menu. Log shows Dosemu commands being executed, tho

I'll try on a fresh 18.04 VM just in case it's something peculiar to my setup.

Once again, thanks! Super excited this is close.

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

Once again, thanks! Super excited this is close.

Hey Alpha,

I can't get it to "answer" my telnet requests. The servers start up and then
I try to connect and get "Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'." Then it drops every time.

Very bizarre *shrug*

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

Better yet (re: gamesrv) check out https://github.com/ryanfantus/GameSrv-linux

Quick update... Installed on a fresh 18.04 instance--all those other problems went away -- Woot!

Just the usual GameSrv issues of some games working out of the box, some not
so much.

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

Quick update... Installed on a fresh 18.04 instance--all those other problems went away -- Woot!

Nice! Maybe I'll try that on another VM. Can't hurt, I guess.

Am I to understand this enables running synchronet js games?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

I can't get it to "answer" my telnet requests. The servers start up and then I try to connect and get "Connected to localhost. Escape character
is '^]'." Then it drops every time.

Yeah, that's odd. Here's my 18.04 fresh install:

206.189.76.122 port 2023

Another odd thing, TW2002 doesn't load on 18.04, but does on 14.04.

|08.|07..|15.. |11Alpha |07- |11Card & Claw BBS
|08.|07..|15.. |03fsxNet AgoraNet GameNet SciNet Fidonet
|08.|07..|15.. |05Doorparty! |07/ |05Local Doors |07/ |05Board Game Discussion |08.|07..|15.. |13Join |07@ |13cardandclaw.com|07:|138888

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/02/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Card & Claw BBS | Analog Gaming: Board Games, RPGs (21:4/158)

206.189.76.122 port 2023

I actually got it to work. I just spun up a brand new VM and installed it
from scratch and connect directly from one VM to the other. Works a treat. :)

Another odd thing, TW2002 doesn't load on 18.04, but does on 14.04.

Yeah, that's because DPMI in dosemu doesn't work any more. I don't think
it'll be back, either. BUT...I run TWGS in xorg via wine and it works
perfectly (better if you ask me).

Does GameSrv launch javascript synchronet games?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

Re: Re: Door server recap
By: ryan to Alpha on Thu Mar 05 2020 22:00:04

Does GameSrv launch javascript synchronet games?

I don't think so. My understanding is that it uses some portions of Synchronet to support launching true external programs (doors) and do FOSSIL stuff.

To reliably run Synchronet JS modules (which are kind of in a fuzzy not-really-external and not-doors space) it would need to bring in all of Synchronet's JS environment and API, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

---
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
* Origin: electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com (21:1/164)

To reliably run Synchronet JS modules (which are kind of in a fuzzy not-really-external and not-doors space) it would need to bring in all of Synchronet's JS environment and API, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

Ah. Yeah. Yikes. Think you're right. :/

That said, I wonder how easy it would be to strip synchronet down to the bare essentials to do something like this...

I'd love to be able to launch synchronet javascript games from mystic, more
or less. How feasible is that?

Someone is creating that very thing right now for the sake of MajorBBS doors
- https://majorbbsemu.com - which I'm very excited about. If I can convince
the guy to add TBBS compatibility... :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

Re: Re: Door server recap
By: ryan to echicken on Thu Mar 05 2020 23:57:44

That said, I wonder how easy it would be to strip synchronet down to the

bare

I'd love to be able to launch synchronet javascript games from mystic,

more

or less. How feasible is that?

Approaching feasibility.

There's JSDoor, which you can think of as the stripped-down Synchronet you were
talkng about. If you're familiar with Synchronet, it's somewhat akin to 'jsexec', which lets you execute a Synchronet JS file in a standalone manner. This is the executable that Mystic (or whatever else) would launch in order to run the JS game. I imagine a command line like "jsdoor /path/to/some_game.js".

Then there's Dorkit, which is the JS framework that games must be designed around, using its IO methods etc. in order to run properly under JSDoor.

This is at least my rough understanding of JSDoor and Dorkit. I may be wrong in
places.

For whatever reason, and I'm sure Deuce had his reasons, JSDoor/Dorkit apparently doesn't expose the same JS API that Synchronet does. Methods have different names, maybe different signatures, etc. A game written for Synchronet
won't "just work" in JSDoor.

The only game I'm aware of that works with JSDoor right now is Deuce's port of LORD.

I don't think it would be *difficult* to rejig existing games so that they'll work with Dorkit, but some will be easier than others. I also don't think Dorkit is documented, so that means digging around in it to figure out what's what, and then spending a bunch of time tweaking existing games. I dunno, maybe
one day that will sound like my idea of a good time, but I don't think I'll be
jumping on it any time soon.

If I write a new game for Synchronet in the future, I'll probably start with Dorkit in mind. I've got enough projects on the go now that I probably won't be
doing that in the near future.

---
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
* Origin: electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com (21:1/164)

This is at least my rough understanding of JSDoor and Dorkit. I may be wrong in places.

Thanks for the explanation; that's helpful.

For whatever reason, and I'm sure Deuce had his reasons, JSDoor/Dorkit apparently doesn't expose the same JS API that Synchronet does. Methods have different names, maybe different signatures, etc. A game written
for Synchronet won't "just work" in JSDoor.

That's a bummer. So, forwards compatibility only. Oh well.

The only game I'm aware of that works with JSDoor right now is Deuce's port of LORD.

This is the one thing I'm not in need of :P

I don't think it would be *difficult* to rejig existing games so that they'll work with Dorkit, but some will be easier than others. I also don't think Dorkit is documented, so that means digging around in it to figure out what's what, and then spending a bunch of time tweaking existing games. I dunno, maybe one day that will sound like my idea of a good time, but I don't think I'll be jumping on it any time soon.

Deuce does great work. It's no mystery devs have a reputation for neglecting documentation...which I'd say has been rather consistent with Deuce hehe.
Even some of the "built for linux" stuff on doors.bbsdev.net is stale as hell and nobody can figure out how to make work at this point, and there are
really no docs.

That said I don't think this would be worth the time. I don't think the
catalog of synchronet js doorgames is extensive enough to differentiate them from what's already available, say to the degree that majorbbs or something truly unique would offer.

Honestly the coolest game I've seen is the one you made with the chicken
that's fairly arcade style.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

would launch in order to run the JS game. I imagine a command line like "jsdoor /path/to/some_game.js".

Correct. I use it with Mystic and the LORD port works great.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://scinet-ftn.org

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (21:4/154)

Re: Re: Door server recap
By: ryan to echicken on Fri Mar 06 2020 12:12:14

That said I don't think this would be worth the time. I don't think the catalog of synchronet js doorgames is extensive enough to differentiate

them

from what's already available, say to the degree that majorbbs or

something

truly unique would offer.

There are probably a few Synchronet games that are novel enough to be interesting, but I don't think it's *really* worth the effort. If someone wants
to play them, they could just call a Synchronet board.

It might be kind of cool if we did use a portable scripting thing like JSDoor to let people quickly write games that would run on multiple platforms. Scripting has a lower barrier to entry and, I dunno, maybe we'd see more new stuff.

Honestly the coolest game I've seen is the one you made with the chicken that's fairly arcade style.

Which was more of a demo / proof of concept. I don't really do text games, but I thought it'd be fun to try to do a sprite-based thing on a BBS. Then I wrote a Star Trek one which was actually a jokey response to $ somebody $ vaguely requesting some games he'd like to see written. I did a Pac-Man thing as well.

Most of my games are junk. I wrote a game called Lemons which is kind of neat on its own merit (a Lemmings knock-off), and a trivia game called Jeopardized which is probably the most traditional BBS game I ever did. Those two are okay-ish.

---
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
* Origin: electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com (21:1/164)

Hello echicken,

Most of my games are junk. I wrote a game called Lemons which is kind
of neat on its own merit (a Lemmings knock-off), and a trivia game
called Jeopardized which is probably the most traditional BBS game I
ever did. Those two are okay-ish.

Jeopardized is actually above the level of OKish. It's quite good I would say.

Another issue I have since I don't have a lot of users is that the games seem empty. If we could come up with a way of inter connecting these doors it would be great, although I'm not sure how that can be done between different BBS types.

The method Synchronet uses works well but I don't know if that can be done with
other BBS types.

Ttyl :-),
Al

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)

Re: Door server recap
By: Al to echicken on Fri Mar 06 2020 13:36:58

Another issue I have since I don't have a lot of users is that the games

seem

empty. If we could come up with a way of inter connecting these doors it

would

be great, although I'm not sure how that can be done between different BBS types.

The method Synchronet uses works well but I don't know if that can be done

with

other BBS types.

Some of these games use the JSON-DB service, for which the server-side is Synchronet-only at the moment. You could run the game on whatever BBS, but they'd probably need to connect to a Synchronet system for some features. It may be possible to run this service via jsexec or even jsdoor, though, and maybe it could be packaged up for standalone use.

---
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
* Origin: electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com (21:1/164)