Using a 1978 terminal in 2026 (DEC VT-100) (opens in new tab)

MAME will emulate several terminals. Among them is the vt240.

Here are my links for roms and docs:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/

https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/terminal-simulator/issues/1

https://www.mail-archive.com/simh@trailing-edge.com/msg09086...

https://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Num...

https://simh.trailing-edge.narkive.com/qgzCvrl8/dec-vt-emula...

I have a bunch of PDFs in along with this, and a vt240.zip that must have come from one of the above.

I also used this command line call to get the terminal running with "bitbanger."

  mame -rp . vt240 -window -nothrottle -host null_modem -bitb socket.localhost:2323

I didn't realize how much I had come to rely on Unicode until I created my own VT-100 emulator as part of the Forth language engine (https://github.com/Eccentric-Anomalies/AMC-Forth) in the spacecraft simulator game I'm building. The display is implemented as a shader with the original VT-100 display character set embedded in code, and there is absolutely no support for anything else. Things were going along swimmingly until I realized I just shot myself in the foot when it comes to translating the game to other languages. Sometimes the old ways really did suck. At least that part of the period "feel" is guaranteed to be correct!

I love old terminals and I still have a VT520 which is still very practicable, it can do up to 115200 instead of rhe VT-100's 9600.

But most programs ignore termcap these days which is a huge issue. Running stuff through tmux helps but it's not ideal.

Back in college I ended up rooming with a bunch of unix neck beards and we used a vt320 as our "house control system." It controlled a rack in the basement hooked up to sound systems, tv remote controls for the living room entertainment systems which included a 70in crt monitor that played movie rips from network storage. Fun times.

You can put two of these back to back with the transmit and receiver wires crossed, and type straight from one to the other. Did this as a kid to chat with my little sister in another room.

"generating SIGTERM on Control + C"

That'll be SIGINT, but I understand, he just tests whether we pay attention.

There's a VT520 at my local hackspace which I spent some time getting running with a Pi, it's surprisingly practical - though as the author says the DEC keyboards are atrocious, it's like typing into wet sand.

Every now and then I look for a vt320 from my university days. Still miss the smell of hot dust on CRT electron guns.