I finally managed to get basic networking stuff working on VICE, thanks to another thread on Retrocomputing. I'm now wondering how to setup a Codenet server emulation.
I was able to identify four Codenet implementations.
- The original firmware of RR-Net MK3,
- the alternative firmware for RR-Net MK3,
- the FinalReplay image for the Retro Replay and
- the Turbo Action image for the Retro Replay.
I'm unable to locate an image of the original firmware. I guess it is only shipped with the hardware.
The alternative firmware is available online. The archive contains a disk image with a tool used for flashing the hardware. I believe I could setup the VICE RR-Net Mk3 emulation to extract the image from the flash utility and then use the VICE cartconv utility to convert the image into a cart. However, I did not yet go through the trouble of doing all that. Perhaps that is worth trying.
Setting up Final Replay seemed a bit easier. I first configured IP addresses with the included setip.exe. I then converted the raw image to a crt image with cartconv -t rr -i tfr08.bin -o tfr08.crt. After performing a smart attach in VICE the Final Replay banner was displayed. The included INFO command displayed the configuration correctly. I then run the CODENET command to start the server and got a blinking text READY.. I wonder if this the intended behavior when the server is waiting for instructions. However, I was unable to get a response from the server by sending hand crafted Codenet instructions.
I'm able to start Turbo Action by using cartconv to convert the raw image in similar manner to Final Replay. I then press F7 to get into the command prompt. At this point I can run command HELP to list Turbo Action commands. The networking and Codenet related commands CONF and CODENET are listed but but VICE crashes with Main CPU: Jam if I try to execute either one of them.
