9/7/2020 Full disclosure. These are videos of me playing a 30 year old game (Version 2 Wide Beta 5) on my original IBM XT 5155. Its slow. The sound is terrible. I'm literally pointing a camera at a monitor since no capture card will work in the only VGA mode the computer is capable of.
Yes, it is glorious, but only ~70% of what you will see in the current game.
Tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.com is a much faster multiplayer game with online chat and the ability to play cooperatively or attack other online players. It also doesn't take 60 seconds to calculate a route.
Know what you are doing? Congrats! (I do not.) I set up an SSH server in front of the Tradewars server. To quickly get into the game use these settings:
ssh tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.comtradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.com's password:KalDurak!Wait, did I just give you my password? Yes, but that just gets you a game session. You will still need to enter your name, select <A> Safe Haven BBS from the game server menu, and then enter your password. Welcome to Tradewars 2002! Have fun, don't blow up my stuff!
Windows 10 Command Prompt Example
C:\>ssh tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.comThe authenticity of host 'tw2002.givepics.com (...)' can't be established.ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:(...)Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yesWarning: Permanently added 'tw2002.givepics.com,47.12.101.164' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.com's password:Any Linux Terminal Example
mint@mint:$ ssh tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.comThe authenticity of host 'tw2002.givepics.com (...)' can't be established.ECDSA key fingerprint is (...)Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yesWarning: Permanently added 'tw2002.givepics.com,47.12.101.164' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.com's password:The ANSI Graphics don't look right?
In Windows 10 I found the SSH Putty client would display the ANSI graphics correctly with the settings below.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions\TW2002]"Present"=dword:00000001"HostName"="tradewars2002@tw2002.givepics.com""Protocol"="ssh""PortNumber"=dword:00000016"BackspaceIsDelete"=dword:00000000"MouseIsXterm"=dword:00000001"LineCodePage"="CP437"*I* am not editing my registry settings based on what some weirdo suggests on the Internet.
That is hurtful. Technically the correct answer and how you should live on the Internet, but hurtful. Once in game, you can go into your "C" computer settings and select "N" for personal settings to turn off the ANSI graphics and animations. With those disabled you can use just about any terminal you want, without random gibberish routinely sent to your screen. It doesn't do anything about weirdos on the Internet, unless you post about it online, then you will certainly meet some.
Computer command [TL=00:00:00]:[14640] (?=Help)? N<Set ANSI and misc settings>(1) ANSI graphics - On(2) Animation display - Off(3) Page on messages - Off(4) Sub-space radio channel - 0(5) Federation comm-link - On(6) Receive private hails - Yes(7) Silence ALL messages - No(8) Change Password(9) Abort display on keys - SPACE(A) Message Display Mode - Long(B) Screen Pauses - No(C) Online Auto Flee - On(E) Sector Autoreturn - OffSettings command (?=Help) [Q]