56K External Modem on Amiga in 2025

[YouKnowWho]

Don't mean to brag, but not long ago I bought a box of 2,500 continuous tractor feed sheets and introduced a Panasonic 24pin dot matrix colour printer into my setup for that authentic early 90s feel and unlimited banner capability. Printing is an event now, and these printer companies today can't ever brick my printer with some nonsense firmware update.

And now I'm looking at all these lovely external 56K modems out there, I'm starting to get tempted to really take this back to the 90s. And so a few questions, if you don't mind.

1) Is there a list of Amiga games out there or that you remember that one can play over a modem connection? Some favourites?
2) Are there worthy Amiga games you remember that one can play over a modem against a PC or a Mac user as well?
3) Are there any dial-up BBSes still running today in 2025? Is there a list?
4) Any of you guys out there 56K modem "living it up?"

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I properly used a 56k dialup modem back in 1999 on an A1200.

Not used one since then.

I am in the UK and currently all the old copper telephone wires are being phased out, so no landline or any way to hook
up a dialup modem.

I did some digging a while back and discovered I can now is to use a Cisco SPA122 VoIP ATA that pretty much emulates a landline via ethernet.

I have yet to try it, but from what I learnt, it gives you all the same old feeling and sounds of dialup via a genuine external modem
I bought a couple 56k modems, got all the cabling just need to finish up building the amiga im refurbing.

As for the rest of the list!

I would be very interested in finding any BBS dialups, I did have one saved somewhere, but lost the link
I am also interested in if the Cisco adaptor would allow game-linkups, that would be awesome

 

[Aeberbach]

I also have an Epson LQ and tractor paper, it's great!

But a 56k modem - doesn't the Amiga standard serial port top out at 19k2? I think 56k downloads might have required a third party serial port card with a 16550 buffer, also an accelerator in the machine.

(In Australia there is also now no compatible landline for modem use. I started with a 1200 baud modem, it's what really got me into computers. Before too long I had a dedicated phone line into my bedroom and since it was through a new digital exchange and connected faster than most phones I started winning radio station competitions too, but that's another story.)

 

[qz3fwd]

I have had the nostalgia of reliving my modem days, but the hassle of setting it up to be functional caused me to put it to the back burner.

Remember the days of leaving your modem connected overnight to download that multi-megabyte file only to find someone picked up the phone in the household and caused the DL to fail. Those were the days.

 

[Aeberbach]

I remember the days of trying to get into the multi-line BBS, and when it was busy calling a few numbers I knew so that the call waiting tones would disconnect the callee, so I could then dial in. Worked every time

 

[YouKnowWho]

@ElectroBlaster - good point, many of us no longer even have the option of a ground line, and often they are unreasonably expensive to convince you to not keep it. Glad to hear that modems have no issues working on VoIP lines.

@Aeberbach, thanks for the serial limit reminder! Indeed, I guess we just found something to put in a Zorro II slot to address the issue. Otherwise, need to put a speed limit on that 56K modem on built-in regular serial port.

@qz3fwd - often, BBSes gave you a time limit unless you paid for more. Sometimes maybe those longer downloads would disconnect you from the other end as well, manually or for some reason. AOL - 50 Hours FREE! The things we've put up with. Back then they were trying to limit you and get you off-line, now they do everything they can to keep you on-line and "engaged." But if you think about it, we were mostly online to make our computers better by downloading utilities, drivers, software, and yes...games. We were doing self-support and of course learning more about our computers. Basically, back then to be on-line you had to earn it and clear a bar of computer knowledge. Today....you have to clear pressing an icon with your finger. Anyone remember recording software onto cassette from a radio broadcast? WI-FI mass download stream.

Going online with a BBS would be sweet today. I mean, in a small group someone could set one up for fun, if they have a phone line. What would be even cooler is to try some of those modem connected Amiga games, if any good ones are out there. Chess game of some sort is out there for sure. I remember I did this vs. thing on some PC games after I moved on from my beloved 2000 back in 1995, but surely there were modem-connected games on the Amiga...but any good ones?

...by the way...18M views on this video.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I am going to look through youtube as there is a brilliant video that goes through the whole process, its buried in my video history somewhere.
Could probably find it easily enough just by searching the cisco adaptor.

The adaptor pretty much acts like it is your isp! you can create your own phone number, which the dialup modem just sees like it always did back in the day
and will dial it! hence all the old-school sounds.

I am currently looking for the power supply for mine as typically I always spread things around loosing bits lol

EDIT: I have found the video!

 

[ncafferkey]

Regarding serial port speed limits, another option is PCMCIA modems. Most work with the two drivers that are on Aminet (pccardserial and pcmser).

 

[YouKnowWho]

@ncafferkey - Another option is a null modem cable, which I just tripped over after search and I said to myself "of course", with obvious limitations. But it lead to a list of modem games:

Amiga Future

German & English print magazine for Commodore Amiga

www.amigafuture.de

 

[bdb]

I believe that Jim Drew sells a serial to WiFi dongle that connects, via the serial port, to your router. I haven't spent time looking up how one then goes online, but I'm sure others may have. It is listed as the WiModem232.

 

[0x0386]

If you search on the Etsy site for 'Simple Wifi RS232 Modem v2' you'll find a serial-to-wifi modem with a DB25 connector. To the computer, it's just a modem, which means you can use any terminal program that you'd use back in the day. The onboard ESP connects to your wifi. Aeberbach is correct in that you need 16550 UARTs to reach speeds above 57k6 (at least that is where my 386DX40 topped out, might be different for Amigas).

If you're looking to modify an external modem (like a Hayes Optima or USR Sportster), you can have a look here: https://tempestfpga.com/retromodem/

I have both the Etsy modem and the Hayes replacement board, both are great fun to use