The FujiNet team gathered together in Schaumburg Illinois September 6-8, 2024 for the Vintage Computer Festival 19. It was the first time some of us met in person even though we’ve know each other for years working together online and at the same time old friends getting to see each other again. VCFMW 19 outgrew itself from last year and moved to a massively larger venue which was amazing.

The FujiNet table showed a new cross platform demo called Bounce World by FujiNet Lib creator Mark Fisher. The virtual Bounce World has a server that runs on a modern computer and the retro clients get current world data from it for display. The clients show moving shapes that bounce off each other and move throughout the world which stretches across the displays of each client.

In typical FujiNet fashion, the team got some real work done together over the weekend. Andy Diller had his heart set on getting FujiNet for Foenix Retro Systems working and enlisted the help of Mr Pitre. For the first time FujiNet was able to communicate with NitrOS-9 running on the F256 using the already implemented Drivewire protocol. Drivewire is also used for the Tandy Color Computer FujiNet.

Jaime Idolpx and Retro Tech Dan did some digging into the IEC driver used by both Meatloaf and FujiNet

Jeff Piepmeier and Thomas Cherryhomes work on making the ESP32-S3 play nice with FujiNet firmware

Jeff Piepmeier (far left) on a panel about making modern hardware for vintage computers

Work continues on the FujiNet Game Lobby and support for the Commodore 64 platform has begun. The Atari 8 platform gets an updated version of the FujiNet enabled Reversi BASIC game client and is now available to play from the Lobby. We are working on a new chat server for the Lobby so people can get acquainted before starting a new game.

Check out Andy’s post at atariorbit.org for more info and pictures of the new game clients and lobby

You can now load the FujiNet game lobby client on your Atari from the fujinet.online TNFS server at fujinet.online/ATARI/_lobby.xex. This coming July 4th we will be having a “game day” to celebrate so come join us for a fun night of poker!

Currently, the only game available is 5 Card Stud Poker by Eric Carr. There are several “tables” or “rooms” available and some containing bots to play against. Any game server can register with the lobby server by following the documentation at http://fujinet.online:8080/docs. You can also see how many people are playing by pointing your browser to http://fujinet.online:8080

The 5 Card Stud card game and Lobby was created to show the possibilities of FujiNet. We hope others can use this example and make other new games so we can enjoy using our retro machines together in this connected world we now live. While the 5 Card Stud game and Lobby client are currently only supported on Atari, clients can be written for other FujiNet platforms facilitating multi-platform retro gaming.

Lobby server source code:
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/servers/tree/main/lobby

5 Card Stud server source code:
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/servers/tree/main/5cardstud

Lobby client source code:
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-apps/tree/master/lobby

5 Card Stud client source code:
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-apps/tree/master/5cardstud

Thomas Cherryhomes and Jaime Idolpx attended VCFSW 2023 to show off the FujiNet and Meatloaf projects. On display was the upcoming FujiNet for Apple 2 Revision 1 hardware, the “FujiLoaf” prototype hardware for the Commodore 64, the FujiNet / Meatloaf “Nugget” for Commodore IEC (VIC-20, Plus/4, 64, 128), FujiNet for Atari Lynx and of course the original FujiNet for Atari 8-Bit

Thomas also gave a talk about the past, present and future of FujiNet:

Pictures from the event:

FujiNet also got a shout out from Bo Zimmerman in his talk “Beyond the BBS”:

The first batch of 10 PCBs for the Apple II FujiNet have arrived! Initial tests look good on my Apple IIe with Grappler+ SmartPort card using the DB19 disk controller. Several units have been assembled and headed out to others with IIc, IIc+ and IIgs systems for further testing.

This design allows you to use the FujiNet in one of two ways. You can connect the custom DB19 adapter into the FujiNet and it will plug directly into the back of the Apple IIc or IIc+, just like the Atari FujiNet connects to the SIO port.

For other systems where the FujiNet does not fit vertically, you can use the same custom DB19 adapter with a 20 pin cable, or just a regular 20 pin IDC cable directly into the Disk II controller.

An audio out port is on this test board but we’re unsure if it will remain. The Atari FujiNet has audio output that is piped directly from the ESP32 through the SIO port into the systems POKEY sound chip. Since the Apple II has no sound input, one would need an external amplifier and speakers.

Stay tuned for more updates on testing progress!