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Simulant Retro WiFi SI

REVIEW FIELD TEST

t’s a dark and rainy night in the mid-

1980s. The CRT TV is the only light source,

casting its blue rays across a Commodore 64.

Someone types ‘ATDT’ into the keyboard,

followed by a telephone number. A hidden

modem springs to life, talking digitised

squabble to another computer at the end of the

telephone line. Seconds later, the C64 is connected

to some remote BBS, and eight-colour ASCII art

scrolls across the display, presenting a menu for

news, message boards, and games. This is 1980s

cutting-edge connectivity, the internet of its day.

Decades later, very few dial-up bulletin board

systems (BBSs) remain. But there is a growing

trend to resurrect old BBSs from their last backups

and make them accessible again – and the only

way to really experience them is from one of those

old computers. But those old computers are barely

capable of connecting to anything, let alone running

TCP/IP for internet access. Simulant’s Retro WiFi SI

solves this problem in a 3D-printed case embedding

a stack of wires and an ESP8266 chip. It connects

to an old serial port, either

9-pin or 25-pin (with an

adapter), takes 5 V of

micro USB power, and

runs an open-source

firmware that operates

exactly like an old-

fashioned modem.

This lets you use

original terminal

software to send

the same ‘Hayes

AT’ commands to make

connections. But there’s

one big difference: instead

of negotiating a connection

I

Simulant Retro WiFi SI

across a telephone line, this little box negotiates

connections via your WiFi network.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of firing up

your old terminal emulator, perhaps for the first time

in two decades, and tentatively setting the serial

port to 1200 baud. Yes, that’s 1200 bits per second.

Then typing ‘AT’... if all is well, ‘OK’ appears, and

you’ve been instantly transported back in time. Type

‘AT+CONFIG’ to access a menu system, allowing

you to connect to the wireless network and save

common phone numbers, sorry, domain names and

ports. There are plenty of additional AT commands

too, including comprehensive control over carriage

returns, updating firmware, and hardware flow

control. You change the serial speed with ATB, and

we had great success on an Amiga 4000 running

at 115 200 bps. You can then connect

directly to any Telnet server,

including those hosting an

old BBS, or servers on your

own machines. It works

perfectly, and while we

question the ‘no returns’

warranty and the lack of

a bundled power supply

and USB cable, the simple

joy and utility the Simulant

Retro WiFi SI brings to old

computers makes it worth

the asking price.

By Graham Morrison @degville

A brilliant way

to give your

retro computer

a little online

company.

9 / 10

VERDICT

Left

Access many Telnet-

based servers and

BBSs, and even run

your own, from the

original hardware

via WiFi

Left

The Retro WiFi’s

case is 3D-printed,

takes micro USB

power, and includes

a switch to reset all

its settings

Re-live those misspent nights of bulletin board chats

SIMULANT £32.99 simulant.uk