MuffinTerm – A Full Featured Terminal Emulator For MacOS and iOS

Back in October of 2014 I blogged about the Electronic Bulletin Board System, or BBS for short and its resurgence on the internet and accessible via TELNET (If you missed it, click HERE..  This blog was followed up in May of 2017 with detailed instructions on how to compile a terminal program called CGTerm for Mac OS, which allowed you to connect with BBSs run on a Commodore 8 bit computer, and use the PETSCII (Also called C/G) character set and color graphics for Mac OS.  This worked well until MacOS Monterey, which had issues with the SDL library would cause the application to crash when entering full screen. (Blog linked HERE.).

  Enter MuffinTerm, released in September of 2022 by Molly Black.  MuffinTerm is a full featured terminal emulator for MacOS (Intel and Apple Silicone) and iOS devices. 

MuffinTerm fully supports ANSI color and screen commands, the IBM Code Page 437 ,PETSCII, and ATTASCI character sets.  Not only is PETSCII supported, but a 40 Column Commodore display is authentically reproduced. 

If you wish to see your BBS session in crisp 80 column a CGA, EGA, or VGA emulated display can also be selected.

File transfers are also support using X-Modem, X-Modem-1k, Y-Modem, Y-Modem-G, and Z-Modem protocols.

  For the Mac OS users out there, I highly recommend using MuffinTerm for your BBS experience, It has everything CGTerm was missing, and has a fully developed UI (No more remember key sequences, or messing with config scripts!).  It will also work on your iPad or iPhone so you can connect to your favorite BBS on the go!   If you want a good laugh, type ATDT <enter> before connecting to a BBS.

  MuffinTerm can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App Store.  If you use your Macintosh to connect to retro BBSs, especially Commodore 64/128 or Atari systems, I HIGHLY recommend this application.  The Author Molly Black has promptly replied to any questions I have had regarding the use of the software, and has provided a great App for the retro BBS community!

  Please visit the Commodore64 BBSs used in this blog.  Nero’s Domain (nerosdomain.online 6400), and The Rat’s Den (bbs.catracing.org 6400).

  Thank you for visiting Brent’s World, and I hope you enjoy the content, tune in next week for another technical blog, where I will walk you through mimicking the original Commodore 64/128 layout for changing color and reverse text using Keyboard Shortcuts in System Settings.

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DISCLAIMER: TELMET is an unsecure nonectrypted protocol.  ALL information sent and received is done so in plain text, use at your OWN RISK!  Do not use passwords on these systems that are shared with ANY other personal account.