Emulatron E6
Dial into simulated vintage systems, interpreters, games, information services, and packet radio from a browser terminal.
Emulatron E6 turns the browser into a retro terminal with a phonebook full of things to call. Dial a number, listen to the modem negotiate, and arrive at a small system that behaves like it belongs to an earlier network.
What you can dial
- Apollo Lander — the default public line, with a terminal-based lunar landing simulation
- Weather Information Service — Edmonton forecasts, cached in the browser for when the API is unavailable
- BASIC — a line-numbered interpreter ready for small programs
- Forth — an interactive Forth environment
- ELIZA — the 1966 conversational program, waiting to ask how that makes you feel
- Pioneer Trail — an Oregon Trail-inspired survival game
- Canada Goose Simulator — honk, steal snacks, raise goslings, and become a migration problem
Each program has a direct-launch link as well as a number, so visitors can dial through the terminal or jump straight to a particular system. The phonebook itself is laid out as a 1986 BBS directory, complete with baud rates.
Packet radio
The packet station recreates a small local AX.25 network entirely in the browser. Two virtual TNCs connect to a BBS, a node console, and a weather service using ordinary packet commands. No signal leaves the device, so the protocol becomes something you can watch instead of something you have to imagine.
A collection of machines
Behind the terminal are emulated processors, interpreters, storage devices, audio hardware, and old network ideas ranging from Bell modems to Canada’s DATAPAC packet-switched network. The directory has grown to the point where a TI CC-40, a VIC-20, an Intel 8008, a Z-machine story file, and a goose all have their own numbers.