Doubled chars on virtual null modem for battle chess

[jaymanu]

Hello all
I'm trying to connect 2 instances of fs-uae on ubuntu talk to each other.
Actually, I would like them to play battle chess one against the other via null-modem.
The goal is analyzing the protocol, in the idea of creating an UCI adapter in order to be able to play this retro game with modern chess engines or chess GUIs.


So I'm getting an issue. I set UAE1 to "Modem plays blue" and UAE2 to "Modem plays red". But they won't communicate properly, the moves are not sent, and all received text input is doubled: This game allows to type short messages which are sent and displayed on the remote game. If I type for example "hello", the other side will display "hheelloooo".


I tried different solutions,

- with tcpconnect and 2 tcp ports, linked by fifos

- with socat, raw link between 2 virtual serial ports
- with telnet and a tcp port to a single game


In all those configs, if I type any ASCII text, it will get doubled ("hi" > "hhii") while displayed on the receiving game
Not doubled while emitting, only on receiving side.

Did anyone already experienced such doubling ? I suppose it could explain why the moves are not correctly received. (the moves are sent in binary, not ascii)

Thanks

[jaymanu]

Well, I'm not sure if I understood well the workings of FS UAE serial port.
In amiga side, i do a "newshell aux:"
Well, I'm not sure if I understood well the workings of FS UAE serial port.
In amiga side, i do a "newshell aux:"
Then I see "new shell task" message, but my commands are not executed

Also, while using AZComm amiga tool, i see amiga typing on the PC in real time, but what I type on the PC only appears one line at a time after having pressed enter.
Is that an expected behaviour ? Or do I need to do some additional setting to achieve realtime 2-way serial communication ?

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by jaymanu

... but what I type on the PC only appears one line at a time after having pressed enter.
Is that an expected behaviour ? Or do I need to do some additional setting to achieve realtime 2-way serial communication ?

This is likely not a bug, but an issue due to your terminal/console on the host side buffering data until you press enter (line buffering). You'll need to disable this if you want each key press to be sent immediately. I don't know off the top of my head how to do this, and it also depends on what application you're using to send serial data.

[jaymanu]

Thanks for the feedback


I'm planning on using Python in order to process the chess moves and translate them to modern UCI protocol.



I believe the character doubling to be an issue with how Battle Chess addresses the serial port input. Because I don't get such doubling with AZComm.


My first step would be to have 2 instances of FS UAE talking to each other. As i actually did back in the days with 2 amigas and a null modem cable.
But this doesn't work unfortunately, so I can't go further right now.


2d step would have been, put some logger in between and analyze the Battle Chess protocol.
I don't know about another chess game providing serial play, at least Chessmasster doesn't.