Using NXtel On Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android Or IOS

While the ZX Spectrum Next client is the most glorious, hands-on way to use NXtel, not every one has (or can get) a Next yet.

Fortunately there is a crossplatform client freely available, as part of Richard T Russell's excellent BBC BASIC for SDL2.0 - a great project in it's own right, well worth exploring.

Download

Download the correct version for your operating system from here.

Instructions for setting up on Windows follow. Instructions for other operating systems will be added later. If you use one of these OSs, you can probably figure it out after reading the Windows instructions.

Windows

Install

Unzip the downloaded file into a directory of your choice. As a Windows user, I decided not to put it in Program Files, so I created a directory called C:\bbc\bbcsdl20_1.01a (as it was v1.01a I was downloading).

Setting Up

Find the telstar.bbc file. In my example above, this was at C:\bbc\bbcsdl20_1.01a\examples\general\telstar.bbc

Run the main BBC BASIC executable. For the Windows version, this will be named bbcsdl.exe. In my example above, it would found at C:\bbc\bbcsdl20_1.01a\bbcsdl.exe.

Right-click on it, and choose Create Shortcut . This will create a file in the same directory called bbcsdl.exe - Shortcut. Rename it to NXtel.

Right-click on NXtel, and choose Properties. Add the end of the Target, add a space, followed by "examples\general\telstar.bbc". Like this:

If you're feeling fancy you can also change the icon with the Change Icon button. You can download a NXtel icon fro. here.

Then click OK.

If you like, add your icon to the Start Menu or the Task Bar.

Running the Client

Doubleclick on the shortcut. The Select Service menu will appear.

Connecting to NXtel

Press the 5 button for NXtel.

You're connected!

---