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A curated list of minitel resources

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README 

        
# Awesome Minitel [![Awesome](https://awesome.re/badge.svg)](https://awesome.re)



> A curated list of Minitel and Telematic resources



![Minitel Glitches](/minitel.png)



This repository stands here for Minitel enthusiasts who may want to give a

second life to their terminal. See

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel) for general information about

Minitel terminal and network.



The Minitel devices were made to work with a French dedicated public network

from the 80s implementing [X.25](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.25) protocol:

the [Transpac Network](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpac). This network was

also used in professional industry, including for inter-bank transfers,

payments... With the emergence of Internet, the network became unneeded and

obsolete. Its backbone was shut down in 2012, implying the death of the public

Minitel network. Since then, Minitel terminals became pretty much useless: they

were just display terminal with pretty much no compute and very limited RAM.

Hopefully new usages are now possible, thanks to some modifications made to the

original hardware, or with external hardware used to provide content to the

Minitel. Some terminals like Minitel 1B have a serial port at their back that

can be used to display characters on the screen and send keystrokes from the

user to an external device. This is mainly what this repository is about. You

will also find interesting archives and technical documentation.



## Contents



- [Hardware](#hardware)

  - [DIY serial interface](#diy-serial-interface)

  - [Telephonic socket](#telephonic-socket)

  - [Physical Hardware modification](#physical-hardware-modification)

  - [Physical Hardware hacking](#physical-hardware-hacking)

- [Software](#software)

  - [Client side](#client-side)

    - [Firmware for ESP32 using Minitel serial

      port](#firmware-for-esp32-using-minitel-serial-port)

    - [Clients for serial communication from

      computer](#clients-for-serial-communication-from-computer)

    - [Reprogramming](#reprogramming)

  - [Server side](#server-side)

  - [Editors](#editors)

  - [Emulators](#emulators)

  - [Tools](#tools)

- [Resources](#resources)

  - [Official documentation](#official-documentation)

  - [Extra studies and documentation](#extra-studies-and-documentation)

  - [Other resources](#other-resources)

- [Open Minitel Services](#open-minitel-services)



## Hardware



This section is dedicated on the hardware you can connect to a Minitel (serial

port or telephonic port / non-destructive) or the physical hardware

modifications (potentially destructive) you can perform on the terminal.



You have multiple possible approaches:



- Using the Minitel as a display terminal for a computer or small embedded

  computers like Raspberry Pi



- Using the Minitel as a standalone device able to serve local content / VDT

  pages locally hosted thanks to an ESP32 / Arduino board with local storage.



- Using the Minitel as a standalone device able to connect remote content

  providing servers through a classic network, using for example an ESP32 /

  Arduino with a WiFi or Ethernet interface.



- Using the Minitel in its original form, with external devices emulating the

  X.25 Transpac network and providing content with its native protocol.



- Hacking the Minitel as a standalone computer (despite huge hardware

  limitations), rewriting the content of it's embedded microcontroller.



- Using the Minitel as a display, just reusing the screen and replacing/throwing

  away most internal components.



In all those possible hardware modifications, the easiest way to provide content

to the Minitel is to use its serial port at the back (Minitel 1B), called the

*Péri-informatique* port.



### DIY Serial interface



This section provides different ways of using the Péri-informatique Serial

socket of the Minitel, which is able to receive characters / octets to display,

and send keyboard inputs. This is the easiest way to use the Minitel today

since it doesn't require any physical modifications of the terminals. Extra

hardware is required to adapt the signal due to unusual voltage levels (>5V).



- [**Iodeo's ESP32 devboard**](https://hackaday.io/project/180473-minitel-esp32)

  💙 and [specific instructions](https://hackaday.io/project/180473/instructions) -

  The easiest way to use the serial port of a Minitel today. You don't require

  any soldering skill or custom cable, everything is included. This a dedicated

  ESP32 devboard, including a WiFi adapter and a serial port with the voltage

  modification required to support Minitel levels. The ESP32 is powered by the

  Minitel, which is *very* useful. See [software

  section](#firmware-for-esp32-using-minitel-serial-port) for a list of software

  you can run client side on the ESP32.



- [pi0tel](https://github.com/faxm0dem/pi0tel) - 3615 pi0, a Raspberry Pi pi0 or

  pi0-w uHat designed to be plugged on serial interface and self powered by the

  Minitel.



- [Jelora's custom cables (Serial <> RS232 and Serial <>

  USB)](https://www.jelora.fr/post/2020/02/25/Adaptateur-prise-DIN-peri-informatique-Minitel-vers-Serie-RS232-et-Serie-USB.html) -

  You can plug Minitels 1B directly to a computer or a Raspberry Pi, thanks to a

  custom cable you can make with a few electronic components. This one is a bit

  more difficult to build than Pila's build below.



- [**Pila's custom adapter**](https://pila.fr/wordpress/?p=361) 💙 - An

  alternative tutorial to create a custom Serial <> USB cable using a 2N2222A

  transistor, some resistors and a PL2303HX UART <> USB converter (very easy to

  build). (FR)



- [Picotel's modification for Raspberry Pi

  Pico](https://arduino103.blogspot.com/2022/04/minitel-branche-sur-mon-raspberry-pi.html) -

  An alternative setup, but lacking some information about the level shifter.



### Telephonic socket



WIP/TODO



### Physical Hardware modification



Another approach could be to modify the terminals directly.



- [High Tech Minitel](https://chapelierfou.org/blog/a-high-tech-minitel.html) -

  A replacement of the Minitel 1B screen and creation of an Arduino based

  generic USB keyboard controller. (EN)

- [64rulez's Minitel2.0](https://github.com/64rulez/minitel2.0) - A replacement

  of Minitel hardware with a Zynq board. (EN)

- [cfp-radio](https://www.cfp-radio.com/realisations/rea48/minitel-01.html) -

  Converting a Minitel to a TV monitor / composite video monitor. (FR)



### Physical Hardware hacking



See the [dedicated software section](#reprogramming) below.



## Software



Once you chose your hardware path, you can chose a way to provide content to

the terminal. This section contains various client and server implementations

that can help using your Minitel.



### Client side



By *client side*, we mean the software running on the Minitel side / next to the

terminal, able to serve content, receive inputs and eventually fetch content

from a remote server (see [server side](#server-side)). Depending on the

additional [hardware](#hardware) you own or hardware modifications you

performed, some clients may or may not be suitable for you.



#### Firmware for ESP32 using Minitel serial port



Those projects are dedicated to people using the serial port of their Minitel

with an ESP32 microcontroller. See the [hardware section

(DIY)](#diy-serial-interface) above for more information about the required

hardware (ESP32 devboard or a custom cable with a bare ESP32).



- [**iodeo/Minitel-ESP32**](https://github.com/iodeo/Minitel-ESP32) 💙 - Iodeo's

  compilation of code samples for Minitel apps development using ESP32 (Arduino

  or micropython). This is a good start point if you want to use a modified

  ESP32. See also the associated [hackaday project

  page](https://hackaday.io/project/180473/instructions) for instructions.

  [**Telnet

  Pro**](https://github.com/iodeo/Minitel-ESP32/tree/main/arduino/Minitel1B_Telnet_Pro)

  💙 is highly recommended, and takes profit from SPIFFS which is a small

  filesystem for Arduino (useful to persist your server list, SSID/WiFi

  credentials...).



- [iodeo/Socketel](https://github.com/iodeo/Socketel) - A portal to Minitel

  webservices written in micropython for ESP32. Services are externally hosted,

  see [server section](#server-side).



- [eserandour/Minitel1B_Hard](https://github.com/eserandour/Minitel1B_Hard) -

  Minitel Library for Arduino (with HardwareSerial).



- [jbellue/3615_SSH](https://github.com/jbellue/3615_SSH) - An SSH client for

  ESP32.



#### Clients for serial communication from computer.



Projects dedicated to people using the serial port of their Minitel directly

from a computer with a custom adapter, without needing a standalone

microcontroller. Useful if you can to control your Minitel from a Raspberry Pi,

a computer, etc.



- [Arduiblog, Bring Minitel back to life](https://arduiblog.com/2019/04/29/ressuscitez-le-minitel/) -

  A small but efficient documentation on how to configure a Linux server to be

  used with a Minitel terminal using the serial port. (FR)



- [Mars Hack Lab article](https://mars-hack-lab.fr/?p=282) - Configure a Debian

  stretch running on a Raspberry Pi Zero W to be used with a Minitel in terminal

  mode. (FR)



- [mntl.ti](http://canal.chez.com/mntl.ti) - Alexandre Montaron's terminfo file.

  You will need this configuration file to provide the right inputs/character

  codes to the Minitel if you plan to use a Minitel as a Linux terminal.



- [cquest/websocket2minitel](https://github.com/cquest/websocket2minitel) - A

  middleware between a websocket-based Minitel server and the Minitel serial

  port. Written by Christian Quest. (EN)



- [Picotel](https://github.com/mchobby/picotel) - A project by Dominique

  Meurisse using a Raspberry Pi pico and custom adapters. See also [his

  blog](https://arduino103.blogspot.com/2022/04/minitel-branche-sur-mon-raspberry-pi.html)

  for more information. (FR/BE)



#### Reprogramming



- [**Microprocessor

  Reprogrammation**](https://github.com/jfdelnero/minitel#bon-et-apr%C3%A8s--que-peut-on-faire-avec-cela-)

  💙 - Someone with a decent level of determination found the way to upload

  a custom firmware to the very limited Minitel microprocessor, in order to

  display an impressive [demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2HD6OzNoEo). You

  can find the code of the demo here:

  [the_minitel_demo](https://github.com/jfdelnero/minitel/tree/master/minitel2/the_minitel_demo).

  You can also find a dump of the original EPROM with the stock firmware

  [here](http://hxc2001.free.fr/minitel/Minitel_ROMs.zip). A presentation has

  been made on the subject, slides can be found

  [here](http://hxc2001.free.fr/minitel/Presentation_Etude_Minitel_2_FR_DE.pdf)

  (FR/DE)



### Server side



Minitel server implementations. The idea of these projects is to serve content

(VDT pages, text, other...) to clients (software running on a companion

board/computer next to the Minitel or on the Minitel directly).

Most of the time, these projects are meant to work with Websockets, Telnet, SSH,

a directly serial connected terminal, or natively on a X.25 network.



Depending on your architecture, client and the way the client is able to fetch

content, some of these projects may or may not be suitable for you.



- [Zigazou/PyMinitel](https://github.com/Zigazou/PyMinitel) - A python library

  to control a Minitel from a computer running Linux using a serial interface.



- [jiktim/minitel.js](https://github.com/jiktim/minitel.js) - A

  NodeJS server to send content to a Minitel through a websocket.



- [Zigazou/miplayer](https://github.com/Zigazou/miplayer) - A python program to

  continuously send VDT files to Minitel using serial interface(s).



- [cquest/pyNitel](https://github.com/cquest/pynitel) - A python library to

  write Minitel servers/software communicating to Minitel through a serial

  interface. Contains two example services, a minitel directory and 3615 ULLA

  simulation.



- [BwanaFr/minitel-server](https://github.com/BwanaFr/minitel-server) - A small

  TCP based Minitel server written in Python.



- [64rulez/PyMoIP](https://github.com/64rulez/PyMoIP) - A Minitel server using

  websockets in python. The project also contains other useful elements.



- [Zigazou/HaMinitel](https://github.com/Zigazou/HaMinitel) - An Haskell Minitel

  server for Linux pushing content through `/dev/ttyUSB*` or a real RS-232 port

  connected to a modem.



- [3615 IUT Auxerre

  Autoserver](https://serveur-minitel-2019-3615-iut-auxerre.webnode.fr/telechargements/) -

  A python Minitel server based on pyNitel and made by students in 2019 during

  an academic project. In the eventuality the site goes down in a future time,

  the sources are available

  [here](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wLk6xO69QS76uVHQZJHJCjxRyCORX_Op).



- [Mushussu/Serveur-Minitel](https://github.com/Mushussu/Serveur-Minitel) - A

  Minitel test server written in C pushing content to `/dev/ttyUSB0`.



- [cquest/cristel](https://github.com/cquest/cristel) - Apple II Minitel server

  (1986) using [Merlin / BIGMAC

  assembler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(assembler)).



- [cquest/dragster](https://github.com/cquest/dragster) - Obsolete Minitel

  server (1985) using MPW (Macintosh Programmer's Workshop).



- [ludosevilla/minipaviCli](https://github.com/ludosevilla/minipaviCli) - A Minitel

  server SDK allowing to build services around simple HTTP requests and PHP. 



### Editors



Minitel pages used to be provided in the form of a tree structure of .VDT pages.

VDT format was use to describe characters displayed on the screen and basic

animations / the order in which the characters are displayed. You can see VDT

files as some sort of ASCII/GIF file, but beware: the charset is quite different

from classic ASCII. To produce VDT pages, editors exist, allowing you to find

the available characters, hexadecimal correspondence for each symbol on screen,

and write your animations.



- [Zigazou/miedit](https://github.com/Zigazou/miedit) - A browser-based Minitel

  page editor using Canvas and ES6. [Online editor

  demo](https://minitel.cquest.org)



### Emulators



- [Zigazou/miedit (emulator

  section)](https://github.com/Zigazou/miedit/blob/master/EMULATOR.md) - A

  Minitel emulator running in the browser.



- [bill-of-materials/docker-miedit-emulator (container)](https://github.com/bill-of-materials/docker-miedit-emulator) -

  If you're lazy and just want to quickly run a miedit emulator to connect to a

  websocket server, you can use this almost pointless Docker container I'm

  maintaining.



- [AS-connect](http://wiz0u.free.fr/pulsar/asconnect/) - A Windows Minitel

  emulator.



- [xtel](http://pficheux.free.fr/xtel/) - A Linux/Unix based Minitel emulator

  developed from 1985 to 2001 for X11. Ubuntu manpage is available

  [here](https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/xtel.1.html).



- [i-TimTel

  Flash](https://www.clubic.com/telecharger-fiche10827-i-timtel-flash.html) - An

  obsolete proprietary Minitel emulator made by [GOTO

  Software](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOTO_Software) running on Windows.



### Tools



- [jfdelnero/vdt2bpm](https://github.com/jfdelnero/minitel/tree/master/VDT2BMP) - A small VDT to BPM file converter.

- [jfdelnero/vdt2wav](https://github.com/jfdelnero/minitel/tree/master/Minitel_VDT2WAV) - A small VDT to WAV file converter.

- [pamal/arbomaker](http://pamal.org/minitel/arboMaker6.zip) [(PAMAL Group)](http://wiki.pamal.org/wiki/LOGICIELS) - A Processing project to create Minitel browsing tree structures.

- [pamal/AviToVdt](https://pamal.org/minitel/aviToVdt.zip) [(PAMAL Group)](http://wiki.pamal.org/wiki/LOGICIELS) - A Processing project to convert movie files to `.vdt` for minitel display, running at 1 image per 24s.

- [pamal/JpgToVdt](https://pamal.org/minitel/JpgToVdt.zip) [(PAMAL Group)](http://wiki.pamal.org/wiki/LOGICIELS) - A Processing project to convert image files to `.vdt` for minitel display.

- [pamal/VdtAnalyser](http://pamal.org/minitel/VdtAnalyser.zip) [(PAMAL Group)](http://wiki.pamal.org/wiki/LOGICIELS) - A Processing project to analyse the content of a `.vdt` file and identify how a page has been written.

- [anto80/ImgToVdt](https://anto80.com/fr-fr/traitement-image/convertir-image-au-format-minitel-vdt-imgtovdt) - A Windows proprietary CLI conversion tool made by Anto80 (Non free)

- [chris-y/PPMToVtx](https://github.com/chris-y/ppmtovtx) - A C program to convert PPM files ([Portable pixmap](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_pixmap)) to Vtx.

- [Zigazou/unitel2vdt](https://github.com/Zigazou/Unitel) - A standalone Python3 script that allows you to extract Videotex pages from an 8 inches floppy disk created on a Unitel application

- [Zigazou/ebcdic2vdt/unitel2vdt](https://github.com/Zigazou/ebcdic2vdt) - A C and bash program to convert EBCDIC disk images to vdt files.

- [Zigazou/teletext2minitel](https://github.com/Zigazou/teletext2minitel) - A simple standalone CLI PHP script which tries to convert Teletext/CEEFAX pages to Minitel pages.



## Resources



### Official documentation



- [Official Tech. specs. (Minitel1B)](http://pila.fr/content/interface_usb_minitel/specifications%20techniques%20d%27utilisation%20du%20minitel.pdf) [(pila)](https://pila.fr/)

- [**Browsable Official Tech. specs. (Minitel1B)**](https://jbellue.github.io/stum1b/) 💙 - A readable transcript of the official documentation, thanks jbellue!

- [Official Magis Club](https://www.goto10.fr/minitel/notices/MinitelMagisClub.pdf) [(Goto10)](https://www.goto10.fr/)

- [Official Minitel 2 Philips](https://www.goto10.fr/minitel/notices/minitel_2_philips.pdf) [(Goto10)](https://www.goto10.fr/)

- [Official Minitel 5](https://www.goto10.fr/minitel/notices/minitel_5.pdf) [(Goto10)](https://www.goto10.fr/)



### Extra studies and documentation



- [**hxc2001**](https://github.com/jfdelnero/minitel) 💙 - Hardware study of the

  Minitel in french. Also available [here](http://hxc2001.free.fr/minitel/).

  This content is referred multiple time in this repository and feels like a

  rabbit hole. (FR)

- [Minitel

  Datasheets](https://github.com/mchobby/picotel/raw/master/docs/minitel2_hack/minitel-datasheets.zip) -

  All datasheets of Minitel parts, compiled by MCHobby.

- [Matthieu Benoit's archives](http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/minitel.htm) - A good

  amount of technical documents and archives about Minitel and telephony. The

  page also contains EPROM dumps from multiple Minitel models. (EN/FR)

- [Minitel Printer

  Interface](http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/pdf/minitel_printer_interface.pdf) -

  A scan from Hobbytronic N.36 (full mirror in better quality [here](https://archives.doctsf.com/documents/feuilleter_document.php?num_doc=74077&num_serie=219)), see page 13. (FR)

- [Building around

  Minitels](https://ia601600.us.archive.org/8/items/etsf-montages-autour-dun-minitel/ETSF%20-%20Montages%20autour%20d%27un%20Minitel.pdf) -

  A book by Christian Tavernier. Seems to be impossible to buy anywhere, so here

  is the scanned version of the book from archive.org. (FR)



### Other resources



- [**Musée du Minitel**](https://www.museeminitel.fr/) 💙 - The Minitel Museum.

  A lot of resources about Minitel and data preservation. Also contains an

  amazing [**forum**](https://forum.museeminitel.fr/) 💙 with an enthusiast

  community and almost all resources you will need. (FR)

- [Reviving Minitel Presentation](https://github.com/Zigazou/reviving-minitel) - Sources of the “Reviving Minitel” presentation given at FOSDEM 2020 (Belgium).

- [goto10](https://www.goto10.fr/) - BBS and Minitel archives.

- [Minitel.us](https://minitel.us/) - Minitel research lab. (US)

- [PAMAL Group](https://pamal.org/) - Media archaeology and preservation lab working a lot with Minitel hardware. (FR)

- [Pinky Story](http://troude.com/Pinky/) - The story of a Telematic server running between 1986 and 1992. (FR)

- [3615 IUT Auxerre](https://serveur-minitel-2019-3615-iut-auxerre.webnode.fr/) - An academic Minitel revival project by young students from Auxerre, France in 2019-2020. Well documented, they follow the same path everyone has to walk to revive a Minitel today. A mirror for their study is available [here](https://docplayer.fr/184023214-3615-iut-auxerre-projet-rt-1-ere-annee-rapport-bonnet-maxime-branlard-alexandre-grimard-quentin-salamolard-baptiste.html) and [there](https://1fb8adcd25.cbaul-cdnwnd.com/eab614bfc800f69002de12023a32276a/200000014-592c45a26b/BONNET_BRANLARD_GRIMARD_SALAMOLARD_Rapport_ProjetTut_3615_IUT-Auxerre%20%282%29.pdf). (FR)

- [**Telematic History**](https://telecommunications.monsite-orange.fr/page-5a854449a7560.html) 💙 - The complete history of Telematic with a lot of details and beautiful archive photographies. (FR)

- [From Minitel to Internet](https://larevuedesmedias.ina.fr/du-minitel-linternet) - INA (FR)

- [Transpac Network Shutdown](https://www.zdnet.fr/blogs/infra-net/x25-c-est-fini-39852412.htm) - In 2012, the French Minitel network has been shut down (FR)

- [XReyRobert/VideotexPagesRepository](https://github.com/XReyRobert/VideotexPagesRepository) -

  An archive of VDT pages with GIF conversion for modern browsing.



## Open Minitel services



- [3611.re](http://3611.re/) - 09.7227.3671

- [3615co.de](http://3615co.de) - 09.7227.3675

- [3614 HACKER](http://www.3614hacker.fr) - 09.7252.7252

- [3614 TEASER](http://www.3614teaser.fr:8080/)

- [3615 SM](https://sm.3615.live/)

- [JELORA](https://www.jelora.fr/post/2017/08/27/Serveur-Minitel.html) - 09.7262.9267

- [COMPUTEL](https://www.computel.fr/) - 01.8421.8116

- [JCA](https://forum.museeminitel.fr/t/computel-et-jca-de-retour/350) - 01.8421.8115

- [HYTREL](#) - 03.5925.1034

- [IUT Auxerre](https://serveur-minitel-2019-3615-iut-auxerre.webnode.fr/tester-le-serveur/) - 03.5843.5150

- [Cosmos 6502](#) - 01.8421.8124 (intermittent)

- [RetroCampus](http://bbs.retrocampus.com/) - bbs.retrocampus.com:1651 (Telstar/Videotex) - Tel. 0039.0522.750051

- [GlassTTY](https://glasstty.com/) - glasstty.com:6502 (Telstar/Videotex)



## Contribute



Contributions welcome! Read the [contribution guidelines](contributing.md) first.



## License



The [awesome-minitel](https://github.com/bill-of-materials/awesome-minitel)

project is released under the CeCILL-B ([en](./Licence_CeCILL-B_V1-en.txt),

[fr](./Licence_CeCILL-B_V1-fr.txt)) license.



https://cecill.info/