IBM 3270 mainframe terminal emulation for Windows anybody ??

jimbo45 · Nov 5, 2025

Hi folks

Any current "Mainframers" or Sysprogs here. Or even ex-mainframers / sysprogs.

I'm having a go again running the old IBM mainframe system MVS/SP on a PC using the Hercules emulator program.

I need though a 3270 terminal emulator for the "mainframes" console. Great fun those old Mainframe OS'es -- it's public domain too so you can run COBOL, PL/1, IBM Assembler language. see parts of IBM's source code etc etc.

On Linux it works fine - install package x3270.

Any Windows (free versions) around ??

Cheers
jimbo

Birk · Nov 5, 2025

OMG! There is actually someone else here who remembers MVS and the IBM 360/370 series? Gosh - I thought I was the only one.

I ran Fortran programs and did systems programming on everything from the 360 Model 40 to the 370 Model 3084. My favorite was the 360 Model 75.

I had no idea any of that old software still existed, let alone actually worked. Truth is it never really worked in those old days either - IBM would have gone belly up without it's PTFs. (Program Temporary Fix for you young ones.)

jimbo45 · Nov 5, 2025

Birk said:
OMG! There is actually someone else here who remembers MVS and the IBM 360/370 series? Gosh - I thought I was the only one.

I ran Fortran programs and did systems programming on everything from the 360 Model 40 to the 370 Model 3084. My favorite was the 360 Model 75.

View attachment 151677
I had no idea any of that old software still existed, let alone actually worked. Truth is it never really worked in those old days either - IBM would have gone belly up without it's PTFs. (Program Temporary Fix for you young ones.)

Remember JCL -- that was horrendous !!! but one thing I did like and wish iy was still around these days - especially for backups etc was the IBM system of GDG's (Generation Data Groups).

Anyway have a look at this : ignore the video unavailable warning - just click the youtube link and it all works.

I'll show a snapshot when I've got it working -- I like also the double characters on printer job separators om JES2 spooled prints (Module IEFSD095 !! remember that onw !!) -- also with IBM -- it usually wasn't a "fix" - but a feature !!).

A modern laptop can easily run that old software in emulation mode !!

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 · Nov 6, 2025

@Birk

@SlicEnDicE

You *might* like this -- running IBM MVS/SP mainframe OS (with updates) with JES2 under Hercules emulator on a PC .

I think from time to time we all like doing bonkers things with PC's. !!

Got it working on a Windows VM (W11 latest canary release) as well -- works amazingly well. !! WC3270 for 3270 emulation is fine -- but change connection port to 3270 not the default and use host address (of the Hercules emulator running MVS/SP as127.0.0.1

The most fiddly bit was finding / getting working an appropriate 3270 emulator for user to logon to the system via TSO - if you use the WC3270 emulator choose an appropriate one or "filch" the TN3270 one from IBM !!!

Free one : Here

x3270

Download x3270 for free. 3270 Terminal Emulator. x3270 is a suite of 3270 terminal emulation tools. x3270 is an interactive X11 client, c3270 is curses-based interactive client, and s3270 and tcl3270 are scripting tools for writing screen-scraping applications.

sourceforge.net

choose the STABLE version of WC3270 - otherwise if you use the alpha version you might get "connection refused by machine".

Default TSO userid os HERC01, pw=CUL8TR

great bit of fun playing with this !!!

Running a PL/1 job (anybody remember PL/1 !!!!!) - got quicker turn round and execution than in old late 1970's mainframe days !!!!!

Cheers
jimbo

abactuon · Nov 6, 2025

Previously, I engaged in the development of programs for the processing of satellite telemetry utilizing the PL/1 and assembly language programming paradigms.
The appearance of telemetry on computers running Windows was sudden and unexpected.

Birk · Nov 6, 2025

Gosh, I had no idea all this old software was still in existence. Most of my programming work was done in Fortran to develop 3D graphics for IBM 2250 worstations. These were 17" CRT's driven by a their own CPU and Ram that was housed in a separate desk-sized unit. There were only 3 compilers that ran on our mainframes: IBM/360 Assembler, Cobol, and Fortran. I did use PL/1 in grad school, but that never made it into the real world as far as I know.

I wonder if it's possible to find a working 3270 terminal nowadays.

OldMainframeGuy · Nov 6, 2025

Old mainframer here. If you don't mind paying for software, Vista 3270 is a great product.

Tom Brennan Software - Vista TN3270

www.tombrennansoftware.com

It cost $30USD; I use it on my TK5 (MVS 3.8j) system. In some respects I like it better than the very expensive 3270 emulator we use at work (MicroFocus Reflection).

Rob (banging away on z/OS 2.5)

gunrunnerjohn · Nov 6, 2025

Birk said:
OMG! There is actually someone else here who remembers MVS and the IBM 360/370 series? Gosh - I thought I was the only one.

I ran Fortran programs and did systems programming on everything from the 360 Model 40 to the 370 Model 3084. My favorite was the 360 Model 75.

I worked for IBM in the 1960's, I installed the first IBM 360 in downtown Philadelphia. The 360 was really a "You Bet Your Company" machine, if that had been a bust, IBM would have been a shadow of itself. Of course, the 360 was wildly successful and cemented IBM's first place position in the market for several decades. I went on to a startup company in the 1970's, of course we used the IBM 360 computers for the business. I still have several of the System 360 Reference Data Green Cards somewhere, every SE I knew had one in his pocket back in the day.

abactuon · Nov 8, 2025

PL/1 for smart people.
Fortran for scientists.
Cobol for bankers (communists).
Assembly language for geeks.

OldMainframeGuy · Nov 9, 2025

abactuon said:
PL/1 for smart people.
Fortran for scientists.
Cobol for bankers (communists).
Assembly language for geeks.

Some PL/1 trivia: IBM's mainframe PL/1 compiler is written in....PL/1. It is a beautiful language; I don't know why it never caught on in the mainstream. And, for the record, I work for a bank and spent much of my career writing COBOL programs for various companies and I'm definitely not a Communist.

abactuon · Nov 9, 2025

OldMainframeGuy said:
not a Communist

At that time, the parties involved maintained secrecy.

vipergg · Nov 11, 2025

Birk said:
Gosh, I had no idea all this old software was still in existence. Most of my programming work was done in Fortran to develop 3D graphics for IBM 2250 worstations. These were 17" CRT's driven by a their own CPU and Ram that was housed in a separate desk-sized unit. There were only 3 compilers that ran on our mainframes: IBM/360 Assembler, Cobol, and Fortran. I did use PL/1 in grad school, but that never made it into the real world as far as I know.

I wonder if it's possible to find a working 3270 terminal nowadays.

Anyone remember the old IBM 3290 quad screen orange plasma displays ? They were great 3270 terminals that you could have 4 different mainframe sessions up at a time . You could have your MVS apps up on one session and have your PROFS email session up on another .Used to do IBM equipment buying for a major film company back in the day . They were expensive even back then . Think they were like $4000 a pop and they bought 1000's of them . Everyone wanted one . Also bought 1000's of the 3274 and 3174 mainframe controllers and eventually programmed and installed those too .

vipergg · Nov 11, 2025

jimbo45 said:
Hi folks

Any current "Mainframers" or Sysprogs here. Or even ex-mainframers / sysprogs.

I'm having a go again running the old IBM mainframe system MVS/SP on a PC using the Hercules emulator program.

I need though a 3270 terminal emulator for the "mainframes" console. Great fun those old Mainframe OS'es -- it's public domain too so you can run COBOL, PL/1, IBM Assembler language. see parts of IBM's source code etc etc.

On Linux it works fine - install package x3270.

View attachment 151643

Any Windows (free versions) around ??

Cheers
jimbo

If you do a search on 3270 emulation for windows there appears to be a number of options still . Don't know if there is any free stuff you can just download or not .

jimbo45 · Nov 12, 2025

vipergg said:
If you do a search on 3270 emulation for windows there appears to be a number of options still . Don't know if there is any free stuff you can just download or not .

This(Free) one works :

x3270

Download x3270 for free. 3270 Terminal Emulator. x3270 is a suite of 3270 terminal emulation tools. x3270 is an interactive X11 client, c3270 is curses-based interactive client, and s3270 and tcl3270 are scripting tools for writing screen-scraping applications.

sourceforge.net

Install wc3270-4.2-ga8-setup.exe

Here's TSO (remember that !!) running on MVS/SP JES2 emulated on a laptop with the free Hercules emulator !! running W11 Enterprise Canary build !! abd this vweaion of Windows is srunning as a VM !!!

(Great fun messing around with this stuff -- I quite like the old IBM assemby language -- still have one of those Old IBM Green cards! with the commands on it ).

MVS console

Added - for details, software, installation etc on Hercules and IBM/MVS/SP2 (with serveral decent updates) download and install the MVS-tk5 package -- also works on Linux without modification -- you also though on linux need to install -it's free -- the C3270 software from your package manager -- you can compile it too if your distro doesn't have a binary -- source available on git.hub

MVS Turnkey 5 Update 5

www.prince-webdesign.nl

Cheers
jimbo

Quandary · Nov 12, 2025

vipergg said:
Anyone remember the old IBM 3290 quad screen orange plasma displays ? They were great 3270 terminals that you could have 4 different mainframe sessions up at a time . You could have your MVS apps up on one session and have your PROFS email session up on another .Used to do IBM equipment buying for a major film company back in the day . They were expensive even back then . Think they were like $4000 a pop and they bought 1000's of them . Everyone wanted one . Also bought 1000's of the 3274 and 3174 mainframe controllers and eventually programmed and installed those too .

Yes, really great device. I was on an internal IBM project developing the back-end for a debit card system and we had difficulties securing more than a couple of these. Could have used at least 4 but we managed.

OldMainframeGuy · Nov 12, 2025

vipergg said:
Anyone remember the old IBM 3290 quad screen orange plasma displays ? They were great 3270 terminals that you could have 4 different mainframe sessions up at a time . You could have your MVS apps up on one session and have your PROFS email session up on another .Used to do IBM equipment buying for a major film company back in the day . They were expensive even back then . Think they were like $4000 a pop and they bought 1000's of them . Everyone wanted one . Also bought 1000's of the 3274 and 3174 mainframe controllers and eventually programmed and installed those too .

We had a 3290 in the computer room. The operators didn't really care for the font size when 4 sessions were running so they switched it to one session and it was only used to log onto TSO. In other words, it was a toy, but a really cool toy.

IBM 3270 mainframe terminal emulation for Windows anybody ??

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