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It's pretty normal to find Masters in that sort of condition. I've seen several and about half looked untouched inside, apart from the battery pack which always leaks, and the casing around the UHF modulator which is prone to rust.

That item is a grenade... Do you have a copy of the manual? It describes a few of the basics, such as walking towards something while pressing "pick up" (the comma key) to pick it up, S to store it in your pocket (you have four pockets) and G to get it out again. And Space to activate it... Oh, and ...

It's really nice to see someone playing Exile for the first time after all these years. Decades later I can still sit down at a keyboard and remember all the keys when playing.

Please let us know how you're getting on and ask for hints when you're stuck! Have you found the second door passcard yet?

Reading the Novella will help, but reading the manual even more. As with just about every 80s game, there's no tutorial and you really will be stuck without the info therein! One quick tip: - Don't kill creatures that aren't a definite threat. Don't even kill ones which are 'annoying but not deadly'...

It's not from Exile is it? The sound made when an enemy expires, perhaps the robots or birds? My first home computer was an Electron and that sound is tantalisingly familiar, but I don't know if that's just my imagination playing tricks on me! (Although it occurs to me that I only ever played Exile ...

I have an Enterprise but haven't had time to play with it yet. Are you planning on doing anything interesting with it?

We urgently need pictures.

I've been watching the development of this and it's been fascinating. These guys are coding machines! A fantastic effort, well done!

Thanks Mark, appreciate your reply. Do you have any experience of working on and repairing electronic systems? I've recapped a bunch of PSUs and soldered a few things together (pin headers onto Raspberry Pis, etc) but that's about it. Are you aware of the high voltages inside a CRT display? Yes, whi...

Hi all, I've got a Microvitec Cub which is externally in great condition, but shows only a single horizontal line in the middle of the screen. As I type (from a Beeb I have plugged in via RGB cable) I can see the brightness of parts of the line change as the letters appear, so it's clearly receiving...

Wow. Love all your stuff but the last 7 or 8 have been really outstanding. Thanks!

So, my suspicions were correct and DISEN was overriding the cursor output. I've now got a version of the firmware that fixes the problem. I'll obviously use this on any new boards but previous boards will need to have their CPLD updated. If you're able to program Altera CPLDs (MAX II) then drop me ...

There's the stuff that's attached right now, and the stuff that I could attach if I wanted to, but is just sitting around or waiting to be built. Currently my Master has a Data centre, internal Pi CoPro (which involved a bit of shenanigans involving extra-long pin headers to get it fitting above the...

Congratulations on re-joining the group of people who have working BBC Micro hardware! Have re re-capped the power supply? If not it's probably a good idea to do it sooner rather than later.

Decent looking Master and a CUB for £99, currently no bids. If I lived in Lancashire I'd be watching this one, but sadly I'm not even on the right side of London!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BBC-Master-S ... 3701400217

What the actual flip? He's bought all that stuff from you and now because of one problem he's changed all his feedback?

Is there anything we can do to help?

The very first thing to do is check the internal battery. This battery is used to keep the CMOS settings and real time clock running, and after 25-odd years they tend to be corroded and somewhat leaky! Luckily on most Masters they're sealed enough that the corrosion doesn't affect any of the other c...

The Doom clones for 8-bit systems are very impressive and push the hardware to its limits, but to my mind they don't really play to the strengths of the platform. Realtime 3D textured games inevitably suffer in comparison to the PC 'originals', whereas something like Elite or Exile (or equivalent pl...

It's at this point that I cry "amateurs!" and admit that I might have won a somewhat large eBay retro auction a few months ago... which was so large that I had to hire a storage unit. I do not recommend this course of action. Storage units are expensive and flogging stuff on eBay is time-consuming! ...

marcusjambler wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:09 pm

A TMS 320C25 Dev System for a BBC user port...

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I saw that on eBay!

What is it? What does it do? Enquiring minds want to know!

People can be entitled asses on eBay. Well, in real life as well, I suppose, but something about buying online from somebody you've never met in person seems to bring out the worst in people.

Chris, your stuff is clearly great. Don't let unpleasant people put you off keeping the retro scene alive!

Did anyone actually use the side and rear lasers? I remember playing Elite quite a bit BITD and I don't think I ever did!

Any chance I could nab the A3010 and the AKF50? If you're able to wait a few weeks I may be able to arrange collection from near Ipswich, or we can see about postage costs!

Right, sorry to keep on about this, but let's say I wanted to order a correct-sized one just so I didn't feel like I'd bodged it (and because fitting a larger one onto the board is actually a pretty tight fit). … Would this one be OK? https://uk.farnell.com/kemet/phe840mb6100mb05r17/cap-0-1-f-20-pp-...

Very useful, thanks! I can't post a picture of the top until tomorrow, but from memory it only had "0.1uF +- 10%" written on the top.

Thanks! It looks like this:

After I removed the one 100nF RIFA capacitor from the board, I discovered that it's somewhat different from the usual ones, in that it's rated 400V instead of 275V, and is the 'smaller size'. (Usually the 100nF are larger and the 10nF are smaller). A colleague suggest that replacing it with a 275V o...

Welcome!

Re: buying retro computers. It's not a mid-life crisis, it's a hobby! Going a bit crazy and buying roomfuls of hardware you'll never use is totally rational!

I've never been a fan of the Master's cartridge ports They're handy for plugging one of these into though: Mast_Cart.jpg It's a Picton/IFEL/ctorwy31 Master ROM/RAM cartridge: This card is an easy to use upgrade for the BBC Master. It is effectively the familiar ‘ROM cartridge’ but with a modern sta...

Hi everyone, I'm attempting to recap a Master I obtained recently. The PSU seems to be a little different to the 'usual' one. It's an Astec 13830. I've found the 10v 200uF Startup Cap -- mounted on a separate board mounted sideways to the main board -- and I've found the 100nF RIFA capacitor, but I ...