Search found 401 matches
- Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:32 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: What a lovely gift from Scarybeasts of this parish
- Replies: 7
- Views: 374
Re: What a lovely gift from Scarybeasts of this parish
I’m glad to have helped in a small way to get Kenton a copy. (Specifically, having a UK postal address and agreeing to forward it!) In an amusing twist, literally a few days after I finally got round to posting it, I was rummaging through a box looking for a network adapter when I found another copy...
- Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:39 am
- Forum: 32-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: DRIFTER bad disk , JDF copy needed! Help
- Replies: 3
- Views: 177
Re: DRIFTER bad disk , JDF copy needed! Help
For what it's worth, I feel your pain. Same thing happened to me with a 5.25" disc when I was trying to archive some old Acornsoft titles.
And then I buggered up the drive by (I think) nudging the heads when I was trying to clean them...
And then I buggered up the drive by (I think) nudging the heads when I was trying to clean them...

- Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:42 pm
- Forum: programming
- Topic: Reverse engineering copy protection code
- Replies: 9
- Views: 392
Re: Reverse engineering copy protection code
I don’t think discussing copy-protected code from several decades ago is going to be a problem! I wouldn’t worry about it, really.
- Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:11 pm
- Forum: new ideas wishlist & general chat
- Topic: Why was dizzy series not on the Beeb
- Replies: 20
- Views: 595
Re: Why was dizzy series not on the Beeb
I don't think Codemasters did many games at all for the BBC Micro, possibly because they just started out doing C64 / Spectrum stuff, or more likely because they looked at the commercial side and decided it wasn't worth it. I'm sure they absolutely could have been ported to the Beeb, although fittin...
- Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:06 pm
- Forum: programming
- Topic: Add if less than (6502)
- Replies: 15
- Views: 396
Re: Add if less than (6502)
For these sorts of questions it's quite helpful to give a bit of context explaining why you want to do this? How will the resulting value be used, what possible values could it start with, what is the maximum and minimum you might want to count up to, etc. With more context, people may be able to co...
- Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:31 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn hardware
- Topic: Forty years ago...
- Replies: 77
- Views: 2309
Re: Forty years ago...
It’s indeed widely acknowledged that the Microsoft’s exclusivity on the IBM PC Operating System handed them a golden opportunity to sew up the PC market. I recall a line I read many years ago in an article discussing it, something like “Once IBM gave Microsoft the exclusive contract, all they had to...
- Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:12 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: Perplexity variant (uncompleteable game!) and a puzzle / challenge
- Replies: 2
- Views: 195
Re: Perplexity variant (uncompleteable game!) and a puzzle / challenge
Well, two possibilities spring to mind: 1. The fix was developed and tested on a Master, and there were instructions that stated "You must be in a screen mode that's using shadow screen memory before you do this!" but that bit was cut from the column for space / layout reasons. 2. Original...
- Fri Feb 12, 2021 10:46 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: Perplexity variant (uncompleteable game!) and a puzzle / challenge
- Replies: 2
- Views: 195
Re: Perplexity variant (uncompleteable game!) and a puzzle / challenge
Just looking at that description in Hacman's column, it struck me that the 'RUN' after the line that saves the altered file back to disc was a bit odd. Surely that's a typo? Edit: Actually it's even worse ... it's poking a value into screen memory, then saving everything from &1100 to &8000 ...
- Tue Feb 09, 2021 12:32 pm
- Forum: for sale / freebies
- Topic: Worth Taking a Look At
- Replies: 2948
- Views: 386530
Re: Worth Taking a Look At
To be fair, I've just asked the seller on FaceBook and he said that the Electrons did all have motherboards inside.
- Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:54 am
- Forum: for sale / freebies
- Topic: Worth Taking a Look At
- Replies: 2948
- Views: 386530
Re: Worth Taking a Look At
There was a picture that showed an awful lot of Electron motherboards in a box. This would suggest that *maybe* they've been removed from all those cases!
- Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:32 am
- Forum: for sale / freebies
- Topic: Worth Taking a Look At
- Replies: 2948
- Views: 386530
Re: Worth Taking a Look At
It's also worth noting that then 'keyboards' might be empty shells with no motherboard inside.
- Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:00 pm
- Forum: new projects and releases: demoscene
- Topic: The well known Bad Apple demo on the Acorn Electron
- Replies: 24
- Views: 2687
Re: The well known Bad Apple demo on the Acorn Electron
There are always people who’ll look at retro demo videos on YouTube and post comments questioning whether it was really done on original / unexpanded hardware. (Sigh)...
- Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:23 pm
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: other
- Topic: Enhanced mode 1 pictures
- Replies: 115
- Views: 21800
Re: Enhanced mode 1 pictures
I know my Mk.1 eyes and brain are doing a lot of work to fill in missing detail (blurring your vision makes them even better), so I'm wondering if it would be possible to use some eye-brain hacks/optical illusions to fool it even further when viewed on hardware? I'm thinking of things like the lila...
- Sat Jan 30, 2021 1:20 pm
- Forum: 8-bit acorn hardware
- Topic: SAA5050 Reverse Engineering
- Replies: 51
- Views: 2381
Re: SAA5050 Reverse Engineering
That's the chip! (Although it's worth noting that there are at least three known variants found in BBC Micros and Masters, by Hitachi (the one above), Toshiba, and VLSI. The VLSI ones behave differently to the other two and although so far the Toshiba and Hitachi seem to be behave identically, it wo...
Re: LOLPRICE
I was discussing this with a few friends last week. Our conclusion was that it’s either people colluding to drive prices up, or some kind of low-level money laundering or other dodgy practise. If you look at the two top bidders, you don’t get to find out who they are, but you can see their feedback ...
- Sun Dec 27, 2020 1:31 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: BBC Elite source, now fully documented and explained
- Replies: 84
- Views: 5939
Re: BBC Elite source, now fully documented and explained
Interesting. Back in the Day, I had a BBC Micro that had lots of modifications. Replay installed, a ROM/RAM board of some description, a dual 1770 and 8271 disc interface, etc. I think every game (including Elite and Exile) ran on it fine ... except Stryker's run. I didn't even know there was anythi...
- Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:48 am
- Forum: development tools
- Topic: BeebAsm
- Replies: 131
- Views: 18642
Re: BeebAsm
I need a little help getting Beebasm to build Starquake from source... Starquake is basically one big file that contains 1 large chunk and 3 small chunks, all concatenated together. This big file loads from disc at &1200 and the large chunk is immediately relocated to &E00, while the 3 smal...
- Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:01 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: Exile SD2BBC help
- Replies: 4
- Views: 439
Re: Exile SD2BBC help
Excellent to hear that you'll be playing it. One thing to mention: I have seen Youtubers in the past attempt to play Exile, and give up after jetting around using a joystick for 20 minutes, shooting at a few things, but never really doing the things you're meant to do to make progress. So, as a plea...
- Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:06 am
- Forum: introduce yourself
- Topic: Hello World
- Replies: 10
- Views: 376
Re: Hello World
Welcome! I heartily recommend the whole "picking up 6502 as an escape from the day job" thing! There are so many resources out there to answer any questions you might have. I can't imagine what it must have been like to develop complicated/difficult techniques 'back in the day' with no int...
- Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:41 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn hardware
- Topic: Posting a 5.25” disc drive
- Replies: 6
- Views: 252
Re: Posting a 5.25” disc drive
Having bought drives from <popular auction site> in the past, only to have them damaged even when wrapped in bubble-wrap, I think if you really want to protect the drive, it can help to use a surrounding layer of those expanded polystyrene blobs (I've just realised I don't know the official term for...
- Mon Nov 23, 2020 12:36 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: games - high scores
- Topic: Frak! - PC style for testing (Private invite to regular HSC competitors only)
- Replies: 235
- Views: 8032
Re: Frak! - PC style for testing (Private invite to regular HSC competitors only)
Just to clarify: Do you need the email address associated with the Steam account, or the Steam account name?
Thanks!
Thanks!
- Sat Nov 14, 2020 11:50 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: Electron Exile 'Helper'
- Replies: 28
- Views: 1387
Re: Electron Exile 'Helper'
Certainly looks like the other crew members are featured! This video confirms it.
https://youtu.be/MBVlzXshOw4
https://youtu.be/MBVlzXshOw4
- Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:29 pm
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: classic games
- Topic: Electron Exile 'Helper'
- Replies: 28
- Views: 1387
Re: Electron Exile 'Helper'
I think you’ll have difficulty doing this on the Beeb version. For one thing it uses pretty much every last byte of memory, and more importantly it does hardware scrolling both horizontally and vertically, so whenever the screen scrolled you’d have to redraw the entirety of the helper area, which wo...
- Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:30 pm
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: games - high scores
- Topic: High Score Challenge S14 - R07 - Arkanoid
- Replies: 65
- Views: 3578
Re: High Score Challenge S14 - R07 - Arkanoid
It's been about a month since this challenge finished, but I just wanted to post this:
LOOK AT THAT SCORE! WAVE 10, YEEHAH!
LOOK AT THAT SCORE! WAVE 10, YEEHAH!
- Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:48 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn emulators
- Topic: beebjit-0.9.4 released: Master 128, Master Compact, MFM, etc.
- Replies: 7
- Views: 637
Re: beebjit-0.9.4 released: Master 128, Master Compact, MFM, etc.
This is amazing work!
- Sat Oct 17, 2020 10:00 am
- Forum: past acorn preservation team sessions
- Topic: Acorn Preservation Team meeting #2, Sunday 18th October 2020, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1241
Re: Acorn Preservation Team meeting #2, Sunday 18th October 2020, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Would like to join this but family may have to take priority this time. If I can get the time away I will post again to request the meeting details. In any event, I suspect my time may be better served right now by trying to sort out the boxes and boxes of software and manuals I’ve got, and fix my d...
- Wed Oct 14, 2020 10:22 am
- Forum: programming
- Topic: [SOLVED] Noob question about sound on Beeb
- Replies: 9
- Views: 551
Re: Noob question about sound on Beeb
Quick reply: I believe you have to keep the sound chip write active for at least 8us, which is longer than you've got it active in that code. EDIT: Was going to add an additional sentence to say "I know you're tried a delay, but have you made sure it's 8us" ... but you replied in the meant...
- Sun Oct 11, 2020 5:20 pm
- Forum: 8-bit acorn hardware
- Topic: Master PSU recap
- Replies: 7
- Views: 382
Re: Master PSU recap
That grommet is a total pain. There are apparently tools that you can use to get it out and in again, but I generally go at it with a pair of pliers and work two small screwdriver blades into the gap between the wider ‘lip’ and the metal case, then lever it out. I’ve often found that it’s the imposs...
- Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:10 am
- Forum: 8-bit acorn software: other
- Topic: Simple demo for SHADOW screen modes?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1004
Re: Simple demo for SHADOW screen modes?
edit: deleted this post as I realised it didn’t actually help with the question being asked!
- Fri Oct 02, 2020 12:48 am
- Forum: programming
- Topic: Attempting to use Shadow RAM with SIdeways RAM
- Replies: 7
- Views: 575
Re: Attempting to use Shadow RAM with SIdeways RAM
When your sprite plotting / reading code is running, do you have interrupts enabled or disabled? If you are writing directly to ROMSEL and ACCCON, instead of using the OS-approved routines to control whether shadow or main RAM is CPU-visible and/or is displayed and which SWR bank is active, then the...