Migrating from Turbo MMC to Data Centre

[hiddenevil]

I wasn't sure what title to give this post that would sum up exactly what I wanted to touch upon.

After the last Abug meeting, I returned home and installed an internal data centre in my model B. Thus far, human error aside, I think its a grand bit of kit

Now I dont claim to know bog all about the Turbo MMC as it was gifted me by a friend. I know the MMC contains a single BEEB.MMB file full of games, which has been handy to have on more then one occasion. As I have a data centre now, I was wondering if there was any way I could transfer the contents of the MMC on to a usb pen and still make use of the games+menu system.

Thought I'd pose the question, as I'm sure some bright spark might have thought the same

[danielj]

Someone tried to do this, but I don't think it worked very well as I recall Lemme have a dig...

d.

[hiddenevil]

Thanks matey

I'm just wondering if I need to keep my Turbo MMC rom in my system or if i can let the DC take over.

[leenew]

It would be a great idea if someone were able to suck all of the SSDs from bbcmicro.co.uk and create a good datacentre menu.
It may be easier using the 130 odd DSDs that the SSDs are derived from, rather than using the 2300 odd SSDs?
Didn't Sweh create a Perl script to perform something like this?

Lee.

[danielj]

Do we have a nice zip of the Mick collection? I've just done the STH collection to HFE for the goteks... The problem is getting around to writing something that swaps the discs in and out appropriately...

[leenew]

see pm's daniel...

[RobC]

There's DCBeeb which implements the MMC game menu on the DC:
http://home.kindredintellect.com/beeb/Software/DCBeeb/

I've always used it "as-is" so don't know whether it can be adapted to incorporate your own disk images.

[hiddenevil]

Does this contain the same titles as the beeb.mmb?

[danielj]

Roughly, I think?
d.

[CMcDougall]

The link to the DCbeeb menu system works exactly same as the mmc (exept all SSDs without .SSD extension)
It is on the DataCenter CD that comes with it.

Copy the folder onto your USB stick, load menu into DC disc0, boot, off it goes (can confirm works)

[hiddenevil]

When I get back to my Beeb later this week, I might have to quiz you on how to do some of this

I'm wasn't entirely clear what you meant by "it is on the DataCentre CD" what is on the CD? I've not had a chance to check it out yet as I only had a flipping ultra book and they'd don't come with optical drives anymore Gah!

I know the CD contains some software for playing about with on your DC, but no specifics as to what.

[Lardo Boffin]

The CD contains a file called DCBEEB_games.zip (and another called _menu). The games zip on mine is about 16MB.
Create a folder in the root of the USB called DCBEEB. You unzip the _games.zip into it. Mine then has 238 files in it. These are all the disc images.
You unzip the _menu.zip into the root of the USB stick and this contains a DCBEEB.SSD image which has the menu program in it.
To use it you import the DCBEEB.SSD image to your datacentre (something like *IMPORT 0 5 DCBEEB.SSD) and then you can run the menu program from 0 or whichever drive you chose (5 is the USB stick I think?).
The menu program imports the appropriate disc image based on the menu selection. The imported image overwrites the menu program... Should you wish to try another disc of games you need to reload the menu.ssd!

[hiddenevil]

It that the same as
http://home.kindredintellect.com/beeb/Software/DCBeeb/

[CMcDougall]

^ yes , that is same as on the dc CD

[hiddenevil]

Hey everyone

Happy to report that everything is working according to plan, got the menu copied to drive 4 of my DataCenter and was soon playing Starship Commander

Had a couple of hiccups along the ways which I'm going to document on my write up of the DC for my website.

[doom99]

Hi guys, been trying to get DCBEEB to run from my DC but when I get to the loading screen A message pops up saying " Device Detected P2 at line 110"
has anybody got any idea what may be happening? hiddenevil you mentioned you had a few hiccups and was going to write them up on your website mate, could you pass me the web address.

[ultrasteve]

I'm sort of in the same boat. I've got DCBEEB up and running no problem, but it would be nice to have the fixed versions from the later (for example Higgy's) .mmb files incorporated.

[Lardo Boffin]

Hi guys, been trying to get DCBEEB to run from my DC but when I get to the loading screen A message pops up saying " Device Detected P2 at line 110"
has anybody got any idea what may be happening? hiddenevil you mentioned you had a few hiccups and was going to write them up on your website mate, could you pass me the web address.

I’m sure I had this error. I think on mine it was down to how the menu program was run, e.g. *exec !boot as opposed to *run !boot or possibly the other way round.
From memory the menu program imports the selected disc from the USB stick when you choose it and then it runs the program on the ssd. I think it is the import stage that is failing.

[doom99]

got it going, once it gives the " Device Detected P2 at line 110" message just type "RUN" and away you go!

[colonel32]

got it going, once it gives the " Device Detected P2 at line 110" message just type "RUN" and away you go!

Just got my new DataCentre fitted (it’s excellent!) and I’m hitting the “Device Detected P2 at line 110" thing too.

It only happens running the menu from drive 4, so I’m trying to figure out what the proper fix is. Line 110 is “*]CD \”

[jgharston]

Is that the menu that starts:
10 MODE7
20 *EXEC
30 PROCoff
40 TITLE$="BBC Micro Games"
50 FORT%=0TO1:VDU31,0,T%,132,157,141,135,31,(20-LEN(TITLE$)/2),T%:PRINT TITLE$:NEXTT%
60 PRINTTAB(0,10)
'cos it's line 140 that's *]CD / here.

A simple fix may be to add:
11 ON ERROR IF ERR<>(whatever the ERR is) THEN REPORT:PRINT:END
12 *]CD /
13 ON ERROR OFF

[colonel32]

Yes that’s the fella. My version of the program is slightly different, but not materially I don’t think.

ERR is 255, and your fix works! Cheers

[colonel32]

As far as I can see, Device Detected P2 is a VInculum status message, not really an error at all, so eating it should be fine.

[andrewvideo]

Has anyone got this to work off the IDE drive. I want to turn on the computer and boots in menu from the CF Card and have the DCBEEB folder on the drive too.

[Muddyfunster]

DanielJ pointed me to this, as I was looking to do the same with either the CF or USB in my datacentre.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17091&p=236943#p236943

Second reply in, there's a link with a guide for both options. I go the the USB version working perfectly. Not sure it does exactly what you are wanting but it might help.

Hope this helps!

[danielj]

Has anyone got this to work off the IDE drive. I want to turn on the computer and boots in menu from the CF Card and have the DCBEEB folder on the drive too.

Alas, you won't get it to work from the CF card in a consistent fashion as most games expect to be running from something resembling dfs, and the ide-cf is adfs... Added to that you'd have to extract all the files from each ssd on the USB stick...

[rharper]

If you want to run games from the CF card you need the ADFS versions. There are not as many as the DFS versions but most of the Acornsoft, Superior, alligata, a&f, ....., US gold titles - 100's.
Ray