Remarkable videos recently posted on Youtube

[Zarchos]

Steve Furber - His First Computer and the Prototype Acorn BBC Micro!

Two fantastic donations made to the Centre for Computing by Professor Steve Furber. The first computer he ever designed, which he took to the famous Cambridge University Processor Group, and a machine that is the closest we have to being a prototype for the Acorn BBC Micro computer.


https://youtu.be/8_33Yv5LsSs

[JudgeBeeb]

Steve Furber - His First Computer and the Prototype Acorn BBC Micro!

Two fantastic donations made to the Centre for Computing by Professor Steve Furber. The first computer he ever designed, which he took to the famous Cambridge University Processor Group, and a machine that is the closest we have to being a prototype for the Acorn BBC Micro computer.


https://youtu.be/8_33Yv5LsSs

Something for us to look at (play with?) in a few weeks.

[BigEd]

Excellent! From 2650 to 6502... that's a ROL.

[Elminster]

Popped up on my ipad earlier. Watched it at dinner and then watch it again with the family on the TV. Well actually I watched it on the TV and they just politely ignore me (and Steve) for 45 mins.

But +1 for recommending it too watch.

[davidb]

Very interesting! Thanks for pointing it out.

I think he showed his first computer in another video that was filmed in his office. The one he wrote up his Ph.D. on was mentioned but not shown in that earlier video. I hope Jason managed to convince him to let someone image those floppy disks he mentioned.

[Andrew_Waite]

This series of short YT videos from 2004 is supurb. The Great Matthew Smith talks about the development of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy on the Spectrum.

The quality of the recording is bad, but the content makes perseverance well worth while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J60MBYps2U

[Zarchos]

Not a video but a rather good article :

21 Things We Miss About Old Computers
From cassette tapes to blocky graphics, modern computing has taken away some things we really rather miss...

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/games/pc-ga ... -computers

[Zarchos]

While trying to find some infos about the 8 bit Acorns, I've found this lady on YT who has uploaded a nice series of videos.
Link to the 1st one :
01 - BBC Why and Hardware overview
https://youtu.be/SwyzQyky1j4

I wonder if she's not a *. member, because in another video the forum is mentioned.

[hoglet]

I wonder if she's not a *. member, because in another video the forum is mentioned.

http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/member ... ile&u=9318

[Zarchos]

I wonder if she's not a *. member, because in another video the forum is mentioned.

http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/member ... ile&u=9318

She answered a comment I made on YT today, but it seems she's not active anymore on *.
How come ?
She's an excellent teacher and her voice is perfect (to me).

[davidb]

From a while ago but not one I'd seen before: The Future of Microprocessors, Sophie Wilson (Wuthering Bytes 2014)

[BigEd]

(I notice Sophie closes by showing off the now-public Visual ARM - a transistor level simulation of ARM1 which runs in your browser. If you've a reasonably uptodate computer and browser, you can play with it here.)

[algenon_iii]

Chinnyvision teardown and review of the BBC Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86s8cWfRso

[chinnyhill10]

Chinnyvision teardown and review of the BBC Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86s8cWfRso

IIRC I do apologise to everyone in this forum in advance for any mistakes! And I apologise again!

[danielj]

[several posts snipped]

Just for the record - we are pretty tolerant. But continued rudeness and offensive behaviour over a long period when repeatedly given opportunities to moderate oneself can't unfortunately be allowed to run and run. It's a waste of everyone's time and energy.

[tricky]

Thanks for the review,
the beeb doesn't get much love on youtube and I think you were very fair.

You might have a preference for the MSX and a strange dislike of the BREAK key, which is invaluable for writing assembler with the built in assembler, but it didn't detract from the review for me.

It was unfortunate that Acorn added the few minor incompatibilities that they did, all avoidable through "legal" use of the machine of course.
I think the two main ones were moving the user port (breaking direct joystick and timer access) and moving the character bitmaps, breaking direct reading of the character set.
For my AstroBlaster game, removing the SPEECH upgrade option is also an issue!

http://youtu.be/4V0yIFhkXB0

I think that to someone who remembers the beeb and doesn't have one, your review might just persuade them to get one and that is the best outcome possible in my opinion.

[Elminster]

think that to someone who remembers the beeb and doesn't have one, your review might just persuade them to get one and that is the best outcome possible in my opinion.

Agree, I got back into it myself 5 or 6 years ago via some random article.

[chinnyhill10]

Thanks for the review,
the beeb doesn't get much love on youtube and I think you were very fair.

You might have a preference for the MSX and a strange dislike of the BREAK key, which is invaluable for writing assembler with the built in assembler, but it didn't detract from the review for me.

Only a preference for the keyboard on one MSX model (the Hit Bit 75B) which was a Sony machine they engineered in the same way they did their 80's Hi-Fi's. So the keyboard is very nice to type on. Whole machine is very nice and it also has the nicest on/off switch of any home micro.Like the big on/off switches on an expensive 1980's amplifier. Same satisfying click when you press it down.

Regarding the break key, my beef with it is how one wrong keypress and you reset the machine. Lots of machines have a soft reset but most do it through a key combination not a single keypress. One stray finger and you reset the machine.

And I know of one person just last week that picked up a BBC Micro as a result of the channels BBC coverage. So must be doing something right!

[tricky]

Fair enough, I've never used an MSX, but do have a nice Sony 80s amp

I'm glad to hear that you have helped to increase the number of beeb owners, and you were right about some of us having several beebs, my current total is 25, plus 2 B+s and a non-working master, which your video prompted me to move to the head of the repair queue.

I guess one person's easy access is anothers too easy to accidentally access. When I was in games and keyboards came out with the windows key, about a third of us levered them off with a
screwdriver as we got so annoyed with accidentally hitting them. I have never used it and probably never willand still occasionally get annoyed by accidentally hitting it.

Thanks again for the video and keep up the good work (thumbed up).

[1024MAK]

Regarding the break key, my beef with it is how one wrong keypress and you reset the machine. Lots of machines have a soft reset but most do it through a key combination not a single keypress. One stray finger and you reset the machine.

Yep, a problem Acorn knew about long ago, hence the special mechanism on the Break key on the Master machines.
Of course, if writing/editing a BASIC program, typing in OLD mostly saves the day. No good if it is a game you are playing though...
At school, or when developing BASIC programs at my friends, I often redefined a function key to enter the OLD command

Mark

[tricky]

I still do:

Code: Select all

10 *K.10O.|MREN.|ML.|M

As I often have escape disabled and/or on ON ERROR in play.

[Elminster]

Of course, if writing/editing a BASIC program, typing in OLD mostly saves the day. No good if it is a game you are playing though...
At school, or when developing BASIC programs at my friends, I often redefined a function key to enter the OLD command

Mark

I have a set keys script for program and auto does old on break. As I got bored of doing old

[algenon_iii]

Chinnyvision teardown and review of the BBC Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86s8cWfRso

IIRC I do apologise to everyone in this forum in advance for any mistakes! And I apologise again!

No need to apologise. Personally I thought it was a very entertaining video.

The Break key problem is a very real one (not just on the Master), I seem to remember reading a letter in Electron User from someone whose younger brother would press Break in the middle of a game to wind him up, and a design for a Break key guard made using a few bits of lego.

[davidb]

From Acorn World back in May: How Graphics were Created for BBC TV Programmes in the 90s. I notice that one of the comments refers to software written for a Chess TV programme and wonder if it's related to the software shown by Zarchos.

[Richard Russell]

From Acorn World back in May: How Graphics were Created for BBC TV Programmes in the 90s.

With reference to a comment made near the beginning of the video, the small onscreen clock displayed during breakfast TV, at least initially, was generated by dedicated hardware known as BAT (Breakfast Analogue Time) developed by BBC Engineering Designs Department, where I worked. It almost certainly used a Z80 CPU for control purposes, which was the workhorse for such applications. It's possible I suppose that an Acorn machine was used in some later iteration, but I never came across it.

Richard.

[dgrubb]

I seem to remember reading a letter in Electron User from someone whose younger brother would press Break in the middle of a game to wind him up, and a design for a Break key guard made using a few bits of lego.

Electron User also printed a guide for adding in a switch to toggle enabling the Break key. I tried it on one of my Electrons but only succeeded in buggering up the keyboard!

[lurkio]

I was watching the KansasFest 2017 livestream, and I was shocked (shocked!) to see these Apple-heads slagging off Acorn:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzLGC6Tz1Pc#t=08h33m20s

(Clip begins at 8 hrs, 33 min, 20 secs.)

Let's gettem!

[leenew]

Yeah!!
Oh, hang on a minute you were watching 8 hours, 33 minutes and 19 seconds of non-Acorn, Apple-head video

Let's get Lurkio!

Lee.

[flaxcottage]

When I was in games and keyboards came out with the windows key, about a third of us levered them off with a
screwdriver as we got so annoyed with accidentally hitting them. I have never used it and probably never will and still occasionally get annoyed by accidentally hitting it.

There is now a new and purposeful use for the Windows key. I re-imaged my RISCOS software for the Raspberry Pi this week so that it will work on all my Pi variants. Whilst exploring the install I noticed a Windows app had been installed. This activates when the Windows key is tapped and displays a context sensitive menu just like pressing the centre mouse button. Quite cool.

[danielj]

Windows-L is a very useful shortcut for locking the screen when you work in an office...
d.