BBC computer !

first off many thanks to TC for supplying the beeb :-)

Soo

beep!! the first time I've have switched on a bbc computer since 1986/87 when i left school.

great fun it is too but damn that speaker is loud! I've just played flak for the first time since my pal had it on the electron and a I've had a quick fly around on Elite. my hero Bas has supplied one or two things to keep me busy.

So here starts a new adventure in learning and games playing and the standard dumb questions. you have been warned!

spec:

It's an Issue 7 (final board) with the cool running Video Processor & in pretty good condition with No school markings at all.

It is also fitted with the std Acorn 8271 Floppy Disc Interface which provides 100% compatibility with all Acorn BBC Model B software formats.

The Board also has a fitted Econet Interface including all board soldered components but is missing the socketed controller chip, this is easy to find if Econet functionality needs to be enabled in the future, at the very least I could Supply one for you.

64K RAM you ask, Well the system has 32K RAM as std but I have modified the board and added 32K Sideways RAM as Banks F & B. similar use as to the Master series.

The mainboard has the std 16K v1.20 MOS ROM but also a custom 64K ROM in addition that holds.

1 Acorn Basic 2
2 Acorn 8271 DFS, includes form & verify & support for 3.5" drives
3 Acorn Graphics Extension ROM, Provides enhanced capabilities.
4 Beebaid V1.01 --- For Sideways RAM Housekeeping + more very useful tools

So in total 80K ROM firmware out of the box.

comments from TC.. not me i don't have the faintest idea what the hell he's talking about , bloddy bbc users , pahhh...512 fast ram - now i know what that means...:roll:

oh yeah ,its got some sideways , backwards rams with some roms , and a few mips and about 128k of waps and 2x 32k of wips ....just ask I'm an expert.

mike.


hammering in some knowledge

okay I've just got the hang of Omniflop and that the beeb uses 40 track double sided floppies , side one is 0 and side 2 is drive2
i can write ssd images to side 0 and side 2
*form80 0 formats drive 0
*cat and *. are directory listings (catalogue i presume)
shift & break auto loads !boot files
load "gran1" loads granny's garden as it has no autoload...

I'm learning slowly!!!

nice!

Welcome to the club :)
You can now talk all geeky with us Beeb owners :P
Gotta say, that's a nice Beeb, looks like it's been well looked after.

These kind of threads are why I keep coming back to AmiBay day after day.

Very nice BBC there! :)

thanks , she a beaut :-)

playing granny's garden - the last time i saw this was in the computer room at school !!!!

CAN THE SOUND be adjusted on these bloody things ?? I'm going deaf!

if not i'll have to fit a Potentiometer or switch of some kind ahhhhh

I remember playing frogger on these when I was at school... They still had them in my school until around 97/98 when they replaced them with base spec IBM PCs. :thumbsdown:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

CAN THE SOUND be adjusted on these bloody things ?? I'm going deaf!

if not i'll have to fit a Potentiometer or switch of some kind ahhhhh

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I fitted a potentiometer to mine when I had one. I found it the easiest way to control the sound.

Dave G :cool:

Hi Dave, yeah I've found the pot on the mobo and turned it down slightly - just enough to stop the ears bleeding when grannys garden starts.

I've have a look at fitting an external pot and dial in the week.

@MJ

It's surprising how much sound can come out of that little speaker :double

Dave G :cool:

Aaaaah Grannies Garden another oldie I forgot...
Check out Imogen

Glad you found the potentiometer Mike :lol:

The Drive is 80track double sided, 200K per side, all your other findings are spot on mate.

Dont forget you can force the second side, ie drive 2 as the default by issuing the command,
*Drive 2

any commands issued thereon automatically assume drive 2 unless you specify an alternative parameter.

Omniflop can also format the disk for you, look for BBC DFS 80 track double sided or 400K.
When writing the image using omniflop you can also specify whether it writes to either side using the pull down for either 0 or 1 [which in Beeb terms equate to 0 or 2]

You seem to really be enjoying her mate, i'm so pleased.

Hold down R then Break to get a Sideways Rom & Ram status, H+ Break will give Beebaids command menu options....

As you may have guessed, the Basic 'MODE' command selects the Graphics modes, 0 to 7
7 being teletext... when using the print command in Mode 7 include a shifted function key key character whithin the quotes to insert an invisiblke attribute to be printed and change your text colours....

In fact shift and function key in mode7 will work in real time....
VDU 141 is also great fun too, work that out, Mode 7 teletext is great fun in itself.


TC :cool:

@TC

It's years since I messed with a BEEB.

The couple of games I wrote I used to put the instructions on the screen that gave you a lined mode. I thought it looked good.

I can't for the life of me remeber which commands did that though :picard

Dave G :cool:

thanks TC , it took an hour of formatting and playing with oniflop to get it to write anything , i wonder if i formatted it wrong then...

i know one i did gave an error on the beeb...im getting tired now :-)

Is there a bit missing on the left of the keyboard or was there supposed to be a hole? :lol:

its a section for a ROM to be added i believe , the plastic cover could be pushed in to reveal the hole.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by davideo

@TC

It's years since I messed with a BEEB.

The couple of games I wrote I used to put the instructions on the screen that gave you a lined mode. I thought it looked good.

I can't for the life of me remeber which commands did that though :picard

Dave G :cool:

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That will be MODE 6 which is a 40 column mode or MODE 3 which is 80 column, both text modes only as thdy both use less screen memory..

TC ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scrappysphinx

Is there a bit missing on the left of the keyboard or was there supposed to be a hole? :lol:

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Commonly referred to as the ashtray :lol:
But Mike N is spot on, can be easily recovered if required..

TC :)

'ello john , got a new beeb?:lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

'ello john , got a new beeb?:lol:

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That's been there for months, its a take on Alexei Sayle's "Hello John, got a new motor?" :lol:

Might change it to Mike though :p

B ;)

im not bald just yet :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

im not bald just yet :-)

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No but we both know a John who is ;)

TC runaway quick,,,,,:lol:

lol your looking for trouble!

All this beeb talk! I gonna have to set up my master system and get some topless shots...

I would like to get a hold of some manuals for it sometime...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

lol your looking for trouble!

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I know, I can't help it, ask Dave G, he will tell you what Bas is short for, hint 7 letters..

:p

okay you beeb guys, in my class in the 80s a kid brought in a demo of cindy lauper - time after time ...

now i don't know if it was a demo or just something someone had written but we were all impressed, even the teacher who seemed unaware of most aspects of the computer.

this would be - mid 80s - did the beeb have a demo scene ?

---------- Post added at 00:23 ---------- Previous post was at 00:22 ----------

bastille ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

okay you beeb guys, in my class in the 80s a kid brought in a demo of cindy lauper - time after time ...

now i don't know if it was a demo or just something someone had written but we were all impressed, even the teacher who seemed unaware of most aspects of the computer.

this would be - mid 80s

---------- Post added at 00:23 ---------- Previous post was at 00:22 ----------

bastille ?

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I've got Golden Brown by The Stranglers, will have a look for Cyndi, I havent heard that one.

You know you can add a SID to the Beeb dont you ;)

Anyway Michael thats 8 letters :Doh:

TC :lol:

Well, here she is, snagged for silly cheap off a new member who sold and ran... <3 amibay!

Attachment 29603

Attachment 29604

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Oh so looking forward to playing chuckie egg on it!

nice :-)

Nice Econet card you got installed in the top right mate....

I will sort some discs out for you, but trust me, you need to adapt a PC floppy drive to your machine, especially as you have a 1770 disc controller in your master which will run perfectly with it...

Omniflop will then open the entire Beeb Software catalogue to you..;)

I always fancied an Archie. I've heard so much about them.

The trouble is I've got less room than Wolfy to play in :double

Dave G :cool:

Oh gonna get one of those MMC card readers I seen on WoodyCools` Beeb, but not for another month or so...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wolfy

Oh gonna get one of those MMC card readers I seen on WoodyCools` Beeb, but not for another month or so...

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Lazybones.....:p

They are cool though, I got one too :lol:

i may too later on...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheCorfiot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

lol your looking for trouble!

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I know, I can't help it, ask Dave G, he will tell you what Bas is short for, hint 7 letters..

:p

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Well you Basta**!!!!...:lol::lol::lol:

:coffee:

I used to love messing around with Beebs at school... I keep being so tempted to get one... also loved the Arch at secondary school (when they first came out - 400's and 3000's mostly).

Can the Archimedes run all BBC Micro software? Or just some of it?

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...8&d=1339867768 This! You are the Man :)

I'll have to learn to play Elite. My lack of skill comes from the less than legal copies that we had at school, no keys , no instructions, nothing..

Anything that was not obvious or straight forward was neglected for commando or green beret ...

I am surprised I never got in to it as always preferred the open ended games , sandbox they are called now.

Mike,

I forgot to add all the Elite doxs for you & the keystrip.:Doh:

Send me an email addy and I will forward them ;)

TC ;)

ohhh okay matey :-)

how disapointed was i...french mistress!


on a side note.

formatting 3.5 disks

presumably..if format on the beeb

*form80 0
*form80 2

will format a 3.5 disk to 80 track , double sided. yes?

but Oniflop reports - unknown disk format.

now if format on the beeb

*form40 0
*form40 2

i still get unknown format..


if i format on Oniflp as 40 track , double sided 200k . it works a treat..
if i format on oniflop as 80 track , dS 400k - i also works :-)

so omniflop can format the disks , no worries. :-)

some more work on the beeb today, i fitted a volume control to the old girl - granny's garden is just too damn loud!!!!

its a simple mod but the motherboard has to come out, i cheated a bit and left it half in with the psu wires connected and simple unsoldered the volume pot.

i then refitted the board , screwed it back down and soldered in three pins - i wasn't going to do this originally - that why i had refitted the board but i just noticed them in my bits and bobs box so on they went.

i have a batch of 6inch single pin connector wire that i had planned to use on a remote 68000 cpu project , i may still one day but not yet. So this is the wire you see from the volume control to the original resistor pcb holes & the new pins on the motherboard.

result?

i now have full (loud) and all the way to off if i need it...

lovely.

pics and vids below.

mike. :-)

Original volume -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr_Xq...e_gdata_player

volume turned down most of the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCoXp...e_gdata_player

As i had the case off , i teased back the brown plastic and put two strips of black insulating tape under the cover , i repeated this on the underside too and then stuck the brown plastic cover back on in that corner. a quick lick with a black marker on the exposed edge of the rom hole to hide the white edge and it looks a little better now. - no hole.

mjn.

If I ever end up getting a BBC, and I probably will, if I keep following this thread, I probably should localize it and put an YLE logo over the BBC logo. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by protek

If I ever end up getting a BBC, and I probably will, if I keep following this thread, I probably should localize it and put an YLE logo over the BBC logo. :p

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Over my dead body you will:p

Nice job Mike :thumbsup:

TC :)

YLE ?

Thanks tc - it's so nice to turn the sound down..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

YLE ?

Thanks tc - it's so nice to turn the sound down..

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You really are enjoying that machine I see, we should have a go at making an analogue port convertor together to allow std joysticks to be used.
Nice to have the option of using both types then.

How you getting on with the Teletext graphics mode, that is one very differently controlled screen, for example, in mode 7, at the prompt, press shift f1 and watch the invisible attribute take the space on the screen, anything typed then is in red... try the other shifted function keys, and then for real fun try them using the Ctrl key instead of shift....

TC :D

@mj

That beep brings back some nice memories of days gone by :shhh:

Dave G :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

YLE ?

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Short of Yleisradio, meaning Finnish Broadcasting Corporation.

Nice work with the external pot, BTW! :thumbsup: Interesting that Acorn has put an internal dial for the volume originally.

@tc I haven't really played with the beeb in any great detail , I've bought an advanced users book and I will sit down and write some programs for it soon. The various graphic modes interest me and I'm sure I'll make some progs that use it.

Well my use so far is frak and the adult version , elite , thrust and granny's garden but the volume of gg at 1:00am last week was a bit much !

And as always my and other peoples projects took over ...

@tc I haven't really played with the beeb in any great detail , I've bought an advanced users book and I will sit down and write some programs for it soon. The various graphic modes interest me and I'm sure I'll make some progs that use it.


Well my use so far is frak and the adult version , elite , thrust and granny's garden but the volume of gg at 1:00am last week was a bit much !

And as always my and other peoples projects took over ...

Of course all the interesting add in's for the beeb look interesting...

2nd processor , robotics interface , teletext adaptor , prestel , networking - although I can't imagine the beeb has Firefox yet. - the speccy got a twitter browser tho ..

http://www.anf.nildram.co.uk/beebcontrol/index.html (robot arms)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro_expansion_unit (teletext)
http://bbc.nvg.org/history.php3 (bbc / acorn history)
http://www.apdl.co.uk/riscworld/volu...proc/index.htm (2nd processor)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq53DO7zL_g (prestel)

mike

---------- Post added at 09:28 ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 ----------

@davideo

remind you of school?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjnurney

@davideo

remind you of school?

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Nope - home.

We only had slate and chalk when I was at school :lol:

Dave G