25 NOVEMBER 2002

Updates:


 24 NOVEMBER 2002

Updates:

From Stephen Pollard:

From Ken Ives:

From Mike Sutherland:

From Gerald Holdsworth:

The maps, guides and solutions were previously available on separate pages but have now been amalgamated onto a new page entitled Game Help.


From Neil Richardson:

From James Watson:

From Matt Cocker:

Plus

From Mike Sutherland:

From Neil Richardson:

Plus

From The Doctor:

From Ronald Barr:

From Sean Wood:

... and the following modifications by Andrew Hayes (aka AJH):

From Chris Lloyd-Gilford:

From Dave Edwards:

Descriptions for:

Ian supplied some more notes on Uggies Garden, a game he co-wrote with Frazer Middleton (Frazer's been in touch too!)

(OK I'll come clean: Rich's info was added months ago, I just forgot to note it on this page)



AND FINALLY ... a plug!


From the co-creator of Heartcore: The Game comes:

Ben Mitchell - Somebody Stop Me


 23 NOVEMBER 2002

Coming soon!


 24 OCTOBER 2002

Darryl Still (ex-Audiogenic employee and the founder of Godax/Top Ten Software) is trying to track down Dean Lester (author of Ziggy). So Dean - if you're out there please contact me and I'll forward your details along to Darryl.


 18 OCTOBER 2002

Increased the prominence of the copyright notice as CD-copies of our archives have begun cropping up on eBay.

Now, I've got absolutely tons of new stuff to upload but not the time to organise/archive/integrate it all at the moment, so for the time being I'm afraid updates will continue to be news-related only.

Anyway, if you've contributed any files during the last couple of months, don't worry - they're safe, they've not been lost and they'll make it online soon!


 13 OCTOBER 2002

News:

Get it from b-em.emuunlim.com.

I'm writing a quick note to tell you that Masabi have just released conversions of Repton 1 for the new Nokia 7650 phone and Microsoft Pocket PC PDAs, priced at £7.50 and £10 respectively from www.masabi.com.
 
These conversions feature improved graphics, bonus levels and tutorials for anyone feeling rusty, and I can safely say that they're as addictive as the original. One of the reasons we've taken so long to release them is that play-testing sessions tended to drag on for a lot more hours than were strictly necessary!
 
In case you?re wondering why the Pocket PC version costs more, it has had significantly more effort put into the graphics to make use of the extra space available and also features sound, whilst the Nokia 7650 version has had to be written in more compact Java so that it can be downloaded over-the-air. In both, however, the gameplay is spot-on and the full-screen action is smooth.
 
Masabi are also now much closer to completing the fully networked version of Repton 3 that I contacted you about some months ago, in which players can download all the original levels and the matching sprites when they want them onto their Java phones. They will also be able to create their own levels and sprites, publishing them across the world in a way 5.25" disks could never match!
 
We aim to have this version out by late November or early December - basically as soon as the mobile operators make the necessary billing systems available to 3rd parties, and sufficient numbers of people have bought colour Java phones to make releasing worthwhile. We are also working on some other Superior conversions for mobile platforms, I'll keep you informed as and when these become public!


 24 SEPTEMBER 2002


Superior Software - arguably the most dominant force in the Acorn 8-bit world, are BACK ... albeit with a slightly different name and totally different target platform!

Their new homepage contains details of upcoming Repton conversions for the PC and Gameboy Advance, and also makes reference to the intended Masabi ports to Mobile Phones, Palmtops and Pocket PCs.

Customers can get a 10% discount on the PC Repton games (when released) by simply completing the online form on their website. Richard [Hanson] also appeals to programmers of PC games and other software to submit programs for evaluation, with a view to publishing.


 23 SEPTEMBER 2002

News:

For reference, blood markers are low and I'm all but officially in remission, pending a CT scan on Wednesday. I even have at least a centimetre of hair! Anyway, I'm working on tweaking ElectrEm to fix the various problems in the WIP release and eventually get a 1.0, but at the same time I've stupidly taken on a second project which is diverting most of my attentions. You know how us hobbyist programmers tend to reach beyond our means . . . .
 
On the plus side my family have bought an XP machine, so even if I can't fix the / key problem under XP before I head back to my university time residence in about a week, I should be able to get some stuff done at Christmas.
 
Anyway, relevantly to the topic, I notice that a new Electron emulator has appeared, and competition can only ever benefit the consumer, etc, etc, so why not check out Elkulator from the Tom Walker (author of B-Em), via http://b-em.emuunlim.com/? I think its a pertinent time to remind that this list's original remit was modified to cover all Electron emulation discussions, even if the name could not be so changed.
 
Elkulator seems to be a DOS only emulator (VGA or VESA graphics, SoundBlaster/ESS Audiodrive/Ensoniq Soundscape/WSS/PC beeper for sound) which "does not do accurate emulation of split palette effects. It only emulates the ones commonly used in Electron games, but others (such as Jet Set Willy) look wrong. Also, it does not emulate scrolling effects (Firetrack)", but is faster than ElectrEm. Also worthy of note is that Tom "[does] not guarantee any updates, as other projects (B-em & Arculator) will probably take up most of my time."
 
Known bugs include "6502 bugs - Citadel, Frak! and Stryker's Run don't work" and "Boots a little slow - I'm not emulating above 1mhz for ROM acces".
 
I wonder if ElectrEm should support the PC beeper where possible (definitely DOS and definitely not Windows)?

Site Updates:


  7 JULY 2002

Mike Cowlishaw has released an emulator for the Acorn System One, the first ever Acorn microcomputer!


  24 JUNE 2002

Updates:


  23 JUNE 2002

Brace yourselves ...

As of today I have transferred every single BBC/Electron tape game in my collection (hooray!) that a) wasn't worn beyond repair and b) could be decrypted by the MAKEUEF program. I'll continue to pick up what tapes (+ disks) I can from private sales, classified ads and on-line auction sites, but from now on we will be increasingly dependent on software submissions if the archives are to continue to grow. Please follow this link for detailed instructions on converting your BBC/Electron tapes to UEF Tape Image format. However, if you have neither the means nor the time to try, perhaps you would consider loaning/selling/donating any tapes you have that are missing from our archives - you know they'd be going to a worthwhile cause!


  22 JUNE 2002

Updates:


  17 JUNE 2002

Updates:


  16 JUNE 2002

Updates:


  14 JUNE 2002

Ken Ives supplied Maps for Castle of Riddles, Dracula Island, Galadriel In Distress, Ring of Time & Wizard of Akyrz - each beautifully hand-crafted by Ken himself! Ken also supplied the official map for Greedy Dwarf.

Ken's own hint sheets and solutions for the above adventures to follow shortly ...


  13 JUNE 2002

Updates:

I'm writing to you as a pre-eminent Acorn web site to tell you that Masabi, a company founded by myself and another Acorn enthusiast (I think between us we owned seven from a BBC B through to a Risc PC), has signed a deal with Superior Software to convert Repton 3 to next generation mobile phones and connected PDAs.

Whilst not being directly relevant to your core content we felt that the Acorn community might be interested in the resurrection of such a cult figure. Our principal motivation for getting into this was the thought of how cool our favourite BBC game would be on a phone which is fundamentally an ARM chip strapped to a BBC resolution screen!

Our aim is to give the core game away for free, making it as easy as possible to pass between friends, and charge a micropayment (less than the cost of a ringtone for current phones) per level and/or sprite set ('skin' seems to be the current trendy layman-friendly name), releasing all 144 levels from Repton 3, Around the World in 40 Screens, Life of Repton and Repton Thru Time with the original Archimedes graphics (to make use of the increased colour depth on these new phones).
 
On top of this we'll be providing web-based level and sprite editors so anyone can create them for their friends or publish them to the whole community, and other things that can only be achieved in an online environment like leaderboards based round speed records for levels, single session high scores etc. We're also looking into making available the original Repton levels and a special level-set derived from the Repton 2 screens in a Repton 3 context.
 
Beyond this we'll be looking to release some other Superior titles too, though probably with a one-off price, so if you've got any suggestions we'd love to hear them. Richard Hanson said he was quite keen to see Pipeline (redesigned a little to make it more approachable) and Ravenskull, with Thrust coming in as our other perennial favourite.
 
If you're interested then you can check out our web site at http://www.masabi.com.


  31 MAY 2002

Some new additions to the BBC Tape Image Archive:

Thank you Jerry Lakin for providing the original cassettes!


  26 MAY 2002

Oops - turns out I posted the wrong link to the Div Games Studio yesterday - the correct url is http://www.div-arena.com.


  25 MAY 2002

News & updates:

Amnesia

Whilst we're on the subject of shelved titles - any other authors out there care to follow Kevin's lead and liberate their long-forgotten programs which never quite made it to publication? If you've still got your disks but no means of transferring them, get in touch and we'll make things happen!

I just thought I’d let you know that there’s yet *another* Repton 3 clone in the works (yawn!). It’s in very early stages at the moment, and you’ll find details at http://www.edcourtenay.co.uk. It requires the Microsoft .NET framework to run. I’d be grateful for any comments and people willing to beta test.


  25 APRIL 2002

Thanks to Kevin Etheridge, we now have a copy of the exceptionally rare White Magic 2 (4th Dimension) in our BBC Disk Image Archive. Kevin also supplied a Cover Scan.


  24 APRIL 2002

Updates:


  8 APRIL 2002

The Admiral has released his first BBC>PC conversion, PC Arcadians. Despite being a version 1.0 release, I am assured that development will continue until it's as close to Orlando's masterpiece as possible. Apparently more remakes are planned, but I guess a lot will depend on the level of interest expressed by users. So if you do have a blast on it, don't forget to fire a quick mail off to admiral6502@hotmail.com afterwards :-).

Updates:

Thanks to Richard Watson for donating the BBC tapes for me to transfer (not to mention some great Beeb hardware!), Wouter Scholten for the German Electron software and Dave Edwards for providing the Electron User cassette.


  19 MARCH 2002

jl.penBeebEm v1.41 is loose! Thanks be to Richard Gellman, who is rapidly achieving super-hero status with each feature-packed release of this famous emulator!


  12 MARCH 2002

Additions to the BBC Tape Image Archive:


  11 MARCH 2002 - THE HORNY ELK STRIKES BACK!

The Elk's latest and greatest anime-inspired mega demo for BBC & Electron machines has finally been unleashed. Check out Ayana The Yellow Star on the Miscellaneous page.


  10 MARCH 2002

Additions to the BBC Tape Image Archive:

Thanks to Paul Cousins for kindly donating the first lot of tapes for transfer, Jeremy Grayson for the second and Gerald Holdsworth the third.


  3 MARCH 2002

BBC version of The Magic Sword (Database) added to the Tape Image Archive - this supercedes the previous version, which was Electron-only.

Smidgins of maintenance to the Electron Tape Image Archive:


  1 MARCH 2002

Added another 30-or-so Educational Titles.

Full version of The Archers (Mosaic/Level 9) added to the BBC Tape Image Archive. As noted on the Messageboard, the version available in the disk image archive only contains the first level.


  28 FEBRUARY 2002

Paul Klintworth supplied the Support disk for Dread Dragon Droom [ Educational Software Archive ].

David Boddie sent me some interesting Bolo links [ Lost And Found ].


  27 FEBRUARY 2002

Added Dread Dragon Droom, a multi-part educational program from Humberside County Council. This was actually identified as a request on the Messageboard less than 2 hours ago .... how's THAT for service? ;-)

Brian Jones has released version 2.0 of BBC Connect. Changes include:


  25 FEBRUARY 2002

Filled two recent requests for Educational Software:


  23 FEBRUARY 2002

Updates:


  15 FEBRUARY 2002

Added about 40 new Cover Scans.

Thanks to Nick White for sending scans of the disk versions of Sports Spectacular, Strip Poker II+, Blast, Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz, Graham Gooch Test Cricket, Omega Orb, Psycastria, Sphere of Destiny, Starquake, Bug-Byte Compilation I+II, Midway, The Lost Crystal, Kourtyard, Daley Thompson Supertest, Sim City, Commonwealth Games, Goal, US Drag Racing, Vindaloo. And also Grid Iron 2 (tape) & Moon Cresta (tape).


  14 FEBRUARY 2002

Steve Humphreys supplied a BBC Disk Image of Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz (Audiogenic).

Uploaded a version of the BBC Tomcat cheat that works.

Dick Greening pointed out that Balls! was in fact released by Yes Marketing, not Audiogenic. BBC Disk archive updated. L&F updated. Cover Scans updated.


  13 FEBRUARY 2002

Updated the BBC Disk Image Archive and the BBC & Electron Tape Image Archives with replacement copies of Starship Quest - the previous versions were giving out incorrect password information. Thanks to Don Hay, Dave Edwards, Barbara Gibb & author Larry Horsfield, who all played a part in resolving this!!!


  12 FEBRUARY 2002

Thomas Harte has released a "highly flawed beta 9/10" build of ElectrEm. This Work-In-Progress version includes Jafa Mode 7 emulation, Slogger MRB support, cool graphical UEF browser ... and lots of bugs. It is likely to be the last release of ElectrEm for a while as Thomas will shortly be undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

Site updates:

Link added to Peter Clements' website which contains photographs of a miniature BBC B and a Sentinel chess set!


  11 FEBRUARY 2002

I've finally finished sorting out all the duplicate BBC/Electron tapes I need to get shut of and have added a list to the For Sale page. It's first come first served, so hurry! </plug>

New additions to the BBC Disk Image Archive:

Replacement archives have been uploaded for:

Carried out additional 'maintenance' on the BBC Tape & Disk Image Archives. To help you identify which files have been updated/renamed/removed I've created a couple of log files, which are accessible from the title pages of each archive. Once again, thanks go out to Dick Greening, who managed to create working disk copies of Buffalo Bill, Islandia, Indoor Soccer, Gnasher, Footer, Warlord of Doom & Starforce Lander.


  9 FEBRUARY 2002

Sorted. Stuart supplied a disk image containing the COMPLETE version of White Panther's Infinity. The previous version (which only worked on a Master) has been removed from the archive.

Gil Jaysmith (author of the Speccy conversions of Repton 1 & 2) provided the basis for another new entry to Lost and Found: Jeltron - a shoot-em-up he and Richard Broadhurst wrote back in '87. Gil also added some further notes on One Night in Bangkok.


  1 FEBRUARY 2002

Added a BBC Tape Image for Infinity (White Panther). Apparently the version in the disk image archive only contains the first level, but hopefully the cassette version will suffice until we get a fully-working disk copy sorted.

Other updates:

Thomas Harte posted an update on the ElectrEm Mailing List regarding the progression of his emulator, which he remains committed to despite his very unfortunate circumstances. We wish you well on your continued road to recovery and thank you for your Herculean efforts in developing ElectrEm thus far.


  29 JANUARY 2002

Updates:

All were written by Johan Hendriks and are now public domain. His homepage features all the above, plus JPH ROM (a utility rom he likens to "Disc Doctor") and a Key Definition proggie

Silicon.com summarised the response they received to the Electron article, here: http://www.silicon.com/a50757.


  26 JANUARY 2002

Ian Walker and Rich Talbot-Watkins spotted the following tributes to the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro which recently featured on Silicon.com. Note the follow-up to the Electron article from Acorn's former marketing manager.

Links:

http://www.silicon.com/a50548 [Electron]
http://www.silicon.com/a50750 [BBC pt1]
http://www.silicon.com/a50751 [BBC pt2]


  25 JANUARY 2002

Tonight's Thumb Bandits at 23:55 on Channel 4 will be featuring a segment dedicated entirely to the Acorn BBC B! Might be worth setting the video for ...


  21 JANUARY 2002

Anthony Tibbles supplied an MP3 rip of the theme tune to Cholo.


  20 JANUARY 2002

Tom Walker has released v0.4a of B-EM.

Changes from v0.4:

The source code has also been updated. Keep sending in those bug reports, comments and suggestions to the author at tommowalker@hotmail.com. Tom thinks that compiling a comprehensive list of all glitched or non-working games "might be a good idea", so please forward any such observations to him at the above address.


  19 JANUARY 2002

Gilby of the TZX Vault provided a replacement BBC Tape Image and a Cover Scan for Trafalgar (Squirrelsoft). He also contributed the support software for the Movie Maker package, also in Tape Image format.

Brian Jones has updated his emulator frontend BBC Connect to version 1.92. It now includes links to our archive of BBC Disk Images within its database.


  18 JANUARY 2002

Made the following entries to Lost and Found.  Better still, downloads for all four have been added to the main BBC Disk Image Archive ...

Other updates:

Useless fact: total volume of site = 395 Mb.


  16 JANUARY 2002

Additions to the BBC Disk Image Archive:

Most of the above provided by Dick Greening.


  15 JANUARY 2002

James Fidell released xbeeb 0.4.1.

From the BBC Micro Mailing list:

Well, it's been quite a few years now, but this is it. With some trepidation, I can announce that xbeeb 0.4.1, my BBC Micro emulator for X11, is now available at ftp://ftp.cloud9.co.uk/pub/Micros/BBC/Emulators/Xbeeb/xbeeb-0.4.1.tar.gz

Yes, there are problems with it, but there are also a whole pile of improvements since v0.3, including near-complete emulation of the undocumented 6502 opcodes and reasonable sound support. I've also added support for .inf files, so it should be straightforward to run many of the programs on The BBC Lives.

My development is done on a RedHat 7.2 box and I'd expect xbeeb to work on pretty much all RedHat releases. I'm told that it works ok on Debian, too, but there may be problems with SuSE. It should run without too much modification on a lot of other UNIX(-like) platforms.


  13 JANUARY 2002

It's almost nine months to-the-day since the last release of B-EM but early this morning Tom Walker released version 0.4. There are lots of improvements, the most significant being faster speed, better sound, higher compatibility, improved ease of use (through a GUI) + support for more video cards. Mode 7 emulation looks pretty tasty now, too. Download it from the B-EM Homepage.

List of changes taken from the README.TXT file:

I know that in the past Tom's been a little disappointed with the (lack of) feedback he's received, so if you have anything constructive to say regarding B-EM please, please, please drop him a line at: tommowalker@hotmail.com. You never know, with enough encouragement we might even see another release before 2003 ;-).


  4 JANUARY 2002

The ElectrEm homepage has been given a nice, new look for 2002 and includes screenshots showing off Master RAM Board support and Java Mode 7 emulation (just two of the new features present in the upcoming Beta 10 release). And going by the Mode 7 screenshot, Thomas seems to have implemented the most faithful recreation of teletext yet!

Robert Schmidt of The BBC Lives added a few lines to Lost & Found regarding Blockman. Do his comments ring any bells?


  1 JANUARY 2002 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's been almost a year in the making but finally our BBC Games Archive has been revised and as of today contains ...

1480 *TESTED* DISK IMAGES!!

The archive contains plenty of games that were previously unavailable on the 'net (including many rare gems!) so do make sure you have a good rummage through everything. The Messageboard has been restructured to complement today's changes so any problems, requests or other issues relating to either the BBC or Electron archives should be raised here. The Lost and Found section has also been updated with many new downloads, linked from the new archive. Incidentally, the Browse feature in both the BBC + Electron archives has now been enabled.

The following folks were intrumental in the creation of the archive as they either lent or donated their entire Beeb software collections, so a big THANK YOU goes out to: Barbara Gibb, Dick Greening, Richard Spencer, Steve Allsopp, Roger Gillies, George Scammell, Y.C. Wong, Peter Coney, Chris Richardson and Edd Nutt (a true Beeb enthusiast, now sadly deceased). Lest not forget webmasters Robert Schmidt of The BBC Lives (which was the source of about 80 of today's additions) and Dextrovix of RetroBBC (yes, 9 games were sourced from RB too, pre-closure!). Last but not least kudos to The Fox of EmuUnlim (for the hosting) and Brian Rahn for the technical assistance and for writing our (recently-improved) indexing scripts.

Speech over. Enjoy!

Other news: Version 1.9 of the Emulator Frontend BBC Connect has just been released by its author, Brian Jones.


Click here to see what was new in 2001.