Ovine by Design have delivered the perfect Christmas Pressy for BBC/Electron fans, with the Xmas Eve release of their long-awaited PC conversion of Imogen!

Stuart and Andy have done a magnificent job of updating this classic Acorn puzzler and despite the extremely well-polished exterior (graphics, sound and music are all top-notch!), the gameplay remains remarkably faithful to Michael St Aubyn's much-loved original (the documentation even features a foreword from Michael himself!). The accompanying website is chock-full of History too, and looks as if it could have taken almost as long to construct as the game itself!

More recent / not-so-recent news:

• Superior Interactive have released their 3rd PC conversion: Ravenskull, which has been coded by STH-contributor Darren Izzard

Downloads for the Trial Versions of all three releases (Repton 1, Galaforce Worlds & Ravenskull) have been added to the PC Clones page.

• Cronosoft - a software house dedicated to breathing new life into age-old systems, have released their first title for the BBC Micro/Electron series: Weenies by Christopher Dewhurst.

It's available on tape-only for £3.98 (inc UK P&P), has an uncanny resemblance to Lemmings and is great fun to boot! So if you own a BBC or Electron and want to encourage development of more professional-standard releases like Weenies, please give serious consideration to making the purchase!

• Daniel Johnson has made yet another addition to The Potting Shed's growing collection of BBC remakes: Meteors

• Ed Courtenay has released v1.0 of he and Chris Marshall's Repton clone: Repton.net
  
  
• Harvard Spring's entry to the recent Retro Remakes competition was an impressive Dare Devil Denis clone
  
  
• Horizon (BBC Micro emulator for MAC + Windows by Chris Lam) is now freeware!

 

Xmas updates:

• Peter Scott contributed three, simple demo versions of his unreleased work from the 80s:
  
  
  • TWO entirely different builds of the "legendary" Daxis  (1 x vertical shoot-em-up, 1 x platformer!)

• a second platformer: Underside

Explains Peter:

Downloads for all three have been added to Lost & Found (if you fish around the disc images and you might even find a little source code lurking!).

• Jon Irvine contributed Tony's Sothcott's original, pre-release version of Castle Quest, entitled Castle Raider  [ Lost & Found ]

• added over 60 Cover Scans
  
  
• added 19 BBC UEF Images: Brainstorm (Virgin), Darts (MRM), Drain Mania (Icon), Eagle Empire (Alligata), Emperor (Molimerx), Golf (Bug-Byte), Guardian of Doomsday (Quest), JR (Software for All), Programmer's Revenge (Colisoft), Signals and Magic (H & H), Substrike (TDS), The Avaunting (Ixion), The Hobbit v2 (Melbourne House), The Sting (Gemini), Time Traveller (Software for All), Trek (Acorn User), Turbo (Kansas), Data File (Kansas), Acorn User July 1987
  
  
• added the following Electron UEF Tape Images: Chukee (Bit Twiddlers), Custard Pie Fight (Comsoft), Reversi (Kansas), Basic Sound and Graphics (Addison-Wesley), Acorn User July 1987
  
  plus all remaining ELECTRON USER companion cassettes (50 in total, including a replacement V1 N5)!
  
  
• BBC Disk Image added for Corpuscle (Micrograf) courtesy of Stephen Humphreys
  
  
• Carol Pedder supplied three more hand-drawn maps for Castle of Riddles, Sphinx Adventure and Lords of Time  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Hugh Robinson provided a set of maps for Repton Infinity  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Walter Pooley submitted his solution for Franklin's Tomb  [ Game Help ].

After literally years of waiting, the official PC versions of Repton 1 and Galaforce Worlds are finally available to buy online via the Superior Interactive homepage. Just in time for Xmas too, so they'd make great virtual stocking-fillers!

There's already been some good early Repton feedback on our Messageboard, so give them a try today - I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Other recent / not-so-recent news:

• Tom Seddon updated Model B to version 2/11/03
  
  
• Tom Walker released v0.3 of Elkulator
  
  
• Duncan Woods released JBeeb - a Java-based BBC emulator!  [N.B. just updated to v1.1]
  
  
• Dave Edwards added a new edition of EUG (#64) to The Haven. Speaking of which, check out the Haven's great new look!

News/Updates:

• Tom Walker has released B-EM v0.6 which features the following changes:
  
  
  • Model B+ support, along with 1770 emulation
  • Totally rewritten 6502 core - faster, more accurate
  • Fixed some VIA timing - Revs now works
  • UEF works better
  • New GUI
  • Improved sound core - now supports sample playback
  • Now emulates two disc drives
  • Win32 version now available.
    

And with the advent of the Windows port, Win2k/WinXP users can at last get their "fix" of Tom's speedy emulator!

• Tom Seddon updated Model B to fix the VIA bug which crept up in the last release.
  
  
• Krepton by Sandro Sigala is a Repton Clone for Linux. Thanks to Roger Barnett for bringing it to my attention.
  
  
• check out my new site www.acornmags.co.uk - it features high-quality scans of, well, Acorn Mags.

Tom Seddon has released another version of his great Beeb emu, Model B.

New in version 15-7-2003:

• Fixed: window position saving behaviour when maximized or minimized
• Added: drag and drop disc images onto status bar
• Added: volume control
• Added: full screen mode
• Added: scanlines options
• Change: EXE is statically linked -- no more DLL problems
• Change: BBC_QUICKQUIT key gone -- references to it should be removed by hand from the INI file. I am sorry for this.
• Added: different monitor types (thanks to BeebEm for the colours, who did that?)
• Fixed: error checking for out-of-video-memory conditions
• Change: fewer back buffers, should work on low memory video cards.

News/Updates:

• There's been three updates to Tom Seddon's Model B emulator since we last updated, version 11/06/03 being the latest release (note the new method for version numbering!). Key improvements are improved compatiblity, bugfixes, sound logging and support for the 64k BBC Model B+.
  
  And, due to the accuracy of the B+ support, the later of the Level 9 adventures (e.g. Gnome Ranger, Lancelot, Scapeghost and Time & Magik Trilogy) can at last be played under emulation *with graphics*.  Well done Tom!

• And to add proof to the pudding, here is the Model B+/Master version of Dr Who and the Mines of Terror (Micropower) - 100% emulable under Model B!
  
  You have "Bill Carr" to thank for de-protecting my protected original!
  
  
• Wouter Scholten has released a string of updates to his bbcIm file manipulation utility. As Wouter points out, there's only been a 6 year gap between 0.97 and 0.101 !!
  
  
• Michael Foot has released BeebIt v0.53, a BBC Micro emulator for RISC OS. It is now compatible with the Iyonix PC.

Side note: I've got a whole summer's worth of BBC email to catch up on ... I'm afraid work committments, the sun, and general laziness have got the better of me, but I will attend to all mails when time permits!

Also, could "A Robson" (ntlworld user) please email me again - all my replies have bounced as your messagebox is over-quota!

Tom Walker (author of B-EM & Elkulator) has "been working on a couple of BBC-related things ... the screenshot should sum them both up".

Benjamin Ryves has programmed a Repton conversion for the Texas Instruments Graphical Calculator, to go with the Firetrack port he wrote last year.

 

Tom Seddon has released Model B v0.61, which fixes the Win XP bug (discussed below) plus other timing issues.

Site updates:

• Jeremy Shepherd submitted a Cover Scan for Gnasher (Superior)
  
  
• "Bill Carr" provided a BBC DFS Disk Image for Cheat It Again Joe Vol 4 by Zentrix (Cheats)
  
  
• Andrew Hayes supplied a very interesting BBC UEF Tape Image - a music video for the Beeb!
  
  Writes Andrew:

This is a computer program found on the single 'The Other Side of Heaven' by the pop group 'Kissing the Pink'. The program is a kind of early music video for the six minute (12" and Cassette) version of the song. Converted from 12" vinyl.

Now this has /got/ to be a world record for the "gap" between releases of a particular emulator!

The last public release of Model B by Tom Seddon was way back in 1996 ... but earlier this evening, Tom released a brand new version (v0.6) for Windows.

You can get it from the homepage at http://www.tomseddon.plus.com/beeb/beeb.html

I've found the emulation to be incredibly slick and responsive, sound is excellent (we're talking 16-bit stereo here!) and, due to its accurate timing emulation, it can run just about all of the "tricky" games that other emulators tend to struggle with e.g. Revs, Firetrack (emulated flawlessly!), Uridium (seems a bit fast?!), Cute to Kill, Hypersports (original version, not the BC mod) ... even Rich TW/M Godbolt's Frogman demo (which had every other emulator completely stumped!).

The only real problem I've found is that it runs too slowly on Windows XP, though it's fine on the same machine under Win 98 (this issue could only be affecting my system, of course).

Updates:

• "Bill Carr" supplied BBC DFS Disk Images for:
  
  
  • Dr Who & The Warlord (BBC Soft)
  • Shark Attack (Romik)
  • Summer Olympiad (Superior PIAS re-release)

And replacement images for:

• Hi Bouncer (Mirrorsoft)
• Last Ninja 2 (Superior)

How he managed Dr Who I'll never know, as even BBC Soft once claimed that the program code was simply too big to be executed from disk (hence it being a tape-only release).

• "Kempster" typed up Acornsoft's official solution for Countdown to Doom  [ Game Help ]

News:

• Daniel Johnson created a homepage for his Rocket Raid clone, which premiered on STH last month. The page also features: a generic "Scramble" clone (written by he, in Pascal), a 16k "Swoop" clone (written by a buddy, in assembler!!) and an entirely new and utterly brilliant conversion of Planetoid (also written by said buddy).

Updates:

• "Bill Carr" supplied maps and a guide for the Superior classic Ricochet  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Andrew Hayes provided a set of replacement images for his Repton 1 & 2 maps, which feature reduced file sizes (there aren't any actual graphical differences)  [ Game Help ].

Updates:

• Andrew Hayes has generated professionally-ripped maps for Repton 3, Repton Around the World, Life of Repton & Repton Thru Time (that's almost 150 screens, folks!) using his own, custom-written software.  [ Game Help ]

News:

• The Superior Interactive homepage has been revamped and features an exclusive screenshot of the upcoming Galaforce Worlds conversion. And it looks like PC Repton is almost with us, too!
  
  
  
• Just to bring you up-to-date on the latest Masabi developments: Galaforce is now available for the Nokia 7650/3650 and other Series 60 phones; Repton is still available for a myriad of mobile phones/PDAs and Pocket PC, the release of Strykers Run is imminent and development of the sequel to Stryker, Codename: DROID, is under way.
  
  
  

Updates:

• added a Cover Scan for Monaco (Alligata).  No UEF image 'cause the tape was duff ... :o(
  
  
• another "Bill Carr" screenshot special: Elixir  [ Game Help ]

News:

• Spellbinder just got Weeviled: http://baxpace.com/music/TheWeevil - Spellbinder.mp3
  
  (this has got to be one of the best game remixes I've heard ... incredibly, I'd only suggested doing a SB remix to Steve late Sunday night, but guess what popped up in my inbox Monday morning .... !?).
  
  Writes Steve:

I also have some info for STH's music page and in general. I like to put the original artist in the ID3v2 tag of my tracks if it's a cover, but none was provided for Spellbinder. So I downloaded the SSD and found that the game doesnt show it either. Hex editor time. If you open the SSD and jump to offset 0x7908, there are some very strange messages left by the programmer. It turns out the music is actually a cover of a track by The Stranglers called "Midnight Summer Dream", so I suppose you can add that to the music page.

ED2K / eMULE hash: Stranglers - Midnight summer dream.mp3 

Updates:

• added over 60 Cover Scans, including Microgo by Edge Computers and an alternative sleeve for Return To Eden by Level 9, both courtesy of Wouter Scholten
  
  
• Rich Talbot-Watkins supplied DFS Disk Images for Onslaught and Frogman - two games he alluded to in Lost & Found back in June 2002. They were written by himself and Matt Godbolt in the early-90s and were submitted to a number of software publishers (including Superior) though neither got released.
  
  N.B. Both are incomplete demonstration versions and Frogman does NOT appear to work on any of the current PC-based emulators (there's nothing wrong with the files on the disk image - they work fine on a real Beeb).
  
  Whilst on the subject of L&F, Stuart Goodwin provided confirmation that Cute To Kill was in fact a bona-fide release by Mandarin Software.
  
  
• a further 10 BBC Disk Images:
  
  
  • Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge (Martech)  ** cracked version **
  • Castle Quest DEMO (Micropower)
  • Defender (Acornsoft)  ** yet another modded variant **
  • Fab Four Compilation (Audiogenic)
  • Grid Iron 2 (Alternative)
  • Hareraiser: Finale (Haresoft)
  • Land of Tezrel (Omen)
  • Passport to Death (Silverlind)
  • WetZone (Everiss)  ** BBC version **
  • Woodbury End (Shards)  ** &1900 version **
    

Thanks to Bill Carr for cracking Brian Jacks (boy, have I been waiting a long time for this!) and Dick Greening for conquering Fab Four, WetZone & Woodbury End.

I've moved/renamed Andrew Hayes' modified adventures (which include a save-game option) from the Cheats directory to the Acornsoft directory, as per Andrew's suggestion.

• over 70 BBC UEF Tape Images including ...
  
  
  • these games:
    
    Go (Acornsoft), Maze (Acornsoft), Meteors-German (Acornsoft), Monsters-German (Acornsoft), Snapper-German (Acornsoft), Games Compendium (Acorn User), (Ashley Greenup), (Ashley Greenup), Denis Through the Drinking Glass (Application Software Specialists), Manage (Cases), Fruit Machine (Computer Concepts), Flipper (Microdeal), Space Shuttle (Molimerx), William the Conqueror (Molimerx), Division One 95 (QualsofT), Mexico 86 (Qualsoft), Pirates (Screenplay), Eagles Wing (Software Invasion/Smash 7 release), Star Warp (Superior), Blocker (Thor)
    
    
  • these train sims:
    
    by Ashley Greenup Computer Games:
    
    
    • Depotmaster Finsbury Park, Depotmaster Old Oak Common

by Dee-Kay:

• The Mid-Day Scot, Class 50 Fleet Manager, Cornish Riviera, Deltic Fleet Manager, Flying Scotsman, Lickey Route, Mendips Stone, Peak Fleet Manager, Royal Scot, RTC Birmingham, RTC Buxton, RTC Crewe, RTC Doncaster, RTC King's Cross, RTC Lime Street, RTC Paddington, RTC Penzance, Shedmaster Bounds Green, Shedmaster Finsbury Park, South Devon Hydraulics, Tees-Tyne Pullman

by Steam Railway Simulations:

• The Atlantic Coast Express, The Inter-City, The Pines Express
  
  
• these "mag-tapes":
  
  Beebug:
  
  
  • Vol 1 No 1, Vol 2 No 2, Vol 2 No 5, Vol 2 No 6, Vol 2 No 8, Vol 2 No 9, Vol 2 No 10, Vol 3 No 1, Vol 3 No 2, Vol 8 No 2

Model B Computing:

• Cassette No 1
  
  
• ... and these miscellaneous items:
  
  Applications 2-Masterfile (Beebug), Drum-Kit (Quicksilva), Jars-German (Acornsoft), Missing Signs-German (Acornsoft/ESM), Eiffel Tower (Chalksoft), Educational Special No 1 (Database), The French Mistress Level A (Kosmos), European Knowledge (Micropower), Cut'N'Val (MP), Sketch Pad Software (Cumana), BeebPlot (Watford Electronics), Mastermind Quizmaster (Mirrorsoft), Pieman (Musicsoft), Finest Favourites (Acorn User), Toolbox 2 (BBC Soft), Multi Aid (Dynabyte)

Thanks to Wouter Scholten for supplying most of the German-language tapes.

• 16 Acorn Electron Tape Images:
  
  
  • games:
    
    Arcadians-German (Acornsoft), Meteors-German (Acornsoft), Games Compendium (Acorn User), Depotmaster Finsbury Park (Ashley Greenup), Depotmaster Old Oak Common (Ashley Greenup), 10 Of The Best Vol 3 (Database), Mendips Stone (Dee-Kay), RTC Birmingham (Dee-Kay), RTC Crewe (Dee-Kay), RTC Doncaster (Dee-Kay), Shedmaster Bounds Green (Dee-Kay), Shedmaster Finsbury Park (Dee-Kay), South Devon Hydraulics (Dee-Kay)
    
    Yes, Electron folk get to play some exciting train sims too ... you lucky people!
    
    
  • other software:
    
    Finest Favourites (Acorn User), The Spanish Tutor (Kosmos), Mastermind Quizmaster (Mirrorsoft)

Once again, thank you Wouter Scholten for the German version software.

• Benny-Roger Gundersen supplied the Electron ADFS version of Acornsoft Database
  
  
• Bill "bbcfan2002" Carr supplied two more screenshot-based maps for Omega Orb and SpyCat. Bill's also provided a Guide for each, that are useful when read in conjunction with the maps  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Andrew "AJH" Hayes provided a professionally-ripped set of maps for XOR (the graphics for which were derived from the RISC OS port, though the layouts are true to the original 8-bit versions)  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• "Jerry Cornelius" provided a scan of the official Robico solution for The Hunt: Search for Shauna  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Barbara Gibb also chipped in with her own solution for The Hunt  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Matt Forbes proposed a solution for Crown Jewels  [ Game Help ].
  
  (FAO Matt: my email bounced when I tried to reply to you!).

News:

• Michael Foot recently released BeebIt v0.50 - his BBC Micro emulator for RISC PCs. Changes in this version include:
  
  
  • Added new routines to render the video screen in 256 colour modes. This allows BeebIt to work on the Iyonix computer.
  • Added a cursor to teletext mode.
  • Made a slight speed increase to the handling of interrupts.
  • ZeriBeep is now fully 32 bit compatible.
  • Snapshots have been improved and reimplemented.
  • Screen save can now save a teletext screen to a sprite.
    
    
• Thomas Harte has issued a replacement executable for the Windows build of the b9/b10 ElectrEm release, which he explains in this posting to the ElectrEm Mailing List:

• Ovine By Design have released a one-level demo of their upcoming Imogen conversion for Windows platforms

• Martin Buscombe is making steady progress on his modernised, 3D version of Chuckie Egg entitled Cluckie Egg: The Retro Days.

• Musician Steve Pick (aka The Weevil) - whom you may remember worked wonders with a Galaforce 2 sample sometime last year - has produced a second Beeb-inspired remix, which is based on Ian Waugh's title theme for Bug Eyes 2.
  
  Link: http://baxpace.com/music/TheWeevil - Bug Eyes.mp3

Updates:

• Acorn Atom pages opened
  
  
• Daniel Johnson programmed a great Windows version of Rocket Raid
  
  
• Bill Carr spotted our call-sign and has duly provided an emulator-friendly version of HyperSports  [ BBC Disc Image Archive ]
  
  
• moved Fraser's Electron joystick utility from the hardware\firstbyte directory to hardware\signpoint.

In the last update, I somehow neglected to mention the new [free!] web-based edition of EUG, available from www.acornelectron.com.

Cor, that was some break wasn't it?!  More of a winter hibernation, really ...

Updates:

• Sarah Brown noticed an unfamiliar version of Tempest hiding on one of her compilation discs ... and upon closer examination it has indeed turned out to be the prototype version of Orlando's rumoured conversion!

Well, rumour no more - journey on over to Lost & Found where you'll find screenshots, a little proof, plus ... cue drum roll please ... the demo itself, available for download as an .ssd disc image!

• a second new entry (plus download) to Lost & Found: Build N Break by Melvin Garcia
  
  
• Chris Jones supplied a Coverscan and BBC Tape image for The Perils of Percival Penguin from Willow Software
  
  
• Andrew "AJH" Hayes contributed jaw-droppingly impressive sets of screenshot-maps for Repton, Repton 2 and both BBC and Electron versions of Frak! [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Carol Pedder supplied her own solution, maps and hints for Labyrinths of LaCoshe, which she crafted way back in July 1983  [ Game Help ]
  
  
• Fraser Ross supplied an Electron UEF Tape Image of the Adval-Switched Joystick Routine by First Byte
  
  
• John Berry has collated a nice set of Acorn-themed Windows icons [ Miscellaneous ].

Other news (all belated):

• Dave Edwards finally launched the Acorn Electron Haven towards the back end of February. Despite being in 'prototype' stages, Dave has already amassed a mountainous collection of DFS & ADFS disc images, reviews, coverscans, documentation and more. It seems to be expanding at a phenominal rate, so it's definately worth keeping an eye on www.acornelectron.com over the coming months ... particularly if you're a user of an actual Electron with disc interface
  
  
• Tom Walker released a completely re-written version of B-EM (v0.5) just before Xmas (sorry Tom!)
  
  
• Gaming mag Games TM featured a six page spread about Superior Software in the March issue ... hey look, we even get a mention (cheers Simon!)
  
  
• Collectors of retro computer games should check out UK Retro which been set up by reputable eBay trader fairziff and has the distinction of offering brand new vintage software for sale.

Finally, could Bill Carr, who contacted me offering a fixed version of Hyper Sports, please get in touch again - there was absolutely no trace of a return address in the email so I was unable to reply!

Click here to see what was new in 2002.