27 DECEMBER 2006

The URL for the forum has changed to www.stairwaytohell.com/sthforums.

Please note that from now on, any *new* registrants must email me to have their accounts activated.


 21 DECEMBER 2006

News:

Tom anticipates an updated DOS port being ready by the end of the year.


 12 DECEMBER 2006

Thomas Harte has updated ElectrEm Future to v0.6b.

Main fixes (which are for the Windows version):

Other changes:

Direct file links:


 5 DECEMBER 2006

Thomas Harte has uploaded the full release of ElectrEm Future v0.6 to http://electrem.acornelectron.co.uk.

The emulator features the following changes since v0.5c:

Direct file links:


 27 NOVEMBER 2006

The acornmags site has been updated with scans for another seven editions of Micro User.


 20 NOVEMBER 2006

Updates:

News:


 20 OCTOBER 2006

Dave Hunt provided some Pokes for Starship Command  [ Cheats ].


 17 OCTOBER 2006

A couple of months ago, John Kortink posted the following to the BBC Micro Mailing List:


GoMMC now works on the Electron, via a small interface plugged into the expansion port, and using a patched version of the (Plus 3) ADFS 1.00.

Bottom line, if there's enough interest for 'GoMMC for the Electron', I may take this little interface into production. Get it touch if such interest lurks within you.

John needs at least four Electron-owners to pre-order a GoMMC (75 EUROS) and Electron Interface (10 EUROS) in order to justify the time and cost of production. However to date, only three people have made the commitment (and I'm one of them!).

So come on people ... surely there's got to be at least one more Electron fanatic out there who would like to own one of these awesome devices!! Just think, you could load it with ALL of the Electron software from this website, and still have room for Dave E's disc images from www.acornelectron.co.uk

If you want to play a part in the development of what would undoubtedly be the most incredible piece of Electron kit ever, then get in touch with John at this address: kortink AT inter.nl.net


 16 OCTOBER 2006

This is slightly outside of the remit for this site, but I'm sure that some visitors would be interested to know about the 3 x Archimedes/BBC A30x0 promotional videos that I've just uploaded to the Acorn Preservation Project:


Micro News
Parts 1 + 2


The Learning Curve
(BBC A3000)


The Home
Computer Minefield


 15 OCTOBER 2006

News:


 14 OCTOBER 2006

On Thursday, Mike Wyatt updated the Windows version of BeebEm to v3.5.

Changes:


 9 OCTOBER 2006

Updates:

FDI files for the above (plus other Master Compact titles) should appear on acornpreservation.org before the end of the year ...


News:

I have had a dabble over the past couple of days and added a few more features to my Mac BBC Games List program.

Recent additions include:

Added option to download missing disc/tape images off STH website
Added option to merge existing games/tapes into database
Added edit context menu to text fields
Added more display filter options
Minor bug fixes

You can download the new program from:

http://www.g7jjf.com


 8 OCTOBER 2006

Added UEF Tape Images and Cover Scans of two very rare Text Adventures for the BBC.

 


Super Gran - The Adventure
Tynesoft

Had no idea a Beeb version even existed!


Temple of Terror
U.S. Gold

Only seen this on eBay once, so quite a find!


 7 OCTOBER 2006

News:

If it's of interest to anyone, I recently uploaded a recently-unearthed design for the never-made but planned sequel to Chuckie Egg from the original Spectrum author, Nigel Alderton:

Chuckie Egg Alternate Sequel - Chuckie Apple

Considering this is quite a big announcement in the CE universe, I've also put together a small, open-ended competition with a few token prizes for anyone who fancies going to the trouble of implementing the game, either on PC or an 8-bit format like the beeb:

Chuckie Apple 2006 Implementation Challenge

After the recent release of BBC List by P.Jones, he has kindly given me permission to write a compatible version for the Mac. This has now been written and is available for download from my web site at http://www.g7jjf.com

Mac BBC Games List is a games database front end for Mac BeebEm.

The program displays a list of games that can be sorted by name, year, publisher or genre. A screen shot is also displayed if available.

Double clicking a program will launch BeebEm with the disc loaded and automatically start the game.

Numerous filter options are available to allow you to find the game you want. Options are also available to add or edit the information in the game database.

If there is any interest, it should be fairly straight forward to create a version for use with Mr. Bunn's Unix BeebEm port.

To support this new program, Mac BeebEm 3.0v is now available.


 1 OCTOBER 2006

Updates:


 30 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Game Help pages have been blessed with a plethora of screenshot maps all of which were created by "Bill Carr" (current forum user-id: billcarr2005).

Featured titles:

  • Baron
  • Exile
  • Infinity
  • Jack Attac
  • StarQuake
  • ThunderStruck.

 29 SEPTEMBER 2006

News:

Writes Dave:

I think I've successfully fixed the bugs shacken out by G++ version 4 and am very happy to release BeebEm UNIX version 0.0.11!

Everything seems to work fine now on SuSE 10.1 and the source code is as ever available on my website.

If anyone finds any other problems, please either advise me here, or via email <frutbunn AT gmail DOT com>.


 27 SEPTEMBER 2006

Updates:


 26 SEPTEMBER 2006

Programme from the March/April 1984 Micro User/Electron User Show at WestminsterThe Acorn Preservation Project has been updated with more scans from Ash W's collection of Show leaflets.

                

                

                

All of today's additions were collected at the March/April 1984 Micro User/Electron User Show in Westminster.


 25 SEPTEMBER 2006

Andrew Skipper (forum user-id: vbbc) supplied BBC Disc Images for the following educational titles (the first and third of which were requested on our forum):


 

PC Frak
... should be with us this weekend, so I'm told!


 24 SEPTEMBER 2006

BBC List (click to enlarge)Update:

News:

Development has been switched from GCC & G++ version 3 (in FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE) to GCC & G++ version 4 (in SuSE 10.1) but according to Dave, this has caused many problems. So he is currently trying to upgrade to the new compilers, in the hope that soon, BeebEm UNIX will work as well on most of the newer Linux distros as it does on BSD.


 19 SEPTEMBER 2006

Programme from the November 1983 Micro User Show at WestminsterSTH Forum User AshW (Ashley Wong) recently passed on a huge collection of promotional material (e.g. catalogues, brochures, flyers) which he acquired whilst attending no fewer than eleven Acorn shows between 1983-1987.

                  

                  

Scans of the documents he collected from the December 1983 Micro User Show at Westminster, including the actual Programme itself (pictured right), are now available to download at The Acorn Preservation Project website.

Scans of items obtained from subsequent shows will follow over the course of the next few months.


 15 SEPTEMBER 2006

On Wednesday, both the Windows (v3.4) and MAC (v3.0u) versions of BeebEm were updated with the following fixes/improvements:

Changes:


 10 SEPTEMBER 2006

Steve Humphreys provided a BBC DFS Disc Image of the retail version of XOR (Logotron).

Unlike the "cracked" demonstration disc, this version features a "chunkier" logo in the top-right corner of the main screen.

XOR - Demo version
XOR - Demo version

XOR - Retail version
XOR - Retail version


 9 SEPTEMBER 2006

Updates:

News:

Androidz
Androidz

Headcase Hotel
Headcase Hotel


 5 SEPTEMBER 2006 - HBAM!

Update:


News:


 19 AUGUST 2006

News:


Updates:


 8 AUGUST 2006

Michael S Repton (author of the Repton 3 FAQ) produced a similar FAQ for The Life of Repton, which I've added to the Game Help section.


 7 AUGUST 2006

Dave Eggleston released v0.0.8 of BeebEm Unix.

New features:


 6 AUGUST 2006

Richard Wilson has added BBC Model B emulation to his Java multi-platform emulator, JEMU.


 28 JULY 2006

Update:

The Problem
==========
Well it's been a long hard slog fixing this but such things were sent to try us.

First - After Michael Waites found map errors there was no other choice but to play ALL the levels to find if there were any more. We shared the work between us, but it still took what seemed a looooong time!

Eventually we found three maps with definite errors on them two of which were not completable (If other maps have errors they do not prevent them from being completed). I even played it in an emulator with the same result.

At this point I sourced my own Amiga disk of 'Prospector' to extract the maps myself. This took ages to do! (by the way the only hardware you need to extract the disk on a PC is a second floppy drive attached to the cable and some free software, So I had bits from two PC's floating about!)

Eventually I got the map files off to find they were identical to the ones you supplied me with (Michael downloaded images and found the same).

So at this point the only conclusion is that the various Amiga releases had faulty Procyon maps!


The Solution
==========
The task now was to fix them:

  • Level 5 was easy as it was obvious what was missing.
  • Level 14 was much harder and I had to try and guess what they had intended to do by a process of elimination.
  • Level 13 was completable but had missing map pieces, so it was just a case of adding them in where they didn't get in the way (mind you we had two goes at that one!).

Taking the view of making the minimum amount of changes the fixes amount to adding in two bombs and three missing map pieces. Not too bad over 15 levels.


The Electron
==========
With a heavy heart I looked at the Electron version as you asked and the text "Protection (c) Kevin Edwards 1987" was ominous!

Reading the message board thread made me depressed, but fortunately he must have coded it on an off day as he doesn't use any VIA timers at all (just good old EOR)!

So I decrypted it, added in the maps etc, changed the loader screen, re-encrypted it (Ha-Ha!) and recreated the UEF file (It's all done manually you know!).


The Conclusion
============
So there you have it (as if by magic!) Procyon's Mazes ready to go.

I must give a big thanks to Michael Waites (expectant Father!) who found the initial problem and put in loads of time play-testing the levels.

At the end his GBA XOR game allowed him to quickly replay saved moves to double check all the new levels I compiled. This is something I found that XOR Designer does NOT do as it saves the map with the replay data so you end up replaying the previous map state!


And here they are!

BBC Micro DFS Disc Image:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/bbc/archive/diskimages/Logotron/XOR-Procyon.zip

Acorn Electron UEF Tape Image:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/electron/uefarchive/Logotron/XOR-Procyon_E.zip


So THANK YOU to Andrew and Mick for bringing us these very special releases ... if you'd like to show your appreciation for their remarkable achievements, please leave a message in the appropriate thread on our Forum.

Finally, Andrew would like to hear from anybody who manages to complete the new levels and solve the anagram: either send a Private Message to Andrew via our Forum (registration required) or email me and I'll forward your mail directly to Andrew.


News:

Writes Mick:

I am pleased to finally announce that I have released Xor version 1.03 for GameBoy Advance.

This version has a fix for the three new levels that had problems in version 1.02. If I'd got round to testing the levels before uploading the build then it would have helped...

Anyway, this new version, as before, works with your old saves. IE all you progress won't be lost by downloading this new version.

There is also one other fix in this version. I'd managed to revert the level "The Decoder" back to it's original state when I added the new levels to version 1.02. This meant that the clues you get to decoding the password in version 1.02 are absolutely useless for my password. If you've finished this level in version 1.02 - first of all "Well done!" it's a difficult game. Secondly, complete the level again on version 1.03 and you'll be able to see the correct clues for my password.



On Wednesday I forgot to mention that a UEF Tape Image for Dominoes (Garland Computing) had been added to both the BBC and Electron Tape Archives.

 27 JULY 2006

Michael S Repton has updated his Repton 3 FAQ to v1.2, which features an improved solution to Finale screen G.  [ Game Help ]

Though Michael anticipates this to be the final version of the FAQ, he informs me that he's already commenced work on a similar FAQ for The Life of Repton.


 26 JULY 2006

Updates:

Well believe it or not, the above near-enough constitutes nine months worth of collecting BBC and Electron software. Not very impressive is it?!? :-/

The thing is, very few 'Missing In Action' titles seem to appear on eBay nowadays. And when something interesting does crop up, more often than not I am outbid by another BBC/Electron collector with considerably deeper pockets than me! :o(

So seeing as we're struggling to find new items to add to our archives, perhaps now might be a good time for all STH visitors to go through their collections of original BBC/Electron cassettes*, and check to see if they have any that are missing from our BBC or Electron UEF Tape Archives. We can worry about the logistics of how to transfer them later! ;o)

* = that's if you didn't chuck 'em all out 15 years ago! ;o)


 25 JULY 2006

Updates:

These are hq.uef versions taken from yesterday's update at the Acorn Preservation Project.


 24 JULY 2006

A fourth batch of CSW & HQ.UEF Files have been added to the Acorn Preservation Project.

The update includes tape dumps plus high quality 600dpi scans of the following titles:

[ BBC Micro ]

747 (Doctor Soft), Beach Head (US Gold), Carousel (Acornsoft), Felix in the Factory (Micro Power), Ghouls (Micro Power), Killer Gorilla (Micro Power), The Mine (Micro Power), Moonraider (Micro Power), Repton (Superior), Snapper - First Release (Acornsoft), Star Drifter (Firebird-Super Silver), Star Striker (Superior), Super Invaders (Acornsoft), Twin Kingdom Valley (Bug-Byte), Ultron (Icon), Volcano (Acornsoft).

[ BBC Micro / Acorn Electron ]

Awari (Understanding), Caveman Capers (Icon), Combat Lynx (Durell), Redcoats (Lothlorien), Roman Empire (Lothlorien), Special Operations (Lothlorien).

[ Acorn Electron ]

Action Pack (Alligata-WH Smith), Bumper Bundle (Alligata), Cassette 50 (Cascade), Crystal Castles (US Gold), The Hacker (Firebird), Moonraider (Micro Power).


 N.B. The Acorn Preservation Project is currently on the lookout for volunteers to create CSW & HQ.UEF tape dumps from their original BBC/Electron cassettes.

More information on the homepage or on our forum, here.


 23 JULY 2006

Yet another update from Jon ... !

I have managed to get a version of Linux running on an old PC which had a proper serial port.

Running DFS Explorer nearly worked but there was a slight problem in setting the correct baud rates plus a weird Linux CR->LF translation issue which corrupted the transfer.

I have therefore released an updated 1.0.2 which corrects these small problems and I can happily report that the program successfully transfers disc images backwards and forwards with ease (to BeebEm anyway !).


 22 JULY 2006

More DFS Explorer news from Jon Welch:

I have updated the Mac/Linux version of DFS Explorer to be inline with the Windows version.

The extra features are :

  • Added XFER functionality for sending/receiving disc images to/from a real BBC
  • Added support for Watford DFS 62 file format discs
  • Can now edit load/exec addresses of a file
  • Asks to save changes when quit/load/new disc image
  • Fixed error when importing or exporting zero length files.

I haven't been able to try out the XFER features under Linux as my test box doesn't recognise my USB to Serial adapter (my Mac doesn't have a native serial port).

If someone can perhaps try it out and let me know the results, I would appreciate it.

You can download the software from :

http://www.g7jjf.com/mac_dfs_explorer.htm

Jon.


 19 JULY 2006

Jon Welch posted the following on our forum:

The Mac version of DFS Explorer is written in REAL Basic 2006.

This program cross compiles the same source code into Mac, Windows or a Linux executable.

Although I have had no reason to try it before, I have just created a Linux executable of the code and it seems to work just like the Mac version.

It hasn't been thoroughly tested yet but it appears to work, even the drag and drop features seem OK.

If anyone wants to try it out, you can download it from:

http://www.g7jjf.com/mac_dfs_explorer.htm

Jon.


 17 JULY 2006

Check out yesterday's update to our sister site - the Acorn Preservation Project - which includes scans of catalogues and brochures for various Acorn products.

             


 16 JULY 2006

Updates:


 15 JULY 2006

The Game Help page has been updated with a pair of "screenshot" maps for Labyrinth (Acornsoft).

Thanks to John Kortink for generating the maps.


 13 JULY 2006

Update:


News:

Plan B Redux - Menu Screen

Plan B Redux - In-game

Great Britain Limited - Config Screen

Great Britain Limited - In-game


 12 JULY 2006

Coverscan of "Willkommen" (click to enlarge)Updates:


 11 JULY 2006

Added the Support Discs for the Torch Graduate to the Essentials page (thanks to John Henville).

John has also scanned in the documentation for the Graduate, which I will be sending to the BBC Documentation Project. But for now, I've made them temporarily available here (18Mb ZIP).


 10 JULY 2006

Updates:


News:


 9 JULY 2006

News:

Silicon Magic, in association with Trevor Hall, bring you an extended version of this classic text & graphics adventure game for your mobile phone & pda.

Explore a world in which you battle with Dragons, Trolls, Guards, Witches & Kings. With 200 locations, treasures to find & puzzles to solve, you're sure to have "a mobile adventure"™.

Originally released on the BBC Micro in 1983, and subsequently ported to all popular 8-bit home computers, Twin Kingdom Valley was an instant hit.

23 years on, players will be able to experience this brand new, extended edition of the game with additional locations, puzzles & creatures, right on their mobile phone.

Conversions are underway for Nokia, Motorola, Sony - Ericsson and other makes of mobile phone. A pda version is also in development.


Updates:


 28 JUNE 2006

All of the "file packs" from the Acorn Preservation Project have been uploaded to various file hosting services and as a result, each pack can now be downloaded directly.


 27 JUNE 2006

News:

1) The description of Daredevil Dennis music is a bit vague ... it's from a string quartet known as Haydn's Opus 3 no 5, but it's actually by a composer called Hoffstetter. Sorry to nit pick but it may be of use to those of us who like to seek out the original!

2) I used to love Alligata's Video's Revenge. The music played when you start a game is from Chopin's Polonaise in A major, Opus 40, popularly known as the "Millitary" polonaise.


 15 JUNE 2006

Thanks to Jack Welsby for IDing many more tracks from our Sound & Music page:


And thanks once more to Bill Gardner who noted the following:


 14 JUNE 2006

No news to report of today (yet!) so I'll take this opportunity to give our Forum a quick plug ...

There's been lots of activity recently, with the following topics proving to be popular at the moment:

If you have yet to join the forum but would like to participate in the discussion, all you need to do is:

  1. Click here to create a forum account
  2. Activate your account via email
  3. Introduce yourself in the designated forum category
  4. GET POSTING!!!

So what are you waiting for?!?  ;o)

N.B. When registering, it'd be appreciated if you could enter some information into the Location, Occupation & Interests fields (just so I know you're not a "spambot"!).


 13 JUNE 2006

Roger Bright identified the original titles of two more songs from our Sound & Music page:

Why not download some tracks yourself and see if you can nail down the names of any of the other pieces?!

N.B. Roger has a feeling that the theme to Sabre Wulf may have originally been written by Mozart too, but he is unsure of the title ... so, any ideas?

Update:

Thanks to Guy Bearman, Bill Gardner and Rich Talbot-Watkins, all of whom confirmed that Sabre Wulf was actually a 'remix' of a piece of music by Bach ("Prelude in C Major" from book 1 of the "Well Tempered Clavier").

Bill also notes that the themes to Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy are from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite no 1; the piece used is called In the Hall of the Mountain King.

Update #2:

Blotwell chipped in with the following:

Thank you all for the great response so far, but let's keep these song titles rolling in!!


 12 JUNE 2006

I've temporarily removed the link to Xor - Procyon's Mazes as there appears to a map error on level five, making it impossible to complete the screen (FYI the omission also exists on the original Amiga version).

Hopefully we will be able to make a corrected version available soon ...


 11 JUNE 2006

Update:

Prospector in the mazes of Xor

The direct link is:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/bbc/archive/diskimages/Logotron/XOR-Procyon.zip

If you manage to complete all 15 new levels and solve the anagram, please let myself and Andrew know by either emailing me directly, or by leaving a message in the appropriate thread on our forum.

News:


 6 JUNE 2006

Added a Rom Image of Slogger's Tape to Plus 4 Rom for the Acorn Electron.

Thanks to Steve O'Leary.


 5 JUNE 2006

Dave Eggleston released v0.0.7 of BeebEm Unix.

New features:


 4 JUNE 2006

Z-VirusNot strictly BBC/Electron news, but some of yous may be interested to read that Stevie Goodwin recently updated his PC clone of Archimedes classic Zarch, to Version 2.0.

Steve's version, which is entitled Z-Virus, was created using Blitz Basic and was originally developed for the 2004 Retro Remakes Competition.


 3 JUNE 2006

Sprow has updated the design for his second serial port BBC Micro addon.

From the BBC Mailing List:

In many control applications (for example) just having the one serial port can be a bit restrictive as this might be used to read from a sensor while leaving no spare port to dial the modem.

Back in 2000 I developed a second serial port and accompanying software, but the PCBs have long been unavailable leaving the only option to slog it out on a piece of stripboard using the circuit diagram on my "build it" pages.

I've recently taken the opportunity to update the design, shrinking the PCB to the same form factor as MiniB, as well as adding tracks for a 9 pin PC-style serial connector (the pads are still available for a 5 pin DIN too!). Following recent discussions on this mailing list the base address was also shifted up to &FC60.

These are now available to buy to those who are interested:

1. Make the whole thing on strip board
Download details from: http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/buildit.htm
The ROM software is free to download there.

2. Buy a PCB with preprogrammed 1MHz bus logic
Details at: http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/extraserial.htm
The ROM is linked from there too.

3. Buy a finished PCB and just plug it in
Details at: http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/extraserial.htm
The ROM is linked from there too.

I hope this is of interest,
Sprow.


 2 JUNE 2006

Thunderstruck 2000 logoI was browsing the Retro Remakes forum when I noticed a thread dedicated to an upcoming series of remakes by Ultrasilver64 which he is basing on some of Peter Scott's classic platformers.

Here are some extracts from the thread:


I'll tell you about the 4 projects that I'm working on.

Officially, it's called 'The Peter Scott Retro Collection' and it consists - so far - of 3 games originally released by Peter Scott. I plan to do more remakes of his games, but for now here is what the 4 projects are:

Thunderstruck 2000
This is an update of the BBC/Electron original classic Thunderstruck. It will feature improved graphics and sound than the original, but the plot will stay the same.

Homebase Five: The Second Thunderstruck
This is an update of the BBC/Electron original classic Thunderstruck II: The Mindmaster. Most of the first game's graphics will be ported over for this sequel. Same as the first one, but with much improved graphics & sound.

Thunderstruck 5264 AD
This is basically both Thunderstruck games in one package. The difference? Cutscenes, savepoints, background music... and vocals! THAT RIGHT, VOCALS! Also, as an added plus, the game's hero SPRECO will have an actual identity. I'm not telling you what it is but the initials are A.J.!

The Last of The Free: Clement's Escape
This is an update of another of Peter Scott's classics. This one is from the original BBC/Electron classic The Last of The Free. This too will have the same updates as the 2 Thunderstruck games.


Thunderstruck 2000 screenshot
Thunderstruck 2000


A few weeks ago, Smila posted some more work-in-progress images from Exile 2:


Exile 2 screenshot

Exile 2 screenshot

Exile 2 screenshot

Exile 2 screenshot


 1 JUNE 2006

Version 2.01i of Omniflop is now available from the homepage.


 28 MAY 2006

The BeebEm Unix homepage has moved to beebem-unix.bbcmicro.com.


Happy ITB Day! 25 MAY 2006  

A few days ago, Ludovic Jacomme (aka ZX-81) released v1.05 of PSPBeeb.

PSPBeeb is a BBC Micro emulator for the Sony PlayStation Portable, which is based on v0.0.4 of Dave Eggleston's UNIX port of BeebEm.


 24 MAY 2006

Castle QuestLuke Wilson has made a start on disassembling the Micro Power classic, Castle Quest.

Check it out at http://whitebody.tripod.com/castlequest.

Luke has also produced a complete video walkthrough for the game, which he's made available at Google Video.


I'm trying to track down Anthony (Tony) Sothcott, author of Castle Quest, in the hope of getting some input for a CQ article that is due to appear in the gaming press (the last we knew, he was living in the Watford area). If you can help us locate Tony, please drop me a line.


 23 MAY 2006

Michael Foot has released v1.04 of Chuckie Egg for the Iyonix.

From Usenet:

The RISC OS conversion of the classic BBC game has now been updated to work on the Iyonix and possibly on other 32 bit machines as well. Alan Buckley has updated the game to work with the higher resolution screen modes on the Iyonix as well as adding the option to use outline fonts for the text. This version will also run on older Acorn hardware as well but requires RISC OS 3.6 or above.

Chuckie Egg was converted to RISC OS directly from the BBC game of the same name. The conversion process takes the original BBC game code and converts each processor instruction to a comparable routine under RISC OS. This means that instead of having to rewrite the game from scratch and trying to get everything the same, I now have an exact conversion that looks, plays and feels the same as the original.

Download the RISC OS version of Chuckie Egg from http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot under RISC OS Software.


 19 MAY 2006 - HBGFM!

I've received this email re: the version of the Crown of Mardan adventure in our BBC Disc Image archive ...

I've tricked a substantial number of people into playing MP Software's "Crown of Mardan". Unfortunately it seems that the version found at StH is bugged in a couple of places (at least), rendering the game unwinnable. After typing (what I am certain are) necessary commands, the game text scrolls off the screen and the game locks up (looks like an infinite "print new line" loop).

Is there any chance of getting a better version, or are there any clever people out there that I might contact so they can fix the present version?

It might seem to be a lot of fuss over one old game, but we're very frustrated at this point! :)

Unfortunately I haven't got another version to hand, so I don't suppose anybody reading has a fully-functioning copy, either on tape or disc? If so, please get in touch either by email, or by posting in this thread on the forum.


 17 MAY 2006 - HBGRM!

News:


 16 MAY 2006

News:


 15 MAY 2006

News:


 7 MAY 2006

Repton 2 Screen PUpdate:

News:

According to Tom, "this isn't the last version - this is more a collection of smaller changes intended to get me back in the mood to develop the final version".

Update:  If you downloaded the Windows version before 8:30pm, please re-download it!


 4 MAY 2006

MESSI must admit this had escaped my attention, but back in February, Wilbert Pol added Acorn Electron support to the MESS multi-system emulator.

And whilst on the subject of MESS, Gordon Jefferyes (author of the MESS BBC Micro driver) has confirmed that he is in the final stages of adding UEF Tape Image capability to the BBC systems that MESS emulates.


 3 MAY 2006

EUG #66Issue #66 of EUG is now available from Acorn Electron World which, according to my calculations, puts it on par with the number of issues released by a certain other Acorn 8-bit User Group!

As usual, it contains many new reviews & articles (including a retrospective on the last 12 months, and the background story on what happened to Chris Dewhurst's Egghead In Space platformer). The associated disc image (available in DFS & ADFS formats) contains some nice surprises too! ;o)

And if that wasn't enough - Dave has retrospectively added two month's worth of updates to the main Acorn Electron World site (including four more volumes of Electron User scans!) so all in all you have enough reading material to keep you occupied for weeks!


 2 MAY 2006

Smila of Mersey Remakes dropped by our forum to let us know that he's resumed work on the Exile 2 PC Game that we first featured in March 2004.

And if you thought it looked simply ravishing back then, feast your eyes on the very latest screenshots (below), which contain even more lavish detail ...


Exile 2 screenshot

Exile 2 screenshot

Exile 2 screenshot

Exile 2 screenshot


 26 APRIL 2006

Statistics updated for Q1 2006.


 25 APRIL 2006

Check out this tribute site to Katakombs - an adventure that was released by Golem Software.

The page was inspired by Bryan McPhail's homage to Jack Attac and contains Guides, Maps, a Walkthrough and even Windows & Linux conversions!


 24 APRIL 2006

Jon Welch updated ADFS Explorer to version 1.7.1.


 17 APRIL 2006

Hot on the heels of yesterday's release of DFS Explorer 1.3.0 comes a new version of ADFS Explorer.

Version 1.7.0 adds the same disk image transfer features as DFS Explorer with the addition of being able to backup and restore an ADFS compatible hard disc.


 16 APRIL 2006

A new version of DFS Explorer is available.

From the author, Jon Welch:

I have just released version 1.3.0 of my DFS Explorer program.

A major new feature in this release is the inclusion of disc image transfers between your PC and BBC using technology from XFER 5.1.

An enhancement over XFER 5.1 is the inclusion of RLE compression which should make the speed of disc image transfers much quicker.

You can download the new version of DFS Explorer from:
http://www.g7jjf.com/dfs_explorer.htm

and read more about the disc image transfer features at:
http://www.g7jjf.com/dfs_disc_transfer.htm


 13 APRIL 2006

News:

Update:


 11 APRIL 2006

It's been a long time since we saw a new [MS Windows] version of Thomas Harte's Acorn Electron emulator, but earlier today, Thomas released v0.5 of ElectrEm Future.

From the ElectrEm Mailing List:

ElectrEm Future v0.5 is available now for Microsoft Windows users, with too many new features to list. In terms of all previous ElectrEm releases, the following are noteworthy:

  • Windows native GUI
  • Much more compatible fast tape hack
  • Drag'n'drop support for launching files

In terms of just ElectrEm Future, the following has happened since the 2004 release that was previously on the website:

  • Disc emulation
  • Memory map fixes (Citadel, VIEW, etc now work)
  • Many general emulation fixes

The download is 334 kB and direct file link is:
http://electrem.acornelectron.co.uk/files/future/ElectrEm110406Win32.zip

It's been so long since the code was properly disseminated that I expect that lots of bugs to show up. Nothing has been reported concerning the OS X version yet, and that has received at least 650 downloads so I guess it isn't crashing or otherwise obviously malfunctioning in a major way.

It is intended that when ElectrEm Future reaches version 1.0 the emulator will be effectively complete, i.e. 100% accurate to known Electron characteristics with good OS integration across both of the major OSs with universal desktop interfaces. Compared to stable releases of ElectrEm Classic, Future lacks:

  • joystick support
  • printer emulation

Compared to the final Classic WIP, Future also lacks Jafa Mode 7 emulation. ROM support is now much more limited because none of the GUIs allow ROM insertion. I hope to remedy all of these at some point.

So, enjoy and remember to report bugs!

As this release includes Fraser Ross' updated CSW.DLL, it means ElectrEm is the first 8-bit Acorn Emulator that is capable of loading the CSW Tape Files available from The Acorn Preservation project.

Remember, you can show your appreciation for ElectrEm by making a donation to Thomas via the Donations Page on the Sourceforge site.


 7 APRIL 2006

Updates:

I haven't tried any of these with ElectrEm or Elkulator yet ... I suspect the ADFS rom will work ok, not so sure about the other two ...


Speaking of ElectrEm, I've just noticed that the ElectrEm Donations Page has yet to receive a single contribution, which I think is rather sad (though I suspect this might be because the donations page is hidden deep within the depths of the Sourceforge interface).

As long-term visitors to this site will be aware, the author has remained dedicated to the ElectrEm project, despite enduring some very challenging personal circumstances. So if you're a fan of ElectrEm and feel inclined to offer a little thank-you gesture to Thomas, you can use the above link to make a donation via Paypal.

Update:  Richard Palmer started the ball rolling by donating the astonishing sum of 100 US$ ... wow!


 2 APRIL 2006

News:


Update:


 1 APRIL 2006 - STH's SEVENTH BIRTHDAY!

News:


 23 MARCH 2006 - EX-ACORNSOFT AUTHOR LOSES LIFE IN GLIDING ACCIDENT

Posted below is some very sad news, reproduced from the Cambridge Evening News website:

Shock follows death of man in glider crash

TRIBUTES have been paid by friends and neighbours of a trainee hangglider pilot who died on his first solo flight in Spain.

Neil Raine is believed to have lost control after being released from his tow and dived to the ground at Ontur aerodrome, in south-east Spain.

The 45-year-old, from Leeway Avenue, Great Shelford, was rushed to hospital 50 miles away but died from his injuries.

Mr Raine was a member of the Portugal Place Squash Raquets Club, which plays at the Leys School in Trumpington Road, Cambridge.

Richard Loke, club manager, said: "I have spoken with a few of his friends and everyone is in shock.

"I have known Neil for 15 years. He was a very good squash player and a very good team player, and he was a very nice person. He never had anything bad to say about people."

Neighbour Viviene Cook, 87, described Mr Raine, who lived with his partner Frances Early, as "a lovely man".

"They kept themselves to themselves - he was a quiet man. They were always very kind to me when I needed help," she said.

"They would both cycle a great deal. I still can't grasp the fact that he is dead. They are both very nice people. If I got stuck for anything they would do it for me."

Mrs Cook said the couple, who had no children, had lived in their detached home next door to her for the past 10 years.

Mr Raine had been on a month-long training course with British company Airways Airpark in Spain. He was doing tandem flights with an instructor but died on his first solo flight.

The company issued a statement saying a full investigation was under way into the incident.

It added: "As soon as relevant information becomes available we will share it with the relevant people."

Neil was the author of Acornsoft's Planetoid - the popular Defender clone that topped the charts in the 1980s and is still very much adored to this day.

He also programmed Meteors (the Asteroids-inspired shoot 'em up) and was the man responsible for bringing us Hopper (which is my joint-favourite Beeb game of all time). Before going on to provide considerable input into the design of the RISC OS desktop, Neil also co-wrote Magic Mushrooms with Tom Dobson.

It is fair to say that Neil worked absolute miracles with 32k as he penned some of the slickest arcade games ever to grace our screens ... it's no wonder Acornsoft gained such a good reputation for quality when they had programmers like Neil Raine working for them. Neither is it a surprise that all four of the above titles feature in our Top 50 downloads of all time. He has left behind an incredible legacy as his software will continue to be enjoyed by thousands and thousands of people for many years to come.

I'm sure that Neil's family has the condolences of all BBC Micro, Electron & Acorn owners past and present ...


Planetoid screenshot

Meteors screenshot

Hopper screenshot

Magic Mushrooms screenshot


Related links:


 22 MARCH 2006

Bryan McPhail has created a screenshot map for Jack Attac from Bug-Byte Software.

Check it out at http://www.vcmame.net/jack.

N.B. I didn't receive a single email in support of the RSS feed I launched last month, so the service is now toast!


 3 MARCH 2006

Steve O'Leary has released v0.1 of DFS Manager - a Windows-based utility for manipulating BBC Micro disc images.

If you would like to see more functionality added, let Steve know by dropping him a line at navalenigma AT hotmail.com or by leaving a message in the appropriate thread on our forum.


 2 MARCH 2006

News:

My website at http://mmbeeb.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk contains some electronic projects I've done for my BBC Model B, namely a "cheap" MultiMediaCard (MMC) interface & "Sideways FRAM", plus all the associated software (patched DFS etc.).

You can also use the DFS with BeebEm, giving access to up to 510 200KB disk images.

New look website, new ElectrEm Future source, new Mac OS X build

Although the Windows build continues not to work properly when the platform specific menus are brought up, I've uploaded new ElectrEm Future source code and the (fully functional) OS X version. Because I found dealing with the old web page too daunting I've taken the opportunity to obtain a new website creation tool and redo the website. Now it probably looks like about 20% of other sites, but I've never been very good at HTML and this takes the hassle out of it.

Web addresses remain http://electrem.emuunlim.com and http://electrem.acornelectron.co.uk. I hope to have the Windows build working properly soon.

The main new feature is a massively improved fast tape hack that seems to make almost everything work. There are also some bug fixes, etc.

Comments on the new look are gratefully accepted! And on the emulator if anybody here actually uses a Mac.

ARM coprocessor systems

This brand new ARM7 system has just been announced, and comprises a coprocessor board (internal versions for the BBC Master, external versions for other machines with Tube connectors) complete with supporting software.

In its simplest use, it will run your existing BASIC programs but at up to 200 times the speed they normally run! This opens up the possibility of writing large and complex games in easy to write languages, creating a very fast Econet server, or running native ARM code from ROM.

The package also includes 16MB or RAM, reprogrammable flash memory, and a detailed printed user manual. See http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/armcopro.htm for more information.

American and UK voices for speech upgrades


Free to download now is a ROM image of the American voice for the speech upgrade kit. Normally these have the voice of newsreader Kenneth Kendall, but the unique reprogrammable nature of the speech upgrade means you can change the voice without even taking the lid off the machine!

Suitable for the BBC B and BBC B+ the speech upgrade is used through simple "SOUND" commands in BASIC.

Full details at http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/speechupgrade.htm which now also has the capability to "buy online" instantly, as do all of the other projects linked to from there.

Caller id with 100 call history


Leave the silent BBC micro turned on all day, logging missed incoming calls. Now that BT offer caller display for free you can record the details on screen that you would normally get with 1471, but the last 100 numbers too!

It can also make use of the speech system to "say" the numbers out loud, where no monitor or TV is available to show the numbers.

Sign up, then download the free software:
http://www.bt.com/btprivacy
http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/buildit.htm#Callerid

Other service providers are of course supported, not just BT.

MiniB revamped


MiniB, the floppy disc sized BBC micro for hidden away embedded uses, has just been revamped. Physically the same size as the previous version plus

  • New battery connector for battery backup of the clock
  • Improved reset button circuit
  • A few small circuit errors corrected

Supplied with free software (can be upgraded in situ) details of MiniB can be found at http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/minib.htm

Other utilities


In the course of developing the new ARM coprocessor a few of the other titles available have been updated, as detailed below:

UnZIP - now also unzips nested directories
RAMFS - the high speed filing system to drive the 24bBC RAM disc
DOSFS - read and write Windows long filename diskettes

For more details see:
http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/index.htm#Software
http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/dosfs.htm

I look forward to hearing from you with novel applications for any of the above.

 24 FEBRUARY 2006

Michael Foot has released v0.59 of BeebIt - his BBC Micro emulator for RISC OS 3 and above.

Changes since v0.58:


 23 FEBRUARY 2006

James Roberts provided a ROM Image of v1.02 of the Slogger Pegasus 400 DFS.


 21 FEBRUARY 2006

Mike Wyatt released v3.11 of BeebEm which should fix the problems with random crashes and LED display.


 20 FEBRUARY 2006

News:

Update:


For a trial period, I've added an RSS news feed to the site.

Please let me know if you find this useful and if there's enough interest, I'll maintain it on a permanent basis.


 13 FEBRUARY 2006

Added a neat Search Facility, written by Paul Equinox Collins.


 7 FEBRUARY 2006

Star Wars screenshotIt's been nearly 20 years since A&B Computing ran a screenshot featuring a sumptuous-looking Star Wars conversion by Gary Partis ... a project sadly-abandoned when Domark released an "officially licensed" version.

But now thanks to Gary himself, we can all experience "what might have been" as the Star Wars entry in Lost & Found has been updated with a DFS Disc Image showing off the game's [very impressive!] engine.


 1 FEBRUARY 2006

A "final" version of the OS X port of B-Em v1.0 is now available from http://b-em.bbcmicro.com.

This has several bugfixes and improvements over the version that was announced a few days ago.


 30 JANUARY 2006

News:

Update:


 27 JANUARY 2006

News:

I seem to be having difficulty getting through to Tom Walker, so I thought I'd announce ... that I've just completed a port of version 1.0 of his BBC Micro emulator, B-Em to Mac OS X complete with a full native GUI and OS integration (including filetype icons by Ewen Roberts originally contributed to my ElectrEm project). Unfortunately Allegro is very slow on OS X with the result that B-Em is very slow, so you'll probably need at least close to a 1 Ghz machine to get decent performance at 800x600. On my old 667Mhz G4 the BBC B is usable at 800x600 without sound. I daren't imagine what you'll need to use the ARM Evaluation System usefully. I hope that it'll work on OS versions as low as 10.2 but I'm still not very confident about that sort of thing.

I've uploaded it to http://members.allegro.cc/ThomasHarte/osx for the time being.

A screenshot can be seen at http://members.allegro.cc/ThomasHarte/osx/shots/B-Em.png.

If anyone has OS X, could they please give it a whirl?

- Thomas.


 23 JANUARY 2006

News:


  21 JANUARY 2006

JAVA Repton Infinity (click to enlarge)News:


  18 JANUARY 2006

Updates:


  13 JANUARY 2006

ImpactUpdate:


  12 JANUARY 2006

Updates:

News:

Thanks to "Garfield" for the news!



  11 JANUARY 2006

Updates:

Here's some background from Andre:

After 16 years sitting in a disk box, I found the game as I was rummaging through my old Electron programming disks over Christmas this year. I never was much of an arcade programmer, even though I was heavily into real-time programming and writing highly optimised and performant code at the time. However, I liked my board games and I happened to find a previously unreleased game that I had completely forgotten about.

Laserchess was originally a submission in a programming competition and won $10,000 for its inventor, Mr. Mike Duppong, in 1987 when it was published in "Compute" magazine. I saw both the Atari ST and Apple II GS versions at school friends' houses in 1989 and knocked up this version in 1990. I intended to submit it to Superior Software for consideration and even wrote a letter to Mr. Hanson himself (dated 28 March 1990, using AcornSoft "View" of course) explaining my development. However, for some reason, I never sent it.

The piece continues in the Lost & Found section.

News:


 10 JANUARY 2006

Ben Ryves has released a working (though unfinished) build of his Fire Track conversion for the Sega Gamegear, which he ceased development of last year.

    
Fire Track screenshot Fire Track screenshot Fire Track screenshot


 6 JANUARY 2006

Update:Quest I screenshot


 5 JANUARY 2006

News:

Update:


 4 JANUARY 2006

Updates:

News:


 A couple of people have asked me to send them rom images
of the RISC OS 3.60 operating system, for use with RPCemu.

THIS I WILL NOT DO!

However, if you are legally entitled to use the OS Roms and
are genuinely unable to dump the romsets yourself, then you
may be able to source a set from the eMule P2P network.


 3 JANUARY 2006

3D Pool screenshotHurrah! I finally managed to create working UEF Tape files from the cassette version of Orlando's 3D Pool (Firebird).

Though this might not seem particularly significant to BBC folk (as a Beeb disc image has been on the web for ages) it's great news for Electron fans as, unbeknownst to me, the tape also contained an Electron version (despite the inlay being labelled "BBC" only). Both the BBC and Electron versions have been added to the respective UEF Archive.

I've also uploaded the Elk version as a DFS Disc Image so Electron owners with an AP4 or Slogger Pegasus 400 interface can write it to floppy using FDC or Omniflop (we'll delegate responsibility for creating a &1D00 ADFS version to Acorn Electron World ... speaking of which, Dave E's site recently spawned several new pages and even managed to offer daily updates over the festive period!).


 2 JANUARY 2006 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

News:

By the way, the eMule links that were posted on Xmas Eve (to the scans/FDI files) should be working ok now.


Click here to see what was new in 2005.