Version 1.0 of Sparse Invaders (a new, freeware BBC Micro game by Neil Beresford) has been released and is now available for download @ www.retrosoftware.co.uk/sparseinvaders.

It's very smooth and is actually better than the vast majority of Space Invader clones that were released for the Beeb in the 1980s! So please take the time to check it out and remember to leave some feedback for the author over on the Retro Software forum (which is the very least Neil deserves!).

Fully commented GPL source code is available, which is designed for use with the SWIFT IDE. A 'stripped' version of the source is also available, which can be used by others as a basis to create new games.

Neil hopes that the Sparse Invaders project will spur other programmers on to develop new games for BBC/Electron platforms, and offers the following words of encouragement:

"Having not developed on the Beeb before, I thought it was about time. Within a matter of minutes I had a document containing the 6502 instruction set, SWIFT IDE installed with P65 (Orphis) and I was watching the SWIFT Tutorial Videos supplied by Steve O'Leary. Thus Sparse Invaders was born. To develop a game or application on the Beeb, the following knowledge is needed: 1. The idea - as in the game or app you want to develop! 2. Patience! All else can be learnt, by reading and also asking questions in the Programming Section of the Retro Software forum. Please do not be put off by the fact that it's 6502 assembler. From my experience the only other assembler as easy as the 6502 is the 8080 (this is from memory as I last did that in 1984). It has limited register and instruction set, simple to pick up - however it does enable you to do some pretty wonderful stuff on the BBC B. I only need one example: Elite! SWIFT is perfect for starting your first project. It contains project management, text editor for the source, graphic editor for the sprites and with a simple click on an icon - it will build your app and create the disk THEN launch a BBC B emulator (e.g. BeebEm) so you can see it playing. How EASY is that?!? Going back to Sparse Invaders, I picked Space Invaders as my game of choice, as to be honest it's a simple game to write, but not that simple as to not supply a little challenge while writing it. Final thought ... when developing, as long as you understand what you need to code, it's fun. If you have any confusion then it's time out to comtemplate the problem and discuss the issue. Programming on the BBC should be fun!!"

Acorn World is an exhibition and gathering at the Cedar Court Hotel - Huddersfield on 12th-13th September 2009 that will celebrate the importance and legacy of Acorn Computers.

Over the course of the weekend, the Emley Suite at Cedar Court will be populated with numerous examples of Acorn computers, charting the company's rise from the less well-known Acorn System series and Acorn Atom; through the various iterations of the BBC Microcomputer and the Electron to the ground-breaking Archimedes and RISC PC range.

On Sunday day afternoon Professor Stephen Furber - a principal designer of both the BBC Microcomputer and ARM microprocessor - will give a talk on The Heritage of the BBC Micro. Topics covered will include construction of the prototype BBC machine and the design and manufacture of the ARM microchip. This will be preceded by a presentation and demonstration from RISC OS Open Ltd.

This event forms part of the Retro Reunited Classic Gaming & Computing convention and tickets cover entry to both Acorn World (Emley Suite) and Retro Reunited (Presidential Suite). Weekend tickets (priced £13.00 each fully inclusive) can be ordered from www.acornworld.co.uk.  All proceeds less costs will be donated to the Shelter charity and it is anticipated that tickets will sell out well in advance.

STH Forum Thread for ACORN WORLD

BeebEm for Windows has now been updated to v4.02.

Changes:

• Added disc drive sound emulation
• Added write support for the Master real time clock
• Fixed teletext mode smoothing at startup in Vista.

Mike Wyatt and Steve Pick have made some more improvements to BeebEm (Windows) and v4.01 is now available from the homepage.

Changes:

• Rewrote debugger command interpreter:
  • Supports command names longer than one character
  • Added command history (up/down arrows when command box focused)
  • Commands are now implemented using function pointers, should be more expandable
  • More descriptive help - type 'help', 'help <command>' or 'help <addr>'
  • Better label support - any word in command arguments preceded with a '.' is interpreted as a label and resolved before the args are passed to the command handler
• Fixed bug that prevented checkboxes enabled/disabled by command from actually taking effect
• Expanded debug memory map support:
  • Maps can now be stored for each ROM, just put a .map file with the same name as the ROM in the ROM's directory, for example BeebFile\BBC\os12.map corresponds to BeebFile\BBC\OS12.ROM, and address queries (via 'help <addr>') will return info from the currently selected ROM's map
  • Address info queries now understand shadow/private/sideways RAM in different machines
  • Cleaned up MemoryMap.txt and moved it to BeebFile\BBC\OS12.map
• Added 'state m' command to get state of memory (ACCCON and Shadow/Sideways RAM info)
• Added routines for extracting header info from paged ROMs, and 'state r' command to dump this info in the debugger
• Break now shows previous Program Counter address as well as the current address. This is useful for finding where the source of a jump was.
• A bit of a hack to allow debug window to go behind main window, but also come to foreground with main window
• Added option to enable DirectX smoothing when only in teletext mode (THANKS MIKE!).

Mike Wyatt released v4.0 of BeebEm for Windows.

Changes:

• Added clipboard functionality from the Mac port. Clipboard can be set as destination for printer output, copy and paste menu options for BASIC programs
• Added file import/export for DFS disc images loaded into BeebEm. The exported files use the standard archive format where .INF files store the file attributes
• Added support for disc, state and tape file specific preferences. When loading a file from the command line, running a disk image or loading a state file BeebEm will check for Preferences.cfg and Roms.cfg files in the same folder as the image file. This makes it easier to set up different preferences for different programs
• Added ALT-ENTER keypress to toggle fullscreen mode
• Creation of registry entries at installation:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BeebEm\InstallPath
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BeebEm\Version
• Reduced the tape control window size so it fits on a Netbook screen
• Added Rob's IP options for serial port emulation. Allows connection via TCP/IP to local or remote IP address. Incoming connections can be supported via utilities such as tcpser
• Debugger enhancements from Steve Pick.

What with today being the site's 10th birthday I thought I'd best mark it with an update (just the one, mind!) so if you'd care to pass by our Lost & Found page you'll find a nice history on little-known Trailblazer clone Balls, kindly supplied by co-author Matthew Spencer.

Click here to see what was new in 2008.