I'm loving the beeb videos, keep 'em coming ;) You might like to put some tape on the back of the level converter for the PI as it can press on the keyboard screw head. There is a 3MHz version of the 65c02 on the PI-copro to match the 1st 65c02 copro , specifically for Elite ;) On my Masters, I "unplug" everything except BASIC and a version of DFS, so it is more like a B with lots of sideways RAM. I think *CONFIGURE BOOT just reverses the action of SHIFT-BREAK and BREAK. In case people don't get to the bottom of the replies: I have written a cut down MENU system for the B/B+/Master/Compact (DFS only, no ADFS). It runs on all (AFAIK) MMC style DFS filing system as well as DFS GOTEKs. stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=16070 It contains all of the "commercial" releases from bbcmicro.co.uk/ as well as some of my games ;)
Richard, are you a Discord user? I'm currently posting a lot of my beeb exploits in there. I start a video with one intention and normally hit a roadblock before I can continue 😂
@@backofficeshow Occasionally the Retro Asylum channels, but social media wise, I'm tricky on stardot.org.uk/forums which is a very friendly place to get Acorn and other machine help :)
The BBC Micro had really excellent unofficial conversions of every major early eighties arcade game, most of which were done in-house by Acorn. However the price to ordinary high street consumers was nearly double that of a Commodore 64, which apart from Elite has everything you could want in its games library.
Thanks for the unexpected Christmas vid. I've still got my Model B that I bought as a teenager, although when I switched it on a couple of years ago it produced an acrid smell (but still worked) - think you've inspired me to restore and upgrade it. Thanks.
You are most welcome! It sounds like your beeb blew a PSU cap. Fortunately they are an easy fix, so get in there and get that sweet sweet machine up and running 😂 You will be amazed at how usable they are, even in 2020!
Nice you done a upgrade for the bbc micro ive managed to get my Linux mint box sending files to the bbc micro by the RS423 port comes in very handy typing in program listings just use copy and paste and send it to the bbc micro
Fantastic video, I am watching it a year on as I am getting my first beeb for Christmas, I’ve still got many of my original computers, but never went down the beeb route until now. Where did you get your lead to use the beeb on your modern monitor/tv ?
No serious BBC micro user has screws holding the keyboard down! Mine hasn't had them in since forever. The keyboard is perfectly well retained by the case. :) I invested in a Gotek USB floppy drive emulator, a PiTube direct and have been playing with then, still got to unpack my MMC and check it out. Merry Christmas!
You make a valid point, to be fair, even having a lid on is a sure sign of a n00b 😂 I will be interested in your gotek experience, I'm been removing them where I can after finding SD card solutions. Meeeeeeery Christmas to you too!
@@backofficeshow My plan is to backup my 5.25" floppies. Not had much joy so far, some of them may be part it. Need some solid time on it to fully understand what's wrong as I'm using Watford Electronics DDFS and get formatting errors in the Gotek images. Who knows, I might ultimately settle on using MMC. Will report back at some point. Also want to get an original Winchester working, when I do I'll probably have the 1990 something accounts of a travel agent or somesuch, can't remember which of my dad's customers gave him that. :)
@@ches74 You are living the dream 😂 I have a bunch of Atari ST PD discs to back up at some time. I need to get the willpower to crack on with it. Not today though!
@@backofficeshow the dream of a skip diving hoarder maybe! 😂 Isn't the Atari ST capable of reading and writing to MSDOS formatted floppies? Might be the easiest way to back them up and I believe there are ways of creating images on a PC to dump on an MMC or whatever.
@@ches74 I haven't managed to find a PC that will read them. I think I will copy them in the ST itself into a Satandisk partition and pop that in my PC after I'm done with a bunch.
@@trickysoft I just reverse engineered an interface on my Discord to figure out how it works, then reassembled and flashed a new MMFS ROM. Works a treat, I'm very happy now! It's a shame you cannot turn off the tube interface from the beeb. That would be useful. I guess a hardware hack would work.
@@backofficeshow I think you can enable it and set the default to the "null" co-pro, effectivly disabling it. You can then use the *FX command to swap processors when you want. Sorry, I can't find the thread, but github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect/wiki should help.
@@trickysoft These are awesome. I am going to set one system aside purely for this work and develop some scripts just to make all of this easy to play with. I'm just trying to get a few messing systems up to speed. I'm having keyboard woes mainly.
🎄Merry Christmas Dr Andrew 🎄 Hope you have a brilliant day, hope Santa had a sack full of all things gadgetry for you, after all, your leisure is our viewing pleasure!!! Thanks for all the amazing videos you took the time and expense to create for people like me to enjoy in 2019! Can’t wait to see where you take us in 2020, all I know is if it’s like 2019, it will be amazing! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sam, thank you so much for your lovely comment, it means a lot to me! I am not sure how much gadgetry that Santa will bring but I have a couple of items on order 😂 Meeeeeeery Christmas and a happy new year to you as well!
Great to see this, thinking about buying one micro B, yes I need to do that Pii thing, how much would that little kit cost, and what type is it. Thanks
Just a thought, and my memory might fail me on this after what must be 35 years since playing with my own BBC, but instead of dropping into a different mode to see more on the screen, try hitting ctrl + n to enter page mode. Should be a bit like the less command in Linux.
Hi. I've installed the Turbo MMC on my BBC Master. It all works fine. However, for some reason my FDD no longer works. This is annoying because I can't access my old files on my 5.25in floppy discs. Do you have any advice, please, on how to fix this issue? What I'd like to do is transfer the files from the floppy discs to the Turbo MMC. I'd be most grateful for any help. Thanks for the excellent video.
Hmm, I have not tried to connect a floppy drive in conjunction with the turbo MMC. Quick question though, does your floppy work if the chip is removed? My guess is that it replaces the floppy or possibly reassigns it to a different drive number
@@backofficeshow Thanks for the quick reply. The FDD was working before installing the chip. I'm a bit loathed to remove the chip to test if the FDD works again because I don't want to risk damaging any pins on the chip. So I'm not sure how to resolve the issue as my knowledge in this area is somewhat rudimentary.
@@backofficeshow I found this on RUclips, but haven't tried following the instructions yet. Not sure if you've already seen it, but here's the link:- ruclips.net/video/_Qdh3e-7q0Y/видео.html
Maybe some bright programmer can further enhance Elite-Tube to be filled geometry instead of wireframe, make Elite on the BBC look like the Archimedes version :)
That would be awesome wouldn't it! I wonder if the tube interface is fast enough for the coprocessor to push graphics straight to the screen and just use the beeb CPU to handle input and shunting data.
@@backofficeshow It must be boosting the graphics some amount as one of the main causes of low FPS in Elite was the slow redraw rate so just speeding up the game logic would not cause as huge a frame rate increase as you see in Elite-Tube unless they are using frame skipping (like emulators do on slower PC hardware). As you can guess, I may have the knowledge of what is needed to be done but unfortunately I lack the knowledge on how to do it! lol
There is a version like that for the PC. A clever bloke called Christian Pinder reverse engineered the old BBC code and recoded the game in C for the PC, keeping the game very faithful to the original except for the option of filled in polygons, colour, and better polygon scaling. Still available for free download - just look on your search engine of choice for "Elite - The New Kind" He's also done the same with Arch Elite - you can find a vid of him demoing it here on youtube, however at this moment in time he hasn't released that yet
The most annoying thing about restoring these BBCs is that the ROM port cover on the keyboard is missing or damaged by being pressed through (Probably by a bored kid in the classroom in the 80's!!) leaving a gaping hole on the left side of the keyboard. Luckily you can buy a BBC Acorn ROM PORT COVER on eBay by a guy called riscman - problem solved. They are really good and keep with the aesthetics of the machine and they are really cheap.
I think I have seen his covers, black 3d printed ones. Definitely an option if you don't want to print your own. I would love to actually hook upal a ZIF into the hole
@@backofficeshow the ones sold are actually have a vinyl fascia which matches the case really well (how??!!)...this part you cannot do on a 3D printer, the results are simply awesome. Matches the case so good. Well pleased!!! :))
Hi bought a BBC makes the X2 beeps but cannot get a picture via a scart cable I bought, tried two LCD TVs no picture what so ever, scart cable new. The seller of the BBC Micro sent pic of it working with RF cable which I don't have so not sure if it is the scart cable or flat screen TVs not compatible they are not CRT any suggestions tia
Hi guys, I've just received my Turbo MMC, however on the main board @ 5:07 and 5:25, the rom sockets on mine are full apart from Socket 2 (between the OS and Language chips). Socket 4 (4th when counting left to right) has my DFS chip in there and I don't exactly know what ROM chip is installed into Socket 5. So would I need to remove the DFS chip in socket 4 in order to install the Turbo EPROM (where it is placed in the video) or would I be able to just put the Turbo EPROM in the empty socket (Socket 2)? (In other words does it matter which rom socket the chip goes into?) Many thanks!
Hi, I recently bought a BBC Micro but it doesn't have the pincer connectors installed underneath, for the user port etc... Does that mean I wouldn't be able to use the TurboSPI, etc?
I love my bbc b micro no econet though as it was bought new by one of my dads mates he gave it to me when i was in my teens and he got his first pc .My bbc master has no econet either or markings to suggest it was an ex school machine bought from a car boot sale in my teen years for £10 .I have a turbo mmc interface for the b and an os switcher to be fitted to the master i will add the pitube at some point and other updates .
@@backofficeshow Econet is an easy upgrade. But it does use a Motorola (IIRC) controller chip that's a little hard to find now. It does not use a hub in the traditional Ethernet sense but rather a link box which also supplies the clocking signal. Poke about the Interwebs. You'll find no end of simple designs for all sorts of Econet doo-dads.
That sounds interesting, I am hoping someone has tasked some simple hardware like an arduino or Pi to emulate it. I need to see what games supported it!
Imagine how much better digital TV interactivity would be (red button etc.) if the ceefax/telext ARM chip _(which is like the BBC micro)_ had mandatorily been able in all TV-sets to have that expansion slot for a co-processor _(and a serial port rs232),_ so even though it would have been mediocre back in the day, right now, people all over the UK would be plugging in that raspberrypi via the GPIO like you have done and the BBC and other TV channels would have to fall to their knees in mercy of how "awesome" it is _(by which I mean it is a "reasonably pragmatic" solution)_ and then hire a couple of part-time (16hours a week) minimum-wage students (GCSE or Alevel or degree) to code various apps for it such as a scientific calculator or spreadsheet program which saves to the SDcard _(or the rs232 storage as though a null-modem-cable plugged into something else),_ having first received a broadcast over the digital-TV airwaves to download new software to that pizero2w _(or pizero if that is what you have there)._ Softwares would do things like make a garden-planner or fantasy-football or graphing-calculus programs to show stocks and shares _(histograms and other graphs)_ or FFT calculations performed on the Pi itself from a trickle of data through the TV airwaves telling the pi what the weather map should look like _(and then rendering it in splines and 3D)._ Or like it could calculate your BMI and modify food-recipes measures for ingredients and so on. It could perform hashing calculations or generate landscapes like Bryce3D could but in humble graphics. There could be prepping-prepper calculations and updates it could perform like that Trump FEMA sms text the yanks got sent to them via the USA government _(which was a good idea btw)._ So DIY prepping measurements could be calculated such as making a DIY-workbench or storm shelter. A better "games" controller _(e.g. xbox360 controller with chatpad)_ would be released for the rs232 ports on instructables or via the telext-ceefax button itself so people could make one out of an arduino or whatever. Quite frankly, this should happen if a way can be found to add a PCB to expand a Mullard SAA5050 and the various other pertaining chips found in such a TV or VCR or the day that could do the teletext/ceefax stuff. Some are through-hole PCB or sockets. Those wireframe smooth elite 3D graphics could run a railroadtycoon3 or neverwinternights style game with reduced graphics, or themepark on the a1200 amiga but with lesser graphics. Geneology programs and time-team style archeology software could be run. Really though, elite2Frontier would be better for that as per OOlite or Pioneer. Wetrix (like n64) could totally be done in wireframe using all that FPU power. Frankly, considering minecraft has an open-source version that runs on a 486, it could do that in a cut-down game version too or at least a tiny bit. Old newspapers (or science journals) could be loaded froma mounted CDROM-ISO file from the SDCard and used for citations in history gcse homework or humanities projects like in psychology so it would work as a spellchecker or Encarta because for much of those you do not need the internet but rather just a CDROM ISO file of text and clipart on the SDCard. People would even be able to use the TV to program code on directly via an IDE. The above Mullard SAA5050 (and other chips) TV-hack should totally have MIDI built in too even if merely via emulation. Even though it is basic-looking, a person is not distracted from their workflow like how the internet can interrupt a person's homework research with things like social-media trawling for cat videos. So it makes sense that is look basic. There could even be a basic google-sketchup made for it for making very basic DIY projects such as shelving or a table or chair in wireframe 3D and it would somehow save to a collada fle or a basic XML conversion file for collada. So 2D animation softwares would run on it too, almost like deluxepaint on the amiga but in low colour and resolution. An agreed soundbank ISO (of say 4GB) would be expected in the encyclopedia so (creative-commons) ogg vorbis sounds (at nearly CD quality) could be played (or converted if need be) and triggered by that midi by the aforementioned softwares people coded or by the signals sent by the BBC (or Sky-tv or whomsoever is into freeview) over the airwaves. Then copyright ISO packs could be purchased from Sky or whomsoever else wanted to sell the glitzy versions or relases them on a CDROM/DVDROM on the front of a paper magazine in WH-Smiths, like on the BBC food magazine or a computercative/pcformat style magazine. So people might use (TV-show) strictly come-dancing to learn keep-fit dance moves like the nintendo-wii games. It should have every spectrum-speccy public-domain software for it converted, where pragmatic to do so. I would say that upgrade should also have four AA batteries just in case it helps save a save-state to RAM and also to run a clock to help a cron job in linux even if the pi can already do tha as it is will assist future versions and the pi may or may not be used or it may be added to by another SBC or electronics PCB. The quad-core of the pizero2w would also run IPFS and the wifi would form a mesh network so neighbourhoods would share IPFS data that way. All this stuff could be done on the cheap via FOSS and GPL and MIT license software and creative commons, etc. A BBC micro is way too hard to get ahold of to accomplish this but a TV/VCR with that chip is realistic. A QR code generator is another thing it could do and so a smartphone could then take photos of say 100 QR codes and thereby receive an app of a very basic game or instead of a very basic app that can then download other better apps via updates. Adverts can appear in games like in footy/rugby games on the pitch. The video basically shows what the GameWave would have been if they had bothered putting a decent CPU in _(like even something akin to the panasonic 3D0 or a motorola 68040/68020 with FPU)._ My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love.
how many times the pi is more powerful than the beebs? is like having ferrari engine on child tricycle . don't like modern powerful accelerators on vintage machines. at least has ARM cpu one may say.
But it's not accelerating the beeb. It's using the legitimate tube port, exactly as Acorn intended. This capability was literally designed in from day one. Totally what Acorn would have made themselves - and seeing as the pi is an ARM, it's what they did 😂
@@backofficeshow Agreed, plus it can co-process / emulate a range of processors. ARM was developed on the BEEB now the ARM is coming home again...full circle.
Great Video. I need to get that MMC unit - I don't think my old BBC hard disc is going to last much longer. I have a collection of languages for BBCs, there was, aside from BBC BASIC: FORTH, LISP, Pascal, BCPL, micoProlog, LOGO and COMAL from Acorn, (never found a COMAL). There was at least one other FORTH variant, another Pascal and a couple of versions of Small C. If you had the 32016 second processor with PANOS, there was a FORTRAN 77, but as far as I can tell, never for a standard BBC. Here is the Acornsoft languages catalogue: chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Brochures/Acornsoft_APP62c_AcornsoftLanguages.pdf
Wonderful, thank you for the list, I'm going to set about adding them to my SD image! I think the pi coprocessor should a allow you to try the full range.
If you like the hard disc experience, you can get a BeebSCSI www.domesday86.com/?page_id=689 which allows you to use an SD card as a hard disc and the beeb/master/etc won't even know. I'm not sure who currently sells these. I think there is a PI HD emulator in the works, but I'm not sure how far along it is.
I'm loving the beeb videos, keep 'em coming ;)
You might like to put some tape on the back of the level converter for the PI as it can press on the keyboard screw head.
There is a 3MHz version of the 65c02 on the PI-copro to match the 1st 65c02 copro , specifically for Elite ;)
On my Masters, I "unplug" everything except BASIC and a version of DFS, so it is more like a B with lots of sideways RAM.
I think *CONFIGURE BOOT just reverses the action of SHIFT-BREAK and BREAK.
In case people don't get to the bottom of the replies: I have written a cut down MENU system for the B/B+/Master/Compact (DFS only, no ADFS). It runs on all (AFAIK) MMC style DFS filing system as well as DFS GOTEKs. stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=16070 It contains all of the "commercial" releases from bbcmicro.co.uk/ as well as some of my games ;)
Richard, are you a Discord user? I'm currently posting a lot of my beeb exploits in there. I start a video with one intention and normally hit a roadblock before I can continue 😂
@@backofficeshow Occasionally the Retro Asylum channels, but social media wise, I'm tricky on stardot.org.uk/forums which is a very friendly place to get Acorn and other machine help :)
Great video! Yesterday, I picked up my first BBC since I lived in the UK over a decade ago. Happy days!
The BBC Micro had really excellent unofficial conversions of every major early eighties arcade game, most of which were done in-house by Acorn. However the price to ordinary high street consumers was nearly double that of a Commodore 64, which apart from Elite has everything you could want in its games library.
Thanks for the unexpected Christmas vid. I've still got my Model B that I bought as a teenager, although when I switched it on a couple of years ago it produced an acrid smell (but still worked) - think you've inspired me to restore and upgrade it. Thanks.
You are most welcome!
It sounds like your beeb blew a PSU cap. Fortunately they are an easy fix, so get in there and get that sweet sweet machine up and running 😂
You will be amazed at how usable they are, even in 2020!
CAPS!
Nice you done a upgrade for the bbc micro ive managed to get my Linux mint box sending files to the bbc micro by the RS423 port comes in very handy typing in program listings just use copy and paste and send it to the bbc micro
Thank you very much. So useful and clearly explained. Subbed!... and looking forward to watching more of your videos.
That's really nice to hear. Check the playlists there is plenty to choose from
Fantastic video, I am watching it a year on as I am getting my first beeb for Christmas, I’ve still got many of my original computers, but never went down the beeb route until now. Where did you get your lead to use the beeb on your modern monitor/tv ?
No serious BBC micro user has screws holding the keyboard down! Mine hasn't had them in since forever. The keyboard is perfectly well retained by the case. :)
I invested in a Gotek USB floppy drive emulator, a PiTube direct and have been playing with then, still got to unpack my MMC and check it out.
Merry Christmas!
You make a valid point, to be fair, even having a lid on is a sure sign of a n00b 😂
I will be interested in your gotek experience, I'm been removing them where I can after finding SD card solutions.
Meeeeeeery Christmas to you too!
@@backofficeshow My plan is to backup my 5.25" floppies. Not had much joy so far, some of them may be part it. Need some solid time on it to fully understand what's wrong as I'm using Watford Electronics DDFS and get formatting errors in the Gotek images.
Who knows, I might ultimately settle on using MMC.
Will report back at some point. Also want to get an original Winchester working, when I do I'll probably have the 1990 something accounts of a travel agent or somesuch, can't remember which of my dad's customers gave him that. :)
@@ches74 You are living the dream 😂
I have a bunch of Atari ST PD discs to back up at some time. I need to get the willpower to crack on with it. Not today though!
@@backofficeshow the dream of a skip diving hoarder maybe! 😂
Isn't the Atari ST capable of reading and writing to MSDOS formatted floppies? Might be the easiest way to back them up and I believe there are ways of creating images on a PC to dump on an MMC or whatever.
@@ches74 I haven't managed to find a PC that will read them. I think I will copy them in the ST itself into a Satandisk partition and pop that in my PC after I'm done with a bunch.
SPI = Serial Peripherial Interface. It spools data to and from the host over a 2 wire serial link.
I wonder if it's the same spec as the SPI we use these days
@@backofficeshow It is, as it refers to the connection to the (micro) SD card.
@@trickysoft I just reverse engineered an interface on my Discord to figure out how it works, then reassembled and flashed a new MMFS ROM. Works a treat, I'm very happy now!
It's a shame you cannot turn off the tube interface from the beeb. That would be useful. I guess a hardware hack would work.
@@backofficeshow I think you can enable it and set the default to the "null" co-pro, effectivly disabling it. You can then use the *FX command to swap processors when you want. Sorry, I can't find the thread, but github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect/wiki should help.
@@trickysoft These are awesome. I am going to set one system aside purely for this work and develop some scripts just to make all of this easy to play with. I'm just trying to get a few messing systems up to speed. I'm having keyboard woes mainly.
🎄Merry Christmas Dr Andrew 🎄
Hope you have a brilliant day, hope Santa had a sack full of all things gadgetry for you, after all, your leisure is our viewing pleasure!!!
Thanks for all the amazing videos you took the time and expense to create for people like me to enjoy in 2019! Can’t wait to see where you take us in 2020, all I know is if it’s like 2019, it will be amazing!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sam, thank you so much for your lovely comment, it means a lot to me!
I am not sure how much gadgetry that Santa will bring but I have a couple of items on order 😂
Meeeeeeery Christmas and a happy new year to you as well!
Great to see this, thinking about buying one micro B, yes I need to do that Pii thing, how much would that little kit cost, and what type is it. Thanks
Just a thought, and my memory might fail me on this after what must be 35 years since playing with my own BBC, but instead of dropping into a different mode to see more on the screen, try hitting ctrl + n to enter page mode. Should be a bit like the less command in Linux.
I'll give this a try tomorrow. I'm hankering for some beeb action. I tried my spectrum and CPC today and they were not cutting the mustard at all 😂
Great video! Need to buy a tube now. Thanks for making.
You are most welcome! Glad you liked the video.
Nice one Andrew, I hope you had a great Xmas. Peter
Thanks Peter, It was very nice, I hope you had a good one as well.
Hi. I've installed the Turbo MMC on my BBC Master. It all works fine. However, for some reason my FDD no longer works. This is annoying because I can't access my old files on my 5.25in floppy discs. Do you have any advice, please, on how to fix this issue? What I'd like to do is transfer the files from the floppy discs to the Turbo MMC. I'd be most grateful for any help. Thanks for the excellent video.
Hmm, I have not tried to connect a floppy drive in conjunction with the turbo MMC. Quick question though, does your floppy work if the chip is removed?
My guess is that it replaces the floppy or possibly reassigns it to a different drive number
@@backofficeshow Thanks for the quick reply. The FDD was working before installing the chip. I'm a bit loathed to remove the chip to test if the FDD works again because I don't want to risk damaging any pins on the chip. So I'm not sure how to resolve the issue as my knowledge in this area is somewhat rudimentary.
Try *CARD and *DISK.
It escapes me now, but there is a command that will list the commands that the ROM makes available to the operating system.
@@backofficeshow Thanks. I'll give it a try
@@backofficeshow I found this on RUclips, but haven't tried following the instructions yet. Not sure if you've already seen it, but here's the link:- ruclips.net/video/_Qdh3e-7q0Y/видео.html
Maybe some bright programmer can further enhance Elite-Tube to be filled geometry instead of wireframe, make Elite on the BBC look like the Archimedes version :)
That would be awesome wouldn't it!
I wonder if the tube interface is fast enough for the coprocessor to push graphics straight to the screen and just use the beeb CPU to handle input and shunting data.
@@backofficeshow It must be boosting the graphics some amount as one of the main causes of low FPS in Elite was the slow redraw rate so just speeding up the game logic would not cause as huge a frame rate increase as you see in Elite-Tube unless they are using frame skipping (like emulators do on slower PC hardware).
As you can guess, I may have the knowledge of what is needed to be done but unfortunately I lack the knowledge on how to do it! lol
There is a version like that for the PC.
A clever bloke called Christian Pinder reverse engineered the old BBC code and recoded the game in C for the PC, keeping the game very faithful to the original except for the option of filled in polygons, colour, and better polygon scaling.
Still available for free download - just look on your search engine of choice for "Elite - The New Kind"
He's also done the same with Arch Elite - you can find a vid of him demoing it here on youtube, however at this moment in time he hasn't released that yet
The most annoying thing about restoring these BBCs is that the ROM port cover on the keyboard is missing or damaged by being pressed through (Probably by a bored kid in the classroom in the 80's!!) leaving a gaping hole on the left side of the keyboard. Luckily you can buy a BBC Acorn ROM PORT COVER on eBay by a guy called riscman - problem solved. They are really good and keep with the aesthetics of the machine and they are really cheap.
I think I have seen his covers, black 3d printed ones. Definitely an option if you don't want to print your own. I would love to actually hook upal a ZIF into the hole
@@backofficeshow I have seen these back in the day. V useful. nice vid BTW!!
@@backofficeshow the ones sold are actually have a vinyl fascia which matches the case really well (how??!!)...this part you cannot do on a 3D printer, the results are simply awesome. Matches the case so good. Well pleased!!! :))
That version of Elite looked like the standard Master Version - the Tube Version I have has a Star-Wars style Pizzasoft intro and a different font
Merry Christmas 🎄
Same to you! 🎄🎄🎄
Hi bought a BBC makes the X2 beeps but cannot get a picture via a scart cable I bought, tried two LCD TVs no picture what so ever, scart cable new. The seller of the BBC Micro sent pic of it working with RF cable which I don't have so not sure if it is the scart cable or flat screen TVs not compatible they are not CRT any suggestions tia
Do you have any measurement tools? You will have to see if there is any output. It's possible the output hardware has failed, e.g. no sync
Happy Christmas 🎄
Same to you!!
Hi guys, I've just received my Turbo MMC, however on the main board @ 5:07 and 5:25, the rom sockets on mine are full apart from Socket 2 (between the OS and Language chips). Socket 4 (4th when counting left to right) has my DFS chip in there and I don't exactly know what ROM chip is installed into Socket 5. So would I need to remove the DFS chip in socket 4 in order to install the Turbo EPROM (where it is placed in the video) or would I be able to just put the Turbo EPROM in the empty socket (Socket 2)? (In other words does it matter which rom socket the chip goes into?) Many thanks!
where on ebay you can find the turbo spi kit? not having any luck finding them at moment
Hmm that's weird, I've just been playing Elite Dangerous and after coming onto RUclips I see your video and you play Elite.
I'm sure there are some videos of my l me playing elite dangerous somewhere too 😂
What's your rating, are you Mostly Harmless?
Hi, I recently bought a BBC Micro but it doesn't have the pincer connectors installed underneath, for the user port etc... Does that mean I wouldn't be able to use the TurboSPI, etc?
If you can find your way into our discord I would be happy to look at a photograph of your machine
I love my bbc b micro no econet though as it was bought new by one of my dads mates he gave it to me when i was in my teens and he got his first pc .My bbc master has no econet either or markings to suggest it was an ex school machine bought from a car boot sale in my teen years for £10 .I have a turbo mmc interface for the b and an os switcher to be fitted to the master i will add the pitube at some point and other updates .
I would like to understand Econet. I wonder if there was some sort of hub
@@backofficeshow I think you can use the Master, but you will need so sort of "clock" and basic wiring.
@@backofficeshow Econet is an easy upgrade. But it does use a Motorola (IIRC) controller chip that's a little hard to find now. It does not use a hub in the traditional Ethernet sense but rather a link box which also supplies the clocking signal. Poke about the Interwebs. You'll find no end of simple designs for all sorts of Econet doo-dads.
That sounds interesting, I am hoping someone has tasked some simple hardware like an arduino or Pi to emulate it. I need to see what games supported it!
@@backofficeshow www.beebmaster.co.uk/Econet/BuildEconet.html
how do u use the pies video output?
Imagine how much better digital TV interactivity would be (red button etc.) if the ceefax/telext ARM chip _(which is like the BBC micro)_ had mandatorily been able in all TV-sets to have that expansion slot for a co-processor _(and a serial port rs232),_ so even though it would have been mediocre back in the day, right now, people all over the UK would be plugging in that raspberrypi via the GPIO like you have done and the BBC and other TV channels would have to fall to their knees in mercy of how "awesome" it is _(by which I mean it is a "reasonably pragmatic" solution)_ and then hire a couple of part-time (16hours a week) minimum-wage students (GCSE or Alevel or degree) to code various apps for it such as a scientific calculator or spreadsheet program which saves to the SDcard _(or the rs232 storage as though a null-modem-cable plugged into something else),_ having first received a broadcast over the digital-TV airwaves to download new software to that pizero2w _(or pizero if that is what you have there)._
Softwares would do things like make a garden-planner or fantasy-football or graphing-calculus programs to show stocks and shares _(histograms and other graphs)_ or FFT calculations performed on the Pi itself from a trickle of data through the TV airwaves telling the pi what the weather map should look like _(and then rendering it in splines and 3D)._ Or like it could calculate your BMI and modify food-recipes measures for ingredients and so on. It could perform hashing calculations or generate landscapes like Bryce3D could but in humble graphics. There could be prepping-prepper calculations and updates it could perform like that Trump FEMA sms text the yanks got sent to them via the USA government _(which was a good idea btw)._ So DIY prepping measurements could be calculated such as making a DIY-workbench or storm shelter. A better "games" controller _(e.g. xbox360 controller with chatpad)_ would be released for the rs232 ports on instructables or via the telext-ceefax button itself so people could make one out of an arduino or whatever.
Quite frankly, this should happen if a way can be found to add a PCB to expand a Mullard SAA5050 and the various other pertaining chips found in such a TV or VCR or the day that could do the teletext/ceefax stuff. Some are through-hole PCB or sockets.
Those wireframe smooth elite 3D graphics could run a railroadtycoon3 or neverwinternights style game with reduced graphics, or themepark on the a1200 amiga but with lesser graphics. Geneology programs and time-team style archeology software could be run. Really though, elite2Frontier would be better for that as per OOlite or Pioneer. Wetrix (like n64) could totally be done in wireframe using all that FPU power. Frankly, considering minecraft has an open-source version that runs on a 486, it could do that in a cut-down game version too or at least a tiny bit.
Old newspapers (or science journals) could be loaded froma mounted CDROM-ISO file from the SDCard and used for citations in history gcse homework or humanities projects like in psychology so it would work as a spellchecker or Encarta because for much of those you do not need the internet but rather just a CDROM ISO file of text and clipart on the SDCard. People would even be able to use the TV to program code on directly via an IDE. The above Mullard SAA5050 (and other chips) TV-hack should totally have MIDI built in too even if merely via emulation. Even though it is basic-looking, a person is not distracted from their workflow like how the internet can interrupt a person's homework research with things like social-media trawling for cat videos. So it makes sense that is look basic. There could even be a basic google-sketchup made for it for making very basic DIY projects such as shelving or a table or chair in wireframe 3D and it would somehow save to a collada fle or a basic XML conversion file for collada. So 2D animation softwares would run on it too, almost like deluxepaint on the amiga but in low colour and resolution. An agreed soundbank ISO (of say 4GB) would be expected in the encyclopedia so (creative-commons) ogg vorbis sounds (at nearly CD quality) could be played (or converted if need be) and triggered by that midi by the aforementioned softwares people coded or by the signals sent by the BBC (or Sky-tv or whomsoever is into freeview) over the airwaves. Then copyright ISO packs could be purchased from Sky or whomsoever else wanted to sell the glitzy versions or relases them on a CDROM/DVDROM on the front of a paper magazine in WH-Smiths, like on the BBC food magazine or a computercative/pcformat style magazine. So people might use (TV-show) strictly come-dancing to learn keep-fit dance moves like the nintendo-wii games.
It should have every spectrum-speccy public-domain software for it converted, where pragmatic to do so. I would say that upgrade should also have four AA batteries just in case it helps save a save-state to RAM and also to run a clock to help a cron job in linux even if the pi can already do tha as it is will assist future versions and the pi may or may not be used or it may be added to by another SBC or electronics PCB. The quad-core of the pizero2w would also run IPFS and the wifi would form a mesh network so neighbourhoods would share IPFS data that way. All this stuff could be done on the cheap via FOSS and GPL and MIT license software and creative commons, etc.
A BBC micro is way too hard to get ahold of to accomplish this but a TV/VCR with that chip is realistic. A QR code generator is another thing it could do and so a smartphone could then take photos of say 100 QR codes and thereby receive an app of a very basic game or instead of a very basic app that can then download other better apps via updates. Adverts can appear in games like in footy/rugby games on the pitch.
The video basically shows what the GameWave would have been if they had bothered putting a decent CPU in _(like even something akin to the panasonic 3D0 or a motorola 68040/68020 with FPU)._
My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love.
are u good at Donkey King on the Dragon 32? i got to the 12th or 13th level on it using xroar
I have never tried a dragon32. Are they similar to any other machine of that era?
@@backofficeshow yep a little bit like the bbc micro and the Color computer 2 microcomputers yep
Sounds like something I need to try out!
What workaround could you do if your user port was already in use ?
Something like this on the floppy port: rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F254452539908
link for the pi tube direct interface please
www.sundby.com/
Happy Chrimbo. ;)
Same to you dude!!
how many times the pi is more powerful than the beebs? is like having ferrari engine on child tricycle . don't like modern powerful accelerators on vintage machines. at least has ARM cpu one may say.
But it's not accelerating the beeb. It's using the legitimate tube port, exactly as Acorn intended.
This capability was literally designed in from day one. Totally what Acorn would have made themselves - and seeing as the pi is an ARM, it's what they did 😂
@@backofficeshow Agreed, plus it can co-process / emulate a range of processors. ARM was developed on the BEEB now the ARM is coming home again...full circle.
Have a good day
You too!
Great Video. I need to get that MMC unit - I don't think my old BBC hard disc is going to last much longer. I have a collection of languages for BBCs, there was, aside from BBC BASIC: FORTH, LISP, Pascal, BCPL, micoProlog, LOGO and COMAL from Acorn, (never found a COMAL). There was at least one other FORTH variant, another Pascal and a couple of versions of Small C. If you had the 32016 second processor with PANOS, there was a FORTRAN 77, but as far as I can tell, never for a standard BBC.
Here is the Acornsoft languages catalogue:
chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Brochures/Acornsoft_APP62c_AcornsoftLanguages.pdf
Wonderful, thank you for the list, I'm going to set about adding them to my SD image! I think the pi coprocessor should a allow you to try the full range.
If you like the hard disc experience, you can get a BeebSCSI www.domesday86.com/?page_id=689 which allows you to use an SD card as a hard disc and the beeb/master/etc won't even know. I'm not sure who currently sells these. I think there is a PI HD emulator in the works, but I'm not sure how far along it is.
nula pie copro
AUDIO