BBC Master!

[nahuelmarisi]

Ok, ok, i know it's not an apple, but well it's retro!

I just got today a BBC Master in mint condition!

I haven't played with it much yet but it does look quite cool. I'll have to ask for game recomendations and other programs from all those of you who are BBC enthusiasts.

I was wondering also which good bbc websites are there.

 

[SiliconValleyPirate]

I have a pretty mint Master 128 somewhere about. I grew up on them and they rock bells. Way better than an Apple II

 

[nahuelmarisi]

it seems that there aren't any websites about it with comprehensive information about how to copy files to it, how to use it ,and so forth.

The first compute ri used in education was an Apple II, so I never got to use a bbc micro or master, therefore i'm looking for info in order to learn!

 

[MacMan]

Well done - you will not be dissappointed!

A good website for BBC stuff is Stairway to Hell, which has an extensive library of software in disk image format. It is geared towards emulators but I think it is possible to get images onto your Beeb (with a bit of tinkering).

Good games: Elite, Strykers Run, Snapper (basically PacMac), Planetoid...

Many of these games can be found in cassette format in charity shops; that's where I got most of mine. They tend to be amongst the usual tapes you find in charity shops and are generally cheap because no-one knows what they are. eBay is another good one with many games selling for fairly low prices. Hook up any tape recorder to the Master with a 5-pin DIN connector and you're set!

Beware that some games made for the Model B won't run properly on the Master. They are based around similar technologies but the architecture is a wee bit different leading to some back-incompatibilities. The Master is the better machine though and can run much more demanding software than the Model B.

The advantage of BBC computers over Apple ][ gear is that in the UK they were very popular at one time. This means that there is still a great deal of spares, add-ons, software and other bits available pretty inexpensively. They are starting to get a bit of collector's value now but are generally easier to get things for than Apple ][s. The BBC Model B and Master were basically Britain's equivalent of the Apple ][.

Hope you enjoy your new toy!

 

[MacMan]

A few commands to get you started:

Load and run a program: CHAIN "progam name"

Get info about your machine: *HELP

Switch between ROM based applcations: *application name

There are a couple of aplications built-in to the Master's ROM, including View (word processor) and Viewsheet (spraedsheet). To start each one type *WORD and *VIEWSHEET respectively.

Soft-reset: press BREAK

Hard re-set: hold down CTRL then press and release BREAK. The machine should beep and clear the screen. Release CTRL.

There are many others too. There's a lot of old manuals and books floating about that can get you doing some pretty advances stuff with the BBC very quickly.

The BBC has BBC BASIC as it's built-in programming language. It is apparantly very similar to Apple BASIC, but I've never used an Apple ][ so I can't really say if it's true.

 

[MacMan]

Yet another post...

Here's a link to an online version of the original BBC Microcomputer System User Guide: http://central.kaserver5.org/Kasoft/Typeset/BBC/Contents.html.

It is the same as the chunky, spiral bound book that came with the Model Bs and most of the stuff in it applies to the Master as well.

 

[Quadraman]

The BBC Micro actually had the most powerful Basic you could fit into 8k.

 

[Bunsen]

And a Basic that was adopted by a number of other platforms, and is still useable today. It was a good intro to structured programming, and it had an inline assembler you could call from within your Basic program, including passing variables to the assembly subroutine. We used Model As and Bs at our school, and we had a B at home. I got my first taste of programming on those puppies.

As usual, the wikipedia article is a good place to start.

There's a guy been staying here recently who's a dev for the One Laptop Per Child program. We got to discussing the similarities between that and the BBC Computer Literacy Project which spawned the Beeb series of computers.

 

[nahuelmarisi]

I have a floppy drive btw, which means that I can avoid hopefully the use of the slooow tape. I was wondering if there's a way to use the serial port to transfer images to the machine? Also is tehre any kind of modern interface that people have done so oyu can use a compact flash or similar memory card like you can on the Apple II?

I know the master 512 had a mouse, is it possible to connect one to the 128?

Can Econet do anything modern, ie be connected to a modern network?

Oh and btw, I need a bnc to rca adaptor I guess in order to actually be able ot use it on my composite monitor

 

[MacMan]

I put up a page during this summer's Retrochallenge which has some old Mac software for transferring files to and from BBC Micros. (Link) The one you'll likely want is File>>Mac. Note that the BBC images have to be just that - BBC disk images for them to transfer over and run properly.

To communicate with the Mac you'll need to build a serial cable to link the BBC to the Mac's serial port - details are given here.

I'm currently working on writing up a detailed page on how to do this but it's probably not going to be online until I start my new web server. More on that will be posted later!

BNC to RCA adaptors are fairly easy to come by - again eBay is your friend.

Good thing you have a floppy drive - tapes can be a real pain. I don't think there's any modern drives hacks available, however I have seen BBC Masters on eBay that have had IDE hard drives squeezed into them, containing huge catalogues of software.

As for networking, I think Econet was an Acorn specific system but I may be wrong. It worked on the "bus" network topology meaning that machines were effectively stringed together in a line, rather like LocalTalk connectors. I have no idea whether Econet can be bridged to modern systems or not.

 

[bluekatt]

just some back ground information about acorn itself they ceased to be permanently in 2000 http://www.mcmordie.co.uk/acornhistory/index.shtml

 

[nahuelmarisi]

thanks for all the help guys, i'll experiment with the bbc master and if I run into trouble I'll ask. I know this is not a bbc forum, but well at least I can write in the lounge area

 

[MacMan]

I don't know if there are any BBC micro forums on the internet, but it is something that I may one day start if I get some free time. I did start a massive Acorn Computer and BBC Micro FaceBook group a while back and it now has over 300 members and a (moderately) active discussion board.

 

[bluekatt]

your best bet is to look for acorn sites chanches are that the bbc series will have at least a section to them but the more populair acrons are the archimides and risc pc series