BBC Micro on Retropie & Pi3?

caver01

@backstander I have certainly heard of it over the years, just no hands-on experience--something that is perhaps long overdue.

@jamesbeat I too am interested in suggestions about disk images worth exploring to properly represent this system.

I think I could do a parallel configuration to my Apple II MESS setup without much trouble.

jamesbeat

@backstander
I didn't actually have that many games for my BBC (I got a Spectrum soon after) but here's a list of the ones I enjoyed:

The Hacker (note that this is not the same game as "Hacker" - it's a platformer a bit like Manic Miner)
Manic Miner
Jet Set Willy
Repton
Elite

That's about it before I got my Spectrum (the BBC was my Dad's really).

The BBC Micro was intended as the companion machine for a series of computer education TV programmes by the BBC.
The BBC commissioned the machines from Acorn.
A lot of the TV programmes are on YouTube.
I think they are called:
The Computer Programme
Making The Most Of The Micro
Micro Live

The BBC Micro was apparently the original inspiration for the Raspberry Pi project, so it's quite the travesty that it is not available through Retropie (I'm sure there must be a good reason).

There is actually a BBC Micro template in the Carbon theme, so someone must have been planning to include it at some point.

BuZz

Looking at a BBC port has been on my todo list for way too long. I'm a big fan of the machines and should definitely prioritise it (maybe I should spend less time on the forum, replying to retropie emails, and more time coding).

mediamogul

@jamesbeat

The BBC Micro was apparently the original inspiration for the Raspberry Pi project

Really? I've never heard that before. Very keen!

There is actually a BBC Micro template in the Carbon theme, so someone must have been planning to include it at some point.

This is also the case for the Fairchild Channel F and soon to be true of the Bally Astrocade as well. I believe the idea is that once these systems are implemented, the graphics will be there waiting.

jamesbeat

@mediamogul said in BBC Micro on Retropie & Pi3?:

@jamesbeat

The BBC Micro was apparently the original inspiration for the Raspberry Pi project

Really? I've never heard that before. Very keen!

Yep, that's why the original models were called the Model A and the Model B.

Just like with the Pi, the BBC Model B had a higher spec than the Model A, and was much more popular.

backstander

@BuZz

(maybe I should spend less time on the forum, replying to retropie emails, and more time coding)

You should probably just clone yourself and have one of you do the forum and the other one do the programming and then (so you don't get bored) after a while you and your clone can switch!

jamesbeat

@BuZz said in BBC Micro on Retropie & Pi3?:

Looking at a BBC port has been on my todo list for way too long. I'm a big fan of the machines and should definitely prioritise it (maybe I should spend less time on the forum, replying to retropie emails, and more time coding).

It does stand to reason that there should be a BBC emulator in Retropie.

Not trying to give you extra work (the Retropie team has already done so much for this community) butI think it would be really popular.

While it wasn't the most widely sold of the 80's home micros, something like 85% of all schools in the UK had at least one.
There are a LOT of people in the UK who were exposed to these machines as children.

jamesbeat

@backstander said in BBC Micro on Retropie & Pi3?:

@BuZz

(maybe I should spend less time on the forum, replying to retropie emails, and more time coding)

You should probably just clone yourself and have one of you do the forum and the other one do the programming and then (so you don't get bored) after a while you and your clone can switch!

This seems reasonable.

mediamogul

@backstander

You should probably just clone yourself and have one of you do the forum and the other one do the programming

That never plays out well. Ultimately you'll discover that the clone is evil, which will lead to a frantic situation where both are pointing to each other as being the imposter. Take it from me, it just ruins your day when you find out that you shot the wrong one.

caver01

@mediamogul said in BBC Micro on Retropie & Pi3?:

@backstander

You should probably just clone yourself and have one of you do the forum and the other one do the programming

That never plays out well. Ultimately you'll discover that the clone is evil, which will lead to a frantic situation where both are pointing to each other as being the imposter. Take it from me, it just ruins your day when you find out that you shot the wrong one.

Symbolic link then? Wait. That won't get any extra work done.

mediamogul

@caver01

Symbolic link then? Wait. That won't get any extra work done.

Come on now. That's just an offensive stereotype against symbolics.

BuZz

Trust me - you don't want a clone of me :-) Poor @herb_fargus would have two people calling him up drunk!

mediamogul

@BuZz

I can only imagine the blackmail material you two must have on each other.

herb_fargus

@mediamogul we have been discussing a mailing list or chat of sorts outside of the perpetual hangout window Jools and I have, might be nice for others to be the target of his drunk dialing!

Also for the record I have been pestering Jools for the beeb since 3.0, he's probably sick of me asking by now. Though I have no doubt eben Upton would be thrilled.

spmbrown

The BBC Micro (the original Models A, B, etc.) was created at the request of the BBC as a public education project. There was controversy, in-fighting, the usual whining about how the TV licence fee was being spent and a lot of arguments about who/what company should make the hardware - microcomputer, to support the programme.

Acorn Computers won the contract and (skipping a lot of detail here) produced the BBC Micro (the Atom was first, the Electron was a cut down, lower cost version and there was the subsequent Master version).

The Raspberry Pi Foundation were paying homage to the BBC Micro when they named the original Pi computers Model A & B.

A BBC Micro running BBC Basic was used to design the first ARM instruction set. Acorn the company went on to produce the Archimedes machines and (again, skipping all the detail) was later renamed ARM Holdings and produced the Advanced RISC Machine architecture.

Any of you who have a mobile (cellular) phone, made by Apple, Motorola, Samsung or whoever, have an ARM powered computer in your pocket and that is the modern iteration of the BBC Micro.

The Micro:bit is another of the BBC's efforts at "educating" kids/the world about programming computers.

You may not have heard of it but the standout game developed fot the BBC Micro was Elite. The inspiration and reference for all modern space trading RPG games.

dankcushions

my mum had a bbc micro (she still does somewhere! a big master unit with 2 drives etc). she was a teacher, and they were pretty standard components of most UK classrooms in the 80s/early 90s. in fact, i seem to remember my high school still using them as late as the late 90s!

it was my first exposure to games/computers, but i don't have that much nostalgia for it. i loved repton but i replayed that not so long ago. it's a classic that has a weird following in the chess community due to the nature of the puzzles.

i wouldn't mind going back to play a game called 'spellbinder' which was a sort of dungeon/adventure game that completely confused me when i was 7!

spmbrown

@backstander Do you have a mobile phone? It probably has an ARM processor.

A BBC Micro running BBC Basic was used to design the first ARM instruction set. Acorn, the company that manufactured it was later renamed ARM Holdings and produced the Advanced RISC Machine architecture. Almost all current mobile phones, the Raspberry Pi itself and countless other products are the latest versions of the BBC Micro.

jamesbeat

When the BBC was looking for a computer for their Computer Literacy Project, Sinclair were also trying to win the contract.

There is an excellent dramatized version of this battle between Acorn and Sinclair called 'Micro Men' (it's on youtube)

backstander

@jamesbeat
I'll have to check out "Micro Men"! I didn't realize that ARM processor came from the BBC Micro. Now I wonder what the Raspberry Pi will be when it grows up?

Also @mediamogul is right! Cloning yourself is a bad idea! I almost never turns out good in the movies (I'm thinking of the movie The Prestige]!

Fruitybit

@jamesbeat I use a pi2 and risc os to run the BBC emulator and it works perfectly! It won't run on a pi3, so older hardware comes in handy here. Elite, Space Adventure, hehe re-living the long old days:)
Plus it's all small files/os so you can get away with a tiny sd card for just about all of it:)