Back in the 80's my favourite home gaming machine was the BBC micro, as it had the best arcade conversions, as well as some great original games such as Elite. My childhood BBC was sold off long ago, I think to go towards a deposit on my first car, and it was only when I started collecting old consoles that I thought of getting another one.
The best version, the one everyone remembers from school, was the model B, with a whopping 32k of RAM. Although the game could be used with a TV through the RF cable, the best picture could be secured on a dedicated monitor, the Microvitec Cub being the most popular, so I had to have one of those too. I also had to have a storage device, as there was no hard disk, and although a floppy disk is authentic, the floppies themselves are rare and 30 years on no that reliable. So my one modification would be a solid state drive - this one based on an MMC card that could store pretty much all the games I played as a kid.
First stop - bought a good condition but not working Beeb on eBay. Cleaned internally and then sent off to Mark at Retroclinic to fix the power supply and test the main board.
Then install the MMC card interface - attaches to the expansion port, and has its own dedicated ROM chip with the interface software.
Reassembled BBC looking as good as it did in 1984
Now for some games - starting with Snapper, a great Pac Man conversion...
Anyone have any favourite BBC games they'd like to play again?
The best version, the one everyone remembers from school, was the model B, with a whopping 32k of RAM. Although the game could be used with a TV through the RF cable, the best picture could be secured on a dedicated monitor, the Microvitec Cub being the most popular, so I had to have one of those too. I also had to have a storage device, as there was no hard disk, and although a floppy disk is authentic, the floppies themselves are rare and 30 years on no that reliable. So my one modification would be a solid state drive - this one based on an MMC card that could store pretty much all the games I played as a kid.
First stop - bought a good condition but not working Beeb on eBay. Cleaned internally and then sent off to Mark at Retroclinic to fix the power supply and test the main board.
Then install the MMC card interface - attaches to the expansion port, and has its own dedicated ROM chip with the interface software.
Reassembled BBC looking as good as it did in 1984
Now for some games - starting with Snapper, a great Pac Man conversion...
Anyone have any favourite BBC games they'd like to play again?
Spent hours on it and is what got me in to writing code (which is one of the reasons I work in IT today).
