Had a great afternoon at the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester, UK. Spent some lovely time coding the SAM Coupe, Spectrum Next, and the BBC Micro. https://retrocomputermuseum.co.uk
#retrogaming #retrocomputing #samcoupe #zxspectrumnext #bbcmicro

BBC Basic graphics demo - done in 700s on a BBC Micro(*)

Source code in the alt text. Or below. Program is called "3D" and was shown in the BBC's Computer Literacy Program, in Micro Live 2. See
https://retrocomputingforum.com/t/arm-and-risc-on-the-bbcs-micro-file-1987/4435

https://bbcmic.ro/#%7B%22v%22%3A1%2C%22program%22%3A%2210REM%20%3E%203D%5Cn11REPEAT%5Cn12TIME%3D0%5Cn20MODE0%3AVDU29%2C640%3B512%3B%3AXS%3D2%3AYS%3D6*4%5Cn30VDU23%2C1%2C0%3B0%3B0%3B0%3B%5Cn40ON%20ERROR%20GOTO%20190%5Cn50A%3D640%3AB%3DA*A%3AC%3D512%5Cn60Z%3D1%2F3%3AO%3D24%2FA%3AC%3DC%2FA%5Cn70O%25%3D%2645%5Cn80FORX%25%3D0TOA%20STEPXS%3AS%3DX%25*X%25%5Cn90P%3DSQR%28B-S%29%3AM%3D-P*Z%3AN%3DM%5Cn100PLOT69%2C-X%25%2CM%3APLOT69%2CX%25%2CM%5Cn110FORI%3DYS-P%20TOP%20STEPYS%5Cn120R%3DSQR%28S%2BI*I%29%5Cn130Y%3DI*Z%2B%28R-A%29*SIN%28O*R%29*C%5Cn140IFY%3EM%20M%3DY%3AGOTO170%5Cn150IFY%3EN%20NEXT%2C%3ASTOP%5Cn160N%3DY%5Cn170PLOT69%2C-X%25%2CY%3APLOT69%2CX%25%2CY%5Cn180NEXT%2C%5Cn181PRINT%20%5C%22Done%20in%20%5C%22TIME%2F100%5C%22s%5C%22%5Cn182STOP%5Cn185UNTIL%200%5Cn190ON%20ERROR%20OFF%5Cn200CLS%5Cn210MODE1%5Cn220VDU23%2C1%2C0%3B0%3B0%3B0%3B%5Cn230*EXEC%20BASICBM%5Cn%5Cn%22%7D

(*) in-browser emulation!

#retrocomputing #bbcbasic #bbcmicro #jsbeeb
#owlet

Sometimes it's the small projects that are the most enjoyable.

Case in point: this month I'm building !EliteNet, which connects the #Archimedes version of #Elite to the Econet multiplayer scoreboard, so ArcElite players can compete against #BBCMicro players.

I last wrote a RISC OS application in 1995. That's 30 years ago! Turns out that BBC BASIC V is still a great language to code in.

And I've never written a RISC OS relocatable module before, so even now, this old dog is learning new ARM-based tricks.

And… ArcElite!

I absolutely love this hobby.

It's summer, so it's t-shirt time. New blog post: https://www.kecskebak.hu/?p=511 #BBCMicro #Inkscape

At All the Adventures, the conclusion to the Very British game Time Adventure, involving Merlin in a high-tech laboratory, the boat Queen Elizabeth 2, and warding off a fantasy creature with Terry Wogan's smelly socks.

https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/31/time-adventure-queen-elizabeths-revenge/

Peter Smith, who previously borrowed heavily from Supersoft's version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to make his own "Hitch-Hiker", returns in this time-travel game which seems to be mostly (?) original and includes a mechanic very rarely seen in this period.

https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/30/time-adventure-1982/

Thought it about time I finished a game instead of having several *coming soon* games. So here we go ...
#GameDev #Pico8 #Retro #Remake #Repton #BBCMicro #Puzzle
https://minionsoft.itch.io/repton

Take A Little Bit Of Acorn To Work - When we think of 8-bit computers, it’s natural to start with home computers. That’... - https://hackaday.com/2025/03/28/take-a-little-bit-of-acorn-to-work/ #embeddedcomputer #retrocomputing #bbcmicro

In anticipation of June's Econet LAN Party at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, I've updated Elite over Econet.

It now supports flicker-free graphics, up to 100 players in multiplayer, better server support and more. Game on!

For more details and downloads see https://elite.bbcelite.com/hacks/elite_over_econet.html

For tickets to the LAN Party on 7-8 June, see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/econet-lan-party-2025-tickets-1244748870379

And for discussion on Stardot about the event, see https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30405

See you there!

40 years ago, C&VG magazine produced a listings issue with a selection of games to type into your computer.
#Commodore64 #C64 #ZXSpectrum #VIC20 #Dragon32 #BBCMicro #AcornElectron #TexasTI99A

Just found out about a 2009 TV film on retro computing called "Micro Men". It's a sort of comedy-drama about UK computer manufacturers in the 1980s, done on a tiny budget by mixing in archive footage. It works really well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH5L-iTIbP8

There's also a video of some of the real people depicted watching it and commenting on the authenticity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaonVYOTSsk

cc @retrocomputing

New deep dive: How the Apple II version of #Elite was developed on a #BBCMicro

In which I pick through the clues on the source disk, and try to piece together the original 1986 development pipeline for Apple II Elite.

https://elite.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/developing_apple_ii_elite_on_a_bbc_micro.html

Pretty amazing that the #NES, #AppleII, #BBCMaster, and #BBCMasterCompact versions of the seminal 3-D space trading and combat video game #Elite all fundamentally base their source code from the #Commodore64 port. (All pre-dated by the #BBCMicro and #AcornElectron versions, of course.)

https://universeodon.com/@markmoxon/114008400839205726

New: I've analysed the source code for all 9 versions of Elite on the 6502, and I've put together a family tree showing the decade-long forking history of the source.

Software archaeology in action!

https://elite.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/the_elite_source_code_family_tree.html

Last week I released fully documented source code for #Elite on the #Apple II.

I've now added it to my Elite site, where it's syntax-coloured, cross-referenced, indexed and categorised.

So that's every 6502 Elite - done!

https://elite.bbcelite.com/apple/

next up on All the Adventures, shockingly enough, is an RPG

but it was called Adventure! and there was so little about it that I wanted to unearth the story; the author who was an immigrant to the UK from Japan later became an important person at Microsoft

#retrogaming #videogames #interactivefiction #adventuregame #rpg #bbcmicro

https://bluerenga.blog/2025/01/29/adventure-sato-1982/

New Elite deep dive: Just how big is 8-bit Elite?

How big are the ships, planets, stars and galaxies? How fast can we fly? How far can we jump? And can we fall off the edge?

This one was fun to write!

https://elite.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/a_sense_of_scale.html

Old BBC Micro Gets Some Disk Help From A Raspberry Pi - [Peter Mount] had a simple problem. He’d treated himself to a retro purchase in th... - https://hackaday.com/2024/12/19/old-bbc-micro-gets-some-disk-help-from-a-raspberry-pi/ #raspberrypi #mischacks #bbcmicro