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2020-8-18: Added some information on the USA BBC which one reader told me has *UK and *US commands to switch between 200 and 256 vertical pixels. I didn't find those in the OS ROM dump that I made of the USA BBC that I once had...
2017-11-12: The past few days I updated the page on Elite (about claims on sales, its origins, who wrote the manual and more) and the Elite badges / pins that people could get when sending in their 'Order of the Elite' card.
2017-11-5: I reorganised this site, and I removed whatever I felt was no longer interesting or important such as a lot of pictures and scans.
2017-7-18: BBC micro high scores and games Added lists of highscores and a little bit of analysis of some of these scores.
2017-6-7: Playing Planetoid, after not having played it for 20 years... With tactics, videos, comparison with other BBC micro versions and the original arcade version.
2017-5-13: Wanted old micro stuff, mostly BBC micro. As I have more space and time now, I'm looking for a few things, perhaps you have something you would want to sell?
2017-4-16: bbcim 1.0 updated after all to 1.0.1 for long file/path names. Also includes pdf file of the manual.
2017-2-26: If you need to get your BBC micro power supply repaired, or some EPROMs programmed, or SCART cables made, see HERE.
2016-8-15: Updated bbclist to 0.18.
2016-8-13: Updated bbcim 1.1 to 1.2. Updated bbclist to 0.17. Updated the Elite page and soon I will publish my page with some comments on the origins of Elite.
2014-2-18: HTML tables with 6502 opcodes and 6502 'illegal' opcodes (not finished). I made these long ago to help with some manual disassembling.
2014-2-12: Definitive numbers for the number of games of Elite sold from Chris Jordan (Acornsoft)
2014-1-26: Proper releases of bbcim 1.0 (cleaned up version of 0.95) and 1.1 (experimental version).
2012-10-27 Some reorganisation of the website.
2012-8-23 I've added some comments in the PC software section. If I have more time I will provide some updates on programs such as bbcim/bbctape again.
2010-3-1 After seeing yet again a TV programme mentioning the nonsense claims about equal numbers of copies of Elite and BBC micro's sold, I edited the wikipedia Elite page. Some dimwit there undid that, so to make sure everyone can find out the truth, also via a websearch, I put up this page: [ Elite claims ].
2009-5-14 After playing with clang/LLVM I got interested again to update various programs, in particular: bbclist-0.15, bbcim-0.106 (esp. to fix a bug in the archive format .inf reading function) [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-5-5 Binary of bbccom 0.72 for FreeBSD 7 released. This is fairly complex software (many times more so than the alternative xfer) so there can be problems... This is the program I've been using since 1997 to transfer files between PC and BBC. The BBC side of the software can be autoloaded into sideway RAM etc. Programming an EPROM is of course also possible or just store it on disk. [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-5-4 bbclist 0.14 released. The standard hexdumped output needed a terminator and I added a man page. [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-5-3 bbcim-0.95b8 released. This has small updates to the man page and all files are now re-indented with tabs instead of 2-spaces. [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-4-23 bbcim-0.105 and bbclist 0.13 released. In bbclist, the hexdumped output is now modified in case of HTML output (for '<', '>', '&'). [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-4-22 bbcim-0.95-beta7 released. [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-4-20 bbcim-0.95b6 released, an update (just small fixes, a few files are also re-indented) to the most reliable version of bbcim (1997). [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-2-26 Made a new version of bbclist (BBC Basic to HTML or ASCII text, version 0.11) that correctly handles TOP (which is the keyword TO + letter P), and uses HTML 4.01-strict + CSS styles for colouring of HTML. [ bbc-pc-software ].
2009-2-25 Added a page on how to install the Watford Electronics Sideways ZIF socket. [ installing a sideways ZIF ].
2009-2-12 Removed various things from the pictures and scans sections that I'm no longer interested in. I've updated the site's old html code. This website has grown over the years from my original 1995-1996 website at http://www.cistron.nl/~wouters/bbc/, and was a mix of various versions including pre HTML3.2 in some places. It's now HTML4.01-strict+CSS (exceptions: the ancient 1996 pages will be kept as they were then, and the Atom archive probably won't be updated). I've also restored the scanning pages.
2009-1-28 New BBC ROM archive with small updates. [ bbc-software ].
2007-7-29 Added speed tests of the 32016 with FP coprocessor [ 32016 ].
2007-4-26 Added many scans of magazines, sanyo disk drive, etc. during the past few days [ scans ]. Added Solinet disk images [ bbc-software ].
2007-4-24 DVDs with scans/software are now available [ DVDs ].
2006-4-28 Picture of the Solidisk RTC [ pictures/hardware/solidisk/rtc ]
2006-3-24 Added a page on what BBC micro system(s) I use, in case you're wondering after checking out the pictures section... [ bbc-whs ]
2006-2-24 Uploaded bbcim 0.104, new versions of bbctape and other utilities to follow to accommodate changes in the GCC compiler in particular but also for new features in those programs [ bbc-pc-software ]
2006-2-21 Decoding the Exile runes on the rear of the novella [ exile-runes ]
2006-2-2 New BBC ROM image archive [ bbc-software ]
2006-1-31 I've uploaded images of a third version of the Elite pin/badge, this one is probably from Firebird. [ pictures/software ]
2006-1-21 All scans have been uploaded to http://wouter.bbcmicro.net [ http://wouter.bbcmicro.net/ ]
2006-1-14 It's been a little over 10 years since my first BBC micro web pages. I've put up some old ca. August 1996 versions and a brief introduction so you can have a look at how the bbc archive and other stuff started [ bbc ]
2005-12-4 Moved all of the website except for the scans section to www.xs4all.nl/~swhs where I have enough space for it now.
2005-11-27 I've put a few of my lists on the web: recommended books, multi format magazines, articles relevant to the BBC micro in those multi format magazines [ bbc ]
2005-6-2 Some images added of software packages [ pictures/software ]
2005-5-23 New BBC ROM image archive [ bbc-software ]
2005-5-15 I've finally made disk images of the BCPL add-on packages (floating point & standalone generator)... [ bbc-software ]
2005-4-16 I've resurrected most of my old BBC web pages...
2005-3-19 I've uploaded images of another version of the Elite pin/badge (Acornsoft sent these to people who got to Elite level and sent in their "order of the elite" card). [ pictures/software ]
2005-1-26 Bunch of scans added (hobbit magazines, Atom stuff, and Solidisk DFDC controller) [ scans ]
2005-1-26 I've uploaded images of the Elite pin/badge (Acornsoft sent these to people who got to Elite level and sent in their "order of the elite" card). [ pictures/software ]
2004-12-23 ROM archive of (almost) all BBC micro ROMs I ever found anywhere sorted and uploaded. [ bbc/bbc-software ]
2004-jul Website moved to summerfield-technology.co.uk
2004-5-10 Put the Prophet 3 images on the Atom pictures page a week or so ago, and today I've placed ROM dumps of the USA BBC's BASIC & MOS EPROMs on the BBC software page.
2004-3-10 Released a few atom test programs.
2004-1-22 Added most of the remaining images of BBC keyboards, and videos of Elite running in 2MHz and 4MHz (Solidisk accelerator board).
2003-11-27 bbclist-0.9 and atomlist-0.2 released. See the BBC PC software page.
2003-10-19 Added repair and maintenance sections to the pictures section.
2003-9-29 A few more books added, and if separately available software manuals are to be counted, the number of 300+ I estimated some months ago is already reached... I expect almost all books that have ever been published are now listed (from checking catalogues etc.)
2003-9-26 DUTCH: Scans van HCC nieuwsbrief nr.1 toegevoegd
2003-9-3 DUTCH: snelheids voorbeelden 68000-6502-ppro toegevoegd aan de geschiedenis pagina.
Added more book covers.
2003-8-10 Added a page with BBC book covers.
2003-8-4 Added pictures of the Prophet 2 box and the Replay system for the Challenger (that took ages!).
2003-7-30 Updated all the CD 3 scans (images were contrast adjusted/quantized as previously done for CD 1/2), and added missing scans for a couple of directories.
2003-7-24 Added a list of all books for/about the BBC microcomputer known to exist.
2003-7-14 Added a bunch of images: B+128K, eprom programmers, joysticks, bitstik2 upgrade kit.
2003-7-2 Updated the "Why 8-bit" page and added a B+128K to the serial number list.
2003-6-12 bbcim-0.103 released.
2003-6-10 bbcim-0.102 released.
2003-6-6 bbcim-0.101 released.
2003-6-3 Added the 'Why 8 bit' page.
2003-5-24 Added a section on durability of old computer stuff.
2003-5-11 Put the Opus Challenger 1.00, 1.01 and 1.03 ROMs on the BBC software page. Also the swr type checking program can be downloaded.
2003-4-20 Added 2 pictures of the type 1a keyboard.
2003-4-19 Had another look at the BBC with serial no. AB 136458. It has a slightly different type1 keyboard. Adjusted the serial number table for this keyboard. It's obvious this is actually an earlier version than the standard type 1, but more on that later.
2003-4-16 Added pictures of the Cumana CSX100 disk drive package, illegal software, Acornsoft catalogues.
Note (2003-4-14) Computer problems fixed, so I'll be updating the scans and picture section soon. I found a machine with a slight variation on the type 2 keyboard. This is getting ridiculous!
Note (2003-2-2) Due to various problems (scanner is acting up among others), there have not been new scans for a while and it may be a few months before new ones arrive... Further removed lots of wants from the wanted pages, I'm going to concentrate more on what I'm interested in most of all.
2003-1-17 Added pictures of the Prophet 2 (Atom variant).
2003-1-4 Due to PC problems mainly, no new scans yet. However, I did manage to sort out a few hundred disks, and extracted various programs not yet in the archives, and started a rigorous ROM archive created by sorting/bdiff'ing more than a 1000 ROMs on those disks. I've also got an archive of ROMs obtained from EPROMs (which I consider more trustworthy) and originals (most trustworthy). Necessary as shown by the various ROMs from the TBL archive which didn't work. Further work on examining differences is necessary. Volunteers?
Secondly, I've released bbclist, my BBC basic -> HTML or TEXT converter.
2002-11-6 Added various pictures, Beebug update on the magazine discussion page.
2002-10-20 Added pictures of various keyboards, books and the Acorn dual disk drive.
2002-10-1 Found out that the early speaker grilles seem to have been different, with thicker plastic top... Adjusted the serial number table accordingly. Pictures to be added.
2002-9-29 Added the data of a BBC with type 4 keyboard (yes, it exists!) to the list of serial numbers. Pictures to follow soon.
2002-9-5 Added another machine to the BBC micro serial numbers list, and added date details from the TV modulator & ULAs.
2002-9-3 CD 2 scans replaced by the updated versions. Updated the BBC serial numbers list with 3 machines (2 from info from J. Kortink).
2002-9-2 Added Basicode2 jpg's and mp3's.
2002-8-25 CD 1 scans added. The grayscale images were converted from jpg to gif and contrast adjusted/quantized (8 levels), reducing filesizes and improving image quality in almost all cases. CD 2 scans have also been fixed: converted all grayscale images from tif to gif and quantized to 8 levels. These will be updated soon. Updated the list of serial numbers/versions of BBCs I've encountered.
2002-8-3 Moved my BBC/scans website from http://home.wanadoo.nl/wouter.scholten/ (20MB space) to astroliv (1 GB space).
The scans that I didn't have room for on my old website (but most of which were available from www.8bs.com), are now placed on this website in the 'scans' section.
Ca. 1998: Website moved to xs4all.nl, and ca. 2001 to wanadoo.nl. Not sure how much I kept of my BBC webpages at that time.
After late 1996 I only put new software on my site, because Robert Schmidt had a lot of space on the nvg server, and I only had 2 MB...
1995: First version of this website with some software such as Elite, information on using Anadisk to transfer bbc software to a PC, at http://www.cistron.nl/~wouters/bbc/
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Last modified: Wed Feb 19 11:31:33 CET 2014