5 ms·

There is a really good online emulator as well. https://bbc.godbolt.org/ https://bbc.godbolt.org/ I had one of these when I was young and it pretty sport on w

There is a really good online emulator as well. https://bbc.godbolt.org/ https://bbc.godbolt.org/ I had one of these when I was young and it pretty sport on with how I remember it.

user2994cb 7y ago
Interesting - this comment was marked as 'dead' until I upvoted it - some sort of over-zealous spam filter misinterpreting "bbc"? I was a Spectrum guy myself, but I did write my first C program on an Acorn Workstation clone.
- Lio 7y ago
  An “Acorn Workstation clone”? That sounds interesting. Do you mean one of their Unix workstations (basically an ARM based Archimedes running a clone of Unix) or a third party clone of some other Acorn kit? Using either would be unusual and interesting to hear more about. Thanks.
  - user2994cb 7y ago
    One of these: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/33101/Acorn-Cambridge-Workstation/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/33101/Acorn-Cambridge... with a TI 32016 processor & using a BBC Micro for UI - except that my housemate Colin thought it was a bit expensive, so reverse engineered the board, redesigned it to be a little smaller (this was in the mid-80s & chip specs were changing rapidly), wire-wrapped a prototype for testing, then etched five proper PCBs, of which only a couple were populated.
    - arethuza 7y ago
      An article about that board in some computer magazine of the time (probably PC World) was the first time I had heard of Unix and C - I was amazed at the same of C code they gave - no line numbers! Edit: This was probably 1983 when I was 17 and my programming experience was based on Apple II and Sinclair machines.
      - user2994cb 7y ago
        Rather than Unix, our Workstation ran Panos, the only operating system that I know of named after a Greek restaurant.
        arethuza 7y ago
        I never got nearer than a magazine review to one of those beasties so I am probably getting the OS part wrong - but I do vividly remember wondering what #include did.... :-)
        Lio 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panos_%28operating_system%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panos_%28operating_system%29
        user2994cb 7y ago
        And this is the (now defunct) Panos restaurant, on Hills Road: https://i2-prod.cambridge-news.co.uk/incoming/article13454940.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/Panos-restaurant.jpg https://i2-prod.cambridge-news.co.uk/incoming/article1345494...
    - Lio 7y ago
      That's fantastic. 4Mb of RAM in 1983 was pretty cool. So the end product was somewhat like a homebrew second processor unit for a BBC? e.g. http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Acorn_ANC05_320162ndproc.html http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Aco... There were things I could read about in magazines as a kid but never got to see in the flesh. That Cambridge Workstation is still a mythical beast to me. Note to self: go and visit the http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/897/Acorn-Computers/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/897/Acorn-Computers/
      - user2994cb 7y ago
        The Centre for Computing History is a great place to visit - lots of machines up and running you can actually use (mainly from the 8-bit era, but other interesting things too).
    - linker3000 7y ago
      Still have any of the PCBs? It would be interesting to make one up now, or duplicate one to make up.
      - user2994cb 7y ago
        I don't (it wasn't my project) but I've emailed my housemate (seemed polite, since we are talking about him).
- petercooper 7y ago
  To your first point, it's a new account that signed up and posted a comment straight away.. so it probably makes sense to "quarantine" it in a way.
  - user2994cb 7y ago
    That was probably a factor - does HN do this for all newbie comments though? Most of the 'dead' comments I see are more obviously dodgy.
    - phpnode 7y ago
      First ever comment including a link is probably a fairly reliable indicator of spam.
user2994cb 7y ago
That emulator is from the very talented Matthew Godbolt of "Compiler Explorer" fame, by the way.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- leoc 7y ago
  Here's a JSBeeb talk by Godbolt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WuRq-Wmw5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WuRq-Wmw5o .
asplake 7y ago
My Beeb got me through uni - Fast Fourier transforms in BBC Basic for my studies, and 6502 assembler for money :-)
jlarcombe 7y ago
This is indeed the emulator that the BBC Micro Bot uses, I believe. JSBeeb. It's fantastic.
M2Ys4U 7y ago
There are some BBC BASIC programs broadcast on TV (literally!) by the BBC on their Computer Literacy Project website,[0] saved from the original floppy disks stored in one of the presenter's attic! They also have (almost?) all of the TV programmes related to computers aired in the 80's on there too. It's well worth a visit. [0]https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk
codeulike 7y ago
You can use this emulator to play the original 1984 version of Elite, built to run in 32k ram. https://bbc.godbolt.org/?&disc1=sth%3AAcornsoft%2FElite.zip&autoboot# https://bbc.godbolt.org/?&disc1=sth%3AAcornsoft%2FElite.zip&... Instructions: http://www.elitehomepage.org/manual.htm http://www.elitehomepage.org/manual.htm (Very briefly: F10 to leave space station, <> S X for left right up down, space for faster, ? for slower. Press A to fire lasers, but if you do that near the space station the cops will get you. When flying, F1 for rear view, F10 back to front view)
tantalor 7y ago
Pasting the "source code" tweets into the emulator does nothing.
- ChrisArchitect 7y ago
  because you have to write RUN just like real

There is a really good online emulator as well. https://bbc.godbolt.org/ https://bbc.godbolt.org/ I had one of these when I was young and it pretty sport on with how I remember it.

user2994cb 7y ago

Interesting - this comment was marked as 'dead' until I upvoted it - some sort of over-zealous spam filter misinterpreting "bbc"? I was a Spectrum guy myself, but I did write my first C program on an Acorn Workstation clone.

Lio 7y ago
An “Acorn Workstation clone”? That sounds interesting. Do you mean one of their Unix workstations (basically an ARM based Archimedes running a clone of Unix) or a third party clone of some other Acorn kit? Using either would be unusual and interesting to hear more about. Thanks.
- user2994cb 7y ago
  One of these: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/33101/Acorn-Cambridge-Workstation/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/33101/Acorn-Cambridge... with a TI 32016 processor & using a BBC Micro for UI - except that my housemate Colin thought it was a bit expensive, so reverse engineered the board, redesigned it to be a little smaller (this was in the mid-80s & chip specs were changing rapidly), wire-wrapped a prototype for testing, then etched five proper PCBs, of which only a couple were populated.
  - arethuza 7y ago
    An article about that board in some computer magazine of the time (probably PC World) was the first time I had heard of Unix and C - I was amazed at the same of C code they gave - no line numbers! Edit: This was probably 1983 when I was 17 and my programming experience was based on Apple II and Sinclair machines.
    - user2994cb 7y ago
      Rather than Unix, our Workstation ran Panos, the only operating system that I know of named after a Greek restaurant.
      - arethuza 7y ago
        I never got nearer than a magazine review to one of those beasties so I am probably getting the OS part wrong - but I do vividly remember wondering what #include did.... :-)
        Lio 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panos_%28operating_system%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panos_%28operating_system%29
        user2994cb 7y ago
        And this is the (now defunct) Panos restaurant, on Hills Road: https://i2-prod.cambridge-news.co.uk/incoming/article13454940.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/Panos-restaurant.jpg https://i2-prod.cambridge-news.co.uk/incoming/article1345494...
  - Lio 7y ago
    That's fantastic. 4Mb of RAM in 1983 was pretty cool. So the end product was somewhat like a homebrew second processor unit for a BBC? e.g. http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Acorn_ANC05_320162ndproc.html http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Aco... There were things I could read about in magazines as a kid but never got to see in the flesh. That Cambridge Workstation is still a mythical beast to me. Note to self: go and visit the http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/897/Acorn-Computers/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/897/Acorn-Computers/
    - user2994cb 7y ago
      The Centre for Computing History is a great place to visit - lots of machines up and running you can actually use (mainly from the 8-bit era, but other interesting things too).
  - linker3000 7y ago
    Still have any of the PCBs? It would be interesting to make one up now, or duplicate one to make up.
    - user2994cb 7y ago
      I don't (it wasn't my project) but I've emailed my housemate (seemed polite, since we are talking about him).
petercooper 7y ago
To your first point, it's a new account that signed up and posted a comment straight away.. so it probably makes sense to "quarantine" it in a way.
- user2994cb 7y ago
  That was probably a factor - does HN do this for all newbie comments though? Most of the 'dead' comments I see are more obviously dodgy.
  - phpnode 7y ago
    First ever comment including a link is probably a fairly reliable indicator of spam.

user2994cb 7y ago

That emulator is from the very talented Matthew Godbolt of "Compiler Explorer" fame, by the way.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
leoc 7y ago
Here's a JSBeeb talk by Godbolt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WuRq-Wmw5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WuRq-Wmw5o .

asplake 7y ago

My Beeb got me through uni - Fast Fourier transforms in BBC Basic for my studies, and 6502 assembler for money :-)

jlarcombe 7y ago

This is indeed the emulator that the BBC Micro Bot uses, I believe. JSBeeb. It's fantastic.

M2Ys4U 7y ago

There are some BBC BASIC programs broadcast on TV (literally!) by the BBC on their Computer Literacy Project website,[0] saved from the original floppy disks stored in one of the presenter's attic! They also have (almost?) all of the TV programmes related to computers aired in the 80's on there too. It's well worth a visit. [0]https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk

codeulike 7y ago

You can use this emulator to play the original 1984 version of Elite, built to run in 32k ram. https://bbc.godbolt.org/?&disc1=sth%3AAcornsoft%2FElite.zip&autoboot# https://bbc.godbolt.org/?&disc1=sth%3AAcornsoft%2FElite.zip&... Instructions: http://www.elitehomepage.org/manual.htm http://www.elitehomepage.org/manual.htm (Very briefly: F10 to leave space station, <> S X for left right up down, space for faster, ? for slower. Press A to fire lasers, but if you do that near the space station the cops will get you. When flying, F1 for rear view, F10 back to front view)

tantalor 7y ago

Pasting the "source code" tweets into the emulator does nothing.

ChrisArchitect 7y ago
because you have to write RUN just like real