aduncan@rhea.trl.oz.au (Allan Duncan) (05/04/90)
I was speaking with a high school computer teacher the other day, and he
said that he was interested in the BBC micros for school b/c "there is
a lot of education software available for them".
Now _I_ see the Amiga with networking and NFS as a good arrangement, but
can't answer the education software situation, unless there is some
means of running this existing software pool. (Yes, I know that most of
a high school's teaching can be done on the Amiga side, but the ability
to run this other stuff makes them feel secure :-))
So, has anyone heard of an emulator? I don't even know the basics of
the BBC micro (CPU=6502/Z80/in house?).
Allan Duncan ACSnet a.duncan@trl.oz
ARPA a.duncan%trl.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
UUCP {uunet,hplabs,ukc}!munnari!trl.oz.au!a.duncan
Telecom Research Labs, PO Box 249, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (05/06/90)
In <17780@ultima.cs.uts.oz>, vilkas@ultima.cs.uts.oz (Peter Sumskas) writes: > >There is actually a BBC emulator for the amiga...I believe it was written >by the same bunch as wrote the Transformer, ut is called Beeb. It is an English >product and that is all I can tell you. How accurate is the emulation? Will it drop characters if the operator types faster than a someone trying to juggle threewatermelons and learn the keyboard at the same time? :-) -larry -- NeXT. The hardware makes it a PC. The software makes it a workstation. The units shipped makes it a mainframe. -=stolen from Hazy=- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
vilkas@ultima.cs.uts.oz (Peter Sumskas) (05/07/90)
aduncan@rhea.trl.oz.au (Allan Duncan) writes: >I was speaking with a high school computer teacher the other day, and he >said that he was interested in the BBC micros for school b/c "there is >a lot of education software available for them". >Now _I_ see the Amiga with networking and NFS as a good arrangement, but >can't answer the education software situation, unless there is some >means of running this existing software pool. (Yes, I know that most of >a high school's teaching can be done on the Amiga side, but the ability >to run this other stuff makes them feel secure :-)) >So, has anyone heard of an emulator? I don't even know the basics of >the BBC micro (CPU=6502/Z80/in house?). >Allan Duncan ACSnet a.duncan@trl.oz > ARPA a.duncan%trl.oz.au@uunet.uu.net > UUCP {uunet,hplabs,ukc}!munnari!trl.oz.au!a.duncan >Telecom Research Labs, PO Box 249, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia. Ahhh! The BBC! What a fabulous machine that was! I am one of the lucky few who have cut their programming teeth on such a wondrous computer. Admittedly it is outdated now, but in its day.... There is actually a BBC emulator for the amiga...I believe it was written by the same bunch as wrote the Transformer, ut is called Beeb. It is an English product and that is all I can tell you. It comprises of a 6502 emulator so that it can run machine code programs and BBC Basic (the BEST BASIC EVER MADE.....EVER!!!) which runs under the native amiga. Apparently BBS Basic runs 7 times as fast as AmigaBasic, which isnt surprising as AmigaBasic is a slug. Really, the dude should be looking at Archimedes machines as they are the new educational systems endorsed by the English education department. They are a LOT faster than the Amiga (due to their RISC architecture) and come with the emulators as standard (which I dare say would work better and more productively than the Amiga version). In fact if I could afford one, I would buy and Archimedes (to sit beside ny 2000, not to replace it....). By the way as indication of the Arch's speed. Virus on the amiga, written in assembly language, was a conversion of a program called Lander that came bundled with the Archimedes when purchased. Virus is a little bit flashier, but not much. The real point of this is that Lander was written in BBC Basic on the Archimedes And it flew along (it is almost the splitting image of the Amiga version). Oh well, read some of the English Amiga mags and they might tell you a bit more about the emulator (the Beebulator as it was sometimes referred to) Dregs Iron Wolf
borgen@sfd.uit.no (Borge Nost) (05/07/90)
In article <17780@ultima.cs.uts.oz> vilkas@ultima.cs.uts.oz (Peter Sumskas) writes: >new educational systems endorsed by the English education department. They >are a LOT faster than the Amiga (due to their RISC architecture) and come ^^^ some might disagree about a LOT > >By the way as indication of the Arch's speed. Virus on the amiga, written in >assembly language, was a conversion of a program called Lander that came >bundled with the Archimedes when purchased. Virus is a little bit flashier, >but not much. > >The real point of this is that Lander was written in BBC Basic on the Archimedes NO! This is a rumour that I thought was killed a long time ago. I do not know which language it was written in, but machine code or C (both?) is a good guess methinks. Lander was a demo which later was made into a full game named Zarch(I think). It was programmed by David Braben(correct any mistakes), which was one of the two authors of the original Elite(on the BBC). > >And it flew along (it is almost the splitting image of the Amiga version). Hmm...It *was* slicker than on my stock B2000, and the spaceship was a little better coloured, but I didn't think I was anything like a magnitude faster. >Dregs > >Iron Wolf -- |//// ______________ don't use R/r(eply)! *mail* me ______________ \\\\| |/// ...and then there was AMIGA... @ \\\| |// internet: borgen%stud1@sfd.uit.no (B|rge N|st) {_} (snow- ) \\| |/ studying at the worlds northernmost university (_) (man :-) \|
ecarroll@vax1.tcd.ie (Eddy Carroll) (05/08/90)
In article <1496@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>, lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes: > In <17780@ultima.cs.uts.oz>, vilkas@ultima.cs.uts.oz (Peter Sumskas) writes: >> >>There is actually a BBC emulator for the amiga...I believe it was written by >>the same bunch as wrote the Transformer, ut is called Beeb. It is an English >>product and that is all I can tell you. > > How accurate is the emulation? Will it drop characters if the operator types > faster than a someone trying to juggle threewatermelons and learn the keyboard > at the same time? :-) > > -larry I've seen it, and played with it briefly. It seems pretty good for what it does. It was written for Commodore UK by Ariadne software (whom some long-time c.s.a readers will recognise as the people behind the Kickstart Guide to the Amiga). It opens its own draggable screen and multitasks properly. It has its own 68000-based BBC BASIC interpreter which is pretty fast (I've heard figures of 6-7 times faster than the original BBC, but I haven't checked them out; the original BBC was no slouch either). Hence, BASIC programs zip along. If there is any machine-code, the emulator drops back to interpreting 6502 (i.e. slow). Most of the OS calls and graphics modes are supported. With an RS232 cable, you can hook up to a real BBC and transfer programs onto Amiga disk directly from the BBC's disk (this is handled automatically from within the emulator). Overall, it seems to serve its intended purpose (allowing BBC educational progs to be run on the Amiga, to encourage UK schools to upgrade to the Amiga) quite well. It costs about #50 or so. Commodore UK can probably give more details on UK: 0728-770088. As an aside, it was demoed at a computer club meeting here and a BBC owner came up and rattled off a quick BBC Basic mandelbrot program on it. It ran first time, and was said to be noticeably faster (he seemed impressed :-) -- Eddy Carroll ----* Genuine MUD Wizard | "You haven't lived until ecarroll@vax1.tcd.ie | you've died in MUD!" ecarroll%vax1.tcd.ie@cunyvm.cuny.edu | -- Richard Bartle