phupp@warwick.ac.uk (S Millington) (05/08/90)
The emulator in question is called "The Emulator", although commonly
refered to as the Beebulator. It runs BBC basic faster than the origional -
although I've only noticed slight increases of speed. It also runs MOST LEGAL
machine code...
except : from what I can remember on the spot,
1) the sound envelope is not implemented, rather strange given the amiga's
envelope capabilites
2) the screen must be written to legaly, ie. no poking
3) the hardare interupts are not available, this to the sort of programs I
wanted to run is serious and means patching to overcome (2) is alot harder
- still working on it. No buffer full/empty interupts!
These problems can be lived with. The most noticable things in use are:
1) mode 7 is a software emulation of teletext hardware
2) machine code uses a transparent 6502 software emulation which is pretty
slow, but not too bad.
Overall the program is excellent, and not unlike using a beeb, except the
FEEL of the amiga's keyboard compared to the BBC keyboard.
N.B. it is possible to patch language entry point roms to run, copyright
permitting!
Before I get the flames, this is as valid a discussion as AMAX posts.
*************************************************************************
* Stuart Millington * "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing, Remember *
* * That." - David Bryan, Bon Jovi *
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*************************************************************************phupp@warwick.ac.uk (S Millington) (05/08/90)
BTW: BBC software can be transfered across by a serial lead, details in manual, from the BBC's RS423 to the amiga serial port, and using the built in commands. This transferes either an entire disk or just single programs. The emulator, allows 4 drives to be defined, initialy each drive is a single amigados draw, but a whole device could be assigned from what I remember - I haven't filled up the first four yet. I can't remember if the 31 file limit was kept or not, there was something about compatability. ************************************************************************* * Stuart Millington * "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing, Remember * * * That." - David Bryan, Bon Jovi * * JANET:phupp@uk.ac.warwick.cu ***************************************** * ? :phupp%warwick.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk * *************************************************************************