I've used Linux on and off for 20 years, as a desktop OS it is deeply mediocre. But if Windows 12 is subscription and AI based, I'll switch to Linux as soon as Windows 11 goes out of support.
My late mother, who was 17 when decimalisation happened, could name some of the old coins, but that was all.
They way not be able to. Years ago I did some work for a PC recycler and their contract with MS got them cheap Windows licences, but prohibited them from selling computers without an OS.
This was my favourite game back when I had a Plus/4. Can still hear the jingly theme tune in my head even now.
That's shocking news. Ben always seemed like a genuinely lovely guy. My condolences to his family.
For the first time the Plus 1 Mini expansion unit for the Acorn Electron is available through Tindie! To celebrate, there's 5% off everything in my Tindie store until the 22nd using code RAMTOP5.
www.tindie.com/products/408...
Today was a good day, I built this Electron turbo card upgrade by @ramtopretro.bsky.social shame I can't close the case thanks to a previously installed heatsink. Will be making 4 more soon. #retro #acornelectron
The ElkSD-Plus1 is designed to co-exist with other hardware, whereas the ElkSD64/128 are intended to be the only device connected to the Elk, so it's the best choice if you're running with expansions added.
Unfortunately, yes. The normal RH Plus 1 ROM checks for a joystick input on the ElkSD, gets confused, and thinks the fire button is always pressed. The custom ROM on the ElkSD has the joystick routines patched out.
The only thing I can think of is to use the ElkSD flash tools to flash an empty 16K file into bank F to wipe it. But the RH Plus 1 ROM on the ElkSD is custom, so having the Plus 2 version active instead will cause joystick issues in some games.
Atari Missile Command for the Acorn Electron
Is now available on Stardot, please follow the link, log in, read the post, download the file(s) and get playing.
www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewt...
I just use a standard Xilinx USB programmer, one like this: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25478804...
Lave in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite
The Constrictor mission in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite
A Dodo station in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite
A Thargoid in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite
It's done! I have just released the Compendium version of #Elite for the #Acorn #Electron.
This massively enhanced version of the original game contains pretty much every feature of #BBCMicro Elite, but on the Electron. Just add 16K of sideways RAM.
Links in thread.
#retrocomputing #retrogaming
Thanks for taking the time to check that, Mark. I'll be demonstrating your enhanced Elite at the ABUG Scotland meeting later this month, good to know I should pack a joystick 🕹️😀
Superb. He has done a magnificent job, with lots more still to come.
Superb! This is the Elite the Elk should have had back in the day.
Yep, looks like it. It's an easy fix if you know the problem exists, just make sure bits 0-3 always contain the current bank number when writing to &FE05.
SW RAM on the Elk is more standardised than the beeb, but the documentation is vague so there are oddities between various hardware. Big one is requiring bits 7-4 of &FE05 to be zero when doing bank switches. Some hardware (early ElkSD128s included) don't enforce that and will bank switch regardless
My Electron dev system
My new project is an all-singing, all-dancing version of #Elite on the #Acorn #Electron.
It's early days, but I'm really enjoying it. So here’s a thread about the wonderful community hardware and software I'm using to port #BBCMicro Elite to the Elk. (1/7)
#retrocomputing #retrogaming #8bit
10 is 2 in binary, and 2 is an entirely acceptable number of donuts 🍩🍩
Getting some strong Project X vibes, there 😀
Atari Missile Command for the Acorn Electron + 16k of sideways RAM.
Progress remains good, moving as much as possible out of the main memory map into the SWR memory space to get the fastest speed possible.
No sound at present, going to be a challenge to emulate a POKEY chip on here.
🤯
Oh for the days when graphics chips had public datasheets...
The current prototype has a CPLD emulating a pair of SN76489 sound chips. I'm working on implementing an 8-bit sample channel with its own discreet memory on the cartridge.
www.youtube.com/shorts/_t0ZZ...
In theory they all work the same, just with the SW ram in different banks. But there are some wrinkles with the way SW paging is implemented on some hardware. See stardot.org.uk/forums/viewt...
I should probably post an update on Stardot and get some feedback, as the project is rather stalled because I can't decide where to go with it.
I might just take you up on that! I have a basic VGM player working with a single SN76489, but that's about the limit of my 6502 skills.
The low number of new games using SW ram is quite discouraging for us hardware guys. No point in doing the design if it gets ignored. The new sound card I'm working on for the Elk will probably never be produced in any numbers because I'm not convinced games will make use of it.
Multi-part tunes via SWRAM banks are now working on the BBC Micro Music Player & Driver. I can finally play lengthy conversions such as Rob Hubbard's epic Knucklebusters track at nearly 17 minutes. Time to put some new music disks together...
