Machine of the month
BBC Micro (1981)
For many Brits, the BBC Micro would be their first experience using a computer, inspiring new coders across the country. With a production run reaching into the mid-90s, it was a national institution. Indeed, it was the BBC Micro that inspired both the Raspberry Pi and its Model A and B naming scheme.
Although the BBC Micro was too expensive to be a popular home games machine, those who indulged it were rewarded with a beautiful version of BASIC and lots of great games, such as Chuckie Egg, Exile, Citadel, and 3D Dotty. Nevertheless, BBC Micros are hard to find in Australia, leaving emulation as Australians’ only real option. So, join us as we take you through a history of the BBC Micro, and provide instructions for getting you gaming in the fastest, most painless way.
Battle for the BBC
The BBC Micro was born out of fierce competition between British computer makers. Worried that Britain would be left behind in computing, the government designed a national computer literacy project. Planning a BBC television series – The Computer Programme – this would be tied to a specific computer, which would be bought for schools.
Winning such a contract would be enormously lucrative, with every maker putting in their bids. Ultimately, it boiled down to two competitors: Sinclair Research and Acorn Computers. Sinclair Research was led by famous British inventor, Clive Sinclair. Acorn Computers was led by ex-Sinclair employee, Chris Curry. Curry had left Sinclair on unfriendly terms, and for several years, the two firms had a bitter rivalry.
When the BBC came calling, Sinclair’s proposed model had a cheap rubber membrane keyboard, which simply didn’t suffice, leaving Acorn the only convincing bid. However, the proposed model didn’t actually exist, and Acorn only had a week to build it.
Most of the Acorn team was convinced the task was impossible, but by stripping down an existing Acorn prototype (the “Proton”) and working through the night for the next week, they just about managed to cobble together a working prototype by the last minute. The BBC was suitably impressed, and Acorn won the contract.
Built with schools in mind, these machines have an extremely rugged case, with only a keyboard in view for kids to bash around. Switch on the machine and you’re immediately greeted with a BASIC prompt, ready to code from the get-go. Look behind the machine and there is an enormous number of connectors and expansion options, with modifications being common among serious users.
On launch, there were two models: the Model A with 16K of RAM, and Model B with 32K. The Model B is more common. Although generally too expensive for families, the Micro found its way into the majority of British schools.
Gaming
Despite being on national television and installed in most schools, the Micro was uncommon in homes, losing out to Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum and its enormous game library. However, 1984’s Elite earned the Micro its place in gaming history. An astonishing achievement for the time, people could now explore an entire galaxy in wireframe 3D – all in something smaller than most JPEGs. An imperious game for an imperious machine.
Coming from an early era of home gaming, most Micro games have a feel somewhere between an original Atari and a Commodore 64 (despite the BBC having a faster CPU than either). Later games became more advanced, such as Impossible Mission, The Sentinel, or Stunt Car Racer. Graphics are generally better than a Spectrum, but not as good as a Commodore.
>> Recognising the potential of the gaming market, and wanting to appeal to home users, Acorn released a cut-down version of the BBC Micro: 1983’s Acorn Electron, which was a
moderate success. Most commercial releases are written with both machines in mind.
How to emulate it
For the best emulators, our two choices are BeebEm and Horizon. BeebEm is the easiest to use, and runs UEF tape files, but may not run everything. Horizon is a bit trickier to use, but has features such as automatic key remapping. Overall, we recommend installing both. Each program covers the other’s gaps nicely, and between the two, most titles should work.
Note: The BBC Micro doesn’t have arrow keys. Games often standardise on either A, Z, <, and >, or :, /, Z, and X. That : key causes problems, meaning you’ll need to remap your keys at some point.
Lastly, try to source disk images when possible. Tape files require several BASIC commands, and can take a long time to load. If you are using a tape image, load the file, and most software should work by entering these commands:
*TAPE
PAGE=&E00
CHAIN “”
BeebEm
Windows users: Head to the website ( http://www.mkw.me. uk/beebem), where there is a self-extracting EXE installer, which will create menu entries and desktop icons.
Linux users: Although a Linux port exists, it’s very old, difficult to get running, and doesn’t have all the features of the Windows original. However, the Windows version runs decently under Wine, so just use that.
BeebEm comes with a number of utilities and even a game disk, offering Chuckie Egg, Dare Devil Dennis, Zalaga, and Cylon Attack. Loading disks is easy. Simply open the main menu, choose “File > Run Disc,” then select your disk image. BeebEm automates the loading, entering BASIC commands for you.
Tapes are somewhat more difficult. From the main menu, you need to choose “File > Load Tape,” and then open your tape image. At this point, however, nothing will happen – you need to enter the BASIC commands we gave above, and you should expect long loading times.
While BeebEm enables you to define your own keys (“Options > Define User Key Mapping”), you’ll probably mess up one key by redefining another. If any keys aren’t working, Horizon might be a better choice for that program.
Horizon
Although there are only Windows and Mac versions of Horizon, worry not, Linux users. Where
BeebEm runs decently under Wine, Horizon runs almost perfectly. Horizon doesn’t come with an installer utility, so you’ll need to download the zip file, then open the EXE file manually – you might want to make a desktop shortcut.
If you open the “Input” menu, there are predefined key remapping options. Unfortunately, loading programs is unintuitive in Horizon, and UEF tape images don’t work (use BeebEm instead for those).
To load a disk image, open the main menu and choose “Drive: 0 > Auto Boot.” Now run your disk by choosing “Drive: 0 > Insert Disk Image.”
To load a tape image, first give it its own folder, and put the file there. Now load it by clicking “Tape: > Select Folder,” then entering the BASIC commands given previously.