Safely retrieved and only the co-ax network and parallel printer cables reported to ICT. I have far too many of these already. The drawer won't shut and my wife complains. Robert
My spelling is not bad. I am typing this on a Medigenic keyboard and I blame that for all my typos.
For those of you who wish they still had their BBC Micro, or others who may be wondering what we're all going on about (!), please be advised that Mike Wyatt's excellent emulator BeebEm for Windows version 4.0 is available for free download. It is a brilliant hack, and I only wish that I could code like that!
As we are talking here not only about (what was arguably) the best of the 8-bit microcomputers from the 1980's, but also a machine famous for having most of its software instantly available in ROM(s), once you start playing (er, using the software) you will soon find that you need the ROM images as well.
So you could do a lot worse than take a look at this page (and especially the 15 Meg .zip file mentioned next to ROM archive). Next, of course you will be looking for software available as disk images ... in which case may I suggest "seek, and ye shall find"! Enjoy!
Here are another couple of photo's of the Torch ZDP. Good, sturdy kit!
Those 5¼" floppy disk drives were made in 1983, by the way.
The Torch Z80 Disc Pack worked together with the BBC Micro, of course. See the third photo. The Beeb's power supply (normally found at the top LHS of the machine) is missing, as power is drawn from the Torch box itself. Which is good news, as it is, shall we say, a bit more hefty.
The fourth shot shows a spare Torch Z80 card, complete with the world famous Z80 microprocessor. It is interesting to note that this one was not made by Zilog, but by the Italian company SGS (unlike, in fact, the one on the card sitting in the BBC Micro, which carries a genuine Zilog ... that you can't see because it's upside down)!
OK, how about this then? Two 20 MB Winchester drives (as we used to call them back then) from 1984.
They were used (one as a back-up for the other) with a BBC Master running databases under ViewStore. Anyone (else) here remember that?
ViewStore was not the easiest of database managers to use, but we're talking here about the pre-dBASE era, don't forget. Being for the BBC Micro (and Master et al) it was in ROM, and therefore had the redeeming feature of being "instant on". I had a play with it again yesterday (for the first time since 1987), and it was amazing how it all came "flooding back", as it were. I was cracking on like a good 'un in no time at all, I can tell you. A bit like riding a bike, I suppose ... once mastered, it's always "there"!
Back in 1985 I built a database of just under 20,000 records using this lash-up ... er, system. It was definitely a case of "needs must" at the time! Perhaps I should add also that this stuff was not exactly cheap back then, either. And it all seemed so serious (cutting edge, even) then.
It's always rewarding to step back a couple of decades now and then, if only to remind ourselves how easy it all is now. That, and wondering in amazement just how "right" those genius guys got it back then!
Does a BBC Micro have the speed to allow you to watch movies or will they be old Black & White movies pre-talkies?
Speed? Are you sure you're up to speed with computers yourself, Neil?
But never mind, I don't think that Teletext ever made it to Saudi Arabia, did it (like quite a lot of other things that I could mention ... but won't)? Arabic characters in Mode 7 ... h'mmm, now there's an interesting proposition!
