Date   : Thu, 10 Aug 2000 02:08:51 +0200
From   : "Mark de Weger" <mark.deweger@...>
Subject: Re: Elite versions

> Mark de Weger writes:
> >Mark's discovered his joystick...
> >
> >There's a number of versions of Elite going around. Some versions, among
> >which the original (at least presented as such on Ian Bell's web site)
have
> >two strange bugs (features?).
> >
> >- If you press F0 to launch, the game sometimes flashes briefly "bad
> >command" and refuses to launch. Repeatedly pressing F0 solves the
problem.
>
> This sometimes happens if you have saved or loaded a commander immediately
> before launching. What is happening is that the disc is still spinning,
which
> the disc system uses as a signal that it can use the catalogue cached at
> E00-FFF. Elite overwrites these locations immediately after loading a
> commander, so the catalogue is corrupt and the disc system gets confused.
> Waiting for the disc to stop spinning fixes the problem.

Interesting. Can you tell me what exactly happens? Is there any disc access
at the
moment of launching? (The "confusion" of the disc system should result in a
"bad
command" error.)

By the way, how come you know this?

> > I'm not sure if this
> > is the same problem in the emulator versions, if so, you should
congratulate
> > the emulator authors for a very true to life implementation of the Beeb
> > hardware :-)

I took a closer look. It happens every first time after loading/saving a
commander
(or after startup). Apparently the emulators remain in the state a normal
Beeb is directly after disc access and launching fixes this.

> >- The joystick doesn't work.
> >
> >I've only checked this on emulators, but BeebEm and PCBBC are consistent
> >(and at least BeebEm supports joysticks).

> You have toggled the joystick support, I assume (caps-lock, 'J',
caps-lock)?

Uhh.. No. Do you have to? I can't recall this from playing Elite on my Beeb.
Anyway, I
did so now (on BeebEm), but to no avail. Interestingly, Elite began to beep
after caps-lock j.

> Also, note that Elite-A removed BitStik support in favour of Delta 14B
> support (because one of my brothers complained that it was too hard to fly
by
> keyboard, and wanted to use his 14B! *Real* commanders use the force and
the
> keyboard :-).

This goes too fast form me. What's Elite-A, Bitstik and Delta 14B?

Thanx,
Mark.