Date   : Wed, 09 Aug 2000 19:20:32 -0700 (PDT)
From   : Angus Duggan <angus@...>
Subject: Re: Elite versions

Mark de Weger writes:
>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.)

Yes, Elite uses two program overlays; one whilst docked, and another whilst
flying. When you launch, the flying program overlay is loaded. When you dock,
the docked program overlay is loaded.

>By the way, how come you know this?

I extended Elite, and also wrote my own disc filing system. Needless to say,
having a look at the original code in both cases was very useful (even though
I didn't use DFS code for HDFS).

>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.

It sounds like it's not implementing the disc spin timeout properly. Which
emulator was this?

>> 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.

Yes, you do have to, in the original.

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

Elite-A: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/beeb/elite.html

The BitStik was a higher-precision joystick device that was used for a
CAD package that was available on the Beeb. It had a third axis, provided by
a rotational control of the joystick knob. In Elite, this was used for speed
control.

The Delta 14-B and Delta 2-B were joysticks sold by Watford Electronics (I
think), which featured flat bases and single-handed operation. The Acorn
joysticks were dreadful, requiring two hands to operate, which makes it hard
to play any game where keyboard input was also necessary. The Delta 14-B had
14 buttons, two of which were connected to the analogue port fire buttons,
and a matrix of 3 x 4 buttons which were readable through a user port cable.

The 14-B had a little support in some games, and drawing programs, but didn't
really catch on. It came with an adapter which allowed a 14-B and a 2-B to be
plugged in simultaneously.

a.
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