Date   : Fri, 18 Jun 2004 19:20:08 +0100
From   : David Devenport <dave@...>
Subject: Re: Fragmented Emulators was RE: BeebEm under Linux?

I wrote my emulator (way back in '96), for 3 reasons:

1) Simply to prove that I could...
2) Get Zalaga working  - no emulators (at the time), had got the sprite 
mirroring illegal opcodes working...
3) To play the disc version of bbc elite, after all the PC version is shit!

Once I had accomplished that I kinda lost momentum. One day it will be 
raining, I will be bored, and I will port it to windows/direct-X (I code 
in direct X at work so should only take a couple of hours). I might also 
get around to finishing my 1770 emulation :)

I did add John Kortinks 76489 sound data into it a while back, and white 
noise now sounds nice and "HARSH" like the real beeb on explosions !

As to unifying efforts, (most of) the source is out there, if anyone 
wants to attempt it :). We (the emulator authors at the time) always 
swapped information and pushed each others' emulators along. Some of the 
breakthrus made were posted on the mailing list waaaaaaaaaaaaay back. I 
(presumably the others too) have also helped quite a few of the (newer) 
emulator authors, whenever they asked for help.

There is nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel though if it keeps you 
amused :)

Cheers

Dave


peter.3.edwards@... wrote:
>>What other alternatives are there for Linux / UNIX? I get the impression
>>that Xbeeb isn't under active development and there are lots of bits
>>missing?
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've been lurking on this list for a while and have been trying to keep
up with the beeb community.  Since teaching myself to program on an Acorn
Electron and, later, a BBC B and, finally, a Master, I've always had a soft
spot for the Acorn family.
> 
> In answer your question, the one emulator I think should work without much
hassle (tho I haven't tried the linux version, specifically) is the oft-omitted
MESS:
> 
> http://www.mess.org/
> 
> Mess has had a working BBC driver for ages but it's not been updated in
many years:
> 
> http://mamerominfo.retrogames.com/messbbc/
> 
> Which leads me to ask some questions I've been thinking about for some
time.  I hope this isn't considered flame-bait but I'd like to hear other
people's thoughts on the matter.
> 
> Why are there *so* many different BBC emulators which all work to varying
degrees?
> 
> http://bbc.nvg.org/emulators.php3 currently lists over 25 emulators, and
that's just the BBC B section!
> 
>>From listening to the posts on this list, it's clear there are still a 
number of top quality coders out there in the Beeb community.  Would it 
not make sense, then, to combine the efforts of these into one, definitive, 
emulator?  For example, MESS seems to me to be a highly popular system which 
links out to many other projects including MAME.  I think it would be fantastic 
if the beeb coders we have combined their efforts into a single driver, 
say for MESS.  This could be released under a suitable open source license 
and hosted on something like sourceforge.net which provides web-hosting 
facilities as well as CVS storage to allow multiple developers to work on 
the same project with minimal disruption.  The advantages of a definitive 
BBC MESS driver include the fact that it automatically opens up the emulator
to any platform MESS is ported to, which at the moment covers DOS, Win32,
Unix, MacOS, Amiga and even partial support for RiscOS!
> 
> If the community were to get behind a single emulator, it would focus 
both the developers and even the testers to creating the best emulator out 
there.  Once the general emulation side of things was taken care of, it 
would be simple to move on to emulating the more esoteric parts of the Beeb 
- such as econet, the varying DFS's, all the numerous hardware add-ons that 
were released etc.  It would also make it easier for coders to step in and 
work on the specific areas they're interested in, and be able to pass the
developer mantle on so that the driver doesn't die when the lead coder finds
his/her spare time encroached on.
> 
> Meanwhile, this could lead the users to sorting out the software catalogue. 
 A definitive library of software titles could be created with specific 
names and checksums, like the MAME ROMs are distributed today.  That way 
you could see at a glance what versions of titles are available, which are 
missing from your set and a database such as the classic mame.dk archive 
could, perhaps, be setup.  I appreciate there are online HTTP/FTP archives 
already but there are a lot of duplicates and there isn't exactly a naming 
or even file format convention.  This part of the project is something I'd
be happy to contribute to and I'm sure, over time, many others would be happy
to get involved with as well.
> 
> So, there it is.  If I had the coding expertise to set this up, I'd've 
brought this up a while ago but, unfortunately, my experience is mainly web-programming
and there seems to be a plethora of beeb sites out there, so I haven't thus
far felt the need to add my own Sam's Beeb Page.  :)
> 
> Thoughts, anyone?
> 
> Sam.
> 
>