JSBeeb – JavaScript BBC Micro Emulator | Hacker News Reader

JSBeeb – JavaScript BBC Micro Emulator

bbc.godbolt.org

70 pointsrobeerob32 comments

  10 PRINT "HELLO ";
  20 GOTO 10
  RUN

Ah, the memories. But I forgot how to break out of such a loop. Lucky there's a hard/soft reset option in the website menu...

Its the ESCAPE key.

  10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
  20 GOTO 10
  RUN

As seen in the BBC cult classic Look Around You intro, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBaVwwuErmU

And that, of course, in homage to The Adventure Game: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/adventuregame/trivia.shtml

Press ESC or f12 is probably the BBC micro break button, though you may need OLD to get your program back.

Oh the feels.

I had a ZX Spectrum at home so that made me one of the 'techie' kids in my school who could use the class BBC better than the teachers. It was my second experience with BASIC, and BBC BASIC was a little different to ZX Basic so I had to learn to adapt the syntax of my kiddie code.

And the games! Anyone else play Podd? I still remember the first time I figured out you could make him explode.

Pod can pop

Was always funny / sad.

Frak worked first time, haven't seen that in a while. Very nice. There are loads of good text adventures on BBC and of course Elite but has anyone else got any good recommends?

I used to love the puzzle adventure things like Repton.

edit - and Castle Quest and Ravenskull.

I'd forgotten about Repton! Is Granny's Garden available freely - I seem to remember they are still trying to sell it!

Unfortunately Granny's Garden is not available freely due to publishers denying permission to do so.

A few to try:

Citadel (Arcade adventure) Imogen (Cute Puzzler) Chuckie Egg (Ladders 'n levels romp) Skirmish (Joust) 3D Pool (Lovely 3D Pool simulation) Thrust (Space Physics fun) Firetrack (Shooter)

Don't worry, I already know about Chuckie Egg. I've lapped it a few times, BBC possible the best version? I never really got into Thrust but will give it another go.

Thanks

Frak! I don't think I ever got past the second level as a kid, wonder how I'd fare after ~32years of platforming practice.

want to see if i can complete twin kingdom valley now! never did get the last lousy point.

Never got a chance to use a BBC, but I did read Peter Killworth's “How to write Adventure Games” at one point: http://www.mocagh.org/softguide/writeadventuregames.pdf

Have the hard copy, fantastic book.

I did a couple weeks of ‘work experience’ about 15 years ago at school and I spent some time playing with one. They gave it to me at the end of the last day, I still have it in my attic... it’s probably the reason I work in software.

Very nice, how do I run elite? I never had a disk system

edit: Ah got it, shift-break on BBC, fn-shift-right_command-F12 on macbook pro touchbar

I've been trying to do that but I can't seem to make it work. fn-shift-right cmd-f12... on MBP non touchbar

Alternatively, at the prompt, type:

>CHAIN "LOAD"

Default keyboard symbol mapping is surprising:

= -> ↑

' -> :

: -> +

and so on. Why?

Tried the entries on the Keyboard menu, which didn't seem to change much.

That's where the keys are, physically, on the real BBC Micro. Good shot of the keyboard on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro#/media/File:BBC_Micr...

It's only surprising to those who do not know ASCII codes off by heart, from using the VDU statement. (-:

The BBC Micro had what is called a "bit-paired" keyboard.

It also had copy cursor keys and a reset key.

I think the up arrow here is the poster's rendering of the Mode 7 representation of ^.

Pick up the subject of old 8 bit computers, games and browsers.

Get ready for the 20 KB JS shooter competition.

https://gynvael.coldwind.pl/?id=686

Nice that

*.

which lists the directory also makes a disk-whirring noise. And Elite!

    *RUN"ELITE3"

(* = shift @ on my keyboard)

This is the first computer at school that I got my hands on

without a working "*" key, makes it pretty unusable!

The top menu has a drop down menu where you can choose between:

  Physical: '*' is next to Enter/Return

  Natural: '*' is shift-8

For me with a UK PC keyboard Physical is shift + ' (that key also has my @ character on it). It'd be where the star key would be on a BBC keyboard.

Natural is just shift + 8 (where the asterisk is normally located).

Look at the keyboard options...

On my UK laptop keyboard, Shift @ works.

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