From: K3H (ALBERT SCHOFIELD.) Subject: TAPE TO DISC ON THE BBC B Transferring adventure games to disc can be quite tricky due to the long length of the main file. TWIN KINGDOM VALLEY is one such game. This also has a loader file LVAL which needs to be CALLed at a different address before it will work on disc. TWIN KINGDOM VALLEY is in four parts. TWIN, TITLE, LVAL and VALLEY?. The first file TWIN merely sets page to &E00 and can be dispensed with. The second file TITLE ia a basic program so load this in, delete line 225, and add the following lines:- 230 *KEY0 *LOAD LVAL |M *LOAD VALLEY |M CALL&7A21 |M 240 *FX138,0,128 250 END If you have the WATFORD DFS then the *LOAD VALLEY in line 230 can be changed to *MLOAD VALLEY to download it, otherwise the file VALLEY will have to be downloaded to &1000 by whatever means you choose. Now, having added the above lines, save the file to disc as TITLE. Load in the third file LVAL from cassette using;- *LOAD""7A00. Then save the file to disc using:- *SAVE LVAL 7A00+100. The last filename VALLEY? contains a control code but this can be dispensed with. Transfer this file to disc using the one block at a time method as described in a previous article. Save the file to disc as VALLEY. Set the load address to &1000. The execution address can remain at all zeros. Chaining TITLE will now load and run the game. More next month. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Arc And PC Help ReplyTo: 20G (Roy Dickens) I am willing to answer any Archimedes and PC questions that are posed to me. My disc magazine, BUC, will not have Arc/PC only programs, but will address any questions asked about these computers. I can also offer help with many other computers, including, among others, the Amstrad, Amiga, Spectrum, and C64. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Arc And PC User Groups ReplyTo: Roy DIckens And Martin Wilson Over the past few months many people have approached me with the idea of me starting up user groups for the PC and Archimedes computers. Although I would be very much able to complete this task and also take on the responsibility of keeping all the groups going at once, I must say now that I lack the computers with which to do this. i.e. I don't have a PC or an Archimedes! (YET!) However, my BBC User Group disczine will soon be availiable on 3.5" DFS and ADFS (see magazine for further information). This will allow both BBC and Archimedes owners to subscribe to the magazine. The BBC only programs will run under many of the BBC and 6502 emulators now available. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 and D7Y (Andrew Medworth) From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Citadel and Palace Of Magic Whilst playing Citadel, to jump higher and higher on the trampolines, just hold down the up key and the jump key, each bounce you will jump a little bit higher if you keep these keys held down! I can answer anyone's questions about Palace Of Magic (about anything); for beginners I would suggest, funnily enough, playing the Electron version of the game since all the keys and doors are letter coded. The keys and gates are in the same place as the BBC version so it is easy to get to know where the keys go! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 and D7Y (Andrew Medworth) From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Perfect Disc Copies Over the years many disc copiers have come and gone, most of them little better than the *Backup command we have all used at some point. Sadly, the disc protection techniques that some people used were (and still are) quite beyond most of the copiers, even the most sophisticated copiers will often fail. The other major gripe about copiers is that to copy an unprotected disc can take well over 15 minutes with some copiers taking over half an hour in some circumstances. Disc Duplicator 3 is a bit long winded for my liking and people who have copies of it will notice that there are extra copiers which are only for specific discs, imagine having an individual copier for each individual disc, quite a nightmare to produce or use! Of course, there is one major problem in that they are designed to use the 8721 disc interface that is only found on the BBC models A and B. Thus ALL these utilities will fail when used on anything else, like the Master, B+, Compact, etc, etc. The 1770/1772 disc interfaces are not as sophisticated in some respects as the original 8721 interface and as a result unsuspecting buyers will find that their wonderful new disc copiers don't work! The simple answer, which I discovered after many excruciating hours of exceedingly slow copying, is that ADI, will copy even the the best protected discs whether they are ADFS, DFS, HADFS, DOS format discs (believe it or not!) and many other disc formats used on the BBC! I have only tried it on the B+, Master 128 and Master Compact so I am not sure if it works on the BBC A or BBC B. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: MIDI On The BBC ReplyTo: 3SQ (Tim Parsons) If you need any help with MIDI, whether general comments or not, send them in to me at the BBC User Group. BBC User Group, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Using BBC Discs On PCs ReplyTo: D6E (Richard Harker) There were many BBC disc readers for the PC, although there are many new BBC emulators being written for the PC platform, many of them are unable to read true BBC format discs. The best way that you can do this, as you have an Acorn Archimedes is to use the much better Archimedes, BBC disc readers, readily available from many PD libraries, and copy the files to a PC format disc on the Arc. From RISC OS 3 the Arc can format, read and write PC discs. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Converting BT PABX Systems ReplyTo: L1T (Jeremy Stanton) I wrote this message for issue 51 but I haven't been able to send it until now! Jeremy have already discussed the contents in this message but others may be interested! There are many different PABX systems available and to address the problem properly it is necessary to know which system you are trying to convert. As the line voltage in Egypt is around 20dc lower than in the UK, if you plugged the system in to the phone line there almost no chance of it being damaged by doing so. Many BT PABX systems will still be able to work on lines with a 40dc voltage. In the UK the line voltage varies from around 50dc to 60dc. As you are coming into this country soon, bring the details of the system you wish to use and either telephone 150 (customer service) or 0800 289690 (technical support) and ask to speak to someone who can help you. Both calls are free! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: D6E (Richard Harker) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: 6502 Co-Pro Once your 6502 Co-Pro is plugged in, you then have to tell the Master that it is there, using: *CONFIG. TUBE *CONFIG. INTUBE Once this is done, it should enter the Co-Pro whenever you press Break. To turn off the Tube, use: *CONFIG. NOTUBE ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: D6G (Sprow) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: 1770 disk controller The 1770/1772 floppy disk controller is accessed from software in exactly the same way as the 8271, ie using Osword &7F. It would be pointless if it didn't. That's the whole point of having an operating system between you and the hardware. You ask Osword &7F to read x number of single density sectors to memory or whatever, and it does it, regardless of whether it is talking to an 8271 or a 1770. However, if you want the really dirty hardware details, I have the data sheets for the 1770/1772, and I can copy them for any interested people for `1. And yes, I am writing an update to the Advanced Disk System Guide to cover the 1770. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: D9F (Gary Scott) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: Hard disks and BBCs You say you have a BBC with a 1770 upgrade and want to know if it can use hard disks. Well, the 1770 upgrade is a floppy controller, not a hard disk controller. Any BBC series machine can use a hard disk, as it plugs into the 1MHz expansion port. All the hardware is in the hard drive casing. What you need to be able to use it though is ADFS. DFS cannot access hard drives. As you have the 1770 floppy controller, you will also be able to use ADFS disks. The 8271 cannot access the 640k format disks used by ADFS, though any machine with any hardware can use HADFS to provide a ADFS-like filing system. BBC compatible hard drives are advertised in the 8BS adverts. You will need the ADFS rom, which should only be a couple of pounds as you already have the 1770 FDC. Oh, your next message says that you do have ADFS. All you need then, is a hard drive. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: D9F (Gary Scott) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: *AFORM If the *AFORM command on your utility disk says 'Wrong machine', then you have the wrong utility disk. As the floppy controller is in a different place in the I/O memory in the BBC and the Master, Acorn wrote *AFORM commands specific to the machines. Why they didn't do the proper thing and find out what machine it was running on (Osbyte 0,1) and then look for the hardware in the approriate place, I don't know. Anyway, it sounds like you have the Master ADFS Utilities disk and are trying to use it on a BBC. I have both the BBC and Master ADFS Utilities disks, and I can send you a copy. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,