From: D6G (Sprow) Subject: Doomsday As detailed on my webpage,Doomsday is now at V1.13,and as well as a printed manual,I've added another handy command: *LIB (with no parameters) shows the currently selected library. The newer version also adds some enhancements to the commands as well as internal improvements that you can't actually see - but believe me they're there. Doomsday,in case you've been in a dark box for the last 8 months, fixes the year 2000 problem on the 8 bit range of machines, such as the Master. The date range is extended to 1800 to 2199 instead, giving you another few hundred years to play with, and also has some additional handy *commands to boot! For details,contact me,address in advert section. Hope this is of interest to someone out there. Sprow 8BSMail:D6G ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D6G (Sprow) Subject: Support Last time Chris (our esteemed editor) was 'complaining' about dwindling support for these old yellow machines that we use. Not so - there is a load of support on the Internet from 'enthusiasts' who still use or remember the Beeb. I advertise 8BS's web pages on my BBC area (www.york.ac.uk/~rps102/bbc/bbc.htm) and even Acorn still support the BBC. On the occasions when I've needed info from them they've always come back to me with help of some sort,even if it wasn't the direct answer I wanted. Also, they make available all their application notes on BBCs so that you can correct all your manuals and find those undocumented changes to OS calls actually documented somewhere! Sprow. 8BSMail:D6G EDITOR..... Actually, I was not complaining of lack of support for the BBC! I was asking members to submit new software for use in the magazine, that request still stands. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: K3H (ALBERT SCHOFIELD.) Subject: TAPE TO DISC ON THE BBC B At first glance RANSACK appears to be a game which would be difficult to transfer to disc. The filenames are mostly ten characters long and the first file loads at &900 which would appear to need downloading. But this is not so. Actually it is fairly straightforward as it has been converted from the disc version so all that is needed is to convert it back to disc. Also the first part does not need to be downloaded. All the files are locked so an unlocking utility will be needed for each file. Load in the first file, RANSACK! using *LOAD""1900. Save it to disc using :- *SAVE RANSACK 1900+3FF 900 900 If you now dump the file you will see the TAPE command. Use a sector editor to change this to DISC. Further on you will see the seven original filenames which in order are SCREEN, NEL, N2, N3, N5, N1 and N4. The RUN command that appears before each filename has had 0D (carriage return) inserted after it to block it. Use a sector editor to replace all seven of the 0D tokens with 20 (space). All that is required now is to transfer the rest of the files to disc using the new filenames as follows. All the files can be loaded using:- *LOAD""1900 and saved as follows:- *SAVE SCREEN 1900+9C0 A15 2F00 *SAVE NEL 1900+500 A15 6AC0 *SAVE N2 1900+1040 A15 6FC0 *SAVE N3 1900+30D0 A15 2730 *SAVE N5 1900+500 A15 2200 *SAVE N1 1900+800 A15 62C0 *SAVE N4 1900+1630 A15 1100 Entering *RUN RANSACK or *RANSACK will now load and run the game. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: E2U (LEN MAPP) Subject: ELECTRONICS FOR COMPUTER PROJECTS I have many extracts from Electronics Magazines circa 1985-90 e.g. Practical Electronics BBC Micro Forum Series Everyday Electronics Beeb Series If you have any particular requirement I will check to see if I have it. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D6G (Sprow) Subject: Misaligned drives Jon Ripley was having problems with a 3.5" drive on an Archimedes in the last issue,and although that's not really BBC related,the exact same principle applies to those of us who have 3.5" drives for the beeb. Dismantle the casing,and loosen the two screws that hold the head in place,now is a good time to give the heads a really good clean with a cotton wool bud,then shove in a KNOWN WORKING floppy from a machine with correctly calibrated heads. The disk should be full - ie.have files right on the inner tracks and on the outermost ones. With the machine turned on try to catalogue the floppy,nudging the head a little further from left to right each time you get a drive fault. Note the first position you get a catalogue,and carry on until you start getting disk faults. Halve the angle you've produced and (akin to tuning a TV set) you should have a good job. Tighten up the screws,making sure that the action of turning the screws clockwise doesn't knock the heads out again!! There is a more accuarte method,using lots of expensive test equipment,but that's not as fun. Hope this has been of help, Sprow. email: rps102@york.ac.uk 8BSmail: D6G fax: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,