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LATEST NEWS

1st May 2000

Two new and one fixed title to add by a kind donator: Sliding Block Puzzles to the Acornsoft archive,Galaxy Birds and Gnasher to the Superior Archive. Thank you!

The last of the updates for the Superior Archive of Electron games have been completed (phew!): Last Ninja, Last Ninja 2, Perplexity, Palace Of Magic, Predator, Repton Infinity (seperate disk image), Repton 1, Repton 2, Ricochet, Simcity, Smash and Grab, Superior Soccer, Stryker's Run, Syncron and Tempest. Now on to the Acornsoft games...

Could Symo please email me again! I want to reply to your mail, but my mail server screwed up at the time and I don't have your reply address :-(

Also, I've had requests for Woodbury End (by Shards), Mini Office (by Database), and Castle Quest. If anybody would like to help me out, I can forward them to the interested parties.

23rd April 2000

More updates of Electron games added to the images in the Superior Archive: Hostages, Hunchback, Masterbreak, Mr. Wiz, Network and Overdrive. Please note that some are double sided, so end in the .DSD standard.

8th April 2000

The Superior Archive is currently being updated to include the Electron titles available from The Stairway To Hell (see Links). I have tried to put the games with their BBC counterparts onto the same image where possible, and use a menu to choose which version to load. Hopefully I'll update week by week until they are all done. This goes for the Acornsoft Archive too.

26th March 2000

Another redesign. Dreamweaver 3 is very good- pity I had to start the HTML from scratch. However, this has resulted in my noticing a few missing links to various files- hopefully all sorted out now! Most of the pages have had an overhaul, and I have put twenty-five games from companies other than the usual on the BBC Classics page.

1st March 2000

What can I say– the archives have mysteriously reappeared :-) Just try and keep the announements off of the newgroups!! There will also be a mirror site with password protection in the future. I’ve updated the Links and Site Mission pages too– and feel much better…...

10th February 2000

I’ve decided to bring this site back after all. I’ve got to have something to do, haven’t I? As ProAction has asked, the links to virtually all the games have been removed. Anyway, thanks for all the mail: it has been appreciated. I think ProAction can kiss my ass if they think it all links should go. Ian Bell distributes Elite from his web site. And what about Mutant Spiders– the author has it available on his site?

1st February 2000

I'm afraid I've been informed that I must close this archive. I have had a mail from David Bradforth from Superior Software / ProAction, who wrote:

"With regret I must inform you that the inclusion of the BBC/Electron titles from Superior/AcornSoft on your website cannot continue.

The inclusion of these titles is not beneficial to the gaming market; far from it - there are plans afoot to resurrect all of the titles, in a suitable format for emulation users. We're quite happy to supply versions of these games suitable for emulation, but cannot allow them to be freely available on the internet: that is infringing the copyright of Superior Software/Superior Microcomputing.

I would therefore implore you to please remove the titles. I have passed details to the MD of Superior Software: he may contact you separately shortly."

I doubt RetroBBC will be updated for the foreseeable future– I think it’s lost its uniqueness, wouldn't you say?

23rd January 2000

Just a fleeting update for the moment. Some more missing games for the archives should be available in the coming weeks. Stay tuned...

2nd January 2000

I’m sick of the “M” word already, but have a good one anyway!

Sam has sent in an excellent HTML map of Citadel– the link to it is on the Superior page.

Dave has donated the game Gnasher available on the Superior page, but at the moment it doesn’t work. If anyone would like to try and fix it, be my guest– I’m fed up with trying :-( Within the GNASH file, there is a reference to a file called MD00GN, which doesn’t exist, but it appears that the program won’t execute that far on an emulator or a real BBC.

14th November 1999

I’ve added more language ROMs: BCPL, Pascal, Lisp and Logo. Also added are Viewsheet Professional and Superior Software’s Speech!.

6th November 1999

If you’re reading this then it will be apparent that this site has moved from Geocities– so no more pop-up banners! I’ve made a few changes to the layout etc. The dedicated Archie configuration page has been removed– its not so difficult to configure and use anymore! Instead, I’ve created links to Archimedes games on the new Other Classic Games page. This is now mainly dedicated to other BBC games in IMG format that I’ll be adding in the future. Any requests for games, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. Update your Favorites/Bookmarks to http://www.retrobbc.co.uk. Whilst I can still receive messages from my old Geocities/Yahoo account (for the moment at least), my new email address is dextrovix@retrobbc.co.uk.

Michael has sent in an updated Stryker’s Run (one of my favourites) that doesn’t suffer from the slightly corrupted graphics from the previous version in SRAM mode. It also has the cheat files incorporated into it – download it from the Superior page now!

Acornsoft BCPL has been sent to me by Janny (and also to Rob!) and is downloadable on the Acornsoft page (you’ll still need the ROMs). I will be expanding the ROM section in the future to cover more languages.

10th October 1999

Dave sent in a copy of Superior Chess, which I seemed to have missed from the list! The Acornsoft one is now called ACHESS.IMG, and the Superior one SCHESS.IMG.

I’ve updated the Archie page a little– ArcElite finally works!

Rob is looking for the Acornsoft BCPL language disk to complement the ROM he already has– does anybody have a copy?

14th September 1999

Simon has contributed more games: Acheton (also sent in by Stuart), Quondam (now fixed thanks to another Stuart!) and Spooky Manor for the Acornsoft archive, and Stranded for the Superior archive.

7th September 1999

Yet more games for the Superior Archive: Gideon’s Gamble, Lost City and Moon Mission, all contributed by David. Please note that my email address has now changed. The Geocities address still forwards okay, but for how long I don’t know!

29th August 1999

Some more contributions to the Archives: The Seventh Star to the Acornsoft page (from Jack), and Citadel 2 (hoorah!) to the Superior page. Go to The Stairway To Hell for more related info!

5th August 1999

Three new images have been added to the Superior Archive, the first two contributed by Janny, which are Darts and Ladder Maze, and A Question Of Sport contributed by Stuart.

I have added HiBasic to the ROM Images page, as I have had a few requests for it. It allows you to run BASIC on the optional 2nd processor (TUBE).

19th July 1999

More contributors are needed to The BBC Hiscores site– there are ten games to choose from, and more challengers should apply! BTW, as Tom suggests on his site, use BeebEm as your emulator so that you can grab the screen shots (no facility as yet in pcBBC) as proof by using the Windows screen grabber he provides. Try and capture the end of the game, as opposed to the hi score table (harder to counterfeit, not that I’m suggesting anything untoward).

I have put all of the latest BBC emulators online on the ROM Images page (pcBBC and Horizon are demos).

A new page has been added, dedicated to the Archimedes emulator Archie written by Chris. I have put up some disk images I have successfully converted that can be used with it.

12th June 1999

Michael has donated Holed Out!! which appeared on Play It Again Sam 18, available on the Superior page. The ZIP contains six images– the game is on all of them and includes the original course and the five extra ones available: Cone Links, Dune Royal, Glen Aigre, Eagle Park, Owlet Wood and Pine Isles.

Stuart has contributed Bouncer to the Acornsoft archive, and the following to the Superior archive: Fairground, Fruit Machine and Yo-yo.

Trevor has allowed me to put up a copy of Mutant Spiders which he wrote, available on the Superior page.

I have updated the BBCIM Guide page with information on the MRUN and MLOAD utilities that Stuart had written a few weeks ago– it may help people who are trying to get some of the games working from The BBC Lives! archive. These two programs certainly helped me!!

29th May 1999

I have made some alterations again to the Superior page, in that I’ve put everything back into alphanumeric order, and included the compilation information along side the game instead. I’ve almost doubled the length of my pages so that I could fit all of the games on. I‘ve added Tempest to the Superior page which I had all along but missed off (thanks Dave!), and added Drogna and Puc Man to the Acornsoft Page.

I’ve also updated the Guides with additional information now that I have the space to elaborate on them. There are still a few games still missing, but I suspect that these more (relatively) recent ones did not sell as many copies as the older ones, and the older ones themselves seems very obscure (can’t say I’ve played any of the ones that I’m missing). If anyone does come across any at some point, please consider contributing them.

22nd May 1999

Jon has sent in a more compatible version of Castle Of Riddles– if you were having problems with it, download the new version! Stuart has contributed source and code for MRUN and MLOAD, so the following games from the Superior page now work: Cosmic Kidnap, Cribbage, Neutron, Pontoon and Rocky, and Chemical Structures on the Acornsoft page.

I’ve also added Electron versions of Deathstar and Galaforce to the disk images already present on the Superior page.

16th May 1999

I’ve decided to add a new page that explains the utility BBCIM. I get quite a bit of mail about it, so I thought this might help explain the basics of converting from Archive format to disk image format.

Jon has sent a fixed version of Arcade Action on the Acorn page– I freely admit I couldn’t get games to relocate, but a fresh perspective has obviously helped!

I’ve also updated the Links page, and finally Brennan has sent information on ROM file renaming for Horizon.

9th May 1999

Quite a big update. I have moved the Compilations page to the Superior page and removed the replicated items. 22 images have been added to the Acorn page, and 15 on the Superior page. As you will see, some of them are marked as Not Working, or only working with the Watford DFS. The latter I know are because of the *MRUN and *MLOAD commands not present in Acorn’s DFS. If anyone knows how to write an equivalent to MRUN or MLOAD, please let me know– I’d rather have compatibility with both DFS systems. If anyone wants to try and get the Not Working ones going, be my guest– I’ve spent a good few weeks on and off with this lot, which is why I haven’t updated the site for a bit!

2nd April 1999

Rob was kind enough to also send a copy of Network which was included in PIAS 15 on the Compilations page.

28th March 1999

Rob has sent an updated version of Skirmish– the old version was hacked to pieces, and didn’t work correctly.

27th March 1999

Michael has contributed quite a few games to the Compilations page: Kix, Space Pilot, Missile Strike, Crazy Painter, BMX On The Moon and Wallaby. 26th March 1999 Aran has come to the rescue again with updates to the Compilations page: Moonraider, Steve Davis Snooker and Winter Olympiad ‘88 !

21st March 1999

A new page has been added to the Superior Archive called Compilations, which is a list of all the collections and Play It Again Sam series that were produced (list from The BBC Games Archive– see Links). Around ten games have been added that I already had in my collection now that I know they were included. Can anybody help in filling in the gaps?

The Electron ROMs have been updated to include quite a few Acorn extras that could be bought for it separately.

Exile has been updated with a cheat (EXCHEAT) and a text file (CHEAT) which explains what can be altered.

1st March 1999

Apparently the colour version of Aviator is a hacked version of the original (there was no Electron version). Thanks everyone who let me know. Michael has worked out the (now I’ve seen how its done) simple protection on the Superior Demo Disk, and sent the games as separate images:- Centipede, Frogger (Superior Version), Hunchback, Colditz, Galaxians, Space Invaders, Road Runner, Space Fighter and Q*bert.

20th February 1999

Edwin has contributed Elixir to the Superior Archive, and Michael has sent me a copy of Aviator which is in colour! Not sure if it’s an official release, or whether the normal version I have is for the Electron, so both versions are in the Acornsoft Archive.

17th February 1999

The Superior Archive has been updated with Alien Dropout and Smash & Grab.

Also, a Superior Demo Disk has been sent to me– if anyone can explain the protection system, so that the individual files can be extracted to separate images, then let me know (I don’t have a prize to offer, though!).

I’d also like to ask if anyone has any documents concerning walkthroughs/solutions for any Acornsoft Adventures? A contributor to these pages has asked me, and this seems to be the best way to get a result! Thanks.

14th February 1999

I have added the Acorn COMAL ROM to my Images page, which is an even more structured version of BBC Basic. The Master 128 ROMs on the same page have also been updated to include the full set.

6th February 1999

The Acornsoft Archive has been updated with Battletank (thanks to Mark), Freefall (thanks to Nigel), Maze and Rocket Raid (thanks to Stephen). I’ve also got rid of the page link error on the navigation bar (thanks to ‘Jades’).

31st January 1999

I’ve had a bit of a redesign- hope its an improvement! I’ve also added Overdrive to the Superior Archive– I’ve had this since the day dot, but I’d overlooked it right from the start!

29th January 1999

Simon has contributed with a working version of Spycat, and the Master 128 ROMs (not emulated yet!).

Aran has contributed to the following. Acorn games: Meteors, Invaders, Planetoid and Snooker. Superior games: Airlift, Zany Kong Junior, Star Trek, Star Warp and Star Striker. I have also updated Cosmic Camouflage, Frak! and Elite images with improved loader screens and sequences.

Before...

I deleted all previous news (doh!)