Hello from a returnee

[Halifask]

Hi one and all,

After 40 years of abstinence I have a Beeb, a B+ 64K with MMFS in fact.

Back when they first came out I worked for a small computer reseller in Oxford. We were selling them hand over fist and new deliveries were often sold before they even arrived. Then we started selling CPM based machines and onwards...

I'm now semi retired and bored stiff so I've gone and bought a beeb well actually 2 but who's counting (the other one is an issue 4). I honestly can't believe how much development work is going on for a 40 year old 8 bit computer, it's amazing.

It's taking a while to get back into things but that's the challenge. I am finding though that there is so much info on Stardot it's a bit overwhelming.

At the moment I'm trying to get my head around the MMFS, I currently have v1.53 but for some reason the label on the ROM has MMFS 1.53 and Basic 2 written on but if I pull the ROM I still have Basic 2 when I power on so I'm inclined to think that is incorrect (please put me right if I am misunderstanding that).

I'm trying to understand how the menu works on MMFS but that is proving elusive, any pointers on this would be great.

Well that will do for now,

Regards

Arthur

[Multiwizard]

Hi Arthur,

welcome to this great Forum...


Greetings from my little Dutch Atomic Attic, Wim...

[flaxcottage]

Hi Arthur,

Welcome.

The ROM may indeed hold MMFS and BASIC2. If it is a 32K ROM, MMFS may be in the 'high half' and shows in your computer. BASIC 2 will then be in the 'low half' and not appear. Your B+ OS/BASIC ROM will hold BASIC 2 and that is why it works OK. Just treat the MMFS ROM as a 16K ROM and it will work fine.

The B+ can use 32K ROMS if links next to the ROMs are changed.

Another upgrade you could consider is adding 96K sideways RAM. It will be really useful.

[a1exh]

Hello from a fellow Acorn owner in Oxfordshire.

[tricky]

Welcome.
Have you tried holding shift and tapping break?
You could also try *EXEC !BOOT
I also do a menu that works on mmfs and goteks.

[DutchAcorn]

Welcome to Stardot! Retro computers are a great time waster, you chose wisely

...
At the moment I'm trying to get my head around the MMFS, I currently have v1.53 but for some reason the label on the ROM has MMFS 1.53 and Basic 2 written on but if I pull the ROM I still have Basic 2 when I power on so I'm inclined to think that is incorrect (please put me right if I am misunderstanding that).
...

On the BBC+ 64K the OS and BASIC are combined into one ROM, so BASIC is always there (assuming you don't remove the jumper on S13).

I'm trying to understand how the menu works on MMFS but that is proving elusive, any pointers on this would be great.

What don't you understand about the menu? Can you get into the menu but need pointers on how to find stuff?

There's a lot of information on Stardot but a DIY sideways ram project may be fun to undertake. See this thread: viewtopic.php?t=9148

[Halifask]

Hi John (flaxcottage)

That makes sense but when would having both MMFS and Basic on the same chip be useful. Would this work in a straight B with a ROM extender board that took 32K ROM so you didn't need to original language ROM which if recall correctly is on a separate ROM to the OS in B?

Yes, I've seen that upgrade and bookmarked the page but I'm refreshing the memory at the moment (my memory that is ), it's been a long time since I used a Beeb

Arthur

[Halifask]

Hi Tricky,

It's all working OK but I want to be nosy and see how it works. Is there info on how the Menu works and how to modify it somewhere?

Ultimately I may try MMFS 2 to see how that works, is it possible to migrate from v1.xx to v2, I know they work very differently?

[sweh]

The MMFS/BASIC combination likely means you bought from IFEL. He also creates RAM/ROM expansion boards (eg for Sideways RAM) and those boards may have a 32K slot on them. So he provided a solution that will work on unexpanded Beebs (just exposing the MMFS side) and on machines with the 32K slot you can remove the default BASIC ROM and gain a spare slot.

It _should_ work with a modified Beeb that enables 32K ROMs, but no promises

MMFS uses a BEEB.MMB container file (I documented the format here: https://sweh.spuddy.org/Beeb/mmb_utils.html - scroll down to the "Disk format" section ). It's basically a large single file with 200K SSD images embedded into it, and a table of contents.

MMFS 2 does away with the container and lets you copy SSDs directly to a FAT filesystem (so it's easier to add a disk from a Windows machine, for example; just copy the SSD onto it!).

Migration between the two may be possible... as long as you name the SSD files correctly. I've never tried it!

[daveejhitchins]

Welcome to the Forum, Arthur . . . Enjoy . . .

Dave H.