Who wants PCBBC for Windows?!

[cyberdude]

Hi People,

I've got a post here that will blow some of you away. I managed to speak to Stuart McConnachie, the author of PCBBC which is hailed as one of the best BBC emulators ever written for the PC, supposed to be fully compatible with the beeb.

He sent me an unreleased, windows working copy of PCBBC in 32-bit. His previous release was a 16-bit crippleware version where you had to pay £10 to remove the 15 minute time limit, and was tied in with a user name and address to prevent copying.

This version is fully working, I tested it under windows 7 64-bit without needing another emulator. I attach it to this post and give a link in this post to it. I think today has been a very good day for retro emulation to the masses!

These are Stuart's words to me sent to me today:

"This is as far as I got with a proper Windows (non-DOS) port, but regrettably - just like the original - I don't have the time to work on, support or finish this to a level where I would consider it anything like "releasable".
So it's fairly much what you see is what you get. And please, please, please - Do NOT take this as any kind of sign that I am still working on this project!

I have tested on XP and Windows 7, but whether it works for you may depend on what video hardware you have.
On my Windows 7 64 bit machine I currently needed to select Screen -> Graphics Engine -> Direct Draw to get any kind of screen output in full screen mode. I'm fairly sure that on the old XP machine both modes used to work...

You'll also need .NET 3.5 and some version of Direct X installed."

Link below to the file he sent to me, the only windows PCBBC I ever knew of!

http://groa.st/pcbbc

[CMcDougall]

thanks Glenn, & StuartM

this was the first emulator i played with when let loose at university on the net (got bored of porn after <3mins )
it took me a wee while to work out where to get/put the roms in the folder, and even more time using BBC Explorer v2.01 to create .SSD discs from x.file & x.inf files

the old dos version1.02 is still here http://www.stairwaytohell.com/emulators ... 02demo.zip

just tried the new one, usable roms present, no discs, but Revs shows mode7 loader screen fine, and plays!

[pau1ie]

Thanks for this! Do you think that Stuart would consider releasing the source code under some license that would allow study and reuse (e.g. GPL, BSD or some such)? I would like to have a look "under the cover". I realise its a bit of a cheeky request after he has generously released the program, but I would like to see how it works, particularly the display stuff.

Thanks

PaulH

[Haqa]

I realise that I'm bumping an 8 month old thread but I too would interested in access to the source as it would raise the possibility of porting for people who don't run windows.

Yes that was me volunteering if permission and source is granted.

H.

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

I suspect pcBBC hasn't stood the test of time, accuracy-wise though. These days, Tom Walker's B-Em is about as perfect as you could ask for, emulating pretty much everything with precision (although I have seen it come unstuck with a few protected tape images). And it comes with source code too, so it should be possible to port it to any platform you want (this was already done, with a few optimisations, in the form of Beebdroid).

[cyberdude]

We could really do with the source code, I agree. Will definitely ask him if he could hand it over to me, then I would share and we could all have a go at it

He is going to see if he can dig out the 16 bit version too, so will let you all know how it goes. I really want a copy of the original registered version to test some games I'm having trouble running.

I think if he has abandoned the project, which seems so, he should at least allow others with a stronger interest in developing it the chance to make it the best again.

[Haqa]

Well if the code is made available, and people are interested in working it, then I can offer hosting of a dedicated trac/svn etc for the project on my server.

H.

[cyberdude]

There was unfortunately no replies to my requests for the source code from Stuart McConnachie. I guess time will tell if we all ask him. Here is his contact link, ask for him by name in your message to make sure it gets to him from his team:

http://www.skycopyplus.co.uk/contact.php

[vanekp]

PcBBC was one of the 1st BBC emulators i playes with worked very well and managed to get my hands on a full working version at the time after lots of hunting around pitty it did not get developed further

[vanekp]

O well the one here does not work to well crashed imediatly with Description:
Stopped working on windows 7 64bit.

[rmbrowngr]

Just tried it on Windows 11, and it does work. Had some problems with keyboard when set to "PC" keyboard, but changing it to "BBC" fixed the issue. Saw some screen corruption in Chuickie Egg, but it is mirror. Chuckie had some black lines through him, but not always.

And when running it Windows popped up a message informing me that it was unrecognised, and maybe is a security risk, but I ran it anyway.

[BeebMaster]

PCBBC is just about the only emulator I ever used. I had the registered version, but the floppy disc has long since been mislaid. I thought it might be in the floppy disc desk drawer which has been in bubble wrap stacked up with other desk drawers since the move, which coincidentally I emptied earlier today thinking I might find it.

[james]

PCBBC is just about the only emulator I ever used. I had the registered version, but the floppy disc has long since been mislaid.

Much to my surprise, given I don't have anything to run it on*, I still have mine.

pcbbc.jpg (4.67 KiB) Viewed 217 times

*Well, there is an ancient PC with Win98 to my right making itself useful as a shelf for networking paraphernalia, but there's no keyboard, power cable or monitor for it.

[vanekp]

I cant make out from the very small picture which version that is, the copy I have is Ver 1.02 probably is the only version there is of it.
And as far as I know it only runs in DOS, in DOS box it runs very slow.

[james]

I cant make out from the very small picture which version that is, the copy I have is Ver 1.02

Yes, it’s 1.02. Dated April 1998. I note the author has recently appeared on *.

[markusher]

There are some other versions.
The first major release appears to have been 1.01, and there was a patch available to take it to 1.02.
I do have copies of 1.03 Beta 1 and Beta 2. Also a 2.00 Beta 1 that Stuart sent to me back in the day for testing.