 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : A BBC Micro on the Colour Maximite 2
| Author | Message | ||||
| matherp Guru  Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 12186 |
A new program in the 7.00.00RC5 programs zip, for the Generation 1 and the Generation 2. The firmware is unchanged: download the zip again and copy its bbc folder to the card. https://github.com/UKTailwind/CMM2V1.5/releases/tag/v7.00.00RC5 What it is It is frank-micro, rh1tech's port of Tom Walker's B-em, by way of Graham Sanderson's B-em for the Raspberry Pi Pico, with a new layer underneath for the CMM2. Its 6502 is Graham's hand-written ARM code from the Pico version, made to run on the CMM2's processor. • The BBC Model B and the BBC Master 128, chosen in its F12 menu. • The ROMs are built in: the Master's MOS 3.20 with BASIC 4, VIEW, ViewSheet, Edit, Terminal, ADFS and DFS, and the Model B's OS 1.20, BASIC 2 and DFS 2.26. It needs nothing else on the card. • Two disc drives: .ssd and .dsd images (and .adf and .adl for ADFS), chosen with F11. What the BBC writes to a disc goes into its image on the SD card, so SAVE, a word processor's files and *FORM all last. • Sideways ROMs: put .rom files in A:/bbc/roms and they are in the BBC when it starts, on either model. • Every screen mode at its full resolution, the 640 dots across of MODE 0 included. On both generations it is 576p at 50 Hz, one BBC frame to each frame of the monitor, as the Amiga does it. • It runs at the BBC's own 50 frames a second with a third to a half of the processor to spare, on either generation: from about 30% at Elite's menu to 60% in MODE 0. • The BBC's sound chip, through the CMM2's audio output. • The USB keyboard types what is printed on its keys, in any OPTION USBKEYBOARD layout, and a USB gamepad presses the keys most BBC games use. Getting started Copy the bbc folder of CMM2_Programs_7.00.00RC5.zip to A:/bbc, and put your disc images in A:/bbc/disk. Then: CHDIR "A:/bbc" RUN "bbc.app" It starts as a Master 128 at BASIC's > prompt. To start a disc straight away: RUN "bbc.app", disk/elite.ssd That puts the disc in drive 0 and starts it, as SHIFT-BREAK does; a second name puts a disc in drive 1. -ro keeps the discs as they are: the BBC then finds them write protected. ROMs • The roms folder. Each .rom or .bin file in A:/bbc/roms, of 16 KB or 8 KB, goes into a free bank of sideways RAM as the program starts, in the order of their names: banks 4 to 7 on a Master, 0 to 13 on a Model B. The BBC is then started as if switched on, so *HELP lists them and their commands work. A language ROM such as Wordwise starts with its command (*WORDWISE). • From a disc. *SRLOAD loads a ROM file from a BBC disc into a bank on either model: *SRLOAD WWPLUS 8000 4 Q, then Ctrl+Pause (CTRL-BREAK) so that the BBC finds it. • Some early ROMs were made for the Model B and do not work on a Master: Wordwise-Plus 1.4A stops as it starts on a Master, where 1.4F runs. If a ROM does nothing on the Master, try the Model B. The keys F1 to F10 the red keys f0 to f9 Pause BREAK (Shift+Pause SHIFT-BREAK, Ctrl+Pause CTRL-BREAK) End COPY F11 the discs F12 the settings: model, monitor colour, volume, gamepad... Print Screen a screenshot in A:/bbc/screenshot Ctrl+Alt+Del the BBC started again, as if switched on Ctrl+Alt+End back to MMBasic The other keys give what is printed on them: Shift+8 gives *, which a BBC has on SHIFT and its : key. The BBC starts with CAPS LOCK on, as a real one does, and Caps Lock turns it off. Two things that are the BBC and not a fault: in MODE 7, teletext has other symbols in their places, so [ shows as ←, ] as →, { as ¼ and so on. And the BBC's £ is typed with the ` key. Gamepad The first USB gamepad presses Z, X, : and / for left, right, up and down, A or Y RETURN, B or X SPACE, Start RETURN and Select ESCAPE. The F12 menu can make the d-pad the cursor keys instead. What has been tried BASIC; MODE 0, 2 and 7; Elite, the Master's version; Chuckie Egg with the keyboard and a gamepad; the sound; Wordwise-Plus 1.4F, editing, previewing and saving its text to a disc; saving and loading BASIC programs; *FORM; the roms folder and *SRLOAD on both models; and a UK USB keyboard. Not tried yet: ADFS discs, the Printer DAC setting and screenshots. There is no cassette, second processor, Econet, analogue joystick or mouse, and an MMB file (BEEB.MMB) cannot be opened: take its discs out on a PC first. The Model B runs the Master's 65C12, so a program that uses the original 6502's undocumented instructions may not run. Reports are welcome. More Colour_Maximite_2_App_User_Guide.pdf, on the release page, has a chapter on it, with the settings and the keys in full. frank-micro is under the GNU GPL version 3 and B-em under version 2 or later; the source is github.com/rh1tech/frank-micro, with the CMM2's files in apps/bbc of the firmware's repository. Three faults found in frank-micro on the way are reported to its author, with their fixes. |
||||
romba6 Newbie  Joined: 04/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 40 |
Amazing - yet again !! Thankyou for adding this, such a wealth of support & fun software out there for the Beeb. |
||||
 Print this page |
 |
The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia. | © JAQ Software 2026 |
