If you wanted to do it the Beeb way: set screen start [R12/13] (note this is in characters, so RAM address DIV 8) plus vertical displayed [R6] (number of character rows) and vsync position [R7] (in character rows again).
But your way works. It was rock solid!
Event this Sunday: www.retrocollective.co.uk/view-event.p...
Last tickets remaining for a day with the multi-talented and tremendously nice chap, @h0ffman.bsky.social
Treat yourself to a day at the Retro Collective, lunch and an open invite to dinner with us all in the evening.
#retroevents
No. 🙂 They're stored fully expanded in ANDY, which has to be paged in. Or just use VDU commands and the MOS will handle it.
Centering the screen vertically should just be a matter of adjusting the vsync pos CRTC reg 7.
Are you reducing the visible screen height or blanking it same as the Elk?
Ah bugger, I forgot about the duck using the full width. A single SWRAM permanently paged in should give you the head room needed without too much juggling of the memory map.
The player jump distance, height & gravity don't match the original. Is this by design? It makes the character just feel a little 'heavy' and not quite as fluid. Most noticeable when jumping up block steps.
Running on Master has undefined chars on the loading screen - think these are the level bricks?
A few thoughts on the Beeb version which you are welcome to ignore, as I know you're Elk first!
Is there any RAM to increase the vertical screen size? Presume double buffered MODE 5? You could reduce horizontal width to save bytes.
Also centring the screen vertically with a CRTC reg is easy to do.
I finally played this as god intended, on a real machine with a CUB. 😄 Fantastic work. 👏 It's a great concept and well executed. Lots of polish and no flicker. 👌 I love that you kept the ladder catch. The spiral levels are more of a brainteaser & I was genuinely panicked with the flying bird. 😂
Hi I wrote about the making of classic platformerChuckie Egg and talked to its creator Nigel Alderton. Please give it a read as I want to show there’s an audience for this gaming history stuff 🙏
www.theguardian.com/games/2026/a...
CHUCKULUS
BBC Micro Model B version just released !
github.com/Snuggsy187/C...
The Elite Demonstration Disc
I've started disassembling the #BBCMicro Elite Demonstration Disc.
Acornsoft sent this out to shops in 1984. It flies itself and contains rudimentary pilot AI.
Did anyone see this back in the day? It’s fun to watch!
You can run it in your browser: bbc.xania.org?autoboot&dis...
#retrocomputing
Great to see Martin Galway has recently shared his C64 music driver and data for Wizball. For those that don't already know, Martin started his computer music career on the BBC Micro whilst at high school. His first version of YMO's Rydeen was composed on a Beeb!
github.com/MartinGalway...
This is pretty amazing. Draw accurate landscapes from The Sentinel on a pen plotter? And animate them? I'm definitely in!
newsletter.revdancatt.com/p/085-the-se...
I do my projects for a lot of reasons, but seeing what people do with them? Yeah, that's a big one. 😀
#bbcmicro #c64 #retrocomputing
Someone has documented the entire source code for Elite and explained how every line works, plus included deep dives into various functionality. Covers all main versions like BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and NES. You can also play online in browser. elite.bbcelite.com
Honestly, ask Claude Code to do it. It's 100x better at Python than I am. 😂
Yes, very much this. Something like Claude Code is excellent at reverse engineering binary formats (of this scale) and will happily write custom exporters, converters, viewers etc. all day in Python.
If you have enjoyed this project, you might like my other software archaeology projects:
* Elite on the 6502
* Aviator on the BBC Micro
* Revs on the BBC Micro
* Lander on the Acorn Archimedes
See www.bbcelite.com for details
Time for a new project now… after a bit of a break. See you soon!
A stack of boulders with a robot on top
Generating the landscape in The Sentinel
A panorama of landscape 0000 in The Sentinel
A contour map of the landscape in The Sentinel
It's finished! The Sentinel, Geoff Crammond's epic game, is now fully documented.
* 41,902 lines of lovingly annotated source code
* 51 deep dives (116,240 words)
* Buildable repository
* 100% handcrafted AI-free content
* 7 months’ work
thesentinel.bbcelite.com
#retrocomputing #C64 #BBCMicro
Just got back from Revision demoparty—my 64KB intro took 1st place. Huge thanks to @alkama.bsky.social for the audio work that made this possible. It’s a fully procedural 3:40 animation packed into a 58KB executable. I had a blast building it, and the audience reaction was incredible.
A well deserved win! Congratulations. 🏆 I was just lamenting to my friend during the compo about how many demos look amazing but have no real animation and then yours came on, much to my delight. 😁 Fantastic work. 👏
Senior illustrator, with 20 years of experience and a specialty in game art.
I haven't been able to find a paying project for months. Can you help? Every share is appreciated.
OMG. I haven't heard those tunes in such a long time. Came straight back into my brain. 😄
It was a triple AAA platform release! Including Amiga and, of course, Acorn Archimedes: youtu.be/RaLQ68ro3q0?... #acorn #archimedes #demoscene #protracker
Today's chiptune recommendation:
"Chipo Django #3 by Bitshifters and Rabenauge (Atari STe music demo)" - an awesome music disk/demo released a Revision last weekend, with tunes from many scene legends 🎹🎶 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8y... #chiptune #Atari #AtariSTe #demoscene #musicdemo #musicdisk
An Archimedes A310 and a game of Zarch. One of the many exhibits you can try at The Retro Collective.
Visit retrocollective.co.uk to book your visit
#nostalgia #retro #gaming
A Computer Generated image of a blue cassette tape partially submerged in green looking water in a rock pool. There are bumps of sand with rocks on in the background and underwater.
Very happy to win first place at #RevisionParty2026 for my 4Kb executable graphics entry "Lost Media"!
www.pouet.net/prod.php?whi...
I was lucky enough to go the the party too this year and had a really great time. It was good to hang out with friends old and new.
NOVA 26: 12th - 14th June 2026, Budleigh Salterton Town Council, Budleigh Salterton, United Kingdom 🇬🇧
#demoscene we are ready for you, doors open at 12:00 Saarbrooklyn time! #RevisionParty2026
I was going to say, would you like me to ask a musician to compose some in game music for it? No problem to play this on interrupts on the Beeb. 😉
