No BBC Basic for Neo32 and Cerberus 2100?
David Feugey (2125) 2709 posts |
The AgonLight2 is a new star in the BBC Basic world. Unfortunately, there is no BBC Basic for the Neo6502 or the 6502 head of the Cerberus2100. Who would have the knowledge to solve this problem? |
David Feugey (2125) 2709 posts |
I could add that it’s a bit sad, with all the work made around BBC Basic (BBC Basic for SDL 2.0 and Matrix Brandy Basic VI), that there is no modern offer for DOS. Especially when you know that DosBox games can be sold on GOG. |
Stuart Swales (8827) 1349 posts |
I think the world of stardot would be more interested than here, and even over there there seems rather limited enthusiasm for something which is just an 8-bit CPU attached to modern machinery that’s doing all the hard work. Is there in fact any open source BBC BASIC interpreter for 6502? If someone were to port the unlicenceable Acorn BBC BASIC, don’t forget you’d need to port a lot of the MOS to make it do anything useful. |
David Feugey (2125) 2709 posts |
The funny part is that the Agon Light (eZ80 based) uses something very closed to Acorn MOS.
For the Neo6502, the graphics engine is a Raspberry Pi Pico. So – at best – you could see the whole card as a modern BBC Micro with an ARM copro. The Cerberus is more a modern Commodore 128. On the Agon Light, the ‘modern machinery’ does mainly graphics and sound. This part is much more powerful than the eZ80, but with the Agon Heavy, it’ll be more balanced: eZ80@50MHz and ESP32@80MHz. Of course, the Agon Light is the most attractive of the three computers. |
Patrick M (2888) 126 posts |
I have an AgonLight 2. It’s pretty fun for a bit of nostalgic BBC BASIC programming. It’s just a shame it’s such a fuss getting a keyboard that works with it, most keyboards don’t. It apparently needs a USB keyboard that can behave as if it’s a PS/2 keyboardd, or PS/2 keyboard plugged in through a passive PS2→USB adapter. With this very specific requirement, I’m not sure why they put a USB socket on their design instead of just having a PS/2 socket. Maybe due to the availability of parts? |
jgharston (7770) 14 posts |
The simplest thing to get BBC BASIC working on another platform is not to “port” BASIC, but implement the MOS, then just drop in the BASIC binary of your choice. Fiddling around with BASIC itself to tie it to specific hardware just destroys the whole point of application/operatingsystem segregation, and spreads the tasks across a larger area spreading around bugs and problems. |
David J. Ruck (33) 1629 posts |
There’s a fairly small number of APIs which BASIC requires the MOS to implement, but it is quite closely tied to the BBC Micro’s memory map. The Tube variants might offer more flexibility, and have a tighter defined interface with the MOS. |
David Feugey (2125) 2709 posts |
I saw some efforts around this. But is it legal?
But a lot do too :)
For me, two targets are important: Neo6502, because it’s very popular (I don’t know why) and Cerberus 2100, because one head has BBC Basic while the other does not have it, and it’s scandalous :) Nota, for the Pico, we have PicoBB. Just need now a very low cost integrated card to have a real Pico computer. An idea for Olimex? |