Psion Chess DOS version running via BBC 186 Co-Processor

[vanpeebles]

Over summer just for a holiday, I've been restoring a BBC Master 512, which is a BBC Master 128 fitted with a 186 internal co-processor board with 512k ram.

I've always have a soft spot for the BBC as they were what we grew up with in school. People of my age in the UK, I would say the vast majority of them got educated on BBC Micros at Junior school etc.

I had fanced getting a Master for ages and saw this unusual one with a 512 on ebay. It was a decent price but needed a good clean etc.

Anyway this one with the unusual addon board allows the running of fairly primitive dos stuff, I'm not even sure it supports CGA. It's been an absolute sod to get working as it needs specially formatted discs to boot up(I had to dig my Risc PC out of retirement to help) and the PSU blew up also on it's first day home.

I got the PC version of Psion Chess from Dilwyns site and it's the first proper program I've tried to run. It's not a patch on the QL version it must be said, but I was happy just to see something running!

[Sparrowhawk]

That's pretty impressive

I love the Beeb - I suspect that like many people here, the Model A and B were the computers I first learn to code on.

I had a nostagia hit a couple of years a go and bought a reconditioned one off ebay, including CF card reader.

It's known by my kids as the "ba-beeep" on account of the start up sound

[vanpeebles]

Hehe this one goes ba-beeep too