EmulatorsEmulatorsEnter the emulator archive! [ HTTP | FTP | index page ]
Most emulators are now available directly from the "The BBC lives!" archives. Note that the original distribution sites are linked to below, when possible. If a emulator software link doesn't work below, you'll still probably find it in this archive.
Here's a legend that explains the various icons used.
| Emulator name | 6502Em |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.50 |
| Authors | Mike Borcherds for Warm Silence Software |
| Emulates |
![[BBC A]](img/beeb-a-icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[BBC B]](img/beeb-b-icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[Master]](img/master-icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[Compact]](img/compact-icon.gif){kind=icon}
(![[Electron]](img/electron-icon.gif){kind=icon} soon)Sideways and shadow RAM |
| Platform | Archimedes, RISC PC |
| Price | commercial, UK£15 (no VAT to pay), UK£25 if combined with Z80Em. |
| Supports | ![[sound]](img/sound-icon.gif){kind=icon} ![[diskettes]](img/diskette-icon.gif){kind=icon} , tape (through additional interface), snapshot |
| Approx. speed | Beeb speed on ARM 3 and up, slowed a bit by scrolling |
| Implementation | ARM assembler |
| Homepage | ![[WSS]](img/wsslogo-icon.gif){kind=icon} by Robin Watts
|
| Download | Demo version available soon |
| Emulator name | 65Host |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.20 (18 May 1992) |
| Authors | Acorn |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | Archimedes, RISC PC |
| Price | free |
| Supports | , sideways RAM |
| Download | It's on the Risc OS 3.1 Support Disk 2, in the !65Host directory. To extract the disk on other platforms, you'll need nspark. |
| Emulator name | Acorn Atom Emulator |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.1 |
| Authors | Frans J. Faase |
| Emulates | Acorn Atom |
| Platform | UNIX/X (tested with Linux and SunOS 4.1) |
| Price | free (under the GPL) |
| Supports | B/W graphics modes (not color), loading/saving of images |
| Implementation | C (inspired by Atari 800 emulator and Xbeeb) |
| Homepage | here - has much more Atom info |
| Download | version 0.2 |
The Atom will be supported to the full extent on these pages, but as the number of actual Atom users out there is quite small, I don't expect my workload to increase notably. If anything is contributed, I will happily make a software for the Atom as well.
The Atom ROMs are evidently quite hard to get hold of. I hereby shamelessly ask if anyone out there could send them to me?
BBC Environment Emulator
| Emulator name | BBC Environment Emulator (?) |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.01AR |
| Authors | Tris 'Mad' Mabbs, © 1985 BTMsoft |
| Emulates | BBC BASIC |
| Platform | Atari 520 ST |
| Price | Public Domain |
| Supports | BBC BASIC, access to ST file system, no 6502 support, limited graphics |
| Approx. speed | really slow |
| Implementation | C |
| Download | here |
According to Tom Seddon, this emulator is rather useless due to a
number of bugs, and overall slowness (pure C implementation). It supports a
maximum of 4 colors, and a maximum of 640x200 pixels (probably mono).
Tom also knows of another, similar emulator for ST, written by Tim
Titchmarsh, doing a not very good job of emulating the 6502 and
running the original BASIC 2 ROM.
BBC BASIC
| Emulator name | BBC BASIC |
|---|---|
| Version | 4.02 (last one I saw) |
| Authors | Richard Russell |
| Emulates | BBC BASIC 2 |
| Platform | DOS (x86), C/PM (Z80)... any more? |
| Price | commercial - price unknown |
| Supports | BBC BASIC, graphics (x86: CGA modes only), sound (x86: internal speaker only), file system access, Intel assembly. May vary between versions. |
| Approx. speed | fast |
| Implementation | assembly/C? |
| Download |
Only for "checking out": BBC BASIC(86) 3.00 BBC BASIC(86) 4.00 Einstein BBC BASIC 2.31 (C/PM - Z80) PC BBC BASIC 4.02 BBC BASIC for Commodore 64 (.P00 format for PC64 emulator - probably unrelated to the "official BBC BASICs") |
Quite nice and fast, as long as you don't need 6502 or hardware emulation.
BBC386
| Emulator name | BBC386 |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.0 (unreleased - presumed dead) |
| Authors | Stephen Quan |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | DOS (386) |
| Supports | Runs OS 1.2 and BASIC. No hardware emulated. |
| Implementation | Both C and 386 assembler versions |
| Download | here |
| Emulator name | BBC 6502 Emulator |
|---|---|
| Version | 15/2/92 |
| Authors | eb134@uk.ac.city (defunct) |
| Emulates | 6502 + some OS 1.2 |
| Platform | DOS/Windows |
| Supports | BASIC ROM, some OS calls, simple text only |
| Approx. speed | quite slow |
| Implementation | Turbo Pascal |
| Download | Windows 3.0 version |
I'm including this 6502 emulator, because the author has taken care to
make sure BBC BASIC runs "satisfactorily".
BBCEm
| Emulator name | BBCEm |
|---|---|
| Version | unreleased - presumed dead |
| Authors | Nigel ??? (site seems to have disappeared) |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | Archimedes |
| Implementation | ARM assembler |
If anyone has any information at all about this emulator software or its author, please drop me a line or two.
Beeb
| Emulator name | Beeb |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.0 |
| Authors | James Bonfield and Steve Youell (8271 emulation) |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | Unix, X optional |
| Price | free |
| Supports | ![[disk images]](img/disk-image-icon.gif){kind=icon} , sideways RAM, text mode only |
| Implementation | C |
| Download | Version 1.0, Version 1.2.1 alpha |
| Emulator name | BeebEm / BeebWin |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.06 beta |
| Authors | David Gilbert (Emulation and UNIX/X) Nigel Magnay (Windows port) |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | Probably any UNIX with X and gcc, Win32 (Win95, NT, 3.11+32s) |
| Price | free |
| Supports |
(read-only), in Linux version 0.06 beta |
| Approx. speed | Beeb speed on a P90 |
| Implementation | C (C++ at user interface level) |
| Homepage | Nigel Magnay's BeebEm page |
| Download |
UNIX/X sources, version 0.06 (no executable) UNIX/X sources, version 0.04 (no executable) Win32 sources, executables, version 0.04 Robert's BeebWin 0.04 (faster, better looking - now includes sources) |
Notes on BeebWin 0.04: Two pre-compiled executables are provided in the example-intel-binaries directory. BEEBWIN.EXE requires WinG, and supports 256-color, HiColor (15 or 16 bit) and TrueColor (24 or 32 bit) video modes. BEEBNWG.EXE uses standard Windows API calls, but requires that you use a 256-color video driver, and is slower.
My own patched and recompiled version is the last item in the Download
box. It has (1) correct aspect ratio
for modes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (killing modes 0 and 3, but few programs
use them),
(2) a decent mode 7 font, (3) working backspace and tab
keys, (4) every second frame skipped (for speed) and (5)
optimized for speed by VC++ 4.0. At last an emulator which is good
enough to play BBC games with under Windows 95/NT (on a P-90... ;-)!
For most purposes I recommend this version. It is completely
unsupported by anyone, however.
BPC
| Emulator name | BPC |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.00 - unreleased |
| Author | Mark Cooke |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | DOS (on 486 and up) |
| Implementation | 486 assembler |
Mark seems to have resumed working on BPC.
em6502
| Emulator name | em6502 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Neil Pollard |
| Emulates | 6502 |
| Platform | UNIX/X11R4+ |
| Supports | OS 1.2 (with some cheats), text mode, keyboard, paged ROMs (like BASIC), but no gfx or sound |
| Implementation | C |
| Homepage | here |
| Download | here |
| Emulator name | Horizon (formerly MacBeebEm) |
|---|---|
| Version | MacBeebEm 1.2 Horizon 1.0 |
| Author | Chris Lam |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | Apple Macintosh |
| Price | MacBeebEm 1.2 is free Horizon 1.0 is shareware (UK ú15) |
| Supports | Emulated cassette on Mac disk (each file has a header). Horizon has improved speed, full screen mode, sound, speed-o-meter. (Some features are disabled in the demo.) |
| Implementation | Think C 6.00 |
| Homepage | Horizon homepage |
| Download |
Horizon 1.0 demo MacBeebEm 1.2 |
For those die hard BBC fans using PCs, Executor will let you emulate an Apple
Macintosh under DOS. I've successfully run MacBeebEm 1.2 on it - just
for fun. It was too slow in Executor to be of any fun, though.
Model-B
| Emulator name | Model-B (?) |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.3 |
| Author | Tom Seddon |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | DOS, 386+ (486 & local bus graphics card recommended), VESA driver req. |
| Price | free |
| Supports | , file system (through proprietary disk image format), complete mode 7 |
| Approx. speed | 75-130% (avg. 110%) Beeb on a
486DX2-80 150-300% (avg. 200%) Beeb on a P-90 |
| Implementation | djgpp |
| Homepage | here |
| Download | here |
The first decent BBC emulator for DOS is released - this should please many. Included is a conversion utility for Wouter's "archive" format, and more. This new version fixes most (?) incompatibility problems, and adds sound support. Rumors say that installing EMM386 and SMARTDRV before running the emulator is a good idea, though it runs fine for me without any of them, in both DOS and Windows 95.
Tom is still in lack of a catching name for his emulator, so if you have a suggestion, mail him (click his name above).
Owl
| Emulator name | Owl |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.0 |
| Author | Ian Stephenson |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | NeXTStep |
| Price | free |
| Supports | , all modes (not split), ca. 60% of all
games, read-only FS |
| Approx. speed | 50%+ Beeb on 68K, worse on Intel |
| Implementation | ANSI C |
| Download |
Version 1.0 An early beta version (including code for the Apple ][ emulator Owl was based on) |
I'm interested in hearing experiences people have with Owl - I don't
have a NeXT available, so I'm unable to test it.
The Emulator
| Emulator name | The Emulator |
|---|---|
| Version | unknown ("early 90's") |
| Author | James Associates (are they still in business??) |
| Emulates | BBC BASIC 2 and DFS |
| Platform | Amiga (68000) |
| Price | apparently commercial, sold by Commodore at some stage |
| Supports | BASIC and 6502 emulation, some VDU, graphics (all modes) and sound, printing, RS232, access to Amiga file system. No hardware or direct screen access - i.e. no real games work. |
| Approx. speed | BASIC: about 800% Beeb, 6502: 40-60% Beeb (depending on the Amiga, of course) |
| Implementation | 68000 code to run BASIC and all the important OS calls. The blitter for text output. A patch is needed to run on the 68020-40. |
Thanks to Tom Seddon for most of this information!
TOL - The Owl Lives
| Emulator name | The Owl lives (TOL) |
|---|---|
| Version | unreleased - and won't be for some time |
| Author | Chris Rae |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | UNIX (DOS/Win ports in the future?) |
| Implementation | C |
| Homepage | here |
| Emulator name | Xbeeb |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.3 |
| Author | James Fidell |
| Emulates | , ( optional at compile time) |
| Platform | Any (?) with ANSI C and Xlib. Amiga. |
| Price | free |
| Supports | emulated (disk) file system in any host
directory (with index file), snapshot, alpha stage
under Linux (using VoxWare) |
| Approx. speed | 130% Beeb on a VLB 486DX2 300% Beeb on a PCI Dell P90 |
| Implementation | C (with Xlib) |
| Homepage | here |
| Download | Xbeeb 0.3 sources
Robert's Xbeeb 0.3 for Win32/X (requires X client libraries for Win32 and an X server!) ABeeb (Amiga version) Older versions, and patches to version 0.3 |
The Xbeeb 0.3 for Win32/X above was compiled by me. It is completely
unsupported by anyone.
? (unnamed)
| Emulator name | ? |
|---|---|
| Version | unreleased |
| Author | Richard Broadhurst |
| Emulates | |
| Platform | PC (UNIX and Mac later?) |
| Approx. speed | 120% Beeb on a 486DX50 |
| Implementation | ANSI C |
With complete 6502 emulation and most of the video emulation working, there's still a lot of work left on this one. The author hopes to use this emulator as a degree project, and it might even end up being used in a computer systems architecture course. Don't expect to see much until after the summer.
Let me know of links that don't work!