The BBC and Master Computer Public Domain Library
Supporting the BBC B, B+, Atom, Electron, Master 128 and Master Compact
Born in 1990 and on the internet from 05/03/1997, 8BS is for 8 bit Acorn computer enthusiasts and has over 14,000 disc images of free software. Is for PC users with BBC emulators. Produced 67 free disc based magazines and has downloads of software, pictures, manuals and stuff I have forgotten about totalling more than a shocking 65 gig and rising at an alarming rate.
The Latest News
Or read it from 1997 to now.
20/11/2024 Two new additions to the TBI section of the downloads. TBI-222 Enigma and TBI-223 Paranoia. Two excellent games well worth a look at. Thanks to Dave Edwards for finding these and sending them to 8BS.
13/11/2024 Added to the TBI section of the download catalogue:
TBI-217 The Animation Station Demos
TBI-218 The Arabic Demos
TBI-219 BBC Micro Wargames
TBI-220 Jukebox. Some new tunes (to 8BS)
TBI-221 67 Discs of music from the Negative Charge PD library
All these thanks once more to Dave Edwards
Today, I re-examined and documented the size of 8BS and its pool of disc images. It is now over 65 gig on my hard drive from the last calculation of 50 a few years ago. The surprising thing I discovered though was the number of disc images 8BS sports. The main page proudly stated over 2000 for a number of years which was a guesstimate. Today, I did a proper search of the 8BS directory to discover the following:
14,941 images which break down into the following:
.DSD 2,226
.SSD 10,247
.ADL 894
.ADM 264
.ADS 1
.DOS 345
.ADF 142
.UEF 684
.IMG 122
.640 7
.800 9.
That represents a lot of individual files (it must be hundreds of thousands) and a lot of work from a lot of people. It's great to be part of a community preserving this stuff.
12/11/2024 TBI-215 added to the downloads. The complete archive of BBC Micro games published in the monthly magazine C&VG (Computer & Video Games). The zip contains both the DFS and ADFS versions of the collection. Thanks to Dave Edwards for sending this to us. The Model B Computing (MBC) section of the library has been updated, so if you downloaded any of these discs before 0850 today, please delete these and download them again. The DSD images are now SSD. TBI-187 text adventure updated with a second disc image added. The new version is single loading and uses Mode 7. So for compatibility with the Electron, the original multi loading version is included in the download. TBI-216 added to the downloads, 2 discs of images converted by Image2BBC. Thanks to Dave Edwards for sending these.
11/11/2024 Thanks to Dave Edwards and The Organ Grinder's Monkey for an update to TBI-181, a further demo added to The Ricky Gervais Show. Thanks once again to Dave Edwards for sending a new addition to the TBI section. TBI-214. A disc of recursion demos by Jan Vibe. Taken from the BBC Lives! website many years ago.
10/11/2024 Dave Edwards has sent 5 collections to add and update to the PD Library. Thanks Dave.
1. Update to the Acorn Programs Discs (APD) section. We now have issues 2, 3 and 6 added. Issue 5 is updated with the BBC B versions added as previously only the Electron versions were on this disc.
2. TBI-212 added to the TBI section. The Laserbug Collection. A collection of all the PD games that were published in Laserbug magazine, a mail order magazine from the early Eighties.
3. TBI-213 This is a collection of Public Domain stuff that Dave Edwards has put together from a number of places. It is the library of 0xc0de. 0xc0de was a prolific Acorn Electron games developer and "tinkerer". Dave has put all of his projects onto a set of six single sided menu-driven compilation discs all zipped into one download.
4. A new section to the 8BS PD library. PCW Popular Computing Weekly. Compiled into 6 single sided discs by Dave. Containing early works of people that went on to write popular games.
5. Another new section is TWM Tom's Walker's Music Library. Originally released in 2010, these discs were only available for a short period of time but fortunately were preserved by Dave E and sent to 8BS.
12/10/2024 Dave Edwards has sent a further 6 disc images. This time, the rest of the BeeBug cover tapes put on to single sided disc images. Volume 1 Issues 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 to add to 4 and 5 that he sent last time. Now available in the BUG section of the download catalogue. Thank you Dave, amazing work. Dave promises there is a lot more stuff to follow too.
10/10/2024 Dave Edwards has recovered from two tapes, two very early Beebug companion tapes and put the contents on to two disc images now included in the BUG section of the 8BS download catalogue. They are from Beebug Volume 1 and are issues 4 and 5. Thanks again Dave.
10/10/2024 Thanks again to Dave Edwards for updating The Model B Computing Companion tapes and discs. If you previously downloaded these, please delete your downloads and take copies of these new ones as Dave has updated the menus. I have made a change to the disc download catalogue. TBI-199 that contained the MBC discs is now removed from the catalogue and a new section MBC is created to hold the Model B Computing section.
06/10/2024 Thanks to Dave Edwards for sending the 46 Acorn related 'Your Computer' companion discs to 8BS. They are available in the download catalogue in a new section 'YCM'. Volume 04 Issue 08 does not exist, apparently due to industrial action at the time.
04/10/2024 Thanks again to Dave Edwards for transferring all of the Model B Computing Magazine tapes to disc. The 10 DSD disc images are now available within the original download in TBI-199. This includes all of the tape images in .uef format and issue 8 which up to now had been missing from the 8BS library.
02/10/2024 Thanks to Dave Edwards for sending us a disc containing all 27 of the game type in programs from 'Games Computing' now available as TBI-211
28/09/2024 Thanks to Dave Edwards for a new addition to the TBI section. TBI-210 a disc of 9 games from various 'Personal Computer' magazines
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