- Want to see the first computer I ever used?
This with it's clicky clacky keyboard
(clacks keyboard)
is a BBC B Micro
with 32 K, that's kilobytes of memory.
They were prevalent in schools in the 1980s.
I learned basic on this.
Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
10 print Hello, 20, go to 10.
Yeah, we did that.
And recently I got this one out of storage.
Sad face, doesn't work
but recently I downloaded an emulator in a Heathrow video.
I made a while back, but
in the early days it was all still very, you know, basic.
I joked about drawing maps instead of using after effects.
And I simulated using a BBC emulator.
What if you use the draw and plot VDU commands
on a BBC micro to draw some lines on a map.
And that just made me think, use the emulator completely.
Could I draw a tube map
zone one area only
on a BBC micro B emulator.
(upbeat music)
So the brilliant emulator that I've downloaded to
do this is called BeebEM, there is of course
a link in the description.
I then also downloaded a PDF manual to remind myself
of the commands that let you draw graphics such
as mode, draw, move, and GCOL.
And this will let me draw the tube map.
The first thing that I'm choosing to do is to work
in graphics mode two, because it says
that it gives you 16 colours, but really it's eight colours
because the other eight are flashing.
And that just looks terrible.
So I'm limited to drawing 11 different colour tube lines
by using only eight colours.
If I had the background black I'll have to use white
for the Northern line.
And if I use a white background, then I can't use white.
So really it's only seven colours.
Now they are red, green, yellow
blue magenta cyan, and white.
And here's how I'll be matching them up against the lines.
And yes, that means there's obviously some duplicates.
Also the number of pixels in this mode is 12,000 across
by 1000 up with 0,0 in the bottom left-hand corner.
So it's just a simple case of choosing the right colour
and then drawing a line to the right coordinates
which means actually first I'm going to sketch out
on a piece of graph paper so that I know what I'm doing.
(keyboard clacks)
(pens clatter)
(8-bit music)
So amusingly as I start, I feel
like it might be useful to put
in some REM comments here, remarks,
even though at the same time,
that also feels vaguely ridiculous.
Now the traditional way to programme basic is to
use line number starting at 10,
and going up in increments of 10,
that allows you to insert things
in the fives later, if you've missed anything out.
So I set the graphics to mode two.
I choose colour three, which is yellow
because I'm starting with the circle line
and then referring to my graph paper for the plot positions
and then simply use the move command to
set the point that I first wanted to draw from.
And then I used to draw command to draw a line
to the position that I wanted it to go.
And then that's what I do
for all the graph points on my graph paper
intermittently typing a run command occasionally
to see how it's coming out, if it's okay.
Correct any mistakes.
And then I save the file
and carry on with the next part of the programme.
(8-bit blaster sounds)
No, no, you got totally distracted halfway
through playing Asteroids, not me.
Now I've discussed this before, but
if you're ever trying to draw a tube met yourself
the best way is always to start with the Circle line
and then put the horizontal of the Central line in
and everything else will fall into place thereafter.
So that's what I did here.
Central line second, I then went with the Victoria line to
do one of the verticals.
That's easy, just six lines in all.
slight mistake there at the top
which I'll correct in a moment.
Then the Jubilee is nine lines.
That's quite easy.
The District and the Northern, whoever are quite tricky.
They've got the most lines I've got to plot and draw.
So I'll save those until the end.
And then you slowly build it up, adding in lines of code
with the draw and move and GCOL command.
Correcting any little mistakes as you go to build up
and draw the lines
of your tube map until it's all done like that.
Well, the zone one area anyway.
(8-bit music)
So I put a link in the description
to where you can download the emulator
for one of these from,
I do miss the boop boop noise that you
get when you turn these on, however, something amazing
during the course of making this video, I was chatting
to some of my friends about it, including my friend Martin.
Who's been in some of my videos before
and he went, "Oh, hang on Jeff.
I have some news for you."
- I've got some news for you Jeff.
That is a real conjured BBC yes.
- Where did you get that from?
How long have you had it?
- I bought that off eBay about 10 years ago.
Because uh, played with one as a kid.
And I just want to uh, reminisce.
- So Martin listen, favour.
- Go on.
- If I send over you my code
my basic code, either as in an email, or just copy
and paste or something, would you type it in for me?
And then get the tube map up
and running on your actual BBC computer?
- Yeah send it over to me somehow.
Uh, I'll type it.
And then we can see what it looks on a real machine.
- And so I emailed Martin the code.
I can't paste it.
And I gather he spent
about an hour typing it all in for himself.
Here's what happened.
(8-bit music)
So there you go.
That is the tube map drawn out first on graph paper
and then plotted onto a BBC B microcomputer it does
make me think if we were to change the scale, bring it down.
You could fit in more of the tube map.
Obviously we could add in the DLR and the overground
as well.
If you want to do that download the emulator, be my guest.
Tweet me if you do.
It's also making me think, are there other emulators
for other classic 8-bit and 16-bit computers
like those ZX Spectrum?
If you're a Spectrum fan and you want to
do that, do that as well, but that is it.
That is the tube map on a BBC microcomputer
(8-bit music)