Nigel Barnes

@pernod70.bsky.social

Emulation developer specialising in Acorn computers, also a pioneer of Psion SIBO emulation. If it's 8bit (or 16bit) and it's obscure and not emulated then I'm interested!

The Psion MC600 has been emulated in MAME for awhile now. We weren't aware of any software specifically released for it ... until now. We found mention that some DOS apps were released on SSD, ie. Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE III, then promptly found an SSD image of both apps, licensed to Psion!

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In the next MAME 0.289 release we have the rare Psion 618C emulated. It's a Psion Revo for Traditional Chinese regions. The standard Revo has 8MB ROM but this has 16MB which adds a couple of games and English<->Chinese translators. There's also a Psion 618S with Simplified Chinese yet to be found.

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Here's some emulation progress of the rare Wren Executive, only 1000 made. An interesting CP/M machine with 64K/256K RAM and graphics capabilities with colour attributes. It also came with BBC BASIC and had a 40 column mode with 8 colours for Prestel.

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With the latest video improvements in MAME 0.280 we can now also play with the PMS Genie ROM (with PMS Clock). It's quite an impressive package for the time with 32K battery-backed RAM to keep it's data safe.

The latest MAME 0.280 release has lots of BBC Micro improvements, fixing lots of silly issues, and is finally able to render Elite correctly. Another nice addition is the emulation of the Acorn speech upgrade, which currently no other emulator supports.

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Another ROM for the Psion Series 3mx was dumped yesterday, this is a Dutch version and will be supported in the next MAME release. We're always looking out for non UK versions of Series 3a/3c/3mx, and already have a few for the 3a/3mx but only a UK version of the 3c. Get in touch if you have any.

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A few months ago I started work on emulating the Psion Series 7. The machine starts to boot and confirms I have the palette and screen rendering implemented correctly, but still lots more work required to understand the hardware.

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We are VERY excited to announce our first major retro event - RetroFest 2025, to be held at STEAM, the GWR museum in Swindon on 31st May / 1st June. Over 40 exhibitors will be bringing a vast range of computers from the 70s, 80s and 90s. More info - retrofest.uk

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Today's MAME 0.275 release has some improvements to a couple of Acorn machines. I've done some work on the Electron ULA to improve video rendering (not yet cycle accurate), and FireTrack now scrolls smoothly. The Communicator also now has working MODE7 teletext using the SAA5040.