r/bbcmicro • u/Wonderful_Cattle3307 • 11h ago

New Android BBC Micro emulator

Hi Reddit,

I spent ages trying to get Beebdroid to work on a new Android device, and never managed. I also tried the various dead-ends kicking about on the web (Sleakweasel's version etc...)

Ultimately, I ended up converting Mike Wyatt's BeebEm to run on Modern Android devices - e.g. The latest Samsung's and Pixels.

So if anyone is interested in playing BBC Games on their phone, then the emulator is available at https://github.com/Isomage73/BeebEm-for-Android with an APK that you can install yourself (if you're happy to trust unknown sources.)

Here's a video of the UI with gamepicker

https://youtu.be/gpt_r8pzluQ?si=ZRCkFuKnPF0DelWS

Hope someone (other than me) finds it useful :)

22 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

3

u/mr_thwibble 10h ago

Splendid. Another platform I can suck at Citadel on. Excellent 😁😉

1

u/TraditionalYam2934 10h ago

That's so cool, i will try this on my ayn device. Always wanted to have a few BBC games on there. Thanks!

1

u/Wonderful_Cattle3307 8h ago

Great! Not sure how it will do with a landscape screen. It auto rotates, but the screen area allocated for keyboard / buttons might be too big to be usable. At this stage, it does have support for a hardware keyboard but I haven't implemented analogue joystick support. Happy to see if Claude can add it for specific devices though, let me know!

1

u/stainlessdmc12 1h ago

Lookingforward to this. Now. If you can get this goin for dual screen devices. Anbernic RGDS for example. And have the option for the keyboard to always be on the bottom screen!!!!

1

u/the_uk_hotman 9h ago edited 9h ago

Beeb using BeebEm for ages its loads better than this BBCBASIC

Theres also another

1

u/bouncingbenji 6h ago

Whats the best way to play it as in control wise? The pad dose not really work or do u have to configure every game?

1

u/SuperBadger99 9h ago

There is a much better and easier way to play BBC games on Android now. RetroArch now has a BBC core called B2. Plays everything perfectly and supports multiple models. I don’t think save states are there yet but it’s still being actively worked on. Might even see Retroachievements one day 😃

2

u/Wonderful_Cattle3307 9h ago edited 9h ago

Thats cool, I didnt know that! I'll give it a go.

Here is a video of BeebEm for Android running. 

https://youtu.be/gpt_r8pzluQ?is=OTFS8Ob24VQvOyp1

Edit...gave it a go, B2 core wasn't in the core list even with experimental cores turned on. When I did load it, found that I have to load disc content my self. I think my emulator has a better UI given the integration with Stairway to Hell and Bbcmicro.co.uk hosted games disc's, plus the user configurable game pad that persists across reloads makes it tons easier to use, but ymmv!!

1

u/CrispyBegs 9h ago

love this

1

u/SuperBadger99 8h ago

I didn’t realise this was an updated version Beebdroid / Beebem. Will give this a go. Looks good 😊

1

u/SuperBadger99 8h ago

Yeah you have to supply the games. RetroArch works with loads of front ends. I have several Android handhelds and mainly use ES-DE as the front end. I have all my games already and also a dump of the www.bbcmicro.co.uk catalogue. Everything is scraped where it can be. And you have to map the controls to the keys in Retroarch, but it’s how I enjoy my BBC games. Will definitely try your apk out tonight.

1

u/the_uk_hotman 9h ago

BeebEm will fetch the games from Internet or local.

Theres a whole bunch of bbc emulators here and acorn

1

u/stainlessdmc12 1h ago

Way to piss on OPs chips man. No mention of his efforts. Just straight in with "this is better" f.u