[Leaded Solder] took on an fascinating problem. The BBC, apparently, produced a sport console often known as the BBC Bridge Companion that related to your TV and helped you be taught to play Bridge again in 1985. At £200, we doubt many had been bought new, however there have been 9 ROM cartridges obtainable, presumably at an extra value. [Leaded Solder] doesn’t care about taking part in bridge, however determined to show the pc itself to play Tetris.
Inside is what you may count on for 1985. A Z80 and TI video chip, though naturally sufficient, it’s the PAL variant. With 16K of VRAM the machine would have been very succesful for its day. In contrast to some sport techniques, the Bridge Companion runs its personal code earlier than launching what’s on the ROM cartridge. That required a couple of evenings of reverse engineering to determine the proper header. In the meantime, the excess actual {hardware} wanted a fast restore on its cartridge slot earlier than he may check it with actual metallic.
There have been extra hurdles, together with adapting the PAL output for a composite monitor. Don’t miss the second part of the series for extra technical particulars, and we’ll be serious about following the posts to their conclusion later this month.
Oddly sufficient, we predict that is the primary time the BBC Bridge Companion has made an look on Hackaday. Nevertheless, we’ve had no scarcity of card shufflers.