To give me a nice workhorse machine for playing games and other retro activities, I decided to build myself an uber-beeb, expanded as much as possible.

The starting point for this is one of my BBC Masters which I’ve fitted with the excellent RetroClinic Datacentre which provides a series of RAM disks, the ability to mount DOS formatted USB keys containing disc images, and a CF IDE hard disk interface. At the same time I fitted a new battery and a dual switch MOS, both also supplied by RetroClinic.

The datacentre’s ability to mount USB keys solves in one easy step the problem of transferring files from a modern PC onto the BBC. Disk images can be downloaded from the various BBC websites and dropped onto a USB key attached to the PC. The USB key can then be moved over to the BBC and the images imported into one of the datacentres 4 RAM disks. The reverse process is also possible allowing real media to be backed up to the USB key.

For traditional storage, a pair of 5.25″ floppy drives have been added and for display a CUB monitor.

Next up will be to add a 65C02 internal second processor, a cassette drive, joysticks and a modem.