B2 Version 20260322

The release of b2 v20260322 is a cross-platform BBC Micro emulator for Windows, Linux, and macOS, allowing users to play classic BBC games or develop new software. Key updates include support for Master Compact with Arabic ROMs, auto-saving CMOS/EEPROM, and enhanced BBC B emulation. The update also introduces SCSI hard disk emulation, improved video accuracy, a lossless video recording feature, and several bug fixes, including 1770 FDC issues and improvements to the debugger. The user interface has seen changes like a general GUI scale and better support for high-DPI displays. Download is available.

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b2 v20260322 has been released! This versatile BBC Micro emulator lets you play your classic BBC games or create new software on your Windows/Linux PC or macOS computer.

b2 Changelog:
Emulation enhancements:
Added configuration for Master Compact with MOS 5.11i and Arabic ROMs
Implemented automatic saving of CMOS/EEPROM contents
Enabled emulation of the BBC B without a ROM board
Integrated MMFS support
Introduced optional audio low-pass filter
Provided SCSI hard disk emulation compatible with standard Acorn ADFS
Resolved 1770 FDC issues: corrected Watford DDB2/DDB3 double density; fixed general issues with Watford DDB2
Fixed timing issues with the 65c02 (resolves Chuckie Egg 2023)
Improved emulation of write-only I/O registers and empty ROM sockets
Addressed handling of 1 MHz memory regions for Master 128/Compact
Corrected occasional disk fault errors with Opus Challenger
Fixed video ULA address range
Enhanced Video NuLA accuracy
User Interface updates:
Added background opacity setting for LEDs pop-up
Included optional background economy mode to reduce CPU usage when b2 is not in focus
The GUI Font Size setting has been updated to a general GUI Scale, which is now a scale value instead of a pixel size. Please reconfigure it; apologies for the inconvenience!
(Linux) Fixed rendering problems when using the SDL3’s sdl2-compat library over SDL2
(macOS/Windows) Enhanced retina/high-DPI display support for a better visual experience
Significantly improved native file dialogs for suggested paths, previous folder memory, and file extension handling
(For high-DPI Linux displays, adjust the GUI scale to fit your preference. Auto-detection of a sensible value is challenging,
so b2 does not attempt it.)
Video improvements:
Added lossless video recording, generating a sequence of uncompressed TGAs and WAV files for later compression with tools like ffmpeg
Corrected video output aspect ratio
(macOS/Linux) Enhanced video audio quality by favoring FLAC (lossless) when available
(Windows) Improved video audio quality by supporting FLAC (lossless)
Debugger enhancements:
Added an error message for unrecognized HTTP API query parameters
Introduced configurable debugger syntax
Added initial support for symbols in the debugger, thanks to Mark Fisher
Supported breakpoints in I/O regions
Provided memory-mapped I/O views in memory and disassembly dialogs
Resolved debugger view issues for ROMs when using BBC B without a ROM board
Fixed handling of £ (ASCII 96 in the BBC character set) in the debugger
Fixed a potential crash when resizing the stack debug window to a minimal size
Enhanced debugger setting persistence (ongoing work)
Ongoing progress in symbols support.