21-09-2025, 08:26 PM
I am indebted to this board for reigniting my Microbee interest. So I have put together this post to mention a few tools and extras I have found useful in re-acquainting myself within Microbee territory using ubee512 in Windows 11. Newbies may find this helpful. Its been an interesting six week journey so far. Once again thanks to ChickenMan, Mbee Tech and ubee. I am standing on giants shoulders, veterans, who truly have walked a long distance with their microbee passion. The repository is truly an Aladdin's cave.
Apart from my UBEE512 folder, a MICROBEEBATCHFILES folder to run my various emulations, I have a MICROBEE folder which contains non .dsk, compressed, iso and documentation files, as well as screen shots of basic programs etc.
I have a 64gb sandisk card in the side of my laptop which is my backup for microbee stuff. 12 folders named August thru to July 2026 into which I dump my download, UBEE512 and Microbee folders, backup is so easy in 2025!
To view .lbr documentation and see inside other compressed files, I have a folder in my MICROBEE folder called LBR_folder. Inside is a program I have renamed A_cfx_32.exe, so it appears at top of file listings. Drop a .lbr file on the exe icon and it opens the lbr file. File is called cfx13_win32.zip See: http://justsolve.archiveteam.org/wiki/CFX
I have downloaded the walnutgrove.iso, HumongousCPM.iso, girvin_herr.zip, and cpmtools.iso, which have many utilities from years gone by. Particular finds include quit.com to exit back to windows from CP/M or Graphic Shell, and System to display free TPA and other stats. Of course many user group collections of software feature on those iso's as well. It's an amazing time to be alive. All this programming wealth - 1000s of programs and documentation in under 5gig.
HxD is on my windows desktop for quick and dirty editing of .dsk and .hd0 files. Warning: always use a backup copy of the diskfile you are editing which I name trial.dsk.bak, as deleting or inserting instead of replacing a character or string will most likely render the disk image unusable. Useful for changing shell.sys menu entries, looking at files within the diskfile etc. HxDsetup.exe See: https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
To edit .bat files I have installed edit.exe and its associated file edit.pdb in my microbeebatchfiles subdirectory. EDIT name.bat I find much quicker than typing notepad and edit.exe does NOT expect .txt by default. It has a lean DOS gui which appeals to me too. See https://github.com/microsoft/edit/releases/tag/v1.2.0
To run my batch files I have a dedicated Terminal Preview screen which I have customised with a "glass terminal" font and a background microbee.jpg. See https://github.com/microsoft/terminal and Glass_TTY_VT220.ttf @ https://www.spacerogue.net/wordpress/?p=356.
The ubee512 console allows 'hot swapping" disks. Use "-a disk_ds40/80/.dsk" or -b or -c ensure boot disk allows _ds40, ss80, or ds80 of course.
The other great line in batch files when I have files in windows folders: ubee512 boot_ds80.dsk --type=rcpmfs --format=ds80 -b.\z3plus --type=rcpmfs --format=ds80 -c.\z3extra where z3plus and z3extra are Windows Folder names in the UBEE512 directory. I also have a scratch folder. Quick way to access files that are stored in a windows folder.
The above have all made my emulation access easier with some eye candy as well.
Newbies: What's your favourite hints and tips in Microbee emulation?
Apart from my UBEE512 folder, a MICROBEEBATCHFILES folder to run my various emulations, I have a MICROBEE folder which contains non .dsk, compressed, iso and documentation files, as well as screen shots of basic programs etc.
I have a 64gb sandisk card in the side of my laptop which is my backup for microbee stuff. 12 folders named August thru to July 2026 into which I dump my download, UBEE512 and Microbee folders, backup is so easy in 2025!
To view .lbr documentation and see inside other compressed files, I have a folder in my MICROBEE folder called LBR_folder. Inside is a program I have renamed A_cfx_32.exe, so it appears at top of file listings. Drop a .lbr file on the exe icon and it opens the lbr file. File is called cfx13_win32.zip See: http://justsolve.archiveteam.org/wiki/CFX
I have downloaded the walnutgrove.iso, HumongousCPM.iso, girvin_herr.zip, and cpmtools.iso, which have many utilities from years gone by. Particular finds include quit.com to exit back to windows from CP/M or Graphic Shell, and System to display free TPA and other stats. Of course many user group collections of software feature on those iso's as well. It's an amazing time to be alive. All this programming wealth - 1000s of programs and documentation in under 5gig.
HxD is on my windows desktop for quick and dirty editing of .dsk and .hd0 files. Warning: always use a backup copy of the diskfile you are editing which I name trial.dsk.bak, as deleting or inserting instead of replacing a character or string will most likely render the disk image unusable. Useful for changing shell.sys menu entries, looking at files within the diskfile etc. HxDsetup.exe See: https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
To edit .bat files I have installed edit.exe and its associated file edit.pdb in my microbeebatchfiles subdirectory. EDIT name.bat I find much quicker than typing notepad and edit.exe does NOT expect .txt by default. It has a lean DOS gui which appeals to me too. See https://github.com/microsoft/edit/releases/tag/v1.2.0
To run my batch files I have a dedicated Terminal Preview screen which I have customised with a "glass terminal" font and a background microbee.jpg. See https://github.com/microsoft/terminal and Glass_TTY_VT220.ttf @ https://www.spacerogue.net/wordpress/?p=356.
The ubee512 console allows 'hot swapping" disks. Use "-a disk_ds40/80/.dsk" or -b or -c ensure boot disk allows _ds40, ss80, or ds80 of course.
The other great line in batch files when I have files in windows folders: ubee512 boot_ds80.dsk --type=rcpmfs --format=ds80 -b.\z3plus --type=rcpmfs --format=ds80 -c.\z3extra where z3plus and z3extra are Windows Folder names in the UBEE512 directory. I also have a scratch folder. Quick way to access files that are stored in a windows folder.
The above have all made my emulation access easier with some eye candy as well.
Newbies: What's your favourite hints and tips in Microbee emulation?