Category Archives: Blog

The Acorn AIV Master computer used by the Domesday project was fitted with a specific SCSI adapter card in order to connect the Philips VP415 LaserDisc player to the computer. As there were a relatively low number of Domesday systems sold (and very few survive) these cards can be difficult (and expensive) to source. This project provides a drop-in replacement Continue reading Replacement Acorn SCSI AIV Adapter board→

The Front-Loader module (P) in the Philips VP415 Domesday LaserDisc player is a mechanical weak-point and is prone to damage when the player is transported. This project provides a modern replacement for the module made with durable, industrial-grade parts.  The replacement can be simply dropped into the player and requires no alteration.  As well as fixing existing broken players, the Continue reading Philips VP415 Replacement Front-Loader Module→

A number of Domesday related teletext pages from the BBC’s Ceefax pages have been recovered from the teletext archive.  You can view the pages by following this link. If you know of any pages we’re missing, please let us know!

This new release contains a redesigned 3_0 PCB providing three major new features: Elliptic 2nd order filter – greatly reduced aliasing and better overall gain performance across the entire sampling bandwidth Configurable gain – Design now includes a user-configurable gain setting allowing the board to work with the majority of LaserDisc player models (once adapted for direct RF output) 50 Continue reading Domesday Duplicator hardware 3_0 released→

Domesday86 is a project that aims to recreate the experience of the original BBC Domesday project using modern hardware and software. On this site you will find a growing collection of documentation for the original Acorn/BBC Domesday project as well as details of the Domesday86 project itself.  If you would like to read more about the BBC Domesday system or Continue reading BBC Domesday and the Domesday86 Project→

A new version of the Domesday Duplicator hardware (and associated software) has been released.  The new PCB is now smaller and more cost-effective to produce and features a clearer silkscreen layout to make the build process easier. The firmware and GUI have also been improved to support higher sampling as well as an improved GUI application with a clearer layout Continue reading Domesday Duplicator 2_2 hardware released→

The BeebSCSI 7_7 version board is an incremental improvement over the previous 7_5 version and is intended for professional PCB manufacturing.  The new features are as follows: Smaller PCB (66 x 51mm) Four M3 mounting holes (fits both Master AIV slot as well as external case mounting) Straight and right-angle configuration (all sockets and headers can now be right-angled if Continue reading BeebSCSI 7_7 Released→

The North Polar Expedition box set is the only laserdisc made specifically for the Acorn Domesday system that was not produced by the BBC.  Instead the laserdisc was produced by Virgin Media.  Although this is not a LV-ROM (the data was provided on two floppy discs), it is extremely rare and virtually no information has been available on the web Continue reading Rare North Polar Expedition Box Set added→

Continuing the effort to provide extensive technical documentation on the BBC Domesday system, a new section has been added detailing the individual modules present in the Philips VP415 Domesday Laserdisc player. Each module contains a description and a high-resolution photograph of the module.  More information will be added to the individual module pages over time (with the intent of providing Continue reading Philips VP415 Module Guide added→

I’m pleased to announce that the Domesday Duplicator project has finally reached release status.  The Domesday Duplicator is a sub-project of Domesday86 that aims to allow the creation of detailed (RF level) back-ups of the BBC Domesday AIV laserdiscs. The Domesday Duplicator is an open-source, open-hardware solution for direct RF capture of laserdiscs that allows the raw information on any Continue reading Domesday Duplicator released!→