What Browser and Audio Limitations Does jsbeeb Have?

jsbeeb works best in Chrome or Firefox, and its main audio limitation is that your browser may suspend sound until you click the mouse or press a key. The emulator itself is a static page, so the practical constraints come from your browser rather than from a server-side session.

Browser support

The site states plainly that it "works best in Chrome or Firefox." That is the only explicit browser guidance on the page, so treat other browsers as usable-but-untested rather than unsupported. If you hit rendering or input problems elsewhere, switching to a current Chrome or Firefox is the first thing to try.

Because jsbeeb is a static page served from an AWS bucket, there are no server logs and nothing is kept on the jsbeeb servers. That means browser choice affects performance and compatibility, not data retention.

Audio limitations

The page includes this notice:

Your browser has suspended audio -- mouse click or key press for sound.

Modern browsers block autoplay audio until the user interacts with the page. In jsbeeb this shows up as a suspended-audio message, and the fix is simply to click or press a key. Once you have interacted, sound should resume without further setup.

There is no separate volume or audio-settings panel described on the page, so if sound still does not play, check your system and tab mute state before assuming the emulator is at fault.

Controls and recovery options

The interface exposes several controls that matter when something goes wrong mid-session:

• Help – opens the in-page help panel.
• Fullscreen – expands the emulator view.
• Soft reset – restarts the emulated machine without clearing everything.
• Hard reset – a fuller reset of the emulated BBC Micro.
• Save state / Load state – capture and restore a session.
• Rewind – step back through recent emulation.

If audio or input behaves oddly after loading media, a soft or hard reset is a reasonable next step before reloading the page.

Risk and availability

The terms state that use of jsbeeb is "at your own risk, for whatever lawful purpose you wish," and that reasonable efforts are made to keep the site up to date and working. There is no uptime guarantee, and no account or login is required to use the emulator itself.

If you would rather not depend on the hosted page, the source is on GitHub, so you can run your own copy.

Quick checklist

In short: use Chrome or Firefox, expect to click or press a key before audio starts, and rely on the reset and save-state controls if a session goes wrong.