Did you ever use any 'Acorn' computer like the BBC Micro?

[Deleted User]

Eligibility:
Did you use

BBC micro
Acorn Electron - cheap
Acorn Atom
Acorn Archimedes


I used a BBC Micro in camp2000 in 1987 for 5 days.
Doubtless I'll get clobbered for leaving some machine out but hey ho.

ath262

BBC Micro - models A and B
BBC Master
Acorn Atom

CoBo55

BBC Micro in WRTC 1983.. like our lecturer I hadn't a clue what I was at!!

Relikk

We had BBC Micro's in primary school in the very early 90's. Used to play Chuckie Egg and Bruce Lee on it during break times.

[Deleted User]

CoBo55 wrote: »

BBC Micro in WRTC 1983.. like our lecturer I hadn't a clue what I was at!!

Good lad.

WRTC student meself in 1996.

eddhorse

BBC Micros alright in school, year would have been around 1993 I'd say? Cant even count

Tom Mann Centuria

Played Oregon Trail (or similar kind of game to it, not 100% sure), on a BBC micro at lunchtime in school, and some maths game or another during school hours.

Retr0gamer

Most schools in the early 90s had a BBC micro because of the quins worth promotion. Unfortunately unlike in the UK they were underutilised.

KeRbDoG

BBC Micro
My local primary school got a few BBC Micros mid 90's after i left. They had no computers for students to use before this I think they got them to teach kids with subjects they needed additional help. The teacher had no idea how to use them and somehow got in contact with me and a friend to drop down and help them. I had no idea either and spend a morning tinkering and then showed them how to load software of 2.5 floppy disks. Educational software fun! I think we found a game or two in the mound of disks they had been given along with them.
We got bored or they kicked us out as they got the help they needed either way, I wasn't impressed but then the system was 16~ years old at the time.

CiDeRmAn

IRL I am a nurse in the field of intellectual disability and, during my training in Sligo during the opening years of the 1990's, the hospital I was based in had a room where a BBC-B was installed.
The great thing about the BBC-B was that it was the go-to device for special needs, such as custom controllers, switch plates on the floor or on the desk as well as a whole library of software to take advantage.
Before this such devices were entirely electro-mechanical, where a person would press a switch and it might light up or some other sensory stimulus delivered.
For most of that time, however, I was the only person using this with the residents.
I imagine it was bought, at some expense from a special needs specific company, installed with their most expensive gear and left to gather dust.

In the months before I completed my training and returned to Dublin, in 1993, they were replacing this computer with another, more powerful device...
I suggested an Amiga, or a PC... they bought an Archimedes...
Dang...

Skerries

I arrived home one day to find my ZX Spectrum 48k gone and a BBC Micro in its place
I was not best pleased as I had a shít ton of games for it.
So it came with a handful of games such as Revs, Elite and Strykers Run which I grew bored of and couldn't be arsed looking at the programming side of it which is what I presume my mum wanted me to
So a couple of months later I sold it for £150 and bought a ZX Spectrum 128K and went back to my big games collection
Happy Days!

The Last Bandit

Used a BBC back in school alright, it was the only computer allowed in class. Our computer room had Apple ]['s, C64, Vic-20 and a couple of TRS-80s which saw much more use.

Have an Electron and an Archimedes now though.

o1s1n

In primary school we had a computer room full of Apple computers in approx 1990/1991. I can't really remember what they looked like or what games we played on them (have been trying to wrack my brain for years!) - I just have a really vivid memory of an Apple logo on them all.

Must have cost an absolute fortune at the time, the security on the room was mental. Caged door and barred windows!

CiDeRmAn

o1s1n wrote: »

In primary school we had a computer room full of Apple computers in approx 1990/1991. I can't really remember what they looked like or what games we played on them (have been trying to wrack my brain for years!) - I just have a really vivid memory of an Apple logo on them all.

Must have cost an absolute fortune at the time, the security on the room was mental. Caged door and barred windows!

When I were a lad, about 6 years before you, and in Secondary, we had a room of Apple IIE computers, with the green screen monitors.
As I remember the go to game was Choplifter!

[Deleted User]

My fee paying secondary school had Apple || C's in the late 80s.

The cool game on that was a DEFENDER clone.

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

When I were a lad, about 6 years before you, and in Secondary, we had a room of Apple IIE computers, with the green screen monitors.
As I remember the go to game was Choplifter!

You have to wonder how a non educational game made it's way onto them!

I used to love fecking around with the Doom and Pinball Easter eggs in Office 95 and 97 in school. Showed them to everyone in the class and the teacher hadn't a notion how we were all playing 'videogames' in a locked down lab. :pac:

ginger_hammer

I had a BBC Micro with a double disk drive no less, as well as the tape drive. Loading screens would take ages but the graphics were great (?) at the time. Exile probably favorite game.
Later moved on to its big brother the Archimedes which is the first thing with a hard drive I ever had.

ednwireland

o level computing on a BBC micro and research machines z80.

the bbc was mighty for its day

[Deleted User]

ginger_hammer wrote: »

I had a BBC Micro with a double disk drive no less, as well as the tape drive. Loading screens would take ages but the graphics were great (?) at the time. Exile probably favorite game.
Later moved on to its big brother the Archimedes which is the first thing with a hard drive I ever had.

On a side note the SAM Coupe was the last 8 bit which could run 2 floppy disks simultaneously. Machine sold too late and in too few numbers to make any impact

Tom Mann Centuria

xieann wrote: »

On a side note the SAM Coupe was the last 8 bit which could run 2 floppy disks simultaneously. Machine sold too late and in too few numbers to make any impact

Really wanted a SAM Coupe, Miles Gordon Technology must have spent a few bob on adverts in Spectrum magazines. Wouldn't mind one now........

TinCool

We had a couple of BBC Micro's in my Primary School. This would have been mid to late 80's. Didn't think much of them at the time as I had a C64 at home.

ath262

ath262 wrote: »

BBC Micro - models A and B
BBC Master
Acorn Atom

we used BBC Micro for a system sold in work, the main application was in Machine Code (6502), and later we had a Hard Disc system using direct track/sector I/O, I also developed add on applications in BBC Basic.

The game I remember sending quite a bit of time on was Prince of Persia...

80s Synth Pop

There was a bbc micro game that came in three parts (disks) we used to play at school. Like grannies garden you had to solve puzzles and if you solved it you got a "dragons tooth". At the end of the first part if you had enough teeth collected it gave you a password to use for the next part.

We used to play this in 1st class. I've looked for it from time to time over the years but never found it. Does anyone remember it? Would love to see that again.

Then in 2nd class we got an amstrad pcw9512 and were all mad into dr logo drawing pictures with the turtle.
PU
PD
RT90
FD200

Thinking about it now we were actually being taught how to program when we thought we were playing a game dossing off school work. Must see if dr logo is available for the PC and try the young lad on it see what he thinks compared to roblox

vandriver

ednwireland wrote: »

o level computing on a BBC micro and research machines z80.

the bbc was mighty for its day

Research Machines 380Z?(Or its replacement the 480Z?)
I learned basic on one and wrote a sweet snake game.

Muppet Man

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

There was a bbc micro game that came in three parts (disks) we used to play at school. Like grannies garden you had to solve puzzles and if you solved it you got a "dragons tooth". At the end of the first part if you had enough teeth collected it gave you a password to use for the next part.

We used to play this in 1st class. I've looked for it from time to time over the years but never found it. Does anyone remember it? Would love to see that again.

Then in 2nd class we got an amstrad pcw9512 and were all mad into dr logo drawing pictures with the turtle.
PU
PD
RT90
FD200

Thinking about it now we were actually being taught how to program when we thought we were playing a game dossing off school work. Must see if dr logo is available for the PC and try the young lad on it see what he thinks compared to roblox

Ya, remember being thought LOGO too... on Apple II e computers - as you say at the time I didn’t realise we were being thought how to program. Simple instructions and loop structures... “fond” memories of trying to draw a map of Ireland. Lots of LT and RT commands

clemop

I had a BBC Model B in the mid-80s. My Dad was able to get a computer through a scheme in work and had a choice of a Commodore 64 or the BBC B so he choose the educational one. Everyone else was swapping games and playing Ninja Gaiden and I was playing Elite and Aviator.

My school got some Model B in about 88/89 but the teachers had no idea how to use them. One of the teachers knew I had one and asked me about coding with BBC Basic. I explained to him that if they did a 'Load' on some of the early games instead of 'Run' to start them they could list the game code at the command line and review it. A few days later he stopped me in the corridor to tell me it didn't work. I told him I could go to his class and demonstrate it but he strangely enough wasn't interested in having a spotty 16 year old patronize him.

[Deleted User]

Well, seeing that this thread is still alive as the OP, thought I'd post this YouTube vid that just appeared this morning, in a games centric context


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByEyLZOn7ko

Graham

Happy memories of a BBC Model B at home in the early eighties. Over a few years upgraded from cassette to floppy to dual floppy to a whopping 4MB winchester drive with acoustic coupler to 300/300, 1200/75 modem for connecting to Prestel / Fido. Vague recollections of speech recognition/synthesis being added via en EPROM.

Still get a crick in the neck at the thoughts of docking in Elite.

Oafley Jones

TinCool wrote: »

We had a couple of BBC Micro's in my Primary School. This would have been mid to late 80's. Didn't think much of them at the time as I had a C64 at home.

This could have written by me.