A lovely, compact and impressively decent machine the Acorn Electron and it always had brilliantly packaged software. You can grab one for cheap pretty easily too, though this particular Acorn Electron auction is definitely worthy of your attention. Said Electron seems to be in great shape, comes with all necessary leads, a few boxed games (including the excellent Planetoid and Starship Command), more software & tapes and quite a few interesting extras. Seller ships within Europe only.
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My first micro was an Acorn - a BBC model B to be exact, and great machines they were as well. Incredibly powerful for the time, the Acorn BBC computers were practically compulsory in British schools. The Electron was a lovely little machine, a slightly cut down version of the BBC micros, they were intended t be Acorn's answer to the Spectrum. Sadly, they were a bit late to market and many were returned to Acorn unsold. But nevertheless, a great example of the incredibly diverse range of early British microcomputers.
ReplyDeleteA BBC B eh? Now, that was a truly impressive machine. And it sure was bulky enough to feel like a proper computer. I do thus hope you're still attending to its humble wishes....
ReplyDeleteAs for the Electron, it didn't fare that well, but I still want one. A lovely micro.
Oh yes, the BBC B was a powerful beast. I was six or seven when we got it. Can't remember how much it all was, but Dad got a massive £50 rebate available to BBC staff who bought one (he was a producer at the time). That computer taught me to read a clock, program in BBC Basic and a variety of other things. But being a young boy, I was mostly interested in the rathe fabulous variety of games. Invaders, Snapper, Chuckie Egg, Mr Do! - all great games. I can remember vividly my Dad creating a map of Colditz Castle so we could navigate that particular text adventure and the excitement as I discovered a secret spiral staircase that led to the next level, or working out that if we dropped the ham in front of the guard dog, it'd be distracted enough for us to slip by. Or Aviator, an incredibly complex flight simulator which took ages to master. Mostly taking off though. Turning and landing was a bit more tricky. I tried it with a joystick once, for a more authentic feel. Didn't work. Crashed instantly. :D
ReplyDeleteSadly the BBC died after a few years. A fault with the Power supply meant it refused to switch on. This led to the purchasing of a Sinclair Spectrum +2A and in turn, an Amiga 500. I still play the odd game of Chuckie Egg on the Mac though, thanks to an emulator... ;D
Ah, that was a lovely nostalgic read with a bittersweet end... A dead BBC Micro, a Speccy +2, an Amiga 500 and even a contemporary Mac. Proper characters! BTW, have you thought of actually starting a blog dear Bob?
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