dogwomble
11-03-2007, 01:05 PM
Outside of the educational market, the BBC Micro was never hugely popular, which is surprising considering what the machine was capable of. There were numerous versions of this machine released from 1981 until 1986, when they started being replaced with the newer Acorn Archimedes RISC machines and the BBC Master series.
The machine started out in the early 1980’s. In the UK, the BBC ran a series known as The Mighty Micro, which covered the capabilities of the 8-bit computers of the time. They wanted to follow this up with a series that was known as the BBC Computer Literacy Project, to teach people the concepts of computing. They wanted to cover such things as programming, graphics, music, artificial intelligence, and other advanced computer topics. As there were no machines capable of performing all these tasks, they put out a proposal detailing what was for it’s time a quite hefty list of requirements, and asked for someone to design a machine to meet all these requirements.
There were several machines that came forward. One was the Grundy NewBrain, presented by Sir Clive Sinclair. It was rejected. However, one that shone above all others was the Acorn Proton, which was being developed as an upgrade to their Atom computer. To cut a long story short, not only did it meet the requirements of the BBC, it exceeded almost all of them. (Side note: It is rumoured that the BBC initially rejected the Proton, but it was later presented back to them, the only change being that the programmable function keys were painted orange, after which they accepted it. It is still not clear whether this is true or not).
The machine was initially released in two versions, the Model A and the Model B. The Model A came with 16kb RAM, 4 graphics modes, tape interface, four channel sound, and a few options for monitor output. The Model B came with 32kb RAM, 8 graphics modes, tape and (usually) disk interface, four-channel sound, serial and parallel interfaces, user port for custom applications, analogue interface for joysticks, 1MHz bus for connecting up high-bandwidth devices such as Hard Drives, and an interface known as the Tube for connecting up a second processor, for example a 6502 or Z80 chip. An optional Econet interface for networking was also available.
The graphics modes on the BBC Model B ranged from a 40 column x 25 line screen of 240x250 pixels in 8 colours, a 20 column x 32 line screen of 160x256 pixels in 8 colours, up to 80 columns x 32 lines in 2 colours.
The Model A went on sale in the UK for £235, while the Model B went on sale for £335. Apart from a few small differences, the Model A was upgradeable to the Model B.
In the UK, the machine was an instant hit, particularly in the education market. One reason for this was that the machines were solidly built, so could take all the torture that school-aged kids threw at them. However, it was such a success that Acorn could not produce computers fast enough to meet demand. Acorn had initially predicted around 12,000 units being sold, but this eventually went to over 1 million.
An extremely large range of software was produced for the BBC. This included games such as Chuckie Egg and Repton, business software such as ViewEdit and Edword, and educational software. One advantage of the BBC was that it allowed for software to be installed on ROM chips, which were installed internally into the machine and ran completely from ROM. Due to the limits of only 16kb or 32kb of RAM, this approach was taken by writers of business software to keep as much memory free for data as possible.
Due to the (then) advanced features of the Econet networking interface, some of the earlier network games were designed for the BBC. Some of note are Nethack and Bolo. It is rumoured that the first ever networked game was played on a network of BBC Micros, but this has been unconfirmed.
Later on, in the mid-to-late 80’s, the BBC released the Master series. These machines came fitted with 128kb-512kb RAM, better support for hard drives, and support for 640kb 3.5” floppy disks as opposed to the older 5.25” floppies that were used on older models. Some of the higher end models were capable of running MS-DOS through a second 80186 processor.
While these machines had many features and uses beyond gaming, they had a large number of games written for them. These included the original version of Elite, various versions of Granny’s Garden (which is still being sold today as a PC version), a version of SimCity, the well remembered Chuckie Egg, Pacman, Overdrive, Dr. Who and the Mines of Terror, and many of the early network multi-players such as Nethack and Bolo.
The reliability of these machines means that some are still in use today. It is rumoured that the British rail system still use them for their public displays of timetables, and a BBC Model B+ has been observed at a water pumping station still in active use.
The machine started out in the early 1980’s. In the UK, the BBC ran a series known as The Mighty Micro, which covered the capabilities of the 8-bit computers of the time. They wanted to follow this up with a series that was known as the BBC Computer Literacy Project, to teach people the concepts of computing. They wanted to cover such things as programming, graphics, music, artificial intelligence, and other advanced computer topics. As there were no machines capable of performing all these tasks, they put out a proposal detailing what was for it’s time a quite hefty list of requirements, and asked for someone to design a machine to meet all these requirements.
There were several machines that came forward. One was the Grundy NewBrain, presented by Sir Clive Sinclair. It was rejected. However, one that shone above all others was the Acorn Proton, which was being developed as an upgrade to their Atom computer. To cut a long story short, not only did it meet the requirements of the BBC, it exceeded almost all of them. (Side note: It is rumoured that the BBC initially rejected the Proton, but it was later presented back to them, the only change being that the programmable function keys were painted orange, after which they accepted it. It is still not clear whether this is true or not).
The machine was initially released in two versions, the Model A and the Model B. The Model A came with 16kb RAM, 4 graphics modes, tape interface, four channel sound, and a few options for monitor output. The Model B came with 32kb RAM, 8 graphics modes, tape and (usually) disk interface, four-channel sound, serial and parallel interfaces, user port for custom applications, analogue interface for joysticks, 1MHz bus for connecting up high-bandwidth devices such as Hard Drives, and an interface known as the Tube for connecting up a second processor, for example a 6502 or Z80 chip. An optional Econet interface for networking was also available.
The graphics modes on the BBC Model B ranged from a 40 column x 25 line screen of 240x250 pixels in 8 colours, a 20 column x 32 line screen of 160x256 pixels in 8 colours, up to 80 columns x 32 lines in 2 colours.
The Model A went on sale in the UK for £235, while the Model B went on sale for £335. Apart from a few small differences, the Model A was upgradeable to the Model B.
In the UK, the machine was an instant hit, particularly in the education market. One reason for this was that the machines were solidly built, so could take all the torture that school-aged kids threw at them. However, it was such a success that Acorn could not produce computers fast enough to meet demand. Acorn had initially predicted around 12,000 units being sold, but this eventually went to over 1 million.
An extremely large range of software was produced for the BBC. This included games such as Chuckie Egg and Repton, business software such as ViewEdit and Edword, and educational software. One advantage of the BBC was that it allowed for software to be installed on ROM chips, which were installed internally into the machine and ran completely from ROM. Due to the limits of only 16kb or 32kb of RAM, this approach was taken by writers of business software to keep as much memory free for data as possible.
Due to the (then) advanced features of the Econet networking interface, some of the earlier network games were designed for the BBC. Some of note are Nethack and Bolo. It is rumoured that the first ever networked game was played on a network of BBC Micros, but this has been unconfirmed.
Later on, in the mid-to-late 80’s, the BBC released the Master series. These machines came fitted with 128kb-512kb RAM, better support for hard drives, and support for 640kb 3.5” floppy disks as opposed to the older 5.25” floppies that were used on older models. Some of the higher end models were capable of running MS-DOS through a second 80186 processor.
While these machines had many features and uses beyond gaming, they had a large number of games written for them. These included the original version of Elite, various versions of Granny’s Garden (which is still being sold today as a PC version), a version of SimCity, the well remembered Chuckie Egg, Pacman, Overdrive, Dr. Who and the Mines of Terror, and many of the early network multi-players such as Nethack and Bolo.
The reliability of these machines means that some are still in use today. It is rumoured that the British rail system still use them for their public displays of timetables, and a BBC Model B+ has been observed at a water pumping station still in active use.