BBC B

My third computer was a BBC B (the first two being a ZX Spectrum 48k and then a ZX Spectrum 128k). The BBC B computer was made by Acorn and when you turned it on booted straight in to BASIC which encouraged kids to learn programming.

10 PRINT "HELLO"
20 GOTO 10

The BBC B was the universal choice of computer for most schools across the UK for a good number of years and I believe some schools still use them now to teach programming and control.

Comments




have you guys ever thought of using the emulators (and the supporting 'memory lane' images of the graet games)that are available for the bbcb.
go to http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/ to set you off on a great memory journey.
roger526109-Dec-2010, 08:03:59 PM

The BBc Micro was a great machine. The thinking-kid's Spectrum!

Rich Hampson 15-Feb-2007, 09:41:49 PM


Not so much the thinking kid's Speccy, more the rich kid's!
Dave T18-Sep-2010, 10:32:14 AM

I upgraded to a BBC from an Electron, and two things immediately struck me - How much faster the BBC was (Electron games played onto it would go as fast as lightning), and the better sound (the BBC could play chords, which the Electron couldn't). One thing that concerned me was the constant hissy noise the machine produced, which would get progressively louder and be accompanied by an overheated smell the longer I left it on!

One of the things I enjoyed most was not the flashy games (if BBC graphics could ever have been described as "flashy"!), but the old text-only adventure games, in which you would explore some magical world, picking up and using various objects in order to complete a quest of some kind. All you had were words on a screen, so instead of seeing your enchanted kingdom in the detailed images that computers are capable of these days, you just had to use your imagination!
Marks07-Oct-2008, 06:43:17 PM

I remember getting a Beeb to replace our Acorn Electron. I almost needed a new desk as it was huge. I mainly had computers for the games, and there were some classics on this machine. I loved the Repton series of games, all about a chap with an egg shaped head who eat earth and collected things. Bizarre but brilliant. Then there were others such as Ghouls ( a spooky platform game), Citadel (a mammoth adventure game), Escape from Moonbase Alpha (with killer robots, or something similar) and Pole Position (Formula 1 racing game), just to name a few. The BBc Micro was a great machine. The thinking-kid's Spectrum!
Rich Hampson15-Feb-2007, 09:41:49 PM

Most people remember the BBC Micro from school, complete with disk drives, 'tractor' printer and Microvitec Cub monitor. It is a pity that the PC has been left out of this memory fest because at school the world of PC and BBC would often merge. The RM Nimbus series of 'educational' PCs had BBC BASIC inbuilt, which I programmed with to be able to play fun little games on the school network, games which they seemed unable to find to delete so they were there for years. That sure beated bringing in your own software which would have been confiscated, as some kids found.
Michael Braisher13-Nov-2006, 02:50:55 PM

I'm glad someone else saw the superiority of Elite on the 'BBC B'. Myself and two friends spent litteraly days playing this game. This was the first computer we had at home, it was classic beige, with a CUB colour monitor in beige and eventually Viglen disk drives, also of course in beige. My fondest memories are of rushing home to type in "ch." and pressing play on the cassette player. Twenty minutes later, you were game-on for another go at Rocket Raid before dad got home. My father, being an engineer in these things, eventually upgraded the mother board in our machine to run at 20MHz with a whole 1MB of RAM and boy, did it ever get hot! He eventually fitted a fan system onto the top panel, it was quite a thing at the time.You may be frightened to learn that parts of our armed forces weapons systems were designed on it. You may be even more frightened to learn that he only stopped using it a couple of years ago! I learnt networking at college with these machines and remember the day when my college tutor declared that at 5MHz, this blistering speed was a fast as microprocessors would go.I pointed out his error, but looks of incredulity abound and i was brow-beaten into submission. I wonder where he is now? Probably GCHQ! I salute this machine and in tribute, i would like you all to gaze in awe at the Sea Harrier, Panavia Tornado and yes, even the Typhoon Eurofighter and give thanks to the BBC model B for its amazing versatility.
steve20-Jan-2006, 09:04:52 PM

I still have my BBC B, which was my first computer. During the 80s I was in a computer club. At the time most other members had Commodore C64, ZX Spectrums, etc. I remember running Elite on my BBC and another running the same game on the Commodore 64, and the BBC version ran faster. Talking about the C64, I seem to remember seeing a version of the C64 as a transportable with a 6 inch! screen and a 5.5inch disk drive in a case. The keyboard formed the lid of the case.
David Reed07-Sep-2004, 08:23:11 PM

eBay

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