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Description
Introduced in 1981, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Microcomputer could be purchased in one of two variants, namely as a sixteen kilobyte machine, or a thirty-two kilobyte version. Designed by Allen Boothroyd it was created as part of the British Broadcasting Corporations computer literacy project, with the firmware and software for the machine being provided initially by Acorn Computers Limited, and their software division, Acornsoft.

I actually owned one of these marvelous machines, with mine being purchased for £350.00 ($412.00) in 1984 when I finally got to go to computer college in the West London town of Southall, Middlesex, England. The BBC Micro, or Beeb could be unpacked and immediately plugged into any domestic television set (if you did not own a dedicated monitor) and booted up simply by switching it on. From switch on to boot state, it was a little over two seconds, with the text-only interface displaying a > and a flashing __ which prompted the user to start typing.

The machine was a pre-GUI (graphic user interface) device, so instructions had to be entered directly into it via the keyboard. You could also attach a tape recorder to the appropriate port on the underside of the machine and load in programs that way, but the loading of a program typically took about twenty to thirty minutes. It is for that reason that I subsequently purchased a Disc Filing System 1770 (DFS) ROM (and later the 1772 model) and plugged it into the motherboard inside the machine. With the DFS in place, the Operating System ROM (containing the BASIC user language, and the machine code set necessary to run the machine) permitted the plugging in of a disc drive so that media could be loaded and saved in seconds, not minutes.

The features of the BBC Micro are many and varied, and if you want to read about them I strongly suggest you check Wikipedia, but it was a very versatile machine, with a 6502 processor at its heart (the same processor was also used in the Commodore 64). It could accommodate a second processor, the 6502 and 65C02 co-processor unit, a TELETEXT compatible device that permitted the Beeb to receive and read TELETEXT pages. A modem that plugged directly into the phone line and permitted access to the Bulletin Board Service (BBS) - the distant ancestor of the World Wide Web and subsequent Internet. It was also possible to attach musical instruments, synthesizers, video hardware, and use it for many other purposes.

In all, it was a very good investment, although I predominately played video games on it, with the video game ELITE being the reason for my purchase back in 1984 when it was released.

Artwork produced by JB © Copyright 1980-2022. Unauthorized usage or adaption is strictly forbidden without permission requested in writing.

Description
Introduced in 1981, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Microcomputer could be purchased in one of two variants, namely as a sixteen kilobyte machine, or a thirty-two kilobyte version. Designed by Allen Boothroyd it was created as part of the British Broadcasting Corporations computer literacy project, with the firmware and software for the machine being provided initially by Acorn Computers Limited, and their software division, Acornsoft.

I actually owned one of these marvelous machines, with mine being purchased for £350.00 ($412.00) in 1984 when I finally got to go to computer college in the West London town of Southall, Middlesex, England. The BBC Micro, or Beeb could be unpacked and immediately plugged into any domestic television set (if you did not own a dedicated monitor) and booted up simply by switching it on. From switch on to boot state, it was a little over two seconds, with the text-only interface displaying a > and a flashing __ which prompted the user to start typing.

The machine was a pre-GUI (graphic user interface) device, so instructions had to be entered directly into it via the keyboard. You could also attach a tape recorder to the appropriate port on the underside of the machine and load in programs that way, but the loading of a program typically took about twenty to thirty minutes. It is for that reason that I subsequently purchased a Disc Filing System 1770 (DFS) ROM (and later the 1772 model) and plugged it into the motherboard inside the machine. With the DFS in place, the Operating System ROM (containing the BASIC user language, and the machine code set necessary to run the machine) permitted the plugging in of a disc drive so that media could be loaded and saved in seconds, not minutes.

The features of the BBC Micro are many and varied, and if you want to read about them I strongly suggest you check Wikipedia, but it was a very versatile machine, with a 6502 processor at its heart (the same processor was also used in the Commodore 64). It could accommodate a second processor, the 6502 and 65C02 co-processor unit, a TELETEXT compatible device that permitted the Beeb to receive and read TELETEXT pages. A modem that plugged directly into the phone line and permitted access to the Bulletin Board Service (BBS) - the distant ancestor of the World Wide Web and subsequent Internet. It was also possible to attach musical instruments, synthesizers, video hardware, and use it for many other purposes.

In all, it was a very good investment, although I predominately played video games on it, with the video game ELITE being the reason for my purchase back in 1984 when it was released.

Artwork produced by JB © Copyright 1980-2022. Unauthorized usage or adaption is strictly forbidden without permission requested in writing.