Acorn Electron Upgrades | Plus 1 expansion, SD Interface & Joystick Adapter

I continue my journey in to the world of the Acorn Electron and pick up some accessories and modern upgrades to help me explore this classic computer.
A vintage "Plus 1" expansion - www.computinghi...
The "ElkSD Plus 1" SD interface cartridge - ramtop-retro.uk...
The Monster Joysticks "Retro Joystick BBC Micro / Electron Adapter" - monsterjoystic...
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#acorn #electron #accessories #elksd #plus1

[@RetroRecollections]

Thanks for watching. Loving the Acorn Electron but I need those more experienced than I to leave some comments regarding getting the full potential out of the machine. Perhaps creating Beeb.mmb files for the ElkSD Plus 1? Also which games have joystick support? 👍

[@ctrlaltrees]

I remember when I got my MMC solution set up for my BBC I spent a while looking for joystick games and was really surprised just how few there actually were. Anyway, I guess I'll get on and watch the video now 😄

[@RetroRecollections]

@@ctrlaltrees I heard some could be patched and mapped to keys (as i mention in the video) now this would be interesting!

[@ctrlaltrees]

I think I probably mentioned it on the last video but the Acorn Electron was my first computer. Had the Plus 1 expansion just like yours (although I don't remember plugging anything into it). I was going to suggest Repton as a good joystick-compatible game but I see you discovered it already! I'd also be keen to find out about patching joystick support into some other games, it doesn't seem like it would be too complicated. Perhaps I'd get a bit more use out of my BBC if that were the case.

[@ThePCPitChannel]

It was my first computer too :) I remember playing Starship Command a lot on cartridge

[@ctrlaltrees]

@@ThePCPitChannel Oh I loved Starship Command back in the day - revisited it recently and it's still great fun today!

[@danielson9579]

Nice video I've never owned an acorn electron or any acorns for that matter nice to see what they're about 🙂

[@RetroRecollections]

Thanks. I used a Beeb in school but I too need to learn more about them :)

[@danielson9579]

@@RetroRecollections I wanted to use one at school but there wasn't many and all the other kids where on em I think there where commands like shift *logo or something 🙂

[@EnkiAndInanna]

Nice work, Where could find help getting my rediscovered 1982 electron and expansion box running? I don’t have any cables for it.

[@SteDubya]

Nice review thanks for making

[@RetroRecollections]

Thanks for watching! :)

[@AlastairMontgomery]

Before I got a Plus1 for my Electron I had another digital joystick card which plugged to the expansion port. This came with software to map keypresses to the joystick. I don't remember anything similar for the Plus1 joystick though.

[@RetroRecollections]

Alastair Montgomery I have one of those and it came with a tape that did something similar. Obviously I can’t use it with the Plus 1 plugged in unfortunately.

[@AlastairMontgomery]

@@RetroRecollections Came across this quote on a page. "One of the easiest modifications that could be carried out on the Acorn Plus 1 Expansion was to replace the Acorn Expansion ROM (v1.00) with the Slogger Expansion ROM (v2.02) which contained several useful utilities which provided the ability to map a joystick to key presses for joystick support in games that didn't directly support them and other features such as support for loading and saving ROM images into Sideways RAM." So that might be an option if you could track one of those ROMs down.

[@RetroRecollections]

Alastair Montgomery aha brilliant I shall make enquiries! 👍🏻

[@AlastairMontgomery]

There is an image of the ROM on www.stairwaytohell.com getting it "blown" to an EEPROM is a different matter though ;)

[@KolTregaskes]

Great video and that SD add on looks extremely useful. I still have all my original cassettes for the Electron. It would be great to digitise them so I'll look to see if it's possible to record from the cassette to a PC. My first question, if I may, is what cable are you using to connect to the flat screen monitor?

[@chrisshipman6253]

For my Acorn Electron back in the 80s, I had a joystick interface that plugged into the rear edge connector (the Plus 1 was way out of reach). It required a machine code utility called ADVAL to work. I'm not sure whether that snippet of memory is of any use to you.

[@P5ychoFox]

I just bought that joystick adapter for my Beeb. There’s a 3D printable case for it online I think.

[@RetroRecollections]

Yes I have somebody on the case with that 👍🏻

[@ThePCPitChannel]

Unfortunately I've received two faulty adapters from Monster Joysticks now :( I Haven't been bothered since. Make sure you check all the directions on several games

[@ThePCPitChannel]

I really need a Plus1. They’re hard to find and expensive :(

[@RetroRecollections]

Yeah took me a little while to pick one up at a reasonable price.

[@AlastairMontgomery]

Not been able to source one either