BBC Micro - Did The UK Get Computer Literate in the '80s? - Trash to Treasure (Pt3)

[@didierdubos]

Hi, I'm french and 52 years old. I bought the BBC B micro when I was 16. I bought it in Paris in a shop called 'ILLEL'. (I started with a Zx81 then a TI99 then the BBC). It is because of this machine that I made carreer in computing and electronics. I still have this BBC micro (waiting for a repair!) standing at home.

[@ixion8666]

Didier Dubos c’est quoi le problème sur ton BBC ? Cela reste des machines réparables facilement .

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

Mine still works!

[@B3tanTyronne]

The memory that always comes to my mind when I think of the Beeb is an old school friend at secondary school writing a basic programme that he had run before a class. It simply played the countdown theme and upon completion displayed the words `Spunk Splatz` and to the mind of a 15 yr old this of course made me laugh....I am 47 now yet that 15 yr old still resides within me and it still makes me laugh to this day.

[@RobSchofield]

The sheer affection you have for this computer comes through clearly in this series: well made, written and presented. Bravo!

[@PaulSteel-Credonos]

Like many, the bbc micro and Elite inspired me and now I’m heading up a global technology team. Thank you for this series. I’ve just ordered a refurbished bbc micro b from eBay and I’ll be re-learning assembly language when it arrives

[@ojkolsrud1]

The color scheme on these machines is so visually pleasing! I love the black keys with the red keys at the top.

[@AmbientMusicStudio]

In Canada we were still learning how to use rocks to sharpen other rocks.

[@ColinBowen]

This is a series of videos that even the great British Broadcasting Corporation would have been proud to have made. Excellent series, on an excellent product. I might finally get my original Beeb out of the cupboard and fixed up.

[@005AGIMA]

Love the blend of restoration and history in this series Neil. Really really well done. My BBC micro memories are more from secondary School but I love hearing your own stories.

[@Starchface]

Thank you for another incredible addition to this series, Neil. My usual interest runs to the hardware side of things, the repair and restoration of the glorious old micros. This episode, I felt, would be an afterthought to the real meat of the series. I could not have been more mistaken. The writing, the research, the production quality-everything about this installment is of the highest order. It's as good as any television documentary. You've almost brought a tear to this old man's eye, and I'm not even British. How you were able to dig up all this history and archival footage and assemble them into a coherent story is beyond me. Your work has been stunning for as long as I can remember, but here you have taken it to new heights. Clearly you have found your calling. Yes, you preserve hardware, but you're also preserving a unique moment in history that will never be repeated. Thanks for the memories.

[@MorebitsUK]

I had a BBC Master from 1987 to 1990, and I absolutely loved it. Playing games like Repton 3 and Ravenskull. I also learned to program BBC Basic on it, which seeded my love of programming and ofc Computers.

[@AnaloguePhoto]

This episode was absolutely amazing to watch. In Sweden we had half a page on Sundays (Sydsvenskan) newspaper with Basic programming tips and printed code. Nothing like this. Just the follow through of the BBC's efforts impresses me. That's a genuine good use of public service media. A lot better than what it's used for today.

[@VW_Fan]

I remember using a BBC Micro at primary school in the 90's. We used to play something called Pod. We used to make it sing, whilst, run explode etc. Does anyone else remember it?

[@808v1]

This was a wonderfully made docu-episode. These type of creations (on KZbin etc.) have truly improved and replaced the traditional consumption via broadcast television. I love it :)

[@808v1]

Interestingly, to me your episode is reminiscent of the old BBC programmes that you covered in the video

[@mapesdhs597]

@@808v1 I stopped watching lamestream media in 2016 precisely because people like RMC do so much better. 8)

[@dj_paultuk7052]

Good memories indeed. My secondary school started off with 5 BBC B's. And eventually ended up with 10 B's. and 5 Master 128k's. The computer teacher used to let me in the room at lunchtimes, and after a short while i helped to kick off the "Lunchtime Computer club". And not long after that a after school club as well. Loved the BBC Micro, and for home i had a "Electron", as did many pupils. The programs we wrote at school , we could continue at home. As long as we saved them to tape. **Still have a B now ;-)

[@ColinHoad]

My favourite in this series so far! Great blend of history and information, plus the memories - yours and your followers - were lovely to hear. I also owe my career to the BBC Micro - and my Dad who was the IT teacher at my school, meaning I got to play around with Acorn machines at home as well as in the classroom!

[@fueledbyregret]

Wonderful video! I started school in 1990 we had a BBC Micro in each classroom. One of the form rooms had several BBC Master Compact systems with printers and a LOGO turtle. All the BBC systems throughout the school were linked with the Acorn teletext system which showed school events, and simple facts of the day etc.

[@fueledbyregret]

When I moved to middle school we had Acorn A3000s everywhere. The IT rooms had rows of A4000s. High school was a mix of RM windows PCs and Acorn RISC PCs.

[@discovermetaldetecting]

Another fantastic video Neil. As a wide eyed 13 year old in 1982, I remember cutting out computer listings from magazines, walking to my local supermarket and typing them into the computers they had display! As a one parent family, mum couldn’t afford a BBC so I would pester my posh friends who had them! I settled for an Electron when their price dropped! That started my fascination with coding! Great stuff mate! 👍🏻

[@Capt.Marco-Hawk-L.L.A.P]

The BBC model B was my 2nd computer and was were my love for computers came from, I use to dream of a BBC Master

[@russellhale7694]

Thanks for the memories - from that very first Beeb being installed in the class room at primary school to then having rooms of them at senior school, saving up and buying my own Spectrum at home to then upgrading to an Atari ST. Studying Computing at college and working in the industry for 28 years. The BBC Computer Literacy Program has a lot to answer for!!!! - I am glad it happened to my generation!

[@meetoo594]

I remember building a lightpen from scratch at school, plugging it into a BBC and then writing the software to drive it. Such a versitile machine for school projects like this. Used email for the first time at school on a BBC, it was connected to the JANET network via an acoustic coupler and I recall not sharing the teachers excitement at getting a reply from some teacher in a Yorkshire school to the email he sent 2 days previous. My young self had no idea I was witnessing the early days of the I.T. revolution in the UK. I also wrote an article describing living in the local area that got put on the BBC domesday project laserdisk system that the school participated in. I think someone broke our schools domesday system shortly after it arrived so I never got to use it. The trouble with schools using the BBC micro was when you left school you found out the hard way that no one actually used BBC machines in the workplace and apart from the electronics experiments pretty much everything you learnt on them was useless as most business used pc`s or macs.

[@InspireVolunteering]

excellent video series. I first used a beeb in jan 83 at primary school. total game changer. I failed exams playing Elite too much

[@stevecharlton3271]

Absolutely brilliant

[@WiggysanWiggysan]

I loved our BBC Micro. This video has really got the memories flowing again ! Yes, I'm sure my school had the turtle pen robot. We used to use on the gym floor because it was the biggest flat room that did not have bumpy carpets ! Thanks for all your effort in these videos *RMC* . Great work.

[@gamingtherapy7587]

Watched all 3 parts and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Thank you

[@broonage]

I'm a little younger (i was born the year it came out) but remember the BBC at primary school with fond memories and we had the turtle too. It was this machine that got me interested in computing and eventually getting my C64 for home pottering (more affordable), and in the long run - eventually working in software.

[@hjalfi]

My father was a teacher and was involved in his school's computer 'department' (really a bunch of interested teachers), so we always had a 'borrowed' BBC Micro at home during the holidays. I wasn't allowed to play games --- so I had to write them myself... eventually I ended up using half the storage of the very expensive 20MB Winchester Econet file server myself, before it was struck by lightning.

[@hjalfi]

BTW, when I was 15 I sent a game in to a computer magazine. It got rejected, but a while back I found the disk, ripped it, and did a writeup: cowlark.com/2015-02-03-bbc-micro And more recently I wrote what's possibly the fastest Mandelbrot program for the BBC Micro ever: cowlark.com/2018-05-26-bogomandel

[@fredjones100]

@@hjalfi Nice job on the sound in your Tron clone! I think "excruciatingly bad" is a bit harsh myself....

[@aeiouxs]

Hear hear Neil, totally agree with your viewpoint on the Beeb and its relatively unsung impact through our schools which normalise computing -- curious where the UK would be now without this programme. And thanks for another superb video - really it feels like you're pretty much producing whole TV programs now, amazing work. fwiw I'm pretty sure we're identical ages and wanted to share a short bit of my own background story: one night I was sneakily playing Elite in my bedroom on our family Acorn Electron, and my Grandma suddenly appears. "Switch that off dear, nothing good will come of that".... I've been in the Games Industry for well over 25 years now, had the pleasure of meeting David Braben briefly at a Games Company dinner, and this industry has taken me around the world and I'm still paying the rent with skills (and inspiration borne from) those BBC-B's in Cheshire schools back in the early '80s. Thanks again.

[@tvandbeermakehomergo]

Can still remember these machines well from Primary school, they were still using them up to the early 2000's!

[@mharding1258]

Thank you pal. Your series has stirred up so many memories in my mind and reminded me just where my love of computing and electronics is based. I have a lot to thank Acorn Computers for and I have always loved and cherished this historical story. I have my career in IT thanks to a wonderful start in life on these now humble beasts of the past.

[@muke001]

I'm a bit too young (and American) to have been a part of this literacy project, but I remember our older math books (circa late 80's) would always have basic programs written out at the end of every section to type out and now I finally know why; the influence had traveled across the pond!

[@_yadokari]

The normalisation of computing extended to the High St (WH Smith, Boots) and supermarkets where it was common to see displays of home computers all available to tinker around with in BASIC. Also, the Usborne books were amazing.

[@fredjones100]

re: the Usborne books: usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-coding-books/

[@ayjay749]

In my Primary School, 4th year Juniors got to use the sole BBC Micro (and play Granny's Garden). In a previous year group, we got no further than an A4 printout of a keyboard layout to "practise typing"!

[@Rouxenator]

I'm glad I had that school experience of wooden desks and pipe smoking teachers well into the late 90s. Logo I met in primary school, in high school we did have internet on 486 machines. I remember the computer science teacher telling us we are connected to the university via "fibre" cutting edge stuff for '99.

[@Tim_3100]

Watched micromen again the other day its still a great program and the extreme response sinclair gave when sinclair was not selected for the BBC project is something to see even now.

[@th3d3wd3r]

Pardon my language but fuuuuckin' hell, geordie racer man! I'm from newcastle, about the same age as you, and we watched it in school. Absolute flashback there hahaa. I remember they had a pigeon handler brought a pigeon in for us to see, it got away and shit all over the place. We also had the logo turtle. I found it boxed in the cupboard. I was the only kid in school interested in playing with it.

[@th3d3wd3r]

I assume we're about the same age anyway, going by the amount of grey in your beard ;) hahaa.

[@kcharles8857]

Admittedly I don't have much of a life but I could watch this stuff for hours!

[@RMCRetro]

Hey what does that say about me! 😁😁

[@cashawX10]

"Geordie Racer - Look n' Read' Who on Earth ever thought the best way to teach kids English was via Geordie ??

[@geordiebatt]

Gods own dialect!

[@cashawX10]

@@geordiebatt Nah lad ! Tha shud spek Yorkshire and nowt else ! ;-)

[@Armand79th]

Well, they had to lower the bar for the thickies Oop Norf.

[@jamesgrimwood1285]

@@cashawX10 I think hearing Geordie counted as learning a foreign language back in the 80s.

[@johnnyutah892]

Clive Shaw Dark Towers was my favourite.

[@snoballuk]

Even back in 1988, our school Beebs had that case yellowing - many even more so than the unpainted case in this video - so I consider it to be part of the general look of the BBC Micro.

[@JohnJones-jv3hr]

This series has brought back many fond memories of my first encounter with a computer. Granny's Garden on the BBC was something we were all addicted to as young kids. I would love to see a follow-up series on the machine that took over from the BBC in many schools, the RM NIMBUS.

[@frazzleface753]

Same here. Granny's Garden was my first contact with a computer - 1984 at primary school. It was magical and very exciting as a 7 year old :)

[@JohnJones-jv3hr]

@@frazzleface753 Were you one of the kids that cheated by looking up the level passwords in the teacher's handbook? I know I was!

[@frazzleface753]

@@JohnJones-jv3hr Haha, come to mention it, I do vaguely remember something like that happening! Whether it was me or not, I couldn't possibly comment...

[@Maxibon2007]

My comprehensive school had a whole room of BBC Micro’s well into the mid/late 1990s alongside the Acorn Archimedes for our IT (C.L.A.I.T.) lessons, but sadly by 1995 even our IT teachers were denouncing them as a technological dead-end “forced” on us by Government schemes and “we” needed Microsoft based PCs

[@rabidy]

Been looking forward to the continuation of this series. Really enjoying it so far.

[@alexandrecouture2462]

I always like to paint my old computers! Xt, 286, 386. Great video!

[@azzajohnson2123]

The first 20 seconds made me laugh. “More time for leisure” as an office cube convict I find this so funny.

[@jimmcconville]

Testify! 😂

[@WoodyPianoShack]

an honour to be on such a great show!

[@kins749]

I remember the magic of first seeing one - there was only one - in my middle school around 1983, one of the teachers had squirreled it away in her office and all we could do was look at it in wonder.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

The view of a UK classroom in the 80's sounds very different from where it was for us US kids, where most school desks didn't have inkwells placed in them and public school kids weren't taught by nuns (they were for schools run by the local Catholic Diocese). Wheeling the TV into the classroom was a thing for us too, alongside film projectors and earlier VCR's (often the 3/4" U-matic format but also VHS). The Apple II was the computer of choice for most schools I knew.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@another3997 Thanks for the clarification.

[@mapesdhs597]

@@ChristopherSobieniak Also worth noting that a great many (including myself) attended Church of England schools, but the presence of the Church within the classroom was very minimal, not much more than morning assembly and the special times of year. One thing though, such schools have I think remained well above the general state sector in their quality; today, the CofE primary school I attended has a most impressive curriculum with regard to the sciences: langleyfitzurse.wilts.sch.uk/ Re the old desks, I suspect in many cases it was not replacement cost that kept them around for so long, rather that such desks were incredibly robustly made and withstood the ravages of decades of use by children. :D If it ain't broke... I remember at a later school I attended the desks were like units which could take a tank shell with ease. But yeah, I never saw a school were nuns did the teaching, that's pretty unsual, presumably a more traditional Catholic school or somesuch.

[@star_man]

Awww you got Ian McNaught-Davis into it (well how could you not). Not too proud to admit this 48 year old welled up a bit when he popped up at the beginning. What a wonderful video, well done Neil. My first exposure to the BBC was LOGO and the LOGO Turtle in middle school (anyone outside of East Anglia might have to look up what “middle school” was). I was hooked on all the BBC “Micro” programmes, and undoubtedly my love of computers was first ignited by them. There’s something almost poetically beautiful seeing you in front of a green screen with an image of Ian McNaught-Davies behind you who was also talking in front of a green screen, it was as if it was the handing over of the baton from one generation to the next.

[@daveb1930]

Having a Beeb at home was a great advantage for school. We had a subscription for The Micro User, but we didn't get the accompanying disc at first, so I (with much supervision from Father) had to type in the code from the magazine to be able to play the games. This taught me just enough to wreak havoc during my school sessions on the machine...

[@JonPadfield]

Do you know what. I'm going for a second comment to thank you for the thoroughly pleasant trip down memory lane I just had :)

[@RMCRetro]

You're most welcome Jonathan

[@timmatthews773]

Great video - thanks so much. Really loved this series, and am looking forward to one my heroes Prof Furber soon! Enjoyed the voxes too, like a few of them my computer studies project was a BBC Micro job (and is still available to download for those adventure gamers!) but can definitely relate to Woody's mischief!! hehe. In my case belated apologies to Mrs Muir... :-/

[@oxogood9018]

Our primary school had a bbc micro,on a trolly,from classroom to class room,then high school we went,RM Nimbus.but we did have at least one each,once a week ,Tuesdays if i recall.1pm till 2pm.

[@JesusisJesus]

In Australia, we had a similar computer called MicroBee. It ran cpm and on a token ring network we “all” shared the disk drive on the orange screened “server” using our green screen terminals. This was my introduction to a DOS in 86 aged 9. Kids these days have it good, using a “computer” to program a much smaller one, emulate older ones. Carrying a computer in their pocket.

[@daveharris3384]

Sorry just watched this old video from 2020, amazed to see a Walters Computer Systems BBC Micro at 07:37. I worked for walters in the 80's in the service department, mainly on Acorn systems, Many happy memories come flooding back. My own BBC does not have the Walters sticker on it. Many thanks, keep up the good work. Dave

[@39Kohm]

I love the BBC micro, I grew up with them too, I remember having one. I can recall writing a program to click the tape relay to make it sound like (to me at least at the time) that is had a hard disk seeking. One day I'll venture back to the UK and bring one over here.

[@queegfivehundred8197]

It's really interesting to contrast Neil's classroom computer experience with mine in Australia... in the late 80s my primary school had a room of Commodore 64s we went to from time to time (and I distinctly remember using logo as well as being shown an acoustic coupler modem) but the only time there was a computer in our regular classroom was when my year 4 teacher brought in her own C64 and an old black and white TV, which I was responsible for setting up and often got to use when my normal classwork was done. At the same time the local high school had a row of Mac Plus machines for each subschool (so probably 15 computers for 300 or so students in a common area) in addition to a dedicated room of PCs for computing (and typing) classes, which were still there until the mid 90s. I can't recall any instances where using a computer was integrated into other lessons. Before the high school got the macs, they had BBC Micros although I don't know how many or how they were distributed - I only got to use one for one school holiday period and had fun playing an Oregon Trail type game based around the 1850s Victorian gold rush.

[@grabham59]

Brilliant episode! Like you, my first experience of computing was with a BBC at Primary School. One thing to note was just how bloody robust these machines were - which lead to them getting used in some pretty harsh environments. As an example - an Internal Drainage Board I collaborated with were still using them to run some pumping stations in 2006!! They were never switched off so just kept doing the job!

[@Lopson13]

Stellar episode, you're one of the best on here. Congratulations!

[@rwdplz1]

A computer literacy program was an absolutely brilliant idea. In the US, it's easy to forget now, but most people didn't have a home computer until the late 90's or even the early 2000's. I went to schools that in the early 90's had one Apple II computer, to 30 Macintosh computers in a 'computer lab' in the mid 90's, to a group of donated 286's in the late 90's in high school for certain classes.

[@foreverhungry84]

i was at school from the late 80s and we had one of these on a trolley which was ceremoniously wheeled out on a friday. there was 2 learning games on massive floppy discs. it fired my interest in computers. later moving onto an Archimedes in the 90s. fond memories.

[@GadgetUK164]

Wonderful video - great to see the people at the end there!

[@Tocsin-Bang]

I remember loading up a whole load of BBC micros, monitors hdds etc into a van to be sent to schools in Africa, when the school I was working in found them in a storeroom long after they had changed to pcs.

[@StreborKram]

Funny how the 4 year old video feels so retro. Love it. Love the less than perfect recording, the dreamy soundscape and the simple set. Should I be afraid of AI? A classic already.

[@thomsi67]

My very first computer I ever bought was the BBC Master. I started work and within 2 months went to my local computer shop, Micro Man and bought the Master with a Cumana 40/80 track floppy drive, tape player all for the princely sum of £800+ on credit that my dad had to go guarantor for. I still have the Master stored away and will be hopefully restoring it this year.

[@Lorfarius]

The 80's were such an amazing time for computing. So much awe, wonder and possibilities. All gone in today's copy n paste market.

[@MrBrianms]

I did my first computing course on the BBC model B with painting and decoration course thrown in. I learned programming by making an estimation program. The program asked for simple measurements of a room and output the quantity of paint needed. Now the paint can be ordered online by the use of a phone.

[@gdogg3710]

“Zombies staring at screens”...ironic that a descendant of the Micro wound up supplying the chipset for today’s smartphones...

[@iwanttocomplain]

ARM is a cpu core not a chipset.

[@stephenhargreaves9011]

Not an EDIT, so I'm allowed this. In 1982 the National Computing Centre (NCC) sponsored students with an aptitude to attend college for accelerated courses. I passed the requisite tests, and did an ONC in computer studies (usually a 2 year course) in 46 weeks, which included 2 weeks industrial placement at Initial Services in Manchester, operating the main frame, and 6 weeks at British Aerospace programming. As my time at BA came to an end, the operations and programming managers both wanted me to stay on, but this was blocked by HR at the time. This is probably why I'm now a specialist tax accountant. In 1999, I was working for HMRC. Having been trained in COBOL, and with the Y2K paranoia, how I wish I'd quit my job to go freelance fixing computers. Apparently, for programmers, £500 per hour was not unheard of.

[@erlichbachman3330]

Great content as always, real BBC quality!

[@thegreatjonzini]

Bravo! 👏Amazing video! Wonderfully produced.

[@P5ychoFox]

Totally agree regards to the marker pen. I once bought an Acorn Archimedes on eBay because it had a school name written on it (a school in my home town). When I went to pick up the computer, the seller had cleaned the pen off. I didn’t buy it.

[@chriswatson2407]

Bloody bloody brilliant. Couldn't believe it when you said there is a further episode!

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Chris. An interview Steve Furber is now showing to Patrons and goes public on Monday and then in a couple of weeks we'll round it off by just using the system really. We haven't seen enough of it in action.

[@alancheatley4378]

Funny hearing about pokes and on the BBC, I always remember at school we'd want to find pokes to makes them do funny things, also in games you can get unlimited lives ect..

[@SparkyMAWy]

It took me a long while to get my own BBC B and Master. But, I've always had a soft spot for these machines. Like a lot of people, the Beeb (and in my case the Amstrad CPC464 inherited from my late grandad) aided my career in to IT witchcraft.

[@electricturbodata9368]

Thanks for bringing up the important questions at 28:47 but a little disheartening that it didn't spark any discussion here, so I'll start then. Yes, we should collectively benefit by automation, by getting more freedom, i.e. more TIME for nice things like family, friends, other people i.e. new friends and ourselves (i.e. for retro computing projects :D ). We don't need more crappy new stuff all the time, we already have our old computers. Data collection has obviously gone way over the top a long time ago. Can free will and free thought survive? Anyway, great and interesting series! I didn't know much about the BBC micro before this. Thanks for making these high quality computer history videos.

[@karlgoldsmith8047]

I skived swimming to spend the time in the computer room in last year of high school.

[@RMCRetro]

Our school swimming pool was outdoors, and so was the changing room. It was so cold in winter!!!

[@somerandomblokeybloke6033]

I'm quite jealous of the kids that got to participate in the computer literacy project at its peak. As a kid born in the early 80's, I experienced the BBC Micro at primary school but there wasn't much emphasis on learning it in detail. I did get to play with LOGO but at the time I was learning BASIC at home with a Speccy so LOGO seemed very primitive by comparison. Later the school got an Archimedes but none of my teachers knew how to use it so aside from us playing the Lander (Virus) demo, it really just collected dust. High school was where I first experienced IBM PCs in the form of the RM machines, but the emphasis was on learning Word, Excel and Access. What happened to the programming I asked myself?? They basically turned my generation into the 21st centuries admin assistants. It wasn't until college in the late nineties that I finally got to learn something more relevant than ZX Basic in an education setting in the form of Pascal.

[@tmacmc2984]

Mrs McCluskey lol. Brilliant stuff as usual RMC.

[@GreyHulk2156]

If given the opportunity, I would have sprayed one of them red for a nice custom case.

[@RockRedGenesis]

Mostly what I remember of the good old BBC Micro is sneaking in a game or two of Chuckie Egg on the Micro at Primary School during break-times. And occasionally doing school work on it! Good times!

[@lofi-guy]

I dozed off watching Big Clive & woke up to this... For about 30 seconds I was trying to figure out what the BBC Micro had to do with a string of LED Bulbs

[@stephenmorrish]

I left school in '81 so I missed the BBC Micro and the education system. I did have access to my dad's Sinclar, first the 81, then spectrum and beyond.

[@stephenhargreaves9011]

I love the "Live washing up" idea. Perhaps I should stream myself doing the dishes. :) And how prophetic the worry of people "gazing like zombies at the screen" was, when you observe people of all classes and all ages doing exactly that whilst wandering around busy city centres. As a self-confessed (and proud) geek, I sometimes hate the age of mobile computing. And final edit, but thanks. You've caused me to spend two hours of a Saturday morning watching those programmes of a bygone age, that I weirdly did not see first time around, despite having been a teenager, in the UK, and owning a super powerful ZX81 at the time.

[@mapesdhs597]

Re zombies, I took this pic in a train station (note the child being completely ignored, it fretted constantly): www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/P1140938s.jpg

[@cashawX10]

Great video ! You forget to mention the BBC Micro's influence in industry. In the 80's I remember walking round my Dad's work and seeing the Beeb controlling milling machines and lathes. We visited Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Beeb was controlling all their telescopes. Also mid-80's BBC TV would also find them supplying on-screen graphics for game shows. Don't forget the pre-broom cupboard Childrens BBC relied heavily on the Beeb's graphics to provide the animations between programmes. In the UK at the time the BBC Microcomputer was everywhere :-)

[@mitchyk]

Love this series! i remember my mate used to record the computer show on his betamax video recorder for the programs they would play at the end which then he recorded onto audio tape to load on his BBC Micro. At the time we thought this was amazing. How times change! Now i could download the entire collection of every BBC software ever made in about a minute!

[@P5ychoFox]

My favourite part about using a BBC Micro at both primary and secondary school was running my fingers over that blanked off user port and resisting the temptation to push it through.

[@Beaps73]

Wow what an awesome video, I really enjoyed that. The TV on a trolley haha, the BBC came into my primary school and lived in the library. I dont remember much learning on it but I do remember Rally X haha

[@bazza5699]

great episode this.. i loved hearing the personal memories at the end as they reminded me so much of my own school days.. great job neil.. i'm not embarrassed to say i have a little tear in my eye.. great days

[@Maverickjs74]

Cool, thanks. I bought one of those SPI chips from RetroClinic, so many memories in those games.

[@jameslewis2635]

Nice job on getting the painting of the cases sorted. The 'green tint from certain angles' sounds to me like it could be down to the light refracting through the clear-coat. Knowing how to get the 'Amiga cream' colour could be usefull as well since painting is probably a bit easier to do than retro-brightening with UK levels of sunlight and warmth.

[@M4lkavian]

I miss the old BBC, where they actually did good work.

[@GeoNeilUK]

The BBC tried to do something like this... but did it wrong... British industry leads the way and invents the Raspberry Pi... ...the BBC brings out the MicroBit, making their last, useful, iconic machine that much harder to Google and promptly abandons said MicroBit because the MicroBit was capable of exactly nothing. ...when we already have the Raspberry Pi!

[@AntonyTCurtis]

@@GeoNeilUK The RaspberryPi is a true successor of the Beeb: Useful without modification but also designed to have users attach things to it or even make their own things to attach to it.

[@Daz555Daz]

BBc Bitesize is still an example of the BBC doing great work for our kids.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

As well as high school as I mentioned on one of the other videos, I'm pretty sure it was a BBC that we had in middle school as well, this was about 1984-6. St Joseph's middle school in Hanwell, London. We had one in the class room that was rarely used. But when it was, there was one kid, I annoyingly can't remember his name, who was the whiz on it. I believe he had one at home so knew everything about it and how to set it up etc. So whenever it was time for the teacher to use it with us, he would always be asked to help them as he knew more than them.

[@Fadingfool]

I remember playing on the school's only bbc-b at lunchtime (primary school). Had an Acorn Electron at home - whilst most of my classmates had no interest in computers at all. Liking computers in the 80s was not a path to popularity.

[@Rockythefishman]

one of your best Neil, damm this was good. I am from the same era as you I remember these and using them in class after class.

[@airingcupboard]

The sweet tones of the Radiophonic Workshop. Ahhh. The BBC in the 80s was pretty incredible.

[@Johnnyafc]

This is a brilliant series really enjoying it

[@kuro68000]

Fond memories of the TV being wheeled out for Geordie Racer!

[@mapesdhs597]

IT in my school was a mess (the head hated computers), but the TV got rolled out for English classes; we watched Polanski's Macbeth before diving into Shakespeare. :D

[@Teppic11]

My school had about 100 pupils but only one BBC Micro, so we didn't get to use it much. I do remember we had a turtle though. By that time a lot had a Spectrum or a C64 at home so I think the Micro's main appeal was its proper keyboard and high resolution text modes, which made it look like a "real" computer to us and not effectively a toy for games.

[@d3struct0r]

Personally I feel like these old computers have character they've developed over time, and it's much nicer to leave them to age gracefully. I can see the attraction of having one that looks perfect though also. Perhaps the ideal would be to have replacement cases available like the commodore 64 - opening up the possibility of storing and saving the older case.

[@pronstorestiffi]

Wholeheartedly agree with this. I like machines when they show sign of use, just adds to it.

[@richardisaacs567]

Quality content as always mate, well done.

[@pitmatix1457]

I was luckily enough to have a BBC Micro at home. Wonderful machine and, although it didn't have a games range to compare the likes of the Speccy, it had some fantastic, and often unique to the system, titles. As mentioned by one of the commentators at the end of the video it has some of the best arcade conversions. Out of all the 8-bit systems I have seen the BBC had some graphics mode that were closest to the raster style graphics of the early coin ops (the dude was right about Planetoid, especially). I get especially nostalgic when I see your INPUT folder on the back shelf, we had a subscription to that too and it was a great read with fascinating type ins (that my dad would spend hours typing in and then again the next issue when the corrections appeared!) and some great art (I still remember this amazing piece of art of a badass looking cyborg Elephant even now!).