Micro Men - 10th Anniversary - With Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser

[@SoulPoetryandOtherWorks]

The BBC should also release a DVD of Micro Men with this viewing included as an extra. A Blu-ray release would be good as well. Well done.

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

a directors cut would be nice.

[@dansearle1613]

I was lucky enough to have Steve Furber as one of my lecturers at Manchester Uni about 20 years ago. Brilliant man, nice to see him again.

[@glxxyz]

Me too- I switched to Comp Eng so I could do his async hardware design course

[@StuartQuinn]

The bickering about the Tube interface and dual processor design of the Proton was wonderful!

[@Марк.Фетнов]

I owe my career & living to these chaps. Learnt to program BASIC on a BBC model B, Lost count of how many languages / frameworks I've used since then.. Thank you so much :)

[@Archimedes75009]

Awesome. I must admit I would have loved to see Sophie Wilson, too. Thank you, Jason, and to the CCH team and volunteers.

[@Banshun]

I agree. She had a small part in Micro Men, too. I think she went on to be the most influential to the computing world of all the Acorn people. Looking forward to seeing this, though.

[@petermitchell6348]

@@Banshun She has made some very interesting presentations/lectures to be seen here on You Tube.

[@klaxoncow]

1:22:24 Well, she did do a cameo as the barmaid in the final scene in "the Baron of Beef", as Herman points out to Chris. So not there for the commentary, unfortunately, but there in the actual film itself.

[@aw34565]

The movie that gave us the line 'Jet Set F*cking Willy'.

[@fogvarious2478]

"some scenes were re-created for drama purposes" .. maybe that was one?!?!

[@ag3ntorange164]

aw34565 you beat me to it!

[@KaitainCPS]

Always have that line on hand on my car stereo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHuvqJqal52Fb8k

[@RussellRiker]

Seeing Steve Furber say "ZX Rectum" was the highlight.

[@janstergaard703]

You guys had SUCH an enormous impact on my life

[@SergeiJonovich]

Likewise, well said!

[@andybaxta]

Me too

[@drtydawg73]

agreed!!

[@TheRetroShed]

What a fabulous video. Gentleman thank you for spending the time putting this together. The news of Sir Clive passing away this week is so sad. You chaps changed the course of my life with your work. Being a kid in the 80s was an incredible time and the BBC Micro, Electron and Spectrum were key to getting me on the path to my career to this day. Stay safe and thank you!

[@DavidParkinson]

Having already watched the film the whole point of this is to listen to the commentary. It’s a shame then the film sound is so high and the commentary sound so low to the point you can barely hear it.

[@j.dietrich]

I love Chris Curry's wry looks to the camera - it makes Martin Freeman's casting seem all the more appropriate.

[@ches74]

I didn't immediately recognise the living legend that is Chris Curry but the moment he pulls a facial expression he is unmistakeable.

[@_Stin_]

Since Acorn computers were with me from the age of about 4, these 3 men and Sophie Wilson actually built my childhood. This was amazing for me to watch and I am so glad that you made this video. Thank you.

[@andygozzo72]

my first computer was a zx81, christmas '83, then a zx spectrum '84, always wanted a BBC, my school had them and i was one of the 'trusted' pupils allowed to help set them up, but my parents couldnt afford one! in the early 90's i came across one at a computer fair which turned out to have come from my old upper school, still had the network number wrote on it, and it was one i actually used at the school so i of course bought it, (still got it), like being reunited with an old friend!

[@AtticusBleep]

What a great thing to happen!

[@MarcKloos]

57:41 Steve Furber: _"We always called it the _*_ZX Rectum_*_ actually"_

[@BubbafromSapperton]

I've seen that movie several times and could watch it several more times, very good...

[@dvdchas]

Oddly I watched the after film chat first, which I loved. Was thinking wouldn't it be great if you all watched the whole film commentating. Then Wham I saw it! Just finished watching. Really reminds me of my childhood. Big fan of Acorn originally owning an Atom, BBC B, Archimedes 310, Risc PC, with a plan to buy a Phoebe that never came... But I am typing on a phone with Acorn tech in it... Would love them to do the ARM story! I lost my original BBC B in its glorious Viglen case with external keyboard decades ago. Following Acorn World at the museum, I repurchased a BBC B for my kids off ebay a few years back... So the dream lives on.

[@RetroDawn]

Awesome! I watched in the same order, too. But, as a Yank, I don't have the history you have with these machines. I've long planned on buying one of each to port my games to them, and I definitely will in the nearish future.

[@SeasideBandit]

All the people involved are amazing. Rip Clive.

[@Nite-Lite-Gamers]

If you were born in the early 70s, this was a CLASS watch, Thanks.....

[@mgutkowski]

You've worked really hard producing this video - thank you! More people should see it.

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Thank you :)

[@Joetorres3]

Steve Furber trying to annoy Hermann Hauser during the entire movie. Priceless.

[@letsdiscussitoversometea8479]

Seemed more "left out" of the conversation it seemed to me...

[@RetroDawn]

That film still tears me up near and at the end. It looked like Hermann was tearing up at the same time I was, the first time. Chris just gets a very uncomfortable look, and Steve doesn't appear that affected. I'd love to have watched this with them. Just think, these guys launched the company and technology platform that created the ARM which has dominated mobile computing, and much of embedded for decades, and is now, finally, starting to taking over laptops, servers, and desktops, to be the by-far-dominant platform for all of computing. This is a big deal!

[@JohnnyWednesday]

Heroes of computing! so great to garner insight in this manner as well as their discussions on the dramatization - this is some kind of brilliant crossover of computing history and movie review that I didn't know I needed. Do Endgame next!

[@RetroJay1974]

I have re-watched micro men too many times, it would be amazing if Clive and the rest of both sinclair and acorn were there, including Martin and Alexander who played the two main characters.

[@ag3ntorange164]

RetroJay1974 me too. I watch it several times a year. Then I cuddle my Spectrum and Beeb!

[@KarlHamilton]

Clive hated it unfortunately.

[@ag3ntorange164]

Karl Hamilton Chris Curry did say that Clive was still angry about the past. As things hadn’t worked out the way he wanted. Perhaps the film only serves to remind him about it. And the light hearted spin on events probably doesn’t help.

[@EstraNiato]

I think the movie is definitely pro-Acorn, that might explain why Clive Sinclair hated it. The reality is that Acorn was a british phenomenon, BBC had little to no traction outside England - while the Spectrum was pretty much everywhere ( even got cloned in the Soviet countries) , the movie fails to mention this and just dismisses it as a "gaming" platform.

[@MarcKloos]

@@EstraNiato I collect Spectrum clones, they are from all over the world! Quite a few are from Russia, East Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania), South America (Chile, Brazil and hopefully soon Argentina), North America (Timex 2048, 2068) and India (dB Spectrum)! You can't say that about the Beeb! 😉

[@judgewest2000]

The word is WOW!!!!! THANK YOU so much for doing this

[@robotmad]

Wow cant believe the film is 10 years old, where has that time gone !

[@zootius]

The actor who played Hermann Hauser, Edward Baker-Duly, did a brilliant job in that movie. Good dialogue too, unforgettable :D

[@ag3ntorange164]

That was amazing to watch and answered a lot of questions. Absolutely thrilling thanks so much for arranging it. What a lovely gift. Now how about a blu ray release for this fantastic movie?

[@firsteerr]

without these guys we would be living in a very different world , the cheap home computer was a world changer acorn spectrum dragon etc all gave starts to the people who changed thinking linux was first built on a QL the Archimedes was a ground breaking machine better then all the competition in my eyes and the arm of course is a historic chip still in use and still very capable

[@richsmart321]

was wonderful all 3 men were happy to be filmed while watching this - well if not happy at least they agreed to it!!!

[@AgnostosGnostos]

At 1:12:55 watch the expression of Chris Curry when he sees Alan Sugar.

[@volo870]

Uwgh! 😩

[@davidhunt240]

A fun variation on the Micro Men theme, what a time to be alive, at the forefront of a new business, reminds me of late 90s Internet - sleeping under desks, eating out of the microwave, working 20 hours and sleeping for 20. Maybe in 20 years, we'd be offering our stories of late nights, investments, weird food, whacky management styles and christmas-tree-server-wiring. I loved the BBC Micro for its flexibility and capability right out of the box, the I/O was great, the OS was great and with the in-line assembler in BBC BASIC there was never really much need to write in any other language (although we did program in PASCAL, BCPL, Forth, Lisp and Prolog - but mainly for academic purposes) the thing that the BBC Micro gave me was the ability to put a computer into anything and have faith that it would work. As I've still got my original "Beeb" I notice it has a different keystrip than the one shown at 55:28 as mine must be the original as it says "BBC Microcomputer", I remember something about a trademark dispute that meant the entire "British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System" had to be spelled out, is there a reason why the original keystrip wasn't used?

[@raymoreton3184]

Love the micro men film it's great.

[@nickblackburn1903]

This is great thank you for organising this :) We visited Cambridge a few years ago and went to the filming locations of the film, very interesting and we visited the museum too, great stuff. The zx spectrum was my first computer and I have several still. Am currently fixing up a bbc micro model b! All the best.

[@GadgetUK164]

Watched this a second time - absolute legends =D

[@joefarr3304]

Absolutely brilliant. It must be really weird siting there, being filmed, watching a film about an important part your life, and seeing huge sections of it being wrong or fantasy. Hats off to you guys. Whatever actually happened, you released a generation of computer programmers and geeks into the world... including me. Thank you.

[@petemarr824]

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair.

[@trydowave]

thaks for this... ive watched micro men more times than id like to admit but it was great seeing it again with the commentary. Ill have to make my way up tot the centre for computing history again soon.

[@vtx24alpha]

I enjoyed this film when I first saw it. Thank you for putting this view together.

[@puddle_puddle]

Where has the time gone? Micro Men still feels like it was on last year.

[@MrSplottboy]

That very 1st scene was filmed in portmanmoor rd (or what was) Splott Cardiff long long now

[@markwrightrf]

Tears... mostly happy :-) hats off to everyone involved, I'm off to finish my bottle of Austrian wine.. this may take some mugs... you don't know how to drink wine either do you...

[@ag3ntorange164]

Mark Wright some tears for me also. Glad I wasn’t the only one!

[@bagospanners]

Steve Furber is a time lord.

[@Zooumberg]

I like how Chris has an iPhone in his pocket. Without the ARM processor, it would never have been invented. You can see the hurt in Chris's face when the MK14 was mentioned.

[@psyzanzan]

Roger Wilson and Steve Furber deserve the Draper Prize for the ARM architecture in my opinion.

[@JJbm4233]

This was a real treat much like micro man, those of us North America didn’t really understand how different your computer war was over in Britain and Europe

[@KevinEdwardsRetro]

Awesome video. Thank you to Jason and the team at CCH for their great work!

[@ColinHoad]

Wonderful! Was only made aware of this today and simply had to watch it - thank you for making this event and the highly enjoyable result. Heroes, all of them.

[@robertturner2000]

Thank You for this - I was going to watch Micro Men and stumbled across this which somewhat helped me discern the reality from the fiction. Sir Clive Sinclair was the subject of my tenth grade term paper here in the states (we were required to write about our biggest inspiration or influence). Most of my classmates selected historical figures such as Ghandi, Musicians such as Motley Crue, Movie Stars and the like. I chose Sir Clive because He made computing affordable to the masses - as bad as the ZX81 was, it was built to a price and it was worth every cent and after all of these years mine still functions. Had I been aware of Acorn at the time, I would likely have also included Hermann, Chris, Steve and the rest - although we could not have known it at the time, their contributions have been many and far reaching. Almost every family in America has at least one family member walking around with the ARM Architecture in their pocket (this is an exaggeration though it gets the point across).

[@SergeiJonovich]

Really enjoyed that - thanks for arranging it and making it available.

[@AcornElectron]

Best fictionalised documentary ever. These guys created my childhood.

[@CiceroLounge]

These are the most important men in the word world :) they are lovely thank yo so much love "Micrcro MMen* love Steve Furber and Chris Curry and the the great Hermann

I loved this :) After watching Micro Men, I am very very curious about a version which is even more based on "solid facts" than Micro Men (where the title screen even mentions that some scenes are invented), ie how the actual persons (Chris Curry, Sir Sinclair, etc) tells / would tell the story. Maybe it wouldn't be that popular as a slightly dramatized version like Micro Men, but I would certainly like it. Btw, it's really funny that I would say about some scenes "oh, that's really invented for example" but Chris Curry tells here "it's true ...". Wow!

[@ElectricEvan]

Silly question but why didn't you get Sophie Wilson to join in?

[@333darthste]

Enjoyed this enormously - really loved the film already, (which really needs a DVD or Blu-Ray release), but to watch it alongside Steve, Hermann and Chris was exceptional. My only regret was that despite me setting a KZbin reminder for the first time ever last night, I still managed to fall asleep after a very busy day at work and missed watching it live! Thank you so much for setting this up; I'm now about to watch the after-film chat, which I imagine will be equally fantastic!

[@debatabletruths6687]

The British version of Woz, Jobs and Gates sitting in the same room. Brilliant.

[@ab8jeh]

Love Curry's disdain for Alan Sugar!

[@melthebell33]

They seem like 3 fun, humorous fellas

[@danielearwicker]

Of all the parts of the film that you’d assume were exaggerated for dramatic effect (and there are many) the most ridiculous is the punch-up in the pub - but that was almost toned down from the reality! It was a multi-venue smack down. Amazing.

[@chrismifsud7154]

I've got loads of old computers. Never seen such a solidly and well built computer like the BBC Micro. I have the model B given to me by a friend. Had not been used in decades yet all it took to get it running perfectly was a 555 timer chip and replacing a filter cap in the power supply. Super crisp RGB signal and that keyboard is fantastic.

[@kevvywevvywoo]

To many folks, these people, and their Sincair opposite numbers are the old rock stars of the british computer industry.

[@puddle_puddle]

If only Sir Clive had been there too, would have been gold! RIP

[@Kppot]

6:00 - That's you! - 0_o Love those guys!

[@edgeeffect]

I love real Herman's face whilst fictional Herman is making the "can it be done?" phone calls.

[@Sloposse]

Id love to see this video replayed with Clive Sinclair, Nigel Searle and Jim Westwood in the chairs to hear their take on events too, Jim westwood actually appears in the film during the whsmith part where Curry asks do you have any games for the bbc micro? Seen reading a magazine with a woman behind him

[@ABlokeOnHisBike]

Thank you so much. This was such pure delight the whole way through.

[@petermitchell6348]

Is it just me, or did Chris look a little uneasy at times? Fantastic concept though, watching them watching Micro Men, and allowing us viewers to listen in on their comments. These guys are pure legends, it's a pity that Sophie and Andy could not have been there as well.

[@solcutta3661]

The bleeding tvs up so loud it's not surprising..the knob moderator should be burnt at the steak for the missed opportunity here.

[@unlokia]

@@solcutta3661Calm down - get anger management help.

[@KaitainCPS]

I always enjoyed the double meaning of Hauser's line, "I don't really know the rules". At one level it's comedy line subverting the cliche of the "checkmate out of nowhere" overused in dramas. At another level it suggests that he doesn't care about the normal strictures and constraints of business, hierarchy, British industry etc, and that he wants Curry to follow him in ignoring them.

[@mrroobarb]

It would be fantastic if Sir Clive were there too. Great stuff

[@cromulence]

Bruce Morgan LOL I don’t think he’s too pleased with the film :P

[@chriswareham]

Like others, I owe my programming career in large part to these guys. Although my family had a Commodore 64 and then an Atari ST as home computers, the BBC B micros at school played an early role in my learning to program. The best part was learning about memory mapped devices which lead to an understanding of the interaction between hardware and software. From there it was an easy transition to assembly language, since having learned to PEEK and POKE memory it wasn't much of a leap to the likes of LD* and ST* instructions.

[@garyproffitt5941]

Super intelligence brains Chris Curry, Sophie Wilson, the late Sir Clive Sinclair, Steve Furber, Sir Alan Sugar, Hermann Hauser and more, superb and he didn't break things intelligent S.C.S.

[@patdbean]

Would have been better done like a DVD commentary . With the program in full screen with its audio turned down when one of commentators speaks

[@MarkONEmcr]

I really enjoyed this one!

[@wisteela]

Absolutely fantastic.

[@oscarj0231]

Aw nice, my favourite film ever with my favourite people

[@yoshikischmitz4850]

11:50 curry: "do you play chess?" hauser: "no" curry: "nor do I"

[@Tycowiz]

Looking forward to this.

[@oxogood9018]

This was fantastic,why has this video only got 699 likes.

[@ches74]

We've got Sir Clive but for the life of me I can't understand how those three men have not been honoured!

[@Ozymandias1]

Hermann Hauser has a KBE and Steve Furber and Sophie/Roger Wilson both have a CBE. Chris Curry has never been honoured.

[@ches74]

@@Ozymandias1 right you are, I missed that. It was really the lack of anything for Chris Curry that stood out.

[@CiceroLounge]

You built the ARM processocessor mates!

[@robbyxp1]

That was special. Thank you.

[@BixRibene]

Back then I was a hardcore Speccy user and didn't know anyone who had an Electron and the only Acorn product I ever used was the BBC Micro at school... That said, I was really pulling for them to succeed when I first saw this. 🙂

[@stephenfwadsworth9565]

I played Nightgunner, then Space Invaders. Part of us all, now. :) Now recognised as part of our national economy.

[@michaelturner4457]

30:04 Acorn Atom keyboard "made in Haiti". I built an Atom kit in 1981, and I did find the keyboard was rubbish and often key-bounced. In fact I wrote a machine code subroutine to fix the key-bounce for me. After about a year it became very unreliable, so I removed the original cheap Haitian keyboard, and replaced it with real key-switches and keycaps.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Watching this again. Someone should put a compilation together of all the points Jason appears :) seeing him in more points now :)

[@sensecam]

Hello Christopher!

[@iColin]

wow! this was great! Nice look into how it really came down!

[@AgnostosGnostos]

What it doesn't mentioned in the movie but mentioned by commentators is the shortage of RAM cheap during the early 80's. RAM was mostly made in USA and Japanese hadn't dominated the RAM market yet. So USA memory manufacturers like Intel prioritize the selling of RAM to USA computer manufacturers. The demand was enormous and forced the Japan to enter strongly the market.

[@KomradeMikhail]

Now we need an American counterpart, with some guys sitting down to watch themselves in Pirates Of Silicon Valley, to give commentary. Bill Gates probably won't make the time, but Woz is a fun guy who might agree to show up.

[@lew5142]

Yes I loved Pirates of Silicon Valley too. That’s a great idea.

[@randlepatrickmcmurphy834]

Steve: "Also Sprach Zarathustra" Hermann: "No it's 2001" Steve: "Yes, Also Sprach Zarathustra" Herman: (Implied) "Maybe, I don't really know" ... a line straight out of the film :D :D D

[@j.dietrich]

Hermann: "Was there a Tube socket?" Literally everyone: "YES!"

[@petermitchell6348]

Wow, I missed the reference.

[@ziggurat29]

"No, this is 2009"

[@Maxibon2007]

Chris Currys mum used to live in the same village as my mum (Little Paxton, I have been in that Pub where Chris Curry and Clive Sinclair had That Fight, Sinclairs HQ (actually it Daimt Ives Cambridgeshire NOT in Cambridge itself, but Hey!, marketing. Clive Sinclair, highly intelligent but socially unaware” used to “wine & dine” prospective investors in local Greasy Spoon motorway cafes(!)

[@TheStevenWhiting]

We get to see Jason dancing in the background again.

[@simonharding1572]

great viewing enjoyed that

[@gcooper642]

3 days for me here in the future

[@cosmicwartoad2587]

There should have been a where are they now sequence at the end.

[@JamesStaples]

"Last of the Summer Gin" - if the pilot's anything to go by I can't wait for the first season!

[@edwardevans8685]

Great video, is there any more from these gents as I would have liked a Q&A afterwards

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Yes, there was :) See: kzbin.info/www/bejne/omWsY56qmLyXgK8

[@aw34565]

I would like to learn more as to why Acorn shipped the Electron with 32k of RAM, crippling the CPU speed with the double nibble fetch rubbish in the process, when Oric, Sinclair and Commodore were shipping machines with 48k and 64k.

[@MIKandJEAN]

Commodore had the C16 with it's impressive 16k memory when the Electron was doing the rounds.

[@guywilkinson]

Funny that Clive predicted self driving cars....the ARM range of products are well on way to help making it happen

[@KaitainCPS]

This is fabulous.

[@cosmicwartoad2587]

Where was Clive Sinclair?