The BBC Model B Microcomputer System (as seen in Terry Stewart's computer collection)

[@Rivenworld]

I had one of these when I worked as a Quality Technician at a Foundry many years ago, the vernier and micrometer readings went through a multiplexer into the BBC and into a Statistical Process program also had a double disc drive, one for the program, one for the data. Ended up buying myself a BBC Master to use at home, lovely machines.

[@jamesdecross1035]

I was fortunate enough o find one of these, only very recently. Already I am impressed by how versatile the BBC BASIC is. I'd heard it was, yet I am still impressed by how much so. Great machines. "The British Apple ][ ", I guess.

[@TrevorHawes]

THIS is the BBC model B 32k computer that I had, growing up - and I played games on it, composed music (before MIDI) and learned to program - and I have that job right up to today

[@AlanJEdmonds]

Great machine! I need to watch Micro Men (2009) again soon… Electronics hobby magazines such as Everyday Electronics featured projects for the BBC micro in the 80s. I would have loved to own one back then. The closest I got was when my high school had several of them.

[@tezzaNZ]

Micro Men is an excellent movie for those interested in early British microcomputers.

[@geotechmore8855]

I've never seen an American version of the BBC. It was most likely too expensive to make it big here. They do look cool. The Brits had so many computers to choose from.

[@tezzaNZ]

We were lucky in NZ as we usually had American, British, Australian, East Asian (clones) and even Japanese micros to choose from. Eyewatering prices though!

[@geotechmore8855]

Right. Where you are located you are close to Japan and Asia. So you had a choice of many computer brands. I know New Zealand is a commonwealth Country so I know that you had access to the British computers. The Asian computers I didn't think of. But you're right.. So cool!

[@tezzaNZ]

Yea. There were a few machines from the U.S. that (to my knowledge) never appeared here. The IBM PC Junior was one. And we did get the TI 99/4a AFTER it had already been discontinued in its home country lol

[@cygil1]

The Apple II almostly completely occupied the ecological niche the BBC microcomputer occupied in Britain. In terms of price and capabilities they are pretty similar machines; perhaps the BBC has a slight edge in performance, display quality and sound capabilities, but if everyone school in your city already has an Apple II, clearly you buy an Apple II. In Australia, with its schizophrenic mix of British and American influences, it was split down the middle. Mostly I saw Apple IIs, but there was a healthy BBC micro presence in private schools and my Senior High was an Acorn school -- mostly Acorn Archimeds by that point, but with a handful of Beebs forlornly sitting in the back of the lab, neglected.

[@geotechmore8855]

​@@tezzaNZYeah I don't think the IBM PC Jr did that well even here in the U.S.. I've never seen one in person. That's wild that the TI computer arrived down under after it was discontinued. I don't think it was that popular even here in the States. The C64 was popular. I owned one and my High School had them along with Commodore Pet computers. My last year of High School was when IBM PC computers arrived. I graduated in 1985. Thank you for uploading your cool videos.. )^_-)/

[@tarstarkusz]

There's a guy named Richard Broadhurst who runs a KZbin channel called trickysoft who is a genius at the beeb (funny enough, I cannot put the proper name or youtube deletes or hides it). He's written a bunch of "emulators" of various arcade games that fit in the 32k of memory. He has all the games demonstrated on his channel and you can download them and run them on your beeb or emulator. Some of them are for games from the 70s in glorious black and white up to games like Frogger, Pac Man, Phoenix and others. EXTREMELY impressive.

[@tarstarkusz]

The Beeb is a computer I don't have but would love to get. Not sure how it would work in the US though. We have 120 AC at 60hz, so the built in power supply wouldn't work and the CRT is 60fps at a slightly lower resolution. I don't know if an RGB would work. I have a 1040s and a 1040 (which can do PAL), but I don't know if they are compatible with the beeb. It's surprising the Beeb didn't do better in the small business market. The small business market is far less sensitive to price than the home market. The British Broadcasting Corp probably did it no favors as it strongly positioned the beeb as a home computer, when it really wasn't. (it's broadcasting cassette data also did the computer no favors either) The 80 character screen mode would be greatly beneficial to the small business market. It already has larger memory capabilities without a card than than the II series by Apple, plus it runs at twice the speed.

[@hayleybrooke7237]

Hi Terry I was wondering if you could give me some advice on how to plug this in, with out smoking it out as I didn't have much luck with the last one I tested thank you.