Jason Fitzpatrick talks to Chris Curry about his early days at Sinclair Radionics, working with Clive Sinclair, Acorn Computers and the development of the BBC Micro. Filmed in 2015.
Пікірлер: 379
@braillynn4903 Жыл бұрын
You can tell Chris was a leader as he hardly lets the interviewer finish his questions.
@qqryqq1233 жыл бұрын
"(...) proud to say nobody's ever left us" - there you go. All these "professional managers" of today should learn from this gentleman who achieved more than "modern" managers could even imagine.
@glenwoofit5 жыл бұрын
Hearing the sound a BBC Model B makes when you turn it on takes me back to being 10 years old again. Funny how such a little thing can mean so much. I think the BBC B set the benchmark for a good keyboard aswell. I can still hear the sound it makes and I also remember how the keyboard felt. Thank you Chris and the Acorn team for doing what you did so well it made my childhood.
@BurstNibbler6 жыл бұрын
As a child of the 80s, I missed out on this but thanks to my Dad I got into soldering, knew how to wire up a mains plug and such fun ensued. To this day I build controlled laser modules from single diodes with my own power supplies, controls, optics and boxes which is analogous to the day this good man is talking about. I know there's only a few of us techies around even with the advent of the internet!
@user-vs7cw2rg7r2 жыл бұрын
I could listen to Chris Curry talk for hours.
@richardmattocks7 жыл бұрын
Wonderful to hear one of the unsung heroes of my childhood telling the inside story. Brilliant interview. I owe my 26 years in IT to this man's tech
@BatManSWG4 жыл бұрын
People like Chris , are legends. They deserve a lot respect for bring these ideas they had on electronics , especially when Acorn start blossoming with home computers like Electron and Archimedes .
@makers_lab2 жыл бұрын
This was a terrific interview. Hadn't heard mention of the Newbrain in a long time. I was fond of those, and used to demo and sell them along with the Dragon, apple's and other makes in the early 80's before heading of to Uni. Was a great time.
@aquilegus2 жыл бұрын
I remember drooling over the idea of a Newbrain - as I recall it had so much more ram than competition - and ram was the 0-60 of computing at the time! These days it would be nothing of course :D. Happy days !
@daffyduk772 ай бұрын
Nah, Trash-80 clone person myself (Video Genie). Yes, great interview & his fairly measured & not overly trumpet-blowing style helped
@alanstarkie20012 жыл бұрын
Great memories. In 1982, I took on a job, "Yeah, I can do that" sort of thing, but I had no idea how I was going to make it work. That was to control 32 channels of special effects, part of a multimedia show. It had to be completely automatic with no human input, be reliable and effects had to synchronise to beats of music etc. I knew a little, and I mean very little, BASIC programming so bought an Acorn Atom and an expansion card. This fed into a big box full of solid-state relays. I used a spare audio track on this big Teac 8 channel tape recorder to record a time-code (PUT), and afterwards used the time-code (GET) to programme the various effects. It worked perfectly - no idea if MIDI existed but I never heard of it at the time. The Atom was probably the only bit of kit in the place that didn't ever break down! The rest of it was AVL Dove controllers and a bank of 30 Carousel projectors. I couldn't have done this without Chris and the Atom.
@1emmain7 жыл бұрын
"The advertising had been booked, but the product hadn't been developed". Lol. These guys pioneered so many aspects of the IT industry.
@tachikomakusanagi37443 жыл бұрын
Indeed, and hello Diakatana!
@jgbreezer2 жыл бұрын
My first proper job in software development had the sales folk promising features we didn't have yet to one-off small clients, and sometimes even that were impossible to develop, let alone within a reasonable time given our smaller startup nature. So yeah.
@@jgbreezer ahh its sales staff in general. Like when the stock is on a ship and only just left the country of origin, yet the sales staff promise the customer next day delivery before mid day 🤣
@mikefellows39017 жыл бұрын
What a great guy, sure many of us in IT today have a big thank you to say to Chris
@odd1357913 күн бұрын
wow! thank you so much for this amazing interview about this incredible formative time in the history of computing! sorry that i've showed a regrettable lack of restraint in repeatedly commenting, but please take that as a reflection of the adulation and respect that i hold for for this superb piece of work! thanks again!
@StuartWoodwardJP7 ай бұрын
Great interview. I really appreciated hearing the back story.
@mikiex2 жыл бұрын
The wry smiles are flashback of those memories :)
@petermitchell63488 жыл бұрын
Great to see you Chris. I'd only every read articles and seen pictures of you in the magazines of the 80's/90's, but this is the first time I've heard you speak. Many many thanks to the Centre for Computing History for ALL these interesting people and their story's, that you have presented to us.
@McVaio Жыл бұрын
* stories
@spudhead1693 жыл бұрын
52 minutes isn't long enough. I could listen to this guy all day long. I don't think he'd ever have anything uninteresting to say.
@hanniffydinn60197 жыл бұрын
What?? That 1 hour was like 10 mins !!! I want more, fascinating as hell!
@6581punk2 жыл бұрын
The Retro Hour podcast interviewed Steve Furber of Acorn if you want to know more about the BBC Micro. They also interviewed Nigel Searle, MD of Sinclair who relealed a lot about Sinclair.
@alxwlsh6 жыл бұрын
This is great. I've watched Micro Men again and again, but I've never seen an actual interview with Chris Curry. Great video guys! :)
@robinw775 жыл бұрын
Jason Fitzpatrick, doing the interviewing, is also in the film too, as an Acorn engineer. You can see him in the scene where they're eating takeaway with tools lol
@nebularain33384 жыл бұрын
@@robinw77 Sophie (Roger) Wilson is in the film too. She plays the barmaid who calls last orders at the end of the film.
@oxogood90183 жыл бұрын
same,with the movie and this fab interview.
@ruzziasht3492 жыл бұрын
@@nebularain3338 Sophie (roger) what does this mean?
@ElectronicazMusic2 жыл бұрын
Same here!
@scaperlee Жыл бұрын
This is fantastic! Sorry I'm 6 years late, love this!
@jmm12335 жыл бұрын
So he was a scrapper becomes the greatest developer for a national licensed computer , what a success
@yesihavereadit2 жыл бұрын
I bought the calculator kit when I was about 16 , soldered it together, it didn't work , sent it off for repair £5 postal order, got it back working with my PO for £5! , the transistor was blown they said. Imagine Apple doing that!
@kollusion12 жыл бұрын
Wow, that's honesty. It would, like you say, be just as easy to pocket the money, & deny the faulty transistor, which would be today's model.
@grahamrousell6912 жыл бұрын
I had the same experience with the IC10 amplifier chip. It got very hot, I sent it back and got it replaced with my PO returned. I then went on to the Project 60 amp... which saw me through my schooldays until I earned real money to by a real hifi system.
@yesihavereadit2 жыл бұрын
@@grahamrousell691 yes same here, my ic20 blew up got a voucher or something!
@daffyduk772 ай бұрын
tempted to say a company with those ethics would never make it really big 🙂
@BatManSWG3 жыл бұрын
Thank you Chris ! You are a a LEGEND! I may had Amstrad 6128 (and still have it, ) , but without you, many home computers wouldn't exist today. Especially the creation of ARM CPU. The idea 'System on a Chip' was far ahead from its time. Your intelligence 'live' in the chips on the mobiles today.
@danstar455 Жыл бұрын
Many don't know that Apple was a major shareholder in ARM at its start. Steve Job sold that equity off when he returned to save Apple from certain death throes.
@gj83132 жыл бұрын
R. I. P Sir Clive.
@MrJetexjim2 жыл бұрын
what a great video. His description of getting that first calculator up and running is terrific.
@michaeltsung97417 жыл бұрын
Superb, Chris is a gent, and the interviewer is really tuned in to the topic and gets the most out of the interview....
@noiseworks2 ай бұрын
what a nice guy with fun and interesting stories. that headteacher persona conceals the heart of a mischief-maker
@thehotyounggrandpas82075 жыл бұрын
Down to Earth and terribly honest. Enjoyable to say the least!
@aitchpea60113 жыл бұрын
Knowing the details of the story between Chris, Clive and Alan now as I do, why do we have Sir Clive and Lord Sugar? They wouldn't be anywhere without Chris, it's about time HE got a knighthood.
@aquilegus2 жыл бұрын
To be fair, this is Chris' view of things. He seems a great chap so I'm sure he is being honest but everybody sees things from their own perspective. He didn't have that something that made Sinclair stand out. Sinclair is a little like the era of great engineers like IKB when they took risks with their own money. As a result, he made it and lost it. Few do that anymore. Sugar is like the modern 'entrepreneur' where marketing is key in order to make a success of other peoples ideas.
@adambrickley11192 жыл бұрын
Could make a good film.
@mrmarmellow5632 жыл бұрын
TOTES ‼️😻‼️GO SIR CLIVE 🐨
@Rosscoff20002 жыл бұрын
I think Alan Sugar may actually have started his business growth where I first saw him - on a London street market flogging supposed wonder radio aerials for 2/6d each! They were just a short piece of stiff wire with a random old capacitor wired across one end to make it look like it wasn't just a piece wire. Even at 12 I could see it was a scam!
@WelshmanInNC7 ай бұрын
Surely you aren’t saying that awards are driven by politics rather than merit?
@codewizard582 жыл бұрын
As a teenager in the 70s this is a great memory for me. Mid 70s for me it was the Signetics 2560 and the IM6100
@sensecam6 жыл бұрын
My hero, I learn so much from Chris, re electronics. We meet occasionally for cup of tea :-)
@robinw775 жыл бұрын
Really? I'm jealous :-) He comes across as a nice guy.
@andyhowlett22313 жыл бұрын
WHAT a great video! Years ago I wrote an article for Radio Bygones magazine about my experiences with Sinclair products, including the Micromatic, the Z30 (we used a pair for a mobile disco, talk about living dangerously!), the calculators and of course the lovely ZX81, and I made the same point that Chris makes about Sinclair customers being 'a good bunch'. Most were electronics enthusiasts and understood that things blow up from time to time and especially if you take liberties with them. Their customer service was quick and fair, and even if it was obvious that you'd blasted the thing to death they would cheerfully fix it and send it back and charge you almost nothing. Sir Clive is still a hero as far as I'm concerned.
@yesihavereadit2 жыл бұрын
I made a stereo with z30 !
@ahafeel2 жыл бұрын
Absolute respect and admiration for this generation of pioneers and visionaries. To me, these guys are the real heroes of the computer revolution... not the charlatan corporate sharks like Gates and Jobs.
@SharpblueCreative7 жыл бұрын
The BBC Micro Men program Chris talks about here is very good. Well worth watching if you haven't seen it. Cracking interview. The BBC Model B was a big part of my teenage years and I still have one.
@garyoptica7 жыл бұрын
Chris is sharper than a serpent's tooth ;-)
@dubsy10267 жыл бұрын
Mark Keen micro men is a nice drama, but somewhat loosely rooted in fact
@TheFusedplug6 жыл бұрын
There was a subtle class difference between Speccy owners and Beeb owners there would have been a lot more heated arguments but the C64 was the real contender as far as the microcomputer market was concerned .. great days indeed Alan Sugar may have been pushing out cheap sort of radiogram Hi Fi's using parts supplied from Radionics but later on of course in 1986 ironically purchased the Sinclair brand of computers for a cool 5 million quid. If it wasn't for the C5 vehicle being a flop, Sugar wouldn't have got the Spectrum and QL tech so cheap and I may have not been the proud owner of a Spectrum 128+2 (grey) which I still use from time to time. I don't think Mr Curry is too keen on Alan Sugar :) I can understand why it's probably because Sugar used a very simplistic wheeler dealer approach to business and he got away with it ..THEN waits for Clive Sinclair to make an epic fail and scoops up his lifes work for pretty damn cheap then makes a fortune out of it. There were a lot more Spectrum 128's (+2/+3/+2a) etc flying off the shelves when the 8 bit market was at it's peak than any other 8 bit (at least in Europe and the UK) Clive still walked away with a few quid and is regarded as one of Britain's most incredible clever inventors of all time. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is still in production www.specnext.com/
@mindphaserxy6 жыл бұрын
"Clive Sinclair the man who brought you Jet Set #&£!ing Willy!"
@005AGIMA5 жыл бұрын
@@dubsy1026 I'd love to see a scene for scene breakdown to see how much was dramatized. Great film regardless. Watched it twice and will watch it again. It's a shame the BBC wont release to DVD/BR
@reneestuckyneale15996 жыл бұрын
My husband is an engineer and worked for Sinclair from the mid 1970s for some years.
@TheCentreforComputingHistory6 жыл бұрын
Hi Renee, Do you happen to live anywhere near the museum in Cambridge, UK? It would be great if you could get in touch : www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/1777/Contact-Us/ as we would love to speak to him.
@reneestuckyneale15996 жыл бұрын
We presently live in Southern California. We have been working in the unmanned aircraft industry. He travels to Europe on business a few times a year. We may be in the UK in Norfolk next year for the holidays as well. I will ask him if he would contact you. I noticed a few links on your contact page. Which would be the best to use? Or would a phone call be best?
@TheCentreforComputingHistory6 жыл бұрын
renee neale hi, that’s great! Use the jason@ email address. Thanks :)
@dukistyles4 жыл бұрын
Does your husband know how to build strucutred water purification HIGHLY Advanced magentic Technology without fliters with radionics? I would love to know , thanks
@sensecam8 жыл бұрын
Very pleased to see Christopher Curry, such a great teacher!
@JohnnyBareToes18 жыл бұрын
Fascinating ! Interviews with Chris are few and far between. Really enjoyed watching this. Now we need to hear Sir Clive's side of the story :) Thanks for sharing
@chilledoutpaul2 жыл бұрын
How very interesting, yeah I was one of those 60's kids playing with valves & transformers ETC. The valve chris was talking about in the first part was talking about with the ecc83 (double triode) was probably an EL84 ish, an output pentode! Good old days 😍.
@axs2037 жыл бұрын
Chris Curry is really interesting in this........thanks this was enjoyable..........I wonder if the Microbit will capture the same excitement we had back then.
@phildurling7185 Жыл бұрын
An interview with Alan Sugar talking about Amstrad and his links with Clive Sinclair would be very interesting.
@scottieburr6 ай бұрын
Would he even remember it? Curry's comment about Sugar in a Transit van is just golden.
@daffyduk772 ай бұрын
Sugar probably didn't have the same tech-enthusiasm, he was more of a box-shifter with a willingness to try new niches or grow the niches
@nebularain33382 ай бұрын
Sugar didn't care about computers. It was just another trending product for him to flog. It would be better to get one of the engineers who actually designed the CPC in for a chat.
@arfanmedni72942 жыл бұрын
RIP Clive Sinclair, gone to silicon heaven.
@ttrjw5 жыл бұрын
Really important slice of oral history here. Well done!
@flashcorp762 жыл бұрын
Sinclair ZX81…. THAT is what got me going, and haven’t stopped. And now electronics and IC’s are so cheap and easy. These guys are part of the pioneers 😁👍🏻
@reaper3783 жыл бұрын
Superb ! If it wasn't for Chris I wouldn't have had a lifetime working in IT. Thankyou Chris :-)
@hazy337 жыл бұрын
Fantastic interview. Thankyou so much!
@MrDaveP757 жыл бұрын
Fantastic interview. Thanks.
@woodywoodlstein95192 жыл бұрын
I bet he made some amazing amps. Mix and match that creates the most unique sound.
@6F6G2 жыл бұрын
Making the specifications of amps look way bigger than they actually are was a speciality of Tandy. They used to give the pmpo (peak music power output) rating. For a stereo amplifier they would give the total of both channels together so a 2 watt rms per channel amplifier would have a pmpo rating of something like 100KW.
@GadgetUK1642 жыл бұрын
Fantastic interview! I wish there was more of this!!!
@HenryMcGuinnessGuitar6 жыл бұрын
Very interesting. Loved to see this interview - part of my history. I remember well the excitement of those new computers coming out.
@bigkivzero4 жыл бұрын
Thoroughly enjoyed that, thank you!
@005AGIMA5 жыл бұрын
Had an Acorn Electron and loved it. Then had a Spectrum +3 (from Sinclair's "Amstrad" days) and loved that. Then had a Commodore Amiga 500 and adored that. Now ask me which "PC's" I've "loved" or "adored". There are none.
@TakemetotheGeek4 жыл бұрын
less than 50K people for this video this man built our world
@stevedoubleu99B4 жыл бұрын
As a former Advance (Gould) employee, I found this inteview extremely fascinating. Always sad when things have to end.
@MarkCW5 жыл бұрын
Interesting interview. The 1st computers I programmed were my Grandpa's 6809 computer (he built it himself) and the Sinclair ZX80 with 16KB of memory! I later bought the Acorn Atom and programmed the BBC micro at Hills Road Sixth form college, Cambridge. I have met both Clive Sinclair & Chris Curry when I was working for an accounting practice called Vlieland-Boddy & Co. I think Chris & Sir Clive had a punch-up in the Barron of Beaf in Cambridge. Both very intelligent people.
@ElSmusso7 жыл бұрын
Loved my Speccy 48
@Petertronic8 жыл бұрын
Very interesting and fascinating chat
@reaper3788 жыл бұрын
Simply superb. Thanks :-) Shared.
@arongooch7 жыл бұрын
A very interesting video. Enjoyed it a lot.
@CyberhugTechnologies4 жыл бұрын
Legendary years of British computing.. excellent video.
@BooktownBoy5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for sharing this...excellent.
@mrswinkyuk6 жыл бұрын
Still got my Atom, brilliant machine. It taught me all the basics about computers.
@roundel526 жыл бұрын
Stan Whattmore I've still got mine, too!
@Kppot7 жыл бұрын
OMG, my first ever computer (I mean true pc, like with sounds and games) was BBC Micro B. IDK how it get to Moscow, but it was bloody fantastic machine! I remember those strings BBC Computer 32K Acorn DFS BASIC >
@simonrichard98736 жыл бұрын
That's not a PC.
@breadwarandcircus6 жыл бұрын
codemagician, I have made a version 1.1 of your code... 10 PRINT "YOUR NAME "; 20 GOTO 10
@theyamo72195 жыл бұрын
Simon Richard Yes it is dumbass PC is a catchall term for PERSONAL COMPUTER
@adammoss52845 жыл бұрын
?&FE60=0
@TomCro733 жыл бұрын
BBC Computer 32K Watford Electronics DFS 1.44 BASIC > The beeb was a brilliant machine, but the team over at Jessa House raised some bars yet further - their DFS was a masterpiece!
@VenomStryker5 жыл бұрын
I love how you could choose to build your own stuff if you didn't want to pay insane prices for electronics, like Chris did with the amplifiers.
@ScoopexUs4 ай бұрын
There's quite a bit of this still ongoing in the classic computer communities - with modern stuff like FPGA signal converters for flat TVs and input devices, CF and SSD interfaces, and complete motherboard re-issues, just add components!
@oxogood90185 жыл бұрын
great interview
@SabretoothBarnacle6 жыл бұрын
Just twigged he worked in Malvern where I used to live... don't know how I missed that first time around!
@domorewithsage7 жыл бұрын
Great interview - hope to see more!
@mikeswatches24808 жыл бұрын
Really interesting Interview . . .
@audiovisualfx8 жыл бұрын
Thank-you for this - very interesting
@presterjohn715 жыл бұрын
This chap is really very typical of the guys that worked at Malvern back in the day. A lot of them went on to do interesting things.
@paulie-g3 жыл бұрын
The shade he throws on Sugar is delicious
@jamesdecross10352 жыл бұрын
Strange point to end on. Interesting interview.
@BazzaHSpeccymad7 жыл бұрын
brilliant, very informative and interesting video well done
@TheCentreforComputingHistory7 жыл бұрын
Thank you :)
@simonharding11778 жыл бұрын
great to interview next stop clive
@peterjennings82584 жыл бұрын
What a fascinating video, watching the father of my BeeB...we need pt 2! I have both my original Spectrum 48k.. and my BBC Model B.... alas the spectrum no longer works... but the BBC micro soldiers on....a testament to the guys at Acorn. Its also great to see your room of BBC micro's all lined up, reminds me of s10, the computer room in Medina high school 1990!
@gasgas26892 жыл бұрын
I was a computer shop manager when Spectrums were all the rage. They were so unreliable (40% of them new from the factory didn't work) that I made sure the customers only got 3 months warranty.
@peterjennings82582 жыл бұрын
@@gasgas2689 yeah my Spectrum died years ago....but the beeb carries on.....that said I have a sinclair calculator that my uncle gave me in the 80s....last time i checked it still worked.
@HowardPrice7 жыл бұрын
Having been both a Sinclair and Acorn customer multiple times, I was thrilled to see this interview. I would have loved to have heard Chris' thoughts on the C5. It seemed that was a major division between him and Clive. Shame it was left out.
@TheCentreforComputingHistory7 жыл бұрын
Hey Howard. There's always next time :) Hopefully we'll be talking to Chris again soon ...
@silas1842 жыл бұрын
@@TheCentreforComputingHistory Fascinating and important to get this history on the net!
@Davyfb752 жыл бұрын
We need a part 2
@garyproffitt5941 Жыл бұрын
Mark my words Chris Curry is a genius with Acorn computers with R.I.S.C. ✔
@cpcnw2 жыл бұрын
My Dad used to buy EE / PE / PW in the hope I would take an interest. The most I could afford at the time was a Crystal Set Kit. I remember the ads for the Scamp and the MK14, Black Watch etc. When I was 14 I spent all my saved pocket money over 2 years on a Sinclair Cambridge Calculator. I was the first kid in my Sec Mod to own a calc and for 2 weeks everyone asked me for a look at it. It ate AA's for breakfast and used to go haywire if you tried to to divide by zero. In the end I couldn't even afford to run it. I never got my MK14 but I reckoned the cost of all the mags Dad bought I could of had one.
@erectiledysfunction73992 жыл бұрын
These people had real skills and deserve credit for what they had achieved. The new generation with their smartphone have no appreciation.
@nebularain33382 ай бұрын
Take your statement, replace "smartphones" with "microcomputers" and you are basically repeating what all the oaf-Dads and regressive old moaners said in the 1980s. Don't be that "back in my day" guy who shits on an entire generation just becasue they aren't young any more and can't handle it. If you are, then it's you that has no appreciation.
@JNeely-ir2ln2 жыл бұрын
Great example of working together.
@connomar552 жыл бұрын
I owned an Acorn Atom for about a week. I had to use a component freezer on the ROM chip to get the Assembler code to work, and my first program ran out of memory. The Keyboard also disassembled itself. I returned it and bought a Sharp MZ-80K for a lot more money.
@johnrogers67057 жыл бұрын
Great Video :)
@SabretoothBarnacle8 жыл бұрын
Excellent :)
@odd1357913 күн бұрын
"...microcomputer out of calculator chips..." in my teens, i had many wonderful electronics books. one in particular was far-too-well-thumbed, virtually falling apart, called "from calculators to compulators." it offered many ideas for using glue logic, interfacing 7-segment displays, keyboards, power supplies, etc. gosh it was eye-openeing. tab books was virtually an electronics education, well before college. no surpise i'm a licensed professional electrical engineer, hmm? but, sadly, without the ground-breaking experience chris had, bringing incredible opportunities like electronic calculators and the bbc micro to the rest of us : )
@Rosscoff20002 жыл бұрын
would be good to show a shot of the electrostatic tube version of the micro vision when Christopher Curry mentions it. although not a commercial success, that was a very innovative design - still used years later in entryphone systems.
@BeautifulAngelBlossom3 жыл бұрын
iam from the USA and as i born in the late 80s kind of geek girl my self i find how UK had all these Micro computes and in the states when did not a lot from what i have learn but i got say I love Chris Curry and Acorn computers the made Chip we still use today ARM (Acorn Risk Machine ) while from all i know i think Chris Curry was a better man then Sir Clive whale they both were smarter than most of us i got say i would not mine collecting few Acorn computers my self even know they won't run right in the states i want to get one that started ARM chip i forget the name of that one i think i might have watch micro men again anyways take care peace and love
@Truthseeker15153 жыл бұрын
You had the Apple II, totally unaffordable in the UK at the time. From the US, the only computer that sold was the Commodore 64.
@michaelstevens6305 жыл бұрын
Lovely to hear the name Richard Russell. A very talented BBC engineer, I think his own personal career speaks very loudly. I believe he did the digital network clock (GNAT) and later the digitals for COW. The orginal spinning globe we may know this as.
@wisteela7 жыл бұрын
Excellent
@pomegran1008 жыл бұрын
At last, Chris Curry's view on the Acorn story! Thanks for this - an interesting watch. Seems like it ended quite abruptly - any more footage from the interview post the Acorn flotation?
@TheCentreforComputingHistory8 жыл бұрын
Yes ... there is ... watch this space ;)
@crumplezone18 жыл бұрын
Right answer :)
@paladinepaladine8 жыл бұрын
Agh! I need to know more :)
@spart3612 жыл бұрын
@@TheCentreforComputingHistory 5 years later......?
@edgeeffect4 жыл бұрын
44:30 Woah.... Oundle School.... I never expected my interest in the BBC Micro and my interest in Throbbing Gristle to meet each other.... This chap from Oundle must have been quite the futurist in many ways. (although, on the subject of TG.... you really could have done with turning the volume up on Chris's mic.)
@angrybeavers39527 жыл бұрын
Fantastic interview. ZX fan checking in. Just worried about screen burn on the BBC monitors behind...
@mikekwarner7 жыл бұрын
I too was worried about the screen burn! Pretty sad really, but the equipment in the background looks to be in such great condition.
@Dranok12 жыл бұрын
That's the gorgeous Cub multisync monitor for you! 4 years permanently on in the Econet lab and yet the burn in was only just noticeable :-)
@johnnypig73788 жыл бұрын
Nice one Chris
@christoohunders53164 жыл бұрын
The bloke was handsome too, look for the oct 82 practical computing interview photos, sexy devil.
@grantbanstead19719 ай бұрын
Bloody nice bloke.
@Sheffield_Steve7 ай бұрын
Just happened on this after watching Micro Men again on here. I know Chris & his Acorn team ended up being sold off for a fraction of their valuation to Olivetti, but glad to see & hear from Chris here and what became of him following that. A friend of my Father once gave us a ZX81 or Spectrum I think and after about half an hour of trying to get the b*****d to work or wondering what was the point of it, I said to my Dad, "Gi' (Give) it him back, Dad!" I was never really a gamer tbh. My brother once got a Commodore Plus 4, I wasn't that bothered or never got a chance to use it, so I think I didn't really bother with them, probably only using the BBC Micro at school then the Master & finally the Archimedes, so I guess I have Chris to thank for at least letting me have the opportunity to use computers in school, if not at home. Seeing banks of the old BBC B's takes me back to my primary school days tbh. 🤔😉
@rigilchrist2 жыл бұрын
I bought the MK14 - I think it had 256 bits of RAM, not Bytes!
@siriusmicromaniac28 күн бұрын
I'm sure you are probably joking but no, it actually was 256 bytes, expandable on-board to 640 bytes by fitting two more optional 2111 RAM ICs and the 8154 I/O RAM IC. Still not a lot of memory by modern standards.
@davedogge22802 жыл бұрын
So this is the guy !
@staceygrove59764 жыл бұрын
Would have loved to hear Chris's take on the Baron Of Beef incident from 1984!
@lister_of_smeg65453 жыл бұрын
kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5LSn4mPhLmGqc0m15s
@tinytonymaloney78322 жыл бұрын
This guy looks great if he's coming up to 70, what cream is he using?? Chris had the sort of life I could only dream of having, but electronics was new then. I envy this man. Even though him and Clive separated after many years I wonder where we would be in terms of IT now. I loved the micro men film too, I kept watching it over and over.
@gasgas26892 жыл бұрын
Who remembers Sinclair's first product, a DIY kit of parts to make yourself a 10 transistor audio amplifier? They were only sold as kits because he bought skip loads of scrap transistors from Plessey Semiconductors in Swindon. If the amplifier didn't work (which of course it didn't, being built from scrap) you could send it back to Sinclair with a large amount of money which paid for genuine transistors, they would fix it and return it to you. Not many people did, because they were marketed implying (by the inclusion of a soldering iron and soldering instructions) that anyone could build an amplifier on their kitchen table. The builder would then think they had done something wrong and didn't want to admit it.