* Posts by Michael Emerton

1 publicly visible post • joined 20 Mar 2008

BBC Micro creators meet to TRACE machine's legacy

Michael Emerton

Still Have One, Still use the newer versions

I remember programming this little beastie (the real BeeB BBC Model B) when I was about 5 or 6 mostly hello world!

Favorite games POD and Oil RIG a "teletext game" downloaded using our Teletext Decoder!

Then you had the solid state disc (not sure on manufacturer) which would come loose (causing a familiar never ending beep) and a good old bashing / pressing down on the case fixed it to boot up again!

Even a famous software house (Computer Concepts now Xara Ltd) was just down the road from me.

I loved the old Interword ROM

CH."Interword"....ah those were the days!

I still remain to use its younger cousin RiscPC (StrongARM) at work where I use remote desktoping to control various Servers / Creating documents, and technical diagrams, while my PC Laptop is loading / busy crashing. I have even used BBC BASIC on it to code a music player (MP3/OGG) which lives in/out of the desktop environment and can be booted from cold in under 5 seconds!

I wonder how many of you realize the BBC was used to develop the original ARM chip that is in so many different things these days (Mobile Phones, Apple Newton, PACE boxes, RAID interfaces ect)?

Plug: www.virtualacorn.co.uk

Plug: http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/emulation/bbc/