BBC

Valan · Feb 19, 2015

Was just remembering my first computer.

Elite gets a mention. I was 11 at the time of the first Elite game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro

Read it and pity those that came before you kids. No mobile phones and loading games from tape!!

It is still in the loft. The last time it came was to help with my college work programming 6502 assembly! There is a big gap between that and python that I tinker with now.

Devil's Refugee · Feb 19, 2015

Those we were the days lol

CMDR Sheehy · Feb 19, 2015

* sigh * yes...

Kalearne · Feb 19, 2015

I'd rep you for that if I could..

Anyone else remember using correction fluid or nail varnish to mark the volume on a tape deck? I think I still have my old Sony tape deck in storage.. Nostalgia reasons

Dash · Feb 19, 2015

Piffle. Tape?

I've still got my BBC Master Compact, complete with it's 3.5" floppy drive. Along with a copy of Elite somewhere.

PiLhEaD · Feb 19, 2015

BBC B was my first computer too.

A great introduction to computing, and it had an excellent keyboard too, I still have mine tucked away in a cupboard.

I wonder how long before I can take it to the antiques road show?

Devil's Refugee · Feb 19, 2015

Dash said:
Piffle. Tape?

I've still got my BBC Master Compact, complete with it's 3.5" floppy drive. Along with a copy of Elite somewhere.

pfff 3.5" disks ? I've still got my IBM punch cards

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henry1491 said:
BBC B was my first computer too.

A great introduction to computing, and it had an excellent keyboard too, I still have mine tucked away in a cupboard.

I wonder how long before I can take it to the antiques road show?

There's a BBC B in the Edinburgh Museum.

Dash · Feb 19, 2015

This is essentially the reason I keep mine. I have no idea if it still works, I hold on to the theory that they built things better in those days so it'll be more resistant to environmental change in my loft space.

Valan · Feb 19, 2015

One of my ex's mum was one of the first women in computing. She was the first woman on the computing degree she did.

They took the class to look at the universities computer that occupied an entire room. During the lecture she perched on a console and hit the big red restart button with her backside!

She's head of IT for a huge multi-national now lol

Chummy62 · Feb 19, 2015

I stil have my cassette deck on display with the rest of my audio/video equipment in the living room. And yes, it still works as I tested it. You can see it below the X-box. And yes, that is a VHS tape player on the left.
View attachment 16006

I played Frontier Elite II on an Amiga 2000 back in the day.

trekman · Feb 19, 2015

My first experience of Elite was on the BBC Model B. I remember it like it was yesterday even if it was nearly 31 years ago now.

Nightjar · Feb 19, 2015

My first Elite was on a BBC B, with a lab-tech sorting out the copyright protection to break the 'bad sector' mechanism. High tech for then. I was a student programming a PDP 8 with paper tape!
I'm so glad those days are over ...

Pete · Feb 19, 2015

One of my first posts on the Elite: Dangerous forums:

Pete said:
Commander Pete signing in!

I remember the first time I ever really REALLY wanted a computer game, and its name was Elite... I remember how my father kept a small notebook, and I had to be good every single day without exception to earn the game. I think I was more good then than any other time in my life. I read the novella, I pinned the poster of ship-types up on the wall behind my computer, and I lost myself in the expanse of the game.

All of that on a puny little Acorn Electron (no colours, missions or thargoids in that version!).

Now we have Elite: Dangerous, and I'm running a single computer with over one and a half times more memory than all the RAM in all the Acorn Electrons ever sold, with a processor that can't even compare in any meaningful way, with more than 63 times as much display resolution, and with the entire world at my fingertips via the internet. Frontier have a lot to live up to here, I'm not expecting anything less than jaw-dropping awesomeness.

No pressure...

-- Pete.

-- Pete.

gmiddlemass · Feb 19, 2015

Acorn Electron was my first one too... think I may even still have it in the loft somewhere, really must have a look sometime.

I know that I still have the original poster with the ship types.

Dim Reaper · Feb 19, 2015

I also first played on a BBC Model B - the cassette version of Elite first, then a few months later the disk version. I dug the old machine out last Summer. It lasted all of five minutes before several somethings popped inside (capacitors?) and my old friend died with a wisp of smoke.

Jackie Silver · Feb 19, 2015

So, who remembers this? Very deliberate winking smiley.

[video=youtube;lkPeDQKRpEk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkPeDQKRpEk[/video]

Max Torps · Feb 19, 2015

Yep I remember Strykers Run. That was awesome at the time.
Back to Elite, I had the disk version and spent weeks and weeks playing so I could take part in the competition they had at the time. I never made it to Elite but I did get a badge and a letter for being Dangerous. Personally I blame the spindly little joystick I had. Nothing like a HOTAS at the time really.

Dim Reaper · Feb 19, 2015

Jackie Silver said:
So, who remembers this? Very deliberate winking smiley.

I spent months playing Stryker's Run - and never managed to get to the end. Amazing how bad those graphics look now - at the time they were amazing.

RedeyeJedi · Feb 19, 2015

I had one of these:

[video=youtube_share;03GGIxMGcq8]http://youtu.be/03GGIxMGcq8[/video]

Those tapes used to drive me potty, 20 mins to load up the program then a crash would have you tearing your hair out! Played Elite on mine profusely which eventually wore out the keyboard so my old machine is long gone unfortunately.

Ozric · Feb 19, 2015

Got the old suped up 52K (yes you heard right

) BBC off my dad, just after I started Premium Beta here