My folks bought me one for passing my O grades in high school in the summer of 1983. I'd already been hacking away on the school Apple ][ since xmas 1979, then

My folks bought me one for passing my O grades in high school in the summer of 1983. I'd already been hacking away on the school Apple ][ since xmas 1979, then the school BBC's, and it was such a joy to finally own my own computer, and a BBC Model B as well! I learned everything I could about that machine, especially the OS ROM internals. I loved the fact you could just inline 6502 assembler in your BBC Basic programs. By the time my beeb reached its end of life it had a Torch Z80 co-processor running a clone/lookalike of CP/M-80 (I picked up some dBase II/dBase III work along the way), a pair of high density floppies and loads of other stuff installed. It outgrew even the aftermarket cases and ended up living in a 19" half height Data General mini computer rack (I was very fortunate to work spare hours with a local Data General broker - I even ended up with a full Eclipse S/130 based mini living in my parents house :) ). For many young people of that time it was a hugely influential machine.