35 ms·

I'd say the Spectrums and to a lesser extent (in the UK) C64s inspired more coders - the Spectrum in particular was much cheaper and more popular (and thus a bi

I'd say the Spectrums and to a lesser extent (in the UK) C64s inspired more coders - the Spectrum in particular was much cheaper and more popular (and thus a bigger potential market for games), the Beeb was seen as a boring school PC by many kids, by dint of its presence in virtually every school in the UK - Apple didn't have a foothold in the UK education market like it did in the US.

stevekemp 6y ago
Fair comment; I was regularly hacking games, programming, and playing on the Spectrum as were most of my friends. Nobody I knew had a BBC - they were a "school computer", not a "fun computer". Though the games still stuck in my memory, "Granny's Garden" and some kind of economy game (where you raised taxes, and did similar things. You had to get elected again and keep your population happy. I wish I knew what that was called.)
- crumbshot 6y ago
  > some kind of economy game (where you raised taxes, and did similar things. You had to get elected again and keep your population happy. I wish I knew what that was called.) Yellow River Kingdom?
  - stevekemp 6y ago
    Thanks for the suggestion, from the video it doesn't match my memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE1NVaUs8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE1NVaUs8s I remember text-only, and being shown unemployment-rates, and similar. I think it was based on UK political parties, but my memory is so vague I can't remember any significant details.
    - crumbshot 6y ago
      Could it be Great Britain Ltd? https://youtu.be/vnojOGjz578 https://youtu.be/vnojOGjz578
      - stevekemp 6y ago
        Definitely! Thank you so much, that game has been lurking at the back of my mind for the better part of 30 years!
        UncleSlacky 6y ago
        You can play it here: http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1537 http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1537
- someperson 6y ago
  Almost certainly SimCity: https://www.mobygames.com/game/bbc-micro_/simcity https://www.mobygames.com/game/bbc-micro_/simcity
  - stevekemp 6y ago
    I hadn't realized that was available for the BBC! One of the later replies successfully identified it as "Great Britain Ltd".
Doctor_Fegg 6y ago
Yes - and the UK's third micro, the Amstrad CPC, which unlike the Spectrum and C64 had a decent BASIC, and unlike the BBC Micro was affordable.
- UncleSlacky 6y ago
  And came with its own CRT so you wouldn't have to fight over the family TV.
Joeboy 6y ago
Yeah, the BBC B was normally the thing your school had, and despite being a "boring school PC" your mates were probably too busy playing Elite on it too much for you to spend much time using it. BBCs were about twice the price of a C64 or three times the price of a ZX Spectrum, so not many people had them at home.
gadders 6y ago
The BBC B was for the posh kids. It cost about £400 against (I think) £100 or so for a Spectrum (or £80 for my Dragon 32 that I got cheap after Dragon went bust). The only good thing about the BBC B at first was Elite. There was the Acorn Electron, but that didn't come out until later and was still £200.
- Joeboy 6y ago
  To be fair, having a home computer at all was for posh kids. Having a BBC B at home was for really posh kids.
  - teh_klev 6y ago
    I'd disagree, my folks who were both working class saved for about two years to get me a BBC Micro B. My dad wouldn't let me have anything less after seeing Spectrums, C64's etc in the shops at the time, he figured they were (in his words, not mine :) ) cheap toys. I in the meantime pleaded for them to let me get a Spectrum, or basically anything; I ended up going to friends houses for my computer fix :) But I'm very glad they patiently scrimped and saved for the BBC and made me wait. The built-in 6502 assembler was one of the first things I learned, it was a joy to use. That machine kicked off my career in software development, it was well worth the wait.
  - gadders 6y ago
    It's all relative, but I managed to get a Dragon 32 after they went bust despite growing up on and off benefits.
    - pwinwood 6y ago
      I don't think we could afford anything, but I could over a period of time build my own.
      - gadders 6y ago
        Nice! I wish I had been smart enough to do that.
youngtaff 6y ago
Yeh I think the role of the BBC Micro is overstated We had a ZX81, then a ZX Spectrum then a Dragon 32 Other mates had Vic 20s or C64s I can think of only one friend who had a BBC Micro at home - the were 3 or 4 times the price of a Spectrum
- hnlmorg 6y ago
  The role of the BBC Micro wasn't just about what the kids had at home. It was about providing kids access to a machine -- many kids wouldn't have had computers at home. It was also about providing a framework, lessons, course materials, TV shows, etc all centred around development on a standard system. It's what encouraged other home computers to run BASIC (for example the Locomotive Basic, which is what the Amstrad CPC ran, was heavily influenced by BBC Basic). The BBC Micro was a massive influence to the education of IT, to the home computing industry and to 80s kids (even if sometimes indirectly).
  - Doctor_Fegg 6y ago
    Locomotive BASIC was indeed influenced by BBC Basic, but I think you'd have a hard time arguing that the Spectrum (direct descendant of the ZX81) or the C64 (developed in America) were, and they were by far the two most popular micros in the UK.
    - hnlmorg 6y ago
      I didn't say the C64 and Spectrum were directly influenced by the BBC (though I can see why you read my comment that way) but that the wider industry was. eg Parents bought kids BASIC systems because schools had BBCs so the C64, whilst often just used as a games system, was bought because it was also "educational". If it weren't for the BBC, I'd wager far fewer homes would have had BASIC-based micro computers and thus that industry would have been much smaller.
  - youngtaff 6y ago
    Yeh but we could have just easily as put ZX Spectrums into schools and had twice as many As far as I can remember my school didn't have BBC Micro's we had Commodore Pets when I was doing O levels Not sure why we didn't have any BBCs though
adwww 6y ago
My primary school in the early 90s had one Apple, several BBC and mostly Acorn computers.
davidhbolton 6y ago
I'd definitely agree. BBC Micro - total sales 1 million. CBM-64 between 10 and 17 million. Meanwhile Raspberry Pis are well over 30 million.

stevekemp 6y ago

Fair comment; I was regularly hacking games, programming, and playing on the Spectrum as were most of my friends. Nobody I knew had a BBC - they were a "school computer", not a "fun computer". Though the games still stuck in my memory, "Granny's Garden" and some kind of economy game (where you raised taxes, and did similar things. You had to get elected again and keep your population happy. I wish I knew what that was called.)

crumbshot 6y ago
> some kind of economy game (where you raised taxes, and did similar things. You had to get elected again and keep your population happy. I wish I knew what that was called.) Yellow River Kingdom?
- stevekemp 6y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion, from the video it doesn't match my memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE1NVaUs8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE1NVaUs8s I remember text-only, and being shown unemployment-rates, and similar. I think it was based on UK political parties, but my memory is so vague I can't remember any significant details.
  - crumbshot 6y ago
    Could it be Great Britain Ltd? https://youtu.be/vnojOGjz578 https://youtu.be/vnojOGjz578
    - stevekemp 6y ago
      Definitely! Thank you so much, that game has been lurking at the back of my mind for the better part of 30 years!
      - UncleSlacky 6y ago
        You can play it here: http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1537 http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1537
someperson 6y ago
Almost certainly SimCity: https://www.mobygames.com/game/bbc-micro_/simcity https://www.mobygames.com/game/bbc-micro_/simcity
- stevekemp 6y ago
  I hadn't realized that was available for the BBC! One of the later replies successfully identified it as "Great Britain Ltd".

Doctor_Fegg 6y ago

Yes - and the UK's third micro, the Amstrad CPC, which unlike the Spectrum and C64 had a decent BASIC, and unlike the BBC Micro was affordable.

UncleSlacky 6y ago
And came with its own CRT so you wouldn't have to fight over the family TV.

Joeboy 6y ago

Yeah, the BBC B was normally the thing your school had, and despite being a "boring school PC" your mates were probably too busy playing Elite on it too much for you to spend much time using it. BBCs were about twice the price of a C64 or three times the price of a ZX Spectrum, so not many people had them at home.

gadders 6y ago

The BBC B was for the posh kids. It cost about £400 against (I think) £100 or so for a Spectrum (or £80 for my Dragon 32 that I got cheap after Dragon went bust). The only good thing about the BBC B at first was Elite. There was the Acorn Electron, but that didn't come out until later and was still £200.

Joeboy 6y ago
To be fair, having a home computer at all was for posh kids. Having a BBC B at home was for really posh kids.
- teh_klev 6y ago
  I'd disagree, my folks who were both working class saved for about two years to get me a BBC Micro B. My dad wouldn't let me have anything less after seeing Spectrums, C64's etc in the shops at the time, he figured they were (in his words, not mine :) ) cheap toys. I in the meantime pleaded for them to let me get a Spectrum, or basically anything; I ended up going to friends houses for my computer fix :) But I'm very glad they patiently scrimped and saved for the BBC and made me wait. The built-in 6502 assembler was one of the first things I learned, it was a joy to use. That machine kicked off my career in software development, it was well worth the wait.
- gadders 6y ago
  It's all relative, but I managed to get a Dragon 32 after they went bust despite growing up on and off benefits.
  - pwinwood 6y ago
    I don't think we could afford anything, but I could over a period of time build my own.
    - gadders 6y ago
      Nice! I wish I had been smart enough to do that.

youngtaff 6y ago

Yeh I think the role of the BBC Micro is overstated We had a ZX81, then a ZX Spectrum then a Dragon 32 Other mates had Vic 20s or C64s I can think of only one friend who had a BBC Micro at home - the were 3 or 4 times the price of a Spectrum

hnlmorg 6y ago
The role of the BBC Micro wasn't just about what the kids had at home. It was about providing kids access to a machine -- many kids wouldn't have had computers at home. It was also about providing a framework, lessons, course materials, TV shows, etc all centred around development on a standard system. It's what encouraged other home computers to run BASIC (for example the Locomotive Basic, which is what the Amstrad CPC ran, was heavily influenced by BBC Basic). The BBC Micro was a massive influence to the education of IT, to the home computing industry and to 80s kids (even if sometimes indirectly).
- Doctor_Fegg 6y ago
  Locomotive BASIC was indeed influenced by BBC Basic, but I think you'd have a hard time arguing that the Spectrum (direct descendant of the ZX81) or the C64 (developed in America) were, and they were by far the two most popular micros in the UK.
  - hnlmorg 6y ago
    I didn't say the C64 and Spectrum were directly influenced by the BBC (though I can see why you read my comment that way) but that the wider industry was. eg Parents bought kids BASIC systems because schools had BBCs so the C64, whilst often just used as a games system, was bought because it was also "educational". If it weren't for the BBC, I'd wager far fewer homes would have had BASIC-based micro computers and thus that industry would have been much smaller.
- youngtaff 6y ago
  Yeh but we could have just easily as put ZX Spectrums into schools and had twice as many As far as I can remember my school didn't have BBC Micro's we had Commodore Pets when I was doing O levels Not sure why we didn't have any BBCs though

adwww 6y ago

My primary school in the early 90s had one Apple, several BBC and mostly Acorn computers.

davidhbolton 6y ago

I'd definitely agree. BBC Micro - total sales 1 million. CBM-64 between 10 and 17 million. Meanwhile Raspberry Pis are well over 30 million.