BBC-001: my Acorn BBC Model B, Issue 7
In the summer of 1982 my parents gifted me an Acorn BBC Model B - an 8-bit home computer that was developed specifically for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. It was quite expensive - NLG 1999 back then (corrected for inflation that would be € 2350 in 2024!). At the time, they realised that knowledge of computers would become very important, so they wanted me to have a “serious” computer.
I worked through the summer of 1983 to save up enough money to buy a 5.25” floppy drive (NLG 450), an Intel 8271 disc controller chip (NLG 100), plus an EPROM with Disc Filing System software and other required parts and of course a couple of floppy discs (about NLG 100). Each floppy disc would hold up to 200 kilobytes of data.
Past upgrades
Over time, I added an Aries B12 Sideways ROM Board as well as the Acorn Speech Synthesizer Upgrade featuring Kenneth Kendall (the BBC news reader). This was based on a TMS5220 phoneme generator plus a TMS6100 “Phrase ROM” (PHROM) chip.
The original 6502 CPU was replaced with a more power-efficient 65C02 CMOS version, and I built my own Light Pen (connected to the 6845 CRTC). Unfortunately, these light pens only work with old CRT TVs or monitors, not with modern LCD screens.
I programmed in BBC BASIC, 6502 Assembler and Acorn ISO Pascal. My school / study reports were written using WordWise Plus, and printed on my NEC PC-8023 dot matrix printer (which I still have). I used that machine for several years - at least until 1990 when it was stored in the attic as I started using Intel PCs.
Re-discovering my Beeb
In January 2018 I re-discovered my BBC Micro; I decided to bring it back to life and see if my old floppies and cassette tapes could be recovered.
Assuming that the machine or floppy drive would need major maintenance after all these years, I bought a refurbished Acorn BBC Micro from Mark Haysman at RetroClinic via his eBay store to have at least one “known good” reference machine.
He mentioned that most Beebs only needed their ‘RIFA’ capacitors replaced in the power supply so he shipped a replacement kit. And indeed - I now had a “new” BBC Micro, as well as my original Beeb in full working order! This was the start of my collection.
Around that time I also discovered and joined the StarDot forums - a great community with a huge amount of knowledge of all things Acorn.
This started my interest in #RetroComputing and a little #RetroGaming ;-)
Modern upgrades
In February 2019, I replaced the Aries B12 Sideways ROM Board with a modern IFEL ROM/RAM Board which uses RAM and Flash ROM instead of the old power-hungry EPROMs.
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