Dooooooo-DEEP

[saviourseph]

( note: I’ll probably carry on that meme eventually – it kind of got held up. First Will was here so I was too busy having sex and eating pizza, then I needed to catch up on my sleep, then I was at my mam’s fixing her computer, then I ended up getting adware that fucked up my sidebar gadgets and kept launching IE so I had to deal with that (first virus since my Acorn days – yay! Not as elegant as Module or Extend though, sadly ). Also I’ll admit that I haven’t exactly been taking my meds properly – why bother when they’re not working anyway?)

 

After a couple of weeks faffing about with emulators, I realised something. I seriously miss my BBC Micro*. Sure, computers can do much more stuff nowadays, but were they as fun? I used to love writing stuff for the Beeb, whether it was typing in listings from Acorn/Micro User or making my own stuff up (which was much easier to do back then – BBC BASIC and 6502 assembler were way easier to start doing useful stuff in than what we have now). Plus IDK… the fact that the computer was so primitive (32k RAM/128k on the posh ones, 4 sound channels, 8 screen modes that were all compromises) made people more creative – why bother with “clever” programming when you have near-endless resources available?

*goes to scour eBay for a Master 128*

_{*note to Yanks: the Beeb was the UK’s answer to the Apple ][ – similar specs and just as popular in schools.}

Comments

[fishnet-hamster.livejournal.com]

First Will was here so I was too busy having sex and eating pizza...

LOL at the same time?

And please excuse my Yank-ness, but...the British Broadcasting Company makes computers too?

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

Nah, they didn't make computers. Back in the 80s the BBC had a TV series on home computers, and they wanted an "official" machine for people to follow along at home with. So they put out a spec, Acorn Computers (the people responsible for the ARM chip used in pretty much every mobile phone and similar nowadays) met it well with their upcoming Acorn Proton (successor of the Acorn Atom) and it was renamed the BBC Microcomputer.

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

If you're curious, this is what it looked like. :)

[fishnet-hamster.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. It doesn't look half bad for an old school computer.

[pirate-faafy.livejournal.com]

"why bother with “clever” programming when you have near-endless resources available?"

Three words: video james