Fred Harris Introduces the Acorn Archimedes BBC A3000 Part 1

[3nasacova]

Ah this takes me back. We had two of them in the computer room at school. They must have been the shizznit back then because the day they arrived our two resident computer geeks commandeered them. To my knowledge nobody else ever got to touch them. I know I didn't.

Interestingly, neither of them ever did anything noteworthy on them.

But not to worry. I have a computer now that is about a billion times better, and those two fuckers aren't allowed to touch it!

[LOPEZdJUNGLIST]

mr bean and his late 80s computing

[wikichris]

Someone correct me if I am wrong but these very bloody expensive even compared to the Amiga and ST.

[notanfningain]

could no one tell him the floppy is inside a protective plastic case

[zark212]

I bet he was playing Strip poker after the cameras were switched off lol.

[thesman32]

ah Fred Harris i remember when he used to do tv shows about the bbc micro on bbc tv.

yea the 80s were all good.

[LaurelVentura]

Remember these Archimedes as a youngster around 1990 in school. Was incredible getting to use such advanced computers! Hope kids these days appreciate the GUIs on their modern systems!

[samysaar]

looks to me like an Amiga replica ^^

[Mike9586]

We used to have the Acorn Archimedes at school and I never realised how advanced they really were for their time. If it wasn't for Acorn we wouldn't have the ARM CPU we find in most mobile devices these days. I think Acorn must have inspired Apple a bit too as the Mac OS X has some characteristics of RISC OS especially the dock!

[Bud1UK]

11 people can't handle the awesome power of the Archimedes

[wisteela]

Fond memories of using them at school.

[Charrister]

Nice jumper Fred

[xadam2dudex]

this must have the OS in ROM chips since it booted in a few seconds

[TheSophera]

@xadam2dudex It does indeed! This computer didn't even have a hard disc at the time so everything had to be in ROM anyway.

[hardgayramen4ever]

hey fred, can you show us how to get on the internet and download porn please?

[rabthe45bravo]

Damn, someone got schooled.

[CSProductions]

I remember getting the Acorn at home when I was about 5, used to play such games like Lemmings and Zool.

[hadr0n]

I've still got the VHS tape of this somewhere - They called it "The Learning Curve" for some reason.

[animelubbor432]

so now wait a minute. Britain had pretty much most of the connections in the keyboard, so im assuming that the rest of the stuff was in the monitor?

[JSYBen]

@animelubbor432 Nothing on the monitor except a SCART to plug the monitor into the keyboard and the obvious brightness controls. All the other plugs were in the keyboard. Bizarrely you did plug the Mouse in underneath the keyboard though i seem to remember.

[wesmatron]

@JSYBen It's laid out very much like the Amiga

[VladamireDsracos]

@animelubbor432 It's the same as an Apple IIc, the "keyboard" is basically like the lower part of a modern laptop, everything needed for a computer save a mouse and screen (the Apple IIc could even be connected to a TV to display with the proper wires, one of the first computers to implement that kind of connection that I'm aware of).

[trellis6]

@animelubbor432 - No, no. You're thinking about this the wrong way. That item is not the "keyboard" - that is the entire computer. The computer has the keyboard built into it, like all of the early home computer systems. I don't think it was a peculiarly British thing - the American Commodore and Atari machines were the same, as were Japanese MSX machines etc. It was years before home computers started having keyboards separate from the computer itself.

[AluminumStudios]

Very nostalgic, I miss the early days of computing when there were lots of different systems and it wasn't just MS or Apple essentially running on the same hardware ...

[CPU101]

Wow, this really is old.

1:01 - why is the PS/2 port there?

1:19 - screws?

1:34 - I wish I had a monitor stand

1:46 - he was actually switching off

2:41 - idiot, they are more floppy than the CDs we have today.

[falkerhard]

@CPU101 Yup looked like he was actually switching off. He couldn't get away with that sort of thing now.

[JOCKATEO]

i liked risc i found it better to program

[JSYBen]

Argh, yet again YouTube screws me over. This video now goes out of sync very quickly. Sorry nothing to do with me, it was fine when it was first uploaded.

[TheSophera]

@JSYBen Maybe you could re-upload it? Presumably that would fix the problem?

[MustNotRead]

hehe, i love how they were focused on the fundamental basics of user computing. "this is an icon....this is a floppy disk". cute.

[TheSophera]

@MustNotRead Well, remember that the Learning Curve package, which this is explaining, was sold in 1990. That was only the same year in which Windows 3.0 was released - not even Windows 3.1! So the whole thing with mice and windows and icons was new at the time. :D

[walter0bz]

wow thats a dumb place to put the mouse port.

other than that, "epic win". the cpu goes on to power all the mobile phones in the 21st century "future".

[arranmc182]

1:46 AND SWITCH OFF

[KateFan]

I've still got my A3000 in my parents attic...

[ALEXSLINGSBY]

@JSYBen Would you be able to email me the opening title theme from this video?

[ALEXSLINGSBY]

Was there ever a production company named on the box of this VHS tape? Is there any production information regarding this video tape at all?

[Lachlant1984]

This video used to play just fine without any problems, now it's all completely out of sync because the video is way too fast for the audio track to keep up.

[mistofoles]

What the hell happened here??

[Stevenup7004]

Trippy xD

[NJTJ1980]

i used to go into school extra early so i could play LANDER - what a game

[blazerrips91]

and lemmings rember that oh and that game with the mad professer jesus this is so nostalgic

[DuckSmuggler1]

wev come a long way

[RabidRat88]

Pathetic the way european micro hardware was always lamer than the american counterparts.

Just look at that mouse and the way it connects.

Absolutely wretched british design lamely trying to copy an Amiga 500.

The french micros were even worse.

Maybe european companies should treat their good engineers a bit better and they wouldn't all run off to the US at the first opportunity ?

[gomemdesoto]

It's the processor that these systems used is where the greatness lies.

The British designed ARM is a huge success, for portable and embedded applications. Something like 90% of all cellphones use the ARM processor, and certainly all Nokia, Sony-Ericsson & Windows Mobile based cellphones have an ARM processor, as does the Apple iPhone. This IMO makes it the most successful 32 bit processor ever.

ARM is also widely used in other embedded applications like car ECUs, MP3 players, GameBoy

[gomemdesoto]

"Maybe european companies should treat their good engineers a bit better and they wouldn't all run off to the US at the first opportunity ?"

Actually some US based software companies do a lot of their development work in India these days, including Microsoft.

[RabidRat88]

That explains a lot about the shitty quality of their work then.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 You're so dumb. this "pathetic copy" ran rings around the A500, and that's from AN AMIGA FAN!

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 Ran rings around doing what exactly you sad twat ?

Nobody used this failure outside the UK and for a good reason.

Amiga as a system was far superior overall and the proof is the quality and quantity of software produced for it.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 256 colours without using the slow as shit HAM mode, chunky pixel mode so 3D games are actually playable, and twice the sound channels of any amiga so music didn't cut out when a game played a sound effect. Built in networking was a bonus too.

The Archemedes' specs beat even the a1200, and it came out five years earlier.

If it was such a failure, how come Acorn lasted four years longer than Commodore?

Who's the sad twat now? Now fuck off before you make amiga fans look worse.

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 Who gives a shit about 256 colours versus 64 or that the ARM CPU could deliver twice the performance of the 68000 since it cost TWICE as much as an Amiga 500 ! For the price of an Archimedes you could get an Amiga 2000 with a 68030 accelerator board, which would have a third more processing power than the ARM. I don't know what shitty 3D games you played on the Amiga but the ones I had ran perfectly, music and all. Now go fuck yourself before you embarass yourself any more.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 Using your logic then the Amiga's features didn't matter since it cost twice the price of an ST.

It's bullshit logic, but it's your bullshit logic and you're stuck with it.

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 If price is irrelevant, then why not compare the Archimedes to a Cray ? After all, it's just more expensive. What a ridiculous way of reasoning.

No wonder it failed if all it's fans were as deluded as you.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 Archemedes: 256 colour chunky ARM, 4 MIPS @ 8 MHz 8 channel PCM sound 1mb ram Amiga: 32 colour planar (slow), more with even slower colour cycling tricks. MC68000 1 MIPS @ 8 MHz 4 Channel PCM sound 512K ram It's no co-incidence, that acorn both built more powerful computers AND lasted longer in the market. I guess you'll just have to deal with it.

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 Yes, and for half the price you get a better system except for CPU processing power and a few sound channels nobody cares about.

Go and have a look at the archimedes demos and see the lame jerky scrollers where the only thing worth looking at is the filled 3D and all the other effects you can find done as well or better on an Amiga 500. I don't expect you to admit this since you are obviously some sort of anal retentive bunkered up in his delusions.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 better system except for CPU, RAM, sound, graphics, so basically all it's got is a good operating system and price. welp.

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 No one used the HAM mode for anything other than a splash screen on load up so it's irrelevant. Only an idiot would even mention it for comparison. Acorn lasted longer because it was subsidised by the UK education market and ARM CPU business. Oh and when I was I was referring that the Archimedes was a copy of the A500 I was talking about the overall design, not the hardware inside. How many Archimedes were sold vs the millions of Amigas ? Please. You are a joke.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 TV Paint, Deluxe Paint, Personal paint, all those use HAM mode, and not just for splash screens so welp.

Subsidised by the UK education market? No, they weren't subsidised. They sold computers to schools. In fact when IT went from LEAs to individual schools (94?) Educational saled pretty much stopped dead.

And if the "overall design" is a copy of the A500, the A500 is a copy of the Apple I's wooden case.

You make us amiga users look bad. I bet you're dumb enough to use OS4.

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 HAM : lol you're a noob.

The video bus of the archimedes was known to be shite and the CPU took a big performance hit as soon as moving stuff in 2D was involved. The blitter on the Amiga made it superior on that front since the 68000 and copros were far better integrated from the start. Oh yeah the state never subsidises shools, it's well known. How do you think a school could afford such expensive machines?

I bet you are dumb enough to have bought an Acorn machine yourself.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88 Acorn were not subsidized, no matter how you spin it. They got their money through selling things. How the customers get the money matters none.

Hell, the only acorn machine I had was a Beeb micro 32k B, and I can see you're full of shit. You're working so hard to try and slander the superior hardware, it's pathetic.

Tell me, how is the 3D performance of the AGA amigas compared to this? You've had a two year advantage... and it's still shit at it.

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 You can keep living in your alternate reality if you want, you're still a pathetic deluded moron and most people who know both systems (including democoders I personally know) agree with me.

[richardmaudsley77]

@RabidRat88

If I'm pathetic, how come you're the one who came here and started shit over a 20 year old computer system?

[RabidRat88]

@richardmaudsley77 "And if the "overall design" is a copy of the A500, the A500 is a copy of the Apple I's wooden case."

Have you considered stopping taking drugs ?

I haven't touched an Amiga since 1994 after Commodore went bust.

Don't try and flatter yourself second guessing who I might be.

You still use an Amiga ? Ohohoho no wonder you're retarded !

[miserableoldcunt]

that monitor stand is quite a neat idea.

[itsallaloadofbs]

Is he having a laugh? He switches it on, It's on. He turns it off, it's off.

On my modern computer you turn it on and have to wait three hours before you can do anything.

To turn it off you need to perform an ancient magic incantation. And even that doesn't always work.

I guess we've come a long way since the Arc was made.

[gomemdesoto]

Some computer makers are going back to this idea of instant on and off. In the form of a lightweight Linux in a ROM embedded on the mainboard or laptop. This Linux includes both Firefox and OpenOffice. So one gets a laptop which starts in a few seconds and can do most of the common tasks that one would need. Instead of having to wait 3-5 minutes for a disk based heavyweight OS to load.

[Blurredman]

yep.. If you get a virus in the ROM, which is unlikely but not un-heard of. You simply replace the chip :D

It would be strange though where installations do not require registering and librarys in windows. Rather, just a copy of software from the cd straight to the harddisk. Like DOS... No OS interception at all :D

[NameNotaNumber]

Fred really moved on from his Ragtime days with Maggie didn't he. Very angular chap our Fred, all elbows and knees.

[Crazyconsultant]

Not just any monitor...A COLOUR monitor!

[michaeltesh]

still got mine

[bouncer160]

i used to wait up till 3a in the morning as a kid and watch the open univercity they used to show this sometise or something like it

i remember when super condutors were experimental and expensive, when a semi conductor was a dream.... oh my how we have changed

[AmstradExin]

Well, too bad it was such a crap computer besides the "good" things they showed. I tested a A3010 with a graphics program...but even the menu system was so horrible slow compared to a Amiga 500 which is supposed to be slower, right? :D And then you had only 256 colors maximum...Without any dedicated blitting hardware it was a pretty useless computer for everything except things that focus on heavy mathmatics. I saw some vector graphics demo which was very fast...but 2D? Pah! 14Mhz Risc power..:D

[RakkuAmiya]

Pc's should come with videos like this for people new to computers. Manufacturers just take it for granted that everyone knows already, but they are wrong.

And for anyone wondering what the f*** this line of computers is? Look at your mobile phone, if you have one. There is a very strong possibility that it has a later generation of this machines cpu, called an ARM chip. For example my Nokia E90, aswell as the N95, both have the Arm11. The A3000 came with an Arm2 at 16mhz I think.

[Lachlant1984]

3.5 Inch disketts and SD cards have 2 thing in common. They have tapered edges on the upper right hand sides, and they also have write protection tabs on them. The SD card is really the new floppy disk, they so much more data, and are much more flexeable and durable.

[robby2k]

Man, the Acorn ppl prefigured the OSX dock!

[Grizzly696]

"write protected thats computer jargon"

lmao..i love it!

[Grizzly696]

hahaha this video is fantastic, its amazing how much we have moved on but theres no way i will forget the old days, i had the EXSACT same acorn computer!

[Lachlant1984]

A very good tutorial. I think computers of today should come with tutorials like that, it would be great for the new user, who doesn't understand how to connect the interface cables, or turn on the power, I was thinking of some of the people I used to work with while watching that.

[numpty1972]

I agree. An instructional DVD really should come with new pcs.

[Lachlant1984]

You're right, they really should, be it Windows, Mac OS or Linux. I remember back in 1992/1993, my mother had a Mac at work, and on it was a program called Mouse Practice. Windows 98 did come with a kind of getting started interactive tutorial, but it was nothing compared to this, this is the best getting started tutorial for a computer that I've ever seen. Even Windows XP doesn't come with any kind of real getting started tutorial.

[jaysio]

Yay for Fred, I was looking for Rag Bag and couldn't find any but ...

I found Fred, sans beard.

[papermariob]

Look at him druelling over that 512k (0.5 GB) hard drive.computer with no internet and no porn.

He is easy pleased.

[ScratchGuy]

512k is 0.5MB not 0.5GB you absolute and complete tard

Have a nice day :o)

[papermariob]

To be fair I did realise this just after I had posted this comment. Thank you for pointing it out.

How many people on here would know that this machine in this video is 512k.

They did a "upgrade" on the A3000 model which had 1024k = 1.0 MB

Computers have come along way since this.

[JonnyInfinite]

HAHA LMFAO

[ic1male]

You can't beat a bit of Fred Harris. I wonder where he is today and what he makes of all things Internet.

[AmigaFalcon]

lol "there's this gadget, which is called a mouse" :D

[Membrane556]

You know it's cpu the arm processor is used in many many devices today.

The cpus in the iphone and most nokia phones are descendants of the processor in the Archimedes.

[MrBooojangles]

Could I use the internet on this computer through a broadband connection ?

Could I edit videos for You Tube on this computer ?

or will it just explode ....LOL

Seriously though, I vaguely remember this model, though we never had one. My brothers first computer was a Commodore 64. At the time you thought "it can't get any better then this!!!"

[mistofoles]

Interesting (if a little patronising). Nice jumper,Fred!

[tehgorm]

next year? my disk will be corrupted by then!

[filecore]

Thanks for posting this. Great memories. I have it on VHS tape in the loft with my A3000 :)

[twoinbambed]

anyone notice when he switches it on he presses the switch into the off position?

[fraserkatie]

He is on the Forces website, and presents an afternoon slot with others such as Paul Hendy (remember him). Fred Harris looks different now though! Take a look for yourself!

[schieese]

hey,this is the windows 95.

[fanboy112]

Everyone once in a while some scheisse comes online and talks...scheisse.

[TheNumber4q]

Don't get too engrossed in the computer, there is a world outside (I thought he was going to say)

[alizta]

Ah the times where there was diversity in the computer world. Acorn was great, Amiga was great, Atari was great. What really sucked was MS DOS and Windows 3. Funny that those have taken over.

[TheNumber4q]

Generally things that suck take over if you leave them to it.

[red456x]

R.I.P Fred Harris (1949-2006). He introduced me to computing. Will not be forgotten

[numpty1972]

I did not even know Fred had passed away. Sorry to hear it.

[JSYBen]

Are you sure he's dead? It still says on the forces TV website that he's on the childrens programme.

[TheOptimod]

@JSYBen He is still alive, red456x is a sick spammer.

[pcmarriott]

ah..the Acorn computers. They were truly ahead of the times! Loved them to death :)

[ndgreenaway]

lol memories...thanks for taking the time to upload it.

[ghostface2006]

there was a game on this system called 'lander' or was it 'virus'. it was a 3d space ship shooter game controlled by the mouse. id like to play this again.

[JSYBen]

Yup. Check part 2 of this, it has a clip of Lander. Lander was a demo version of 'Zarch' which i had for the A3000. Great game even now.

[choccyva]

Virus was the name of the port to the Amiga and ST, Zarch was the name of the full Archimedes version, Lander was the name of the demo. Conqueror was the game that used the Zarch engine but you had a tank instead of flying a ship.

[Polbain]

Flip, wow!, how fast was that bootup compared to IBMs :O

[Gerry319]

Boot up was fast because the operating system was stored in a chip. I loved that 3-button mouse, because one of the buttons would leave the current menu open after a selection, so you could choose a number of options before the menu closed.

[Polbain]

I know, because I still use one :P

Well not the Archi but one of the more modern machines.

[Gerry319]

Also loved the inbuilt Draw package with its use of Bezier curves, direct access to modifying fonts etc. Later I was forced by circumstances into using a PC with Windows 98 - what a comedown!!

[fanboy112]

We all were forced to use PCs. We need another revolution like 1984.

[eugenespeed]

I want one!

[JSYBen]

eBay is your friend :)