Techy-style Take-away - Micro Men - BBC Four

[bakhtn]

must be a comedy

[mallardvasey]

@steverucks

Tragi-comedy, perhaps. I was laughing throughout, but certainly shed a few tears at the end (of the full 80 min film that is, not this clip).

[MOVIEFAN714]

Know exactly what you mean - missed it the first time round and saw it last week - It brought back fond memories of my time at Acorn in the 1980′s. Looking back, the real story of Acorn is about a failure of the UK to back technology That Acorn was sold on the cheap even though its RISC processor is the technology on which Apple have based all the products around is scandalous. As a TV programme it was great comedy, but you're right as a story it was a tragedy.

[TheSaintST1]

IS THAT the original Chris Curry sitting down in the background? I know that the Bar Lady at the end of the film is Sophie (Roger) Wilson.

[steverucks]

@TheSaintST1 no its not

[gavinpow77]

I actually stumbled across some Sinclair game cassettes while I was rooting in my parents' back bedroom (my old room) today. Made me chuckle. 'Skateboard constructor', 'Disco Dan', 'Skool Daze' and others.

[gavinpow77]

I'm guessing this clip is deliberately in mono? I enjoyed the programme, but had a Sinclair Spectrum+2 (with tape deck, not the swanky +3 with floppy drive! But I realise that all came after Sugar came onboard!

[mrpisterman]

they shouldve merged instead of competing.wouldve sorted that crappy spectrum out

[TheSaintST1]

Too right.. So many flaws - even with the +2/3s - especially in terms of graphics. They had the intelligence at least to get rid of the stupid key command entry system. The Acorn Electron was a better compromise as it allowed you the choice to enter keywords using a [FUNC]+[key] or type them individually - But why take the backward step of only incorporating one sound channel, I have no idea,although the ULA was a work of Genius.

[mrpisterman]

it wouldve been interesting seeing what a zx spectrum improvement looked like if history had been different

[mrpisterman]

get rid of that screeching cassette for starters

[80sWeekends]

I wish Sir Clive and Chris Curry would return to the computer market and save us from our dreadful Windows PC's.

[XstationTV]

go with apple instead?

[IntellectualAmy]

But that was the issue. The IBM Compatible became cheaper, became more powerful and accessible, and even better - displayed 'open architecture' - which is something the then systems like Acorn and Sinclair didn't have. I don't know how they ever could return to a market so firmly established by Microsoft. Curry is incolved with SmartCard Security and Sinclair designs compact bikes like the A-Bike. They have left it way way too late to return.

[HannuMikkola]

Yeah, but let's be honest. Windows is the crappest operating system going.

Components don't always work together properly in a system build and you can get major conflicts with differant components.

It's a great idea in principle but it doesn't always work so well in practise.

[tombowie83]

Quite ironic that the "IBM Compatible" PCs have become so ubiquitous, as it was certainly NOT IBM's original intention for everyone to "clone" their designs.

IBM certainly did NOT want anyone else copying their "PCs" in the early-mid 1980s, as it's machines were very expensive and it feared lost market share / sales if "clones" were produced at 1/3 the price.

Compaq eventually reverse-engineered IBM's copyrighted & patented BIOS to produce their early "clones", and IBM tried to sue!

[7677890]

This was brilliant (and CPG, Mensa and the press conference were shot at my school!)

[pickassoreborn]

Really loved this!

[BarriosGroupie]

Well done Beeb, it was a great prog lol

[SquareoftheyearFM]

No left hand audio?

[cosine303]

the spectrum 16 / 48 only had one channel ;-) (mono) .. as for the BBC micro.. waiting for the upgrade to stereo =) .. was a nice show though