Micro Men
alexand...@googlemail.com
Acorn and Sinclair home computers and their competition to make the
official 'BBC Microcomputer' in 1981. The actor playing Clive Sinclair
is really good, he's got a voice like Rowan Atkinson and his character
talks a bit like Winston Churchill. There's also one of 'The Office'
playing Chris Curry, the boss of Acorn Computers, in fact the whole
thing is a bit like The Office meets Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes, with
that bit from the Hitler film 'Downfall' which keeps getting put on
You Tube with different subtitles.
Mike Plowman
"alexand...@googlemail.com" <alexand...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
Thanks for that. Those of us who have been dicussing it since it aired
will go and watch it immediately:-)
Guesser
http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/
/me runs away
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and the comp.sys.sinclair crap games competition 2009
http://alistairsserver.no-ip.org/public/cgc/
RLM
> Have you seen this?!
>
> http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/
>
> /me runs away
>
FUN!
Thank you.
Jules
> Have you seen this?!
>
> http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/
I'm still holding out until people stop mentioning it - I tend to avoid
over-hyped things until they're not over-hyped any more :-)
Folderol
It's a load of crap really. You don't want to watch it at all. Most
certainly not twice, nor post the link to friends :(
--
Will J G
John Dean
Isn't that likely to inhibit discussion? I mean, if we all started making
arrangements to watch the stuff we talk about, where would it all end?
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Oxford
Jeff Lawrence
> Thanks for that. Those of us who have been dicussing it since it aired
> will go and watch it immediately:-)
I've only just got around to watching it too actually and enjoyed it
very much. Like Spud most of this stuff passed me by at the time and
although I've since found out the basic (no pun intended) storyline I
didn't really know much about the Curry/Sinclair rivalry. My brother
had a ZX81 which I dabbled with and we used a BBC micro at school but
I was never a Spectrum fan, prefering the C64. In fact I've just
downloaded a C64 emulator and a load of games which will no doubt take
up vast amounts of my time in the coming days/weeks!
Having watched the programme though I'd like to find out more, is
there a good book giving more details? Maybe one that expands it out
further to take in the other developments of the time as well.
Cheers
Jeff
Mike Plowman
<jeff.l...@orange.nl> wrote:
>On Oct 11, 9:20�pm, Mike Plowman <mike.plow...@mydomain.net> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for that. Those of us who have been dicussing it since it aired
>> will go and watch it immediately:-)
>
>I've only just got around to watching it too actually and enjoyed it
>very much. Like Spud most of this stuff passed me by at the time and
>although I've since found out the basic (no pun intended) storyline I
>didn't really know much about the Curry/Sinclair rivalry.
Ne neither Jeff. Totally passed me by. My first awareness of Sinclair
was when he advertuised the ZX81 in the Sunday supplements and my
manager at the time sent of a cheque for one, little knowing that they
hadn't even got a working prototype and were using the money sent in
advance to fund development and production. He'd loaned me his ZX81
then I bought one myself.
>I was never a Spectrum fan, prefering the C64. In fact I've just
>downloaded a C64 emulator and a load of games which will no doubt take
>up vast amounts of my time in the coming days/weeks!
I had the C64 after the Speccy. A mate brough his round on seeing
Ghostbusters and Impossible Mission I was down the computer shop
handing over the money that afternoon.
>Having watched the programme though I'd like to find out more, is
>there a good book giving more details? Maybe one that expands it out
>further to take in the other developments of the time as well.
>Cheers
>Jeff
Jules
> On Oct 11, 9:20 pm, Mike Plowman <mike.plow...@mydomain.net> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for that. Those of us who have been dicussing it since it aired
>> will go and watch it immediately:-)
>
> I've only just got around to watching it too actually and enjoyed it
> very much. Like Spud most of this stuff passed me by at the time and
> although I've since found out the basic (no pun intended) storyline I
> didn't really know much about the Curry/Sinclair rivalry.
Dave Allen who was involved in the BBC's computer literacy project's an
interesting chap to talk to about that - and the different thought
processes which went on at both companies. Much as I enjoyed cutting my
teeth on Sinclair hardware back in the day, I'm glad that the Acorn
offering won out.
Maybe I'll get around to seeing this prog sometime, but I don't hold out
much hope of it making it to this side of the Atlantic, unfortunately :-(
cheers
Jules
Ian Rawlings
> Maybe I'll get around to seeing this prog sometime, but I don't hold out
> much hope of it making it to this side of the Atlantic, unfortunately :-(
It's on UKNova, a torrent site, and probably on a few more so you
should be able to get it.
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Graham Thurlwell
<snip>
> Having watched the programme though I'd like to find out more, is
> there a good book giving more details? Maybe one that expands it out
> further to take in the other developments of the time as well.
Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford has a nice chapter telling the story
of the development of Elite (the sharp-eyed among you will have seen
the Elite box art appear in Micro Men), which also looks at the UK
microcomputer scene as a whole. It's very well done and the author
managed to get extensive interviews with key players such as David
Braben, Ian Bell and Chris John Jordan.
Speaking of Elite, I was a little disappointed that they didn't really
cover it at all in the programme, or make more of AcornSoft. Still,
can't have everything and I did enjoy the programme.
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Sofa - Spud
I only remember having a go with something you put a tape in but thats
it - the first game I played was Duke Nukem 3d on a P75 !
spi...@freenet.co.uk
> Maybe I'll get around to seeing this prog sometime, but I don't hold out
> much hope of it making it to this side of the Atlantic, unfortunately :-(
You could always download the torrent, it must be just about on every
torrent tracker on the planet by now.
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Kevin Reilly
> You could always download the torrent, it must be just about on every
> torrent tracker on the planet by now.
Micro Men and the first two parts of Electric Dreams are also on
alt.binaries.multimedia if you don't like the idea of P2P.
--
Kev
__________________________________________________________________________
"The band never actually split up -- we just stopped speaking to each
other and went our separate ways." Boy George
Dylan Smith
> much hope of it making it to this side of the Atlantic, unfortunately :-(
That's what the Pirate Bay is for :-)
Bill (Adopt)
Graham Thurlwell <nos...@jades.org> wrote:
> On the 12 Oct 2009, Jeff Lawrence <jeff.l...@orange.nl> wrote:
> <snip>
> > Having watched the programme though I'd like to find out more, is
> > there a good book giving more details? Maybe one that expands it out
> > further to take in the other developments of the time as well.
> Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford has a nice chapter telling the story
> of the development of Elite (the sharp-eyed among you will have seen
> the Elite box art appear in Micro Men), which also looks at the UK
> microcomputer scene as a whole. It's very well done and the author
> managed to get extensive interviews with key players such as David
> Braben, Ian Bell and Chris John Jordan.
> Speaking of Elite, I was a little disappointed that they didn't really
> cover it at all in the programme, or make more of AcornSoft. Still,
> can't have everything and I did enjoy the programme.
In the last 18/24 months or so, (not quite sure how
far back although probably have the recording squirrelled
away somewhere), there's a full BBC(?) documentary about
'Elite' and the role of Acornsoft..
I rather thought that 'Elite' was, at the time, the very
first ever full 3D 'puter game - (or should that be a
'simulation' to please the then intelligensia?).
The BBC's doc, iirc, seemed to be quite clear about Elite's
unique position in the now balti-mega-million 'games' market.
Bill ZFC
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spi...@freenet.co.uk
> I rather thought that 'Elite' was, at the time, the very
> first ever full 3D 'puter game - (or should that be a
> 'simulation' to please the then intelligensia?).
Battlezone beat elite by at least a year, iirc.
Elite might've been the first full 360 degree all axis 3D game though.
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Zedex Dragon
> And verily, didst "Bill (Adopt)" <ad...@billsimpson.com> hastily babble thusly:
>
> > I rather thought that 'Elite' was, at the time, the very
> > first ever full 3D 'puter game - (or should that be a
> > 'simulation' to please the then intelligensia?).
>
> Battlezone beat elite by at least a year, iirc.
> Elite might've been the first full 360 degree all axis 3D game though.
Nah, Flight Sim beat it by years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubLOGIC
Mark Wiggin
on BBC4, in which a family had their house redecorated/remodelled and
equipped as in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's the kids all wanted the
BBC Micro, rather than the other 1980's computer offerings...
In message <pan.2009.10.12....@remove.this.gmail.com>
Jules <jules.rich...@remove.this.gmail.com> wrote:
> cheers
> Jules
--
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Tel. +44 (0)1952 405211
jonny
> It was interesting to see that in the recent 'Electric Dreams' series
> on BBC4, in which a family had their house redecorated/remodelled and
> equipped as in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's the kids all wanted the
> BBC Micro, rather than the other 1980's computer offerings...
Well it was a BBC show...
As I remember, back in the day it was the other way round.