BBC Micro (was: Re: Apple II for into to microprocessors

From: charles hobbs <chobbs_at_socal.rr.com>
Date: Sun Jul 15 09:48:44 2001

Tony Duell wrote:

> Over here, I'd recoment getting a BBC Micro. It's got one main
> disadvantage compared to the Apple ][ -- no expansion slots. The plus
> points are :[...]

> Of course getting one in the States is not that easy... Unlike over here.

I lucked out at a flea market about 10 years ago and found one for $15 or
so. It had a US style plug, so I figured it would work fine "over here". It
did, with a few caveats:

1. Unlike US micros, which had a TV output on Channels 3 or 4, the
BBC output RF on UHF (Channel 37 or something like that). Of course,
the channel numbers and frequencies used in the US are different than
those in the UK.

2. It still outputs a 625-line screen, which my 525-line US TV can only
display a part of (some lines off the top and bottom are missing)

3. It outputs PAL color, so a NTSC TV will get a monochrome picture

(It also supports direct RGB output, so, theoretically, I could wire a cable
that would connect it to a monitor, fixing all of those problems)

4. Support can be hard to find in the US. I remember having to dig through
several different (public) libraries, looking for books about the machine. I
even wrote to a BBC users group in New Zealand, and got one of their
newsletters, but at that time (late 1991), they seemed to be more focused
on the Archimedes (just as most US-based Apple user groups turned their
attention to the Macintosh).

I haven't run this machine in about 10 years, so who knows what will
happen if I try to turn it on...
Received on Sun Jul 15 2001 - 09:48:44 BST