What did the other uk 80s computers offer?

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moijk

moijk

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Since I've got an unstoppable curiosity for the golden years I started to wonder what the not so known (in Norway at least) uk computers offered. Like the newbury newbrain, oric-1 / atmos, dragon 32/64 etc.

I only knew those from "games are available for" in magazines. and that I wrote a dragon program from a magazine in gwbasic on my pc and it worked with very few modifications.

Was they just fads with very little software, or did they in some areas best the more popular brands?

And one other question, why did sinclair choose zilorg z80 when he wanted to compete on price? Wasn't it more expensive back then?
 
You´d do well to introduce yourself to Acorn Archimedes A3010 if you haven´t already. Amazing piece of hardware, Archimedae... Archimedeses... whatever should have been all over Amiga and Atari if universe was just. A3010 model is something I would very much like to have but that is already 1992. But it compares favourably to A1200 from same year if you ask me.

look at this polygon processing powah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy6VeQtunoY
 
It depends on the model. The A3010 had a TV modulator in it, whereas the A3020 has a VGA out, but no modulator.

TheCorfiot is the expert on these machines.
 
My favourite thing about the Dragon 32 is that at one stage it was aimed at Welsh farmers :D

It was actually reasonably popular here in the UK with good support from the major players in the software market - plus you could play a fair bit of software written for the TRS-80 on it. It just wasn't as good as the Spectrums or C64 (it's main competitors) nor marketed as well (see above).

Ditto the Oric 48k ... funny little thing, same size as a Spectrum but with hard keys, though I haven't seen one in many years (and unlikely to given the prices they go for).

The Camputers Lynx, now that was a real flash in the pan. Check out any edition of Your Computer magazine circa '82-'84 for a whole bunch more.
 
There was a Oric Atmos up for auction with a very low BIN not long ago. I regret not getting it. It was missing the PSU and a few keycaps, which would've probably been hard to replace.

Finland home computer market was dominated by the C64 back in the 80's with an odd Spectravideo, Spectrum and Amstrad here and there. Pretty much everything was offered though, based on the annual market overviews in Finnish computer mags. I never seen a BBC, Oric, Dragon and of the MSXs in real life. Spectrums I saw in real life only recently, when I acquired my own. I do recall seeing a Salora Fellow or Manager, which were Finnish rebadged versions of VTech Laser series computers.
 
just to say Your Computer magazine was my fave read at that time, had everything from listings to type in to full colour print
 
R0jaws has a nice Archie 3k setup with Cannon Fodder and a few other recognisable 16bit titles. Not sure if he posted pics previously.
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This thread also interests me. Coming from the states and already owning most of the computers sold here that are worth owning. I have been thinking about venturing into computers from other lands like the Amstrad/Spectrum/MSX/ etc. I just don't know enough about them. That A3010 video made me think I might want one of those too. hehe
 
Justin said:
were the archies monitor only?
Click to expand...
Merlin said:
It depends on the model. The A3010 had a TV modulator in it, whereas the A3020 has a VGA out, but no modulator.

TheCorfiot is the expert on these machines.
Click to expand...
As Merlin states, the A3020 had a VGA output only on it, but that connector also doubled-up as letting RGB output.
I had an RGB SCART lead for my A3010 (which also featured the same VGA connector on it)
The A3000 had a 9-pin D-SUB output connector on it (like a CGA connector) but it was RGB out and could be plugged directly into a Philips CM8833-MkII (or equivalent Acorn rebranded monitor)
I love the Acorn Archimedes line, they were brilliant machines.

Personally, my favourite 8-bit is the Amstrad CPC though, and always will be. As for the 16/32-bit era, it's always going to be the Amiga, closely followed by the Acorn Archimedes.
 
A British computer I would love to collect but it is now getting very expensive is the Sam Coupé (with a not very British spelling!)

965965sam_coupe.jpg


8bit machine with a 3.5" floppy, has conversions of Lemmings and Prince of Persia and was not sold for long, so quite rare.

It looks great and I remember the adverts for it when the Spectrum was starting to die and come to an end but my parents got the Amiga 500+ which was great :)

Otherwise it is just the ZX Spectrum for me and I have a nice collection of those! :thumbsup:
 
For me, it's all about the Amstrad CPC 6128 and the Commodore C64.
These were the highlight of my childhood, although the BBC Micro always impressed me, especially as we had them at school and one of my mates had BBC Micro games, which we used to play quite a lot.
I remember playing Elite, Pedro and Repton quite a lot.
 
Wow...the Archimedes computers look nice. The polygons are nice and smooth. I wish I would have had one back in the day. I might need to get my hands on one some day.
 
I was thinking about getting an Oric-1 in the early 80s because they had very good sound/synth capabilities but I'm glad I didn't because they are notoriously unstable machines (I later learned). A few years later I used to buy Computer Weekly I think it was and lusted after an Archimedes but it was too expensive and got an Amiga on the strength of the F29 screenshots posted in the mag mainly. I thought all the dials would be moving in the cockpit.:D
 
Puni/Void: nice blog...I just spent the last hour or so skimming through and reading page after page. I was able to learn about a bunch of stuff I wasn't aware of too....like the CD32 Compilation program and the Grimlock game. heh

Good read.
 
Puni/Void said:
You can't go wrong with a SVI Spectravideo (MSX). Built-in 3.5" floppy disk drive, cartridge slot, 3.58 MHz CPU etc.

Several great games for it like Knightmare and Salamander.

This computer had a lot of potential back then, but it never caught on.

I've written a piece of MSX gaming on my blog if you're interested: http://oldschoolgameblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/gaming-on-the-svi-spectravideo/
Click to expand...

Yeah MSX is worth considering for me from the angle of curiosity about all those MSX games that I ended up playing on the NES back in the day. Most interesting are the Konami games like Vampire Killer (Castlevania) and Metal Gear.

That Salamander game I find a bit lacking because of the bad scrolling (in that video anyways, also I seem to remember C64 version being very good). but unless I´m confused the same system also had Space Manbow by Konami which seems quite smooth indeed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlVThoL_YM (fast forward to 2:30 to skip boring intro)
 
Bootay said:
Puni/Void: nice blog...I just spent the last hour or so skimming through and reading page after page. I was able to learn about a bunch of stuff I wasn't aware of too....like the CD32 Compilation program and the Grimlock game. heh

Good read.
Click to expand...

Hey Bootay,

Many thanks for the kind words concerning my blog. :) Much appreciated! :thumbsup:

The CD32 compilation tool is very interesting.

---------- Post added at 18:00 ---------- Previous post was at 17:59 ----------
Mendel said:
Puni/Void said:
You can't go wrong with a SVI Spectravideo (MSX). Built-in 3.5" floppy disk drive, cartridge slot, 3.58 MHz CPU etc.

Several great games for it like Knightmare and Salamander.

This computer had a lot of potential back then, but it never caught on.

I've written a piece of MSX gaming on my blog if you're interested: http://oldschoolgameblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/gaming-on-the-svi-spectravideo/
Click to expand...

Yeah MSX is worth considering for me from the angle of curiosity about all those MSX games that I ended up playing on the NES back in the day. Most interesting are the Konami games like Vampire Killer (Castlevania) and Metal Gear.

That Salamander game I find a bit lacking because of the bad scrolling (in that video anyways, also I seem to remember C64 version being very good). but unless I´m confused the same system also had Space Manbow by Konami which seems quite smooth indeed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlVThoL_YM (fast forward to 2:30 to skip boring intro)
Click to expand...

I don't remember exactly, but I think Salamander was pretty smooth. Could be wrong though, so don't quote me on that. ;) It was great running it from cartridge, since the loading time was like one second. :D

Thanks for the video link.
 
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