First apologies for this long thread as I tend to waffle on and don't keep things as short as I should.
I currently don't own a BBC (awww..) but I keep checking places like ebay in the hopes of getting one again but the prices are so flipping expensive.
Anyway I first got a Beeb in 1983, on my 21st birthday (yes.. I'm that old!) my mum gave me a choice of a holiday or a new computer for my bday. I was using a ZX81 at that time and yes I did love it but wanted something better. My first thoughts were of an Acorn Atom but then I saw the BBC Model B was out and that looked amazing.
Luckily an auntie of mine actually worked in one of Acorns shops (located in Bradford) and so she took me there and showed me the rows of glorious Beeb's and all the amazing software. I got a computer and had around £120 of money left for games so as you can imagine I was like a kid in a sweetshop that day.
I loved my BBC very much and even did some programming but sadly it was limted to basic only as I'm rather dim and machine code is vastly out of my simple intellectual reach. My favourite games were: Chuckie Egg, Starship Command, Freefall, Snapper, Planetoid, Monsters, JCB Digger (even though it gave me a headache after playing 10 mins with all the screen judder), Labyrinth.
I'll admit at times through 1983-84 I was jealous of my Spectrum and C64 owning friends as their game selection seemed to dwarf what was available on my BBC. However I had the last laugh when Elite as launched and utterly blew everyone away!
Sadly my BBC died many years ago and as I didn't have the understanding to fix it and I could not find any place at that time to do repairs, my much loved system was consigned to the dustbin.
..I still feel guilty, it was like throwing a friend away..Since then I've owned a slew of systems from the Amiga through many consoles to today, when I have given up totally on new games as I dislike the direction gaming is heading right now, I loathe online games and will not buy games from companies that have lootboxes, microtransactions (micro my chuff.. some are over £80!) and other vile modern gaming additions.
I decided a couple of months back to abandon modern games and return to my 'roots', back to the time I fell in love with gaming. So to that end I am in the process of picking up a collection of classic 8 bit systems such as a Spectrum, Amstrad, C64, MSX, Atari 800 and of course a BBC. its going slow right now as the ebay prices for classic system is crazy high and with being disabled I'm on a very tight budget so I have to mind the pennies and I can't go crazy.
I do hope this time around to get into programming (even if it's only Basic again) as I'd love to create some games even if they are really simple.
Thanks for letting my join and again, sorry for waffling on and on.
Steve
