Which killer app made you buy a BBC?

[Commie_User]

This is whether we bought our machines in retro times or back in the day. What made you choose a BBC over some other computer, especially outside education? (I guess the education side is too easy a question to answer.)




For me, it was Beebsynth and know I've probably bored you with it before: http://www.remix64.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=10407

I enjoyed tinkering with that on Beeb-Em a few years ago but the emulator's sound was choppy and not so good, plus there's always a latency issue using an emulator for performing music. There's a lot of sampling possibility with envelopes and a couple of BBCs compliment my Commodores and the rest superbly.

[BigEd]

I remember being very impressed by the operating system - even from what I could see in my friend's User Guide, it was well-organised. A world away from machines where you have to learn lots of peeks and pokes. Of course it had graphics and sound too, which you can't quite say for the UK101 I was upgrading from.

But you ask about a killer app... I'd have to say BBC Basic! (It's an application like any other, almost, the way the Beeb deals with it.)

(Edit: and, of course, the assembler which is built in to BBC Basic... beats assembly by hand.)

[Lardo Boffin]

I’d say BBC Basic is definitely an ‘app’ (although I guess I am stuck in my ways and call things software or programs or applications etc. ) - take it away and the computer still works (assuming you put another language in of course)

I think also BBC Basic as the main reason - very comprehensive and a relatively easy door way to assembly. Before Elite came out I spent more time programming than anything else. Had Elite already been released that would have been another killer app for me.

[Commie_User]

BBC BASIC was a close second for me, too. I enjoyed tinkering with it back at school and readers probably remember helping me with my RIFFER program, especially where I got the joystick going: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11512

Richard Russell's BBC BASIC FOR WINDOWS is also very splendid because I like the sound that makes and it compiles to a Windows executable. But for me, a separate killer app program tipped the balance to persuade me to finally buy a real BBC.

[flaxcottage]

I remember being very impressed by the operating system - even from what I could see in my friend's User Guide, it was well-organised. A world away from machines where you have to learn lots of peeks and pokes. Of course it had graphics and sound too, which you can't quite say for the UK101 I was upgrading from.

But you ask about a killer app... I'd have to say BBC Basic! (It's an application like any other, almost, the way the Beeb deals with it.)

(Edit: and, of course, the assembler which is built in to BBC Basic... beats assembly by hand.)

Agree 100%. I still prefer my Beeb to any other computer.

[paulv]

For me, it wasn't about a killer app, it was about the killer hardware. Although if I were forced to choose an "app", BBC BASIC was a killer app BITD...

Paul

[sweh]

The built-in assembler

[tricky]

The built in assembler and the ability to program the 6845, even back then

[sydney]

2nd processor elite and sideways ram enhanced exile. I was happy with my elk until I saw these. This is quite recent though. My original elk was bought purely because it was the cheapest computer in the shop at the time.

[roland]

For me it was basic and the operating system. I was relocating the basic for my Atom-in-PC card and I needed some references. Afaik there was no emulator back in 1998 so I borrowed a real BBC and later I could keep it.

[1024MAK]

Although I did not own any Acorn computers until well after the 1980s, at school, in terms of software, BBC BASIC was the primary interest for me. At home we had a ZX Spectrum and I loved programming in BASIC on it. But BBC BASIC was up another level. Especially the structured programming elements (procedures etc).

Mark