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AcornThings

@acornthings

Richard Leggett’s nostalgic account focussed on all things Acorn Computer. Grew up on the Elk/BBC, worked at Acorn in the 1990s.

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Latest posts by AcornThings @acornthings

Suspect it is Amazon Print on Demand, so same amount going to Amazon regardless of where you buy it.

08.03.2026 23:51 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
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This is pretty cool.

It's a visualisation of the internals of The Sentinel on the #BBCMicro.

This is it generating the game landscape for the first level from 256 pseudo-random numbers.

Next week I'll be releasing a deep dive into exactly how this works.

#retrocomputing #retrogaming #c64 #8bit

27.02.2026 21:20 👍 103 🔁 15 💬 4 📌 0

Just ordered mine. Heard Rob talk about it at @rougol.bsky.social and looking forward to reading it. Available from Bezos’ place: www.amazon.co.uk/VOICES-FUTUR...

07.03.2026 18:32 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Nice to see my demo effect "in the wild" on a real Electron. What can I say... it's magic! 😎

07.03.2026 16:28 👍 42 🔁 3 💬 4 📌 0
22.00 THE NIGHT GARDEN MANAGER
Episode 12: Pine suspects that Makka Pikka sold the AK47s to the Tombliboos.

22.00 THE NIGHT GARDEN MANAGER Episode 12: Pine suspects that Makka Pikka sold the AK47s to the Tombliboos.

VIEWER'S COMPETITION SHORTLIST: we're posting two of fave #ceefauxviewscomp entries each weekday and will count up the most likes/comments/reshares in 24 hours. 2/20 by @geospacedman.bsky.social

09.02.2026 09:00 👍 173 🔁 33 💬 2 📌 1
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21.01.2026 09:33 👍 118 🔁 25 💬 4 📌 2
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Today we have a classic scroller on the BBC Micro with a slight twist... custom font scaled dynamically to 16x16 pixels and continuous gradient applied to give the impression of more colours than supported by Mode 5. All software scrolling (no CRTC abuse) so works on the Acorn Electron too. 🔊

02.01.2026 22:28 👍 16 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Fully documented source code for The Sentinel on the BBC Micro Fully documented source code disassembly for The Sentinel on the BBC Micro, with lots of deep dive articles explaining how every aspect of the game works.

I've just released fully documented source code for The Sentinel as an easy-to-browse website.

It's a lot more fun to explore than the GitHub repository, with cross-references, popups, indexes, statistics and more.

Enjoy!

thesentinel.bbcelite.com

#retrocomputing #retrogaming #bbcmicro #c64 #8bit

07.01.2026 15:58 👍 188 🔁 48 💬 5 📌 1

Another great conversion of a classic game to the Acorn Electron! Very polished, well done!

16.11.2025 10:25 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Most people know that the random junk pixels printed around the edges of various Acorn Electron games are sections of game code 'hidden' in screen memory. But not all of it is actually code, because that would lead to an uneven border, so some of the junk characters are just... junk!

26.11.2025 17:49 👍 17 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
My signed BBC Micro B+

My signed BBC Micro B+

I've finally finished pimping my David Braben-signed BBC Micro B+, and it can now run more variants of Bell & Braben Elite than any other contemporary machine ever.

The #BBCMicro B+ is officially the Commander-in-Chief of #8bit #Elite. 🫡

See thread for details.

(1/8)

#retrogaming #retrocomputing

05.11.2025 19:41 👍 471 🔁 34 💬 21 📌 0
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Moving back to Linux RPCEmu on my Mac Technology News and Views

Moving back to Linux RPCEmu on my Mac

www.iconbar.com/articles/Mov...

I'm a big fan of RPCEmu which provides an excellent RISC OS environment on my Mac when I'm travelling. In this post I'm going to explore why I have switched back to the Linux version and cover some of the issues I encountered.

11.11.2025 12:31 👍 8 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 0
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Atari Missile Command for the Acorn Electron

Is now available on Stardot, please follow the link, log in, read the post, download the file(s) and get playing.

www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewt...

11.11.2025 15:47 👍 29 🔁 11 💬 7 📌 1
BeebEm - BBC Micro and Master 128 Emulator BeebEm is a BBC Micro and Master 128 emulator. It enables you to run BBC Micro software on your PC. BeebEm was first developed for UNIX systems in 1994 by Dave Gilbert and was then ported to Microsoft Windows.

Just released BeebEm 4.21. This fixes a bug with the tape sound emulation introduced in 4.20, another bug in the installer, and makes some improvements to the VIA emulation.

Download here: www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/

20.09.2025 20:26 👍 31 🔁 14 💬 0 📌 0
The disc menu on the Electron version of the Elite Compendium

The disc menu on the Electron version of the Elite Compendium

I'm pleased to announce the #Elite Compendium for the #Acorn #Electron, containing three amazing hacked versions of Elite on one disc.

It includes a brand new version: musical Elite. On the Electron!

Lots of details here: elite.bbcelite.com/hacks/elite_...

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #bbcmicro

20.08.2025 12:26 👍 38 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 1
Lave in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

Lave in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

The Constrictor mission in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

The Constrictor mission in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

A Dodo station in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

A Dodo station in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

A Thargoid in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

A Thargoid in the Compendium version of Acorn Electron Elite

It's done! I have just released the Compendium version of #Elite for the #Acorn #Electron.

This massively enhanced version of the original game contains pretty much every feature of #BBCMicro Elite, but on the Electron. Just add 16K of sideways RAM.

Links in thread.

#retrocomputing #retrogaming

10.07.2025 15:58 👍 190 🔁 45 💬 11 📌 3
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Today's addition to #Acorn #Electron #Elite is the energy bomb animation from the Apple II, BBC Master and NES.

In the original Electron version, the energy bomb did little more than beep gently. Now it rages with lightning bolts! That's much better.

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #8bit #bbcmicro

06.07.2025 13:01 👍 52 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 1
Star Wars Theme on FLOPPOTRON 3.0
Star Wars Theme on FLOPPOTRON 3.0 YouTube video by Paweł Zadrożniak

Star Wars Theme and Imperial March by Floppotron ( 3.0 ). A newer version, now including scanners and hard drives.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KS0...

03.07.2025 16:28 👍 22 🔁 7 💬 3 📌 0
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Fancy a job at Acorn Computers as a Software Engineer ( "C" Compiler )? "The ideal candidate will probably be under 35"! Wow, I'd forgotten that ageism was allowed back then! Advert from 'The Guardian' newspaper, January 1987.

23.06.2025 14:34 👍 31 🔁 4 💬 3 📌 0

Amazing that this made it to US TV too!

26.05.2025 09:09 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Acorn Electron shoot 'em up WIP. Name reveal! Enemies now shoot back 😰, but our little spaceship has a shield as well 💪

27.04.2025 16:45 👍 120 🔁 20 💬 8 📌 1
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If you are interested in trying out an Acorn System 1, but don't have deep enough pockets for an original, then you could try out a 'System 1 Trainer' by Chris Oddy. He also does replica boards for the Acorn Atom amongst other things!

29.04.2025 13:07 👍 39 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 1
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Atari Missile Command for the Acorn Electron + 16k of sideways RAM.

Progress remains good, moving as much as possible out of the main memory map into the SWR memory space to get the fastest speed possible.

No sound at present, going to be a challenge to emulate a POKEY chip on here.

05.04.2025 13:57 👍 33 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
Freespin
Freespin YouTube video by Matthias Kramm

The 'Freespin' demo still amazes me. This is how to think outside the box. A 1541 disk drive is all you need to run the demo. NO C64!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zprS...

14.04.2025 13:39 👍 41 🔁 8 💬 4 📌 0
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Polished the 3D Cubes demo effect a little more. Now working identically on Acorn Electron and BBC Micro/Master 😎

20.03.2025 12:49 👍 33 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
Page 1 of a an example scoreboard from Elite over Econet

Page 1 of a an example scoreboard from Elite over Econet

Page 2 of a an example scoreboard from Elite over Econet

Page 2 of a an example scoreboard from Elite over Econet

In anticipation of June's Econet LAN Party at @tnmoc.bsky.social, I've updated #Elite over #Econet.

It now supports flicker-free graphics, up to 100 players in multiplayer, better server support and more. Game on!

Details: elite.bbcelite.com/hacks/elite_...

#bbcmicro #retrocomputing #retrogaming

26.03.2025 12:57 👍 27 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 0
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David Braben created several graphics demos for Acorn Computers when they launched the Archimedes in 1987. This is one of them, usually refered to as the 'Union Jack' demo. The rendering tech was used in the 'Lander' demo and the game 'Zarch' ( Superior Software ) - aka Virus on other platforms.

30.03.2025 11:14 👍 69 🔁 9 💬 6 📌 2
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The original advertisement artwork used for David Braben's Archimedes game, Zarch - aka Virus on other platforms. Sadly, I don't own this, but it's great to see after all this time. Now in the hands of a private collector.

31.03.2025 10:24 👍 73 🔁 16 💬 2 📌 1

Get it while it's hot! 🔥

23.02.2025 21:20 👍 14 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
An image showing multiple BBC Micros in a row running MicroPlayer.

An image showing multiple BBC Micros in a row running MicroPlayer.

Here’s a music disk for the BBC Micro full of 30 Ben Daglish conversions from various 8/16-bit platforms.

If you take a copy of the .dsd to run on your own hardware, it needs at least 3 banks of 16kb SWRAM.

The link below to plays in Virtual Beeb:

negativecharge.github.io/virtualbeeb/...

Enjoy!

24.12.2024 20:02 👍 20 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0