BBC makes its Computer Literacy Project archives available to the public

[midian182]

In context: For many people in the 1980s, everything they thought they knew about I.T. came from War Games. In the UK, the BBC tried to change this with the ‘Computer Literacy Project,’ which included a series of TV programs that “inspired a generation of coders,” and led to the commissioning of its own computer, the Micro. Now, it is opening up the project’s archives to the public.

The project ran from 1980 to 1989, with the TV shows introducing much of the UK to the world of computers. Some famous guests included Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak, and there was plenty of coverage of machines such as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

But the most significant element of the Computer Literacy Project was its introduction of the 8-bit BBC Micro. Part of the UK government’s plans to place microcomputers in schools, Cambridge-based Acorn created the BBC-branded machine, which was released in 1981 and sold until 1994. It featured a 2MHz CPU and 16 – 32 KB of memory. Demand for the Micro was so great that the accompanying 10-part TV series was delayed for a month.

Steve Furber, who led the design of the BBC Micro and the first Arm chip, said: "The BBC Micro not only gave folk access to a computer, but it also gave them easy access to its inner workings, something that has been lost with most of today's very sophisticated technology."

The BBC Micro ended up in an estimated 60 percent of UK primary schools and 85 percent of secondary schools and was still being used up until the early 1990s.

Those interested in a piece of tech history can check out any of the 267 shows, the BBC Micro’s 166 pieces of original software, and over 2,509 clips for free right here. It will be available for the next three months, after which time the BBC will decide whether to turn it into a permanent feature.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75281-bbc-makes-computer-literacy-project-archives-available-public.html

 

[Vulcanproject]

BBC Micro is one of the all time great computers and hugely significant for the development of ARM. It was quite expensive but it was highly versatile.

An entire generation of British schoolchildren's first computer experiences were shaped and inspired by first sitting at the chunky keyboard of one of those brilliant machines.

The USA had the IBM PC, the UK had the Micro. It was every bit as impactful over here. I lament the passing because British computer education went from kids coding and knocking up their own software on a Micro in the 80s to using spreadsheets on Windows in the 90s. Backwards step.

 

[MarkHughes]

We had the BBC at school and I had a C64 at home. Watching these videos is going to be a real trip down memory lane for me

 

[Lounds]

The ZX (Zed Ex) Spectrum was probably the most influence piece of hardware for computing in the 80s, it made thousands of home coders, some of them went to make their own gaming companies. Sadly that generation seems to have faded due to UK government education policies. My Education was learning how to use Office 2000 and having to create a website in Front Page... Shudders.

 

[mcborge]

I had a BBC model B back in the day, In fact I had a few micros including a T199-4A and a Dragon 32 but the C-64 was my favourite and the one that got the most use as it had the most games (I had hundreds of tapes). It was the first system I owned that had a mouse which came with a bitmap art program. The package was called Neos, Mouse-cheese if I remember correctly.

 

[Uncle Al]

This should be a great series ....

 

[MarkHughes]

I had a BBC model B back in the day, In fact I had a few micros including a T199-4A and a Dragon 32 but the C-64 was my favourite and the one that got the most use as it had the most games (I had hundreds of tapes). It was the first system I owned that had a mouse which came with a bitmap art program. The package was called Neos, Mouse-cheese if I remember correctly.

Man, Such good and simple times. It's the C64 that got me into coding because you just switch it on and type. It must be quite hard these days for a kid to do the same. Mainly due to the massive choice of literally everything.

 

[mcborge]

Man, Such good and simple times. It's the C64 that got me into coding because you just switch it on and type. It must be quite hard these days for a kid to do the same. Mainly due to the massive choice of literally everything.

They were simpler times. I never did much coding myself, though I did type in a good few basic games that came printed in magazines. I did put some simple games together however, do you remember Seuck (shoot em up construction kit).

 

[MarkHughes]

They were simpler times. I never did much coding myself, though I did type in a good few basic games that came printed in magazines. I did put some simple games together however, do you remember Seuck (shoot em up construction kit).

I do indeed recall using SEUCK on the C64, It was really good, It was at the time the best way for me to make games as to do so on the 64 required assembly really. The basic built in wasn't great at graphics. Things where very different on the Amiga though and that's when I really started to push out a lot of code. Still got all that and the hardware to run it on

Those magazine listing... SYNTAX ERROR! is that a , or a . ?

 

[mcborge]

I do indeed recall using SEUCK on the C64, It was really good, It was at the time the best way for me to make games as to do so on the 64 required assembly really. The basic built in wasn't great at graphics. Things where very different on the Amiga though and that's when I really started to push out a lot of code. Still got all that and the hardware to run it on

Those magazine listing... SYNTAX ERROR! is that a , or a . ?

Ah yes the Amiga. I had an A500+ with 8 megs of ram and a HD8+ harddrive addon. I built a parnet cable to link it to my CDTV for CD access, good times. I still have an A1200 but it needs a new harddrive and the workbench disks have gotten currupted. I will get around to fixing the 1200 up one of these days. (y)

 

[MarkHughes]

Ah yes the Amiga. I had an A500+ with 8 megs of ram and a HD8+ harddrive addon. I built a parnet cable to link it to my CDTV for CD access, good times. I still have an A1200 but it needs a new harddrive and the workbench disks have gotten currupted. I will get around to fixing the 1200 up one of these days. (y)

8 megs on a 500 must have seemed impossible to fill, Did you often RAD disk it ?

Ha! yes, I did the parnet cable thing too for a CD32 to 1200 connection, I later got a pcmcia scsi external cd drive that was loads faster SquirelSCSI I think it was. Later I went to a tower case, 040/PPC and Blizzard graphics card. Somehow though it just wasn't the same as just having a fast 1200. It all got a bit too serious if you know what I mean ?

I keep all mine boxed up in the loft now, I just don't have time anymore and with me coding all day at work I don't feel like starting again in the evening.

 

[mcborge]

8 megs on a 500 must have seemed impossible to fill, Did you often RAD disk it ?

Ha! yes, I did the parnet cable thing too for a CD32 to 1200 connection, I later got a pcmcia scsi external cd drive that was loads faster SquirelSCSI I think it was. Later I went to a tower case, 040/PPC and Blizzard graphics card. Somehow though it just wasn't the same as just having a fast 1200. It all got a bit too serious if you know what I mean ?

I keep all mine boxed up in the loft now, I just don't have time anymore and with me coding all day at work I don't feel like starting again in the evening.

Yeah I did use a ram disk. I used magic user interface too so the extra ram helped there also. Your system sounded great, I bet you spent a pretty penny on those upgrades back in the day, Amiga ownership was a very expensive hobby which is the main reason I switched to the pc as at the time I had access to a pc refurbishment company and could get some pretty decent parts for silly prices.

 

[MarkHughes]

Yeah I did use a ram disk. I used magic user interface too so the extra ram helped there also. Your system sounded great, I bet you spent a pretty penny on those upgrades back in the day, Amiga ownership was a very expensive hobby which is the main reason I switched to the pc as at the time I had access to a pc refurbishment company and could get some pretty decent parts for silly prices.

I did eventually sell the PPC and B-Vision maybe 5 years ago ish ? I actually got more money back than they cost. People go mad for them, My 1200 now has an 030 with 64mb ram (I think it's 64, It's been a while since I fired it up) I thought going back to a standard case and simpler setup would encourage me to use it more but it didn't work out. I sometimes fire up WinUAE but for me some of the magic has faded A bit sad really as the Amiga and C64 both give me really fond memories wheras I can hardly recall any of the PC's I owned since the first one. I will almost certainly get a Vampire if they make a 1200 version or if they make a compatible stand alone. One of those in a macmini size box would be perfect In a laptop would be even better...

I'm not sure how I got into having my first PC, I just saw a good deal at Tesco and picked it up, It was £500 but had the flat screen monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, The whole lot. It was a good deal I thought.

 

[mcborge]

I did eventually sell the PPC and B-Vision maybe 5 years ago ish ? I actually got more money back than they cost. People go mad for them, My 1200 now has an 030 with 64mb ram (I think it's 64, It's been a while since I fired it up) I thought going back to a standard case and simpler setup would encourage me to use it more but it didn't work out. I sometimes fire up WinUAE but for me some of the magic has faded A bit sad really as the Amiga and C64 both give me really fond memories wheras I can hardly recall any of the PC's I owned since the first one. I will almost certainly get a Vampire if they make a 1200 version or if they make a compatible stand alone. One of those in a macmini size box would be perfect In a laptop would be even better...

I'm not sure how I got into having my first PC, I just saw a good deal at Tesco and picked it up, It was £500 but had the flat screen monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, The whole lot. It was a good deal I thought.

It's amazing how much Amiga hardware goes for these days. I've never baught an off the shelf pc system apart from one laptop which came from tesco's in a black friday sale a few years back. I only use it as a support machine for my main rig and for driver downloads when I'm upgrading or rebuilding. To be honest being able to tinker with my main rig is one of the reasons I still prefer a desktop. I'm hoping to make the switch to Ryzen soon so I'm itching to get back under the hood.