Acorn

Insert tape, rewind to start, press play and listen to our special guest, Rob Caporetto, give a master class in all things Acorn and the BBC Micro! Listen carefully, as we assure you that you’ll learn something new – we certainly did!

The honour of selecting the publisher of choice went to our special guest, with Rob opting for a left-field publisher Synapse Software. After much deliberation about this obscure software house, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Synapse created a fair number of games that we actually enjoyed playing on our beloved 8-bit micros. It seems you agreed with us by giving us your top Synapse games in our social media discussion.

Listen to episode 11 now, we guarantee your ears will thank you!

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If you are tired of the same old documentary style films about the history of the British home computer industry, then Micro Men (2009) might be right up your alley. Micro Men tells the story of legendary inventor Sir Clive Sinclair battling it out with ex-employee Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers, for dominance in the fledgling computer market. The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer. What transpires grips you like a vice for the duration of the film, only letting go once the credits roll some one hour and twenty minutes later.

Alexander Armstrong plays Sir Clive to a tee, and Martin Freeman is perfectly cast as Chris Curry, Clive’s eventual nemesis. Scottish Director, Saul Metzstein truly captures the fervor of the British home computer rush of the late 70s and early 80s. If you were a fan of British home computing, or a computing historian, then do yourself a favour and watch Micro Men – it will be the best 80 minutes you’ve watched about the battle between Sinclair and Acorn Computers.

Now, if only someone would make a film adaptation of Brian Bagnall’s Commodore: A Company on Edge book!

video source: gimpymoo
material source: BBC