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Acorn Electron

The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It had 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM memory included BBC BASIC along with its operating system.

The Electron was able to save and load programs onto audio cassette via a supplied converter cable that plugged into the microphone socket of any tape recorder. It was capable of basic graphics, and could display onto either a television set or a "green screen" monitor.

At its peak, the Electron was the third best selling micro in the United Kingdom, and total lifetime game sales for the Electron exceeded those of the BBC Micro. There are at least 500 known games for the Electron and the true total is probably in the thousands.

The hardware of the BBC Micro was emulated by a single customized ULA chip designed by Acorn. It had feature limitations such as being unable to output more than one channel of sound where the BBC was capable of three-way polyphony and the inability to provide teletext mode. The machine architecture also imposed a substantial speed decrease on applications running from RAM, although ROM applications ran at the same speed.
 
Complete in it's orginal brown box (Acorn never really did put much belief in flashy packaging !!)

Serial Number : 02-ALA01-0020823

Manufacturer: Acorn
Date: July 1983

Acorn Electron Software :

Item Manufacturer Date
Hans J Eysenck 'I Do' Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1983
Cranky Acornsoft 1983
Revise GCE/CSE English Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1984
Revise GCE/CSE Mathematics 1 Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1984
Revise GCE/CSE Mathematics 2 Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1984

Acorn Electron Games :

Item Manufacturer Date
Ravage Blue Ribbon Sofdtware Ltd
Brian Aldiss - Science Fiction Quiz Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1983
John Julius Norwich - History Quiz Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1983
Julian Symons - Crime & Detection Quiz Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1983
Sheridan Morley - Theatre Quiz Acornsoft - Ivan Berg Software 1983
White Knight MK11 - Electron Version BBC Soft 1984
Battlefields BBC Soft 1985

Books RELATED to Acorn Electron in our Library

Item Manufacturer Date
The Mystery of Silver Mountain Usborne Publishing
100 Programs for the Acorn Electron Prentice Hall 1984
Acorn Electron Advanced User Guide Acornsoft - Adder Publishing 1984
The Acorn Electron Kingfisher 1984
21 Games for the Electron Granada Publishing 1984
BASIC ROM User Guide Adder Publishing August 1984
Mathematical Programs in BBC Basic Prentice/Hall International 1985
Toolbox 2 British Boradcasting Corporation 1985
Maths Tutor for the BBC / Electron Century Communications 1985
Getting the Most from Your Printer Bernard Babani June 1986

Magazines RELATED to Acorn Electron in our Library

Item Manufacturer Date
BBC Micro User - March 1983 - FIRST EDITION Database Publications Ltd March 1983
BBC Micro User - May 1983 - Vol 1 No 3 Database Publications Ltd May 1983
The Micro User - June 1983 - Vol 1 No 4 Database Publications Ltd June 1983
The Micro User - July 1983 - Vol 1 No 5 Database Publications Ltd July 1983
The Micro User - September 1983 - Vol 1 No 7 Database Publications Ltd September 1983
The Micro User - October 1983 - Vol 1 No 8 Database Publications Ltd October 1983
Electron User - October 1983 - Vol 1 No 1 - First Edition October 1983
Personal Computer World - October 1983 October 1983
Practical Computing - October 1983 October 1983
Electron User - November 1983 - Vol 1 No 2 November 1983
Electron User - December 1983 - Vol 1 No 3 December 1983
Input Magazine - Complete Set 52 issues Marshall Cavendish 1984
The Micro User - January 1984 - Vol 1 No 11 Database Publications Ltd January 1984
Personal Computer World - September 1984 September 1984
The Micro User - March 1988 - Vol 6 No 1 Database Publications Ltd March 1988
Electron User - June 1990 June 1990
Electron User - July 1990 July 1990

Other Systems Related To Acorn Electron:

Item Manufacturer Date
Acorn Xemplar Matrix NC Acorn Unknown
Acorn A3010 Acorn Unknown
Acorn STB-1 Acorn Unknown
Acorn Atom Acorn January 1980
Acorn BBC Micro Model B Acorn 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model A Acorn 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model A Issue 1 Acorn 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model B+ (64K) Acorn February 1981
Acorn Briefcase Communicator Acorn 1985
Acorn BBC Master 128 Acorn 1986
Acorn BBC Domesday System Acorn Computers Limited 1986
Acorn - BT Merlin M2105 Acorn 13rd May 1986
Acorn BBC Master Compact Acorn September 1986
Acorn Archimedes 310 Acorn 1987
Acorn Archimedes 305 Acorn 1987
Acorn Archimedes 440 Acorn July 1987
Acorn A3000 Acorn 1989
Acorn R140 Acorn June 1989
Acorn Archimedes 440/1 Acorn July 1989
Acorn R260 Acorn 1990
Acorn A5000 Acorn 1991
Acorn A5000 ALB53 Acorn 1991
Acorn A5000 ALB22 Acorn 1991
Acorn A3020 Acorn January 1992
Acorn A4000 Acorn September 1992
Acorn Risc PC 600 Acorn January 1994
Acorn Risc PC 600 ACB25 Acorn April 1994
Acorn Risc PC 600 ACB45 Acorn April 1994
Acorn A7000 Acorn 1995
Acorn RISC PC 700 - Prototype Acorn 1995
Acorn Pocket Book II Acorn February 1995
Acorn Risc PC 600 ACB60 Acorn July 1995
Acorn StrongARM RiscPC Acorn 1996

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH181. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

 

Acorn Electron

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