The Acorn Atom and the Fifth Year of Floppy Days

1980 was a very prolific year for the development of personal computers around the globe and we continue to cover machines made in that year.  This month’s topic is a machine that was never made available in the United States.  It was popular in parts of Europe and particularly in the Netherlands.  The machine: The Acorn Atom.  This is the first non-US machine I’ve covered and I have plans to cover other machines that were made outside of North America.

I want to start out by thanking Walter Miraglia and Andy Collins for providing their thoughts and memories of the Acorn Atom.  I have zero personal experience with the Atom, never having seen one or even heard of it prior to doing some recent research on non-US personal computers and deciding to cover it.  So, it was great to have a couple of people who do have some experience with the machine volunteer to share their memories.

To help me cover this machine, I found one of the foremost Atom experts on the forums, Mr. Roland Leurs, out of the Netherlands.  He was kind enough to agree to provide his insight and expertise for this show.  As you will hear, he knows this computer very well and really helps us understand its nuances.  I think you will enjoy the knowledge he shares with us.

As usual, I’ll also talk about new acquisitions and what I’ve been up to, a bit of news, and a modicum of feedback before we get into the main topic.

Before moving into new acquisitions, I wanted to stop for a moment and reflect on the 5th year anniverary of the show this month.  It’s really hard to believe that it’s been 5 years and 82 shows since I first pulled out a microphone and took my first halting steps into podcasting.  It’s been a fun ride.  The thing that I enjoy the most of anything about doing the podcast is the feedback, comments, emails, and more that I get.  Every time someone says hi at a vintage computer show and tells me that they listen to the podcast, it gives me a thrill.  When I see an episode get downloaded over 3,000 times, it amazes me.  The friends that I’ve gained as a result of this hobby have been incredible.  Every person who has come onto the show to help me cover a computer, talk with me for an interview, or provide thoughts and memories has become part of my circle of friends.  I consider this a collaborative show.  This is not Randy Kindig talking for an hour about a computer.  Just about every show has had involvement from others in the community.  I want you all to know how much all of those things are appreciated.  I can definitively tell you I don’t have any plans to end the podcast any time soon.  If it ever quits being fun, then maybe, but you’re stuck with me for a while yet.

thank you everyone.

 

Links Mentioned in the Show:

New Acquisitions

• Juiced.GS - https://juiced.gs/
• Vintage Game Consoles: An Inside Look at Apple, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, and the Greatest Gaming Platforms of All Time by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton - https://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Game-Consoles-Commodore-Platforms/dp/0415856000
• Indy Vintage Computer Club - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1082702455167563/

News

• C64 mini - http://www.techguide.com.au/news/now-can-relive-retro-computing-memories-mini-commodore-64/#

Upcoming Shows

• CoCoFest - http://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ , April 21-22, HERON POINT CONVENTION CENTER, Lombard, IL
• VCF Southeast - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/ , April 21 & 22, 2018, this year at the new location for the Computer Museum of America Roswell, GA
• Vintage Computer Festival East - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ , When: May 18-20, 2018, Where: InfoAge Science Center, 2201 Marconi Rd., Wall, NJ
• KansasFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/ , July 17-22, 2018, Kansas City, Missouri
• VCF West - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west/ , August 4-5, 2018 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
• Commodore Vegas Expo v14 - http://www.commodore.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12676 , Aug. 11-12, 2018, Las Vegas, NV
• Tandy Assembly - http://www.tandyassembly.com , Oct. 13-14, Springfield, OH
• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - http://www.retrogamingexpo.com/ - Oregon Convention Center on October 19-21, 2018
• other shows that will definitely occur but not yet announced:
• • VCF Midwest - Elk Grove Village, IL - http://www.vcfmw.org/ , September
  • TI International World’s Faire - http://www.chicagotiug.com/  - November
  • World of Commodore - http://www.tpug.ca/ , December - Toronto

Feedback

• Ken Partridge - pictures from Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA (Facebook and Instagram) - search #floppydayschm

Popular Magazines/Newsletters

• Acorn Programs Magazine - https://archive.org/details/acorn-programs
• Acorn User - https://archive.org/details/acornuser

Books

• list of books at stardot - http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6791
• Acorn Atom Technical Manual by Roger Wilson (??) - Publisher: Acorn Computers - PDF Scan - Hoglet's 2013 edition
• Atomic Theory and Practice - Author(s): David Johnson Davies - Publisher: Acorn Computers - PDF Scan - Hoglet's 2013 edition
• Splitting the Atom - A manual for Informed Users - Author(s): J. R. Stevenson and J. C. Rockett - Publisher: Procyon - HTML Version - PDF Scan Part 1 and PDF Scan Part 2  
• Practical Programs for the BBC Computer and Acorn Atom - Author(s): David Johnson Davies - ISBN: 0905104145 - Publisher: Sigma Technical Press - Keith Howell's reconstruction

Software

• Atom Software Archive - http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6544
• Here is the latest version of the archive - AtomSoftwareArchive_20151119_V9.zip
• Here is the latest spreadsheet that details each title, including instructions for running, and links to any scans of original documentation - AtomSoftwareCatalog_20151119_V9.xls
• Retro Games Collection (Drew Turpin) - https://drewturpin.wordpress.com/category/acorn-atom/

User Groups

• Dutch Acorn Atom User Group - http://www.acornatom.nl/sites/atominpc/aclindex.htm

Emulation

• Atom in PC - Roland Leurs - http://members.casema.nl/hhaydn/atomhw.html
• http://floooh.github.io/virtualkc/
• Atomulator - http://acornatom.co.uk/ - A free, open source Acorn Atom emulator for Windows, Linux, OSX and Raspberry Pi
• Acorn Atom Emulator (DOS) - http://www.stairwaytohell.com/atom/wouterras/

Community

• Forums
• • AtariAge - http://www.atariage.com
  • StarDot Forums - http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/
  • 6502.org - http://www.6502.org

Current Web Sites

• Yet Another Computer Museum - https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/index.html
• Atom Review - http://members.casema.nl/hhaydn/index-uk.html
• Atom BASIC, Assembler, and the OS - http://members.casema.nl/hhaydn/index-uk.html
• Acorn Atom in FPGA - http://members.casema.nl/hhaydn/howel/logic/acorn_atom_project.htm
• The Atom Revisited - http://www.acornatom.nl/
• Atom area at YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/AtomsUp/videos
• Programs for the Atom from AcornSoft - https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/Control_Universal_catalogue_html/Acornsoft/Acornsoft.htm
• PDF scans and HTML documentation Acorn Atom - http://electrickery.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/doc/index.html
• Build Your Own Acorn Atom by Roland Leurs - http://diy.acornatom.nl/
• A brief history of Acorn home computers, including the Atom - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUnRaldq8PA