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These were the days before PCs. There were Tandy TRS-80s, Apple IIs and the BBC Micro, a wonderful idea that the British Broadcasting Corporation came up with. They were broadcasting a series of programmes about Information Technology and how it was going to change everyone's lives, but more than just informing, someone at the Beeb got the notion that they could encourage a company to build a microcomputer with the BBC's name on it, to accompany the series. A computer the BBC would put it's stamp on and recommend to all it's viewers. Looking back I find it amazing that this actually happened. But I'm so glad it did.
You see, with the BBC's insistence on many aspects of what the micro should do and what features it should have, a truly educational and powerful machine was created, cheaper than any other micro and with a very easy-to-use operating system and programming language. It even had a Teletext display mode so that the BBC's over-the-air information service could appear on it. What's more it had sound and speech (the latter by digitizing the voice of the most well-known BBC news reader at the time). But for me the BBC micro was a Godsend. It was so easy to interface with and use, and cheap enough that we could buy a few of them to help disabled people communicate with.
And so we started phasing out the TRS-80s and Apple IIs and went ahead with purchasing about half a dozen BBC Micros. And, naturally, spending as much time as I did with them, I also ended up writing a lot of programs and articles for The Micro User (Originally called BBC Micro User but the BBC made them change the name)...
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