Absolutely - these guys were so ahead of their time it's just really humbling to be in their (virtual) presence. Paul was a great interviewee and I can't thank him enough for his time.

Thanks very much :)

Glad you enjoyed it!

What's not to love? They're great little machines :)

Interesting to speculate :) What a shame Acorn didn’t go for it :)

Commodore still had the ultimate edge, in that they owned the 6502 and could customize it more readily, to fit the available memory chips or any other manufacturing concerns that might have come up.

Glad you enjoyed it

Awwww :) Glad you enjoyed the interview - it was quite special :) :)

You’re welcome - it’s an amazing time in computing history to be sure :)

That's it... I'm going to play it through tomorrow for the last time - and finish it!

That's incredibly kind - thank you, and glad you enjoyed them.

Me too! Our recently refurbished Model B is now my daily driver for episode writing :)

You and me both my friend!!!! In fact, I'm feeling like I may just have a play this evening! :)

Absolutely! The infiltration of Acorn technology into almost every aspect of society is little known and very surprising! Thanks for sharing!

I embarked on exactly such a project back in 2006 and made a good start on it. Unfortunately I was very badly let down over the funding that I’d been promised and was left in a position whereby it was impossible to continue. However, time moves on and circumstances change. The idea has been in my mind for two decades, now, and I’d still like to do it; I think I could make a good job of it. So, whilst I’m not announcing anything here, it’s fair to say that I haven’t abandoned the idea, and maybe finding another way forward is becoming less unrealistic. I certainly haven’t given up on the idea, and if I can manage to revive it, I will.

@@RichardHallas Well I for one wish you the very best of luck!

Thank you kindly!

So glad you’re enjoying the series. I almost grabbed a Newbrain the other week but it drifted out of my grasp :( Got the Archimedes series to look forward to though :)

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks and glad you enjoyed it :)

You're very welcome - glad you enjoyed it ;)

Thanks - Paul was a pleasure to interview!

Thanks! Yes, I was very honoured to have Paul on the channel and it was fascinating :)

Totally agree about the keyboard!!!

@@TheRetroShack Mind you, the Electron was too little too late. I moved from the Electron to an Amstrad CPC664 and it left the Electron for dead. The CPC was a very probably the ultimate 8 bit system with an amazing blend of hardware, games and professional (CP/M) software at an awesome price. It was clear though that the golden age of 8 bit was coming to an end. I was fortune to work for a computer retailer at the time and had access to almost everything... MSX, ST, Amiga, PC etc. Despite everything though, I raise my glass to Sir Clive Sinclair and the folks at Sinclair Research. Without the ZX81 (my first computer) I would not have enjoyed a life long career in IT. Sinclair and his cheap computers probably did more for the UK tech industry than anything else.

@@paddycoleman1472 Absolutely! Keep an eye out on the Shack’s Twitter account for glimpses of what’s coming up (Hint... it came out in 1981...) Thanks for watching!

I still have my Electron, and yes the keyboard is very nice. And yes the 64 k would be nice. Mode 7? I never missed that teletext mode, I would rather have 16 colours instead of those blinking things. Agree about the RAM speed, it was a bottleneck. Another thing is sound. The soundchip that the BBC was using was not expensive, but makes some difference. The Electron was my first machine and I love it and after that I bought an MSX (I have 3 MSX 1 computers and 1 MSX 2) I never had a CPC, but several others (C64, Atari 130XE and Sharp MZ800) after that the ST/Amiga. I still have those except for the Sharp.

@@xXTheoLinuxXx Nice collection there Theo!

The first time I powered up this Beeb (Way before the refurb) was because Mrs RetroShack had a dream about ‘how many pages would a book need to have for all its page numbers to add up to 8,000,000’... (Not kidding) and the only computer I had to hand at that time was the Beeb - so I powered it up and knocked up a program in basic to work it out (the answer was 4000 I think.) and it ram the program fine, presented the answer and then five seconds later went ‘bang!’and the white smoke flowed... :)

@@TheRetroShack Oh yes that’ll be a refa, not had one go on me but have seen a couple of videos were people have. Apparently it’s a bit stinky as well. The two in my machine are cracking on the surface.

@@RobA500 It did pong a bit! :)

Thanks very much - Paul was great and such an interesting career!

Thanks very much - The next episode on the Elk will cover the Elk64SD so keep watching ;)

@@TheRetroShack No spoilers but it's not usable RAM in the typical sense of the word! Watch the latest video by TRS ;)

Thanks for watching - and yes, it was just too little, too late - shame :(

Thanks - glad you enjoyed it :)

Refurb coming VERY soon :) :)

:) It was SUCH an interesting interview - Paul was great!

@@TheRetroShack Oh, agreed 100%. My first computer was an Electron, circa 1989 - which is late, but Electron User was still in print and budget software was still in shops so I was happy. I also wrote an emulator later on. Hearing these stories with first-hand analysis is great!

I suppose it's all relative. It simply didn't sell as well as Acorn had hoped. And especially when compared to the Spectrum, C64 etc. Personally, I think it got short shrift!

@@TheRetroShack I owned an Electron at the time and 'upgraded' to a CPC 6128, which gave me access to a lot more mainstream games, but looking back I missed out on some impressive Superior software games in the later days of the Elk. And Electron User magazine was superb!

@@tonykingsmill2310 And BBC Basic was/is by far the best on the 8 bit machines (in my opinion at least :) )

@@TheRetroShack Locomotive Basic on the CPC was actually good, but BBC BASIC is definitely king! I went back coding on the Elk in the early 90s and still use it today!

Keep an eye on eBay - they do come up now and again. Also, keep an eye out for the next episode in the Electron series as that may be of interest to you :)

Sounds like someone needs an ELKSd64, a blank SDcard, and some rom images.

@@AndrewRoberts11 Probably, but I'd like the original too. I want COMAL and FORTH as well.

Here you go: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jKx8fa-pqbqpm4U.html

@@TheRetroShack Epic tyvm 😀

Thanks for investing the time to watch - it’s really fascinating stuff and Paul was great :)

Given it was the Thatcher years, I'm genuinely shocked the entire computer literacy project was actually seen out given it was government subsidised. All three of the main companies working together would have been the way forward but unfortunately the times made it so that couldn't happen.

@@medes5597 .. I really don't get why people think Conservatives were ever conservative, spending-(un)wise... They've borrowed many times more than Lie-bore, paid back half as much (a miniscule drop in both cases compared to national debt).. Since Blair Lie-bore have privatised more than the Tories, who have actually Nationalised some companies... Thatcher was a raving Liberal who heavily pushed to remain in the EU (EC) despite Old Labour making all the Leave arguments made by Farage and Co. 30+ years later... Thatcher very much believed in mass forced sales schemes and funnelling public money to the private sector, while pushing the Trick-All-Down Effect, like New Labour, the Tories' bastard child..!

@@medes5597 .. Also, what do you mean by 'the times made it so' companies couldn't merge and take each other over? I suppose it was a GOOD time for independent, small time home computer makers but IBM compatible was already a thing (a defacto standard) and there were many multi-company standards, with MSX being a good example (though MS led).. -- Acorn had a multi-processor bus and standard interface so there was the opportunity for a British multi-company standard for coprocessors and peripherals. It would have been the only way to compete with IBM and MS to a lesser extent in the long run, but times were GOOD so quite a few companies competed, which was GOOD for customers.. Sinclair, Acorn, Amstrad + MANY smaller companies... GOOD TIMES! ARM became Arm and still dominates many markets and sets many standards, even if it is not really British any more. Still mainly Britain-based at least.

@@PrivateSi you're right they could have done all that on their own, but the reason we had a micro computer boom was because of the big push for computer literacy, not just at schools but in job retraining, across various industries, etc. And the government was very particular about the BBC licensing an existing machine, not having one made for them (althogh that is what happened but it wasn't intended to happen). Previously for similar projects the government had brought multiple companies together and forced them to work as one in order to create a single standardised tool that would be the tool used for that project. They did it with BT phone line equipment, they did it with mining equipment and with various power industry things. Basically your idea of "the best of acorn/sinclair/amstrad produce one machine" give or take. However the change of philosophy about government interference in business meant they weren't going to do that (which also meant things like the One Per Desk project got screwed over, the UK version of Frances minitel never really got off the ground, etc) and were going to let the market decide by licensing an existing design and seeing what emerged in competition. Now personally speaking I don't w I why the combined approach with each company having their own machines as well couldn't have worked. Surely if you want a standard computer for education and other purposes, having all the companies agree to and contribute to that standard machine is the best idea. Then they can break away and have their own machines that could be compatabile with that standard but do more in other areas. That's what I meant. It was an atmosphere where an obsession with liberatian business values took over and it ended with everyone from sinclair to dragon to thousands of software houses going bankrupt and the UK micro scene having no direct legacy. We never had a UK Amiga or ST because there was no one to make it for consumers and acorn had a high end business and commercial clientele with the archimedes around then.

Mine, or Paul’s? :) :)

@@TheRetroShack Definitely Paul's. Yours can get away with anything as I'm admiring the Monkey Island poster 🐒.

Ram speed definitely - Mode 7 if you wanted to book a holiday or get the cricket results :) :)

@@TheRetroShack LOL. :) Well mode 7 would have added 100% compatibility as most games used the extra RAM available in that mode (I believe) as the beeb had 31k available as contrasted to the Elk's 24K

Fun to speculate isn’t it :) :)

Oops! Sorry! :) Enjoy :) :)

@@TheRetroShack I've bought cars for less lol it actually gets worse st blitter chips are rarer than hens teeth in 10 years I've never seen one anywhere someone just put 3 on eBay had to buy one lol

@@bmdawe

You and me both!