Acorn's 8-bit machines

Acorn's starting point

Acorn's initial computers, the 8-bit machines, from Series 1 to BBC, from Atom to Electron.

4corn does not attempt to replicate the excellent work of others on the web who support the 8-bit community admirably. But we will recommend some resources and emulators to help point people in the right direction.

  • Stardot and STH Forums - The Stairway to Hell forums provide a great place for people to discuss all aspects of Acorn retro computing. The STH archive also provides hundreds of resources for users of Acorn's 8-bit machines.
  • Chris's Acorns - Chris Whytehead's extensive attempts to archive and document nearly every piece of Acorn hardware and software. Contains many scanned documents and software resources.
  • MDFS - J.G.Harston's massive archive of software and documents covering most Acorn machines.
  • BeebWiki - 8-bit Acorn Computer Wiki. With hardware, software and programming details.
  • 8-Bit Software - Another massive archive, including magazine scans (all of Beebug, Acorn User).

Recommended Emulators

B-em

System: BBC Micro and Master

b-em screenshot

Homepage: b-em.bbcmicro.com/

Platforms: Windows, Linux

Version: 2.2, 3 June 2012

Emulator Documentation: Readme.txt in emu download

OS Files: Included

Elkulator

System: Acorn Electron

elkulator screenshot

Homepage: elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/

Platforms: Windows, Linux

Version: 1.0, 17 July 2010

Emulator Documentation: readme.txt in emu download

OS Files: Included

Atomulator

System: Acorn Atom

Atomulator screenshot

Homepage: acornatom.co.uk/

Platforms: Windows, Linux

Version: 1.13, 13 January 2013

Emulator Documentation: Readme.txt in emu download

OS Files: Included

BeebEm

System: BBC Micro and Master

BeebEm screenshot

Homepage: www.mkw.me.uk/beebem

Platforms: Windows

Version: 4.14, 15 August 2009

Emulator Documentation: Help directory in emu download

OS Files: Included

BeebEm for UNIX

System: BBC Micro and Master

BeebEm for UNIX screenshot

Homepage: beebem-unix.bbcmicro.com

Platforms: Linux

Version: 0.0.13, 12 November 2006

Emulator Documentation: doc/README.txt in emu download

OS Files: Included