Acorn User DVDs


Typical Page Layout Of Magazine Scan On ACORN USER DVD

Description:

The Acorn User magazines are laid out as separate images on their own individual pages, accessed by a menu on the left hand side of the screen. There are typically around 250 pages so we have taken some liberties with the screengrab above, but we hope you get the idea.
 
Typical Page Layout Of HTML'ed Article On ACORN USER DVD

Description:

This is the html version of the scan of DEFENCECOM, an example of one of the many games that appeared as type-ins in Acorn User, and you can click on this image to see a much bigger graphic screengrab of this information. You will see that the article is presented 'as published' with genuine screenshots where applicable (i.e. not scanned in screenshots) and with illustrations, such as the flowchart at the base.
 

The Acorn User DVDs

What Are These DVDs All About?

If you've never read Acorn User before, think the ACORN USER DVDs are too expensive, or if you'd simply like a bit more detail on the DVDs themselves before you part with your hard-earned cash, then this article is written for you.

The first issue of Acorn User was published in July 1982, when the BBC Micro had just been launched and when interest in home computing was at its peak. It was aimed at teaching its readers all about what computers could do for them and it was the most academic of the magazines for the BBC computers. Over the next hundred issues, 400+ articles appeared within its pages covering almost every aspect of the BBC Micro that you could care to imagine. Some issues weighed in at over 250 pages. The set of magazines includes information on everything from machine code programming to full-blown arcade games. It charts the rise and rise of Acorn, particularly in relation to its educational achievements, and the problems it then encountered as the BBC Micros were sidelined by the rise of 32-bit machines.

Whilst you can get a rough idea of the history of the BBC Micro in its various guises (i.e. the B+, Master 128, Electron) from sites like Wikipedia and, of course, the Acorn Electron World web site, the DVD allows you the luxury of having the whole, complete, unabridged story. You do not need to scour eBay looking for individual issues for your collection, or wrestle with the half a million pages of printed matter.

And if you do not like reading jpg images on screen, then you will be amazed to see many many articles, games, news stories and reviews in html format as already included on the DVDs, and are illustrated in the various screengrabs that supplement this article.

Now you might be thinking that someone else might also scan the Acorn User magazines in the future - and host them for free, so why should you spend £19.95 at this point in time? Well, for years I too hoped that somebody would do this. Nobody did. And when I set about the task of scanning them I realised why. The workload was huge, involving sometimes seven hour stints to scan a single magazine. Now, ask yourself if someone else is really going to put in this much effort and then host the magazines for free. And, even if they do, are they really going to then re-master the screenshots, turn the articles into html, type up the programs and add all of the screenshots and diagrams that this DVD boasts?

When you investigate the ACORN USER DVDs, it is clear within a few moments that they are thousands of hours' worth of work. You will immediately find gems of programming that would have taken significant time even to just locate by hand. You also get each and every single code example on a bonus .ssd or .dsd image, with a robust menu system attached, meaning you can play a multitude of new games on your machine, none of which are available in this format anywhere else.

Still need convincing? My my, you really are hard to please. Well, here are my "ten reasons to buy":

Ten Reasons To Buy

  1. You follow the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron scene to this day and wish to support it
  2. You never typed up the programs in Acorn User back in the day and would like to see them
  3. You threw away your old Acorn User magazines years ago and want to read them again in a much more convenient format
  4. You contributed to Acorn User back in the day and want to look up your contribution
  5. You stopped subscribing to Acorn User and would like to see how the scene continued
  6. You are writing an article on 80's home computing and need to research the rise and fall of companies such as Acorn Computers
  7. You are planning to write a game for the BBC Micro and would like to read articles that will teach you how
  8. You still have all of your Acorn User magazines up in your attic and you have always wanted to throw them away but have never been able to 'let go' of them!
  9. You want to encourage me to create further DVDs of magazines such as A&B Computing and Personal Computer News, all of the same high quality and content
  10. You are learning html and javascript and want to investigate how professional DVDs are put together

Technical Information

 

Image Scans
Width : 890px
Height : 1258px
BPP : 24 BPP
Typical Size : 3.2MB
DPI : 200

Accompanying articles in W3C xhtml
Each DVD checked as compatible with Firefox and Internet Explorer.