The History of BBC Micro Type-in Games - Episode 1: 1982 (Part 1)

The BBC Micro was well known for its BASIC programming language, which was simple to learn and relatively powerful. Many budding coders cut their teeth in the world of programming by typing in games published in computer magazines.

In this series I’ll make my way through the golden years of the Beeb and beyond, looking at type-in games that were published in a variety of magazines over the years, trying to determine whether it was ever actually worth the time it took to type them in.

Episode 1 is the first of two looking at 1982, featuring five games from publications released between April and August.

#retrogaming #bbcmicro #basicprogramming

[witchfinder]

Content links for this episode:

Moon Lander

Blitz

Breakout

Thargoids

Surround

[rwxdesigns]

Input magazine had a few game listings for the BBC. One of which was a version of Cliffhanger which was written in Assembler. Input was interesting in that it covered BASIC listings for multi-formats and so you leaned about the other computers as well as your own.

[Mr..i]

i use to love programming my acorn electron.i knew a program that would turn the electron into a 5 octave piano.monophonic of course the electron only had channel of sound

[RickThrelfall]

Love this series! Thank you! ... could not afford a BBC, but I did own an Electron back then - actually still have that same Elk on a stand in my office at home :) Thanks again!

[ms-exem]

why are older home micros programs refer to the number 255 ? ive noticed this on the Dragon 32 and the bbc micro a and b too!!

[ms-exem]

hello, does any1 know where i can type in grand prix for the Dragon 32 home microcomputer? its from a book listing from 1982 or 1983?? many

[ngbarnes]

The lack of colours in many of these would likely be due to them being targeted at a 16K Model A, so would be limited in which screen MODE they could use.

[retrorobbins]

I so had to subscribe to this channel why wouldn't you, great video by the way love your content and keep it up much love from Retro Robbins🤩

[MephProduction]

wasn't is possible to type games in and save them to cassette so if they were good you didn't have to keep typing them in? This was something i never got to do with my c64 as we nave bough mags.

[colinthomson]

I always got an error when I typed in a game from a magazine. never did like programming but prefer to draw graphics.

[jamespilcher]

What a brilliant idea for a video. Great Stuff, thanks!

[computerrefurbishment]

Think the beebs basic was the best and fastest of all most popular 8 bit machines of it's day. You could make quite a number of characters move on the screen at same time. Must sort out some of my old games I created which demonstrate this. Thanks for the channel!

[MarkTheMorose]

I didn't have a BBC Micro back then, so it's not a walk down memory lane for that reason, but I did have that issue of PCW. In fact, I spotted my first computer, the Sharp MZ80A on the contents page of PCW - 23:03 - it's also reviewed in there, but is rightly overshadowed by the Spectrum. No doubt the Blitz listing calls everything 'bug' as it was printed in Bug-Byte's own magazine. Thargoids is an interesting choice of name for baddies, being in Elite a couple of years later. The concept of the game is quite an early one, then; I saw it first as 'Daleks' in a public domain Amiga game played from the Workbench. In that version, you can teleport randomly, and have limited uses of the 'Sonic Screwdriver'.

[UncleFeedle]

Typing in program listings on the BBC Micro. This was my childhood. 🤓

[ms-exem]

IF ANY1 anybody knows of this grand prix game program for the Dragon 64 please let me know via (by) this youtube channel many thanks bless u all

[ms-exem]

floppy discs have formatted capacities of 720kb but unformatted its 1.0 megabyte or so thanks

[ms-exem]

some1 should write a bbc micro 16k model a emulator (the Proton) thanks also the Dragon 16k Pippin too thanks

[ms-exem]

theres one game for the Dragon 32 i cannot find since 1983 - ive been looking since 1983 and i cannot find it - Grand Prix - many if any1 sees this in a Dragon 32 book please let me know - its not the 60 (sixty) programs for the Dragon 32 though ive seen this one its not the one