Acorn - A World in Pixels - new book released very soon!

New Book Showcases Development and Legacy of BBC Micro & Acorn Electron.
This is Gaming History!

‘Acorn – A World in Pixels’ is a beautiful and profound compendium of over 450 pages, tracing the development, history, impact and legacy of the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron – computers that spawned the technology that drives today’s modern world. From interviews with key figures at the time such as David Braben and Ian Bell, to a showcase of cover art, anecdotes from programmers and narratives of the creation of games including ‘Elite’ and ‘Repton’ – this is a must-read for any fans of 8-bit machines.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
United Kingdom – Any iPhone picked up today contains powerful chips developed directly using ARM-based chips, most notably developed originally on the BBC Micro by UK’s Acorn Computers, sometimes referred to as “British Apple”. 130 billion devices later, ARM technology helped to revolutionise technology as we know it today.
Acorn Computers created the BBC Micro in the late 1980s in a tie-up with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and went on to sell over 1.5 million units. The computer created a gold standard for at-home gameplay, education and even use in the world of business.
In a new book published by idesine, the entire legacy and games history of the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron is compiled into a single, timeless volume.

Synopsis of ‘Acorn – A World in Pixels’:
Celebrate the visual games history of the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron with this case bound book, contained within a beautiful slip case.
Spread over 476 pages, with a foreword by Richard Hanson (Superior Software) and Life of an Acorn Gamer by TV’s Iain Lee, it features over 150 classic games, with exclusive interviews with key figures in the industry at the time – from the likes of David Braben and Ian Bell (Elite); Geoff Crammond (Revs/Aviator); Peter Irvin (Exile); Tim Tyler (Repton); Nick Pelling (Frak!); Peter Scott (Sim City/The Last Ninja); Gary Partis (Dr Who); Chris Roberts (Stryker’s Run); Steve Furber (Acorn) and many, many more – and features on subjects such as key publishers, cover art and classic magazines.
The book showcases the computers’ inimitable graphic style and is packed full with memories and anecdotes from programmers, artists, publishers, reviewers and enthusiasts. Remember Elite, Chuckie Egg, Repton, Exile, Starship Command, Thrust, Citadel, Revs, Imogen, Codename:Droid, Firetrack, Arcadians, Mr Ee!, Zalaga, Castle Quest, Galaforce, Snapper and many more.
An unmissable publication for anyone who grew up with an Acorn 8-bit machine.
“Elements of the games industry as we know it today grew up around, and because of these machines,” explains the publisher. “We wanted to compile the comprehensive history into one book, and make it something boasting extremely high quality – so it becomes a part of gaming history itself. It’s amazing to think that it began in a back alley office behind a British Gas showroom in Cambridge. It might have boasted just 22 kilobytes of memory (about enough to send an email today!), but it changed the computing world forever.”
Continuing, “Acorn Computers was founded by Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry. History should think of these two mavericks in the same realm as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, in terms of their impact on the world today. This book is a great gift for any fans of gaming, computer history or electronics.”

Reviews have been extremely positive. Retrogamer Magazine writes, “From the moment you gaze at Ste Pickford’s excellent cover and read Iain Lee’s intro you know a lot of love has been poured into this book. Its real strength comes once you get to the extensive game section … the entire book is rammed with developers who supported the machine in its halcyon days, from Tim Dobson (Monsters) to Mat Newman (Fortress) and Ian Bell (Free Fall). Every notable game is covered, including a great piece on Elite from both Ian Bell and David Braben.”

Available from:

Publisher’s official website
https://www.idesine.com

Waterstones
https://bit.ly/362QuEi
Foyles
https://bit.ly/386BjwD
Amazon
https://amzn.to/2I2ccAf

Book cover (hi res image)
https://bit.ly/acornbook

About the Publisher
Established in 2008, idesine is a publisher based in the UK, specialising in the creative arts industry. We endeavour to capture creative projects that thrill and amaze in real life and bring them back to life on the printed page.

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I get the impression that the content is essentially focussed on games, games, games. Is that correct? I’m interested in the history of the machine, its soft- and hardware, and its many uses. And the people who made it. But not particularly in the history of games.

It’s been pointed out in c.s.a.m the BBC Micro was created in the early 80s. It was lunched at the end of 81, and shipped in 82.

And as Jim says, it’s everything apart from games (with the one exception of Elite) which interests me.

Edit: I also have to mention Frak! as I worked with Nick Pelling at McLaren.

As far as I can recall I only spent more than a few minutes playing 5 games – Lemmings, Frak, Chuckie Egg, Cylon Attack, Crystal Maze. One other occupied some time – transferring Colditz from cassette tape to floppy. Reverse engineering the copy protection took longer than playing the game that resulted. (And was more interesting.)

It might have boasted just 22 kilobytes of memory (about enough to send an email today!)

That’s plenty to send an email today.

It’s when people wrap the email in bucket load of HTML and embed graphics “because” that the idea of having a few K in use for transmitting the ideas around all goes T*** up.

Preordered. I have a few similar books to this and I like them very much. Excellent coffee table books.

That’s plenty to send an email today.

Even one of mine! ;-)

It’s when people wrap the email in bucket load of HTML

That’s not the big problem.
The big problem is when lousy mail clients (hello Android!) take a plain text message and encode the entire thing in base64; thus meaning what is actually sent is a wodge of gibberish.
Grrr.

The computer created a gold standard for at-home gameplay

I think this is stretching the truth quite a bit. In 8 bit world, I would say that Apple II (in the US), Atari XL, Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum, MSX (in Japan) and probably even the Amstrad CPC were quite far ahead both in number and quality of games.

My copy of this has arrived. It is beautifully published, lots of interviews. Thoroughly recommend it if you did enjoy 8bit Acorn machines. Added bonus is that it exists – unlike another book and associated contributions I could mention… :D