Do you have evidence?

Do you have documentary evidence of RISC OS being sold into the US in the early 90’s? Ideally somewhere around the RISC OS 3.6 era. We’re looking for adverts in US magazines, copies of invoices for sales, that sort of thing. If so, please get in touch!

And before anyone asks, no we’re not on the receiving end of a law suit!

Are you on the other end of one, then? 8~)

ROOL isn’t in the business of bringing law suits!

8~) I didn’t think you were, really 8~)

Just RISC OS? Or Acorn computers in general?

Possibly some RiscPCs sold specifically to run Sibelius? What about NCOS, did any actual systems based on Acorn’s design get released?

I only remember late 90’s with the RISC OS 4 logo. Can’t remember the machine but it looked like a PC case. Not like the RISC PC. I remember looking into it and not having the money at the time. I’m curious to see what surfaces.

What about NCOS, did any actual systems based on Acorn’s design get released?

Yes, my school library were using them.

We’re specifically after proof of RISC OS sales into the US in the early 90’s.

No proof of actual sales but, as you might know, there are references dotted about:-

• The Archimedes range was available in the US and Canada via Olivetti Canada.
• The writeup in the local Toronto Computes! newspaper indicated that Olivetti Canada was bringing the Acorn Archimedes range to North America.
• Acorn Developer Note, page 2 – International Markets
• Si-Plan Electronic Research – RISC OS computers… Rigs like this have been supplied to the UK and the USA.

Have you considered Twitter – tweeting this question or speaking to CJE, etc?

EDIT: Tweet happened via RISCOSitory

We’re specifically after proof of RISC OS sales into the US in the early 90’s.

I’m thinking it’s a precedent / grandfather rights thing.

I only remember late 90’s with the RISC OS 4 logo. Can’t remember the machine but it looked like a PC case.

A7000/A7000+?

I understand, that DavidS is a RISC OS user in the US who lived in California, first had an Archimedes with a US keyboard and has used almost every version of RISC OS since then:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59473&start=50

He describes his history as a RISC OS user on the thread above.

If DavidS is David Cagle (See Copyright at base of page https://asmfun.riscos.fr/downloads.html) then I have an e-mail address for him.

I don’t know if he still has the purchase paperwork – but could be worth reaching out to him.

Hope this is useful.

Looks like Sibelius themselves, had an American office where they sold whole RiscPC solutions with their software on it.

An interview with one of the Finn Brothers who created Sibelius – https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/an-interview-with-ben-finn-part-1/2/

I was living in Silicon Valley in the early 90s til 2004. So at least for one person, RISC OS was sold in the US. Maybe I don’t count for your purposes since I was a registered developer?

Byte Magazine, September 1992 p72 has a review of the A4 with an address for Acorn Computers Canada Inc. in Ontario.
Here

Byte Magazine, September 1992 p72 has a review of the A4 with an address for Acorn Computers Canada Inc. in Ontario.

If we can find another page like that which has a US address in it, that’d be super helpful.

The archived Acorn website shows that there were Dealers for Acorn PC’s in the USA, but unfortunately did not archive the actual webpage.
The list of countries are however archived – https://web.archive.org/web/19980202061336/http://www.acorn.com:80/acorn/products/dealers/international/

I found a copy of the “Acorn International Distributor List” from June 1995 but it doesn’t have the US. Given the link in the post above, it seems that US dealers came along some time between mid-1995 and early 1998. Now we just need a name…

Well, it seems that in early 1998, the USA Office in Palo Alto re-opened focused on Sales.

http://www.apdl.org.uk/riscworld/volumes/volume9/issue1/blast10/index.htm

More Info below on RiscPC Sibelius Turnkey solutions being sold into the USA, via Sibelius’ own Los Angeles office in January 1997(maybe earlier).

• Archived page from official Acorn page showing Worldwide Dealers for Sibelius dealers showing Sibelius’ own USA office as well as seemingly unofficial ‘American office’ based in Canada Office – https://web.archive.org/web/19981202032430/http://www.acorn.co.uk:80/developers/sibelius/dist.html

• An archived web page from sibelius.demon.co.uk showing the current address (1998) of their USA office in LA – https://web.archive.org/web/19980213130653/http://sibelius.demon.co.uk:80/dist.html

• A press release from Sibelius highlighting they sell the RISC OS version of Sibelius 7 in America – https://web.archive.org/web/19980213131036/http://sibelius.demon.co.uk:80/info/pr/ji.html

• A newsgroup posting from Sibelius Technical Help showing email address for USA customers in 1997 – https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.acorn.announce/jbHNHKVLj_8/CZpNVqQlDAsJ

• A posting from an American who actually purchased an StrongARM RiscPC with Sibelius 7 from the Sibelius’ LA Representative Marty Walker in early 1997 – https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.music.compose/QKyjAXT57q4/ecrhveG9qpkJ

Sibelius was not launched on non-Acorn platforms until 1998, so these together show that Acorn RISC OS systems were being sold in the USA at least from January 1997.

Canada and USA Sales

• Comspec was used as an Acorn distributor in Canada from 1990 onwards – http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/NL/Acorn_NewsIss16.pdf

• Comspec also sold into the USA market as well (1997 – https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.acorn.announce/Zr6Drd02-FA/CvO27R5f_xwJ

So this all points to Acorn Systems being sold in the USA.

Thanks all. For the avoidance of doubt, Canada is not the USA. :) Finding evidence of sales in Canada isn’t much use in this instance. It’s direct evidence of US sales in the 90’s we’re looking for. In that respect, Comspec look like an interesting avenue to investigate.

Does anyone know anyone who was working at Sibelius in the 90’s who might have access to sales paperwork of the sort we’re looking for?