RISC PC launch video.

Camcorder footage of the launch in 1994.

https://youtu.be/V1flXr56k0E

Might be of interest to some people on here!

I wonder what contributed the most to Acorn’s downfall:

1. The cost of the launch event
2. The incomprehensibility of the launch event

what contributed the most to Acorn’s downfall:

Phoebe – too little too late.

At about 54 minutes in, there appears someone with a much younger face than I’m now familiar with. Can anyone confirm that impression?

I remember being both excited and disappointed by the RiscPC. The dual processor capability was an echo of the BBC Micro’s Tube in a way and seemed like a neat way to upgrade the capabilities of the machine. On the other hand, as time passed, I began to think that it was really only a stopgap machine despite all the claims of future-proofing owners’ investments you hear in the above video.

Acorn made some strange choices with the RiscPC: keeping the old-style mouse port (which the A7000 got rid of), not adopting PCI for at least some expansion slots (maybe it was too soon to adopt it), making x86 support a central feature. I imagine some of these were the result of being dependent on the education market. In some ways it’s remarkable that the machine was produced at all given that they were (up to a point) selling workstation-class machines to schools!

But Acorn always made odd decisions about the technologies they used, both hardware and software. And some of us who were above school age tended to find the way they marketed their products to be a bit embarrassing. Still, in 1994 at least, it seems they hadn’t started their handcuffs, chains and dungeons fetish just yet. ;-)

Can anyone confirm that impression?

There may be a few faces in those crowds. Imagine being immortalised as “the kid that shook the mouse”? :-)

As for the launch event – what the hell? We alternate from a weather girl trying hard to impress people with tech specs to a local school’s drama club production of Red Dwarf. It was… curieuse.

Peter Bondar didn’t look very comfortable explaining the product roadmap, did he? However, I think the “actors” in the grandma vs. pitstop skit seemed to be enjoying themselves – good for them! :-)

My wife & I pop up a few times. Thought I had more hair then. Wonder who she’s chatting up with the bow tie.

The chap in the bow tie at 54:00 is Chris France

That’s he (& she) though I’m non the wiser :-)

Sometime in the last 24 hours the video has been ‘removed by user’ … and I had only got half-way!

It’s back, with “some music removed to avoid infringing copyright”.