Have any of you heard of Acorn etc.

[Wil]

Sorry, the BBC in the big 3? I'm now in hysterics!

Well, that's how I saw it. I'd finished with school and college by '83 and was out at work by then. I moved straight from the C64 to the Amiga and never knew anyone with a CPC. I'm sure it was a good machine but it didn't even make a blip on my gaming life radar.

Glad you got a laugh out of it - there needs to be more laughter in the world

[chinnyhill10]

Sorry, the BBC in the big 3? I'm now in hysterics!

Well, that's how I saw it. I'd finished with school and college by '83 and was out at work by then.

You wouldn't have noticed the CPC in 1983. It wasn't launched until April 1984 and really didn't start to make any real impact until Xmas 84. I don't think the CPC would have overtaken the BBC in terms of sales until late '85 early '86.

[rleggett]

It's a bit difficult to get exact figures, but various sources on the web seem to indicate that over 1 million BBC micros were sold, a few hundred thousand BBC Masters, a few hundred thousand Electrons and a few hundred thousand Archimedes. I'd have thought that represented a big enough contribution to the British home computer industry to get Acorn into Retro Gamer from time-to-time.

To put that in perspective, the C64 sold in excess of 15 million units, the Sinclair Spectrum managed over 7 million and the Amstrad CPC managed just below 3.5 million. The Amstrad PCW sold over a million as well.

Anyone have any figures for the ST and Amiga?

Yeah... but, from a British perspective (is Retro Gamer a British magazine, or not?!), most of the Acorn sales would have been in the UK, whereas the vast majority of Commodore and CPC sales were outside of the UK.

Still, I guess none of it really matters. What this forum shows is that there's plenty of people with fond memories of all machines and most people would be happy to see them all covered.

So I guess its down to knowledgeable Acorn people to pitch ideas to RG...

[chinnyhill10]

Yeah... but, from a British perspective (is Retro Gamer a British magazine, or not?!), most of the Acorn sales would have been in the UK, whereas the vast majority of Commodore and CPC sales were outside of the UK.

Not as clear cut as you make it sound. Based on the sales of the Spectrum (as the UK's best selling home computer for umpteen years) we can assume that anywhere between 5 to 6 million C64's were shifted in the UK.

The CPC shifted a million in France alone and just over half a million elsewhere. However that still leaves 2 million machines sold in the UK.

And you are only talking about machine sales. In terms of software the 3 big machines would have vastly outsold the Acorn even the CPC (which only ever occupied the second half of the all formats top 100 sales charts in the 80's).

Many schools did buy BBC's, sometimes 10 or more. However these schools were not down the local software shop on a Saturday buying the latest Ocean release. Although the userbase was there the computers were mainly in schools and this is why the games had no market penetration.

[sjstimer]

Well the proper poll is almost over and I think that the poll shows what the 3rd place format really is - ACORN.

Acorn votes are almost double the votes of the CPC and I think this is a true reflection on real life since there were more acorns used across the country than cpc's.

Apart from in schools many people owned acorns at home (not just the rich) including the bbc b and younger brother acorn electron. I just had to go down my local library in those days and there were shelffulls of c64, spectrum, acorn, cpc,s and a few other including sharp (remember those), not just a few acorn - shelffulls. Also acorn were used in industry as well, what do you think programmed the ceefax and oracle service in those days - BBC's. I once attached a BBC B to my house to control the curtains opening/closing and the lights on or off, try doing that with a amstrad cpc.

My point from the start is not asking for more coverage of acorn in RG but FAIR COVERAGE and that means having acorn on the top of the front page with all the other formats. How dare they in issue 19 and 20 have a row of different formats on the cover of RG and leaving out acorn when this poll clearly shows acorn is at least in with the heavy boys.

So when it comes to the charts in side lets have a variation now again thats all instead of continous c64, spectrum and cpc.

Im not asking for more coverage just FAIR COVERAGE. There is a difference.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Well the proper poll is almost over and I think that the poll shows what the 3rd place format really is - ACORN.

Acorn votes are almost double the votes of the CPC and I think this is a true reflection on real life since there were more acorns used across the country than cpc's.

How do you work that out?

For starters, you can't be sure that everyone who voted in the old poll voted in the new one (I certainly didn't) and secondly the Acorn is rubbish* The Amstrad poll had 7 votes if I recall, so it's still more anyway... (admittedly, not by a lot though...)

Thirdly, it's not counted as a proper poll, because it's not official

Fourthly, maybe Amstrad owners are above voting in poles as they feel it degrades them. They know the truth, so are obviously content to let everyone else squabble

I'm more than happy to print Acorn features in the mag, but can't if our huge resource of freelancers have no interest in writing for it. Also, the original RG wasn't exactly covering the acorn every month, we're just following with tradition...

My point from the start is not asking for more coverage of acorn in RG but FAIR COVERAGE and that means having acorn on the top of the front page with all the other formats. How dare they in issue 19 and 20 have a row of different formats on the cover of RG and leaving out acorn when this poll clearly shows acorn is at least in with the heavy boys.

Six votes out of a readership of thousands is hardly talking for the masses...


















* I'm well aware that the Acorn is far from rubbish, but these Acorn threads are turning into the sort of arguments that I used to have in playgrounds about 20 years ago. So I thought I would inject a bit of humour into them...

[sjstimer]

[quote="Darran@Retro Gamer
I'm more than happy to print Acorn features in the mag,...[/quote]


Again your missing the point. Im not asking for more coverage im just asking for fair coverage which means fair coverage in the charts etc.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

I do understand, but you're effectively asking us to change the magazine on your whim, because you feel cheated that your favourite machine isn't justifiably covered.

Now how is that fair?

So what happens when the Vic 20, NES, Atari ST, Master System, Lynx, Game Boy, MSXand ZX81 owners start asking for charts, are we suppossed to put all those in as well?

[chinnyhill10]

I once attached a BBC B to my house to control the curtains opening/closing and the lights on or off, try doing that with a amstrad cpc.

You need help man.

[Randall Flagg]

I once attached a BBC B to my house to control the curtains opening/closing and the lights on or off, try doing that with a amstrad cpc.

You need help man.

LOL

Did you like sleep with it and do erotic things with it too man??

[chinnyhill10]

I do understand, but you're effectively asking us to change the magazine on your whim, because you feel cheated that your favourite machine isn't justifiably covered.

Now how is that fair?

So what happens when the Vic 20, NES, Atari ST, Master System, Lynx, Game Boy, MSXand ZX81 owners start asking for charts, are we suppossed to put all those in as well?

As it won't be long in the charts before the ST will start to outsell the Acorn games even if you put in an Acorn chart, there would be a very strong case to have it replaced within a short time. And they will start complaining even more if they have a chart and then it's replaced.

I suggest the Acorn fans go onto Ebay and buy some C+VG's from the mid to late eighties and see just how relevent their machine was. The magazine is called "Retro Gamer"! Go and look at the leading industry multiformat games publication of the day and see how much coverage the BBC actually gets post '85 with the home computer boom in full swing!

And yes this is like a playground debate. The only difference is that the Acorn fan would have have now been beaten up and dumped in a skip by everyone else who owned one of the big three (who would have then turned on each other).

Finally, I would like to see a feature on Superior Software. Not because of their BBC connection but because they survived for so long. Was it a one man and his dog operation or did they have offices like Ocean/etc?

[Randall Flagg]

I do understand, but you're effectively asking us to change the magazine on your whim, because you feel cheated that your favourite machine isn't justifiably covered.

Now how is that fair?

So what happens when the Vic 20, NES, Atari ST, Master System, Lynx, Game Boy, MSXand ZX81 owners start asking for charts, are we suppossed to put all those in as well?

As it won't be long in the charts before the ST will start to outsell the Acorn games even if you put in an Acorn chart, there would be a very strong case to have it replaced within a short time. And they will start complaining even more if they have a chart and then it's replaced.

I suggest the Acorn fans go onto Ebay and buy some C+VG's from the mid to late eighties and see just how relevent their machine was. The magazine is called "Retro Gamer"! Go and look at the leading industry multiformat games publication of the day and see how much coverage the BBC actually gets post '85 with the home computer boom in full swing!

And yes this is like a playground debate. The only difference is that the Acorn fan would have have now been beaten up and dumped in a skip by everyone else who owned one of the big three (who would have then turned on each other).

Finally, I would like to see a feature on Superior Software. Not because of their BBC connection but because they survived for so long. Was it a one man and his dog operation or did they have offices like Ocean/etc?

Amstrads smell.....Just like amstrad owners

[revgiblet]

Why are there about 3 threads about how RG is biased against Acorn all on the go at the same time? Right. I'm going to start a new thread...

[LeeT]

I want a Vic20 on the cover!

[CraigGrannell]

So what happens when the Vic 20, NES, Atari ST, Master System, Lynx, Game Boy, MSXand ZX81 owners start asking for charts, are we suppossed to put all those in as well?

I presume the charts will change anyway, as the series moves on through the years? If you end up talking about 1993, there wouldn't, for instance, be any point in 8-bit charts, seeing as relatively few sales occurred then.