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 Classic online games arcade games games online pac man acorn atom like just the ZX80 and ZX81 it was sold in kit form or as a ready-assembled computer. Buying it in kit form was of course, the cheaper option.Let’s have a look at a classic 8-bit home computer from the early days…Competing in the marketplaceThe great advantage of the Atom compared to its competitors (The Tandy TRS-80 and the Commodore PET), was its high resolution display capabilities (256 x 192 was achievable) which was quite unusual way back in the era of physcadelic shirts, hanglider collars and Ford Cortina’s. Yep, the Atom was given to us way back in 1979.

The price was nice too, in?kit form it would cost you ￡120 and a ready assembled computer would set you back?￡170.The built in BASIC did have some limitations, such as only being able to use integer variables. An optional 4K ROM could be added to the machine and gave the programmer the ability to use floating point numbers, trigonometric functions to convert degrees/radians and also to draw graphics in color. Nice.Being able to see graphics in colour in 1979 was something rather special it must be said. More add-ons were also available to enable autonumbering, a faster cassette interface (running at an incredible 1200 bauds), and functions such as INKEY$, MID$, READ, DATA, FILL and so on. There was even a BBC BASIC board available.Speed, as of other machines during the era was pretty standard at 1Mhz, courtesy of a 6502 processing unit.The Acorn AtomI must have laid the template for the looks of future Acorn machinesUtilitiesA lot of applications were available on sideways ROMs that plugged into the?utility ROM socket.

Applications such as the “Atom Word Pack ROM”?could be used for word processing or Atom-Calc, which was a 4K ROM spreadsheet could be used via the ROM socket.A colour card could be connected to the BUS connector, to give the system eight colors, 4 simultaneously at the 64 x 192 resolution or 2 at 128 x 192 for example. The sound generator was a simple beeper, similar to the beeper that would be installed inside the ZX Spectrum a couple of years down the line. Still, any sound on a home micro at this point in time was a?real nicety.It was possible to expand the sound generated by directly accessing the sound I/O port and manipulating it at a certain frequency, real geeky stuff!The machine itself does resemble it’s later offerings (such as the BBC Micro) in appearance, using a similar colour scheme and style.

None of them ever stood out to the eye when sitting on the shelf. What was packed away inside really counted.A Brochure For The AtomChoose the power of the mighty atomPeripheralsA lot of other peripherals were available for the machine including:A 5.25 inch floppy disk drive which was capable of storing 100K of data. This held the DOS in a 3K ROM but actually cost about twice as much as a new Atom. Did they use an integer based program to work out the price? A digital-tape recorder, yes you read that correctly, a DIGITAL TAPE RECORDER!A printer interface. A network card known as the ‘EcoNet’ which could enable the linking of up to 250 Atoms running at 210 K/Bauds transfer rate. A solid network without Windows! RAM expansions were also available. The machine was really quite something at that time?with these sort of expansion capabilities.Classic Frogger On The AtomOmega MissionTrap on the Atom (a little bit like Kong)Let’s sum this baby up…Whilst this computer was never a classic games machine, it really got the company moving.

Acorn would go on to be a household name in the UK.In many ways the Atom was ahead of it’s time, and it did have versions of classics like Space Invaders, Scramble, Pac Man and Frogger for the gamer.Those guys at Acorn were really ahead of their time in many ways eh?Useful Retro LinksAcorn ElectronThe Acorn Electron was an 8-bit MicroAmiga CD 32The Amiga CD32 was nearly great. Nearly.Amiga GamesThe best in 16-bitsAmstrad CPC 464During the 1980′s entrepeneur Alan Sugar made a foray into the home computer market…AsteroidsA bona fide classicAstro BlasterAstro Blaster was a table top arcade gameAstro WarsAstro Wars was an electronic arcade gameAtari ST

The Atari ST was a fine 16-bit computerAwesome GraphicsSome awesome graphics were created on many retro computersAY MusicDuring the 1980′s a lot of the 8-Bit micros available used the AY3-8912 sound chipBBC MicroThe BBC, known as the BBC microBest PC GamesPC Gaming – some of the bestBudget GamesGaming on a budgetChronos CheatsHave a laugh with Chronos!Commodore 16A strange choice from CommodoreCommodore 64The Commodore 64 was the flagship of Commodores 8-bit fleetCommodore 128The last of Commodore’s 8-bit machinesCommodore AmigaWe love the Commodore Amiga!!Crash MagazineThe glory years were never betteredCurrah MicrospeechHooray for Currah!

They made plenty of useful gadgets…FroggerFrogger is an arcade game which was released back in 1981. It was ported to loads of home computers including the AtomFunny GamesChuckle-fest of gaming treatsGames OnlineGames Online – one of the phenomenons of the modern internetGround ZeroQuality text adventuring. It’s a bit grim though.Miniclip GamesBrowser based arcade gamingMissile Command GamesMissile Command (along with Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Asteroids) must be one of the most well know arcade games of all timeOcean SoftwareOcean Software was one of the biggest developers of arcade games within Europe…Oric 1The Oric 1 was a British computerOric Atmos

The Oric Atmos was a British computerPacman GameFor those retro gaming fans among us, who can forget the year of 1980 when Pac-man first appeared in the amusement arcades?Retro Arcade GamesArcadey retro-nessRetro ComputersLots of retro stuff in hereScramble GamesScramble must be one of the most famous arcade shoot em ups everSpace InvadersSpace Invaders, an all time classic that really launched the genre of the shoot em up arcade gameSpectrum emulatorEmulate the Speccy!Star Wars Computer GamesThere were a number of official (and unofficial) Star Wars Computer GamesTomy Sky AttackTomy Sky Attack was 3D jaw droppingVectrexRetro Gaming Heaven!VIC 20The Commodore VIC-20ZX80The Sinclair ZX80ZX81The Sinclair ZX81ZZAP 64ZZAP was pure excellence for the C64 crowdZX Spectrum Games