Micro Men

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Anyone else see Micro Men on BBC4 last night? Fantastic stuff.
Clive sinclair was always portrayed as your genial Uncle Clive. I thought Armstrong had him off to a tee, and seeing a darker side of what probably was closer to the truth is good.

[Mike J]

Seeing all the old games made me want to find my Spectrum and play them, mind you you can get an emulator now 

[Kim]

Hilariously silly.

Who else here has eaten takeaway with a screwdriver?

[andygates]

No but I've held stuff in place on a solder board with a spork. 

That was great!  I was having a near-teary retrogasm the whole way through.

[thing1]

Recorded it (on MythTV) and watched later.

Brilliant. Some ridiculous bits, but some gems too.
Several claims in there I had completely forgotten since the time, such as Spectrum being MIDI compatible and QL being "16/32" bit CPU. But the one about  BBC B costing £1800 had me stumped. eh?
Loved the whiteboard in the background in the Acorn office outlining the ARM RISC processor vs. BBC Master project, and outlining how "conditional execution" was top of the key feature for ARM. Seems improbable, but still nice effort.

[Cunobelin]

I was brought up in Sinclair Country, and lived in St Iveswhere the original company was based, we also had Texas electronics locally as well.

Once spent an evening in a pub with Clive Sinclair and he was a much nicer chap than portrayed here!

[simonp]

Recorded it (on MythTV) and watched later.

Brilliant. Some ridiculous bits, but some gems too.
Several claims in there I had completely forgotten since the time, such as Spectrum being MIDI compatible and QL being "16/32" bit CPU. But the one about  BBC B costing £1800 had me stumped. eh?
Loved the whiteboard in the background in the Acorn office outlining the ARM RISC processor vs. BBC Master project, and outlining how "conditional execution" was top of the key feature for ARM. Seems improbable, but still nice effort.

As I work with one of the people who designed it, maybe I should ask about historical accuracy?

[Cunobelin]

Recorded it (on MythTV) and watched later.

Brilliant. Some ridiculous bits, but some gems too.
Several claims in there I had completely forgotten since the time, such as Spectrum being MIDI compatible and QL being "16/32" bit CPU. But the one about  BBC B costing £1800 had me stumped. eh?
Loved the whiteboard in the background in the Acorn office outlining the ARM RISC processor vs. BBC Master project, and outlining how "conditional execution" was top of the key feature for ARM. Seems improbable, but still nice effort.

Wait until the US version comes out and we find that both companoes were in fact fronts for Bill Gates

As I work with one of the people who designed it, maybe I should ask about historical accuracy?

[tonycollinet]

Thoroughly enjoyed regardless of extent of historical accuracy. All those computer manufacturers. (Newbrain!!!)

What went wrong?

I was tidying the garage yesterday, and went in the garage loft. Looked around, and there was my spectrum strapped to the board I put it on, along with microdrive, and 32 column thermal printer (what was I thinking)

Shall I get it down, I wonder.

[Really Ancien]

Thoroughly enjoyed regardless of extent of historical accuracy. All those computer manufacturers. (Newbrain!!!)

What went wrong?

I went to a lecture about the motorcycle industry in the 1920s and 30s once. The conclusion was that it was a combination of poor quality control and inept accounting that saw off most of the pioneer companies. The long term trend is for the domination of the local market by 2 or 3 players and then for a few major companies to dominate globally.
The interesting thing here is that the programme itself is an example of what Britain does best. An entertaining and educational programme carried off with a light touch. I don't see how we can support the whole country on this sort of thing though.

Damon.

[Quisling]

A most enjoyable programme.  Did anyone see the Electric Dreams programme before - about the family re-living the 1970's.  That brought back some memories, and I have greater respect for my late mum now.