MOST RECENT NEWS AT TOP
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4th September 2004: Quite a large update again today.
Another Acornsoft game cover scan and description has been added to the Software page in the guise of SNOOKER.
I have scanned quite a few Acorn Product Brochures, namely those that come in an envelope with a new BBC Microcomputer. Also a few electron brochures that I had lying around. These can all be found in the new Acorn Brochures section.
I have also added three applications products to the 32bit Acorn Applications Software section.
Something that I forgot to include in the new designed front end of this site was a Contact Me link. That could be the reason why I havn't been answering ten to fifteen queries each week like I used to.
My switch to RISC OS as a primary OS has been a real joy. I have found the the GUI is an absolute dream, and organising files is so much easier than on a Windows box.
The layout of the desktop or the correct RISC OS term, Pinboard, is far more advanced and I find I can use the machine for longer periods of time without getting eye-strain. This due to the better quality of fonts on RISC OS. And for reference, i am comparing like for like here, as I am running 1024x768 exactly as I did on my Windows machine.
My new UniPod upgrade has performed flawlessly, the IDE speed is a real improvement, the Network setup was far easier than when i set up my Windows machines, and in no-time I was sharing files between this RISC PC and my A7000+.
The USB Scanner and Dave Pillings scanning software is also working out well and responsible for the new scans, namely the brochure scans on this update.
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8th August 2004: Another large update to the site today, including images of my UniPod Package upgrade, a modification to my ViewFinder Card, extra images added to the A3xx Spec's page and A3000's Spec's page.
The Acornsoft Software Titles section makes a return, with cover scans and descriptions of the Acorn branded software that I own.
Also a general tidy of several pages ie page formatting and other small improvements.
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24th July 2004: Today see's a massive re-organisation of the site. A whole new (and hopefully working) front end, which should make it easier to navigate, also make jumping from one section or item to another just a single mouse-click away rather than negotiating several menu levels.
The site has now been transferred to my RISC-PC (local backup) and all existing HTML pages from the old design site have been re-done. This to remove all the excess code that some HTML WYSIWYG software sticks everywhere. So the code should now be relatively clean.
Most of the images on the site were to large, ie I have now made all images a maximum of 750 pixels wide to suit the new layout. Consequently some images have lost a lot of quality, as they have been resized a few times over the sites lifetime. I will be addressing this issue over the coming months and re-scanning the effected images. More importantly I have managed to re-gain approx two thirds of my allocated webspace due to this compression. So I have plenty of space available now for updates and new features.
Finally as previously mentioned, the entire site has now been composed using HTMLEdit Studio Version 5 from R-Comp on my Risc PC. Uploading has been done by the same machine, and initial testing of the pages with WebsterXL. Hopefully any IE and Netscape people should not experience any problems.
Also, my UniPod is now on order from Stewart Tyrell Developments, which will give me fast IDE, USB and Net 100 features, along with my new USB scanner with drivers and scanning software from Dave Pilling. All this will feature in a future update.
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20th June 2004: Quite a large update to the site today. Gone are the Acorn Manuals & Acornsoft Titles sections along with their relevant cover scans. As stated in the last update, I'm down to my last few Mbytes on these accounts.
Updated pages are as follows; About Me, A3000 Spec's page (case design feature). NEW! in the 32bit Upgrades Section for this update are two important upgrades I have just performed on my RISC-PC, they are the RISC OS Adjust 4.39, and ViewFinder Graphics Card Installations.
My next task will be to transfere the "offline" backup of this website across to the RISC-PC for future editing as I have just purchased HTML Edit and SiteMaster from R-Comp.
Future upgrades to this machine will be a CDRW, IDE Podule ( to gain a performance advantage over the onboard IDE interface and allow more reliable CDRW operations ) also the posibility of USB so I can upgrade from my old parallel port scanner. All or which will appear on these pages. I predict a slightly longer time before the next update to this site, due to the switch of platforms ie PeeCee to RISC-OS, so stay tuned, there's much more on the way.
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7th June 2004: Just a brief update on developments here at Classic Acorn. Webspace is becoming a premium, the site is spread across two 25Mb accounts and we are just about on the limit of each. If needed I can claw back a few Mb by dropping the Acorn Software section with all its scans and the Acorn Manuals section. This would be the sensible option as it keeps the site "hardware" based. The next step really would be to get the site hosted by a provider with more options, tho this will cost on a per annum basis. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Also Coming soon! I have just spashed out on RISC-OS Adjust ie the latest version, that I will be fitting to my Risc-PC along with a Viewfinder graphics card, 40Gb Hard disc pulled from my PeeCee, and some decent web design software. So my move to RISC-OS on a permanant basis is getting closer by the day. I will be documenting the upgrade and writing an article on Adjust, for an upcoming update to the site. You never know, I could be doing the next update of this page on a class machine, instead of, as now, using notepad on Windoze 98se.
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30th April 2004: A long overdue update to the site see's the 8 & 32bit OEM sections updated, with the Atom, BBC, and A3010. Also Updated 32bit Spec's page with the A540 and RISC PC StrongARM.
Finally, I have had to drop the section showing the college work I produced using my BBC Master 128 and Wapping Editor. The reason, lack of webspace on my second account. Not to worry, its making room for the 32bit OEM section as it fills up.
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5th March 2004: Quite a few updates today. RISC-OS South West Show report is available from the main page, A section showing the different appearance of the Classic Acorn website using various internet browsing software, A "Silly" page where I have made a lame attempt at some humour, The 32bit Upgrades section has a A310 backplane upgrade. The A3010 Spec's page has another picture of the Mezzanine board.
And finally I have shifted website content around so that the whole site is now running from FreeUK. Total Website size now 44.8Mb
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28th February 2004: I am just back from the RiscOS SouthWest show which was held in the Webbington Hotel, Loxton, North Somerset. Its the first Acorn, or should I say RiscOS show that I have visited and I have to say I was impressed. I will be creating a new page for the site in the upcoming week detailing my views on the show.
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21st February 2004: Two updates in two days! things are picking up. Right, Yesterday I aquired another A3010. This example, tho badly yellowed, was boxed, but in need of several items to bring the box contents back to factory spec. That will come later. So whats all the fuss? well, on stripping the machine for my usual cleanup I noticed a rather strange daughter board attatched to the mainboard. It appears I have got hold of an Issue 1 mainboard with the Mezzanine processor. All detailed in the 32bit Specs page, A3010 section.
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20th February 2004: My A5000 gets a Scanlight 256 Video upgrade, this consists of Podule and Hand Scanner, it can be found in the 32bit Upgrades section. The Scanlight package was kindly donated to me by Chris from www.8BS.Com , Many thanks Chris. Also 3 more pics added to the A4 Spec's page showing the A4 next to its larger brother the A5000. Also 3 images of the finnished machined component of my C&G Part Programming Assignment, this can be found in the College section.
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9th February 2004: A Feedback page has been added to allow visitors to post comment on the Classic Acorn site. All genuine feedback welcome, be it good/bad or even idea's of what "you" the reader would like to see featured.
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1st February 2004: After an adventure into my attic today I uncovered my old NC/CNC college assignments. And what's this got to do with the Classic Acorn website you ask? Well, basically back then my Master 128 was my only computer, and as such was employed for all my college writeups. So, in the new "College" section on the front page you will find two of my assignments in full that were created on my Master using VIEW and Wapping Editor DTP, with a little help from my Hand Scanner and "early" clip-art. For it's time, Wapping Editor was an extremely powerful application, and I used it extensively with great results.
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1st January 2004: The RISC PC 600 Hard Disc restoration has been added to the 32bit Repairs section, also 32bit Upgrades section has a PC-Card upgrade featured. SITE NEWS: 1st January 2004 is Classic Acorn's "unofficial" Birthday!. One year ago today I started laying the foundations for this website, making notes as to content, appearance and future development. Official Birthday will be 8th March 2004, the day when the first content got uploaded and Classic Acorn was born. And some figures for the annoraks, the site in one year has grown to just under 47 Mb in size. Much more to come in 2004, so for now, Happy New Year.
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