Last Updated 5th May 2019
The BBC Games Archive - digital memories
Acornsoft
Probably the original BBC Software company, this was a software arm of Acorn itself. In my mind, and many others, it is recognised as one of the best. It was particularly good at converting the arcade games of the time (Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc) and it also did a few text adventures which were also good. It is probably best known for the discovery of Elite, and Revs, Geoff Crammonds' first in a long line of succesful racing games.
Superior Software eventually came in and bought the whole of Acornsoft's back catalogue in 1986 and from then on some of the games were re-released on the Play It Again Sam, and Acornsoft Hits collections. After five years in the ring it was still the unbeaten champion, and you can imagine why, Acorn had all the knowledge about the beeb, everything which it was capable of, and how to do it in the best way possible, which is why most of their games are extremely well programmed.
Acornsoft also produced a lot of software on ROM, not to mention business and educational packages.
Please contact me if you have any additional information about the company or its games!
Chess
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
This one is a pretty good player. It is played in low resolution mode, but hey, it's chess and doesn't need those kind of fancy add-ons such as good graphics and sound. Of course it doesn't match up to later efforts by other companies, but was released right at the dawn of the Beeb.
Countdown To Doom
Released:
Author: Peter Killworth
Play
You play the part of a spacemen who just crash landed on a planet called Doomerangwa (Doom for short) this is another of the Acornsoft Text Adventures, pretty good by my reckoning. It is only a two verb parser, but has considerable text detail and a good plot. Written by Peter Killworth.
Crazy Balloon
Released: 1983
Author: Unknown
Play
Very basic looking game in which you have to return a balloon to its owner, you are the balloon and you have to move around the maze. Its a good game which never actually got released by Acornsoft, it wasn't as polished in the graphics department as most of their output, which could be one of the reasons.
Crazy Tracer
Released: 1983
Author: Unknown
Play
Otherwise known as Crazy Painter by Superior Software. This was an earlier version, but basically the same thing. You have to paint around the edges of boxes, without being killed by the baddies, to entice you to live dangerously, the boxes with the most baddies nearby have bonus points to be gained, if you can outwit them. The graphics are great, and the sound is cool as well, a good version of a well tested game.
Cube Master
Released: 1982
Author: Unknown
Play
A rubiks cube simulator, what more can I say? I really can't see the point of this. Get all the coloured squares together on each face, and then you win. Hardly fun considering that the whole point of the cube itself was that you had to have quick hand movements to complete the thing (if you could) quickly.
Draughts & Reversi
Released:
Author: Unknown
Download
Play
Draughts for the beeb, plays a mean game, the little machine certainly has very good AI on this one. The graphics are really appaling though, again it was a very early release. Also included the old game of reversi, I still don't know the rules to this day, so I can't really explain them. You have to jump over the opponents counters, and the one with the least at the end of the game loses. If someone knows the rules, can they please mail me!
Drogna
Released: 1984
Author: Unknown
Play
A very strange game, my copy has no instructions, so I'm just going on what I've picked up from playing it for a few minutes. It seems to be a two player game, with the objective being to get from one side of the screen to the other by moving on strange shapes, somehow the connect to one another, and you have to make the connections, if you make a wrong jump, the turn passes to the other player. It has good graphics and sound (for the year it was made, 1983) but it is very strange! I have since been told, it was a conversion of a BBC Television series called 'The Adventure Game' in which contestants had to move across a floor, working out how they could - weird!
Elite
Released: 1984
Author: Ian Bell
Play
The all time classic space-trading game. This was the original released version, and came on Tape, or Disk, the difference was that one had the two missions to play. This first version has a number of small bugs in it, but they weren't really noticeable. You should buy this if you can, and play it on the original machine. An electron version was realeased, but obviously it wasn't as good, the machine being as slow as it was. Even the Beeb has trouble keeping up with the wireframe 3d used to power it, it goes terribly slow when you get a lot of ships on screen. Nothing really attracts from the excellent game play though. Certainly better than the two sequels, Elite II and First Encounters on the PC!
Elite - Master Edition
Released: 1986
Author: Ian Bell
Play
The original game, but with added features to make the most of the Masters 128k, it loaded all in one go, because of the extra RAM. Also the game was in Mode 1/2 instead of 4&5, so had coloured wireframes for the different types of craft. The sound effects (so I am told) were not as good as the original.
Firebug
Released: 1984
Author: Unknown
Play
A really original game, this one puts you in the character of a Fireman, putting out little fires on the different platforms, whilst dodging the baddies. Highly original gameplay and great for a quick burst everyday. One of my favourites, although I can't seem to find it anymore!
News
