TZUTC: 0100   
   MSGID: 798.fidonet_classicc@2:250/3 2c580b30   
   REPLY: 1:18/200@fidonet 67f1cfd5   
   PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Linux master/54ae4f9ad Apr 01 2025 GCC 8.5.0   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.24-Linux master/54ae4f9ad Apr 01 2025 GCC 8.5.0   
   COLS: 80   
   BBSID: MAGNUMUK   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   NOTE: FSEditor.js v1.105   
     Re: age required for classic   
     By: Sean Dennis to Bob Worm on Sat Apr 05 2025 20:42:17   
      
   Hi, Sean.   
      
    > I enjoy reading about the variety of systems people still use today.   
      
   Oh, I could bore you for hours about my Acorn :)   
      
   Barely anyone knows about the Acorn Archimedes systems, even in the UK where   
   Acorn is from and where most of the systems were sold. Mine is the A3020,   
   which is a wedge style system from '92 (ish) which has a few claims to fame:   
      
   1) The Archimedes line were the first systems to use ARM processors - yes,   
   *that* ARM, but it stood for "Acorn RISC Machine" before the processor arm was   
   spun off on its own.   
      
   2) Apparently the A3010 / 3020 systems used the first "system on chip", which   
   is everywhere these days.   
      
   3)  For these reasons the Archimedes systems are often considered the grandad   
   of the Raspberry Pi (although the A / B / B+ naming convention of the Pi calls   
   back to the BBC micro which Acorn made before the Archimedes).   
      
   I love this thing - I had no involvement with this type of computer when they   
   were current and only really discovered what it was like to use about 2 years   
   ago when I finally got around to powering on this one, which I saved from a   
   skip 20 years ago.   
      
   The RiscOS windowing system boots from ROM in about 5 seconds and is full of   
   quirky stuff like a button to send the current window to the back. Windows   
   move with the contents visible (not like the contemporary Win 3.1). If you   
   drag windows with the left mouse they come to the top, if you drag with the   
   right they stay behind whatever they're behind. RAM disc (yes, with a "c" for   
   Acorn), text editor, bitmap and vector graphics editors plus BASIC all on the   
   ROM... 800x600x16 top res or 640x480x256. Weird file system with file type   
   attributes rather than extensions.   
      
   I wrote my own terminal for it (Worminal, of course) since I couldn't find one   
   that does CP437 / ANSI properly. I used a ROM dump from a VGA card to get the   
   font 100% accurate, which would really upset the Acorn people because they   
   love their (IMHO rather ugly) compact font. It's almost entirely in ARM   
   assembler, which is *lovely* and you can assemble it straight from the built   
   in BASIC. It's now my daily driver for BBSing.   
      
   BobW   
   --- SBBSecho 3.24-Linux   
    * Origin: >>> Magnum BBS <<< - magnumbbs.net (2:250/3)   
   SEEN-BY: 1/120 18/0 200 25/0 21 104/119 105/81 106/201 116/116 120/616   
   SEEN-BY: 123/0 25 126 180 525 755 3001 3002 128/187 129/305 135/115   
   SEEN-BY: 153/7715 154/10 50 110 218/700 220/6 10 20 90 221/6 222/2   
   SEEN-BY: 226/18 30 44 227/114 229/110 111 114 206 275 300 307 310   
   SEEN-BY: 229/317 400 426 428 470 664 700 705 240/1120 250/0 1 2 3   
   SEEN-BY: 250/4 5 7 8 11 13 14 15 16 266/512 275/1000 280/464 291/111   
   SEEN-BY: 292/854 301/1 320/219 322/757 342/200 396/45 460/58 633/280   
   SEEN-BY: 712/848 1321 902/26 2320/105 3634/0 12 24 27 56 57 58 60   
   SEEN-BY: 3634/119 5075/35   
   PATH: 250/3 1 3634/12 154/10 229/426