This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Acorn Computer  ATOM pong. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

Owner of two Acorn Atoms one of which is for sale on Ebay at this moment.

I have found a Emulator of Acorn Atom, and printed out an manual to. So it''s gone be nice Basic programming.

I like to program Basic, but I''ll need manuals so I know how the Basic language work out. And what I can see so was Acorn Atom a good computer, the Basic is easy to understand.

"A lot of applications were available on sideways ROMs that plugged into the "utility ROM socket" as Acorn called it"

The ROM sockets were continuous with the address space of the 6502, so did not need page switching. The Atom supported additional ROMs but they were not ''sideways'' ROMs.

I built an Atom from a kit. When I switched it on I had five pictures. This was caused by dry joints in the memory. If a pin was open it was read as a one. I wrote a program to find all the dry joints and gradually I got them all fixed.

I still have my Atom although some of the keys are missing. I am wondering about getting it going again.

I built my own Atom in 1979/1980. The hardest part was getting the springy key connectors through the holes in the pcb$ they kept jumping out and it took hours. The Atom was my first computer and I used it a lot while I was studying for my Electronics degree. I even used it to drive a speech synthesiser chip for my final year project. It still works!

I had a kit one that my older cousin assembled for me, although after a while it stopped working so had to send to Acorn for fixing.
The Atom was a great little machine for the day and I cut my coding teeth on it, I must have had it for a couple of years before I could afford to buy a Beeb which was in a different league.
After 30 yrs of programming its surprising how things haven''t really changed that much since those days on my Atom programming in BASIC and 8 bit assembler.

I had a factory built machine but a bog standard one. This came with 2K RAM. I upgraded it by buying a bag of chips which plugged into sockets pre-soldered on the board This took it up to 20K.

The first one I had didn''t last long. Around the end of 1981 they converted from an external PSU to an internal one. My system came with just a length of wire that fitted in the power input socket on the back. We put a 13A plug on it and plugged it into the mains. There was a big blue flash and a bang. No more main board. My system should have had the external PSU but was supplied with just the mains cable.... they replaced it under warranty but it put a damper on Christmas Day!

I kept games and programs on a reel to reel tape deck but eventually kileld the Atom by turning the output level on the tape too high.

Best game was Galaxian! Just like the original including sounds but in mono and not colour.

Atom is advanced for its time look @ the 3D Plot

I remember building an Acorn Atom fromkit with my father (I mostly watched) I remember having to cut a yogurt container to hold the little speaker!

He modded this a lot with many, many extra roms and an analog and digital joystick and a cotroller like a R/C car controller. 5 1/4 hard drive and more memory if I remember correctly.

My favorite game on it was a car driving game, where your car was a line along the bottom of the screen (the hood/bonnet) and the road was just made up of little white dots that marked the side of the road. And lets not forget the lines and lines of basic code you could type in to get the magic carpet game working!