Retro price-check - BBC Micro B+

[jim]

So, my grandfather has given me his old PC to sell, and, erm, it's pretty old.

I have the PC, loads of documentation (inc. manual dated Sept 1985), dual floppy drive, monitor (capable of displaying both colours), and a dot-matrix printer. It also includes a copy of Mini Office II, which was voted business program of the year in '85 and '86.

It was in regular use until 5-6 years ago, when he upgraded to a laptop with Vista (yes, really). And I have absolutely no idea how much it might be worth. But given how careful my grandfather is with things, I'm confident it's in good condition.

PS. Unfortunately, no, it does not play Crysis.

[herulach]

I can't help with the price, but goddamn they built stuff to last then. where is he even getting a supply of floppies from?

[DanceswithUnix]

PS. Unfortunately, no, it does not play Crysis.

But it can play Elite, very topical

[jim]

I can't help with the price, but goddamn they built stuff to last then. where is he even getting a supply of floppies from?

I have no idea! There are 10 blank "Tandy" branded disks, but looking on their website they don't seem to make them any more. Managed with an original cupboard full maybe?

[jim]

But it can play Elite, very topical

Haha, hadn't thought of that. I did use it to play this game, called Barrage:



Can't remember the names of any of the others unfortunately.

[scaryjim]

It almost certainly can play Elite - I suggest going to Ian Bell's Elite Pages to get your Elite disk image directly from one of the original authors

Can't find any for sale to get an idea on price; but I'd imagine that in the right forum it could go for quite a lot if it's in good nick. Ferral's probably the best person to check with tbh - might be worth dropping him a PM. And assuming it's the granddad I've met once, I'll have an ask around a few mates up this end of the country to see if they know any collectors/enthusiasts who might be interested....

[Jonj1611]

Theres quite a few on ebay mate, price varies from £45 up

[jim]

It almost certainly can play Elite - I suggest going to Ian Bell's Elite Pages to get your Elite disk image directly from one of the original authors

Unfortunately I don't really have the time right now - but it did occur to me that I wouldn't have the first clue about how to actually move something from the internet to the BBC! I don't even know what the closest common medium would be... I only recall cassette tapes and 5.25" floppies being used with it and not sure I can get either of those working on my W8 machine!

Can't find any for sale to get an idea on price; but I'd imagine that in the right forum it could go for quite a lot if it's in good nick. Ferral's probably the best person to check with tbh - might be worth dropping him a PM. And assuming it's the granddad I've met once, I'll have an ask around a few mates up this end of the country to see if they know any collectors/enthusiasts who might be interested....

Cheers, I'd appreciate that. That's the issue with this - I don't just want to whack it up on eBay and see what happens, would prefer to sell it on to an identifiable collector / enthusiast. The kit is actually with me down in London at the moment, but if someone was prepared to wait a bit I could easily get it up to Manchester - especially with Christmas coming up.

Theres quite a few on ebay mate, price varies from £45 up

Yeah I had a look and saw a few, but it's hard from my angle to tell what's equivalent and what's not. Scary how you go back a bit and half the computing stuff is gobbledegook.

[RobbieRoy]

The Science Museum might be interested as finding old consumer tech in good condition for archive, display or research is difficult - and for future generations it will be 'interesting', to say the least!

[Ferral]

An old BBC Model B, very cool indeed!!

For a setup that has dual disk drive, printer and screen I would say reasonably priced at around the £80 - £120 mark delivered, for that though it would need to be fully working and looking good so a decent clean before taking pics.

I would personally get it connected up and try it out though, make sure it is still working fine, should be if it has been stored properly.

What else is with it, people usually want stuff like this for the classic games now, is there a tape deck with it as you will remember most software was distributed on cassette back in the 80's.

If you try to sell it and no one takes it I would give it a good home for price of delivery via courier, I can't buy anymore systems though my wife has said!! However, I can take systems that are heading to a tip to rescue them she has said!



EDIT : You also need to find out which model it is, there are 2 B+ machines, one with 64k ram and the other with 128k, to find this out you need to fire it up and it tells you on the screen at the top.

[jim]

An old BBC Model B, very cool indeed!!

For a setup that has dual disk drive, printer and screen I would say reasonably priced at around the £80 - £120 mark delivered, for that though it would need to be fully working and looking good so a decent clean before taking pics.

I would personally get it connected up and try it out though, make sure it is still working fine, should be if it has been stored properly.

What else is with it, people usually want stuff like this for the classic games now, is there a tape deck with it as you will remember most software was distributed on cassette back in the 80's.

If you try to sell it and no one takes it I would give it a good home for price of delivery via courier, I can't buy anymore systems though my wife has said!! However, I can take systems that are heading to a tip to rescue them she has said!



EDIT : You also need to find out which model it is, there are 2 B+ machines, one with 64k ram and the other with 128k, to find this out you need to fire it up and it tells you on the screen at the top.

Cheers for the input Ferral

Yeah, I used to load games up on the tape deck but that hasn't been included. I'll maybe give him a call and see what happened to that.

I have the manual, which says it's 128K.

[jim]

It was actually surprisingly easy to get started, though I'm not immediately sure how the disk drive plugs in.

On the plus side, I did have an idea on some code I could try.

[Ferral]

If you lift up the underside of the machine all your IO ports are there, it may need a power lead also!

[Jonj1611]

Man, I forgot when drives were that big!

[abaxas]

10 PRINT "Mr Dent is a Bellend"
20 GOTO 10

[DavidM]

Yes, seem to remember the Shugart drives went underneath the Beeb, in one of the multitude of ports there.

That's a pretty well looked after machine you have there. Hope it goes to a good home!

(I seem to remember Frak being a rather good game as well.. not forgetting Crystal Castles?)