Three unopened educational games for the BBC Microcomputer Model B

Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major software publisher for the BBC Microcomputer as part of the government supported BBC Computer Literacy Project. As well as games (arcade, text adventure and board games), they also produced many educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages.

Between 1981 and 1994, around 80% of British schools had a BBC Microcomputer, and games like these introduced a generation of schoolchildren to computers and the creativity of programming.

‘Sentence Sequencing’ presents a series of jumbled sentences which must be rearranged to form a nursery rhyme or a logical sequence of sentences. This game came with teachers’ notes which give the user control over the length of time that a child works and could store the results of up to 20 children. This game was designed in collaboration with Russel Wills, a lecturer in computer education in Dundee and Ann Wills a primary school Head Teacher.

This game was donated by John Harrison, who ran the merchandising department of BBC Enterprises which licensed Acorn computers to make the BBC Microcomputer.

Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major software publisher for the BBC Microcomputer as part of the government supported BBC Computer Literacy Project. As well as games (arcade, text adventure and board games), they also produced many educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages.

Between 1981 and 1994, around 80% of British schools had a BBC Microcomputer, and games like these introduced a generation of schoolchildren to computers and the creativity of programming.

'Sphinx Adventure' is an example of Acornsoft’s Text Adventure games. The player moves through caves, fights with trolls and then return with the treasure to the Sphinx to collect your reward. With no save or restore option, Sphinx Adventure frustrating to play according to online reviews.

This game was donated by John Harrison, who ran the merchandising department of BBC Enterprises which licensed Acorn computers to make the BBC Microcomputer.

Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major software publisher for the BBC Microcomputer as part of the government supported BBC Computer Literacy Project. As well as games (arcade, text adventure and board games), they also produced many educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages.

Between 1981 and 1994, around 80% of British schools had a BBC Microcomputer, and games like these introduced a generation of schoolchildren to computers and the creativity of programming.

'The Tree of Knowledge' is an interactive programme which teaches categorisation. The student first educates the computer about a particular group of objects – for example, plants or birds. The database, or ‘tree’, created in this way is then used to play guessing games in which the student thinks of an object and the computer works out what it is. Databases are saved and loaded from within the programme and two sample databases are supplied on the cassette (fruit and vehicles). The game is designed to introduce children to using computers for the storage of information and its retrieval.

This game was donated by John Harrison, who ran the merchandising department of BBC Enterprises which licensed Acorn computers to make the BBC Microcomputer.