''The Micro User'' (titled ''BBC Micro User'' in the first three issues) was a British specialist magazine catering to users of the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an empha ...

computer series,

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a p ...

Acorn Archimedes Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems are based on Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and the proprietary operating systems Arthur and RISC OS. The first models ...

and, to a limited extent, the

Cambridge Z88 The Cambridge Computer Z88 is a Zilog Z80-based portable computer released in 1987 by Cambridge Computer, the company formed for such purpose by Clive Sinclair. It was approximately A4 paper sized and lightweight at , running on four AA batter ...

. It had a comprehensive mix of reviews of games, application software, and the latest

Acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera '' Quercus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and bo ...

computers;

type-in program A type-in program or type-in listing was computer source code printed in a home computer magazine or book. It was meant to be entered via the Keyboard (computing), keyboard by the reader and then saved to Compact Cassette (data), cassette tape or ...

s (duplicated on a " cover disk" which was available separately), a correspondence page offering help with computer problems, and approachable technical articles on programming and the BBC Micro's internals. The magazine hosted the long-running ''Body Building'' series by Mike Cook, in which each article introduced a small

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

project that could be built and connected to one of the BBC Micro's I/O ports. The project could be ordered in kit form or fully assembled, or the reader could source the parts and design as the articles contained a

circuit diagram A circuit diagram (wiring diagram, electrical diagram, elementary diagram, electronic schematic) is a graphical representation of an electrical circuit. A pictorial circuit diagram uses simple images of components, while a schematic diagram ...

. There were regular columns on adventure gaming from two successive contributors under the pseudonyms ''"

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

through the VDU"'' and ''"The

Mad Hatter The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel '' Through the Looking-Glass''. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Ca ...

"''. They reviewed the latest adventure releases for Acorn computers, offered hints to some games and scattered mathematical and logical puzzles in their articles. Another regular columnist, using the pen-name of ''"Hac-Man"'' (in reference to ''

Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game, maze action game, action video game developed and released by Namco for Arcade game, arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its l ...

'') set out cheats and compatibility fixes for popular arcade-style games, in the form of pokes or short type-in programs.

Watford Electronics Watford Electronics was a British computer electronics company. It was founded in 1972 in a bedroom belonging to brothers Nazir and Raza Jessa, and grew to become one of the best-known suppliers of microcomputers and micro peripherals during the 19 ...

and Technomatic were prominent advertisers, taking out multi-page spreads in every issue in the mid 1980s. From October 1983 the magazine carried the first four issues of ''

Electron User ''Electron User'' was a magazine targeted at owners of the Acorn Electron microcomputer. It was published by Database Publications of Stockport, starting in October 1983 and ending after 82 issues in July 1990. Initially it was included as a 1 ...

'' as a pull-out; this then split off into an independent publication.

Acorn Computing

With the October 1992 issue, the magazine was renamed ''Acorn Computing''. Each issue now came with a cover disc for user on RISC OS computers.Acorn Computing, October 1992, pg. 15

References

External links

Unofficial archive of The Micro User magazineThe Micro User Magazine @ Acorn Preservation Dot OrgThe Micro User Magazine @ The Centre for Computing History
Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1983 Magazines disestablished in 1992 Magazines published in Manchester {{UK-sci-mag-stub

Acorn Computing

See also

References

External links