Early Years and the 6502
As a teenager I developed a strong interest in computing. I badgered my late father to buy me the Acorn Atom – the predecessor of the BBC micro. That was a major expense for him at the time and led to some significant sacrifices for him – something I absolutely did not fully appreciate at the the time and something for which I will be eternally grateful. I remember him spending all day on the bus to Cambridge and back just to get me some additional memory chips to expand the Acorn Atom. It’s been nearly 25 years since he died – still seems like yesterday. RIP Dad.
The Acorn Atom was a decent machine but not without it’s faults. It had a tendency to overheat – something that I solved through the judicious placement of ice cold cans of Coke above the heatsink. I taught myself a variety of programming languages on the Atom: Basic, Forth and 6502 assembler to name but a few.