Why This Monitor is Seared into your Brain | Nostalgia Nerd

in my last video i featured that staple of 80s schooling the bbc micro a computer so synonymous with education in the uk that the image of it being wheeled into the classroom is seared into the minds of anyone over the age of 35 maybe even younger depending on how underfunded your school was but equally as seared was this the micro vitec cup monitor wherever there was a bbc micro there was a micro vitec cup but it's not like this stream was sold with these computers so the question is why did these two devices become so obsessed with each other to answer this question we'll first have to cover a brief bit of history regarding the bbc micro or bieb as it was affectionately known in 1979 acorn computers limited was formed by ex-sinclair employee chris curry and cambridge fellow hermann hauser with sophie wilson and steve ferber leading the engineering and design duties their first product was the acorn microcomputer this was shortly followed up with a more substantial microcomputer aimed at the home market the acorn atom here we had a moss 6502 powered machine with two kilobytes of ram and four on-screen colors not bad for 1980 but with technology advancing at a lightning pace and the uk computing scene hotting up acorn needed to continually innovate so had begun working on a follow-up machine the proton this is where the uk's national broadcaster the bbc step in you know the story by now the uk government were incredibly keen for the country to be a leader in the world of computing and so had formed the computer literacy project in conjunction with the bbc the only problem was they needed a branded computer to use on the accompanying tv show after speaking to companies like grundy and sinclair it was acorn who were chosen to lead the project mainly because they could offer an incredibly flexible and expandable machine or so they said so they grabbed their proton made some modifications and by the 1st of december 1981 the bbc micro was born you may have noticed 1982 is information technology yeah there's a minister of information technology and the government's even spending a great deal of money on publicizing it but what is information technology all it really means is the world of computers but why they suddenly become so important and what should we as non-computer experts know about them well that's exactly what i should be finding out during this series one thing i know already don't expect the computer evolution to happen tomorrow it's happening now this is the computer program first airing just a month later in january 1982 it was quite a tight timetable it aired during the evening for those at home and was also shown in schools to get everyone on board with this new technology of course taking center stage was the bbc micro with mac teaching chris surl how to program every week this of course provided promotion for the bib and people soon enough started buying them at home but the other arm of this scheme was to get the micros in the vast majority of uk schools through government grants saving half the cost for each school some 80 percent of primary and secondary schools bought at least one micro and suddenly kids and their parents were beginning to learn programming on a daily basis i thought i was going to get it back all muddled up and everything i was afraid to press any of the buttons or something i'm going to get it wrong but it wasn't only the bee but that was center stage because the monitor they're using right there is a micro vitec cub i had to double check that pronunciation with the company because it's often called micro vtec or microvitec but now we're clear let's be clear on the monitor they're using i believe it's an 895 ls the highest resolution version which could be bought with a riser and different case colorings what you and me will probably be more familiar with is the beigeness of the cheaper version the micro vitec 452 and the monitor that most of us associate with the bbc okay so i've explained how the bbc came to be here but why the micro vitec well thankfully some of their story is mapped out in this 1987 book by robert bruce successful small business winners how the winners of the industrial achievement award achieved their goals catchy title but within you'll find the fascinating story of six small businesses which started from virtually nothing and grew into substantial and lucrative enterprises unlike many of the billionaires today who started out with a small million dollar loan from their parents these are real rags to riches stories or maybe garments to riches and the microvitec just so happens to come in at number two originally from spain tony martinez moved to waybridge in the uk in 1950 with a view to studying telecommunications engineering he became a fellow of the institution of electronics and radio engineers and went to work for several companies including marconi radio rentals foreign consumer electronics in bradford and texas instruments where he gained experience in designing coloured television equipment however he became disillusioned with the uk business practice of promoting engineers to management positions effectively wasting their technical skills in 1979 tony left texas instruments and went into partnership with his brother john with a plan to create dedicated computer monitors something that he considered to be sorely lacking in the market at the time and he wasn't wrong there were plenty of televisions and plenty of broadcast monitors but very little suited for higher color resolutions as it would happen thorn consumer electronics were in the process of closing down their operation leaving a pool of incredibly experienced engineers eager for employment and who tony already knew from his time there combined with the enthusiastic help of bradford's economic department this was a perfect match to test their ideas they decided to speak to the government's department of trade and industry who curiously were even more enthusiastic about their plans and according to tony we're really very knowledgeable about the industrial environment in which we're operating with full support in every direction then tony and john quickly secured funding and microvitec was officially registered as a company on the 6th of july 1979. to establish momentum the company initially worked on creating components such as micro power supplies before they could ramp up to manufacturing larger assemblies tony had planned to appeal to the original equipment manufacturer markets and had expected the demand for video techs and view data terminals to require a raft of improved cost-effective displays to adequately display view data graphics and teletext like pages but view data didn't perhaps take off as anticipated and so tony visited various other companies with a view of moving them away from monochrome and green screens into the world of color take-up was cautious and slow but thankfully the craze for space invaders hit arcades and what's more taito was seeking high fidelity 14-inch color screens for a new line of cabinets exactly like micro vitec were offering this created a rapid period of growth with 90 percent of production devoted to these arcade cabinets it only lasted nine months but it created enough funds for further development and so micro vitec began working on a range of expanded displays which was convenient because shortly after the uk government came a knocking and this time even more enthusiastically perhaps explaining their earlier interest the department of industry were now seeking affordable monitors for their micros in schools campaign part of the computer literacy project they were seeking color monitors compatible with their new bbc micro which above all were robust and in tony's words they wanted something that looked like a piece of equipment which children would respect i can never respect the television receiver in that way our product was much better in quality reproduction and yet not expensive it's very rugged and made of metal because it had to be fireproof it just happened to be ideal for the classroom so then these things had to survive 80s school life and therefore put up with all the grubby hands pencils stabbings and knocks that were thrown at them if you were at school in the 80s you'll know exactly what i mean a deal was cut and microvitec were rolling having spoken to numerous education authorities themselves they were now firmly the monitor of choice with all their development work by the end of 1980 they had made a pre-tax loss of 56 000 pounds by 1982 they were making pre-tax profits of 195 000 pounds and by 1983 it was a whopping two and a half million pounds you see by 1982 the doi were offering school grants allowing schools to choose from either a cheapo and seemingly fragile zx spectrum an excessively priced and bulky research machines 480z or the much publicized and recommended bbc micro looking solid and dependable this package consisted of a bbc model b a cassette recorder and either a 12 inch monochrome or 14 inch micro vitec cub 452 color monitor the monochrome package cost 270 pounds whilst the full color cub package was just 325. not surprisingly 99 of schools chose the only slightly more expensive full color hardy screen with the bbc securing this iconic duo in the passages of time so the reason you'll find these two together even today is really because of choices made under the computer literacy project in the early 80s but not just choices these two devices were really the only sensible options at the time both acorn computers and micro vitec had correctly recognized the need for this technology and started building them at the perfect time to be successful in what appears to have been an incredible moment of circumspection it only took the solid lines of each to convince education authorities that these were the perfect devices for schools but the question is is this actually a good pairing is this a good monitor for vibe is vabe a good computer for the monitor well they certainly look good together both exuding their boxy robustness like a pair of determinedly henched nightclub bouncers the bbc's rgb plugs directly into the back we get a sturdy power switch and we even get a contrast knob for precise control however we really need to refer to bbc micro user issue 2 where they compare the micro standard monitor retailing for 249 pounds against the kager rgb vision one the main alternative monitor on the scene retailing for 285 pounds the standard monitor is really what this one is with a resolution of 452 by 550 and a dot pitch of 0.64 millimeters the next model up had a resolution of 653 by 585 and a 0.43 millimeter dot pitch and the top end model had a resolution of 895 by 580 with a 0.31 millimeter dot pitch but like most we're at bog standard levels here as you can see it says 452 on the display label which is what most people call it and it relates to the vertical resolution but the unit as a whole is known as the cub 1431 ms you could get various revisions that would be called ms2 3 and 4 but this is the original here we have a different monitor with a cub 653 screen so the mid resolution version but as you can see it's a different case entirely a smaller plastic affair not suited for schools really this one specifically is for the sinclair ql so the model number here is 1451 dq3 yeah i don't claim to understand microvitex model numbering whatsoever anyway let's get back to the review perhaps the first point to make is that even these low resolution monitors are a great improvement on color tvs the colors are really nice i prefer those of the micro vitec which seemed to have a clarity the cargo lacked the cargo screen fails to show the full bbc display characters in the top left hand corner of the screen were hard to read and the bottom line impossible to see which often made editing programs rather difficult the micro vitec on the other hand shows the whole of the bbc micro display with greater clarity on drawing circles both monitors come out well from this test with the micro viatech having the advantage laying the cards along the edge also drew my attention to the amount of distortion due to the screen curvature far more on the cargo than on the micro vitec and finally for the micro vitec the micro vitex clarity at the extremes was far greater in fact the only real win for the kaga was that the reviewer preferred the appearance of the cargo but the cargo screen is covered with a rather flimsy plastic sheet whilst the micro vitex screen is covered with armored glass that latter point combined with its beab approval will tend to make the micro viatech the monitor preference in the classroom showing that the micro vitec really was the best choice at the time sure there may well be better monitors you can hook a beeb up to now these cubs do tend to flicker quite a bit and on many the screen will literally bounce about but this is the screen that many of the greatest game developers today started out on and i doubt you'll find a screen or indeed appearing as iconic as these two and that's why even today you'll find them sitting squarely in front of bbc micros the world over another iconic pairing is your electronic device and sponsor surfshark surfshark allows you to unlock the 15 largest netflix libraries even subscription services you can't currently get in your country it allows you to avoid location-based price discrimination on travel or hotel costs and of course it ensures that your data is encrypted and safe on public wi-fi surf shark is one of the fastest and most fully featured vpns i've used and you can run it across unlimited devices from just one single subscription surfshark have proven ip and dns leak protection industry leading encryption and a strict no logs policy through their ram only server network you can access over 3200 servers in 65 countries make use of multi-hop putting two vpn servers between you and your connection and ensure that your connection is secure using the built-in kill switch they also offer 24 7 live customer support and a 30-day money-back guarantee just in case get surfsharkvpn using the link below and use code nostalgia nerd for 83 off and as a black friday special get four months extra free micro vitex soldiered on through the 80s even after the computer literacy project had been and gone they had their ups and downs especially in the period immediately afterwards but developed a wide range of monitors for use on a wide range of systems including the pretty neat touch tech 501 touchscreen tony martinez was given an obe in 1985 and stepped down as chairman of the now public microvitec in 1987. he remained on as a non-executive director for a number of years but sadly died at the age of 81 in 2010 however it's perhaps his conviction to his work which kept microvitec going so long we've always taken the view that this is a job for life the company needs its resources and you're not going to take them out for your own use from that point of view our account has always been pretty conservative we've never had any luxuries we've never had any rolls races or anything like that because we feel that the important thing was to survive and survive they did in fact micro vitex still exists to this day having moved into legacy crt support and flat panel displays for industrial applications if you go on their website you can still see the remnants of cub monitors to this day and even purchase flat screen replacements capable of displaying all your retro needs ah lovely stuff until next time i've been nostalgia nerd too hey folks i hope you enjoyed this video especially with the bieb turning 40 next month thanks so much for sticking around and supporting the channel especially you lovely lovely patrons listed here oh yes patreons get an ad free viewing experience as well as lots of other perks if you're interested the links are below 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Channel: Nostalgia Nerd

Views: 144,805

Keywords: microvitec cub, bbc micro, computer literacy project

Id: 2nBUmXoa1qY

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2021