A Brief History of Time!               
                                         
  By Jon Ripley (8BS member D5B)         
                                         
  In 8BS issue 53 Robert Sprowson (D6G)  
  gave us a very brief look into the     
  past world of BBC magazines. Here is   
  my interpretation of the same. I have  
  left out most of the dates involved as 
  I am not sure about some of them.      
  Indeed some magazines may be left out  
  and some changeovers too. I have       
  retold the story here as best I can.   
                                         
  In the early days there were Micro     
  User and BBC Acorn User. Robert        
  Sprowson (D6G) said that he had heard  
  the the BBC moaned about their name    
  being used and the BBC was dropped to  
  make Acorn User but since the magazine 
  was starting to support the new        
  Archimedes computers the BBC may have  
  been dropped for that reason instead.  
                                         
  Later on, Micro User started a pull    
  out magazine for the new Electron      
  computer, this pullout later became    
  Electron User.                         
  Other magazines started up for the BBC 
  and Electron; Disc User, BBC Programs  
  (both available from the shops) and    
  Beebug which was subscription only     
  although the readership topped 10,000. 
                                         
  Aside from the magazines, over 100 BBC 
  specific user groups started, not      
  including the several groups that      
  started up overseas and some more      
  international ones.                    
                                         
  In the early eighties many             
  multi-format magazines supported the   
  BBC A, BBC B and Electron among other  
  computers.                             
                                         
  A + B Computing started up (I assume)  
  when the BBC A computers were still    
  around and it would have supported     
  both of them. The name didn't change   
  when the BBC A was discontinued and    
  remained the same until the early      
  1990's when the magazine dropped the   
  BBC range completely and became the    
  first Archimedes only magazine,        
  Archimedes World. This magazine is     
  still available today.                 
                                         
  In July 1990 Electron User had a       
  special pull out edition of Let's      
  Compute. The new magazine started the  
  next month and Electron User was no    
  more.                                  
                                         
  Let's Compute started out supporting   
  Acorn computers only but due to a      
  large number of complaints because of  
  the misleading title the magazine      
  started supporting most home           
  computers. It only lasted a year.      
                                         
  When the Micro User started to drop    
  support for the BBC and Electron the   
  name changed to Acron Computing, a BBC 
  subcribers disc and a small portion of 
  the magazine was dedicated to the BBC, 
  after a number of months this stopped  
  and only Archimedes computers were     
  supported.                             
                                         
  A few years later, I believe due to    
  lacking interest in Acorn Computing    
  (although I may be wrong), the         
  magazine merged with Acorn User and    
  ceased to exist.                       
                                         
  Nowadays, no commercial shop or        
  subscription magazines exist for the   
  BBC or Electron and there is almost no 
  support in the only magazine willing   
  to acknowledge the existence of the    
  BBC, Acorn User.                       
                                         
  Aside from the early user groups only  
  two, to my knowledge, still exist;     
  8-Bit Software and Solinet. And of     
  course, the most recent addition, BBC  
  User Group, or BUG, run by myself -    
  Jon Ripley!