Announcement from Andrew Rawnsley, 10th April, 2014.
April 15th represents the 20th birthday of Acorn’s RiscPC computer, launched back in 19941. The RiscPC was an iconic machine for all of us, and was ultimately the pinnacle of Acorn’s computer technology, surpassed only by the unreleased Phoebe.
Although the RiscPC wasn’t the final Acorn computer to be released (the A7000 and various network computers followed), its inherent upgradability allowed it to host the StrongARM processor, making the RiscPC Acorn’s most powerful computer. This has allowed the RiscPC to have a lifespan that other computers can only dream of – many RiscPCs (including some at the R-Comp office) are still providing real-world usefulness 20 years on2.
So, to celebrate, we’re offering 20% (1% for every year) off our R-Comp / RCI software (products over £10 in value) when ordered via our !Store download service. To use !Store, download it from the PlingStore website and off you go. When ordering, you’ll have the option to enter special instructions – use the code RISCPC20 to receive your discount (will occur at billing – price will appear normal until we charge your card).
If you want something that’s not on !Store, please phone us on 01925 755043 and quote the code, and I’m sure we’ll be able to help out.
This deal runs until the end of April.
The brilliant thing about the RiscPC is that (assuming you have RISC OS 4) it’ll still run all the latest software! So, you’ll be able to download the programs from !Store, and still run them on your 20year old machines 🙂 Of course, if you choose to run them on more recent post-Acorn kit, that’s great too 🙂
Best wishes, and Happy Birthday RiscPC!
PS, we’ll have more RiscPC birthday announcements over the next few days/weeks as we’ve been looking forward to this for months here at R-Comp. I have “Acorn RiscPC beer” on my shelf in the office – marked “Premium Quality” – I’m half tempted to open it to celebrate, but 20yr old beer…?3
!ReadMe
- RISCOSitory is also planning to mark the date, albeit only in a small way, with an article about the RiscPC. Emails were sent out earlier today to various well known people still active in the RISC OS world (such as Andrew), and who might have something to say on the subject, which can be used in the article. If any RISCOSitory readers would like to share their views, please email them to news@riscository.com, preferably by Friday, but by the end of the weekend at the very latest, and any particularly interesting comments may get mentioned in the article.
- In the first annual RISC OS poll run by RISCOSitory, almost one in five of those who responded said they were using a RiscPC as their main computer.
- Ugh, no. The age is bad enough, but it’s beer; that’s much worse! Now, cider, on the other hand…
