Guys, from time to time on here I know some folk like to discuss the mysteries behind that micro which was launched without any great fanfares and advertising budget which just kinda "slipped out" after the success of the Speccy and the guys behind it were indeed behind the Speccy design too. However, they decided to release something a little different in terms of the onboard language and so the JUPITER ACE came out and... slowly died a quiet death. Mind, they pop up on Feebay for some very tidy amounts - esp if you have one with say a RAM pack or original software/original box etc. Here we go with a couple of pieces on this not so well known micro, just in case you were wondering, like... Final questions... what were you doing in Sept 1982 and have you ever been tempted by a Jupiter Ace? Possibly not! Never mind, comments please...
I always liked the styling of the Jupiter. RetroGames (they who produce the A500 and TheC64) hold the rights to the machine now I think. No idea if they plan to do anything with it though.
We sold the Ace and other FORTH based machines, when I say, sold, I mean in my branch's case that we stocked them. Never sold a single one. I remember packing a box of them and a few Coupes and sent them back as dead stock. I took one home when they first arrived to have a play and being utterly underwhelmed by it. Hardly a surprise when placed next to an Atari..
I can see both points of view here, fellas. Al likes the futurist styling - not a million miles away from a ZX80 meeting a Spectrum so you can see the Sinclair machine's designer's influence there in the outward appearance (my mate reckoned these Ace's were made from reinforced yogurt cartons!) and then Paul delivers the coup de grace as he and his store stocked these machines... and they were lemons, sales and performance-wise - especially when compared with the power, class and capability of the Atari 8bit range. Such a shame they didn't find a kind of Beeb educational cum scientific niche market though. You shall have to get one, Al, and give us a run down, mate... now then, does it play DROP ZONE he asks knowing the answer will be... get fecked ;-) !
Sadly, there was many a lemon out there, Sord M5, Sam Coupe, the Ace, none of them awful computers but just lacking a market to pitch for. They were ok if you wanted to learn a lot of different programming languages, but FORTH never really got used much (that I know of), it was like a weird BASIC. As I hated BASIC and went straight to machine code, those machines just didn't appeal to me. (and it seems, nor the customer). I liked the look of the SORD M5, but nothing else about it..
The SORD (think it was made by CGL was a nice looking machine. Remember seeing the box in a hypermarket in Havant and pestering my mum and dad to buy it for me. Thankfully there was no chance of that happening
Did it have a built-in jossie? Nope... What the hell was I thinking of??? Possibly the Enterprise? God only knows....
Sounds like the Enterprise Andy, can't think of any other computers that had a joystick built on as standard. I think it's one of the few machines I've yet to try but would like to give it a go if the opportunity should arise. Remember at the time it went through many name changes like Elan, Flan (yes really) and the market seemed to lose confidence in it before it was even released.
I remember those silly Flan days too, Al... what the feck were they thinking of reducing a serious machine to market with a joke of a name like that?! Reminded me of the guy off TizWaz who would appear with flans to pelt Chris Tarrant and Sally James (GRRR!) on Kids TV Sat morns on ITV:
Sally James in long leather boots vs Cheggers or Noel...Easy choice... (ok I watched both programmes)
