About The Acorn Electron

Released in 1983, the Acorn Electron is a cost-reduced version of the BBC Micro.

System Overview

With the BBC Micro being focused primarily on schools, Acorn decided an affordable system could be successful with home users.

Very much in competition with Sinclair and the ZX Spectrum, Acorn aggressively competed with the ZX Spectrum.

Acorns Electron utilises a MOS 6502A CPU and has 32kb RAM as standard. One attractive feature is the inclusion of composite and RGB outputs, meaning crisp visuals could be achieved on dedicated monitors.

Ultimately, the Electron was not as well supported in terms of software as the C64 and ZX Spectrum. Many BBC Micro developers also crossed over providing software support.

Sales were healthy enough to give it life up until the early 1990s. It is often overlooked, but really should be considered as the runner-up behind the C64, ZX Spectrum & Amstrad CPC.

How To Emulate The Acorn Electron?

Due to the Acorn Electron being more niche than many popular systems, emulators are a little harder to come by. This is especially the case when looking at all-in-one solutions such as RetroArch. There are however options available to allow you to emulate the Acorn Electron and relive those memories. Take a look at the options below:

Matt James

A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).