Adding WiFi To The Acorn Electron

Hardware
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Interesting.

In the continuing quest by countless hobbyists to allow every 1980s 8-bit home computer to experience the joys of an online experience that doesn’t involve a 9600 baud modem, [Roland Leurs] has created a cartridge-based module for the Acorn Electron that adds WiFi, which he showed off at the virtual ABug conference in September 2020.

The Acorn Electron is a Synertek 6502-based computer that was released in the UK in August of 1983. It’s a budget version of the well-known BBC Micro educational/home computer, with 32 kB of RAM and featuring BBC BASIC v2 in its ROM. [Roland]’s ElkWiFi card slots into an available cartridge slot, after which the onboard ESP8266 (ESP-1 module) can be enabled and used as a WiFi modem.

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It’s a great project. The Acorn scene is particularly active right now - there’s a big list of hardware add-ons here:
Modern Retro Hardware List for the BBC Micro Master and Acorn Electron

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That’s an incredible list of add-ons… I should maybe try to get myself a BBC Master, I’ve sometimes considered it (I wished for a BBC mod B w/floppies back in the day, but it was way too expensive).

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