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TELETEXT GALLERY

BBC CEEFAX TELESOFTWARE

The BBC Ceefax Telesoftware service ran for six years, broadcasting computer news and software, predominantly for the BBC Micro.

BBC Telesoftware Index The pages were named after BBC BASIC commands.

The software was sent as ordinary teletext pages, and the data was specially encoded so that the binary data would result in ordinary characters on the teletext page - it was not very interesting to watch!

(Ooh look - a NEW service for the IBM PC!!!)

705 Here's what a typical Telesoftware program looked like to the casual viewer.

Anyone care to guess what this program is?

A copyright notice for the Telesoftware, broadcast as part of the REM magazine from 1983
REM.gif (5606 bytes) The next three frames were saved by Mark Cook...
SPY.gif (6553 bytes) The ROM referred to here was not a CD-ROM but a ROM chip to plug into your BBC Model B.
CAT.gif (4702 bytes) *CAT - the index page of telesoftware you could download.
Telesoftware Closure Notice Part 1 The Telesoftware service closed in 1989, having performed its job. The computer literacy project had ended, the BBC Micro had been replaced by new Acorn machines, bulletin boards were the rage, and the internet was not far off. The BBC could no longer justify the service as it was used by very few.

Knowing how devoted those few were, the BBC let them down gently with this Telesoftware announcement

Telesoftware Closure Notice Part 2 No prevaricating about the bush for Ceefax, two pages on and they are getting to the point...
Telesoftware Closure Notice Part 3 Ah! There it is, two and a half pages on we get that historic paragraph!

Click here for the full text of the downloadable version of the statement

Telesoftware for the Sinclair Spectrum was transmitted on Channel 4 for a while and an ITV micro was also planned... Can anyone fill us in on any of the details?

Ceefax on BBC1 and BBC2 | BBC teletext from their newer services
Ceefax Regional-Extra | Ceefax In Vision | An Evening with Ceefax

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