How to play BBC Micro, Electron and Archimedes games

Acorn built the computers a generation of British children learned on: the BBC Micro (1981), sold to almost every school in the country, the cheaper Electron (1983) for the home, and the Archimedes (1987), the first computer with an ARM chip inside.

We have about 630 BBC Micro games, about 350 Electron games and about 90 Acorn 32-bit games on My Abandonware.

BBC Micro and Electron emulators

BeebEm and b2 run BBC Micro games, and both are free. The Electron needs its own emulator, Elkulator, because it is a different machine.

• BeebEm (Windows, Mac, Linux): the best known BBC Micro emulator, around since 1994 and still updated. It emulates the BBC Micro and the Master 128, and comes with the ROMs it needs. Recommended.
• b2 (Windows, Mac, Linux): a recent, very accurate BBC Micro emulator, which also runs the Master 128 and the Master Compact. A RetroArch core based on it exists too.
• B-em (Windows, Linux): another good choice, by the author of Arculator.
• Elkulator (Windows, Linux): the Acorn Electron emulator. Electron games often refuse to run on an emulated BBC Micro, and the other way round.

Running BBC Micro and Electron games

Load the disc or tape in the emulator, then press SHIFT and F12 together to start the machine from it. That's the emulator's way of pressing SHIFT and BREAK on the real keyboard.

Our games come as disc or tape images:

• .ssd, .dsd: disc images, the most common. .ssd is one side of a disc, .dsd both sides.
• .uef: tape images, common for Electron games and early BBC games. Loading takes a few minutes, unless you turn on the fast tape option.
• .adf: disc images for the later Acorn machines.

If SHIFT+BREAK does nothing, the disc may not start by itself: type *CAT and press Enter to list the files on it, then CHAIN "NAME" for a BASIC program, or *NAME for a machine code one.

Archimedes games

The Archimedes and the later RiscPC ran RISC OS. Arculator emulates them, but you must supply the RISC OS ROM files: they are not free.

• Arculator (Windows, Linux): emulates the Archimedes range, from the A305 to the A5000 and the A4 laptop. Recommended for games.
• RPCEmu (Windows, Mac, Linux): emulates the later RiscPC and A7000, for RISC OS software of the late 90s.

Both need the ROM of the machine, which holds RISC OS itself. 4corn hosts RISC OS 3.71 with permission, and explains where each file goes. Our Archimedes games are disc images (.adf), sometimes several per game: put the first one in drive 0, and swap it when the game asks.

I need help!

We do not provide support for running abandonware games. The Acorn community keeps a lot of software and knowledge online.

Stardot is the main forum for every Acorn machine, and the home of several of these emulators. The Stairway to Hell holds a large archive of BBC Micro and Electron software, with the emulators to run it.

Checked in October 2026 against each emulator's own documentation and, where it exists, its source code. Game counts and file sizes come from our own catalogue. These guides were drafted with the help of an AI assistant and checked by hand before publishing. If something here is out of date, tell us.