exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

rubber_jonnie wrote: 16 Aug 2026 09:42 What I'm seeing with this machine is that if they had handled the launch better it could have been a very successful machine in the UK, trouble is in 1985 we also got the Atari ST which didn't help it's chances.

Indeed, though 1985 was a rough year for all players in the market as the market had tanked a little and investment companies were getting cold feet about the home computer industry.

However, the arrival of the 16 bit machines in the UK didn't really start until 1987 really due to their high price. Few could afford £799 for a 520ST plus floppy drive and they weren't truly available until 1986 anyway. Enterprise Computers were long gone by then.

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Aug 2026 11:36 Indeed, though 1985 was a rough year for all players in the market as the market had tanked a little and investment companies were getting cold feet about the home computer industry.

Yeah it wasn't great and things were difficult.

Looking at who collapsed around '84 to '85 there were quite a few:

Dragon Data

Oric Products International

Camputers

Newbear

Transam

Wren Computers

Bit of a poor time all round.

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Aug 2026 11:36 However, the arrival of the 16 bit machines in the UK didn't really start until 1987 really due to their high price. Few could afford £799 for a 520ST plus floppy drive and they weren't truly available until 1986 anyway. Enterprise Computers were long gone by then.

I did try to buy an ST, external FDD and Mono display from The Silica Shop around '85 or '86 when I was doing my RAF training, but it was around £999 I think all told and ultimately when I tried to get credit (It would have been about 3 months wages at the time), I got ghosted by them...

Probably for the best at the time IMHO reflecting back on it.

The biggest problem in 1985 was that the industry had geared up for a second bumper Christmas, as 1983 had been. They'd borrowed to build stock for something which didn't happen. Acorn survived by being bought by Olivetti, with whom they'd had some collaboration with over the sparkjet printer. Sinclair ultimately went under and got bought by Amstrad, etc.

These financial issues killed many manufacturers and the investor bubble burst. This meant that companies couldn't refinance and fledgling companies such as Enterprise Computers would have found their lenders suddenly either asking for their money back or new interest rates they couldn't afford. It would probably have made no difference if the Enterprise had been in Dixons, WHSmith and Boots and sold out its production run, the economics had changed.

I've just been going through some of the games produced in 86-88. An essentially flat version of "Yoomp!", predating it by 15 years, is highly colourful, smooth and fast and as good as any ST title would have been. So, technically the machine could have been used for some stunning games if it had survived in major markets.

To add my perspective to what @stephen_usher said...

I was actually unaware of the Amiga/ST machines until the later 80s (~1988) when they started getting lower in price and appearing in more magazines.

Of course, there were the new 16 bit machine adverts (I remember those Silica Shop ones), but the exposure was low. And at the 'higher than xmas present' prices, no reason to investigate them further at that point.

So any Enterprise news would have been more relevant and noticeable. However, I cant remember ever seeing any. :(

I guess my computer awareness and owning lineup was from 1. What my school/friends had and 2. What games were being reviewed in the more generic computing mags (like e.g. C+VG). With that in mind, I had not even heard of the Ent until you guys started buying them. :lol:

But they look like they had some good potential. A shame there wasnt a bigger user base really.

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Aug 2026 12:12 The biggest problem in 1985 was that the industry had geared up for a second bumper Christmas, as 1983 had been. They'd borrowed to build stock for something which didn't happen. Acorn survived by being bought by Olivetti, with whom they'd had some collaboration with over the sparkjet printer. Sinclair ultimately went under and got bought by Amstrad, etc.

I'd forgotten Olivetti had taken on Acorn, but remember very well the Amstradification of Sinclair. Not that the machines were particulalrly bad in any way, but they didn't feel like Sinclair machines any more.

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Aug 2026 12:12 These financial issues killed many manufacturers and the investor bubble burst. This meant that companies couldn't refinance and fledgling companies such as Enterprise Computers would have found their lenders suddenly either asking for their money back or new interest rates they couldn't afford. It would probably have made no difference if the Enterprise had been in Dixons, WHSmith and Boots and sold out its production run, the economics had changed.

Indeed, it was a particularly bad time, and it never really ever came back to it's glory days, too much had changed.

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Aug 2026 12:12 I've just been going through some of the games produced in 86-88. An essentially flat version of "Yoomp!", predating it by 15 years, is highly colourful, smooth and fast and as good as any ST title would have been. So, technically the machine could have been used for some stunning games if it had survived in major markets.

Gotta love Yoomp!, a favourite on my A8's :)

Funnily enough I was looking at some of the Enterprise games earlier today and was quite shocked at just how good some of them looked, graphically it was very impressive for the time and whilst some of the stuff I looked at seemed reminiscent of CPC464 games, they just seems a little nicer and a little faster. Such a shame it could have had some epic games had it survived.

OK, so the silicone mould material arrived and it works great. 1:1 mix and it sets in about 15 minutes, yet is still flexible, but not as flexible as RTV, so a much better proposition for making moulds from existing items.

First attempt wasn't great, I tried to use my UV setting resin and get enough UV through the top to set it all, but it didn't work and I was left with a gooey mess in the middle, a bit like a Quality Street caramel, just not as tasty.


As it goes the key face and some of the spigot and keying parts did set, but I need to try a different material the will set on it's own without the need for UV light to penetrate.

I think I'll go for a straight epoxy resin next, the one thing the UV resin did help me understand was how much resin is needed for the job, so that was helpful at least. Could do with something to ID the colours I'll need for painting them too.

I need to be less impatient when opening too and at least with epoxy resin I'll have leftovers so I know when it's fully set.

I may also make another mould now I better understand the dimensions, I just need a small square container to put it in whilst the silicone sets.

The whole keypost and cap thing are a unique design aren't they?

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Aug 2026 18:29 The whole keypost and cap thing are a unique design aren't they?

They certainly are, especially the keyed portion on the back to stop the keys rotating.

OK, so I moulded another key yesterday afternoon:


Overall the result is OK and I think would be fine with some minor fettling and painting. Unfortunately the stem came up a little short, though again that could be dealt with OK, however it seems that the resin is still a little soft.

This could be due to it's age, and that wouldn't surprise me, but I did weigh out the resin/hardener correctly. I'm going to leave it longer to see if it improves, but if not I'll just have to get some new resin, though I am considering trying 2 part epoxy glue as the resin I had was a bit on the thin side and did escape a little from the side of the mould.

I will also next time use something to keep the mould together betterat the top did seem to 'float' on the resin inside.

Learning as I go.

Definitely looks better than your first try.