Pictures of the Acorn Atom variants

No images of a standard Atom, only variants.

• Atom with 'Hob-bit' label. The Atom was recommended by the dutch electronics & computing magazine Hob-bit as the right machine for their readers. They even referred to the Atom as the Hob-bit computer. Whether that was before or after the Atom with Hob-bit label appeared I don't know (I don't have the early Hob-bit magazines), but I think Hob-bit must have talked with Acorn quite early, a batch with this label was then made and Hob-bit called it the Hob-bit machine from then on:
  
  Also have a look in the scan section for sections from various issues of the magazine.
  
  
• Atom with colour card built in by the factory, and with 'COLOUR' label:
  

• The box:
  
  Isn't that the box of an Acorn Atom?
  
  Uhmm, no, it's a 'Prophet 2'...

• The 'Prophet 2' variant (thanks to Sikko de Vries):

  Front, note the MODE switch that's not present on standard Atoms, and the large return key:
  
  
  

  Rear:
  
  Note the (very useful) video connector that's not present on standard Atoms.

  Bottom:
  
  

  Inside, issue 5 PCB, with connection to the video connector. The second set of wires (left hand side) goes to the MODE swith on the front.
  
  Detail of what the MODE switch connects:
  
  

  Reverse of the PCB, the connections for the MODE switch. I don't know (yet) what this switch does.
  
  

  Keyboard details:
  
  

All in all the 'Prophet 2' by/for Busicomputers is a useful improvement over the standard Atom. The keyboard differences compared to a standard Atom (e.g. the cursor keys and the 'here' key) probably mean the OS rom is altered for this machine, but I haven't checked yet.

The 'Prophet 2' also makes me ask: Was there a 'Prophet'/'Prophet 1'? And was that based on another computer?

UPDATE 1: Prophet 2 information from H.v.d.Heijden:
"In 'The Hague' this seems to have been sold quite a bit. Many people thought it was great to get an Atom with red keys; 'Cool man!'. The MODE switch may have been used to switch ROMs at say #A000. Apparantly some were sold with Calc-ROM and a word processor ROM (Acornsoft Word pack? Another?)".

Perhaps all of them were supplied with Calc/word pack, but this Prophet 2 wasn't. Maybe these were removed by dealers and sold separately?

UPDATE 2: Prophet 3 information from Steven Fisher
There's another Prophet variant, the Prophet-3 which has a built in disk interface (Acorn's disk card?) and power supply and diskdrive in a 'plinth' type contraption. Keys are differently organized from both the standard Atom and the Prophet 2...

Images by Steven Fisher:

UPDATE 3:
The OS rom of the Prophet 2 is probably a standard one, as in standard mode (mode switch up), the keys behave as on an Atom (arrow down gives '[' etc), and it starts with the message 'ACORN ATOM' (I will make a ROM dump to make sure). With the MODE switch down, the machine also prints 'ACORN ATOM', but then gives an error message, and hangs. The bottom section of the case has 2 pieces of double sided sticky tape, so some expansion has probably been removed by dealers (or Acorn?) before selling it on.

UPDATE 4:
The PL7 internal connector on the Prophet 2 shown above, has remains of soldered in pins in it. So, some expansion card was fitted but was removed (by dealers or perhaps Busicomputers) before selling them.

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