The Microbee computer is back! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 04:58:44 am
content: Yes, the title is correct, and it's available as a DIY kit as it originally was back in the 80'shttp://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/Non-Australian's will likely have no idea what I'm talking about!Dave.

author: McMonster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:07:35 am
content: It seems that curiosity spared the cat and killed the site this time.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:12:26 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on December 11, 2011, 04:58:44 amThe question is, why? I can understand doing basic in stuff like Maximite. But why spend most of cost of a decent notebook on yesterdays dream? I don't get it, the form factor is all wrong for it actually being useful and to top it off there is a floppy drive in development. why would you even consider that when USB offers Gigabytes for a fraction of the cost?Maybe I should get the chassis punch out and a bag of old toggles and whip up some retro Altairs.

author: slateraptor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:14:14 am
content: http://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/premiumpluskit.htm"The fantastic new Premium Plus Limited Edition kit will be available at$399.00(the same as the original 16K kit bee!)"LMFAO! On the other hand, it'd be kinda cool to tinker with.

author: slateraptor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:17:28 am
content: Quote from: Uncle Vernon on December 11, 2011, 05:12:26 amIn a word: nostalgia.Just imagine the looks you'd get whipping that bad boy out of your backpack in the middle of a university.EDIT:"It is a limited edition and only 100 units will be available in total."Well, I guess we can definitively factor out profit as a motivating factor.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:24:11 am
content: Quote from: slateraptor on December 11, 2011, 05:17:28 amI'd imagine similar to the looks you'd get turning up at Nascar qualifying in a Nissan Cedric!

author: slateraptor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:26:26 am
content: Quote from: Uncle Vernon on December 11, 2011, 05:24:11 amWe definitely don't have those in the US. LOL!EDIT: Yeah, did some searching and it turns out the Nissan Cedric was replaced by the Fuga, which is equivalent to the US Infiniti G35 and G37.

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:32:08 am
content: I used to have one.It was brilliant at the time - it had a very good built-in Basic interpreter.But at the time, I couldn't upgrade to a "real" CP/M 2.2 computer fast enough and I never touched it again.Richard.

author: don.r
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 05:34:29 am
content: I'm sure my cell phone has an emulator of that.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 06:11:33 am
content: Quote from: Uncle Vernon on December 11, 2011, 05:12:26 amSomeone's beat you to it -http://www.brielcomputers.com/store.html

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 07:40:06 am
content: Quote from: Uncle Vernon on December 11, 2011, 05:12:26 amThere is always a niche nostalgia market for popular old computers. It's been done with the Apple I, Altair, C64, Amiga, and a raft of others.He'll sell his 100 units, but to get a much bigger market outside of the Bee nostalgia buffs, it's gotta be:a) Open source hardware and softwareb) In a more modern useful form factor like the Maximite et.al.And of course, that's not really possible in a Microbee form factor.Stick the Microbee code into a Maximite/Arduino type thing and you's have something.Personally, I wouldn't have bothered with the coldfire and the extra stuff, a straight clone would have sold just as many. Possibly with a simple PIC/AVR to handle the SD card storage emulation, and keep it all through-hole. The "hybrid" SMD kit kinda takes the luster off it.Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 07:44:29 am
content: Quote from: slateraptor on December 11, 2011, 05:14:14 amYeah, I'd buy and build one, for old time sakes, but not at $399.But the people in the microbee/vintage computer community have money.I once sold an issue of Your Computer magazine that had the original Microbee liftout in it for over $100!Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 08:41:02 am
content: Ewan who is behind the new Microbee sent me and email and gave permission to post it, shedding some light on the project:Quote

author: johnwa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 11:50:10 am
content: Cool, we had one of these at primary school. Unfortunately, I never really got a chance to use it much, but I remember some of the other kids drawing various geometric patterns using Logo. It was eventually pushed aside in favour of the "new" Amiga 500s.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 12:03:53 pm
content: This brings back fond memories of Microbee networking attempts. Our school started with the 32k cassette-based models. They rigged up a really long cable down one side of the school block, which would run in and out of the computer rooms, where each computer was tapped into it... the teacher would press 'play' on the tape deck and we would all hit load at the same time!A couple of years later the funding came in for the Beenet and Starnet file servers. You could have 16 (?) basic 'bees request a file from the Beenet server which would transmit them one at a time... it could take 20 minutes before the whole class had their software. The Starnet server with the 10 MB hard drive was much better, and had an awesome display screen. Except it would crash in hot weather, generally the last few minutes before the end of class. If there was one thing that Applied Technology never really nailed it was controlling heat in Microbees.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 12:24:28 pm
content: here's a pretty smooth emulator -http://www.nanowasp.org/

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 12:45:41 pm
content: Quote from: tronixstuff on December 11, 2011, 12:03:53 pmNetworking MicroBees! You are scaring me now.

author: Zad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2011, 11:08:18 pm
content: It sounds like the Aussie equivalent of the BBC Micro, only less elegant. It is hard to explain the influence of the BBC Micro to non-UK people, but it is one of the reasons the UK has such a strong software industry. The OS, Basic and integrated assembler were superb. Coincidentally, it had it's 30th birthday the other day:http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/30/bbc_micro_model_b_30th_anniversary/The user guides were utterly brilliant, I have yet to see a product manual since then that even approached the quality. Eventually, of course, it gave birth to the ubiquitous ARM architecture.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 11:13:13 am
content: How on earth did I miss this thread before?! I remember the Microbee! It was not PC-compatible though so it made installing stuff a bit of a pain.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 11:21:46 am
content: If you find yourself in the eastern end of what is Melbourne, you can visit the Microbee office and check out a few working examples - along with a working Gamma. Best to call in advance. Two minutes walk from Mooroolbark railway station.https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 11:30:40 am
content: Quote from: tronixstuff on July 27, 2017, 11:21:46 amI wish I knew this before! I was in Melbourne earlier in the year forThe Book of Mormon musical(well worth seeing if you haven't already!). Stopped byBartronica, had a blast!

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 30, 2017, 09:22:53 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on December 11, 2011, 04:58:44 amI live a suburb away from Ewan's shop in Mooroolbark (outer east of Melbourne) and have popped in for a chat on the way home from work, he's a super nice bloke and his collection of Microbee's is really worth checking out for vintage computer nerds (like me).