Post by @ajsadauskas@mastodon.social

A fascinating little piece of Australia's early computing history: The MicroBee.

In the early 1980s, a group of engineers in Gosford designed and built a home-grown computer that competed against the likes of the IBM PC, Apple 2, and Commodore 64. At one stage, Apple even offered to buy the company to get a foothold in Australian schools.

Here's the story of the rise, fall, and return (?) of the MicroBee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idt-g_UQbqw

#MicroBee #retrocomputing #retrocomputer @retrogaming

Australia's Greatest Computer? The MicroBee Story

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#microbee #retrocomputer #retrocomputing

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maegul

@maegul@hachyderm.io 37 min. ago

@ajsadauskas @retrogaming

Relatedly … Just saw this review of the BYOK (basically a retro writing computer)

Feels like there’s a story here about recognising that we can relate to computers in various ways different from what suits the big corps.

AJ Sadauskas

@ajsadauskas@mastodon.social 11 min. ago

@maegul @retrogaming I like the idea of using a retro or retro-like computer for word processing and distraction-free writing.

As for MicroBee, some of the original engineers revived the company a few years back and rereleased the original machine in kit form: https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/previous-releases.html

They're currently working on the never-released successor, which was going to be a 68k-based machine (like the Amiga, Atari ST, and early Macintosh) with a Z80 for backwards compatibility: https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/new-models.html

Microbee Technology - New Model kit computers

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Australia's Greatest Computer? The MicroBee Story