What happens after this ad?
It is 2200 NABU computersprobably unknown to you, and with good reason, and which has been waiting quietly in James Pellegrini’s barn for more than twenty years
NABU
You probably don’t know the company Natural Access to Bi-directional Utilities or NABU, and this is normal. In fact, it is a Canadian computer company founded in 1982 that went bankrupt in 1985.
The machines in question, which we call NABUs for the sake of simplicity, use the processor Z80 – a common chip in arcade machines like Pac-Man for example. These computers had an architecture very similar to the MSX platform, the most common microcomputer at the time.
The NABU is actually the equivalent of our good old one Minitel national, except, of course, that it did not enjoy the success and usefulness of its French counterpart.
A retro computing treasure
James Pellegrini, a retired computer designer, has had 2,200 NABU computers in his barn for 20 years. Bought in the 1990s for the Z80 processors it contained, which James reportedly wanted to use to build “a telephone switching system”. tech spot, They were eventually left in the enthusiast’s barn as the project was deemed too ambitious and too complicated.
20 years later, when the barn in question had become too dilapidated to safely house the computers, Pellegrini began selling them on Craigslist at $20 apiece, quickly turning to the eBay platform where they are sold as buns $60 each. The machines quickly increase in price from approx $100 each.
The rebirth of a network
This is thanks in particular to the video of a famous YouTuber specializing in technology. Adrian Blackthat NABU and thus James Pellegrini’s inventory came from anonymity.
For his part, DJ Sures, a programmer and early NABU enthusiast – his father and two of his uncles were involved in the development of the machine – decided to create a network adapter for the NABU as a tribute to his family.
Since then, the “NABU community” has continued to grow: The network is back online, and a website was created to receive the NABU-RetroNET. If you want to learn more about this fascinating story, The Vice page wrote a very detailed article at every stage of this true renaissance.