I was brought up on the VIC-20 and Amstrad CPC, but my Cousin offered me a 64K CIAB with Disk Drive. It was well worth the $150 I spent on it.
Prior to that my Dad got me into the first Computer Classes. There was high demand but he spoke to the Teacher and managed to wrangle me a spot. Thus began my life-long career in (and fascination with) computing. It was a room full of Microbees. In those days you'd spend a couple of hours in class typing in a program but forgot to bring a cassette tape.
In the 1990's a lovely gentleman by the name of Peter Marshall sent me two Premium 128K Microbees in good condition. I got in touch with Microbee Technology back then and they sent me a 256TC Technical Manual and some other books. The allure of the Microbee was that you could hack about with the Hardware as well as the Software! One of my Premiums was soon fully specced out with all the possible options (extra Video / Attribute / Colour RAM, Flashing Attribute Mod, 512K RAM, SN76489a, Dual 8530 SCC Chips, Real Time Clock, etc. etc.) A nice EGA Monitor completed the setup - and some extra Floppy Drives, although I never actually owned a proper Twin-Floppy Enclosure.
I made a WAV Player in Z80 Machine Code and was also working on a SCSI Controller using 8255 PIO chips, but it never really got anywhere.
I had other Microbees including a Dynamic RAM Model with Battery Backup. Also a "Big Board" for the Microbee. Unfortunately I lost interest in Microbee to some degree due to the lack of flexibility with the graphics. I tried converting a static image (loading screen for the SimFarm game, actually) but the limitations on colour pixels meant it wasn't really possible. I was tempted away by the Big Box Amigas (Amiga 2000 and later 4000).
I always had a soft spot for the Microbee though, and never really left it. I built a Premium+ in 2013, which is a fantastic piece of kit. I think about CP/M and Microbees often and always hoped to do something genuinely interesting and astounding in CP/M. One day, perhaps. The Microbee is literally one of the most important things in my life. It is my special interest.
Prior to that my Dad got me into the first Computer Classes. There was high demand but he spoke to the Teacher and managed to wrangle me a spot. Thus began my life-long career in (and fascination with) computing. It was a room full of Microbees. In those days you'd spend a couple of hours in class typing in a program but forgot to bring a cassette tape.
In the 1990's a lovely gentleman by the name of Peter Marshall sent me two Premium 128K Microbees in good condition. I got in touch with Microbee Technology back then and they sent me a 256TC Technical Manual and some other books. The allure of the Microbee was that you could hack about with the Hardware as well as the Software! One of my Premiums was soon fully specced out with all the possible options (extra Video / Attribute / Colour RAM, Flashing Attribute Mod, 512K RAM, SN76489a, Dual 8530 SCC Chips, Real Time Clock, etc. etc.) A nice EGA Monitor completed the setup - and some extra Floppy Drives, although I never actually owned a proper Twin-Floppy Enclosure.
I made a WAV Player in Z80 Machine Code and was also working on a SCSI Controller using 8255 PIO chips, but it never really got anywhere.
I had other Microbees including a Dynamic RAM Model with Battery Backup. Also a "Big Board" for the Microbee. Unfortunately I lost interest in Microbee to some degree due to the lack of flexibility with the graphics. I tried converting a static image (loading screen for the SimFarm game, actually) but the limitations on colour pixels meant it wasn't really possible. I was tempted away by the Big Box Amigas (Amiga 2000 and later 4000).
I always had a soft spot for the Microbee though, and never really left it. I built a Premium+ in 2013, which is a fantastic piece of kit. I think about CP/M and Microbees often and always hoped to do something genuinely interesting and astounding in CP/M. One day, perhaps. The Microbee is literally one of the most important things in my life. It is my special interest.
