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ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - ChickenMan - 28-02-2022
SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2022 AT 11 AM – 4:30 PM
ACMS Presents March of the MicroBee @ the National Computer Heritage Centre
From A$12.50 · 9 West Street,Croydon,2132,AU
March of the MicroBee. The little Aussie computer that could. In February 2022 the MicroBee celebrates its 40th Anniversary. Join us
March of the MicroBee. The little Aussie computer that could.
In February 2022 the MicroBee celebrates its 40th Anniversary.
March of the MicroBee, a series of events at the National Computing Heritage Centre in Croydon NSW run by The Australian Computer Museum Society, will see original engineer Owen Hill, joined by Ewan Wordsworth (current MicroBee owner), Alan Laughton (Historian and Microbee forum admin) and Monte Chan (Retired Microbee technician) guiding us through the rise of the MicroBee along with stories of the past 40 years along with a glimpse of the future of MicroBee and how this computer still delights and engages its users today.
Come and see the series of unique and wonderful Australian designed and built computers, meet the historians, users and developers and join us in this informative and engaging event of interactive sessions and hardware show and tell.
The MicroBee is truly one of Australia’s greatest success stories of computing, relive and share your memories and meet the people who created and continue to develop this wonderful mighty Aussie.
March 19th at the NCHC, 9 West Street CROYDON NSW.
Tickets essential. Limited capacity. Payment can be made by or in conjunction with a $25 Service NSW Discover Voucher at the door. Choose CASH payment. Current Members email the secretary for your FREE ticket via a discount code.
$25 for non-members.
$0 for ACMS members.
* General Admission and Q&A Session
11am with 11:30AM Q&A and meet and greet
General Museum Admission and BBQ Lunch (Can be added as addition to AM or PM Q&A events)
12:30pm to 1:30pm
$5 .00 Full members
$12.50 Non-members
* General Admission and Q&A Session
2pm with 2:30PM Q&A and meet and greet
* General Museum Admission
3:30pm - 4:30pm
All proceeds go towards The Australian Computer Museum Society in supporting events and the protection of Australian and other retro and vintage technology along with the support and education of The Australian Public. Payment can be made by or in conjunction with a $25 Service NSW Discover Voucher.
************
Released in February 1982 the MicroBee (Micro Bee, microbee) was a series of networkable home computers by Applied Technology, which became publicly listed company MicroBee Systems Limited soon after its release. The original microbee computer was designed in Australia by a team including Owen Hill and Matthew Starr. The name “microbee” by Owen Hill and Matthew Starr after a visit to the NSW Depart of Education seeing the need for an easy to use education computer with a friendly name that could easily be remembered.
Originally released as a kit computer, the large demand for pre-assembled kits along with the success of winning a New South Wales education contract saw fully assembled and tested microbes rolling off the production floor.
With its rapid adoption and growth, Microbee Systems Ltd as it became known listed on The Australian Stock Exchange to tap into capital and grow into foreign markets as far away as Russia.
With new projects being developed to succeed the microbee, R&D costs mounted and the share price suffered. The company was taken over by share purchase by Impact System another Australian Tech company trading in printers. Shortly after the shares were traded to another company Microhelp Computers and Communications who specialised in Government and Business computing and this was their foray into the education market to compliment their existing product lines.
A New PC XT Clone bestowed the “Matilda” was released after a naming competition was run in schools. The Matilda had a special Z80 CP/M hardware to make in backward compatible with the vast collection designed for earlier machines such as the Microbee.
After several demergers and acquisitions, Ewan Wordsworth a former sales, service and R&D member of MicroBee purchased the Microbee IP and all remaining stock and took over the development of the product with encouragement and support of the original owners. The MicroBee still lives on today. See less
Tickets
General Admission - Non Member.
You can use your Dine a... More
Sales end on Mar 19 at 10:55 AM
A$25.00
GA Children
GA Child Admission for... More
Sales end on Mar 19 at 10:45 AM
A$12.50
BBQ Lunch Add-on - Non Member
Sales end on Mar 18 at 7 PM
A$12.50
Hope to see you all there
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - mjelic - 02-03-2022
I'll be there and bringing my son so he can hopefully learn a little about the Aussie Computer from my time.
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - MbeeTech - 09-03-2022
For more info & booking (limited tickets available) : <click here>
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - CheshireNoir - 19-03-2022
Good luck to everyone involved tomorrow. Wish I could be there, but the travel time (And quarantine when I return) is just a little bit out of my comfort zone.
Hopefully there'll be lots of videos we can watch later.
Cheers!
Chesh
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - ChickenMan - 19-03-2022
Well every thing was setup yesterday, and everything worked, we had about 15 different Microbees up and running
We had a small private function last night for ACMS members and some original Microbee staff members. Ewan gave a history of Microbee presentation from past through to today and whats coming in the future. This was recorded so expect to see it soon. Looks like today is going to be a busy day, then pack up and head on home. I'll put up pics once home.
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - MikeCornflake - 19-03-2022
(19-03-2022, 08:14 AM)ChickenMan Wrote: Well every thing was setup yesterday, and everything worked, we had about 15 different Microbees up and running
Sounds brilliant :-)
Err, don't suppose anyone on here knows about the Remote Sessions do they? I've paid, but I've received no URL or login details. Just a ticket with a QR code that contains a number only.
Whether I get the details or not, have fun everyone. The event sounds fun.
UPDATE: Nevermind, found it :-) Joined ACMS, and details were in their calendar. Been meaning to join ACMS for a while, so all good :-)
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - Robert - 19-03-2022
I decided to go, slept in, arrived halfway through the first presentation being given by Owen Hill, Ewan and Craig. Had a look at the microbees and other things on display, and talked to various people whose names I don't recall.
It was funny seeing a couple of kids trying to navigate using Basic on a Wombat (Apple II clone) computer.
Although I'd heard of many if not most of the items on display, I had not seen almost all of them before.
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - ChickenMan - 22-03-2022
Was good to catch up Rob after all these years
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - ChickenMan - 22-03-2022
These are a few pics I took of all the Microbees, etc I took when finally setup and before the crowd arrived. Note the 4 large Microbee posters in the background.
This shows my Kit Microbee with its original Monitor, red Case, original Manuals and the YC Magazine it was launched in (Feb '82). The Printer & Microbee 16 were from ACMS's collection (didnt bring mine) and my PC85 on the end with Tape unit and a few Tapes.
Next shows my 56k Microbee running its Boot disk, then the Overdrive 128k (though not plugged in at the moment), then my 512k Compact Flash unit (the Shell shows A: with 5012 kb available), a BeeModem behind, then a Teleterm & Manual (again not plugged in at the moment) with a ChalkBoard at the back (forgot its cable) followed by my 256TC with large Gotek screen on top.
This shows my 256TC again and a Microbee Mitac Portable with its bag & Manual behind and a Matilda Manual in the front. The last is my Archiving unit, a P4 running Windows XP on an Intel Motherboard where I can Read & Write Microbee 5.25" and 3.5" floppies. On top is an Eprom unit than can read & write all Microbee ROMs, in front of the screen is my Cassette tape deck that reads and writes Microbee, System-80 and Sorcerer Tapes and to the left is a portable flat bed scanner with few new Canberra Microbee Users Group Newsletters on top (that I scanned once home).
RE: ACMS March of the Microbee - 19th March 2022 - CheshireNoir - 23-03-2022
What an absolutely awesome setup. Wonderfully impressive.
Chesh