+- Discussion Forum for all things Microbee (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum)
+-- Forum: Microbee Forum (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Buzzing About (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 (/thread-921.html)
Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - ChickenMan - 05-06-2025
Its on again this year Saturday July 19th 10am to 3pm at a new site, Daramalan College, Dickson. ACT.[url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/Daramalan-College/109412979078000][/url]
Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition / Vintage Computer Federation Down Under 2025!
Supported by the Australian Computer Museum Society and in association with the Vintage Computer Federation.
Our 4th Event!
This year we'll be hosted by Daramalan College in McCowage Hall, in Dickson.
All the great stuff you have seen in previous years and hopefully more. Interactive exhibition pieces, Australian computer history, games, consoles, and presentations on topics ranging from early computing revolution to modern retro.
Also, Amiga turns 40 this year! Atari ST fans unite! 😉. We'll be celebrating this iconic machine's 40th year so come and see all of it's iterations!
Entry is free, but if you'd like to help us cover some of the costs a donation at the door, or via the ACMS website, would be greatly appreciated. All proceeds go to the ACMS who help us fund and run safe events.
We hope to see you there! Please spread the word!
Keep an eye on our page for updates as we get closer to the event. If you'd like to participate/exhibit or volunteer to assist, get in touch.
https://www.facebook.com/share/15zabzbEgJ/
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - langra - 02-07-2025
I intend to go again this year.
Who else amongst the Microbee community is planning to go as well?
Perhaps we could coordinate timing and convene a retro CMUG get-together. Let's see if we can get a bigger turnout than the recent neo-MUGWA confab in Perth.
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - ChickenMan - 02-07-2025
Unfortunately I wont be going this year, I've just moved house (downsizing) and priority has been getting the new house organized. All my Microbees, etc are still in boxes somewhere in the garage.
A Retro CMUG or members from any other old Microbee club sounds like a great idea to me.
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - MbeeTech - 02-07-2025
(02-07-2025, 05:35 PM)langra Wrote: I intend to go again this year.
Who else amongst the Microbee community is planning to go as well?
Perhaps we could coordinate timing and convene a retro CMUG get-together. Let's see if we can get a bigger turnout than the recent neo-MUGWA confab in Perth.
I'll be there with an exhibit of Microbee computers. Not sure which ones I'm taking as yet, aside from the new models.
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - MbeeTech - 22-07-2025
Hi All.
Well, the Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition for 2025 happened over the weekend and it was a great success.
Congratulations to the organizers for hosting a great event. It was a very busy day on Saturday with a mass of vintage tech on display and
very busy foot traffic around each of the exhibits. Lots of great conversations were had.
Here's a couple of pics of what was on the Microbee Technology Stand :
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - ChickenMan - 25-08-2025
And here is a small video of the event to show it off. Good shot of the Microbee's in action.
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - VK2FVAX - 09-09-2025
I loved it this year again.
Hey Ewan.. maybe a next project could be a Gamma? People could start writing 16bit Z8k software again
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - MbeeTech - 09-09-2025
(09-09-2025, 11:08 AM)VK2FVAX Wrote: Hey Ewan.. maybe a next project could be a Gamma? People could start writing 16bit Z8k software again
Ha.
No, the Gamma will never be released as a new model.
Honestly, while it was a great design at the time, I think people would be disappointed.
The graphics resolution was great for the time, but with no hardware support for line drawing or
bit block transfers (BITBLP) it was well behind the Amiga, and even the Atari ST. That means that the
M68K processor had to do all the graphics work in software. It didn't even have simple support for scrolling.
Aside from 2 items (screen resolution and lack of memory management system) the new models actually
outshine the Gamma in so many ways.
* The M68K processor runs at 66Mhz (Gamma 8Mhz)
* Fully backwards compatible with all previous Z80 bee software (Gamma not)
* 16 separate palettes of 16 colours for both foreground and background - programmable per character cell
for up to 256 colours on screen at once (Gamma 16 colours from 4096)
* Hardware cursor / Sprite of 128 x 64 pixels with selectable palette. (Gamma - no hardware support for this)
* 32Mbyte SDRAM as standard (Gamma pre-production had 1Mb with max of 7Mb)
* Dual (stereo) 8k sound FIFO's for sound out via speaker (Stereo -> mono), Stereo line out, and Stereo out via HDMI (Gamma mono 4k FIFO)
There's more, but you get the gist.
The Gamma was way too complex too, for the hobbyist to build and fault find, with the M68k processor and 2 x Z80's all sharing a common bus.
The 2 Gammas that Microbee Technology has were a nightmare to repair and get fully operational as a result. Both required a logic anaylser
to get them going to see where the boot process stalled.
It is possible that the Gamma OS will get a port to the new machines though. Maybe.
RE: Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2025 - VK2FVAX - 09-09-2025
Hello Ewan,
All noted. I still run a lot of old 68k UNIX and UNIX-like systems and don't mind the slowness. Anything from the era is no rocket-ship for sure.
I strongly suspect that emotionally, the Gamma is a bit like the Amiga4000 or the Atari Falcon030 (sparrow) or C65 in that it was the last thing AE was working on.. so it's that mystical "Never was" that's so intriguing. The only other Z8k Coherent system I can think of was the Commodore C900 which only ever shipped to developers prior to cancellation.
I understand what you mean regarding the large scope of the complexity, I've seen and worked on bringing back some of the early SUN and SGI designs. Z8k though is a very rare beast. I've oft wondered wondered as to the legal status of the AE port of Mark Williams Company's Coherent to Z8k is and if any of the /usr/include/sys equiv has survived. I've only dabbled in FPGA's in the past but the support logic for a more modern CPU would probably fit into not terribly many cells.
Just dreaming still I guess >35+ years on. I was extremely excited to see the working system at VCF-Canbs. That was ..honestly moving.
Kind Regards,
Al Boyanich
P.S. Apparently Coherent is now open-source under a BSD-3 Clause license. over here..
That'll want some reading.