With the release of Leo Binkowski’s recovered Mass Storage Unit (MSU hard drive) cabserve from 1986 last night (February 15, 2024) we’ve started to dig in and see what sort of goodies we can find. Behold! The NABU PC Field Diagnostic Tests v2.2:

To load the Field Diagnostic Tests v2.2 software use the “NABU Network 1986 Leo’s Cycle (Feb 2024)” shortcut option and type in PCTEST then press Go!

If you haven’t tried it, be sure to check out our Open Source NABU Network Internet Adapter software and play some classic retro video games!

This piece of software is an amazing addition to have along with using Rudy’s Retro Intel NABU Computer Diagnostics document which as of this blog post has been updated to cover using the Field Diagnostic Tests v2.2 software.

You can find Rudy’s updated v1.8.1 (February 16, 2024) NABU Computer Diagnostics PDF document on our NABU Network resources page under the “Rudy’s Retro Intel NABU Related Documentation” section.

If you are having issues with your NABU computer and need to do some diagnostics, troubleshooting or repairs, Rudy’s document is a wealth of useful information for any NABU PC repair for sure!

As an added bonus, Rudy has some really good NABU computer related videos on his Rudy’s Retro Intel YouTube channel, so be sure to check out his channel if you haven’t already.

If you’d like to help with the NabuNetwork.com preservation project, feel free to get in touch as we are always looking to improve things around the site. Remember, NABU Forever!!!

Thanks to Leo Binkowski, with the help of Santo from vintagecomputer.ca, they have successfully recovered files from Leo’s Mass Storage Unit (MSU hard drive) cabserve from 1986.

According to Leo this would be the last cycle that broadcast from the original NABU Network in Canada before they went off the air back on August 31, 1986.

There are 2 awesome and really fun 3D games in this cycle worth checking out. Those NABU PC game titles are Tank Commander and Tennis:

To load them use the NABU Network 1986 Leo’s Cycle (Feb 2024) shortcut option and type in TANK COMMANDER or TENNIS then press Go! Boom, you’re off to the races!

Even though Manager’s Baseball is in this Cycle Menu, the MB000 pak is sadly not included, however some of the data files are there so there’s hope it can possibly be recovered.

The way Leo talks about Manager’s Baseball, it sounds really impressive from a game software programming stand point, especially for the time period it was created.

Thanks to GryBsh of NabuNetSim (NNS) for help in making this recovered 1986 MSU hard drive NABU Network cycle available in the NabuNetwork.com Internet Adapter software.

If you’d like to start enjoying it right now, it’s listed as “NABU Network 1986 Leo’s Cycle (Feb 2024)” in our official NabuNetwork.com Internet Adapter software.

If you haven’t tried it, be sure to check out our Open Source NABU Network Internet Adapter software and play some classic retro video games!

For those who might be interested, if you’d like to help with the NabuNetwork.com preservation project, feel free to get in touch as we are always looking to improve things around the site. Remember, NABU Forever!!!

Thanks to brijohn from the NABU Community we now have the classic Broderbund game Choplifter converted from the MSX version to the NABU Personal Computer which is now available using the NabuNetwork.com v2.0 software and is located in the Game Room section.

For this MSX to NABU PC port, Brian made a few changes since the MSX version uses it’s second joystick button to turn the helicopter around.

In the NABU version it works like the Commodore 64 or Apple II variants where you press the fire button while holding left or right. Keyboard also works with the controls being arrows to move and space to fire.

In addition there is an infinite lives cheat, press and hold YES and then press NO while at the title screen, If you then start a game you will have infinite lives.

Choplifter is a military themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family the same year and also to the VIC-20, C64, Atari 5200 (1984), ColecoVision, MSX, and Thomson computers.

The player assumes the role of a combat helicopter pilot. The player attempts to save hostages being held in barracks in territory ruled by the evil Bungeling Empire. The player must collect the hostages and transport them safely to the nearby U.S. Postal Service building, all the while fighting off hostile tanks and other enemy combatants.

If you haven’t tried it, be sure to check out our NABU Network Internet Adapter software and play some classic video games!

To find out more about MSX game ports like Choplifter and other NABU games projects, please check out the NABU Network Github resources page under the “Other Fun NABU Software Projects” section.

Thanks to brijohn from the NABU Community we now have the classic Activision game River Raid converted from the MSX version to the NABU Personal Computer which is now available using the NabuNetwork.com v2.0 software and is located in the Game Room section.

River Raid is a video game developed by Carol Shaw for the Atari Video Computer System (Atari 2600) and released in 1982 by Activision. The player controls a fighter jet over the River of No Return in a raid behind enemy lines. The goal is to navigate the flight by destroying enemies while collecting fuel and not crashing.

If you haven’t tried it, be sure to check out our NABU Network Internet Adapter software and play some classic video games!

To find out more about MSX game ports like River Raid and other NABU games projects, please check out the NABU Network Github resources page under the “Other Fun NABU Software Projects” section.

Thanks to E.E. Johnson from the Nabu Community we have the MSX game Deep Dungeon Adventure ported to the NABU Personal Computer which is now available using the NabuNetwork.com v2.0 software and is located in the Homebrew Software section.

Deep Dungeon Adventure is a Rougelike dungeon crawling game. It was originally created for the MSX by ARTRAG, John Hassink and Huey of Trilobyte. Deep Dungeon Adventure won the MSXdev08 competition.

This port is based on the source code release of the enhanced version. It has the full features of the original, including the easter egg.

As an added bonus to the NABU open source community, the NABU port source code is available from E.E. Johnson’s Github.

Here is a video from E.E. Johnson’s YouTube channel showing the game in action:

If you haven’t tried it, check out our NABU Network Internet Adapter software.

To find out more about other MSX game ports to the NABU computer like Deep Dungeon Adventure, please check out the NABU Network Github resources page under the “Other Fun NABU Software Projects” section.

I found out about the NABU PC from Adrian (Adrian’s Digital Basement) on November 15, 2022, and ordered my first NABU unit (he had also ordered one) with the idea it might be useful for parts down the road.

Adrian’s first NABU video on YouTube went public on November 26, 2022. It was up earlier, on November 20, 2022, for his Patreon supporters. Adrian found out about the NABUs for sale on eBay from another retro computer friend.

The sales of the new old stock NABU’s had passed around in a few forums and other social media places on a limited scale during this time prior to Adrian’s video being created. James (PellMill eBay seller) had also been selling them on his local Craigslist.

Leo Binkowski, an ex-NABU computer programmer (1982–1986) informed the NABU Community of the following earlier today (December 12, 2023):

“This is actually my third try to resurrect NABU. I tried by myself in 1995. Then when I found out York University was trying to recover the project in 2009, I recovered most of the titles you see today. I was told a book was being written about NABU at that time, and all of the software I recovered stayed locked up at York U.

Tim Ranger, the author of Laser Attack, NABU Galaxian, and NABU Q*Bert with me was actually the one who emailed me about Adrian Black’s video, around the time it came out. I had long given up searching the internet for mentions of NABU.”

DJ Sures first video about NABU on his YouTube channel was posted on November 22, 2022, when it arrived at his place, so it seems Adrian, myself, and DJ all ordered within a day or two of each other based on when we received them.

Leo Binkowski reached out to DJ Sures in the comment section of his first NABU video, introducing himself to DJ, and DJ replied in part, “Really great to meet you, Leo,” then asked Leo in a follow-up comment, “If you can share your software, my project would be very appreciated!”.

Basically, once Adrian’s original video hit his 100K+ subscribers on November 26, 2022, the NABU craze really took off, and once Leo started providing a few of us with his original NABU software cycles from 1984, which was first provided to the York Museum back in 2009, it was like pouring gas on a fire.

As shown on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine for December 3, 2022, Leo’s nabu.ca domain name was still pointed and redirecting to the York Musuem website:

It was around December 7, 2022 when Leo started pointing his nabu.ca domain name away from the York NABU Museum page and let DJ Sures put up his NABU-related site to showcase his “RetroNET cloud server” Network Adapter emulator software project:

On December 5, 2022 this NABU Network (NabuNetwork.com) website was launched to help expand and spread the NABU computer knowledge reach.

One year later, many of us have created all sorts of cool NABU stuff (Internet adapter software, floppy drive controllers, serial cards, etc.). Without Leo providing the cycle software, none of this would have happened, at least not as quickly, for sure.

-Sean

One year ago today we launched NabuNetwork.com to celebrate all things NABU Network, NABU Computers and so much more! Here are some of the highlights from the past year:

• NABU PC Serial Number Database
• Open Source NABU PC Internet Adaper Software
• NABU Computer IA Source Code Released on Github
• Updated NABU Network Historical Information
• Amazing videos about NABU Computers

If you’d like to help with the NabuNetwork.com preservation project, feel free to get in touch as we are always looking to improve things around the site. Remember, NABU Forever!!!

Brian (brijohn of NABU MAME fame) created a PDF describing how to modify an Atari paddle controller for use with the NABU computer, as well as describing how the keyboard sends the analog data to the NABU PC.

For those interested in this sweet Atari paddle controller modification, you can snag the PDF from the NABU Network Resources page under Documentation.

All we need now is a nice port of Arkanoid with proper paddle support for the NABU PC

Recently Leo Binkowski shared a wonderful piece of NABU history from one of the first NABU employees and Engineers: Don Sawyer.

Back in 1983 Don wrote a very realistic view of the computer market for NABU higher ups. In January 2010 he wrote a detailed recap about those times for historical purposes.

Sadly Don died June 19, 2022. It’s awesome Don Sawyer had the vision to document those early times at NABU and share them with some former NABU co-workers.

Don Sawyer’s realistic view of the computer market in 1983 is a really great read into what was happening with NABU back in the early days. You can read it in the NABU Network Historical Archives section of the website.

Thank you kindly to Leo Binkowski for sharing this wonderful piece of NABU history with the modern day NABU computer community.

NABU Discord user “E E Johnson” recently created a really cool Matrix style screen saver called “NABU Digi Rain” and put his open source code up on Github:

Features and NABU keyboard control keys:

• C will toggle chonky or thin font
• + or – will speed up or slow down the update speed
• R will reset/clear the screen
• Pause will of course pause the program

NABU Digi Rain is available as a homebrew .nabu or a CP/M .com file which is awesome! If you have a NABU computer, you should download NABU Digi Rain right away! It runs great on our NABU Network Internet Adapter software and is now available using the NabuNetwork.com v2.0 software located in the Homebrew Software section.

If you have the hardware the F18A builds set a custom colour palette making the dark green darker and replacing white with a very bright green. Currently this feature isn’t supported by emulators like MAME, so you’ll need real hardware to see it.

The random function is originally from Aleksi Eeben’s 1K WHACK for the VIC20. The z80 version used here is from Deep Dungeon Adventure by ARTRAG, John Hassink and Huey of Trilobyte. See random.asm for license information.

The fonts are derived from emutyworks 8x8DotJPFont, which itself is derived from Num Kadoma’s Misaki font. See the font files for license information.

If you’d like to help with the NabuNetwork.com preservation project, feel free to get in touch as we are always looking to improve things around the site. Remember, NABU Forever!!!