Leo Binkowski is an ex-NABU computer programmer (1982-1986) who was hired to create arcade games for the NABU Computer at a young age. The NABU Network software department was inspired to engage students to be game programmers with hopes of pushing their technology and adapting popular games of the time.

Leo’s first NABU-Internet fame was introduced with a video that he had posted on December 1, 2022. Blowing the minds of any kid who dreamed of being a game programmer in the 1980’s, before there was barely a suitable job description!

NABU Archaeology Part 1: Thirty-eight years after we’ve seen his introductory video. He dug out some special NABU PCs used for development, some sources of his programs, and recovered PAK floppies, And he showed a NABU floppy drive! All of it needs cleaning before powering up because all that dust will make things spit sparks.

NABU Archaeology Part 2: Leo introduces the NABU Developer/Cabserve Mass Storage Unit and the insides. He also shows an actual NABU Adapter! Not in action, of course, but he couldn’t find any examples online, so he thought people would be interested in the insides and what he knows about it.

NABU Archaeology Part 3: Today, Leo shows the booty from the latest foray into storage; he corrects his previous statement about RS-232 and development systems, offering the actual Double Sided floppy cable. He also shows a parallel printer cable and provides the pinouts. He gives booting from the flabby a shot and has a Co-op student named Ben helping him! Everyone, please thank my lovely wife, Lisa, for putting up with me upending our life to accommodate everyone for this project. The NABU cycle is live after launching 40 years ago, then dark for 37 years.

NABU Archaeology Part 4: Find more when I visit the tomb under the stairs of my basement, where all unused devices are forgotten. An extra MSU (Mass Storage Unit) provides disappointment, inspiration, and disappointment again… My development system is dead. That makes me very sad. I didn’t treat her very well, and I am genuinely sorry for that—the 3rd-age joystick, compared to the 1st-age joystick. There was no one joystick to rule them all. Our furniture belongs to the cats and dogs, as you can see.

NABU Archaeology Part 5: None of them work with NABU RetroNet, yet, but the hardware enthusiasts want to study them, so I retrieve them. All the ROM firmware I discussed can be found at here.

NABU Archaeology Part 6: I talk about the GRUNT Press, the RS-422 crossover cable, a few souvenirs, and my new setup this time.

NABU Pac-Man Easter Egg: NABU Marketing wouldn’t let the Games Programmers put their names in the credits like other companies, so we found clever ways could demonstrate that we were the authors of the games. This Pac-Man easter egg is revealed by eating a specific dot last on the strawberry board. #shorts I was 18 years old when I wrote this, and Laura Schening was just 17.

NABU Archaeology Part 7: I provide an example of a Z80 program from start to finish, including testing with the MAME Emulator. I want to introduce my GitHub, where you can find the source code for the demonstrated example.

NABU Archaeology Part 8: I’ve tried to extract treasures from the NABU floppies, but the results are mangled. Watch this to try to identify where I went wrong. Perhaps you can give me advice on what to do next?

This is a recorded version of “The Ghost of NABU Past presentation” that Leo Binkowski made for the Vintage Computer Festival East on April 14th, 2023 in Wall, NJ. It’s also a director’s cut, since Leo added some segments that he had removed to make sure to stay comfortably with the time he was allotted for his VCF East presentation.

NABU Archaeology Part 10: This video describes how Leo built NABU Computer Pac-Man way back when, and what you have to work with now! NABU PC Pac-Man source code available on Github.

NABU Archaeology Part 11: In this video, Leo talks about development of NABU Miner 2049er, present the source code, and show the cheat key and easter egg! Here is Leo’s NABU Miner 2049er source code.

A huge “thank you” to NABU Software Engineering legend Leo Binkowski for publishing these videos to his YouTube channel.