Nabu PC, an 80's computer very similar to MSX

By geijoenr

Champion (359)

26-11-2022, 20:26

Does anybody know about this computer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLYjZoShjy0&ab_channel=Adria...

Is interesting that looks internally like an MSX with some hardware additions.

By Accumulator

Expert (116)

26-11-2022, 20:52

Maybe as interesting as the Sakhr AX-990.
Video time

By CASDuino

Champion (323)

26-11-2022, 21:38

A friend of mine has just recently acquired one.

Really interesting machines.
When I first looked at the specs I thought they were very MSX like.
Very early 'Smart TV' type of thing.

You can find schematics on here and Archive.org.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6397)

26-11-2022, 23:41

More info here:
https://deskthority.net/wiki/Nabu_PC

http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/nabu/index.htm

Interesting detail:
"Inside the Nabu Personal Computer. The board on top is an optional floppy disk controller. Floppy disks were provided on the "developers version" of the machine, allowing it to boot CP/M and be used to develop Network applications.

The standard version of the machine also ran CP/M, however it was hidden from the user and no access was provided to the CP/M system prompt."

https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/nabu

With this amazing info:
"Because of the lack of any applications software, some rudimentary math games were developed. Furthermore, the Heli-Tank game offered by the Japanese ASCII Corporation for its MSX home computer was disassembled and adopted to the reconstructed network. In fact, this game was originally published by NABU under the title Mania and, later, adapted for MSX."

By gdx

Enlighted (5997)

27-11-2022, 09:11

Mabu PC seems to need access to a network via the "ADAPTOR" port to work. So it probably needs a hack and creation of a storage device to run a software. There is also a version for developers with a floppy disk drive. Maybe recovering the ROM from this one, network access would no longer be needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLYjZoShjy0

This would explain why the Nabu PC was not popular and why we cannot find any software today (like TheLink).

With a storage device bootable, it should be easy to convert Coleco and SG-1000 games, and probably a large part of MSX games in ROMs up to 32 kB.

By CASDuino

Champion (323)

27-11-2022, 17:24

York University has 2 linked Nabu PCs and my friend is trying to get a disk drive fitted to his.

By CASDuino

Champion (323)

07-12-2022, 12:28

The Nabu is online.

YouTube