The Grundy NewBrain History with John Grant

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Hello, and welcome to episode 131 of the Floppy Days Podcast; where old computers get a new lease on life and have a purpose once again!  I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this journey to the late 70’s through the 80’s.

We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982; a banner year for personal computers.

Next up is a computer that few in the United States know much about.  It was released in the UK and even there didn’t get much traction.  It was a unique beast, with its own personality and quirks; before it went quietly into the annals of history.  The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain.  Certainly a bold and pretentious name for a computer, but memorable nonetheless.

As it was so relatively unknown, I’m going to be spending a lot of air time talking about its history.  Here’s how I’m planning to cover this unique machine:

1. in this episode I’ll be summarizing its history, including a short interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, whose company did some work on the machine

2. a later episode will have an interview with Steve O’Hara Smith, who was involved with development of the machine

3. yet another episode will have an interview with Gerald McMullon, also having done some work on the early NewBrain, as well as support after its release

4. Finally, there will be 1 or more episodes to cover the usual topics of tech specs, Web sites, emulators, etc.  I will have a special guest co-host for that.

So, as you can see, there’s a ton of upcoming information about the NewBrain.  Please join me in learning more about this unusual machine.

Before we get into the history of the machine, I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to and have been able to acquire lately, computer and modern upgrade-wise.

New Acquisitions

• the Commodore Room - https://www.youtube.com/@thecommodoreroom4554 

• Tandy Assembly - http://www.tandyassembly.com 

• PiKey-10 upgrade - http://www.pikey.tech/ 

• NewSoft - (https://jaynewirth.wixsite.com/newsoft 

• CoCo3 512K RAM upgrade - http://www.cloud9tech.com 

• CoCo Multi-pak PAL upgrade - http://www.cloud9tech.com 

• ChromaTRS - https://www.ebay.com/str/trs80universe 

• Vintage computer printed items - https://techdungeon.xyz/ 

• 48KRAM (Josh Malone) Twitch channel - https://twitch.tv/48kRAM 

Vintage Computer Shows

• Atari Party 2023! - Saturday, December 2, 2023, 1pm to 4pm - Quakertown Train Station, Quakertown, PA - https://quakertowntrainstation.org - organized by Peter Fletcher

• World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - http://www.worldofcommodore.ca/ 

• Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 17-18, 2024 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com 

• Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/ 

• VCF East - April 5-7, 2024 - Wall, NJ - http://www.vcfed.org 

• Indy Classic Computer & Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Indianapolis, IN - http://www.indyclassic.org 

• The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ 

• VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/ 

• http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html 

• Facebook show schedule - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/ 

References

• history article by Gerald McMullen - https://newbrainemu.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,96/Itemid,52/ 

• Grundy NewBrain history at Centre for Computing History - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/5291/Grundy-NewBrain-AD/ 

• Grundy articles at Centre for Computing History - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/8265/Grundy-Business-Systems/ 

• Grundy NewBrain at old-computers.com - https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=176 

• Grundy NewBrain at Binary Dinosaurs - https://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Grundy/index.php 

• 2012 Article on the Grundy NewBrain at The Register - https://www.theregister.com/2012/07/02/newbury_labs_grundy_business_systems_newbrain_is_30_years_old/ 

• NewBrain at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundy_NewBrain