About RetroNET

RetroNET, also known as The NABU Preservation Group, started in December 2022 to preserve the NABU Corporation's legacy that began in the 1980s.

The NABU Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 1986. Today, our effort is to continue development toward the company's dream of having NABU Personal Computers connected to a worldwide network.

Articles About NABU

A collection of articles on the internet about the NABU Corporation.

Joystick

The untold story of Ottawa's coke-fueled 1980's video game industry. While, I don't agree with the name, this click-bait article has interesting stuff. 

Website

NABU DC

A story about the NABU Corporation's presence in the city of Washington D.C.

Website

From Electronic to Video Gaming

Computing in Canada: Historical Assessment Update by Jean-Louis Trudel

PDF

Ottawa mourns tech pioneer John Kelly

He was just somebody who truly wanted to see everyone achieve.

Website

Remember This?

Ottawa's NABU Network predated the rise of the Internet and home computer, but ultimately failed. It took decades for it to be recognized as being "ahead of its time."

Website

NABU T-shirts

NABU Canada Internet 1980 Essential T-Shirt Designed and sold by quark. 

*Disclaimer: this is not related to NABU RetroNET or Preservation Group. This is a project by someone else

Store

A GREAT LESSON, BUT NOT ABOUT OPENNESS

NABU failed because “The phone network was open whereas the cable networks were closed. End of story.”

Website

The Computer Hobby Movement in Canada

The subject of this paper is the computer hobby movement in Canada and its role in the introduction and social acceptance of personal computing in this country.

PDF

Academic Article

Interesting old archive about NABU that actually contains a link to old NABU photos that DJ Sures used to host on his old old old website (atomic.speculation.org) in the early 2000's.

Article

Doug Article/Advertisement

Not many people know that Doug was the official spokesperson of Ottawa’s Nabu Network of home computers.

Website

History of Cable Television

It was the middle of the 20th century when a fledgling new Canadian industry, cable television, had its small early beginnings.

Website

GRUNT PRESS

PDF scans of the NABU internal newsletter provided by Ray Teske.

PDFs

NABU Communities

We recommend these supportive communities and resources with positive atmospheres surrounding the NABU Personal Computer.

RetroNET Chat

Chat with other NABU-ers on your NABU with the Internet Adapter.

Get Internet Adapter

DJ Sures' YouTube

The NABU Playlist YouTube of DJ Sures. Witness the progress of hacking the NABU to crack the PAK that birthed the Internet Adapter.

NABU Video Playlist

Leo Binkowski's YouTube

Ex-NABU Software Engineer who has a time-capsule of NABU hardware and software.

Leo's YouTube Videos

Vintage Computer Federation

A thread started by Santo, who has been the main influence to reproduce the floppy drive controllers.

View Forum Thread

z88dk Forum

The z88dk forum thread regarding adding the NABU target and CPM.

View Forum Thread

NABU Central

A large collection of links related to the NABU, past and present.

View NABU Central

York University NABU Museum

The York University has built an operational NABU Network exhibit that you can visit.

Read more

Other NABU Projects

Several other ongoing projects are using the NABU PC.

Note: If we're missing something, please let DJ know so we can share it - although we do appreciate a link in return - thanks in advance! :)

Hanshuebner

Hans has a youtube channel and github repo with a number of NABU projects.

GitHub

GryBsh IA

Gry Bsh's github has an internet adapter that is web based. He's known for distributing PAK files wrapped in the main menu's bootp code. Gry Bsh has provided us with the list of .NABU arcade games in the nabu channel list.

GitHub

Electrogeek

Electrogeek was one of the original YouTube videos to begin diving into the ROM with DJ. He has been creating a custom ROM Monitor to make the NABU a standalone BASIC computer.

YouTube Playlist

Marduk

Along with MAME, Marduk is an attempt to emulate the obscure Canadian NABU Personal Computer. 

GitHub

Lars The 18th

In the early days before the MAME NABU emulator, Lars was first to emulate a NABU using the Open MSX emulator to run NABU software.

GitHub

Nabud

A NABU Internet Adapter that supports many RetroNET functions.

Read more

Team Behind NABU RetroNET

DJ Sures

Original NABU PAK cracker and author of The Internet Adapter, Cloud CP/M, and other tools & utilities.

Leo Binkowski

Ex-NABU Software Engineer and provider of vintange NABU hardware, software, and disk images.

Damian V

Web Theme & Logo

Synthiam

Hosting and bandwidth sponsor

Disclaimer

There is no legally registered entity behind The NABU Preservation Group. Enthusiasts, fans, and ex-NABU employees of the original NABU Corporation personally founded and maintained this group. The goal of the preservation group is to continue the development of the NABU Corporation's pursuit of network-connected NABU Personal Computers. At a young age, during NABU's hype on the Canadian public stock market,  DJ Sures was told by his father and uncles, who had worked for NABU, that one day he would be able to talk to friends, order flowers, or pay bills with the NABU network from his sofa on the family TV. While this capability is mainstream today, it was science fiction in 1981 when the NABU Network development began, and stories like that are the backbone of our efforts.

Continuing with the original vision, the community and founders of the NABU Preservation Group are giving new life to an almost 50-year-old computer.

All software, links, and documentation from this website are provided with no warranty. This website provides educational, entertainment, and technical information for NABU hardware owners and interested parties. The information, software, documentation, and links posted on this website are known to be free of viruses, trojans, and malicious intent to the best of our knowledge. The founders and community of this website, the NABU Preservation Group, are not responsible for any hardware or software damage done to your devices by attempting hardware modifications or software found on this website.

At no point will the NABU Preservation Group members be asking you for money in exchange for information, documentation, or software presented on the nabu.ca domain. Suppose you are approached by someone claiming to be part of the NABU Preservation Group community, and they request money or personal information; In that case, they are not a representation of the NABU Preservation Group and should be reported to the authorities for fraudulent activities.