Floppy Days 133 - Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon

Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast

Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays

Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics

• Arcade Shopper

0 Floppy Days Tune

1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads

1 min 43 sec Intro

6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon

7 min 15 sec New Acquisitions

13 min 55 sec bumper - Steve O'Hara-Smith

14 min 13 sec Upcoming Computer Shows

17 min 26 sec Interview with Gerald McMullon

57 min 51 sec Closing

Hello, and welcome to episode 133 of the Floppy Days Podcast for December, 2023. I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this vintage computer retrospective.

Hard to believe we’re coming up on the end of 2023. It was Feb. 2013 when I took the first halting steps in producing a podcast, so we’re coming up on 11 years of Floppy Days very soon.

We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982. We are very early in that year, with lots of other computers to be covered.

This episode is about a machine that was developed in the UK. It was pretty much unknown in the United States and even in the UK didn’t get much traction. The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain. There are a lot of unique things about this machine that you’ll discover through the history episode, these interviews and the episodes that cover the details.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to contact a few people who were involved in the development of the machine. I’ve published interviews so far with John Grant and Steve O’Hara-Smith. This episode is also an interview episode, but this time with another key member in its development: Gerald McMullon. Gerald has a lot of interesting information to share about the NewBrain, including information about its development and support of the machine after its release.

I have been able to contact some other principals in the development of the NewBrain: Basil Smith and Mike Wakefield. Unfortunately, Basil has had a lot of recent requests for interviews, so I’m waiting in line for that. However, should I be able to talk with Basil and/or Mike, I will of course bring all of that to Floppy Days in future episodes.

This current episode is the end of the interview episodes around the NewBrain at this point in time. Next month, and actually likely the next 2 months, we will be covering the details of the machine such as tech specs, emulators, software, newsletters, peripherals, web sites, etc. That will happen with a special co-host that I’m going to leave as a surprise for right now.

New Acquisitions

• TI95 cassette interface - https://github.com/molleraj/ti95interface

• AquariCart + 32K RAM - https://www.ebay.com/itm/124471439128

• MC-10 3-button joystick pad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzsGst8HAiI

Upcoming Computer Shows

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

• Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23rd and 24th, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://sdf.org/icf/

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

• VCF East - April 12-14, 2024 - Wall, NJ - http://www.vcfed.org

• Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/

• VCF Europa - April 27-28, 2024 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/

• 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/

• Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info

• Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 14-15 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start

• Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - https://www.amigashow.com/

• Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/

• Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2024/

• Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 15-28 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2024-se

• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29, 2024 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/

• Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2024-we

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

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

Interview

• Gerald’s Website - http://www.mcmullen.com

• NewBrain Nutshell History by Gerald at Binary Dinosaurs - https://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Grundy/gerald.php

• NewBrain history article by Gerald in Micro Computer Mart newsletter - https://newbrainemu.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,96/Itemid,52/