MicroBee - A conversation with Owen Hill

Owen Hill speaks with me about his career and how he brought Australia's first personal computer to the market, the MicroBee, via his company Applied Technologies. The MicroBee was a Z80 based computer, running CPM. It grew out of a hobby project and was wildly successful. So much so, Owen and his team were hard-pressed keeping up with demand.
Owen shares his stories of selling computers to schools in Australia, often at the same time as an Apple rep. He goes on to tell us about his efforts in localising keyboards and software for other markets such as Sweeden and Russia when no one else was doing that.
MicroBee's ended up being used in a wide variety of fields and situations and had a huge fan base that exists even to this day.
This interview was recorded at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, 21/10/2010 for State of Electronics.

[@Fess_goat_problem]

The first computer I purchased in 1982 was the Microbee. It cost a fortune. I learnt a lot about software from that point on. Thanks to Owen Hill for having a go at starting a PC industry in Aus. It’s a pity we could not keep it going.

[@benjaminsmith4221]

I lived with this man for 8 years as my mother dated him for a long time. we lived on his property on the central coast and I can remember how intensley smart he was. He still has the same drive and mental sharpness he did 20 years ago when I used to watch him work in his office. Amazing to see what it takes to make a difference in a nation.

[@EEVblog]

I sold an old copy of that Your Computer magazine with the Microbee Kit on the front cover for like $120. The Microbee has many dedicated fanboys! Loving these new releases, keep it up!

[@StateofElectronics]

Thanks Dave will do my best

[@xjet]

I'm so glad you guys are archiving the history of the industry like this. Without your videos, much of this would be lost to time. Top stuff!

[@StateofElectronics]

Thank you. Yes, that is the aim but limited resources make this project challenging.

[@ingmarm8858]

Owen is right, it was an amazing time. Being able to be involved directly in the system you were using (I wrote the FNKEY editor which was distributed with the CP/M Bee) was amazing. The user groups were so passionate and you knew every mm of the machine. Great memories.

[@davidross3551]

Absolute gold. Kudos to all involved with making this video. Please persist with posting this brilliant series.

[@Chicharrera.]

My parents bought my 16 year old brother a Microbee personal computer in 1985. He sold his first code the next year and was written up in a computer magazine. Today, he is 54 and a computer programmer/systems analyst for the Australian Stock Exchange. His first born son, who is 29 now, followed in his shoes and works for Qantas Airways.

[@noswonky]

I went to the Waitara showroom in early 1982 and put my name on a waitling list to buy a MicroBee. Owen Hill himself wrote my name in the book. They haven't called me yet. Actually I ended up buying one (in kit form) by mail order a few months later. It was a great machine.

[@georgehayes7034]

I worked in Owens first factory in Hornsby then his showroom in Waitara. Such a nice guy, he still sounds the same as I remember him.

[@landspide]

Nice guy, very humble :)

[@SuperToughnut]

More of these videos please.

[@1944GPW]

We had Applied Technologies' S-100 computer, and as schoolkids, my brother and I used to go up to their shop at Hornsby every few weeks, spending our hard-earned pocket money (and Dad's money as well) on a GRI ASCII keyboard, their Programmable Character Generator add-on board for the VDU card, Z-80 CPU board, memory, card frame and everything else. And one day, we walked in there and everything had changed. No S-100 stuff to be seen. Just their new Microbee was everywhere. We were dumbfounded, having spent a LOT of money on our "home computer". We asked about what support we could expect, and the level of compatibility to which we were told 'yes compatible, sort of' or to that effect. So, purchasing some Microbee cassettes, they loaded into DGOS ok but it turned out that the keyboard routines were different so I had to hack them to use DGOS. I think some other things needed to be done as well (it was what, 38-something years ago now). Needless to say we weren't ecstatic considering we effectively now had an orphan computer. We ended up moving to an Apple ][ clone not long after, and from there to IBM PCs and I sold the Applied Tech S-100 system sometime in the late 80s early 90s.

[@lundsweden]

I still remember the Microbee, the first time I saw and used a computer in 6th class, here in Sydney NSW in 1985. I remember the Bee logo, but at the time thought it was made by Mitsubishi, as the monitor was Mitsubishi brand. I had no idea about the local input, manufacturing and software development that went into the MicroBee. Imagine, there were just two computers in a Primary school with 300+ students. The older students would have time booked in by their teacher and tutored by the most IT literate teacher!

[@fordprefect80]

I used to wander into the Newcastle office and look at the Microbees. The staff were probably saying, oh no not this kid again. I never saw a computer in school till year 11 and 12 where we had old XT ms-dos clones running database, spreadsheet and word processors. I didn't know anyone who owned a Microbee in the 80s, it was all Commodore 64 and Amstrad in the home for the most part. Still its great there was a least one home grown company having a go.

[@100ThingsIDo]

Fantastic! hope you do a chat with Peter Vogel at some point! :D Thanks for this.

[@StateofElectronics]

Yes that would be great. He has been on my list for some time

[@TheFleetz]

I built one of the microbee kits......I wish I still had it. Somewhere in a couple of house moves over the years it probably finished in a bin!

[@navusx]

Like this a lot, Telecom Australia used to churn out some brilliant Engineers when they had the cadetship scheme. It's also a pity that they also got rid of their R&D department which saw a lot of in-house innovations and creative ideas came out of those.

[@StateofElectronics]

Thanks for your comment

[@ingmarm8858]

The Sydney R&D labs were also brilliant because of the BBS they ran. You would call the first number (6630151??) which would disable metering pulses on the call to the second number so we used to get STD free calls to it.

[@SimonQuigley]

If someone redid this as a kit they would make a packet. I'm sure there are many people who were kids that used these that would love to be able to build their own now.

[@realjohnboxall]

Keep an eye on www.microbeetechnology.com.au/

[@davidorama6690]

Australian computer royalty.

[@davidorama6690]

If Owen was in Silicon Valley around this time he’d be lauded alongside Wozniak, etc.

[@michaelmowbray8217]

Wow! Bought my first 16K 'bee in '83 and it put me on the path I am today. (So proud I can boast my first computer was in KB not GB and MHz not GHz). Any idea if Owen is contactable I'd love to pass on my personal thanks.

[@RogerBarraud]

Yer done good, kid! :-)

[@gooseknack]

Its funny how the apprehension of selling taiwanese clones as microbees practically killed the company(it was spoken of in a magazine article from the 80's too).. It is a shame too, as they were a very practical unit and also, quite a powerful computer for the time. I will never forget how quickly the old 128k and the even the 256k loaded programs.. and the noise of the early 3-1/2 floppy, will always stay in my mind too!

[@stephenw2992]

I heard a lot about them, saw them in the electronics magazines, but am yet to see one in the flesh. I dont think many ever made it to Tasmania.

[@davidvermont8950]

no, Acorns did later, but the education department in Tas didn't buy them like VIC, WA, NSW, QLD, SA.

[@cygil1]

Tasmania went with BBC Micro.

[@stephenw2992]

@@cygil1 The schools did, but you saw every other type of computer used at home or by businesses. BBC virtually never sold outside the school system either.

[@headwerkn]

Tas State Education dept went BBC Micros and later Archimedes. Private schools tended to be Apple II and Mac. Not sure how many Microbees made it to Tasmania by my workmate still has his he bought in the 1980s.

[@headwerkn]

@@stephenw2992True. I only knew a few people who owned their own BBC Model Bs, all were teachers ;-) In the home Commodore 64s, Amstrad CPCs, Tandys and later IBM PCs were much more common.

[@EEVblog]

Where was this shot?

[@StateofElectronics]

The interview took place at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. A bit noisy unfortunately but convenient at the time.

[@EEVblog]

@@StateofElectronics Yep, saw that in the annotation, thanks.

[@PeterMilanovski]

@@StateofElectronics You might have to do a video on the museum! I didn't know that it existed! I was in Sydney late last year and I definitely would have went to see it had I know about it. The museum in Melbourne has some nice vintage electronics on display to that people just don't know existed... Who knows what other such places exist around Australia? Imagine organizing a tour for like minded people! The things that you would see and learn, the people that you would meet and the friendships made? Maybe it's time to start industry and manufacturing in Australia again? Anything is possible when the right people come together. These videos show that Australia wasn't a bystander in the world! We had some amazing people who were doing what would today seem the impossible! I'm tired of the cheap Chinese made rubbish that isn't going to last, and you just know it as soon as you get it in your hands! People don't even realize that we were making transistors here in Australia! And we were damn good at it to.