Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
I bought this vintage bubble memory computer on eBay that was previously owned by a sportswriter to write NCAA stories while on the road. The listing said the keyboard didn't work, and that was indeed the case when I received it. Checking out the keyboard in detail didn't reveal any issues, but I ended up adjusting and recapping the power supply and the keyboard input snapped back to life. While working on it, problems developed with the CRT focus, so I fixed that too. The portabubble would have been popular for newspaper reporters and other authors back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It had a Z80 CPU, as well as 7110-4 bubble memory. Lots of small ROMs such as 2532s and 2716s. A few RAM chips. A pretty interesting little portable computer / word processor. It even had a cartridge slot, though I have no idea what cartridges might have been available. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
I bought this vintage bubble memory computer on eBay that was previously owned by a sportswriter to write NCAA stories while on the road. The listing said the keyboard didn't work, and that was indeed the case when I received it. Checking out the keyboard in detail didn't reveal any issues, but I ended up adjusting and recapping the power supply and the keyboard input snapped back to life. While working on it, problems developed with the CRT focus, so I fixed that too. The portabubble would have been popular for newspaper reporters and other authors back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It had a Z80 CPU, as well as 7110-4 bubble memory. Lots of small ROMs such as 2532s and 2716s. A few RAM chips. A pretty interesting little portable computer / word processor. It even had a cartridge slot, though I have no idea what cartridges might have been available. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
