The Nabu Personal Computer

An image of the Nabu Personal Computer

 
The Nabu Personal Computer is a home computer system that utilized the NABU system, a predecessor to the World Wide Web.

It was primarily used in Ottowa, Canada. The Nabu Network was considered revolutionary but was not commercially successful.
Considered ahead of its time, the Nabu Personal Computer released in 1982 that was meant to connect businesses and families.

It was used in Canadian schools, homes and other businesses by hooking up the computer to a modem, as pictured below.



 picture taken at Retro Game Con 2025, Syracuse, NY
 The card reads: "The NABU PC is a Z80-based home compter system released by the NABU Network Corporation in Ottowa, Canada.
NABU stands for Natural Access to Bidirectional Utilities. The NABU lacked storage such as floppy drives or hard dirves but
instead relied upon the NABU Network that operated over the cable TV system from 1982 to 1985. Subscribers could download
applications including games, programming tools, banking and shopping, and news.
The network predated the modern internet and is considered ahead of its time."
picture taken at Retro Game Con 2025, Syracuse, NY

Young programmers were hired to convert popular arcade games to work on the NABU Network. 
Leo Binkowski, one such programmer, was scouted by NABU at a computer camp where he had been teaching kids how to program in Microsoft BASIC.
Leo now runs nabu.ca, a project dedicated to archiving and preserving Nabu technology. 

The Nabu is a classic yet forgotten example of an invention breaching the "adjacent possible." 
The Nabu's failure came down to the NABU Network only being accessible through Nabu PCs. It was a one-way connection.

Since the service was provided by cable television networks in the Ottowan area, the Nabu was never able to expand beyond the area 
it was launched in despite unsuccessful attempts to launch NABU network overseas, leading to its failure.