Floppy Days 135 - Grundy New Brain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis
Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast
Release Date: 01/28/2024
Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast
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FLOPPY DAYS 158 - Interview with David Kay, KayPro - Part 2 Patreon: Sponsors: and Hello, and welcome to episode 158 of the Floppy Days Podcast for December, 2025. I’m Randy Kindig, your host. We are currently covering computers introduced in the year 1982 and, to that end, this month I’m beginning a series of podcasts about the Kaypro line of computers. Kaypro had a rich and varied family of computers; certainly much more so than I ever realized. In researching Kaypro, I discovered that while Andrew Kay, the founder of the...
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FLOPPY DAYS 157 - Interview with David Kay, KayPro - Part 1 Patreon: Sponsors: and Hello, and welcome to episode 157 of the Floppy Days Podcast for November, 2025. I am Randy Kindig, your host. We are currently covering computers introduced in the year 1982 and, to that end, this month I’m beginning a series of podcasts about the Kaypro line of computers. Kaypro had a rich and varied family of computers; certainly much more so than I ever realized. In researching Kaypro, I discovered that while Andrew Kay, the founder of the computer...
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Floppy Days 156 - Interview with Paul Schindler, Computer Chronicles Patreon: Sponsors: and Hello, and welcome to episode 156 of the Floppy Days Podcast for October, 2025. I’m Randy Kindig, your host for this “retro”spective covering vintage computers of the late 70’s through the 80’s and the people who were on the forefront of that incredible revolution. This month, I’m bringing you another interview episode with a tech media personality that was involved with the Computer Chronicles TV show (among many other things): Mr....
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Interview with Karl Hornell - C64 Game Developer, Cartoonist, Author Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 155 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September, 2025! I’m Randy Kindig, your host for this podcast, where we talk about the computers that got many of us started in our careers and which still hold a lot of interest for us today. This month, I’m bringing you another interesting interview with someone who at an early age started developing commercial-grade software for the Commodore 64, which started him on an amazing trajectory with...
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Floppy Days 154 - Interview with Chuck Mauro, Part 2 Patreon: Sponsors: New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To TI-55 9-Volt Battery Mod 9V Battery Clip Connectors from Amazon - YouTube video that talks about and shows the modification - New Compute’s Gazette - C64 Ultimate - Chroma81 - Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield -...
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Floppy Days 153 - Interview with Chuck Mauro, Part 1 Patreon: Sponsors: New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To KFest - CoCo 5V USB adapter - Tim Halloran: Tryout Cable at GitHub - Tim did a talk at Tandy Assembly 2021. You can find the slides here - Video of USB Conversion by Tim - Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows VCF West - August 1-2 - Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA - VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - Tandy...
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HP-97/67 Programmable Calculator, Part 3 With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz Patreon: Sponsors: Videos of this and other episodes at the YouTube channel: Hello, and welcome to episode 152 of the Floppy Days Podcast for June, 2025. My name is Randy Kindig and I’m the host for this lovefest for vintage computers and programmable calculators from the late 70’s thru the 80’s. If you love old computers, you’ve found the right place! This month, I’m completing the ongoing series of episodes about the HP 97/67 programmable calculators. ...
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Interview with James Nagle, Reboot of Compute’s Gazette Magazine Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 151 of the Floppy Days Podcast for May, 2025. My name is Randy Kindig and I’m the host for this ode to computers that only survive in our memories and our collections. This month, I’m continuing to step aside from the ongoing series of episodes about the HP 97/67 programmable calculators to bring you a timely interview that basically constitutes current news. I don’t often do this, but this news was so exciting to me that I...
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Interview with David Greelish, Apple Lisa Documentary Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 150 of the Floppy Days Podcast for April, 2025. My name is Randy Kindig and I’m the host for this journey through the annals of home computer history. This month, I’m going to step aside from the ongoing series of episodes about the HP 97/67 programmable calculators to bring you a timely interview with a good friend about an interesting topic. That friend is David Greelish, a computer historian, and the topic is his recent publication of a film...
info_outlineGrundy NewBrain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis
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0 Floppy Days Tune
1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads
1 min 43 sec Intro
5 min 38 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis
5 min 51 sec New Acquisitions
16 min 32 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon
17 min 15 sec Upcoming Computer Shows
21 min 26 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith
21 min 45 sec Interview with Chris Espoinidis
36 min 23 sec Tech Specs
1 hr 12 min 07 sec Closing
Hello, and welcome to episode 135 of the Floppy Days Podcast. I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain. This machine, if you've been following the show, was the Grundy New Brain. This is not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one.
As you know, I’ve been hot on the trail of pioneers who were involved with development of this machine. I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day.
In this episode I move more into discussing details of the machine and its impact on the home and small business market in the 1980’s. To help me talk about the machine, I was able to track down Chris Espoinidis and convince him to co-host this episode. Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece. Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse).
The focus of this episode, and the next, is to cover things like tech specs, Web sites, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days. This particular episode contains an interview with Chris, and then goes into great detail concerning the technical specifications of the New Brain. The next episode will cover all the other details, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine.
Before we do that, I will talk about new acquisitions and upcoming shows.