Hello, A few months back, Bill Talanian handed over his Lobo Max 80 computer to me, knowing that I was a bit of a vintage computer fan. I had never heard of the company that sold these computers from their Fairview Ave office in the early 80s and when I tried to turn the computer on, I didn’t get much more than a rolling screen. I sent the computer up to Adrian Black in Portland, OR who runs a YouTube channel called Adrian’s Digital Basement with more than 250,000 subscribers. Adrian has diagnosed and fixed hundreds of vintage machines over the years but he hadn’t seen a Lobo Max 80 either. Well it turns out that this hometown microcomputer is quite capable and not only did Adrian get it working but we also managed to write some modern software for it as well as an emulator to play around with it on a modern machine! Here is part one of Adrian’s video on Bill’s Lobo Max 80. There is sure to be at least one more upcoming episode to finish the story! https://youtu.be/mzohxCT8kEo?si=ldSIWfs7vIK9NBYq LCM Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM levimaaia.com
Very cool Levi! That was a fun watch. That PCB is interesting with the trace layout and he confirmed he thought it was laid out by hand. Dave On Friday, November 6, 2026, Levi C. Maaia <k6lcm@maaia.com> wrote:
Hello,
A few months back, Bill Talanian handed over his Lobo Max 80 computer to me, knowing that I was a bit of a vintage computer fan. I had never heard of the company that sold these computers from their Fairview Ave office in the early 80s and when I tried to turn the computer on, I didn’t get much more than a rolling screen.
I sent the computer up to Adrian Black in Portland, OR who runs a YouTube channel called Adrian’s Digital Basement with more than 250,000 subscribers. Adrian has diagnosed and fixed hundreds of vintage machines over the years but he hadn’t seen a Lobo Max 80 either.
Well it turns out that this hometown microcomputer is quite capable and not only did Adrian get it working but we also managed to write some modern software for it as well as an emulator to play around with it on a modern machine!
Here is part one of Adrian’s video on Bill’s Lobo Max 80. There is sure to be at least one more upcoming episode to finish the story!
https://youtu.be/mzohxCT8kEo?si=ldSIWfs7vIK9NBYq
LCM
*Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM* levimaaia.com <http://www.levimaaia.com/>
One of the many stories regarding Lobo Drives is that Roger Billings who started Lobo was (I think) the production manager for Polymorphic Systems. At some point in time, Poly had some financial problems and Lobo Drives was started to supply disk drives to Polymorphic Systems. The only person I know who can probably supply information about Lobo is Dana Trout (Pickles and Trout). Dana is a Santa Barbara ham who married Sue Rudnucki, Austins daughter. I have no idea if Roger Billings who started Lobo is still around or not. The last time I heard from Roger was when he was working for Applied Magnetics. Somewhere I have a number of Lobo software floppy disks (100+). I also have a couple of Lobo floppy/hard drive units Marvin, KE6HTS On 11/6/2026 4:33 PM, Levi C. Maaia via SBARC-list wrote:
Hello,
A few months back, Bill Talanian handed over his Lobo Max 80 computer to me, knowing that I was a bit of a vintage computer fan. I had never heard of the company that sold these computers from their Fairview Ave office in the early 80s and when I tried to turn the computer on, I didn’t get much more than a rolling screen.
I sent the computer up to Adrian Black in Portland, OR who runs a YouTube channel called Adrian’s Digital Basement with more than 250,000 subscribers. Adrian has diagnosed and fixed hundreds of vintage machines over the years but he hadn’t seen a Lobo Max 80 either.
Well it turns out that this hometown microcomputer is quite capable and not only did Adrian get it working but we also managed to write some modern software for it as well as an emulator to play around with it on a modern machine!
Here is part one of Adrian’s video on Bill’s Lobo Max 80. There is sure to be at least one more upcoming episode to finish the story!
https://youtu.be/mzohxCT8kEo?si=ldSIWfs7vIK9NBYq
LCM
*Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM* levimaaia.com <http://www.levimaaia.com/>
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Marvin, My friend, Paul Taylor, purchased a lot of computer drives, parts and tools from the (Lobo) storage auction way-back-when. I'll have to get the three of you together some day. Ken From: "Marvin Johnston via SBARC-list" <sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com> To: "Levi C. Maaia via SBARC-list" <sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com> Cc: "Marvin Johnston" <marvin@west.net> Sent: Friday, November 6, 2026 7:36:49 PM Subject: [Sbarc-list] Re: Bill’s Lobo Max 80 One of the many stories regarding Lobo Drives is that Roger Billings who started Lobo was (I think) the production manager for Polymorphic Systems. At some point in time, Poly had some financial problems and Lobo Drives was started to supply disk drives to Polymorphic Systems. The only person I know who can probably supply information about Lobo is Dana Trout (Pickles and Trout). Dana is a Santa Barbara ham who married Sue Rudnucki, Austins daughter. I have no idea if Roger Billings who started Lobo is still around or not. The last time I heard from Roger was when he was working for Applied Magnetics. Somewhere I have a number of Lobo software floppy disks (100+). I also have a couple of Lobo floppy/hard drive units Marvin, KE6HTS On 11/6/2026 4:33 PM, Levi C. Maaia via SBARC-list wrote: Hello, A few months back, Bill Talanian handed over his Lobo Max 80 computer to me, knowing that I was a bit of a vintage computer fan. I had never heard of the company that sold these computers from their Fairview Ave office in the early 80s and when I tried to turn the computer on, I didn’t get much more than a rolling screen. I sent the computer up to Adrian Black in Portland, OR who runs a YouTube channel called Adrian’s Digital Basement with more than 250,000 subscribers. Adrian has diagnosed and fixed hundreds of vintage machines over the years but he hadn’t seen a Lobo Max 80 either. Well it turns out that this hometown microcomputer is quite capable and not only did Adrian get it working but we also managed to write some modern software for it as well as an emulator to play around with it on a modern machine! Here is part one of Adrian’s video on Bill’s Lobo Max 80. There is sure to be at least one more upcoming episode to finish the story! [ https://youtu.be/mzohxCT8kEo?si=ldSIWfs7vIK9NBYq | https://youtu.be/mzohxCT8kEo?si=ldSIWfs7vIK9NBYq ] LCM Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM [ http://www.levimaaia.com/ | levimaaia.com ] _______________________________________________ SBARC-list mailing list -- [ mailto:sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com | sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com ] To unsubscribe send an email to [ mailto:sbarc-list-leave@lists.netlojix.com | sbarc-list-leave@lists.netlojix.com ] _______________________________________________ SBARC-list mailing list -- sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com To unsubscribe send an email to sbarc-list-leave@lists.netlojix.com
participants (4)
-
Dave Schmidt -
Ken Alker -
Levi C. Maaia -
Marvin Johnston