RetroBridge started with a simple question: could one small Raspberry Pi system provide a meaningful hands-on tour through the first few years of personal computing?

I was less interested in collecting emulator icons than in preserving the differences between the machines themselves.

The Apple-1 begins close to the hardware with Woz Monitor and Integer BASIC. The TRS-80 puts BASIC at the center of the experience. The Apple II represents the transition toward a more complete consumer personal computer. The IBM PC introduces the DOS environment that would shape an enormous part of the industry. The Commodore 64 represents the explosion of home computing into programming, graphics, sound, and games.

That became the core RetroBridge timeline:

1976 — Apple-1 1977 — TRS-80 Model I 1977 — Apple II 1981 — IBM PC 1982 — Commodore 64

Instead of presenting those systems as separate applications, RetroBridge wraps them in one chronological touchscreen interface.

The result is a small physical computing-history exhibit that you can actually use.

One of my goals with this project is to make the history feel tangible. You do not just read that these machines existed — you select a year, enter the system, type commands, run BASIC, and experience how personal computing changed over a very short six-year period.

That is why I describe RetroBridge as:

Five Computers. Six Years. One Computing Time Machine.