This Osborne-Inspired Cyberdeck Includes a 3D-Printed Homage to a Staple of Denver's Skyline
From its Osborne 1-style front assembly to a Wells Fargo Center silhouette, the Buck II wears its inspirations proudly.
Pseudonymous maker "grant_w44," hereafter simply "Grant," has finished a three-year project to build a 3D-printed luggable cyberdeck — inspired by the classic Osborne 1.
"I've been working on this deck for roughly three years now. It is a huge improvement over my last two cyberdecks I've built. The Osborne 1 was a huge inspiration to me. Behind the Denver city flag is CD/DVD storage with room for 5 CDs or DVDs. Beneath that is a USB hub. At the bottom is a CD/DVD drive for listening to tunes and watching movies!"
Grant's cyberdeck, as the presence of not only an optical drive but storage for multiple discs suggests, is not built with slimline portability in mind. Instead, it takes its inspiration from the Osborne 1 — Adam Osborne and Lee Felsenstein's popular luggable, launched in 1981 and generally recognized as the first commercially-successful portable. Dubbed the Buck II, the boxy beast includes a latching fold-up keyboard and on-board display — though is considerably smaller and lighter than its spiritual ancestor.
Inside the housing, 3D printed in manageable chunks before being assembled, is an unspecified Raspberry Pi single-board computer, connected to a color display and the USB keyboard. The housing's side profile is a homage to another piece of history: "the 'cash register' building in Denver," Grant explains, referring to the Wells Fargo Center and its iconic silhouette, "which is my favorite building!"
Grant has not published design files or schematics for the project, but more information is available in their Reddit post.