February 16, 2026
Press RETURN for drama
DBASE on the Kaypro II
Retro dBASE on Kaypro II: nostalgia hits, 'Return vs Tab' brawl, YouTube rabbit holes
TLDR: A retro tour of dBASE II on the Kaypro II spotlights CP/M’s heyday and the office database that once ruled. Comments light up with nostalgia, a “Return vs Tab” culture clash, FoxPro/Clipper rabbit holes, and a big question about today’s equivalent—why the roots of everyday office power still matter.
Gary Kildall’s CP/M era got a victory lap and the crowd showed up with popcorn. The post strolls through the Kaypro II—a luggable 1982 workhorse—and dBASE II, the database tool PC Mag said had a 70% market share back in 1984. Written in assembly and cheekily launched as “II” to look seasoned, dBASE becomes the star again as the author boots it in an emulator and cues a retro training video with JPL’s Gentry Lee. It’s the kind of throwback that reminds you Kildall didn’t just almost change history—he actually did: BIOS term, CD-ROM encyclopedia, and CP/M itself.
But the real show is the comments. One reader immediately tumbles into a YouTube rabbit hole, confessing FoxPro and Clipper memories. Another unleashes the culture war we didn’t know we needed: “Return vs Tab.” Old-school forms used Return to jump fields; Windows-era users expected Tab—and everyone has battlefield stories. Meanwhile, a fan cheers the training video and drops the buzzy question: what’s today’s dBASE—what tool makes regular people feel like wizards after learning 30 commands? The thread vibes swing from cozy nostalgia to mild UX combat.
And then, the perfect meme: a sly quip—“Author here” is the new “You’re absolutely right”—that winks at every thread where the writer shows up. Verdict: history lesson up front, comment-section drama in the back.
Key Points
- •Gary Kildall created CP/M and coined/developed the BIOS, enabling portable microcomputer operating systems, and later sold Digital Research Inc. to Novell for US $120M.
- •CP/M-era systems like the Osborne 1 and Kaypro II ran on 8‑bit CPUs (8080/Z80) with up to 64KB RAM; Osborne 1 launched at $1795 with WordStar and SuperCalc.
- •Non-Linear Systems debuted the Kaypro II in 1982 at $1595, featuring a larger screen and higher-capacity floppies compared to the Osborne 1.
- •PC Magazine (Feb 1984) estimated dBASE II held about 70% of the microcomputer database market; it was written in assembly and fostered the xBase ecosystem.
- •The article demonstrates a Kaypro II emulation in MAME with dual floppies, 64KB RAM, a Z80 at 2.4MHz, running dBASE II v2.4, and references training resources showing dBASE III workflows apply to dBASE II.