It was the New Year of 1975. The popular songs were “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand and “Seasons in The Sun” by Terry Jasks. On the cover of the January 1975 issue of “Popular Electronics” was the bold statement “Project Breakthrough! - World’s First Minicomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models… Altair 8800.” Like many readers, as soon as I saw the Altair 8800, I wanted one of my own. The only problem, I was only 15 years old and had very little money. I pleaded with my parents to spend $439, a large sum in those days, to get an Altair 8800 kit for me to build. All my lobbing efforts failed. All through high school I was thinking about saving enough to buy my own. By the time I graduated, the Altair revolution was dwindling leaving a hole in my computer life.
Don’t get me wrong, I built other computers over time starting with another “Popular Electronic” article in August 1976 titled “Build the COSMAC ELF A Low-Cost Experimenter’s Microcomputer.” The low-cost of this build allowed me to buy the parts over time and place them on a PC board from Quest Electronic. In 1977 I had my first microcomputer. After the COSMAC Elf I built several versions of S100 based computers, purchased an Apple II, various Commodore computers, TRS-80s and finally I entered IBM PC world like everyone else. Computers where, and continue to be, a major part of my life.
But for over 35 years, I still want to have my own Altair 8800 to fulfill the first craving of that 15-year-old boy. It doesn’t make any sense. At work I am the Senior Networking Engineer and literally I am surrounded by all forms of networking and computer hardware.
That is just the beginning. Like all good computer geeks, my house is filled with Raspberry Pi, Apple everything, many high powered desktops PCs hand built for each family member, NAS, Linux servers and a LAN to tie everything all together. To say I have some computers may be an understatement.
But there was still that old craving!
Finally, after 35 years of waiting for the right time to get my own Altair 8800, I finally did build a “new” one? Well not really. My “new” Altair is really a new Altair 8800C. The Altair 8800Cis a full size, fully functional replica of the original computer. It is not a emulation but runs using a exact reproduction of the original CPU board. It is an accurate, functional, hands-on unit built with both new and legacy hardware.
With the new Altair 8800C I can start to finally fill the fifty-year technical backlog. The hole in my early years in computing. I can now experience the total range of early years computer geek dom. From my earliest memories of that 15-year-old boy excited to learn everything computer to today modern senior computer sensei teaching other.
Many might think I’m a little crazy to do this, and maybe I am just a little. But I’m having a great time playing with my new old school Altair 8800C and for me, that is all that counts!
