Hey retroheads, I'm looking at getting a replica of one or more computers from the 1970s.
I'm specifically looking at replicas of the PDP-8, the PDP-11, and the Altair 8800.
Which of the above (if any) would you kit build? Which others should I consider?
@ajroach42, the Altair!
@x_soth That's the replica I'm looking at.
It's pretty high on my list.
90.6K Posts, 1.77K Following, 7.94K Followers · Trying to reshape the future of television. I write and build stuff. Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.) http://andrewroach.net Original posts CC-BY-SA 4.0 - Share them, but link to the original.
@bhtooefr There are legit altair replicas, and there's the Altairduino. For the moment, the arduino based model is what I'm looking at right now, due to space constraints.
The PDP replicas I've looked at are Pi based, which I'm okay with for a start.
90.6K Posts, 1.77K Following, 7.94K Followers · Trying to reshape the future of television. I write and build stuff. Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.) http://andrewroach.net Original posts CC-BY-SA 4.0 - Share them, but link to the original.
Exactly!
I've never run CP/M, but i'd like to experience it.
I know that there is a Lot of software for the PDP-8, but I know next to nothing about it, and I'm certain that I'd like to know more.
The PDP-11 is towards the bottom of my list right now, because it's the closest to the stuff I already know. OTOH, an excuse to explore early Unix would be fun.
90.6K Posts, 1.77K Following, 7.94K Followers · Trying to reshape the future of television. I write and build stuff. Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.) http://andrewroach.net Original posts CC-BY-SA 4.0 - Share them, but link to the original.
91.3K Posts, 1.16K Following, 1.8K Followers · Trying to break things that need breaking, deliberately and after much reflection, make things in a likewise manner, and generally reshape the various worlds I inhabit to be slightly more habitable. I'm into music, retrocomputing, people, caring, and thinking about stuff. I dislike capitalism, cryptocurrency, terfs, nazis, fascists, racists, & edgelords. Been around a while. Accidental maintainer of brutaldon. Feel free to ask questions. I will not always answer.
90.6K Posts, 1.77K Following, 7.94K Followers · Trying to reshape the future of television. I write and build stuff. Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.) http://andrewroach.net Original posts CC-BY-SA 4.0 - Share them, but link to the original.
90.6K Posts, 1.77K Following, 7.94K Followers · Trying to reshape the future of television. I write and build stuff. Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.) http://andrewroach.net Original posts CC-BY-SA 4.0 - Share them, but link to the original.
91.3K Posts, 1.16K Following, 1.8K Followers · Trying to break things that need breaking, deliberately and after much reflection, make things in a likewise manner, and generally reshape the various worlds I inhabit to be slightly more habitable. I'm into music, retrocomputing, people, caring, and thinking about stuff. I dislike capitalism, cryptocurrency, terfs, nazis, fascists, racists, & edgelords. Been around a while. Accidental maintainer of brutaldon. Feel free to ask questions. I will not always answer.
91.3K Posts, 1.16K Following, 1.8K Followers · Trying to break things that need breaking, deliberately and after much reflection, make things in a likewise manner, and generally reshape the various worlds I inhabit to be slightly more habitable. I'm into music, retrocomputing, people, caring, and thinking about stuff. I dislike capitalism, cryptocurrency, terfs, nazis, fascists, racists, & edgelords. Been around a while. Accidental maintainer of brutaldon. Feel free to ask questions. I will not always answer.
@ajroach42 also, a homebrew replica Heathkit HERO
@djsundog Is anyone making replica HEROs?
Now I gotta know.
@ajroach42 there was actually a late model hero that was core 2 duo based and was a rebadged model 914 pc-bot from white box robotics, who unfortunately no longer exists, but I keep looking for one
@ajroach42 actually this video walks through it in enough detail we might be able to fab these ourselves
@ajroach42 Not from that era, but I'd love to see an emulated lisp machine. The real things are expensive unicorns even now, with power draw to match.
Being lisp all the way down though, I can't see them being much of an emulation target. The closest (and very accessible) version today is Emacs, SBCL or CCL, and SLIME.
maybe an its tops machine? I'm not sure I'm remembering the name right. it had a command to crash the system, making that a noob error instead of a badge of honor.
Forth machines don't carry the historical weight the lisp ones do, but I found my short visit to them mind expanding.
They make chips that run low level forth native.
The forth environment is like I understand the lisp machines to have been in the sense that it's your shell and your building tools into the environment as well as whatever your target program is. It's all kind of one monolithic thing.
replica, I think I'd go with the one unix was written on (but off the top of my head I can't remenber if that was the 8 or the 11)
@Darkhorse the pdp-11 was the smallest machine that could run Unix when it was released.
I *think* it was originally written to target pdp-10s though.
I know basically nothing about early minicomputers and mainframes from this era, though. Still doing my research.
Andrew (Television Executive)
x_s
bhtooefr (copper-doped zinc sulfide aspect)
DJ Sundog
Astra!
tool_man
Darkhorse