falter
Veteran Member
This is just a pure philosophical question, setting aside the realities of computer collecting and so on.
I have now four replica projects in the pipeline to take me out the next decade or so. Three of them (ELF, TVT and Mark8 ) were in their respective eras possible to scratch build using provided schematics or foil patterns. My question is this, if you, as a collector trying to create something you cannot buy, build one of these things using period correct methods and parts -- are they, for your purposes alone, really a replica? Is replica alone the right word? ie. Can you say, 'I have a TV Typewriter'? Or are you obliged to say 'I have a TV Typewriter replica'?
Obviously if you build, say, an Apple I replica, it can only ever be a replica, even if it uses original era chips, because the motherboard was never built from scratch by hobbyists, and thus if you don't have a board that was produced for and handled by Steve Jobs and Woz in 1976, it's not the real thing. But the TVT, the Mark-8 -- they had foil patterns out there and while a hobbyist could buy premade boards, they didn't have to. So as long as you keep the materials and methods the same, the only difference between yours and the guy who built one in 1974 is the year you built yours.
Thoughts? Purely intended for discussion on a rainy afternoon. I'd never try to pass off something I created as original, or try to sell it as such. But I'm wondering if I can feel justified, when my TVT project, etc are done, in saying, yeah, I have a TVT, ELF, etc.
I have now four replica projects in the pipeline to take me out the next decade or so. Three of them (ELF, TVT and Mark8 ) were in their respective eras possible to scratch build using provided schematics or foil patterns. My question is this, if you, as a collector trying to create something you cannot buy, build one of these things using period correct methods and parts -- are they, for your purposes alone, really a replica? Is replica alone the right word? ie. Can you say, 'I have a TV Typewriter'? Or are you obliged to say 'I have a TV Typewriter replica'?
Obviously if you build, say, an Apple I replica, it can only ever be a replica, even if it uses original era chips, because the motherboard was never built from scratch by hobbyists, and thus if you don't have a board that was produced for and handled by Steve Jobs and Woz in 1976, it's not the real thing. But the TVT, the Mark-8 -- they had foil patterns out there and while a hobbyist could buy premade boards, they didn't have to. So as long as you keep the materials and methods the same, the only difference between yours and the guy who built one in 1974 is the year you built yours.
Thoughts? Purely intended for discussion on a rainy afternoon. I'd never try to pass off something I created as original, or try to sell it as such. But I'm wondering if I can feel justified, when my TVT project, etc are done, in saying, yeah, I have a TVT, ELF, etc.