I bought an Altair Clone from Mike Douglas half a year back, and it's pretty much the coolest (and most fun) computer I've owned. I grew up past the era of these first PCs, my earliest machine being a 286. I've created a collection of computers from the 80s: an Amiga 500 and a pimped out 1200, C64 and C64C, all my old DOS and Windows machines I had growing up, a few TRS-80 100s, and two coworkers recently gave a non-functioning Heathkit H-19 and an Osborne with a box full of software (but which has no raster).
I love owning and using computers that are the real deal, and it bothers me a bit that the Altair Clone is just a PIC24 emulating the real magic.
So, how feasible is it to buy, own, and occasionally operate an S-100 bus computer in 2015? I picture an Altair 8800 or IMSAI 8080, but I don't know the other options. I love the front panel switches and status lights, and ideally I'd have a serial board and a disk controller so I could run CP/M. What I enjoy most is writing and debugging assembly.
What's a reasonable price range, and what are the common pitfalls? Can it be trusted to run for hours at a time? Do these machines only need recapping, or are there more serious issues, like irreplaceable floppy motors failing or necessary controller firmware being unobtainable?
Also, bonus question: has anyone ever made a GPIO S-100 bus board? I make little microcontroller projects and having one of these computers bitbang I2C or just toggle GPIO pins would be the coolest thing.
(Edit: I meant buying and *operating* an S-100 computer, not buying and owning.)
I love owning and using computers that are the real deal, and it bothers me a bit that the Altair Clone is just a PIC24 emulating the real magic.
So, how feasible is it to buy, own, and occasionally operate an S-100 bus computer in 2015? I picture an Altair 8800 or IMSAI 8080, but I don't know the other options. I love the front panel switches and status lights, and ideally I'd have a serial board and a disk controller so I could run CP/M. What I enjoy most is writing and debugging assembly.
What's a reasonable price range, and what are the common pitfalls? Can it be trusted to run for hours at a time? Do these machines only need recapping, or are there more serious issues, like irreplaceable floppy motors failing or necessary controller firmware being unobtainable?
Also, bonus question: has anyone ever made a GPIO S-100 bus board? I make little microcontroller projects and having one of these computers bitbang I2C or just toggle GPIO pins would be the coolest thing.
(Edit: I meant buying and *operating* an S-100 computer, not buying and owning.)
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