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Altair 8800 Clone
- Breadmaker 6y ago$621
- setpatchaddress 6y agoassembled. which seems a fair price. dude certainly isn't going to retire on the proceeds.
- tyingq 6y agoFor comparison, a real Altair is typically listed for thousands of dollars on eBay. There's also an IMSAI 8080 replica here: https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/ https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/ It's pretty much the same computer (8080 cpu, S100 bus, CP/M), but the front fascia is usually thought of as more "pretty".
- cuspycode 6y agoThe IMSAI 8080 was considered a clone of the Altair at the time.
- mark-r 6y agoIndeed it was. The thing that made it special was that it used the same backplane and board dimensions, making it completely compatible.
- ChickeNES 6y agoThis is pretty damn cool: https://thehighnibble.com/assets/img/IMSAI_Desktop.9d18f55c.png https://thehighnibble.com/assets/img/IMSAI_Desktop.9d18f55c....
- tyingq 6y agoYeah, that's "Z80 pack", basically the emulator with a nice browser based UI, cross compilers and assemblers, and also includes front panel emulations for Altair and IMSAI: https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/ https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/ Also see the Cromemco front panel: https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/screenshots/cromemco.html https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/screenshots/cromem... Also on Github: https://github.com/udo-munk/z80pack https://github.com/udo-munk/z80pack It started with just Z80 emulation, they added the 8080 later.
- tyingq 6y agoIf you don't care as much about the authentic look, there's an Altair clone on eBay that faithfully recreates the buttons, switches, and LEDS in the right places, but doesn't look like the Altair. I have one of these myself. It's $99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/RETRO-ALTAIR-8800-S100-Arduno-CLONE/254718436145?hash=item3b4e66e331:g:XEoAAOSw5J1fLSAs https://www.ebay.com/itm/RETRO-ALTAIR-8800-S100-Arduno-CLONE...
- reaperducer 6y agoSays it runs Zork. That's my benchmark.
- tyingq 6y agoIt does! https://gunkies.org/wiki/Zork#CP.2FM_.288080.2F8086.29 https://gunkies.org/wiki/Zork#CP.2FM_.288080.2F8086.29
- mrspeaker 6y agoI thought your comment was some kind of inside joke about the Altair 8800. I lost 15 minutes to google, trying to figure out what was special about memory location/address $621!
- 0xmarcin 6y agoI am a bit disappointed that only the look&feel was cloned not the internals. It's just a PIC24FJ128 in an over-sized case. I would much prefer to have a clone that comes with a thick manual and that you need to solder for 2 days. That would be fun. Something ala Ben Eater computer but more pro. The pricing page is funny, especially the old price listing saying how much you get for "free" with this kit. You start expecting an unreasonable price after that and indeed you are not disappointed.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y agoIt's just a PIC with a hand-rolled clock-accurate emulation of the 8080 and the supporting circuitry. That's not a small amount of effort. So far as I know the 8080 has been EOLd, so it would be hard to source it today anyway.
- SomeoneFromCA 6y agoZ80 is still in production. Not the same but very close. Even FPGA is a lot more appropriate than a damn PIC.
- jdsully 6y agoBASIC didn't run properly on the Z80 due to some of the optimizations relying on very minor differences between them. The CP/M version was later patched to support it but the earlier "bare metal" versions typically run on an Altair would crash.
- armadsen 6y agohttp://altairkit.com http://altairkit.com doesn't seem to be available any longer, but it was what you describe. An actual replica instead of just a functional and cosmetic clone. You can still find new replica CPU, RAM, and probably backplane boards out there for sale, so if you wanted to build your own replica, it's not impossible. Figuring out the case and the front panel would be the hard part, I think.
- 6y ago
- armadsen 6y agoI have an original, real Altair 8800. They aren't super solidly built (lots of individual wires), and having been sold as kits, the assembly quality on them is very variable. Among the many tens of vintage computers I own, the Altair is definitely the most finicky to keep running. If you're interested in understanding what it was like to use an Altair 8800, the software available for it, etc., this is a great way to go. I've been really tempted to get one myself.
- pmiller2 6y agoIn what way(s) is it finicky?
- jefurii 6y agoA computer with a backplane form-factor that mimicked the old S-100 bus but with modern components (and a modern bus speed) would be much more interesting.
- unwiredben 6y agoSomething like https://www.tindie.com/products/semachthemonkey/rc2014-pro-homebrew-z80-computer-kit/ https://www.tindie.com/products/semachthemonkey/rc2014-pro-h...
- scionthefly 6y agoIf you want an 8800 you can use to measure things, check out the Digirule 2. An entire 8800. In a ruler.
- kencausey 6y agohttps://bradsprojects.com/digirule2/ https://bradsprojects.com/digirule2/
- Koshkin 6y agoBeen daydreaming about a full-size working replica of an IBM System/360 processor unit (mostly empty, with an RPi Zero inconspicuously glued to one of the corners inside).
- spongeb00b 6y agoOh no, you’ve given me ideas now... How about old wardrobes painted to look like the cabinets? You could even get an old reel to reel tape player and put it behind some plexiglass for that tape drive effect.
- gabrielsroka 6y agoThis YouTube channel has a ton of great Altair videos. I learned so much! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB3mwSROoJ4KLWM8KwK0cD1dhX35wILBj https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB3mwSROoJ4KLWM8KwK0c...