Integrated circuits weren't as accessible; you had to find the data sheet, if you weren't careful you could fry expensive chips easy. Computers were actually ha

Integrated circuits weren't as accessible; you had to find the data sheet, if you weren't careful you could fry expensive chips easy. Computers were actually hard to damage with software. You could rip up old electronics for discrete components and make use of them; IC's were much more difficult to salvage for reuse. And yet those were rapidly where all the fun was.