I was 15 almost 16 when the Altair 8800 article came out in Popular Electronics, and I knew how to build little circuits using a couple transistors or a 741 op

I was 15 almost 16 when the Altair 8800 article came out in Popular Electronics, and I knew how to build little circuits using a couple transistors or a 741 op amp or 555 timer. Like I said, I could not understand the 8080 construction article, or what programming it "meant", but I knew FORTRAN and I knew programmable calculators so I guess I was coming at it from both sides. My biggest obstacle was not having any clue where to get the information I was looking for, so it would be by chance that I found out I could get databooks from chip makers. Took me a couple years all-in to build my own, but most of that time was spent reading and rereading technical manuals that I didn't quite understand. In a certain sense I was coming at it like an archeologist :) Just a few months when I got to wire wrapping. I was somewhat astonished when it worked, I thought I'd have more problems, but I did check and recheck all my work as I went because I was fearful. I had an older relative who had a job testing components (beyond plugging them in and looking at the lights he didn't know much about them) and he showed me around the lab where he worked (they were doing components for the Fidelity chess challenger) and gave me a bunch of drop-out chips that had failed the tests, including 2114(?) static ram chips and a couple of 8080s. I don't know what tests they failed, but they worked for me.