Altair 8800 PC case mod - awesome

[Minkey]

It's kind of Windows and/or hardware related but this is more of a 'fun' thing so posting here (mods if you think it should be moved please do).

I've seen plenty of PC case mods before and tbh I've never really wanted one because imo they tend to either be too gaudy or would age very quickly but this one I think is absolutely awesome and I would love to have this as a PC case:

Clicky

For those of you wondering Altair 8800 obviously you can click the link but as a way of an introduction, the Altair is widely recognised as the very first ever personal computer released in 1975. It didn't actually do very much, it had no keyboard, no mouse, no screen, you programmed it by clicking switches and at the beginning you had to build it yourself (and a lot of the time it didn't work).

Makes you think how far we have come in such a short period of time, imagine what the next 35 years will bring

The Altair in action a clip from Triumph of the Nerds which is a very interesting documentary about the beginning of the computer revolution and not too nerdy (if you do watch wait until you find out how Microsoft got their break).

 

[chergh]

if you do watch wait until you find out how Microsoft got their break).

It was his mother pretty much wasn't it?

 

[Minkey]

It was his mother pretty much wasn't it?

If you mean by giving birth to him then I guess yeh I really meant how Digital Research dropped the ball and how darn lucky Bill Gates was especially considering.................we'll that would give it away now wouldn't it

 

[kevlray]

I remember soldering together a 4K memory board (yes a board) for the Altair 8080 (I think that was the model) on a Saturday night at college. It took quite a while to do it. The computer worked real well (serious pain to program).

 

[chergh]

If you mean by giving birth to him then I guess yeh I really meant how Digital Research dropped the ball and how darn lucky Bill Gates was especially considering.................we'll that would give it away now wouldn't it

No, more that his mother knew senior IBM execs and this was a large part of how he ended up with IBM. I believe IBM execs actually referred to him as "Mary Gates boy" or something similar.