I still have the Altair 8800 that my Dad bought for me when I was in high
school.
It was not very long before we realized how "special" it's role in history
was.
So, I suspect that the survival rate of these was relatively high.
(Most of the lost ones were probably accidentally burned up by incompetent
tinkerers :-)
Of course the number of early 8800 models produced was not that high, and a
good number
of those were upgraded with "B" front panels and power supplies.
(those original tiny switches are a real pain)
-Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Vintage Computer Festival
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 11:29 AM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: The very first personal computers - How many are left?
On Tue, 8 Apr 2003, steve wrote:
> here are my guesses....
>
> --- The Design Fort DTP <design.fort_at_ns.sympatico.ca>
> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > One thing I was always interested in - and the
> > visitors in my Computer
> > Museum often want to know - is how many of the very
> > first personal computers
> > are still in existence. By first PCs I mean the
> > following machines:
> > Kenbak 1
> 10-20
There were only 40 made (interestingly in Brentwood, California, just 30
minutes north of where I live in Livermore).
Here's a brief article:
http://www.pretext.com/mar98/shorts/short3.htm
I can stretch my imagination and believe that 10 may still be around, but
certainly not 20.
> > Altair 8800
> 500 (a,b,bt)
Move it over one decimal place to the left. From what I know, about
50,000 Altair's of all models were produced.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com
*
Received on Tue Apr 08 2003 - 13:56:00 BST