Perhaps the most collectable computer related magazine, the Popular Electronics
January 1975 issue which announced the Altair 8800, and kicked off the personal
computer industry.In collecting these machines, I have acquired a large library of documentation and publications, including user and technical manuals for most of the equipment.
There is far too much material to present it all, however this page contains a selection of the most historic, unusual or interesting documents from my collection.
Click any photo to view a large high-resolution image.
Perhaps the most collectable computer related magazine, the Popular Electronics
January 1975 issue which announced the Altair 8800, and kicked off the personal
computer industry.
The Altair is presented in a two-part artical, the second portion was carried in the February 1975 issue.
I am collecting BYTE magazines and have most of the early editions.
I am currently looking for:
Sep83-Mar84, Aug84-Sep84, Nov84-Feb88, Apr88+
Please contract me if you can help.
Issue #1 donated by Michael Holley
Issues #2-Aug83 donated by Markus
Wandel.
"dr. dobb's journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia" was one of
the more uniquely named publications of the early personal computing industry.
DDJ was very popular because it contained *LOTS* of CODE - working programs, example algorithms and subroutines.
I have only a few DDJs, if you have some in need of a home, please contract me.
Micro Cornucopia is a publication that was dedicated to users of the
Ferguson Big-Board. I have a complete
set from #1 (Jul 81) to #26 (Oct 85). Donated by H.C. Colford.
"80 microcomputing", later known as "80 micro" is a magazine that was dedicated
to the users of TRS-80/Tandy computers.
I have a fairly complete series spanning dates from September 1981 to Frbruary 1987.
Books of collections of BASIC programs were popular with the users of mid-1980s
BASIC oriented computers (PET, Vic20, C64, AppleII, TRS-80 etc.), however
"101 Basic Computer Games" published by Digital Equipment Corp. in 1973 is
quite possibly the first such collection produced. It is also reported to be
the first computer book to exceed 1,000,000 copies in print.
Note that when this book came out there were *NO* commonly available personal computers - these programs had to be run on the mini and mainframe computers of Universities, Schools and understanding Employers.
This particular book is from the 1974 second printing.
The Radio Shack Science Fair SF-5000 is a rebadged "Kosmos Logikus",
an educational "mechanical computer" from 1971. It works by making connections
on a patch panel between 10 multi-position slide switches and light up
indicators. Unfortunately, I do not have the unit itself, only the manual,
which was donated by Markus Wandel.
Click the picture to access the full manual (5.5M PDF).
Here is a "Merit Badge" book for the boy scouts, which given an
introduction to computers. This book is copyright 1968, which means
that it gives a slightly different perspective than would be given
today. Donated by the estate of Robert Warren Bowman, PE.
Click the picture to access the full manual (5.2M PDF).
Don Lancasters "TV Typewriter Cookbook" kicked off a whole generation
of hobbiests building video display interfaces for their early computers.
The sequel, "The Cheap Video Cookbook" describes ways to get video output
on a budget - the TVT 6-5/8 board shown is featured in that book.
