13 Aug
1998
13 Aug
'98
8:29 p.m.
I think you're the third person this year I know of that has found the
sole surviving Altair kit :-)
I think what may have happened, Doug, is that over the
course of the year I have mentioned it in passing to
some of the people who read this list. I am not known
to you folks so I am guessing that the same unassembled
kit was brought to your attention by others. If that is
not the case and other kits have been found I would sincerely
like to hear from
those who may be in possession of them. I have some unanswered
questions about the example I found and would like to
compare it to any others.
But the Altair wasn't the first personal computer, so maybe the Ford
Model-T would be a better analogy. The Altair's place in history is
really about Microsoft and the early hobbiest movement, not about
computers in general. Affordable desktop computers have been around
since
the 60's (and even the late 50's if you include
analog machines like
the
EC-1 at $199).
I did not
mean to suggest that the Altair was the 1st PC or even the
1st micro. However, the Altair is perceived at this time
to be "the start of it all" and it is the one that is available in
enough numbers to become a collectible. The Mark 8 and Scelbi,
for example, suffer from extreme rarity. They are now virtually
non existent. So will never attract the widespread interest of
the Altair.
numbers