Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Enthusiasts vs Replica Recreators

Sure you can. They;ll do something at power-up even if you don't have a boot disk (if only becuase they have a way of booting said disk). And you can certainly monitor signals with a 'scope or logic analyser at that stage. For the machines I mentioned, the PDP8s, PDP11s, and Philips P800s have a hardware front panel that works even without any boot disks. You can toggle in short programs and run them -- certainly programs to cause various bits of the machine to spring to life for investigation with the 'scope. It's also popssible to load microcode into a PERQ without a boot disk if you have the PERQLink board, but it's easier to find a boot disk :-) I disagree. It's more like the difference between driving said car, and running the engine/transmission on a test bed. The former is obviously more interesting (as I said, I do try to get boot disks for my classics), but the latter is a lot better than nothing. -tony