Whether it is the chicken or the egg, they also
have access to better
parts stores (for hobbiest quantities) and excellent magazines. The Dutch
magazine Electuur is translated into English and published in the UK
every month as Elector. It has excellent construction articles, readily
available firmware, and even the PCB layout for most of the projects.
Elector is indeed recommended.
AFAIK it also published the first DIY computer : in May '74 they
started a series on a 12 or 16 bit TTL-based computer. That is two
months before the Mark-8.
FWIW, in 1972 the UK magazine 'Practical Electronics' published a design
(going over 10 issuses, I have the whole set) for a TTL-based 4-function
desktop calcualtor. Not a computer, sure, but a lot of the principles
were there.
Those who like to see something special should check it out : it is a
two-address machine, no instructions, but memory-mapped "functional
units". It even had hardware based multiply and divide !
I'd love to see that, but my Elektor collections starts at about the time
of the first Elekturscope (and I don't have a complete run since then, alas)
-tony