The very first personal computers - How many are left? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

8 Apr 2003

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(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Vintage Computer Festival
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 11:29 AM
To: cctalk(a)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 &lt;design.fort(a)ns.sympatico.ca&gt;
 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
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