Altair 8800 W/ Dual 8 " Floppy Drives W/ Manuals & Software. AS - IS
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:19207428 | Model: Altair 8800 |
The Altair 8800 Computer System was introduced in 1975 as a hobby kit from Micro Implementation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). It is an 8080 microprocessor based system. It needs a separate monitor (not included in this listing).
Pictured is the Altair 8800 computer (Serial No. 221811K), purchased as a kit by Dan Nicholson (deceased), former President of 4D
Interactive Systems, Inc. (no longer in business) on Oct, 18, 1975. In 1978 Dan recognized there was going to be a deman...d for software for the home computers starting to be sold (Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore, Atari and Interact) and felt the Arneson Basement crowd (David Arneson, deceased, co-author of Dungeons and Dragons) could design games and he would program
them. He developed a cross compiler to create code sets for the Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore Pet and Atari. He also created an intermediate level software development language for us designers to write the code once, and then compile into those 4 machines. While that process was successful, marketing our product was not and we moved on to doing work on the Colecovision (Zaxxon, Pepper2, Subroc, Tarzan and Spy Hunter) but that is another story. Enough of the background of this listing.
Dan populated the entire S-100 bus with memory cards, the Interfacer Dual Channel RS232 Serial I/O CompuPro card from Godbout Electronics, the Disk Jockey 2D/B from Morrow Designs and also got two 8" floppy disk drives (one of which has a corner dented in; I don't think the inside components were harmed as the denting was due to a leveraging of metal shelving into the corner: it wasn't dropped but who knows if there is any damage to the components). He also got software: CP/M 2.2 and was into the Forth Language and got the PolyForth II package from Forth, Inc. I have only pictured some of the manuals and software available. There are boxes of 8" floppy disks and original software floppy disks which I will picture if there is interest. I will also take a picture of the dent if desired.
The computer has not been powered on since 2002 (it powered up and the lights came on but I didn't have a monitor hooked up so I don't what it was doing). All the front panel switches appear to be intact and functioning mechanically. Enough years have passed and the capacitors may have discharged over that time and need to be checked before turning them on. The cards have not been re-seated since 1984 so their electrical state and usability cannot be guaranteed. Also, the formatting on the 8" floppy disks cannot be guaranteed as the magnetic field of the earth can do its slow but sure erasure. As such, everything is being listed on an Untested, AS-IS basis.
Shipping concerns: the hardware is heavy and I am concerned about how it will hold up to the vagaries of the different shipping companies. I am willing to drive it to any buyer within 800 miles of Minneapolis MN but if it has to go farther than that, I want to negotiate with the buyer as to how best to get it to them. I have put $450.00 because Ebay is forcing me to put a value and that is what it probably will cost me to drive it to the buyer and back but it will depend on the buyer's location. There will be at least 5 boxes.
On Oct-29-19 at 20:16:02 PDT, seller added the following information:I have now added a picture of the cover from a side view. More pictures are available if desired. I have also added a picture of the dent in one of the disk drives. I have also added two pictures of the 8" floppies that will be included in this listing. They contain a lot of the work did using this machine: the cross compiler, utilities and various project software needed to do the games we produced. I can get more detailed with the software side of things if there is an interest.
On Nov-02-19 at 10:14:23 PDT, seller added the following information:A question of the serial number of the 8080 processor has been asked. I have now included two pictures of the 8080 CPU. It looks like it is a faster version of the 8080A. This makes sense that Dan would have splurged for the faster processor. Those cross-compiles took 11 hours to complete. Start the compile at 10 PM and see what happens at 9 AM. Those one instruction mistakes were a killer. Hope this answers any questions about the CPU.
On Nov-03-19 at 16:37:30 PST, seller added the following information:Another buyer has put forth the following description of the CPU:
"C8080B is actually an E.S. - Engineering sample
that based on the batch code K1984 was made
week 28 of 1974. Its a very early 8080..."
This Altair gets rarer and rarer...
Pictured is the Altair 8800 computer (Serial No. 221811K), purchased as a kit by Dan Nicholson (deceased), former President of 4D
Interactive Systems, Inc. (no longer in business) on Oct, 18, 1975. In 1978 Dan recognized there was going to be a deman...d for software for the home computers starting to be sold (Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore, Atari and Interact) and felt the Arneson Basement crowd (David Arneson, deceased, co-author of Dungeons and Dragons) could design games and he would program
them. He developed a cross compiler to create code sets for the Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore Pet and Atari. He also created an intermediate level software development language for us designers to write the code once, and then compile into those 4 machines. While that process was successful, marketing our product was not and we moved on to doing work on the Colecovision (Zaxxon, Pepper2, Subroc, Tarzan and Spy Hunter) but that is another story. Enough of the background of this listing.
Dan populated the entire S-100 bus with memory cards, the Interfacer Dual Channel RS232 Serial I/O CompuPro card from Godbout Electronics, the Disk Jockey 2D/B from Morrow Designs and also got two 8" floppy disk drives (one of which has a corner dented in; I don't think the inside components were harmed as the denting was due to a leveraging of metal shelving into the corner: it wasn't dropped but who knows if there is any damage to the components). He also got software: CP/M 2.2 and was into the Forth Language and got the PolyForth II package from Forth, Inc. I have only pictured some of the manuals and software available. There are boxes of 8" floppy disks and original software floppy disks which I will picture if there is interest. I will also take a picture of the dent if desired.
The computer has not been powered on since 2002 (it powered up and the lights came on but I didn't have a monitor hooked up so I don't what it was doing). All the front panel switches appear to be intact and functioning mechanically. Enough years have passed and the capacitors may have discharged over that time and need to be checked before turning them on. The cards have not been re-seated since 1984 so their electrical state and usability cannot be guaranteed. Also, the formatting on the 8" floppy disks cannot be guaranteed as the magnetic field of the earth can do its slow but sure erasure. As such, everything is being listed on an Untested, AS-IS basis.
Shipping concerns: the hardware is heavy and I am concerned about how it will hold up to the vagaries of the different shipping companies. I am willing to drive it to any buyer within 800 miles of Minneapolis MN but if it has to go farther than that, I want to negotiate with the buyer as to how best to get it to them. I have put $450.00 because Ebay is forcing me to put a value and that is what it probably will cost me to drive it to the buyer and back but it will depend on the buyer's location. There will be at least 5 boxes.
On Oct-29-19 at 20:16:02 PDT, seller added the following information:I have now added a picture of the cover from a side view. More pictures are available if desired. I have also added a picture of the dent in one of the disk drives. I have also added two pictures of the 8" floppies that will be included in this listing. They contain a lot of the work did using this machine: the cross compiler, utilities and various project software needed to do the games we produced. I can get more detailed with the software side of things if there is an interest.
On Nov-02-19 at 10:14:23 PDT, seller added the following information:A question of the serial number of the 8080 processor has been asked. I have now included two pictures of the 8080 CPU. It looks like it is a faster version of the 8080A. This makes sense that Dan would have splurged for the faster processor. Those cross-compiles took 11 hours to complete. Start the compile at 10 PM and see what happens at 9 AM. Those one instruction mistakes were a killer. Hope this answers any questions about the CPU.
On Nov-03-19 at 16:37:30 PST, seller added the following information:Another buyer has put forth the following description of the CPU:
"C8080B is actually an E.S. - Engineering sample
that based on the batch code K1984 was made
week 28 of 1974. Its a very early 8080..."
This Altair gets rarer and rarer...
