Like many my age, my first computer was a homebuilt. More than 30 years ago Radio Electronics magazine ran an article on building an Intel 8008 based computer. Still in high school, I saved my pennies ...

1974: The Altair 8800 microcomputer goes on sale. It doesn't offer much, but it's the small start of a big trend toward small things. A small New Mexico company — with the big name of Micro ...

It’s safe to say that the Altair 8800 is one of the most iconic, and important, computers ever created. The kit-built machine is widely regarded as the first commercially successful personal computer, ...

You can forget about the IBM Personal Computer and drop all the pretense about the 1984 Apple Macintosh. When it comes to which personal computer is the most influential of all time, there can only be ...

In this age of smartphone zombification, it's hard to believe that there was once a time when most people had never seen or touched a computer. When I grew up in the 1970s, we didn't have a computer.

I'm shamefully ignorant of early computers, although I can admire with an LED-appreciationists' eye the banks of flickering lights and glorious toggle switches. So it's the aesthete in me that loves ...

Browse around eBay for an original Altair 8800 and you quickly find that the price range is in the thousands of dollars. If you are a collector and have some money in your pocket maybe that’s okay.