Building the IMSAI 8080 Replica of the Computer featured in WarGames

[@michaelkolassa]

Incredibly fun build to watch. I had just seen Dave's Garage talk about it, and this popped up in my feed after. Honestly, watching your build was a lot more fun of a video. Great job!

[@makermelissa]

Thank you. I watched one of the Dave’s Garage video on that as well. I believe he said he had somebody else do the hardware build for him.

[@KeritechElectronics]

A nice replica, I'd love to have one :)

[@SteveRaynerMakes]

The kit looks really cool and high quality. I'm a bit envious. Well done on an excellent video.

[@capnrob97]

I just built one recently. It's a fun way to experience some retro-computing

[@boogerhead0]

Pretty nice rig. Thanks !

[@wa4aos]

I have the emulator kits for the IMsai, Altair, DEC PDP 8, PDP 11/70 and the Kenbak 1. They are all a real hoot. I wish someone would build an emulator for the Heathkit H8 which had advantages over the other 8-bit systems at the time. The S 100 bus had lines which had quickly become obsolete. Heathkit had a more robust and streamlined bus. AND as sexy as all of the switches and bulbs were on the front panels of the Imsai Altair and early DEC PDP series, the truth was, they were a real PITA to flip a gazillion times for the shortest routines.
I was with DEC for years as an FE and remember fat-fingering switches on the PDP's for simple diags.
Heathkit H8 had a nice 16 key keypad which greatly reduced the finger-joint-fatigue.
There seems to be a renewed interest in the early systems with Altairs often bringing NORTH of $5K on ePAY. I remember seeing them for under $1K and loaded with goodies not long ago. AND, if you can find an original Apple 1 board, your net worth would be considerably more impressive, well, unless you are Bill Gates. LOL
Anyway, I enjoy your channel and topic coverage.
My hope is you will do m,ore with early 8-bit systems. Back when people really understood registers, assembly language, bits and bytes. We all love our modern systems which will exceed WARP 2 Billion on a slow day and they are great super appliances but the personality of the early stuff should have some place in our hearts too. WO those days, we would not have the WARP 2 Billion systems of today.
Keep up your great work and I hope your channel grows well !!

[@makermelissa]

Cool, I hadn't heard of the Heathkit H8 before. It reminds me a bit of the Elenco MM-8000K kit (which they still sell). I have one that I put together like 30 years ago and still have somewhere, so a short video about that might be in order.

[@ucirello]

Nice build Melissa!

[@2pi628]

Ah, the good ol days. Reminds me of my trusty IBM 8088!! Who needs a hard drive..? Give me a 5 1/4 or give me death!

[@nadieselgirl]

I miss being able to tell what my computer is doing by mechanical sounds. :) IBM 8088 was my first computer too. Still have all my floppies but I don't know any way to attempt to read them. I should work on that.

[@ScottSavageTechnoScavenger]

I am making a speech synth for this.

[@makermelissa]

That sounds awesome!

[@ScottSavageTechnoScavenger]

@@makermelissa Go watch my video on the soundgin.

[@makermelissa]

@@ScottSavageTechnoScavenger Ok yeah, that setup is a lot simpler than I imagined. Great job on the video editing, btw.

[@ScottSavageTechnoScavenger]

@@makermelissa Thanks!

[@Cameront9]

So cool!

[@rickzeldes1155]

Have the same kit. I broke off the sdcard and want to extend using the same card you used (2nd time) from china. The sdcard pcb has 9 pads but the mainboard has 8? You also mentioned switching some of the connections with the first mod, is that necessary with the second sdcard (details would be great). Does it need to be grounded? Sorry, my electronics background is very limited. My kit worked prior to the accident, but now is dead.

[@nadieselgirl]

Lovely computer! I had no idea this existed. I may have to build one too.

[@8bitsinthebasement]

Cool kit. I don't think I've ever built anything where things didn't go wrong. That was a clever solution for the damaged microSD slot. How cool is it that it runs CP/M too?

[@paulklasmann1218]

Does it matter what floppy format you use? I mean, must it be ibm-3740, and if so where did you find that out? I'm struggling a bit to make a disk image of a FORTRAN compiler I found on the internet. I'm using cpmtools for windows. Thank you.

[@mohnjadden7841]

This is amazing stuff. Is there any way it could be built onto a regular ATX PC case? I always thought it'd be cool as hell to have a real modern computer that has the Imsai front.

[@makermelissa]

Possibly. The biggest challenges would be finding a case big enough and the correct dimensions. It could also be more integrated into the case itself by routing switches and LEDs to the front of the case, but that would definitely be a hard route. Perhaps for some inspiration, you can take a look at a PC case I customized to house CNC electronics here: ua-cam.com/video/fp2r1Z4i2OA/v-deo.html

[@wa4aos]

Nice build.. Thanks

[@gaborm4767]

a full size case would be better.

[@ericoesterle2427]

Very cool, Melissa! Gorgeous build! The Cathode terminal emulator would be fun with something like this. It simulates the quirks of old CRTs. You’ve probably seen it before, but here’s a demo:
ua-cam.com/video/hdXP5nVQ0Hc/v-deo.html
Not sure if it’s still maintained.

[@makermelissa]

Thank you. Very cool about the crt emulator. I actually had not seen that before. Thanks!