I’ve linked to Michael Gardi’s retrocomputing replicas and recreations quite a few times. Here’s a list:
- How to make a “computer on a card” from the 1960s
- How to make a replica of the GENIAC Electric Brain from 1955
- Complete instructions for making a replica of the Minivac 601 educational computer kit
- 3D printed replica of the Digi-Comp II marble computer
- Make this scale model of the Dr. Nim digital game
Michael just finished a new project! He wrote to me and said:
Well it’s a new year and I have a new project to share, something a little different. Rather than a straight replica, this time I have created a version of the computer described in the book How to Build a Working Digital Computer, by Edward Alcosser, James P. Phillips, and Allen M. Wolk, and published in 1967. In it they show how to construct such a computer using “simple inexpensive components usually found around the house or in a neighborhood electrical parts store.” A very cool book.
Now completed, my version is one of only a few known implementations. I tried to limit myself to technologies that would have been available in the late ’60s, but used modern fabrication techniques like 3D printing and cheap PCB manufacturing to build it.