Altair 8800 brochure

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Mike Markowski

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Apr 18, 2025, 7:18:57 PM4/18/25
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A friend attended an event when he was in HS that promoted the 8800.  He writes:
If I remember right, at the time this brochure came out, at the sales meeting in Philly in the late part of 1975 that me and a friend went to - it was called the "M.I.T.S roadshow, stopping at a city near you", it was stated that "an O.S. is coming out soon...". 

I'm STILL kicking myself for tossing those mags, which were in archival condition, in 1989 when I came back into the state.  What a dumb thing to do.  Even worse, I also tossed the marketing materials from that sales meeting.  Even the three ring logo binder.  Arghh.
The scanned brochure (maybe online elsewhere, too?) is at
https://udel.edu/~mm/altair8800/altair8800-brochure.pdf
Enjoy!
Mike Markowski

Leonard DiSanza

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Apr 18, 2025, 7:52:41 PM4/18/25
to Mike Markowski, Altair-Duino
Thanks for the link to the nice Altair 8800 pdf brochure. Back in 1975 I was in my senior year in college in engineering, No way could I have afforded an Altair 8800. All I had was lust for a computer like that. Then about a year later as a grad student I taught PDP-8 mini computer lab. Some students with $ could buy KIM-1 (6502 uP) boards to play with. I eventually got a COSMAC ELF (1802 uP) which made me very happy. Even built a clone of the TRS-80 complete with a keyboard I wire wrapped. Damn, we've come a long way since the 70's computers. Thankful for the Altair Duino however which is a blast. 

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John Galt

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Apr 18, 2025, 9:52:39 PM4/18/25
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I noticed the HTML page for either you or your friends altair-duino at 'udel'

I won't link the URL unless you want. But, the HTML code was a little incomplete making it unhappy with text only browsers.
It is missing the </a> termination for the images and I added 'alt' text to display where the images are so the browser can see the links to the images.

I modified the HTML and hosted it locally because I wanted to show this is possible:

Here is my Altair setup with a FABGL Ansi terminal and a wifi modem connecting to a raspberry pi via CP/M IMP 2.45 modem software using the ELINKS browser 
and my python code.

you can view HTML and pictures :D
here is the Altair-8800-mini.jpg on my Altair-duino setup.
DSCN6350.JPG
DSCN6351.JPG




-----Here is just fast modified HTML code for the page. if you want to compare with what is at the URL hosting the page.

<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><title>Altair 8800</title>

<body>
<h2>An Altair 8800 Clone</h2>

<p>I bought an Arduino powered clone of the venerable Altair 8800 from
<a href="https://www.adwaterandstir.com/product/altair-8800-emulator-kit/">Adwater
and Stir</a> in May 2020.  It took two evenings to solder together.  If you've
ever built a kit before, this will be a snap.  It's all through-hole
construction with no wiring.</p>
<center>
<p>Here is the cover of Popular Electronics, January 1975 advertising it.</p>

<p><img src="popElec.jpg" alt="[PopElec Picture]"> </img></p>

<p>And after a bit of solder smoke, here is mine!</p>

<p><img src="altair-8800-mini.jpg" alt="[altair mini picture]"></img></p>

<p><img src="itsAlive.gif" alt="[its alive]"></img></p>

<br>
<p>It's alive!</p>
</center>
</body></html>
---

you can setup your altair with a fabgl terminal and a modem or wifi modem to do the same with the information here on my github:

John Galt

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Apr 18, 2025, 9:57:48 PM4/18/25
to Altair-Duino
Sorry I meant to write "It is missing the </img> termination for the images" not "It is missing the </a> termination for the images"
no edit function on these posts.

John Galt

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Apr 18, 2025, 10:11:34 PM4/18/25
to Altair-Duino
DSCN6352.JPG

ranc...@gmail.com

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Apr 19, 2025, 9:00:09 AM4/19/25
to Leonard DiSanza, Mike Markowski, Altair-Duino

In 1975 I was on a self-imposed sebatical from my under-graduate EE program and working at an AM/FM radio station.  My boss introduced me to the Popular Electronics magazine featuring the Altair 8800 he was lusting after.  Neither one of us could afford even the barest-of-bones kit Altair.  Just 4 short years later I took my over-time earnings and bought an Apple ][+ rev 6 (sans disk drives and only 32K of memory).  I thought I was rich. 

 

No, wait I am Rich.  Just not wealthy.

 

Great memories.  Now If I can jus find the motivation to do all the soldering to put together my S-100 Alltair 8800 clone.

 

Cheers,

Rich

Mike Markowski

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Apr 22, 2025, 6:52:44 PM4/22/25
to altair...@googlegroups.com
Thanks, John.  After the initial sharing of the photo of my build, I didn't expect the page to be visited again.  But I'm glad I left it for this lesson because I didn't realize img expected a closing /img!  I also look forward to checking out the link you provided.

Thanks again,
Mike

John Galt

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Apr 22, 2025, 7:02:09 PM4/22/25
to Altair-Duino
I've been thinking for a while to setup a web 1.0 website and make it lynx text browsing compatible.

i setup a simple website on github just for testing of my python script to view HTML and photos on my altair Fabgl terminal.

This is just an ever changing test html site 


I could also create a Geoff terminal version of the Python script, it would just be one color in that case instead of 64 colors with the fabgl terminal.

John Galt

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Apr 23, 2025, 4:09:05 PM4/23/25
to Altair-Duino
hey just for fun the Popular Electronics magazine cover you posted. 
here is the original owner


his father was a Ham radio operator back in 1971 named George.
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