A Byte of History : Techies Taking a Scroll Down Memory Lane
The nerds are getting nostalgic.
Barely 20 years into the personal computer revolution, techies across the country are growing increasingly sentimental about the machines and programs that changed their lives and ushered in the Information Age.
For them, booting up a vintage Commodore PET computer can conjure misty-eyed memories. Toggling the switches of an Altair 8800 is better than gripping the gearshift of a first car. And a shrink-wrapped copy of VisiCalc software beats a mint-condition Mickey Mantle baseball card any day.
This is the memorabilia of the PC generation, and after spending much of the last decade or two collecting dust in suburban garages from Silicon Valley to Boston’s Route 128, it’s starting to make a comeback.
Virtual museums of vintage hardware and software are sprouting up all over the Internet’s World Wide Web, as are online classified ads placed by collectors desperate to reacquire the technological wonders of their youth. Some rare PCs are fetching much higher prices now than they did when they were brand-new, and even revered institutions such as the Smithsonian are bolstering their computer collections.
“The amount of activity that I see is amazing,” said Kip Crosby, president of the Computer History Assn. of California in Palo Alto. “People are always asking me: ‘Can you find me an Altair? Can you find this or that?’ I get 10 to 20 phone calls and e-mails a month, twice as many as a year ago.”
Most of these early machines and programs, which didn’t work very well when they were new, are even more troublesome to maintain now--and have been rendered obsolete by wave after wave of new equipment.
But like certain cars or baseball cards, high-tech relics are somehow enhanced by the passage of time. Collectors see them as the symbols of a more colorful computer age populated by legendary personalities who became billionaires--or, in some cases, went bust.
“That’s why I’m interested in computer history,” said Co Ho, 30, an Internet administrator at Fullerton College. “Many people could have made it big, but they fell asleep and ended up having somebody else eating their cake.”
Ho collects vintage software, especially programs that changed the computing landscape but somehow faltered. One of his favorite pieces is CP/M, an early operating system created by Digital Research.
CP/M might have become the operating system had Digital Research’s founder, the late Gary Kildall, been more hospitable when IBM came calling to license his software. In a legendary blunder, Kildall and his wife refused to sign IBM’s confidentiality agreement, and IBM executives took their business to a then-tiny company known as Microsoft.
“CP/M missed the boat because of casual behavior,” Ho said. “It’s really a sad story.”
Ho has collected about a dozen titles, including VisiCalc, the original spreadsheet program, mostly by scrounging through the bargain bins at software stores. The collection isn’t worth much, at least not yet, but it catches the attention of almost every nerd who walks into his office.
“My next piece is going to be Netscape 1.1 shrink-wrapped,” Ho said. “I have a feeling a couple years from now Microsoft will kill off Netscape.”
Ho is one of the few people who collect software. More collect hardware, and one of the most sought-after machines is the Altair 8800, introduced by MITS Inc. of Albuquerque in 1975. It didn’t have a keyboard or a monitor, only rows of switches on the front of the box.
The Altair kit sold for $395 when it was new, but one in good condition today can fetch as much as $1,500 because of the exalted position it holds in computer history. Widely regarded as the first mass-market personal computer, it launched a craze when it appeared on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. Bill Gates even dropped out of Harvard to develop an early version of the Basic programming language for the Altair.
The Altair “established Bill Gates in business,” said Gwen Bell, founder of the Computer Museum, a Boston mecca for computer lovers. “One of our prize treasures is the original Basic tape that Bill Gates developed on the Altair.”
Collectors tend to pass over some of the most popular early machines, such as the original IBM PC and the 1984 Apple Macintosh, because there are just too many of them. Scarcity counts, which helps explain why the most valuable collectible is the Apple I.
Introduced by Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak in 1976, the Apple I was nothing more than a circuit board. It had no keyboard, no monitor, not even a case. It sold for $666, and only a few hundred were produced.
A well-preserved Apple I can fetch as much as $12,000 today, sometimes more. An Apple I signed by Jobs and Wozniak sold for $22,000 at a fund-raiser auction for the Computer Museum several months ago, Bell said.
That kind of appreciation has attracted the attention of even non-techie collectors.
“I got a call from an investment advisor for a Wall Street banker,” Bell said. “He asked: ‘Should I get him into collecting old computers? Will they increase in value more than art?’ I said, ‘I don’t know--I’m not a dealer.’ ”
In fact, there aren’t any prominent dealers of antique computers, at least not yet. But a few collectors are hoping to change that, including David Greelish, founder of the Historical Computer Society in Jacksonville, Fla.
Greelish, a computer repairman, has spent about $2,600 in recent years building a collection of 35 computers, mostly by trolling for bargains on the Internet. He uses search engines such as Yahoo to root out online classified ads for Altairs and other vintage machines, and he keeps an eye on alt.folklore.computers, a newsgroup where history buffs hang out.
“Ultimately, I would like to see [the Historical Computer Society] grow and publish magazines and books,” he said. “I’d like to start displaying our collection and even restoring computers for sale.”
Greelish and others said would-be collectors should look for machines that look clean, have all the original equipment and documentation and still run. A number of guidebooks are available, including Stan Veit’s “History of the Personal Computer,” published by WorldComm in Asheville, N.C., and “A Collector’s Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket Calculators,” published by Krause Publications in Iola, Wis.
Experts urge caution, however. There’s no guarantee that old computers will grow in value, and they are very difficult to maintain.
“If you’ve never opened up your computer and looked inside, this is probably not the collectible for you,” Bell said.
Instead, experts say, this is a hobby better left to people who were enthralled by the recent PBS documentary “Triumph of the Nerds,” people who still have a soft spot for monochrome terminals, “Chiclet” keyboards and the odd shapes of the early machines.
But even among techies, there are plenty of people who scoff at this new fad, including Kim Nelson, service manager at ACP Superstore in Santa Ana. Founded 20 years ago, ACP is one of the oldest computer stores in Southern California, holds swap meets that attract legions of collectors, and might be one of the region’s best unofficial museums. The store’s top shelves are crammed with artifacts of computer history, although Nelson calls it junk.
“Isn’t it amazing that we have computer folklore now,” he said, walking with a reporter along rows of vintage Commodores, Imsais and Tandys. “That’s kind of sad when you think about it. Seems to me there are things that are a lot more important.”
But as he uttered those words, service technician John Krill walked by and surveyed the line of creaky machines. Almost against his will, Nelson was sucked into an episode of technology reverie.
“Look at that Kaypro,” Krill said. “That company grew so fast they were warehousing their inventory in tents.”
“Weren’t they the ones that had the fire too?” asked Nelson, perking up just a bit and eager to demonstrate his techno-trivia prowess.
The conversation drifted from machine to machine.
“When I was in college, I would just leave my Osborne up in the library,” Krill said with a laugh, recalling the immobility of the first portable computer. “The damned thing weighed 27 pounds. I didn’t want to lug it around.”
Fifteen minutes passed before the two realized that their walk down memory lane might have strained the attention span of their guest.
“That’s enough, John,” Nelson finally said with an embarrassed grin. “You’re boring him.”
Greg Miller can be reached via e-mail at greg.miller@latimes.com
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Computer Collectibles
Here are some of the PCs attracting the attention of nostalgic techies:
Model: Apple I
Year introduced: 1976
Original price: $666
Current value: $10,000-$12,000
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Model: Mark-8
Year introduced: 1974
Original price: $250
Current value: $3,500-$4,000
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Model: Scelbi 8H
Year introduced: 1973
Original price: $440
Current value: $1,200-$1,500
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Model: Altair 8800
Year introduced: 1975
Original price: $395
Current value: $1,200-$1,500
*
Model: Imsai 8080
Year introduced: 1975
Original price: $440
Current value: $400-$600
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Model: Apple II
Year introduced: 1977
Original price: $1,195
Current value: $200-$400
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Model: Osborne I
Year introduced: 1981
Original price: $1,795
Current value: $200-$300
Descriptions:
Apple I: With no monitor, no keyboard and no case, the Apple I was little more than a circuit board. Only a few hundred were produced.
Mark-8: A kit computer that was the subject of the first magazine article describing how to build a computer. The article appeared in Radio Electronics Magazine in 1974.
Scelbi: Predated the Altair and was the first computer based on a microprocessor advertised for sale. Only a small number was made.
Altair 8800: Programmed by switches, the Altair 8800 had no keyboard, no monitor and just 256 bytes of memory. But it is widely regarded as the first mass-market personal computer. The Altair, based on an Intel processor, started a craze when it appeared on the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975.
Imsai 8080: Modeled on the Altair, the Imsai had several technological advances and a more polished look. Had no keyboard or monitor but was briefly the fastest-selling personal computer.
Apple II: This is the machine that launched the company--and the personal computer industry. Apple II computers came with a keyboard, monitor and two disk drives. Most important, they ran VisiCalc, the original spreadsheet program that was the personal computer’s “killer application.”
Osborne I: Considered the first portable computer, even though it weighed about 30 pounds and was the size of a suitcase. It had a 5-inch screen, two floppy disk drives and 64K of RAM.
Sources: Stan Veit’s “History of the Personal Computer,” published by WorldComm, Asheville, N.C.; David Greelish, president, Historical Computer Society, Jacksonville, Fla.; “A Collector’s Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket Calculators,” published by Krause Publications in Iola, Wis.
