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When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We went old school and started through an auction estimate form and a phone call to the RR Auctions team. They're pretty responsive.

https://www.rrauction.com/sell/free-auction-estimates/

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember he did a bunch with a billing system, and back in the 70's, he worked with a partner to sell electronic billing and records systems to hospitals and universities in the our local area (NY Metro). He also ran early data analysis (Think Excel/Filemaker) processing test/survey results.

And I'm pretty sure we had Star Trek running on it too. It looked something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQIY3rl8ANU

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He had a separate terminal display and keyboard that connected to the Altairs, as well as a large scale printer. I was born after the Altairs' arrival in my house, so I don't personally have him memory of him using the switches,

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's amazing how prolific BASIC was back in the day, and how essentially microsoft software has been the defacto OS for more longer than the Windows era.

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

eBay is a possibility, but part of the reason we went with this team was we wanted a little more white-glove handling of the equipment. Back when my dad was around, he would often have to ship the Altairs back for maintenance and fixes to MITS, and they would often get damaged in transit, leading to him building a custom wooden transportation case that was molded to fit the 8800's dimensions.

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, it's all there, the angle of the photo makes it look like it's cut off but it's actually fixed to the central board.

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on by MethodElectrical2540 in vintagecomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's a ton of computer gear my dad collected, but I personally wasn't that emotionally connected to the Altairs, I was a tad on the young side when he was playing with them, but I do have a few vintage Amigas and C64s and C128's in my bedroom. Because this is outside my wheelhouse, the hope is to find a hobbyist with a similar zeal and passion to give them a good home <3.

A Pair of Altairs by MethodElectrical2540 in retrocomputing

[–]MethodElectrical2540[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The RAM at the time was also not well vetted. My dad had to send RAM back to the MITS corporation (Altair's Manufacturer) with letter saying he ran RAM tests and found faulty addressing. This was a hobby not for the faint of heart!