Back in 1976 an RCA engineer named Joseph Weisbecker published an article in Popular Electronics called “Build the COSMAC ELF,” and my life got set on the path that led to where I am now.
Back in 1976 you could build an ELF for less than $100, a budget that was attainable for a 14-year-old who was intrigued with the idea of a computer of any kind. It was late in 1976 that I started buying parts, and 1977 before I got the thing built. I sat for hours at the kitchen table wire-wrapping connections. My Dad built me a fancy wooden base, and a friend's father helped me troubleshoot the wiring errors that I made. Eventually I had my very first working computer.
I own four 1802-based microcomputers now. You'll find information about each of them on their own page, but frankly, there’s not much behind any of these links. Not yet, anyway.
- The original ELF from 1976. It's not the same one that I built 30-odd years ago, but it's made out of almost all the original parts.
- The MC-3 isn't an ELF-class computer, but it's an interesting little microprocessor development system.
- The fine folks at Spare Time Gizmos created a new version of the ELF that has the look and feel of the original, but it's built with the "latest" hardware.
- Lee Hart designed this small ELF-like computer for the Yahoo COSMAC ELF group.
- I created this adapter to hook my Membership Card up to my laptop.