(via Retrothing/ Kenbakit) John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 was the first PC available on the market and it has just been re-released as a $999 KENBAK-1 Series 2 reproduction. This cool Star Trek-inspired machine was announced in the September 1971 issue of Scientific American, with a price tag of "only" $750...


KENBAK-1was designed before the microprocessor revolution, so the system logic was built around small and medium scale ICs. MOS shift registers provided a mere 256 bytes of memory. Just like i nthe original Star Trek the front panel featured a row of incandescent blinky lights instead of LEDs: pure retro hardware porno!! There are less than ten kits still available, so this is way more difficult to get than a Wii...


The above picture was made by placing a reproduction Kenbak-1 Series 2 PCB on top of the vintage Kenbak-1 PCB and shining a light at them.  The light passing through the holes proves that the reproduction PCBs are very accurate, down to the placement of holes!  The replica board is identical except for the text "Homebrew 2007" and "http://www.kenbakkit.com".  This is to help with counterfeit units.

(via Retrothing / Briel Compouters) Briel Computers have followed up their popular Apple-I clone with the Micro-KIM, a copy of the MOS Technologies KIM-1, the computer that sparked a frenzy in the hobby community in the mid-1970s. The micro-KIM is a clone of the KIM-1 created by MOS technologies in 1975 as a development board for the 6502 CPU.  With a projected selling price of $99 the micro-KIM is one of the most affordable 8 bit computer kits available today.