Anyone here attend the Homebrew Computer Club and/or visit a Byte Shop back in the day?

[Pentad4k]

I wondered if anyone here attended the Homebrew meetings and/or visited Paul Terrell's Byte Shop in the mid 70's? I've read different books talking about both of these and listened to interviews with Lee Felsenstein. From what I've read, it seemed like 1975 to 1980(?) the personal computer world moved like lightning. New and better systems appeared every year. Did it feel that way to those of you who were there? I mean going from no computers to a selection had to be exciting.

Anyone want to share some stories of the HCC and/or visiting the Byte Shop before Paul sold them? Anyone see Steve Dompier's Altair music/radio demo at the HCC?


Thanks!

 

[cjs]

I am curious about this too, so I decided to spread the net a little further with a question on the Retrocomputing Stack Exchange.

 

[Pentad4k]

I am curious about this too, so I decided to spread the net a little further with a question on the Retrocomputing Stack Exchange.

Thank you!

From what I have read, it seems like it would have been a very exciting time with personal computers making leaps and bounds over year (6 months)?

 

[rkindig]

I have a series of podcasts I'm doing with Paul Terrell at my podcast at https://www.floppydays.com. 2 parts of a multi-part segment on just the Byte Shop have already been published. There will be further episodes on the Homebrew Computer Club.

 

[daver2]

I visited the Byte Shop in Birmingham (UK) when I was a student at Aston University back in the late 70s early 80s.

One of the more 'impressive' shops that I visited.

Dave

 

[Pentad4k]

Hi Dave!

Thanks for the reply. Were there a lot of different computers available at the shop? Any models/brands you remember?

Thanks for sharing!
Mark

 

[Pentad4k]

I have a series of podcasts I'm doing with Paul Terrell at my podcast at https://www.floppydays.com. 2 parts of a multi-part segment on just the Byte Shop have already been published. There will be further episodes on the Homebrew Computer Club.

That is awesome rkindig! Thanks for the hard work and podcast! I'm going to listen it to it now!

 

[daver2]

The ones I remember the most was the Cromemco machines - series 2 and 3.

My first S-100 system had a repaired Cromemco Blitzbus backplane that I was sold by the (then) manager (who is a member here I think).

Of course, as a student, I couldn't afford one of these machines - but I have one now!

Dave

 

[Hugo Holden]

If you look at page 2 of this article I found a copy of a Ticket to a big Commodore PET show in 1980, with lots of vendors, looks like over 50, on a large floor plan , it would have been an exciting time to have gone there:

https://worldphaco.com/uploads/THE%20TAYLOR-WILSON%20PET%20PRINTER%20INTERFACE.pdf

 

[menkelis]

I helped setup the Portland Byte Shop owned by Paul’s brother Pat. Two of my friends Jim and Mike “worked” for Pat.