Retrocomputing
Bring old computers back to life, then boot them up and tinker like it's 1985.
~$70Cost to start
ModerateDifficulty
1–3 hrTime / session
2 setup steps, ~$70 all in. Nothing to buy until you say so.
Is it you?
Nobody has scored this against your answers yet. 1–3 hr at a time, $70 to find out whether it sticks.
MessSome cleanupNoiseSome noise
The path12 quests
ASetting up2 things to sort, in any order$70
- Get repair tools and a set of replacement capacitors
- Never plug an untested machine straight in
Then the quests
- Get an old machine to boot
- Load a program from tape, disk or cartridge
- Type in a BASIC listing and run it
Same shape of evening, different thing to hold at the end. Or follow a tag sideways.
Drone Building$320
Solder and tune your own FPV quadcopter, then fly it first-person through the air.
Desktop CNC$390
Design parts in CAD and watch a desktop machine carve them from wood, plastic, or metal.
Robotics$116
Build a machine and write the code that makes it move on its own.
Watchmaking$72
Strip, service, and reassemble a mechanical watch movement, a hundred tiny parts under a loupe.