Altair 8800b Fool on the Hill Demo

On page 6 and 7 of Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia there's a program listing of Steve Dompier's program for making music on an Altair 8800. The idea is to cause the computer to send radio wave interference to a nearby AM radio tuned to an un-used channel low on the dial.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Altair 8800b
• MITS Altair
• Altair
• Fool on the Hill
• Beatles
• Using Altair 8800
• vintage computers
• computer history

[sjdme]

The speed value was good for my original Altair 8800 and its 1ghz 8080 chip. Your video still plays faster! On some Altair clones with much faster cpu's, the whole song goes by in 2 seconds! The delay value then needs to be adjusted to 2 bytes. Nice to hear the old song. Thanks, Steve Dompier

[billdeg]

@sjdme Not sure exactly what you mean, but the clock speed of the 8800b is the same as the original 8800 (and the 8800a). The speed variation was due to a change I made to the original program's speed setting. Good catch. Just a personal taste thing. Have you even tried this on an IMSAI?

[billdeg]

@sjdme

Oops I did not see that this is you, Steve Dompier, the author of the music program! Of course you'd know about the 8800's...silly me. Glad you enjoyed it.

Bill

[billdeg]

Steve Dompier, who discovered the phenomenon and originally wrote about it in 1976, said it was the "switching noise of the 8800" - this is a common thing with computers, they all have to be shielded to protect against the interference they produce.

[talktalktalktalktalk]

@jason24568 You're wrong in so many ways

[gmodderr]

Techno music from the 70's :D

[Druffmaul]

Amazing! I've been dying to hear this for about 15 years, ever since I heard Lee Felsenstein recount the first time it was demo'd at the Homebrew Computer Club circa 1975. Thanks for posting!

[carlcartman]

I would love to have been at the Homebrew Computer Club when they played that. That moment, right there, is when the world changed. People had Altairs before that, but all they did was flash their lights: this was the first time that anyone got the Altair to actually DO anything.

[fridgehorse]

Einstein reportedly said "imagination is more important than knowledge", when you look at this metal box & then see where computers are today, imagination/creativity certainly played it's part. Incredible.

[jason24568]

The first midi sound.