Turning on a 40 Year Old SWTPC 6809 Computer

Recently, I found some old PCs in my basement and tried turning them on. Being 25-30 years old, sitting in a slightly damp basement all that time, I never expected them to turn on. They all did (3 systems)!

Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer had the nervous moment of turning on a SWTPC 6809 computer from 1980 that had been sitting in a garage for decades. He bought the system to try and make music with it. He never expected it to power up, but it all did — the computer, the dual 8″ floppy drives, and the terminal. And he got them all to talk to each other. It works!

Now he’s going to try and learn more about how the system works, what he can do with it, and especially, how to make music with it.