The Altair Experience
The video library below is full of hands-on demonstrations and tutorials. It is a great way to
work through the history of the Altair 8800 computer. Feel free to contact us with your suggestions
for additional videos.
- Front Panel Introduction
- Overview, power on, reset, memory examine and modify
- Front Panel Programming
- Program entry, single step, run, address lights for program debug/verification
- Front Panel Game – Kill the Bit
- Program entry, demonstration, explanation of how LEDs were controlled
Support material for this video - Front Panel Status Lights
- Explanation and demonstration of the front panel status lights
Support material for this video - Front Panel Programming – Interrupt Processing
- Overview and demonstration of interrupt acknowledge cycles
Support material for this video - Front Panel Programming – Serial I/O Echo Routines
- Simple echo, interrupt echo, halted interrupt echo
Support material for this video - Loading Altair 4K BASIC
- Loading Altair 4K BASIC using the front panel and a paper tape image file
Support material for this video - Using Altair 4K BASIC
- Loading, running and saving programs via paper tape image files
- Loading and Operating Altair 4K BASIC with a Teletype
- Follow-up to the preceding two videos that demonstrates loading and operating
Altair 4K BASIC using the front panel and an ASR-33 Teletype - Loading and Operating Altair 8K BASIC
- Loading Altair 8K BASIC, loading, running and saving programs via cassette tape image files
Support material for this video - Loading Altair 8K BASIC from Cassette Tape
- Follow-up to the preceding video that demonstrates loading and operating Altair 8K BASIC
from the front panel using an actual tape recorder and cassette tape - Loading Altair 8K BASIC the Fun Way!
- Loading Altair 8K BASIC from a reel-to-reel tape deck through the cassette interface
Includes explanation of various tones from the tape during the load process - Altair ROMs to Simplify Loading of BASIC
- Multi-Boot Loader ROM (MBL), Turnkey Monitor ROM (TURMON)
- Altair BASIC Version 1.0
- Loading the very first version of BASIC for the Altair using a Teletype
Bootstrap Loader used in this video - Altair Floppy Disk
- Front panel program to demonstrate Altair floppy disk functionality
Booting from floppy disks using the Disk Boot Loader ROM (DBL) and tape - Altair Disk BASIC
- Demonstration of Disk BASIC 5.0 for the Altair including booting from
floppy and using disk related commands - Disk Boot from Paper Tape
- Demonstration of the convoluted process of booting an Altair floppy from a Teletype and paper tape
This was required when the Disk Boot Loader PROM was not available in an Altair 8800 - Altair Timesharing BASIC
- Loading and configuring Timesharing BASIC for the Altair
Demonstration of multiple simultaneous users - MITS Programming Package II – Introduction
- Booting and initializing the monitor, editor and assembler from cassette tape
- MITS Programming Package II – Programming
- Demonstration of editing, assembling and running a program
- MITS Programming Package II – Loading and Saving Programs
- Demonstration of loading and saving program source files and executable files
- Altair DOS – Introduction
- Booting and running Altair DOS version 1.0
Demonstration of some Altair DOS features and commands - Altair DOS – Programming
- Assemble, link and run an assembly langauge program
Compile, link and run a FORTRAN program - CP/M 2.2 on the Altair – Introduction
- Booting and running a commercially available distribution of CP/M 2.2 from 1980 on an Altair 8800 Computer
- CP/M 2.2 Programming
- Edit, assemble and run a program under CP/M 2.2 as demonstrated on an Altair 8800 Computer
- Changing CP/M's RAM Size
- Using MOVCPM and SYSGEN to modify CP/M 2.2 for more or less RAM
- CP/M Applications
- Demonstration of MBASIC, Zork, Ladder, SuperCalc2
- CP/M 2.2 AutoExec on Boot
- Demonstration of how to use CP/M's relatively obscure auto-run on boot feature
- CP/M 3 Part 1 - Booting
- Booting CP/M 3 on an Altair 8800 and how it differs from CP/M 2.2
- CP/M 3 Part 2 - New Commands
- A few of the new commands introduced in CP/M 3 are covered
- CP/M 3 Part 3 - New Commands (cont'd)
- A few more of the new commands introduced in CP/M 3 are covered
- CP/M 3 Part 4 - Programming Environment #1
- RMAC, LINK, and RSX (Resident System Extensions) are covered
- Quick Demos #1
- Three quick, "just for the fun of it," demonstrations:
Load BASIC from an iPad, boot our own program from paper tape,
punch human-readable messages on paper tape - Pong on the Altair 8800 Front Panel
- Demonstration of Pong played on the front panel of an Altair 8800 along with a look at
program development, saving and loading in the early Altair days
Support material for this video - Altair Turnkey Board
- Demonstration of the Turnkey Module for the Altair 8800 Computer
- High Speed Paper Tape Reader/Punch
- Using a high speed paper tape reader/punch with the Altair 8800 Computer
- Music on the Altair 8800
- Demonstration of a real Altair playing music through an AM radio
and with the "Music System" from Processor Technology - The Music System on the Altair Clone
- The "Music System" from Processor Technology running on an Altair Clone
- Altair Clone Playing Music on an AM Radio
- Quick demo of the Altair Clone playing music through an AM radio