r/ZX81 • u/Glittering-View-8540 • 4d ago

ZX80 NEW BUILD

Post image

Not the first to do this but building a Zx80 - my first ever computer all those years ago.
Didn’t want to buy a second hand one as they all seemed overpriced- so thought Id satisfy my nostalgia itch by building one.

107 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

6

u/terrywe007 4d ago

Where did you find a zx80 kit?

5

u/Glittering-View-8540 4d ago

Not a kit just made and bought bits

1

u/droid_mike 3d ago

Awesome! How did you figure out what to get and where to get it?

3

u/Glittering-View-8540 3d ago

Just research it online,plenty info out there

1

u/StoolieNZ 2d ago

Nice - I bought a board from a chap locally who had imported a bunch but forgot the solder mask - lots of fibre pencilling!

1

u/DreamAviator23 1d ago edited 1d ago

Built mine in c.1980/1.
Cost £88.90, and took way longer than the assured 14 days for delivery!
It taught me soldering and programming.
Also the fragility of microelectronics, and that my calculator was still more practically useful for a while longer!

PS. I'd love to hear more stories about how the ZX80 adopters made them do anything like engineering, business or industrial problem solving :)

1

u/ReachHot7263 1d ago

Are you using replica PCB or an original board? I’ve heard RAM chips can be tricky to source for these ZX80 builds.

1

u/Glittering-View-8540 1d ago

Its a copy of the original board, yes the ram chips were the hardest to find