Welcome to the MicroBasement.

The MicroBasement is a site that showcases my collection of real vintage computers and technology. For more than five decades I have been enthralled with the technology of computers. As a teenager in the 1970s I designed and built my first Intel 8008 based computer. I was inspired by the Mark 8 created by Jon Titus. My homebuilt 8008 was painstakingly designed and built over a period of three years. Building my own computer from scratch was the beginning of a journey that has continued for my entire lifetime. At that time I could have never envisioned the journey that computers would travel.

When I originally designed and built my first computer, information was scarce. There wasn’t an Internet, and little printed information existed about microcomputers. In Utah I was unaware of a computer club or anyone else who even had a “personal” computer. I lived close to the University of Utah and would ride my bicycle up and stroll the shelves of the Marriott Library. On those shelves I discovered books about Boolean algebra and other digital technology. I spent many pockets full of nickels making photocopies of some of those books so I could read them at home.

In July of 1974 the issue of Radio Electronics hit the magazine racks. On the cover was a picture of the Mark 8 Microcomputer. At that moment I knew I wanted a computer. Ironically I never gave a moment’s thought to what I would use a computer for; I just knew I had to have one. I wrote Intel and requested the 8008 data book. I found a few other sources that contained schematics of 8008 computers that helped my understanding.

At 14 I made my money by mowing lawns—$2 a lawn to be exact. It would take a lot of lawns to build a computer. Fortunately I had incredible parents that were somehow sympathetic to a crazy kid and his dream to build a computer. Remember, at that time individuals didn’t have computers at home in any form. Before my father would write a check I would have to sit down with him and explain what I was going to buy and how the part was going to be used. This process continued for nearly three years. By the end of the project I had moved to higher-paying jobs and eventually paid my father back! In all I had borrowed $1,000, which in 2026 would be about $6,000. When I think back on the trust my parents had in loaning me money to build a computer, I am overwhelmed at their trust.

So before I graduated high school I had a computer sitting on a desk in my room! To me the journey was the significant part of the project. During the process of designing and building I learned about electronics, digital design, circuit board design, way too much about wire wrapping, assembly language programming, project management, troubleshooting circuits, documentation, and mostly patience. I call that period of time when I got my PhD. Even though my 8008 is gone I still have the documentation I created for the project.

The experience of building that little computer taught me so many things. But one of the greatest takeaways was how important it is to preserve history. When I began my journey I would seek out knowledge anywhere I could. When I was young my father would take me to the Salt Lake City main library. I would often bring home books on electronics, chemistry, astronomy, physics, and a multitude of other topics. My mother would be my sounding board as I would often carry on about one project or another. Books during that period of time were most often filled with outdated information. It was nothing like the instantaneous world we live in today. But the one thing they delivered to me was a foundation of true principles to build on.

So after all that, why are we here? My collection of computers and technology is a display of a few of the little steps we have taken to create the amazingly complex world we live in today. By today’s standards my computer, and most of the computers at the time, were mere toys. My computer had 16K of memory. Today’s computers typically have four million times as much memory, and incredibly powerful processors. But to get from then to now we had so much to learn, in the same way I had much to learn before I could design a computer in the 1970s. Today many have grown impatient and want to just press a button for instant fulfillment. That has never worked with knowledge, and never will. No matter what area of interest one pursues, past examples of creation are extremely important. We all need stepping stones to cross the unknown river. May these stepping stones provide a path to someone on their journey in the future.

Len Bayles