Recreating a Piece of History

Block I Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC): How to build one in your basement

“This report describes my successful project to build a working reproduction of the 1964 prototype for the Block I Apollo Guidance Computer. The AGC is the flight computer for the Apollo moon landings, and is the words’s first integrated circuit computer. I built it in my basement. It took me 4 years. If you like, you can build one too. It will take you less time, and yours will be better than mine.”

Editor’s note: You can contact the man behind this project, John Pultorak here.. In reading of this project, I am reminded of those who have built working replicas of Babbage’s Difference Engine, The Antikythera Mechanism (an ancient Greek astronomical computer), and some of Leonardo’s inventions. Go here for more information on the Apollo Guidance Computer.

Of course, there is also the woman in Oregon who recently put an entire Commodore 64 on a single chip.