That's really fantastic that he was able to save his work from 28 years ago. I really wish I had the foresight to do the same from only five years ago, though I expect the result would be less like unearthing buried treasure and more like finding what stinks in the fridge.
I am just beginning to worry about this sort of thing (#)
but what age were you in 1979/82 with your sharp computer,
and I have assumed I will be trying to guide my son / daughter onto emulators (nand2tetris etc) rather than real physical machines - or are there real physical machines which are simple enough and have root on to be early hacking machines?
"are there real physical machines which are simple enough and have root on to be early hacking machines?"
If you really want to re-enact the OP article, visit Briel Computers and get a Micro-KIM. Mine works perfectly. At the 2013 Midwest Gaming Classic someone (not me) was exhibiting an original KIM (as seen in the post) and a microKIM side by side in the retrocomputing room, which my family found entertaining because I also have one mounted on a wood plaque in my "office" area. How else are you going to display one?
I was always more of a Z80 guy... speaking of Z80 computers, one currently shipping project is the N8VEM CP/M SBC project which I found pretty trivial to assemble and use, not to forget the P112 SBC as recently seen on kickstarter.
Then there's my stack of FPGA devices ranging from the micronova mercury to my boring typical Spartan boards, which twists the borders of "real hardware" and emulation.
I gave my daughters TRS 80 model 100 computers for their tenth birthdays. It has a 8085 processor and really a quite powerful basic (the last software bill gates worked on, and its not bad) with a bit mapped display. They run for weeks on 4 Aa batteries and have a better keyboard than most modern laptops. here is an emulator available, but since they go for about $30 on eBay, I like having the real thing.
I bought a box of these recently and they are really great; I used to have TRS 80 III and 4 so when I saw I box (don't hit me) of model 100s for 10 euros I bought it. They're a very nice addition to my museum and batteries last forever. The box had 1 Sharp PC-1211 too. Talking about battery life :)
What always amuses me is that my computers from around 2000 are not working anymore (heck, most laptops I have from the past 10 years are not even booting anymore) while computers from my parents basement which are around 30 years old just work like they just came from the shop. Even the Philips computers from that time who had known capacitor issues in the power circuitry work like time didn't happen.
Arduino kits are great hits with the 8-15 year olds in the family. They can play with the sample code and tweak it and see something happen "in the real world", whether it's a flashing LED or "upgrading" their Lego to torment the cat.
It's similar to those Radio Shack "3000 electronic experiments" boards that were sold in the 80s(?) and yet can scale with the kids' understanding.
Sure, it's not self-hosting, but I've noticed the physical connection to caps, resistors, diodes, etc. in a "safe" environment makes them more proud of their accomplishments than their html/css projects.
