An excellent project .. I'm already jealous and want one! :)
I think there is a lot of potential for machines like this to make a return to relevance in this day and age. I'm using my old 8-bit collection (still working) to teach my kids computing at the most basic level - I can sit them in front of our Oric Atmos battlestation, which in the 21st Century is fulfilling all the dreams of the 80's, and give them a few hours to figure out how to do things without worrying about dodgy Internet distractions, overly burdensome IDE installations, irrelevant tools and utils .. the thing just plain works, from power on until sunrise. And the kids have a blast with direct interaction - when they type something, something happens .. there's no waiting, no distractions. Still an excellent learning platform - and demonstrates just how arbitrary the value of computers is, in this day and age.
I think there is a lot of potential for machines like this to make a return to relevance in this day and age. I'm using my old 8-bit collection (still working) to teach my kids computing at the most basic level - I can sit them in front of our Oric Atmos battlestation, which in the 21st Century is fulfilling all the dreams of the 80's, and give them a few hours to figure out how to do things without worrying about dodgy Internet distractions, overly burdensome IDE installations, irrelevant tools and utils .. the thing just plain works, from power on until sunrise. And the kids have a blast with direct interaction - when they type something, something happens .. there's no waiting, no distractions. Still an excellent learning platform - and demonstrates just how arbitrary the value of computers is, in this day and age.
Old computers never die - their users do!