May 10, 2026
8-bit chips, 100% comment chaos
Eight More 8-bit Era Microprocessors (2024)
Retro chips spark big feelings as commenters roast, reminisce, and ask who really missed out
TLDR: The article spotlights eight obscure early computer chips, including one from Texas Instruments that never properly launched but still mattered years later. Commenters turned it into a nostalgia brawl full of "what if" history, cursed design stories, and delight at how weird early computing really was.
A new look back at the almost-famous tiny computer brains of the 1970s has done what great retro tech always does: it turned the comments into a time machine, a history class, and a comedy club. The article tours eight lesser-known 8-bit processors — the early chips that helped shape personal computing, even when they flopped. The biggest gasp came from Texas Instruments’ TMX-1795, a chip that never really shipped but still became courtroom ammo in a patent war and may have been a huge "what if" moment in computer history. Cue the community yelling the unofficial lesson of the week: "Great artists ship!"
But the real fireworks were in the reactions. One commenter marveled at how wildly different early chip designs were, basically saying people once seriously believed today’s dominant computer family might lose out entirely. Another dropped a deliciously cursed detail about an old Fairchild chip: making a "long jump" could wipe the accumulator, which sounds less like elegant engineering and more like a prank from 1974. That anecdote became instant comment-section catnip — part horror story, part badge of honor.
Then came the nostalgia flexes. Fans shouted out the RCA-1802 and the COSMAC Elf, celebrating how one obscure hobby computer helped give birth to CHIP-8, the ancestor of today’s fake-retro game platforms like Pico-8. And in peak vintage-weirdness, one user casually mentioned owning a Donkey Kong Jr. board hacked to swap in a bizarrely uncommon chip, prompting the kind of reaction every retro thread loves: wait, why on earth did they do that?
Key Points
- •The article surveys lesser-known 8-bit-era microprocessors that were historically or technically significant even when they were not commercially successful.
- •Texas Instruments' TMX-1795 originated from work on the Datapoint 2200, is cited as a candidate for the first microprocessor, and later featured in patent litigation involving Gilbert Hyatt.
- •Intel’s 8008 used the same instruction set architecture as the Datapoint-related design, and that processor line later evolved into x86.
- •The Mostek Mk 5065 came from a Motorola design licensed to Mostek and contained early versions of features later associated with the Motorola 6800 and MOS Technology 6502.
- •The article identifies the Intel 8085 as the successor to the 8080 and notes that Federico Faggin later led Zilog’s Z80 development after leaving Intel.