Ben's videos are fantastic, learned a lot. For HW beginners like myself I suggest to skip the computer but just build the clock - very easy and great testing tool!

Here's my question: Obviously there's tremendous interest in kits like this. Why doesn't Ben or someone else create small company to:

  * Modernize the components 
  * Update the videos
  * Add additional modules to make the computer a bit more powerful

People would pay money for this. I would.

It is a rite of passage, as electronics wizards say. I remember at least another good example shared in the wild: https://github.com/vascofazza/8bit-cpu

Check this yt channel out: https://youtu.be/ENlcDdyUHC8?si=cq7zob46DX-oRRaj

RE "....Cutting and laying out wires are some of the most tedious and frustrating process....." I would be investigating to use wire wrap. I built some circuits using wire wrap, back in late 70s ,early 80s. I designed and built a circuit on a wire wrap prototype board to put a 68008 DIL chip on the Apple II bus. I'm not sure of the cost of wire wrap parts now - may be quite expensive , the special wire wrap sockets etc .....

Just wanted to add that there is "a homebrew computer ring" project [1] and you will be surprised how many ideas for DIY computers you can find there.

(I also made a two-breadboard CPU with ~5 instructions myself but had yet no time to finish the software)

[1] https://www.homebrewcpuring.org/

James Sharman has been getting quite advanced with his homebrew cpu. He's got audio and VGA working too and was demonstrating a spinning 3D cube recently. https://www.youtube.com/@weirdboyjim

I tried something similar when in college. Built a 8bit GPU on a breadboard, i don't remember all the details now, but it was such a fun project.[1]

[1] https://nabraj.com/blog/8-bit-gpu/

If figuring out how computers work starting all the way from logic gates interests you, but you don’t want to start by ordering parts and soldering, check out the ”game” Turing Complete.

Of course it’s not the same thing as actually building the electronics! But it can be a nice introduction.

I'm a big fan of all the builds and videos Ben Eater puts together, I've learned more watching his demos than a couple of years doing hardware design in college.