Modern remixes of legacy microelectronics like this are a hobby I'm particularly fond of. I'm sure I'm not alone in having assembled far too many Z80, 6809 and 6502 and of course 8088 projects than is probably healthy over Covid.

On the PC-XT specifically I highly recommend anyone who isn't already familiar dig in to the great Sergey Kiselev's project logs and documentation,[1] as he's often the root inspiration for many more recent remixes (such as the NuXT) [2]. He's also created clean redesigns of many ISA-compatible cards (sound, video, storage).

Some people take the hobby to levels I find mind-boggling, such as Alexandru Groza's efforts to essentially single-handedly recreate 386 hardware. [3]

[1] http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects [2] https://github.com/monotech/NuXT [3] https://alexandrugroza.ro/microelectronics/index.html

And if you would like a full IBM compatible computer you can get one for $17:

http://www.fabglib.org/

https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/emulating-the-ibm-pc-on-an-e...

https://au.banggood.com/LILYGO-TTGO-VGA32-V1_4-Controller-PS...

I find it intriguing. Of all the computers of the 80's, the IBM PC was probably the least interesting. It wasn't particularly fast (BIOS character IO via the screen felt like a 9600bps terminal), was very noisy, very expensive, and had a couple horrible screen fonts (specially tragic because the fonts in IBM terminals back then were a thing of beauty).

We could do a TRS-80 Model 4 or a Model 16 and we'd have something more... interesting.

I actually had this one on my ebay watch list.

In terms of modern usage, this is far more practical than original hardware from the era, as you have new components, no mechanical storage, and USB support.

That said, I think there can be an uncanny-valley sort of thing with this kind of hardware: the lack of some of the physical ritual can make the hardware limitations all the more notable, with less of a nostalgic payoff.

This just reminds me that I have a real 8088 that I don't know what to do with. Last I knew, it even worked, but it hasn't been turned on in decades so I am not eager to risk it, even if I were to sanity check it for blown capacitors.

I love the old school everything in caps programming:

https://github.com/homebrew8088/8088-PC-Compatible/blob/main...