Floppy Days 164 - The Sphere, Part 1 with Ben Zotto

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays

Sponsors:

Tuc's Workbench

Hello!!! and welcome to episode 164 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for June, 2026. My name is Randy Kindig and I'm your host for this joy ride through the rewarding hobby of vintage computers and computer history.

I have to start off by apologizing, as I'll actually be stepping back in the computer timeline for this episode. Sometimes it happens. My goal from the beginning of this podcast was to go through computers in the approximate order they were released (at least by year). And, I've largely done that with this podcast. However, sometimes a machine comes up that I didn't know about or didn't recognize its importance at the time I put together the list of computers to cover. This month that computer is the Sphere, which was introduced in 1975. That's right, I said 1975. That was the same year as the Altair and even before the Apple 1.

What was the Sphere and why do we care? The Sphere was the first "personal computer," defined as such by Byte Magazine due to its consumer focus and built-in keyboard and monitor. Now, I know that many computers can claim the moniker of first "personal computer", and rightly so, but this one has the endorsement of an early, well-respected, long-running computer magazine and they have good reason for feeling this way about the Sphere. Once you hear the details, you'll see just how ground-breaking this machine was at a very early period of computer history.

Not only that, some of the personal stories behind the machine are simply downright fascinating.

Ben Zotto is the undisputed expert on the Sphere in these times, after finding an abandoned machine sitting on the sidewalk and deciding to adopt it and learn more about it. He recently wrote a comprehensive book on the Sphere called "Go Computer Now!" that I mentioned the last episode I had acquired. Well, I ended up reading that book cover-to-cover and really enjoying it. So much so that I decided to contact Ben and see if he would be willing to come onto the podcast to talk about his book and the Sphere Computer. Thankfully, he was. This podcast actually serves two purposes: first as an interview with Ben to learn more about him and his book, and secondly as an overview of a computer I didn't cover back when I started this podcast back in 2013 with the Altair 8800 and the Apple 1.

So, this will be a 2-part journey on the Sphere. This month we talk in great detail with Ben Zotto about how he ended up going down the Sphere rabbit hole and all the great things he's done to promote an important machine that was forgotten in the annals of history. Next month, Ben and I go through all the usual topics about the Sphere: history, tech specs, using the machine, current Web sites and a great deal more.

I really hope you enjoy hearing about the Sphere and meeting Ben Zotto!

New Acquisitions/What I've Been Up To/News

VCFSW - https://www.vcfsw.org
REU Grande - https://www.go4retro.com
National Videogame Museum (NVM) - https://nvmusa.org/)
article/cover for May, 2026 Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine with Floppy Days Woz interview - https://www.callapple.org/
passing of Howell Ivy:

audio interview from 2022 - https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-114-howell-ivy-exidy-sorcerer-and-exidy
video interview from 2022 - https://youtu.be/QojU9ty4q_U
audio interview for Byte Shop 50th - https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-161-byte-shop-interviews
video interview for Byte Shop 50th - https://youtu.be/QlmkvVSuNbs

Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows

KansasFest 2026 - July 14-19 - University of Illinois Springfield (in person) - July 31-Aug. 1 (virtual) - https://www.kansasfest.org/
Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - July 30-Aug. 2 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2026-se
Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 31-Aug 2, 2026 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/
Long Island Retro Gaming Expo - August 7-9, 2026 - Cradle of Aviation, Garden City, NY - https://liretro.com/
Fujiama - August 26-30 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2026
Vintage Computer Festival GB 2026 - September 11-13 - Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool, United Kingdom - https://www.facebook.com/events/25457837877216829/
Vintage Computer Festival Midwest - September 12-13 - Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - https://vcfmw.org/
Tandy Assembly 2026 - October 2-4, 2026 - Cincinnati, Ohio - https://www.tandyassembly.com/
Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 9-11 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/
Chicago TI International World Faire - October 24 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home
VCF Montreal - November 7-8 - Champlain College Saint-Lambert, Saint-Lambert, QC - https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/
Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub

Interview Links

Ben's site - https://sphere.computer/
Ben's book "Go Computer Now!!!" - https://shop.gocomputernow.com/products/go-computer-now
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_1