Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
An icon of ’90s pop-dance crossover who produced Madonna’s Ray of Light, the UK musician returns with his first album in eight years, but the record’s endless-sunset vibes quickly turn cloying.
From landing a Top 10 hit with an early dance classic to producing Madonna, London’s William Orbit was a low-key presence at some of electronic music’s most important crossover moments. “Fascinating Rhythm,” a 1990 single from his group Bass-o-matic, was a magically haunting bit of slow-motion house, while his Strange Cargo albums were landmark releases, mixing fourth-world electronics with dub basslines, ambient house trills, and new-age atmosphere. Later he worked on Madonna’s Ray of Light and Music and Blur’s 13, stopping only to invent classical trance with his hugely influential cover of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” before getting heavily into cocaine in the 2010s, doing what he describes as his “rock’n’roll excess thing,” and eventually being committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Orbit makes his re-entry with The Painter, his first album since 2014. His productions sound as opulent as ever, daubed with lavish string arrangements, sparkling guitars, and the most polished vocal effects that a lucrative production career can bring. On the opening “Duende,” luxuriously plucked guitar meets gorgeous string sweeps, guest singer Katie Melua’s effusively processed voice, and a slightly anodyne beat. A gilded balloon of ambient pop floating in a directionless waft of relaxation, this is music that doesn’t have to be anywhere in a hurry. “Gold Coast” is another indolent highlight, its plaintive guitar riff, twinkling piano, and electronic squiggles bubbling like hot oil in a lava lamp, while “I Paint What I Can See” (featuring longtime collaborator Beth Orton) makes excellent use of a bassline reminiscent of Orbit’s excursions into dub on Strange Cargo III.
It all sounds very nice, and it is—potentially too much so for The Painter’s overall good. What is, on paper, a tantalizing group of guest singers—including Colombian-Canadian Lido Pimienta and late Tanzanian musician Hukwe Zawose—succumbs to a honeyed stream of premium chill-out moods and expensive sunset feels. “Nuestra Situación,” featuring Pimienta, may be the most telling example: The reggaeton-lite beat nods to genuine musical progress in Orbit’s world, but sees its resistance washed away in identikit synth and piano vibes. Zawose’s sampled vocal on “Heshima kwa Hukwe” endures a similar fate, its edges drowned in Orbit’s ornate blurs.
This is an affliction that hits The Painter time and again, as singers as distinct as knitted-brow electro artist Polly Scattergood and house crooner Ali Love are lost to a Dido-ized soft focus. Orbit claims to focus on “melody, feeling, sonics and narrative” in his work, but it feels like he has gotten caught up in the scene-setting opening paragraphs of an idyllic travelog, rather than developing a story of dramatic depth. The exception to this is the dubbed-out “Epic” mix of “I Paint What I Can See,” a sprawling excursion into astral ambience that closes the album in a grandiloquent wave of distorted guitars and maternal low end, whose electrifying ebb-and-flow brings grit and drama to The Painter’s golden shores. Sadly, this obvious album highlight is only available on the vinyl edition of The Painter, a bizarre decision that only serves to bury Orbit’s best work.
“Epic” aside, The Painter serves up a pastel buffet of friction-free music that proves entirely pleasant in small doses. Over the length of an album, though, it feels like the day-lit nightmare of an interminable sunset, an infinity pool that literally never ends. It’s great that William Orbit is back after some difficult years, but you suspect The Painter may ultimately have been more rewarding to create than it is to listen to. It comes off as a therapeutic act from an artist who, assuming he’s managed his royalties, never really needs to work again, rather than an album that simply had to be made.
It is hard to wash the stench of schmaltz off. William Orbit’s The Painter has its moments, certainly, little curlicues or tricks of sound design and production that perk up the ear, but the melodic and compositional sensibility lean unfortunately too close to a hybrid of bad Massive Attack pastiche combined with the uncanny sensibilities of mainstream pop electronica. This isn’t to say that mainstream electronic work can’t be great; Sylvan Esso, for instance, have been consistently strong, having delivered their strongest and most experimentally delightful record this year. But this particular blend finds a hard time being deeply satisfying, seeming gunshy toward committing either to the artfully deep or the readymade functionality of pure club music. There is an identity crisis at play on The Painter, feeling at times like Orbit isn’t sure whether he wants to explore the abstract and jazzlike limits of the melodic ideas present here, to create a dense and consuming groove or to be a purely melodic vocal-driven project. This seeming lack of a conceptual throughline leads to weaknesses large and small, eroding the record both from the outer edges of it as a complete work as well as microfractures within the songs, choices of production and juxtaposition that wind up confusing rather than widening the lens.
This is so keenly frustrating in part because almost every song has a performance or sonic idea that is compelling and worth saving. Beth Orton, for instance, appears in several places across this record and each time, her sensitivity to the material brings a keen human edge to otherwise deeply synthetic music. But her utilization feels uncapitalized by the production, which neither expands into rich and fibrous jazzlike humanity beneath her nor gives a satisfying sense of artificiality to challenge our standard perceptions of her as a perform. Instead, it feels, sadly, more like a standard pop electronica piece with an incredible vocalist on top. Similar missteps occur with the collaboration with performers like Hukwe Zawose and Lido Pimienta, who each provide compelling performances that wind up married to subpar production which shimmers with the gloss of a million-dollar job but without the character or soul needed to really drive those performances either into the beating heart of intimacy or the wide beaming lights of absolutist pop.
The Painter offer suffers from a confused aim, seeming unsure of what space or how much of it it wants to take up. The result is a record that seems frustratingly incapable of rising beyond background music, like it was born to be a soundtrack for a film or video game or TV show but not to demand attention drawn to itself. It’s not hard to imagine these pieces brought to life by some image-driven component. “Colours Colliding” for instance calls to mind a meditative walk in the snow, drifts swirling in the air and dropping to the ground, the crispness of icy air and the coziness of knitted wool wrapped around you in hands and scarves and gloves and sweaters. Each of these pieces feels tantalizingly close to something that could be powerful and some, like the aforementioned track, achieve it, despite minor grievances in somewhat cliched melodies or production movements. If the album were perhaps more committed to an ambient sensibility, moving more toward textural work rather than pop-aligned work, it could achieve a painterly palette; for a pop record, it lacks that definitive boldness or heart-bared sincerity that makes work in those fields work. It is capably produced, revealing Orbit’s mastery of the studio as an instrument. I just wish it had better (or more consistent) songs to back that up.
It’s good to have William Orbitback. After a brief and unrewarding dabble with drug addiction, the veteran English musician had a comeback of sorts with 2021’s patchyStarbeamEP, butThe Painteris a more satisfying return. Orbit’s definitive work is surely All Saints’Pure Shores, where sleek, subliminal layers of electronic effects add depth and wonder to its gorgeous melodies. While there’s no sign of Orbit resuming that imperial phase when he was first-pick producer for Madonna and U2, his distinctively ambient-classical take on dance-pop proves surprisingly durable.
Longtime collaborators Katie Melua and Beth Orton seem almost smothered by his efforts here, but there’s a gentle grandeur to first single Colours Colliding, with Polly Scattergood giving it her best Björk among some lovely strings and piano. It would be nice to have more dancefloor-friendly beats, like the Despacito dancehall kick powering Nuestra Situación, but there aren’t many artists who could create Heshima kwa Hukwe, a tribute to departed Tanzanian singer Hukwe Zawose without seeming grimly exploitative. Like the album as a whole, it’s slightly overlong and unnecessarily repetitive, but clearly made with great care and affection.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2602.23 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3889 days ago & DAD = 543 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
There's things I love (art, Batgirl), but the contrivances are too much, especially the reason Batgirl fights Batman. It's not her. It's stupid. Bigger demerits for that, plus breaking Bane out of prison, and to a lesser extent Jason rushing the Joker because "he's killed me once already."
Writing - 4/10 Storyline - 4/10 Art - 8.4/10 Color - 7/10 Cover Art - 9/10
TOTAL = 6.48/10
This rating places the third episode ABOVE the first, a 3.9/10 and the second a 3/10 as shown in the following.
The other issues should already be out, but they are not. Because: LAME!
DELAYED: Batman #162 and #163 were delayed months and are now releasing on October 15th and October 29th, respectively. It'd be bad enough if this wasn't delaying the heavily-advertised “H2SH” storyline, but the final chapters of this Batman volume will release after DC relaunches the main Batman title in September.
I reviewed the first episode -- Batman #158 -- way back in MARCH and though I am easy to please and often like the comic book offerings of the big two, I did not like it.
I explain a great deal in the post along with some comics history.Ultimately, I gave it a 3.9/10even though the critics overall average was 7/10 and the readers rated it at 6.6/10.
Short version? It's contrived and reads like work by an author who has not read a Batman comic in 20 years. Even Jim Lee's art is not as sharp as it was 20 years ago.
Almost three months later to the day, I reviewed the next issue.
I gave it a 3/10,agreeing with the worst of the reviews.
DC editors should be saying "no, what you want to do flies in the face of 20 years of relationship building between Jason Todd, returned from the dead, and Batman."
But it seems that they said to Jeff Loeb, "sure, so whatever you want."
The result: CRAP.
RATINGS SO FAR
Episode One - Issue #158 = 3.9/10
Episode Two - Issue #159 = 3.0/10
Episode Three - Issue #160 = 6.48/10
Episode Four - Issue #161 = 5.0/10
Average = 4.595
Batman #162 - HUSH 2 episode FIVE
On sale - November 12, 2025
I only waited three months to post this review. Not terrible at all.
More contrivances to show Batman fighting his Bat family (plus an uncharacteristically strong Riddler) with little conflict with HUSH at all.
As I have written before, the strength of many superheroes books and Batman in particular is the "family," his supporting cast, but in his case, it really is a family.
But throughout the history of Batman comics, especially with the work of Frank Miller creating a much loved Dark Knight persona, Batman stories have grappled with these two sides of the Batman coin: the solo, loner, obsessive, "only I can do this work" Dark Knight and the Batman who has sired one son and adopted (more or less if not in fact) three others as well as several other characters who are part of the family and his on and off again girlfriend, whom he married in other, older story lines.
Doing that same nonsense thing here.
And he calls the "entanglements," not FAMILY. Once again, Jeff Loeb shows he has not read a Batman comic in over 20 years. (Maybe the Riddler is an entanglement, surely not a family member).
That's a far cry from this:
And as the contrived story telling continues, Loeb goes for shock value against character rather than the difficult story work of characters talking to each other. Because this story is not about characters, it's about having characters who love each other fight each other, it's about plot surprises that do not make sense if we know the characters, and it's about selling comics, or what they think will sell comics in a cash grab for a sequel to a series that did not need a sequel or at least not one like this.
And it's more of the same. More of Batman behaving in ways he would not behave based on at least the last twenty years of character development solely for shock value.
If he truly thinks that Dick and Barbara may never forgive him for drugging Batgirl, then why do it? Why not find another solution?
Especially since this confrontation is so lame. "Step away from Batgirl." Okay. Why not?
Also, lots of Batman family are missing, which is odd, as they appear in the KO tie-in KnightFall comic advertised in this very issue.
We have seen Jason/Robin/Red Hood, but where's Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Robin (Tim Drake), Signal (Duke Thomas), Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) among many others.
Loeb tried to justify Batman's actions as playing a chess-like match against Hush who is watching from nearby but does that make sense?
Not really.
And he uses BAD chess analogies: "Like in chess, never letting his hand off the piece in play.
Has Loeb ever played chess?
The best scene of the comic may be between Batman and Catwoman as someone she manages to tackle him as he gets away, and they crash through a stained glass window in a cathedral not because that would happen but like so many things in this story because it looks cool.
Sometimes, the contrivances work for the kinds of interactions we're used to and some good moments, like this one:
Though Batman's totally blank expression is really a cheap way of avoiding actual interaction.
Jim Lee's art really shines here as he is at his best with drawing women and the Catwoman elements of the first HUSH were among the best parts (also Poison Ivy).
And just when I have given up on getting much in the way of the good character work or dialogue, there's this sequence:
Selena says a lot of the things we're thinking as readers, which makes one wonder why Loeb/Lee are putting Batman into this role when they know it's stupid.
And yet, the whole scene goes to the same place. Batman has a wall around himself and won't let people in because he's still the scared little boy.
Once again, that idea really flies in the face of many years of Batman stories and not just the last twenty or so years.
Even so, forcing Batman into a one-on-one showed promise for a better story and some shift in the contrived, what-would-be-cool cash grab trend of the series.
But then they ruin it with something completely UNCHARACTERISTIC of character. And once again, has Loeb read any comics with Damian in them? I think not.
And this follows on Damian busting Bane out of prison to help in the previous issue???
Damian has something to prove and always will?
Maybe, but then, he has proven it and seems confident in his abilities, at least in all the other stories for many years.
So we get this little Robin recap: Dick, Tim, Jason (in that order).
"He is ROBIN." What does that even mean?
Why not "He is my son and all that comes with it."
Just that.
Because Damian would not be this reckless.
It's contrived because it looks cool.
And his success in it is contrived.
He wraps BATMAN in a batarang line without seeing his target. And he can wrap up Batman tightly and quickly at a distance to be able to yank him up and out of an upper window in a cathedral.
So much spectacle and broken glass and smashed cars.
So destructive. This is not the ninja-like assassin, son of Talia Al Ghul.
Stupid.
And then suddenly, the Riddler is SUPER-RIDDLER able to zap and snap the line Robin is using to drag Batman with his Riddler wand, and then Riddler starts to kick Batman's ass: "stronger than he should be."
I can accept that Riddler teamed with HUSH to get enhancements. But since when does he know that BATMAN IS BRUCE WAYNE! Unless that's HUSH talking through Riddler.
And Batman's big concern is WHY Riddler is with his Bat Family?
Really?
"If only he believed in himself???"
Again, Loeb does not know these characters AT ALL. I can't even think of a time when Dick did NOT believe in himself. Like really EVER. That's not his issue.
And then Jason returns with the Batmobile he should not have been able to steal and he's reset to where he was in the first HUSH story as if there's been no character and relationship progress since then, as I have complained about before, multiple times. CONTRIVED.
Stupid.
And then...
Since when has Batman even tried to talk to them? He didn't even give them a a chance to listen.
What is he talking about?
He didn't try to talk with Barbara in the last issue either.
When did this "not listening" thing happen that he is complaining about?
One of the hallmarks of the previous HUSH series was showing off Bat-tech we have not seen and often it was really cool Bat-tech that made sense.
But for Batman to use the Batmobile to escape by destroying a city block to drop into Gotham's tunnel systems is more destruction only because it looks cool and NOT something that Batman would do or would NEED to do.
And when he takes this completely unconventional escape route, the JOKER, whose life he saved, just happens to be there??? What?
If the goal is to write the most contrived Batman story of all time, then mission accomplished.
And he is so thoroughly recovered from his life-threatening injuries that he can take on Batman after how many hours?
Has it even been a full day yet?
This is beyond stupid and really terrible story-telling.
Given all this contrivance and characters NOT behaving as they should and allusions to characters "not listening" with no attempts to talk and the buff Riddler who knows Batman's secret and Batman's wanton destruction of his beloved city's property and despite Jim Lee's good and at times very good art, then this issue scores a 4.3/10.
It earns its 4.3, slightly higher than the first two, ONLY because of the Catwoman scene.
My Rating = 4.3/10.
Here's links to the COMIC BOOK ROUND UP PAGES, which usually need to be copied and pasted as they rarely work as hot links, though I will enable them.
This issue earned 6.5 from critics (I have no idea how) and a 4.3 from readers, which is my rating exactly, though I did not set mine based on this and looked after. Coincidence? I think not.
I am really disappointed in DC and in Loeb in particular for this dreck. I expect better of him as I have liked much of his work in the past. I am not sure how much influence Jim Lee has on the story decisions, so I am not casting aspersions his way, though I just don't think his art in this series is where it was 20+ years ago though it's still very good.
Here's two reviews as samples, one high and one low.
Batman #162 is written by Jeph Loeb and published by DC. Artwork is by Jim Lee, inks by Scott Williams, colours by Alex Sinclair and letters by Richard Starkings. Main cover art (left) is by Lee and Sinclair.
Batman #162 is available from today, in comic book stores and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your physical copy from Forbidden Planet or digitally from Amazon Comixology UK.
Synopsis
“H2SH” with Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee Part 5! Batman versus the Bat-Family! Whose side are you on?
Review
Four months after Batman #161 hit comic book stores the H2SH arc is finally back in comic book stores today. The Bat-Family is fractured and at each other’s throats. Hush has been able to manipulate all of them and Batman is powerless to stop it. But can Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s epic tale overcome the lengthy gap between issues to maintain momentum?
The answer arrives pretty quickly in Batman #162 as Bruce and Selina crash through a stained glass window, cutting through all of the tension for a moment of brutal honesty. Luckily for us Loeb hasn’t missed a beat between issues. Returning to Bruce, Dick, Barbara and the others in the alleyway all of the angst of last issue came flooding back without the need for a lengthy recap. As Bruce is forced to make even more questionable choices it really feels like the situation is escalating out of all control.
It makes sense for Loeb to use Selina as the only force strong enough to stop Bruce in his tracks. More than any chapter of H2SH so far, Batman #162 digs in to the character of it all. His actions against Barbara are deeply personal. Whilst there isn’t time for either her or Dick to reflect on it, Bruce acknowledges it may change their relationship forever. There’s every opportunity for serious repercussions when the dust settles.
Batman #162 interior artwork by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair and Richard Starkings
The moments between Bruce and Selina in the church act as a brief respite from the action. Loeb is clearly acknowledging that the pacing has been relentless over the last couple of issues. So he’s taking the opportunity to shake things up. Even if it is only for a couple of pages before Damian catches up to his father. Overall the issue does become a little repetitive as Bruce goes toe-to-toe with one foe after another. By the time he reaches Riddler I was beginning to tire. But there’s also no denying that each setup is key to showing how deep the divisions in the family run and the breadth of Hush’s influence.
Finally it feels like H2SH has begun to take great strides. Whilst the arc has been enjoyable to read this feels like Batman is finally moving forwards with his investigation. Previous issues have felt more like an illustration of the threat Hush presents. But now there’s a tangible sense of direction which is giving the arc purpose and making it a more rewarding read. A confrontation between Batman and Hush feels like it’s actually on the horizon now which has me enthused for the future.
Batman #162 interior artwork by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair and Richard Starkings
Batman #162 features an impressive roster of characters from the Bat-family. That means Jim Lee is in his element bringing Nightwing, Robin, Catwoman, Batgirl and more to life on the page. There’s a lot of movement in this issue which tasks Lee with bringing an energy to the book which elevates it beyond his trademark statuesque posing. That being said there is still plenty of room for striking imagery. More than enough to remind us why the long wait between issues is worthwhile.
Verdict
After a four-month wait, Batman #162 proves the H2SH arc is finally hitting its stride with genuine forward momentum and deeply personal character confrontations. Jim Lee’s dynamic artwork elevates what could feel repetitive into a visually striking showcase of Bat-Family dysfunction.
BATMAN #162 Written by JEPH LOEB Art and Main Cover: JIM LEE Variant Covers: DAVID FINCH, GABRIELE DELL’OTTO, ESAD RIBIĆ, JIM LEE, GERALD PAREL, JAE LEE, CHRIS BACHALO Page Count: 40 pages Release Date: 11/12/25
This comic book review contains spoilers
Batman #162 picks up with Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, Red Hood, Riddler, Catwoman, and Batgirl all teaming up to take Batman down. Batman injects Batgirl with a sedative to occupy the team while he is pursued by Catwoman into a church. They briefly talk about their history together before Batman is captured by Damian and dragged along behind his motorcycle like a ragdoll. He fights Riddler and Red Hood before using the Batmobile to deploy explosives, dropping him down into the sewer system. There, he encounters none other than The Joker.
Analysis
Batman #162 features lazy writing from pretty much all angels right from the start. Batgirl is awkwardly standing with her back to Batman telling Nightwing to stand down because she can handle Batman on her own? This is supposed to be the same supergenius who spent two decades as Oracle and now she rejects help and sets herself up for sedation without so much as a fight. What a slap in the face to Barbara Gordon fans. Bruce knowingly associates this in his mind to what the Joker did to her in the Killing Joke and admits that Dick and Barbara may never forgive him but that didn’t stop it from being his first impulse.
The next scene is even better, as Catwoman says both her and Batman know she could kick his ass if she wanted to, which I don’t think any of us are buying. Then she says Barbara is the closest thing to a daughter Bruce will ever have which the internet has already derided for its blatant erasure of Cassandra Cain. Batman responds by saying “she started it!” which, setting aside its juvenility, I’m not even sure what he means. She started it by standing in front of him and telling Nightwing to stand down?
Jeff Loeb seems determined to depict this era of Batman as an overgrown petulant child, and while that may be a small element of his psyche, it’s so overplayed here that it just makes me wonder if he even likes the character anymore.
Batman gives absolutely no resistance with a remotely operated bird with a rope attached, binds him up and drags him behind Damian’s bike. I just don’t know how to make sense of this story when every single plot beat unravels with the slightest bit of thought. Forget the fact that Damian would almost certainly have killed Batman if there was any semblance of physical reality present in this story.
Riddler has one of the dumbest lines I think I’ve ever seen him say, and that’s saying something: “question, what time is it to expect the unexpected? Answer: Nygma time.” There is a convoluted confrontation between Red Hood and Huntress before another tired reveal of The Joker.
For all the issue’s faults, I do think this is the best Jim Lee’s art has looked since the beginning of this run. For one thing, there are a ton of fun easter eggs like his depiction of Brian Bolland’s shooting of Barbara Gordon, and the death of Robin’s parents, although I think that is literally just a Tim Sale panel repurposed. Batman turning his head to see Hush on the rooftop at the bottom of page 4 is a direct echo of the original Hush. The stained-glass church scene looks pretty good too although probably not as good as it could look.
I enjoy the way Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair use blacks with often obscuring parts of Batman’s costume giving him a kind of three-dimension depth (of the kind that’s lacking in the writing). However, I find that the colorful mix of tones in the Bat-family’s different costumes comes across a bit garish in how brightly they are depicted. Most of the modern costumes are far from each character’s best and moments like the issue’s first page just look a little goofy, especially Damien’s along with Catwoman’s absurd cleavage cutout.
Final Thoughts
Batman #162 is a pretty terrible issue, maybe bordering on ‘so bad it’s good.’ There’s so much to laugh at and meme here, and Lee’s art has a few highlights. Depending on what you want, you might want to pick up this issue just for morbid entertainment but I can’t recommend it on its merits.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2602.22 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3888 days ago & DAD = 542 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #4023 - My First Computer - The Altair 8800
This post has been on the schedule of a long time. I was going to do more with it, but now I just want to post it.
I am not in the habit of copying Wikipedia, but this time, a rare occasion, I feel it's a good thing.
Our high school math teacher (my friends and I) bought the kit for this computer through popular mechanics, and in 1978-79 taught the first computer science class at Gull Lake High School, which I took concurrent with Algebra II.
The Altair was hooked up to a single CRT monitor.
Quickly, we out distanced the teacher's knowledge, especially my friend Tim.
The next year, we helped Mr. Martinson teach the computer science class, which I took as an independent study instead of Trig/Pre-Calc.
In this year, my senior year, the school had bought either three or four more terminals, and it was out job to apportion the memory from the CPU to these monitors every day before school, which meant that we arrived very early.
To play, SUPER STAR TREK, one needed a lot of memory, so rarely did these auxiliary monitors/terminals receive enough memory to play, though we could be bribed.
I started working on a D&D game program that I never finished because, wow, HUGE.
Though I managed to get a hall pass a lot to leave other classes to go work in the computer room.
For some reason, when I went to college, I did not pursue my studies in the gestating field of computer science (dumb!!) and instead majored in the theater and English. The former because I had a theater scholarship.
I did take computer science in my junior year of college as one of my math/science credits but I couldn't be bothered to learn PASCAL, so I only managed a C+ for a class I should have aced.
Anyway, I have huge fondness for the ALTAIR 8800.
It cemented my love for computers, which continues to this day.
Thanks for tuning in.
The Altair 8800, released by MITS in 1975 for roughly
, is widely recognized as the first commercially successful personal computer, featuring an Intel 8080 CPU and 256 bytes of RAM. Marketed as a kit, users interacted with it via front-panel switches and LED lights to program in binary.
This video demonstrates how to program the Altair 8800 using its front panel switches:
Key Aspects of the Altair 8800:
Impact: It sparked the personal computer revolution and inspired Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop Altair BASIC, marking the founding of Microsoft
.
Functionality: Originally, it lacked a keyboard or monitor, requiring users to toggle switches to enter machine code.
Design: It used an open architecture, introducing the S-100 bus for expansion cards.
History: Designed by H. Edward Roberts, it was featured on the cover of Popular Electronics in January 1975.
This video shows how Microsoft BASIC was first run on the Altair 8800:
In this video, we delve into programming the iconic Altair 8800, focusing on a classic programming challenge: calculating factorials. This serves as an excellent introduction to developing programs for the Altair, including the process of converting them to machine code and the intricacies of entering the code into the machine.
In this video, we install the 88-2SIOJP serial board into the Altair 8800 and connect the computer to a terminal. We also write and execute a BASIC program directly on the computer using a keyboard and terminal.
Usage and Features
Initial Use: Primarily functioned as a trainer for microcomputer fundamentals rather than for games or business tasks.
Expansion: Later versions could support up to 64KB of memory, floppy drives, and serial interfaces.
Interaction: The front panel consisted of 16 address LEDs, 8 data LEDs, and 16 address switches for direct, albeit complex, interaction.
The machine is considered a crucial bridge between minicomputers and modern personal computers.
The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer introduced in 1974 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) based on the Intel 8080CPU.[2] It was the first commercially successful personal computer.[3] Interest in the Altair 8800 grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.[4] It was sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, and in other hobbyist magazines.[5][6] The Altair 8800 had no built-in screen or video output, so it would have to be connected to a serial terminal or teletype to have any output. To connect it to a terminal, a serial interface card had to be installed. Alternatively, the Altair could be programmed using its front-panel switches.
The model rocket kits were a modest success and MITS wanted to try a kit that would appeal to more hobbyists. The November 1970 issue of Popular Electronics featured the Opticom, a kit from MITS that would send voice over an LED light beam. As Mims and Cagle were losing interest in the kit business, Roberts bought his partners out and began developing a calculator kit. Electronic Arrays had just announced the EAS100, a set of six large scale integrated (LSI) circuit chips that would make a four-function calculator.[10] The MITS 816 calculator kit used the chipset and was featured on the November 1971 cover of Popular Electronics. This calculator kit sold for $175, or $275 assembled.[11] Forrest Mims wrote the assembly manual for this kit and many others over the next several years. As payment for each manual he often accepted a copy of the kit.
The calculator was successful and was followed by several improved models. The MITS 1440 calculator was featured in the July 1973 issues of Radio-Electronics. It had a 14-digit display, memory, and square root function. The kit sold for $200 and the assembled version was $250.[12] MITS later developed a programmer unit that would connect to the 816 or 1440 calculator and allow programs of up to 256 steps.[13]
In 1972, Texas Instruments developed its own calculator chip and started selling complete calculators at less than half the price of other commercial models. MITS and many other companies were devastated by this, and Roberts struggled to reduce his quarter-million-dollar debt.
Test equipment
In addition to calculators, MITS made a line of test equipment kits. These included an IC tester, a waveform generator, a digital voltmeter, and several other instruments. To keep up with the demand, MITS moved into a larger building at 6328 Linn NE in Albuquerque in 1973. They installed a wave soldering machine and an assembly line at the new location.
Popular Electronics
January 1975 Popular Electronics with the Altair 8800 computer. This issue was released to newsstands on December 19, 1974, a week before Christmas.
In January 1972, Popular Electronics merged with another Ziff-Davis magazine, Electronics World. The change in editorial staff upset many of their authors, and they started writing for a competing magazine, Radio-Electronics. In 1972 and 1973, some of the best construction projects appeared in Radio-Electronics.
In 1974, Art Salsberg became editor of Popular Electronics. It was Salsberg's goal to reclaim the lead in electronics projects. He was impressed with Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter (Radio Electronics, September 1973) article and wanted computer projects for Popular Electronics. Don Lancaster did an ASCII keyboard for Popular Electronics in April 1974. They were evaluating a computer trainer project by Jerry Ogden when the Mark-88008-based computer by Jonathan Titus appeared on the July 1974 cover of Radio-Electronics. The computer trainer was put on hold and the editors looked for a real computer system. (Popular Electronics gave Jerry Ogden a column, Computer Bits, starting in June 1975.)[14]
One of the editors, Les Solomon, knew MITS was working on an Intel 8080 based computer project and thought Roberts could provide the project for the always popular January issue. In a last-ditch attempt to save MITS, Roberts decided to do something that was impossible at the time: create a personal computer kit for hobbyists.[15] The TV Typewriter and the Mark-8 computer projects were just a detailed set of plans and a set of bare printed circuit boards. The hobbyist faced the daunting task of acquiring all of the integrated circuits and other components. The editors of Popular Electronics wanted a complete kit in a professional-looking enclosure.[16]
Ed Roberts and his head engineer, Bill Yates, finished the first prototype in October 1974 and shipped it to Popular Electronics in New York via the Railway Express Agency. However, it never arrived due to a strike by the shipping company. Solomon already had a number of pictures of the machine and the article was based on them. Roberts got to work on building a replacement. The computer on the magazine cover is an empty box with just switches and LEDs on the front panel. The finished Altair computer had a completely different circuit board layout than the prototype shown in the magazine.[17] The January 1975 issue was registered on November 29, 1974,[18] and began appearing on newsstands on December 19, 1974—during the week before Christmas of 1974[19][16][20][21]—at which point the kit was officially (if not yet practically) available for sale.[14][16][18]
The typical MITS product had a generic name like the "Model 1440 Calculator" or the "Model 1600 Digital Voltmeter". Ed Roberts was busy finishing the design and left the naming of the computer to the editors of Popular Electronics.
One explanation of the Altair name, which editor Les Solomon later told the audience at the first Altair Computer Convention (March 1976), is that the name was inspired by Les's 12-year-old daughter, Lauren. "She said why don't you call it Altair – that's where the Enterprise is going tonight."[22] The Star Trek episode is probably "Amok Time", as this is the only one from The Original Series which takes the Enterprise crew to Altair (Six).
Another explanation is that the Altair was originally going to be named the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this name to be rather dull, so Les, Alexander Burawa (associate editor), and John McVeigh (technical editor) decided that: "It's a stellar event, so let's name it after a star." McVeigh suggested "Altair", the twelfth brightest star in the sky.[16][23]
Intel 8080
Ed Roberts had designed and manufactured programmable calculators and was familiar with the microprocessors available in 1974. He thought the Intel 4004 and Intel 8008 were not powerful enough (in fact several microcomputers based on Intel chips were already on the market: the Canadian company Microsystems International's CPS-1 built-in 1972 used a MIL MF7114 chip modeled on the 4004, the Micral marketed in January 1973 by the French company R2E and the MCM/70 marketed in 1974 by the Canadian company Micro Computer Machines); the National Semiconductor IMP-8 and IMP-16 required external hardware; the Motorola 6800 was still in development. So he chose the 8-bit Intel 8080.[24] At that time, Intel's main business was selling memory chips by the thousands to computer companies. They had no experience in selling small quantities of microprocessors. When the 8080 was introduced in April 1974, Intel set the single unit price at $360 ($2300 in 2024). "That figure had a nice ring to it," recalled Intel's Dave House in 1984. "Besides, it was a computer, and they usually cost thousands of dollars, so we felt it was a reasonable price."[25] Ed Roberts had experience in buying OEM quantities of calculator chips and he was able to negotiate a $75 price ($480 in 2024) for the 8080 microprocessor chips.[26][27] Seizing the opportunity to be ahead of computers of the time, MITS began development of the Altair 8800 in the summer of 1974, about 2 months after the release of the Intel 8080.[28]
Intel made the Intellec-8 Microprocessor Development System that typically sold for a very profitable $10,000. It was functionally similar to the Altair 8800 but it was a commercial grade system with a wide selection of peripherals and development software.[29][30] Customers would ask Intel why their Intellec-8 was so expensive when that Altair was only $400. Some Intel salesmen told their customers that MITS was getting cosmetic rejects or otherwise inferior chips. In July 1975, Intel sent a letter to its sales force stating that the MITS Altair 8800 computer used standard Intel 8080 parts. The sales force should sell the Intellec system based on its merits and that no one should make derogatory comments about valued customers like MITS. The letter was reprinted in the August 1975 issue of MITS Computer Notes.[31] The "cosmetic defect" rumor has appeared in many accounts over the years although both MITS and Intel issued written denials in 1975.[32]
The launch
A May 1975 advertisement for the Altair 8800 Computer appeared in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, and other magazines.
For a decade, colleges had required science and engineering majors to take a course in computer programming, typically using the FORTRAN or BASIC languages.[33][34] This meant there was a sizable customer base who knew about computers. In 1970, electronic calculators were not seen outside of a laboratory, but by 1974 they were a common household item. Calculators and video games like Pong introduced computer power to the general public. Electronics hobbyists were moving on to digital projects such as digital voltmeters and frequency counters. The Altair had enough power to be actually useful, and was designed as an expandable system that opened it up to all sorts of applications.
Ed Roberts optimistically told his banker that he could sell 800 computers, while in reality they needed to sell 200 over the next year just to break even. When readers got the January issue of Popular Electronics, MITS was flooded with inquiries and orders. They had to hire extra people just to answer the phones. In February MITS received 1,000 orders for the Altair 8800. The quoted delivery time was 60 days but it was months before they could meet that. Roberts focused on delivering the computer; all of the options would wait until they could keep pace with the orders. MITS claimed to have delivered 2,500 Altair 8800s by the end of May.[35] The number was over 5,000 by August 1975.[36] MITS had under 20 employees in January but had grown to 90 by October 1975.[37]
The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS. They needed to sell additional memory boards, I/O boards and other options to make a profit. The system came with a "1024 word" (1024 byte) memory board populated with 256 bytes. The BASIC language was announced in July 1975 and required a serial interface board and at least one or two 4096 word memory boards, depending on the language variant.
MITS Price List, Popular Electronics, August 1975.[38]
4K BASIC language (when purchased with Altair, 4096 words of memory and interface board): $60
8K BASIC language (when purchased with Altair, two 4096-word memory boards and interface board): $75
MITS had no competition in the US for the first half of 1975. Their 4K memory board used dynamic RAM and it had several problems that stemmed from imperfect design or imperfect chips (the official company line).[37] The delay in shipping optional boards and the problems with the 4K memory board created an opportunity for outside suppliers.
An enterprising Altair owner, Robert Marsh, designed a 4K static memory that was plug-in compatible with the Altair 8800 and sold for $255.[39] His company was Processor Technology, one of the most successful Altair compatible board suppliers. Their advertisement in the July 1975 issue of Popular Electronics promised interface and PROM boards in addition to the 4K memory board. They would later develop a popular video display board that would plug directly into the Altair.
A consulting company in San Leandro, California, IMS Associates, Inc., wanted to purchase several Altair computers, but the long delivery time convinced them that they should build their own computers. In the October 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, a small advertisement announced the IMSAI 8080 computer. The ad noted that all boards were "plug compatible" with the Altair 8800. The computer cost $439 as a kit. The first 50 IMSAI computers shipped in December 1975.[40] The IMSAI 8080 computer improved on the original Altair design in several areas. It was easier to assemble: The Altair required 60 wire connections between the front panel and the motherboard (backplane). The IMSAI required only two soldered connections between the front panel and power supply. The MITS motherboard consisted of 4 slot segments that had to be connected together with 100 wires. The IMSAI motherboard implemented 22 slots on a single segment. The IMSAI replaced the Altair's one-shot clock generator with the Intel 8224. The IMSAI also had a larger power supply to handle the increasing number of expansion boards used in typical systems. The IMSAI advantage was short lived because MITS had recognized these shortcomings and developed the Altair 8800B, which was introduced in June 1976.
In 1977, Pertec Computer Corporation purchased MITS and began to market the computer, without changes (except for branding), as the PCC 8800 in 1978.[41]
Description
Altair 8800 front panel (1st model)Altair 8800b front panel (2nd model)Inside the Altair 8800b (2nd model)
In the first design of the Altair, the parts needed to make a complete machine would not fit on a single motherboard, and the machine consisted of four boards stacked on top of each other with stand-offs. Another problem facing Roberts was that the parts needed to make a truly useful computer were not available, or would not be designed in time for the January launch date. So during the construction of the second model, he decided to build most of the machine on removable cards, reducing the motherboard to nothing more than an interconnect between the cards, a backplane. The basic machine consisted of five cards, including the CPU on one and memory on another. He then looked for a cheap source of connectors and came across a supply of 100-pin edge connectors. The S-100 bus was eventually acknowledged by the professional computer community and adopted as the IEEE-696 computer bus standard.
The Altair bus consists of the pins of the Intel 8080 run out onto the backplane. The bus design was not as well-thought-out as it might have been, which led to disasters such as shorting from various power lines of differing voltages being located next to each other.[citation needed] Another oddity was that the system included two unidirectional 8-bitdata buses, when the normal practice was for a single bidirectional bus (this oddity did, however, allow a later expansion of the S-100 standard to 16 bits bidirectional by using both 8-bit buses in parallel). A deal on power supplies led to the use of +8 V and ±18 V,[citation needed] which had to be locally regulated on the cards to TTL (+5 V) or RS-232 (±12 V) standard voltage levels.
The Altair shipped in a two-piece case. The backplane and power supply were mounted on a base plate, along with the front and rear of the box. The "lid" was shaped like a C, forming the top, left, and right sides of the box. The front panel, which was inspired by the Data General Nova minicomputer, included a large number of toggle switches to feed binary data directly into the memory of the machine, and a number of red LEDs to read those values back out.[42]
Programming the Altair via the front panel could be a tedious and time-consuming process. Programming required the toggling of the switches to positions corresponding to the desired 8080 microprocessor instruction or opcode in binary, then used the "DEPOSIT NEXT" switch to load that instruction into the next address of the machine's memory. This step was repeated until all the opcodes of a presumably complete and correct program were in place. The only output from the programs was the patterns of lights on the panel. Nevertheless, many were sold in this form. Development was already underway on additional cards, including a paper tape reader interface for storage, additional RAM cards, and an RS-232 interface to connect to a proper teletypeterminal.
Ed Roberts received a letter from Traf-O-Data asking whether he would be interested in buying what would eventually be the BASICprogramming language for the machine. He called the company and reached a private home, where no one had heard of anything like BASIC. In fact the letter had been sent by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from the Boston area, and they had no BASIC yet to offer. When they called Roberts to follow up on the letter he expressed his interest, and the two started work on their BASIC interpreter using a self-made simulator for the 8080 on a PDP-10mainframe computer. They figured that they had 30 days before someone else beat them to the punch, and once they had a version working on the simulator, Allen flew to Albuquerque to deliver the program, Altair BASIC (aka MITS 4K BASIC), on a paper tape. The first time it was run, it displayed "READY",[43] then Allen typed "PRINT 2+2", and it immediately printed the correct answer: "4". The game Lunar Lander was entered in, and this worked as well. Gates soon joined Allen and formed Microsoft, then spelled "Micro-Soft".
Altair DOS
Announced in late 1975, it started shipping in August 1977.
Ceruzzi, Paul E. (2003). A History of Modern Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 226. ISBN0-262-53203-4. "This announcement [Altair 8800] ranks with IBM's announcement of the System/360 a decade earlier as one of the most significant in the history of computing."
US patent 3800129, Richard H. Umstattd, "MOS Desk Calculator", issued 1974-03-26
Ed Roberts (November 1971). "Electronic desk calculator you can build". Popular Electronics. Vol. 35, no. 5. Ziff Davis. pp. 27–32.
Kellahin, James R. (July 1973). "The 1440: A calculator with memory, square root and other new features". Radio-Electronics. 44 (7). Gernsback Publication: 55–57. The cover story is for the MITS 1700 waveform generator. An ad for the MITS 1200, a $99 battery operated handheld calculator, is on page 15.
Ogdin, Jerry (June 1975). "Computer Bits". Popular Electronics. Vol. 7, no. 6. New York: Ziff-Davis. p. 69. "The breakthrough in low-cost microprocessors occurred just before Christmas 1974, when the January issue of Popular Electronics reached readers … "
Milford, Annette (April 1976). "Computer Power of the Future - The Hobbyists". Computer Notes. 1 (11). Altair Users Group, MITS Inc.: 7. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved 2007-12-01."Les Solomon entertained a curious audience with anecdotes about how it all began for MITS, The name for MITS' computer, for example, was inspired by his 12-year-old daughter. She said why don't you call it Altair -- that's where the Enterprise is going tonight."
Salsberg, Arther (November 12, 1984). "Jaded Memory". InfoWorld. Vol. 6, no. 46. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 7. ISSN0199-6649. Salsberg states that the Altair was named by John McVeigh
Green, Wayne (February 1976). "Believe Me - I'm No Expert!". 73 Magazine. No. 184. Peterborough, NH: 73, Inc. p. 89. Wayne Green visited MITS in August 1975 and interviewed Ed Roberts. The article has several paragraphs on the design of the Altair 8800.
Mims, Forrest (January 1985). "The Tenth Anniversary of the Altair 8800". Computers & Electronics. 23 (1). Ziff Davis: 58–62, 81–82."But because the 8080 sold for $360 in single quantities, few people could afford it. Ed Roberts bought the chips in large quantities and was able to get a substantial discount…"
Michalopoulos, Demetrios A. (October 1976). "New Products". Computer. 9 (10). IEEE: 59–64. doi:10.1109/C-M.1976.218414. "Intel Corporation has announced that an interactive display console and highspeed line printer are now available for the Intellec MDS microcomputer development system. … The display console costs $2,240 and the printer $3,200 in quantities of 1 to 9. Delivery is in 30 days. Price of the basic Intellec MDS with 16K bytes of RAM memory, including interfaces and resident software for operating the peripherals, is $3,950."
Bunnell, David (August 1975). "Across the Editor's Desk". Computer Notes. 1 (3). Altair Users Group, MITS Inc.: 2. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved 2007-12-26. Intel letter to its sales force. "We wish to clarify any misconception that may exist in your minds regarding the MITS ALTAIR system. This product is designed around the Intel Standard Data Sheet 8080 family."
Veit, Stan (1993). Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer. Alexander, North Carolina: WorldComm Press. p. 283. ISBN1-56664-030-X. "Ed Roberts was able to get around this problem by obtaining a supply of cosmetic reject chips for about 1/3 the retail price."
Brillinger, P. C.; D. D. Cowan (November 1970). "A complete package for introducing computer science". SIGCSE Bulletin. 2 (3). ACM: 118–126. doi:10.1145/873641.873659. S2CID16270182. Describes the introductory computer science courses at the University of Waterloo.
MITS (June 1975). "MITS advertisement". Digital Design. 4 (6). CMP Information. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-01. "There was a subsequent article in February's Popular Electronics and the MITS people knew the Altair was here to stay. During that month alone, over 1,000 mainframes were sold. Datamation, March 1975." "By the end of May, MITS had shipped over 2,500 Altair 8800's"
Green, Wayne (October 1975). "From the Publisher .. Are they real?". BYTE. 1 (2). Green Publishing: 61, 81, 87. In August 1975 Wayne Green visited several personal computer manufacturers. A photo caption in his trip report says; "Meanwhile, at MITS, over 5,000 Altair 8800's have been shipped. Here is a view of part of the production line."
Roberts, H. Edward (October 1975). "Letter from the President". Computer Notes. 1 (5). Altair Users Group, MITS Inc.: 3. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved 2008-07-12. "We had less than 20 employees when we introduced the Altair and now we have grown to 90 as a result of our Altair customers." Roberts also discussed the problems with the 4K dynamic RAM boards. Customers got a $50 refund.
MITS (August 1975). "Worlds Most Inexpensive BASIC language system". Popular Electronics. Vol. 8, no. 2. Ziff Davis. p. 1.
Moore, Fred (July 1976). "Hardware". Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter. 1 (5): 2, 5. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
Greelish, David (1996). "Ed Roberts Interview with Historically Brewed magazine". Historically Brewed (9). Historical Computer Society. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-11-22. Ed Roberts said: "We had a Nova 2 by Data General in the office that we sold timeshare on … The front panel on an Altair essentially models every switch that was on the Nova 2. We had that machine to look at. The switches are pretty much standard of any front panel machine. It would have taken forever if we would have had to re-decide where every switch had to go."
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2502.21 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3887 days ago & DAD = 541 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
