Back in the 1970s, the idea of having a computer in your home, or even on your desk, was more science fiction than reality. Computers were massive, expensive machines that filled rooms and required teams to operate, so you would typically find them in governments, universities, and large corporations.
That started to change with the invention of the minicomputer. These were smaller, more affordable systems that brought computing power to laboratories and offices that could never have afforded a mainframe. To access these systems, users interacted with them through text-based devices with a screen and keyboard, called terminals. They served as a window into the minicomputer’s processing power which normally lived somewhere else in the building (or even across the country).
Few companies embodied that era quite like Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Their hardware pioneered many aspects of the industry and helped define computing in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Among DEC’s many contributions, the VT100 terminal became iconic, both for its design and its role in shaping what we think of as the classic terminal interface today.
For me, this project hits close to home. I actually started my career at DEC in the late ’90s, right out of high school. So when I stumbled across Lorenzo Herrera’s excellent DEC Mini design, I knew I had to build one.
Lorenzo’s design was originally intended to house a single-board computer, such as a Raspberry Pi or a LattePanda board. But no sane person would want a modern operating system in a device this beautiful. So, I decided to take it in another direction, and adapt it for a MiSTer Pi.
That meant starting with the solid foundation that Lorenzo laid down, and building on top of it by modifying a few key components:
- Adjusting the design to fit a MiSTer Pi and USB hub board
- Updating the models to more fully house an audio amplifier
- Adapting it for a dual-voltage MeanWell power supply unit
- Ditching the 3.5” floppy drive for a Zaparoo NFC reader
The result is an all-in-one MiSTer device; everything you need is built right into the enclosure. No external cables or dangling modules, just a clean, self-contained unit that looks like something straight off a DEC engineer’s desk in 1979… only now it can run dozens of classic systems through MiSTer cores.
If you’d like to make your own DEC Mini MiSTer Edition, I’ve shared all my remixed files and parts. The 3D models are available on MakerWorld and Printables, and the full parts list is in the video’s description.