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The Einstein Speculator- My Story and the what lead to the thought behind the recreation of the Einstein Speculator. Part 1

Hardware
November 26, 2025

The Einstein Speculator- My Story and the what lead to the thought behind the recreation of the Einstein Speculator.

 

Way back in time, longer than I care to think about (10-20 years), I was heavily in to the computer emulation scene, working on scanning old magazines, dumping programmes from tape and getting everything I could working on a P.C.. Of course the P.C.I was using back then would by todays standards be a collector item itself.

 

Strangely although I had owned many of the 80’s home computers it was the ones I hadn’t owned that caught my attention the most, and over the years it was M.A.M.E. that I came back to time and time again. As it expanded to support more and more strange machines from all over the world I made it my task to get the emulator of nearly every machine it supported up and running (at one point I believe the number of machines I could emulate was well over 200) and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. However I always though there was something missing, which of course there was, the machines themselves, so when I retired I decided now was the time to solve that and my collection of old 80’s computers grew quite dramatically.

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Top of the list of unowned machines was the Tatung Einstein TC-01. Finally the time came and a chap whose name I would become very familiar with in later months (Adam Groome)sold me a very nice working Einstein. Its strange but if you asked me why I like this machine so much, I really couldn’t say, I just literally fell in love with it the minute it arrived.

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In a short time I had stripped and cleaned the machine added a gotek with the 3 inch drive in the second bay, collected together a whole host of software for it and, when the opportunity came to get a spare, I grabbed it with both hands. Sadly this second machine was not well and had been very badly treated, but that didn't matter to me as all I wanted to do was restore it to its former glory. Then a TM-01 monitor came along and now I have two TC-01’s, one with a working monitor and the other hooked up to a 26 inch screen.

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It was while working on both these machines that I kept bumping into Adam Groome, an excellent chap who has supported the Einstein scene for as long as he can remember and is always willing to talk all things Einstein. Adam through my purchases made it clear he was on a mission not to let the Einstein die, he wanted new software, had quite a few Einsteins for sale and was looking for help. Now I am not a coder so the software was out, or was it? I decided to try and see if I could track down some program support via some Facebook groups and see what happened.

After a lot of hard work, finally I got a bite and forwarded the details to Adam, in the hope that it would help, but I felt like I had let him down, surely I could do better, I widened my Facebook groups to over 30 and kept plugging away, asking everyone that contacted me (and sadly there were not many) to get in touch with Adam and help.

About this time, Adam informed me he now had a team working on software, another working on a new website and lots of other ideas in the pipeline, a conversation then ensued and I decided to there must be more I can do, I had been looking to try and get a Speculator and thought, hang on, surely one could be recreated, couldn’t it?

 

Further articles planned covering the progress of this idea will include

 

Part 2 - “The History of the Einstein Speculator”.

 

Part 3 -“Turning a thought into a Prototype”.

 

Part 4 - “The Testing Phase” using prototypes created by a very talented engineer

 

Part 5 - “My Attempt to Build One Myself”.

 

All articles and updates on progress will appear so please check back regularly for updates.

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Lee Bendall

I’ve worked in the finance sector since the late 1980s, but my passion for computing began much earlier. I purchased my first home computer in 1982, and from that moment I knew technology was what I truly wanted to pursue. So, when the opportunity arose in the 1990s to transition my career into the Financial IT sector, I seized it with both hands. Throughout my later career, I had the privilege of working on leading-edge IT projects and was eventually invited to become a member of the British Computer Society, earning Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP) status—a charter I’m proud to still hold today. Despite my professional focus, I never lost my enthusiasm for the home computing scene. Over the years, I’ve owned nearly every major machine released in the UK. It was no surprise, then, that when MAME introduced support for vintage computers (initially through MESS), I jumped right in. Now retired, my love for 1980s and 1990s computers remains as strong as ever. When the opportunity arose to purchase an Einstein TC-01, I couldn’t resist. The seller—Adam Groome—shared a deep passion for keeping the Einstein alive, and his enthusiasm quickly drew me into the community. Today, I’m involved in several Einstein-related projects, including work on the Speculator, TK-02, and Silicon Disk hardware. In addition to these, I founded the Einstein Document Preservation Project, which focuses on high-resolution rescanning, restoration, and enhancement of all Einstein documentation. I’m also engaged in a large-scale initiative to support and preserve the Einstein’s software library.