The TicTacToe Computer was made completely out of Tinkertoys by some whizz kid students at MIT in the 70’s. And they say that geek adolescents waste their time a lot. Pshaw…!
The Tinkertoy computer is not fully automatic: a human operator must crank the read head up and down and must manage its input. After the computer’s opponent makes a move, the operator walks to the front of the machine to adjust the core piece inside the read head, registering the contestant’s move. The operator then pulls on a string to cock the core piece for its impending whirl of recognition. When it discovers a memory that matches the current state of the game, the core piece spins, and the computer indicates its move.
