YouTuber Builds Working CPU by Hand with Retro Parts

I once tried to solder two wires together and ended up burning a hole in my desk mat. So when I heard someone built a working CPU—by hand—with old parts and a soldering iron, I had to check it out.

Good to know

• Polish YouTuber MINT built a working 8-bit CPU completely from scratch using retro memory chips.
• The project took 3 months and hundreds of hours of hand-written code.
• The final creation, called the “EPROMINT CPU,” can run basic programs and display pixelated video.

The channel behind the build is Majsterkowanie i nie tylko, often shortened to MINT. In his latest project, he set out to do something most of us would never even dream of: assemble a full processor without using any modern fabrication tools or microcontrollers. Just old parts, a soldering iron, and a lot of patience.

His inspiration came from retro computing. In the video, which was originally in Polish and translated with AI, MINT said it all started with a pile of outdated memory chips. At first, he was using them for simple projects—controlling motors or dimmers. But after some experimentation, he realized those same chips could form the basis of a functioning CPU.

The build draws influence from early 8-bit processors, especially the Zilog Z80, a chip that once powered machines in the late 1970s and even early laptops in the 1980s. MINT’s homemade version is called the EPROMINT CPU, and although it is no speed demon, it actually works.

Throughout the 30-minute video, he breaks down each part of the process—from gathering components to soldering connections, to writing hundreds of hours’ worth of code to make everything run properly. He even shows it executing programs and playing short clips from The Matrix on a VFD screen. The scenes look like they came straight out of an old dot-matrix printer, but the fact they display at all is the point.

MINT made a strong case for how much you can do with limited tools if you understand how computers function. “It doesn’t require a team of people or a multi-million dollar budget to build,” he said. “Yet it’s a fully functional processor, and simple enough I can explain how it works.”

While most of us might never build our own CPU, the project makes you appreciate what goes on behind that aluminum heat spreader. It also makes you wonder—what other ‘impossible’ things could you build if you really put the hours in? Want to know more, then check out his video on his YouTube channel.

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