Computing Aladdin's Cave - Computerphile
Video tour of the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. Assistant Curator Jeremy shows us their vintage computers.
5 Hole Paper Tape: • 5 Hole Paper Tape - Co...
Holy Grail of AI: • Holy Grail of AI (Arti...
ZX81: • People's Computer: Sin...
Altair 8800: • Computer That Changed ...
Centre for Computing History: www.bit.ly/C_ComputerMuseum
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This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.
Computer Science at the University of Nottingham: bit.ly/nottscomputer
Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. More at www.bradyharan.com
Пікірлер: 189
Immediate reaction at 0:21 - "That's an awful lot of sunlight shining on those relics" then I remembered it was in England so sun is a once a year kind of problem.
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
Gregory Sherman The machines on display are *in addition* to the ones we have in our archive which is nicely without sunlight :)
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
The archive does not have any windows, it is sunshine free, the treasures within are safe from the nation's UV rays.
@danjtitchener
8 жыл бұрын
+The Centre for Computing History A computer museum without Windows!? :O
I'd love to visit this museum. Looks amazing!
I would really like to visit that place. Looks extremely fun.
The museum host seems like a really nice guy. Wouldn't normally post something like that but that kind of openness and cheerfulness is kind of rare : )
I live half an hour away from Cambridge, I know what I'm doing this weekend!
I hereby rename this Centre as NRP (*Nerd's Retro Paradise*). That's what this is really about. We all would love to visit this place one day. Who cares about the river Cam, willows, rowing, boats or punts, when you have tech wonders like this?
Does anyone else think this guy looks like Gordon Freeman...? Half-Life 3 confirmed!
My dad's first (and last) job after he left the air force was as a refinery technician at a brand new oil refinery. It was very high tech and was the first refinery in the country built from the start to be controlled with computers. When he started in 1968 the computers required a 10000 square foot room filled with very noisy machines. By the time he retired 25 years later the computers had been updated. It was odd to see one small machine, only slightly larger than a desk top computer sitting in the middle of this gigantic empty room.
I am a game collector myself, specializing in early CRPG's. And i have to say this museum is just awesome. I love that so many systems are hooked up and ready to play. If i get to great britain i will visit this museum.
Ah, a fellow Durham Alumni! I went to Trevs :) The museum is very interesting for all the computer-aficionados :) I have to remember it for my next visit to the UK.
Thanks for the tour, British Gordon Freeman.
Sounds like I could spend *all day* there, and never tire of it. I would love to see a much longer documentary of the museum, if possible.
It really is a great collection, I would have loved to visit. Lately I've been learning about the older home systems (I'm just a bit too young to have experienced them at their prime), and what you can show in such a display - the physical case and some game running - doesn't do them full justice. Still, keeping them alive and active like this is wonderful. Thanks for the virtual tour!
Fantastic work!! I'll put this on my list of things to see in the UK
Been here a few times. Really great place
The Minvac! My first science project... counting to 7 in binary... not that much you can do with six relays... but the motorized contactor wheel was good for playing tug-o-war, we set that up at a fair and it was popular... in 1975! I had forgotten the name... now I can buy one on eBay.
Nice walk down memory lane - played with the Burroughs 3500, KIM1, PDP8, Data General Nova 210, IMSAI 8080, MSX and Atari 1040ST back in the day.
MORE! Make an hour+ long video of this guy giving us a personal tour where both of you play some 2 player competitive or co-op games. And get that paper computer up running too. I really want to see that from this channel.
@GrimTheCrow
9 жыл бұрын
GrimTheCrow Ah you did show the 903 ! Awesome! Now for an hour+ long version.
At 0:48 that is an MSX machine running Antarctic Adventure. At 1:18 MSX again running Road Fighter a racing game. MSX was great for learning Basic. Also has great library of games specially from Konami. At 1:19 ZX Spectrum which had 48K RAM, 16K ROM. Used tape to save and load games. ZX Spectrum was great for learning Assembly. At 1:24 is an Aquarius machine. Aquarius has a horrible basic editor. Thank you for this. :)
@marty34534
9 жыл бұрын
mkaatr Antarctic Adventure was my favourite MSX game on my Sony Hit-bit 75 MSX computer. Loved the music. :)
If i for some reason is in or near Cambridge, i will definitely visit the museum.
A fascinating archive of the evolution of humanity and technology.
What a neat place. Thanks for the tour!
wow that was awesome! Thanks Sean!
Amazing museum! I would love to see a more detailed tour!
great video! that museum definately looks very interesting, too bad i live too far away to visit it any time soon
It's interesting when I hear you guys speak of Cambridge I'm watching this video in my office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Can't wait to go here! I'm only a kid but I love old computers
Beautiful! Too bad I wont be able to visit this amazing center.
Proud Ustinovian here too. I had the chance to visit the computing museum at Bletchley Park, but this one seems interesting as well.
I want to visit you guys! The place looks amazing and I really like the arrangement of everything. I would be like a child running around from computer to computer. The Apple 2 and Commodore 64 would probably take much of my attention. There is so much in the history of computing I've never learned, too bad I live a little far away, in Denmark :( I'll visit you some day!
Currently watching this in the Durham University Library haha! Awesome job Jeremy!
This is brilliant!
I used to own several Indy's at I got them very cheap in 1998 and they were still very useful.
What a wonderful facility, and beautiful layout of the displays. Please build a virtual tour program. :)
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
Duplicat We'll certainly look into that!
@foxdash
9 жыл бұрын
The Centre for Computing History a part of the museum you could access on second life would be really cool :3
Very cool, would definitely include it in any visit to the UK in the future.
This looks like an amazing place to visit.
That wall......I had a lot of those games - proud gamer since 1984 here :)
Well, that's another place that's joined my list of places to visit! It's also shot it's way close to the top within 2 minutes of a video!
The Sharp MZ80K was my first computer bought way back in 1979 :-)
Is it just nostalgia or were computers much more fun back then *because* there were so many non-compatible competing companies and models? Every time they made a new one it was a fresh start, so it was exciting. The current VR development has a similar 'we don't quite know what we're doing yet' feel I think.
I was there this weekend. Really enjoyed it. My girlfriend would have liked a bit more guidance and curation - she didn't know what she was looking at most of the time - but if you're into that sort of thing it's great. Also check out the computer museum at Bletchley Park.
Wow, this place is pretty damn cool. I'll have to stop by next time I'm in UK near Cambridge.
I would love to go there and visit, adly it's pretty much the other side of the world and I doubt I'll ever get the chance. Someone needs to setup something like this here in Australia!
Next time I'm in GB I'll visit for sure!
Pretty cool - I wish we had a chance to hear a bit more about early 64 bit workstations and generally some high end Intel and SGI stuff - they where the "home computing" a content creator used to want before Apple managed to take over with the mac pro.
Right! I'm going there!!!!
they should get an Amiga 1000 if you haven't already, loved the design of that. anyone remember a UK game magazine from the early 80s where one of the issues had a picture of Vyvyan from the Young Ones on the front? I did a lot of searching but couldn't work out which mag it was.
Woah! 5:38 blew my mind. I saw that on Jurassic Park and always had thought that was just some animation for the movie :D (I was younger then and not so much into computers and stuff and i never questioned it since) Great Museum. If i ever get to Cambridge i'm heading there straight on ;)
@anarch3609
9 жыл бұрын
And the famous "It's a Unix system" is true!
Just went there today on school trip, that guy led us around.
@diegofu1
8 жыл бұрын
awesome!!
@Walht
8 жыл бұрын
diegofu1 Thanks!
5:38 That's Jurassic Park shit going on there. Edit: Oh, they pointed that out seconds later.
This is awesome. I had no idea that that scene in _Jurassic Park_ had some basis in reality. You ever seen one of those IBM cheese pricing things? Hand Tool Rescue restored one on his channel. It's a mechanical computer. For cheese.
Love it, Sinclair zx, IBM ps/2, Pong... all of it :D
6:35 love this quote. Quake
eugh... sounds just like the Swindon museum... I wanted to see that PDP-11 working but the "curator" is all "games consoles, games consoles, games consoles... the kids love these". :(
When I was really small, around 5 years old (around 1987 or so), I remember my uncle bringing over some strange computer and papers with code (probably BASIC?) that I would sit and type in to try out the game it would produce. Googled around for pictures, and I think it must have been a Texas Instruments TI-99/4 or TI-99/4A. Thinking about checking whether he still has it. Would be cool to play around with, and perhaps teach my daughter to program on it.
I've been there, its glorious.
He walked right past the Commodore 64! (3:10) For being the best selling single model of computer of all time, I'm surprised he didn't even give it a mention.
lol..the guys grin...ohh well..if i would be in his position i would smile like that too...my smile would go 360 around the head if not stopped by the ears =)
I could spend days in that museum
The high pitched squealing in this video convinced me that if I ever go to this place, I'm bringing earplugs. I do NOT miss that about old displays.
Its hard for me to consider the ps2 retro - a memorable part of my adult life was making games for it.
obviously most of these computers/gadgets are no longer manufactured. when things stop working (beyond repairing) how do they get replacement pieces?
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
BattousaiHBr We can repair many machines of this area down to component level. AND we have a LOT of spares. We also keep a preserved one in the archive that stays in its box!
@berni8k
9 жыл бұрын
BattousaiHBr These old computers contain lots of large off the shelf chips that are still made today or a modern version of a part can be hacked in.
I mostly know this museum as the setting for a lot of Tom Scott videos. :P
There is a dream job if I ever saw one
It's a Unix System, I know This! EDIT: Damn it, you actually make that reference...
They have a NeXT cube? Awesome!
I have every games console they showed in this video in my living room & other various rooms & cupboards, & even a few this they didn't show, :-) but I wish I had a huge space like they have , I have wires and plus all over the place ,& the consoles gather a lot of dust,
what an amazing place :D
*Gasp Jeremy, you didn't tell me you and Jason were on Computerphile...that's a pleasant surprise xD
I cried
Aha, I notice your 'Ustinov College' t-shirt. That's from a certain Uni that I work at ;)
I want to visit there. Too bad my school won't take me there as its no where near Cambridge. :(
@Walht
8 жыл бұрын
I went there at school today :D
If I could I would subscribe a billion times.
I want to go there.
Some things are just wrong. For example, connecting an LCD flat screen monitor to a 30-something year old vintage computer. I know, soon there will be no CRT monitors left, but still, these are also something that deserves preservation in a museum, although or especially because nowadays, nobody would be wanting to have one of those on their desk any more.
You say that the newest item is the PS2 but the Gamecube did actually come out after the PS2.
If I ever make it to England, I know of one more place I must go.
It took me a few of these videos to pick up that they say not instead of zero, but did he say something instead of one?
First think I noticed there was a Commodore PET to his right upon entry; the first computer I ever got my hands on 198...2? I think? I learned BASIC from that machine. My friend fared better; over the 1980s he had a ZX81, a Spectrum 48K, a Spectrum 128K, a Commodore 64, a rare-enough Commodore 128, an Amstrad CPC464, an Amiga... The exploding home computer market was probably one of the best things about the 80s, apart from the music!
Ahh the bit at the back is where the real good stuff is :) SGI, i spy a rack of sun blades as well. and is that an IBM SP2 ? I love SGI , windows gets minesweeper pre installed SGIs had doom ! And lets not forget the DEC stuff :).
I almost feel guilty for not knowing most of this stuff. But in the future, I will probably also have to explain to my kids who the Beatles were.
Yay, Luigi's Mansion! Will definitely visit/recommend to people.
I would play Sonic 3 all day. One of my favorite games.
I really wish I could get a chance to go there some day. It would be awesome to see just how far we've come in a relatively short amount of time. I do wonder: Outside of school visits, do you ever turn the Elliot 903 on, like if you have a group of people who come in and ask about it?
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
***** Yes, it can be turned on for interested parties, a few of us have been trained in it's basic operation, it can be loaded up with basic, Tic Tac Toe, which is quite topical as it stands near a fragment of EDSAC, and we also have punch tapes of music, and a version of Countdown's numbers game. it is not on all the time as it uses a Kw of power when it is idle, or two when it is thinking!
@Camoceltic
9 жыл бұрын
The Centre for Computing History A Kw? Are you sure you have a computer, rather than the world's most power-hungry calculator? :P
Awesome place.. Dunno how much time i will spend playing prince of persia in that console.. I had one just like this 4:27
Oh my god... I want to go! If I wasn't 5 hours away from Cambridge I'd be on my way already :P One question, do the have a Vectrex? It's the one old game console I've always wanted to see in person!!
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
sporkafife Yes, we have two working Vectrex machines, and nine titles to try with them, if you are ever near Cambridge we would be happy to set one up for you, they are currently not on display until we can make a safe environment for one of them, the thought of having one pulled off a table does not bear thinking about!
4:56 "Good gameplay is always engaging" Sir, I want you to be the president of video gaming for the entire world. You understand what few others seem to; you can throw as many polygons in my face as you want, but if the game isn't FUN, what's the bloody point?
What's with that Amstrad p.c with a Mega Drive/Genesis port right on the front around 1:25 ? I've never seen such a thing!
The IMSAI is a Computer I like to have in my collection...
Why are computers always have to be considered only gaming machines?
@Thoriumus
9 жыл бұрын
pcfreak1992 They are not, but we remember the games because we have emotional memorys about them. Additionaly games allways did push the computers by trying to get the best out of the hardware. If you want to know what a system is capable of, take a look at it's games.
@pcfreak1992
9 жыл бұрын
I have many "emotional memories" about the computers I used in the past as well and almost all of them aren't related to games ;-) In fact I don't play games at all really but I am still working with many different kind of computers every day and I love it ;-) For me it just feels weird when there is a video about "computing history" and I see mainly "video consoles".
@jeremyrebelka
9 жыл бұрын
pcfreak1992 They don't - games are waste of cycles - toys. ;)
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
pcfreak1992 The bottom line is that games are a huge draw to the general public. There are lots of machines here without games. You can come and have a play with CP/M, or write some BASIC code or try out the IRIX operating system among many other non-gaming things. There's a working Elliot 905 too which is really interesting.
@jeremyrebelka
9 жыл бұрын
The Centre for Computing History Sure of course - just a joke - I love Amigas and they were all about games - CP/M machines were super cool to
PS2 is already 10 years old! o_O
@blenderpanzi
9 жыл бұрын
blenderpanzi Wait, it must be even more than that.
Sorry to see the TRS-80 line wasn't represented.
@jasonfitzpatrick4185
9 жыл бұрын
tzkelley Not in this video maybe but there are two on display :)
Re: a game is good as long as it has engaging play. I think one of the things that exemplifies that to a T is Minecraft. You can have a video card that is 10 years old, and you'd need 20 of them somehow ganged together to play some of the modern, fast action, hi resolution games (Battlefield, Call of Duty, etc.), but Minecraft still has quite a lot of poularity despite less GPU glitz.
5:57 that is the file system from Jurassic park!
At 1:50 there's a computer with Sonic running on it and a Mega Drive controller and cartridge stuck in it. What computer is that? The only older computers I know of that had support for Mega Drive/Genesis controllers and had Sega games on them are PC's with graphics cards based on the Nvidia NV1 like the Diamond Edge 3D cards
@Tore299
9 жыл бұрын
***** Oh, it's a Amstrad Mega PC? I have never heard of that PC. :O
@TheCentreforComputingHistory
9 жыл бұрын
***** Indeed it is ... www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/2534/amstrad-mega-pc-386sx/
@Tore299
9 жыл бұрын
***** I made a mistake here: Diamond Edge 3D's and the like had Sega Saturn controllers and games.
I miss my old dreamcast ):
In the future could you lay a high pitch filter on the video as this video had a constant high pitch sound that just gave me a headache.
My message tone is collecting a ring in sonic - I had to pause the video and check my phone near the start...
What's with the audio? There seems to be a very high frequency overlaying it all....
No relay computers though?