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DAVID CROOKES EXAMINES HOW TECHNOLOGY MUSEUMS ARE ENSURING COMPUTING HISTORY IS NEVER FORGOTTEN
For many of us, the computers of decades gone by are an important part of our past. We coded them, played on them, worked on them and loved them to bits (and bytes).
But once they were abandoned and discarded in lofts, basements, garages and cupboards, they became somewhat forgotten. You may have made a promise to pick up that dusty gamepad or reacquaint yourself with the WordStar cassette currently spilling its guts within your shoebox, yet the plastic of your machines began to yellow as fast as the memories faded.
Today, prices for old computers can be high. You'd be hard-pressed to And an Amstrad 464 Plus computer for less than £150, while a Commodore 64GS console can fetch as much as £650. Yet while these two items are rare, high prices and such levels of scarcity bring with them an inherent danger.
"There is a worry that some computers and consoles are becoming so rare and expensive that they need to be preserved in such a way that the public can see them," says Andy Spencer, who runs the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester.
"It's vital that we keep the retro scene alive and preserve the heritage that the UK helped to start."
Moves to preserve the machines of yesteryear are gathering pace but they are not merely tapping into a nostalgic desire among people to re-acquaint themselves with 8-bit and 16-bit computers. They are also determined to document as much of computing's past for the benefit of future generations, particularly those who never experienced the glory of those relatively primitive machines the first time around.
It is why Spencer set up his museum in 2008 with his wife, Linda. "It started with my personal collection of between 15 and 20 machines, but I thought other people may be interested."
For him, the pleasure is in coming across an old system he's never tried before. "You can't beat playing on something new," he adds, ironically.
PLRY ¡T RGRIN
There are now numerous computing and video game museums up and down the UK, offering visitors the opportunity to see and try retro machines for themselves. One of the most prominent...