![]() However Cambridge didn’t just help the founding of computing as a whole, but the companies formed here ended up being one of the main driving force into the personal computing era of the 80’s. ![]() Then throughout the 20th Century, Cambridge University Alumni such as Alan Turing, Sir Maurice Wilkes and many more who helped us immeasurably get to where we are today. Why was the move to Cambridge city centre so important for the museum?Ĭambridge has a rich history in computing spanning right back to the 1800’s with Charles Babbage and his ideas of a programmable mathematical computer. Your games collection doesn’t look quite as good next to 130 boxes of just software. ![]() ![]() It was actually awe-inspiring to go into the museum's archives for the first time as a small time collector, and realise just how much is out there that you just don’t know about. Scattered in there are some Sega, Sony and Commodore. I think I have every western Nintendo console and handheld release, but I’m willing to bet I’m missing a few hardware revisions. However personally I am also a collector, on a way smaller scale. That’s the story we want to tell with the museum. We went from an Altair 8800 to an Amiga in just 10 years, and it hasn’t stopped since. It’s that time where the world was changed in a short few years with, for all intents and purposes, something that looks like a small rectangle of plastic and silicon. The focus on the personal computer comes from his experience growing up during the 80’s, with things like the BBC’s Computer Literacy program coming into schools and teaching kids about the future of computers and programming with a BBC Micro. Jason decided to do something with it all, and in late 2006 ‘The Centre for Computing History’ was born as an educational charity. I think in the end he had to make the decision of either getting rid of them or doing something good with all of the machines. He had accumulated so many machines and artefacts over the years that it was getting a bit too much for a personal collection. Well the museum grew out of the owners, Jason Fitzpatrick’s, own collection. Can you tell us how and when this all came about? Are you something of a collector yourself? To find out a bit more about the museum we caught up with one of the museum helpers and retro gaming enthusiast, Edward Fox, to ask a few questions:įirst of all, thanks for speaking to us about the museum. There is also a PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast and a GameCube set up for you to enjoy. Of course you are most interested in the consoles right? Visitors are well served here you can get hands on with all the 8-bit and 16-bit classics such as the NES, Master System, Turbografx-16, Mega Drive and SNES. In addition to this there are some large industrial computers which date back to the '60s and '70s, along with a variety of pocket calculators and other devices which might spark a wave of nostalgia. You can take a trip down memory lane and relive the UK home computer boom in the 80s and tinker with a ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore 64 and the boffin’s favourite Acorn Electron. Unlike traditional museums which operate on a “look but don’t touch” basis, here most of the computers and consoles are powered up and ready for you to play to your heart’s content. Located on a quiet industrial estate only a few miles outside of the historic city centre in East Anglia, England, the museum is not one you would stumble across while sight-seeing – but it is certainly worth going out of your way to find if you ever find yourself in the area. One of Cambridge’s best kept secrets is The Centre for Computing History, a museum dedicated to preserving the history of home computers and video game consoles from all eras.
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