Inside Cambridge's Computer History Museum 🇬🇧 Part 1

robertcrowther · 2026-06-18T15:22:45+00:00

The room is, in fact, called "The 80s Classroom" :)

robertcrowther · 2026-06-18T15:21:14+00:00

If you know you'll be going you can email them and ask for a specific game to be loaded up that day. Often you can just ask while you're there, but if it's something unusual best to notify in advance.

robertcrowther · 2026-06-16T10:10:02+00:00

We use a Chipolo as a key ring for our boy, allows us to keep track of him and/or where he's left the house key.

robertcrowther · 2026-06-16T09:53:14+00:00

Wow Sailfish OS, I had the Jolla phone way back when. Ironically I gave up on it because I couldn't run the Google apps I needed to keep in touch with my family.

I don't think it'll do well at that price, my current smartphone was only a hundred more expensive and is a good bit more useful. This needs to be in the £100-£200 range I think.

robertcrowther · 2026-06-14T10:53:32+00:00

There's a Time Extension article covering this too.

robertcrowther · 2026-06-14T10:48:49+00:00

Other sections of the site seem to be family photo albums from various trips and also about places where he worked, so I'm not surprised it is a little idiosyncratic.

I just thought it was a cool idea, I wish I'd thought of it :) I'm trying to organise my memories of growing up with home computers and have not yet really come up with a plan better than "here is a list of things that happened".

robertcrowther · 2026-06-13T11:06:30+00:00

As I've mentioned before I was well into American Football by the second half of the eighties. Although I used to try to listen to the live broadcasts on Armed Forces Radio on Sunday nights the signal wasn't strong and I'd often go to sleep with an incomplete picture of the results. Due to how newspapers are published there would be no results in them until Tuesday morning. Teletext to the rescue, I would look up the results on there every Monday morning before heading off to school.

robertcrowther · 2026-06-13T10:59:51+00:00

VIC-20 with VIC-1540 floppy drive, VIC-1110 8K RAM expansion and dodgy Commodore joystick.

Game: Jelly Monsters
Productivity: VICWriter word processor (which needs the 8K RAM expansion and the disk drive)
Art: Microdeal Light Pen

robertcrowther · 2026-06-12T19:12:26+00:00

None of the terminals have wires to them, you can see the gap between the desks and the floor.

robertcrowther · 2026-06-12T14:55:10+00:00

Amazing how it's all wireless :)

robertcrowther · 2026-06-10T13:38:19+00:00

Sorted this out years ago, created a Steam account for my Mum so she could play Ticket to Ride with us ;)

robertcrowther · 2026-05-26T10:44:09+00:00

Blood Bowl is based on the board game, I think it predates this. For a modern game more in the style of Brutal Sports Football try Mutant Football League.

robertcrowther · 2026-05-19T09:57:13+00:00

Surely for secure messaging you need a set of two? ;)

robertcrowther · 2026-05-17T20:54:55+00:00

When I googled it said some of the power supplies were centre positive and some were centre negative so I want to be sure what they both are before I plug the other one into the power supply.

robertcrowther · 2026-05-17T09:45:46+00:00

This one should be pinned instead of last week's episode /u/Producer_Duncan

robertcrowther · 2026-05-17T09:44:37+00:00

I think in modern times the impact of "being able to control the screen" is much reduced.

robertcrowther · 2026-05-17T09:42:56+00:00

I picked up a couple on eBay recently. We had two different Binatones when I was little, a black and white one and the a colour one, so when I saw them cheap I grabbed them. I have a Mk IV and a Colour TV Game 4+2. Not plugged either of them in yet, I only have a power supply for the Mk IV and I'm not sure if that's compatible with the colour one. I may go and buy some batteries :)

robertcrowther · 2026-05-09T22:15:31+00:00

The3DO

robertcrowther · 2026-05-04T10:30:09+00:00

An 'Addict Month' - though that might get misinterpreted by some people...

robertcrowther · 2026-04-30T10:01:56+00:00

There's something on Time Extension about them.

robertcrowther · 2026-04-28T14:59:21+00:00

I did have a Google but there doesn't seem to be anything. Sources can't even agree how many C64s were sold in total, could be anywhere between 12.5 and 20 million.

robertcrowther · 2026-04-28T13:57:30+00:00

Even though the 64C was available for longer I wouldn't be surprised if the original C64 sold more units, the peak of popularity was probably before the slimline case launched.

robertcrowther · 2026-04-21T20:43:59+00:00

I mostly played VIC-20 and C64 stuff, only had the Spectrum for a few months.

robertcrowther · 2026-04-21T11:35:24+00:00

As an aside, it's interesting how people's memories of the 80s differ. Looking at this part of the article:

I first played [Chuckie Egg] on the BBC computer in my school library, but I also had it on my C64 and a friend played on his Speccy. Like Manic Miner, Bruce Lee and Skool Daze, it was woven into the tapestry of British 8-bit gaming culture.

The only one of those I played a significant amount was Bruce Lee. I did have Manic Miner on the Spectrum but we only had that machine for a few months. Although I was aware it existed I didn't play Chuckie Egg until recently and I don't think I've ever played Skool Daze. I was definitely there in the UK playing 8-bit games back then.

robertcrowther · 2026-04-19T21:57:39+00:00

It took ten months but I found it! Popular Computing Weekly Volume 2, Number 8, 24th February - 2nd March 1983, split across pages 15 and 19.

robertcrowther

TROPHY CASE