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_Co...
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This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.
Computer Science at the University of Nottingham: bit.ly/nottscom...
Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. More at www.bradyharan.com

[@CybeargPlays]

I'd love to visit this museum. Looks amazing!

[@Baltach]

I would really like to visit that place. Looks extremely fun.

[@HilaryOsborne]

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 : )

[@kuronosan]

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]

Gregory Sherman The machines on display are *in addition* to the ones we have in our archive which is nicely without sunlight :)

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

The archive does not have any windows, it is sunshine free, the treasures within are safe from the nation's UV rays.

[@danjtitchener]

+The Centre for Computing History A computer museum without Windows!? :O

[@magicalpencil]

I live half an hour away from Cambridge, I know what I'm doing this weekend!

[@IchthysGuy]

Does anyone else think this guy looks like Gordon Freeman...? Half-Life 3 confirmed!

[@Neueregel]

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?

[@erictaylor5462]

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.

[@voxlvalyx]

Thanks for the tour, British Gordon Freeman.

[@Thoriumus]

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.

[@HazelTheHare]

Been here a few times. Really great place

[@zenzylok]

A fascinating archive of the evolution of humanity and technology.

[@bikutoso]

If i for some reason is in or near Cambridge, i will definitely visit the museum.

[@tcfonts]

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.

[@mkaatr]

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]

mkaatr Antarctic Adventure was my favourite MSX game on my Sony Hit-bit 75 MSX computer. Loved the music. :)

[@AmazingZ6]

Can't wait to go here! I'm only a kid but I love old computers

[@kd1s]

It's interesting when I hear you guys speak of Cambridge I'm watching this video in my office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

[@vonkruel]

What a neat place. Thanks for the tour!

[@gtaveira]

Amazing museum! I would love to see a more detailed tour!

[@gcrady]

What a wonderful facility, and beautiful layout of the displays. Please build a virtual tour program. :)

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Duplicat We'll certainly look into that!

[@foxdash]

The Centre for Computing History a part of the museum you could access on second life would be really cool :3

[@JWJC2425]

Currently watching this in the Durham University Library haha! Awesome job Jeremy!

[@faktorial2]

great video! that museum definately looks very interesting, too bad i live too far away to visit it any time soon

[@ScottishGeeks]

That wall......I had a lot of those games - proud gamer since 1984 here :)

[@salasart]

This is brilliant!

[@rdoetjes]

I used to own several Indy's at I got them very cheap in 1998 and they were still very useful.

[@eltyo340]

wow that was awesome! Thanks Sean!

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Right! I'm going there!!!!

[@KayleLang]

5:38 That's Jurassic Park shit going on there. Edit: Oh, they pointed that out seconds later.

[@DJ_Cthulhu]

The Sharp MZ80K was my first computer bought way back in 1979 :-)

[@willynebula6193]

I could spend days in that museum

[@edgeeffect]

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". :(

[@Garbaz]

Next time I'm in GB I'll visit for sure!

[@MrSlowestD16]

Wow, this place is pretty damn cool. I'll have to stop by next time I'm in UK near Cambridge.

[@EamonBurke]

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.

[@BattousaiHBr]

obviously most of these computers/gadgets are no longer manufactured. when things stop working (beyond repairing) how do they get replacement pieces?

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

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]

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.

[@heidirichter]

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!

[@Muzer0]

It's a Unix System, I know This! EDIT: Damn it, you actually make that reference...

[@Sizzlik]

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 =)

[@dancrooks1490]

I've been there, its glorious.

[@BorysPomianek]

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.

[@iffyschannel]

*Gasp Jeremy, you didn't tell me you and Jason were on Computerphile...that's a pleasant surprise xD

[@Stars-Mine]

There is a dream job if I ever saw one

[@Orionrobots]

Its hard for me to consider the ps2 retro - a memorable part of my adult life was making games for it.

[@crystalsoulslayer]

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.

[@antiHUMANDesigns]

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.

[@FritoFredrik]

Love it, Sinclair zx, IBM ps/2, Pong... all of it :D

[@juzzam3]

6:35 love this quote. Quake

[@lopyus]

I want to visit there. Too bad my school won't take me there as its no where near Cambridge. :(

[@Walht]

I went there at school today :D

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

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.

[@bentoth9555]

I mostly know this museum as the setting for a lot of Tom Scott videos. :P

[@alex_squeezebox]

They have a NeXT cube? Awesome!

[@paulspydar]

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,

[@MrNateSPF]

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?

[@nrviognjiocfmbkirdom]

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.

[@aianyoung]

I want to go there.

[@ShiroKage009]

Yay, Luigi's Mansion! Will definitely visit/recommend to people.

[@RetroGamerVX]

Aha, I notice your 'Ustinov College' t-shirt. That's from a certain Uni that I work at ;)

[@vkillion]

I would play Sonic 3 all day. One of my favorite games.

[@blakekarbon9428]

If I could I would subscribe a billion times.

[@onofreisk8]

I cried

[@Manabender]

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?

[@alanmellerick]

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!

[@tzkelley]

Sorry to see the TRS-80 line wasn't represented.

[@jasonfitzpatrick4185]

tzkelley Not in this video maybe but there are two on display :)

[@andljoy]

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 :).

[@harisiqbalralph]

Awesome place.. Dunno how much time i will spend playing prince of persia in that console.. I had one just like this 4:27

[@Camoceltic]

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]

***** 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]

The Centre for Computing History A Kw? Are you sure you have a computer, rather than the world's most power-hungry calculator? :P

[@ASilentS]

They're not JUST business machines. One might say they're quite....... international.

[@3492crusherdestroyer]

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!

[@BeastOfTraal]

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure Game I spent hours playing that game

[@FlesHBoX]

Just to make you feel a little old, the ps3 is almost 10 years old... The ps2 is 15.

[@Klisteristhashit]

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.

[@JustinDeFouw]

PONG FAIL at 3:55

[@fishingtrippy]

Great video! So I'm guessing the computers are making that horrible ringing noise!? Turnt down my treble..

[@JRCSalter]

4:36 Proof that Nintendo does't have an original byte in their programmes.

[@Neolith100]

Don't pick up a PS2, use an emulator! Many choices, PCSX2 is a good one. Glad places like this are being created.

[@DrRChandra]

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.

[@xybersurfer]

cool. are these guys related to the Computer History Museum channel?

[@lukaswest5545]

xybersurfer Nope, it's The Centre for Computing History

[@xybersurfer]

Lukas West oh i see. nice they, have a channel too. thanks

[@Lasciobo]

As for now this video has 436 views, 580 likes and 2 dislikes. How come not 301 or 302 views like usual??

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Sasha Nezdolia It was stuck at 301 for a while. I noticed that.

[@mage1over137]

Did one else catch Sonic's theme playing in the background?

[@mintoo2cool]

i don't get the video title ... what does it mean ? how does it relate to the video ?

[@Tore299]

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]

***** Oh, it's a Amstrad Mega PC? I have never heard of that PC. :O

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

***** Indeed it is ... www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/2534/amstrad-mega-pc-386sx/

[@Tore299]

***** I made a mistake here: Diamond Edge 3D's and the like had Sega Saturn controllers and games.

[@gentlebear76]

Would be cool with a demo of the Elliot :-)

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Gentlebear We'll see what we can do ...

[@Richardincancale]

The Centre for Computing History Elliot 903 was my first personal computer. Found it in a corner of our computer centre in 1976 - already way old - but it was truly a PC, unlike the 'official' computing courses based on punched cards etc. Algol, Fortran, SIR (assembler) and loads of other s/w. Although designed in the early 1960s the 903 architecture lived-on in avionics computers through the 1980s...

[@jmalmsten]

Holy crap, Batman! You guys mean that the "Unix System" actually... existed!? Next you are going to tell me that I really can zoom 10.000x into my .7 Mp images and "enhance" details from fractiond of pixels?

[@MostlyLoveOfMusic]

I think I may hate computers

[@RobertDeloyd]

I had a ZX81 and a few of the others. I also worked on IBM 360 and 370 Mainframes... Can I get a job there? Don't have to pay me much ;)

[@mattkaeo]

It's the CAVE OF WONDERS not Aladdin's cave. Gosh.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Yayyy Sonic!

[@antivanti]

Why is that Canon V-20 and Acorn Atom hooked up to LCDs? Also I can't tell if the game consoles were hooked up to CRTs or LCDs but if they are LCDs that needs to change. Especially for the 8 and 16 bit systems. LCDs are wrong for so many reasons. Both video delay and mostly graphical quality. The graphics on those systems were made with the limitations and quirks of CRTs in mind and they just don't look as they are supposed to on LCDs.

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Anders Öhlund It's only because the podium isn't deep enough for CRTs. We'll be developing this and using CRTs soon. Most machines in the museum are on CRTs. :)

[@antivanti]

The Centre for Computing History It's good to hear! =)

[@Adam-ms7gc]

Anybody else thinking of Jurassic park at 5:40?

[@TheThagenesis]

I'm kinda missing the "middle ground"between historical and modern. I worked with SPARC (Solaris) and DEC(Ultrix) Systems in my first years in university. We had a bunch of different UNIX Systems in our Lab. today it's just boring. only x86 Sytems on the desks

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

TheThagenesis We've got Sun SPARC's running Solaris and DEC systems too :)

[@Tashic11]

Looks interesting, but I'm not too sure about having video games as the focus of the museum. I would not like to see this become a centre for videogame history instead.

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Tashic11 I agree with you. It's a tough one to balance. Video games are a huge draw and we do love video games. A lot of our volunteers are into video games, but equally we have a great bunch of tech volunteers. We're developing displays that show how binary works, what a PC consisits of, logic gates, processors and computing history in general etc to make sure we keep the balance right. Don't worry, we're aware of it! You CAN come and play with CP/M systems, program in BASIC, try the IRIX operating system and more too !!

[@thany3]

Sorry, I can't help it: Jeremy looks like Gordon Freeman.

[@lukaswest5545]

thany3 Half Life 2.5 Confirmed!

[@user-tj5xp5eo4f]

Gordan's previous job before Black Mesa.

[@adrianbarum3372]

Is it just me or this guy looks like a young Walter White?

[@paulm5873]

does he have 3 ps3s?

[@aadeshsalecha4951]

Nirvana.......

[@matsv201]

A LCD on a spectrum?? isn´t that a sin?

[@MikeTrieu]

I LOL'd

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Mike Trieu It's only because the podium isn't deep enough for CRTs. We'll be developing this and using CRTs soon. Most machines in the museum are on CRTs. :)

[@matsv201]

The Centre for Computing History Yea, i guessed so. I see in the atari and Amiga row there was all with original monitors. I´m sure get it, that there is very little space, and true, not all have to be with original monitors. But it just really looks wrong. The solution in the Gen 5, gen 6 area is a lot nicer. I wished there was a much lower version of that podium back in the Sinclair row to hide he ill matching LCD screens. (can still have LCD screens, just hide the facts its LCD and i think its good) I´m defiantly going to visit with my kids when they are the right age.... well if you hide the LCD screens

[@letsgocamping88]

Ben heck's wet dream

[@DonAllen9001]

Dream job

[@ChristofferOlofsson]

#nerdgasm !

[@5H4D0W_60D]

The gentleman in this video reminds me of iDubbbz for some reason.