Retro-Futuristic Computing

HawaiianMayan asks: "Sure, if you're a collector you might have a working computer from the 60s or even the 50s in your basement or garage. But what about from the 20s or 30s? Lately I've been dreaming of a retro-futuristic computer, with all the convenience of a modern desktop (I don't want to deal with punchcards!), but styling from the early part of the 20th century. I'm wondering if any of the hardware hackers out there are working on anything like this. It would need an appropriate case, a manual typewriter keyboard, a black and white screen, preferably enlarged by a nice freznel lens, and lots and lots of nixie tubes, knobs, and blinkenlights. Would it be too much if the numeric keypad was a rotary dial?" Think about the computer props used from such classics like Max Headroom (both the movie and the TV series) and Brazil, and you'd be very close to what the submittor is looking for. I must admit, making a computer in this fashion would certainly be a break from the beige box and monitor!

Comments

For that REALLY retro look and simpler conversion

[ninewands]

Checck around at hamfests and other sources for old and ancient electronic gear. See if you can find an old Model 14 teletype machine. It was current high-tech during the period you're interested in.

If you can live with a rather limited character set, all you have to do is interface it to your serial port and write a small (almost trivial) daemon to convert the 5 bit Baudot code to ASCII.