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

Spock!

[Noodlenose]

You could even hook up an eyepiece like the one spock uses on the classic Enterprise and then mutter "fascinating" every time you're getting fragged at a Quake III tournament.

D

Don't know how feasable it is, but....

[SuiteSisterMary]

Build your computer into a wooden case. Surround the case with a shitload of interconnected gears, crankshafts, worm gears, and so on. Not actually powering anything, but something so that the entire assembly will move when current is applied. Next, hook up a variable power source to the assembliage, and rig up a way so that CPU (or total system load) applies voltage; the more load, the more power, the faster the gear assembly goes. Bonus points if you can hook up a steam valve to make a whistling noise when CPU is sustained at 100 percent for a given period of time. Refer to this as your 'babbage engine.' Make reference to how many yards of gearage it has, and how you can boost it's computational ability by giving the steam valve a quarter-turn. Wax poetic on how the Wonders of SCIENCE! have Improved The Lot Of The Common Man! and other such wonderful things.