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Old Computers Resurrected As Instruments At Bletchley Park

Posted by timothy on from the brunsviga-adding-machine-in-da-house dept.

arcticstoat writes with a snippet from bit-tech.com; musician Matthew Applegate "plans on assembling a virtual orchestra of 20 retired relics of computing at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The choice of venue will even allow Applegate to feature the infamous Colossus Mark 2 computer in the event, which was used for code-breaking in World War II and was recently reconstructed at Bletchley Park in 2007. ... A wide selection of computing fossils be used in Applegate's final musical presentation, which is called 'Obsolete?' This includes the Elliot 803 (a 1960s machine with 4KB of memory), the aforementioned Colossus Mark 2, a Bunsviga adding machine (pictured) and a punch card machine. As well as this, there are also some machines that will look nostalgically familiar to kids who grew up with the home computer generation, including a BBC Micro, an Atari 800XL, a Dragon 32 and an Amstrad CPC464." The article's list of the members of this "orchestra" makes an interesting checklist of computer hardware history.

12 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Awesome by GMonkeyLouie · · Score: 5, Funny

    I fully approve. It's definitely time to rethink what obsolescence means, and this musical presentation seems like it will be amazing from an angle of reimagining what old computers are really for.

    I will take my kids to see it and tell them that when I'm old, I want them to arrange me in a formation with other old people and make us all make beautiful coincidental sounds that could be construed as music.

    1. Re:Awesome by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 4, Funny

      > I want them to arrange me in a formation with other old people and
      > make us all make beautiful coincidental sounds that could be construed as music.

      Might I suggest Bach's "Get Off My Lawn and Fugue in D Minor"?

  2. NO! Not Colossus! by jackb_guppy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Poor Forbin! He will be locked up alnight with that sex female computer scientist.

    1. Re:NO! Not Colossus! by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Informative

      Poor Forbin! He will be locked up alnight with that sex female computer scientist.

      Parent is a reference to Colossus: The Forbin Project.

      You young whippersnappers that modded the parent off-topic can get off of my lawn now.

      --
      My blog
  3. Huh? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As well as this, there are also some machines that will look nostalgically familiar to kids who grew up with the home computer generation, including a BBC Micro, an Atari 800XL, a Dragon 32 and an Amstrad CPC464.

    What, no Apple ][?

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    1. Re:Huh? by lokedhs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Apple II was never big in Europe. The above-mentioned machines were much bigger back then. In fact, even though I was raised with computers during that time, I have never actually seen an Apple II in real life. The others, however, are very familiar to me.

    2. Re:Huh? by jacquesm · · Score: 3, Informative

      The bbc micro sat in a yellow injection moulded plastic case.

      It had no 'expansion slots', but it did have several connectors at the edge of the pcb that you could use for expansion (berg connectors).

      These included:

      - printer port
      - the 'tube', a bi-directional link for a second processor
      - the user port
      - the 1Mhz bus.

      Internally there were a number of option rom sockets, which with some trickery could be used for a ram expansion (bank switched 16 k windows).

      There were no 'slots' of any kind.

      I'm not sure which computer you are referring to here but I have never seen a bbc model b encased in anything other than plastic unless it was done as a custom job.

      --
      MP3 Search Engine
  4. Infamous? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why is the Colossus "infamous"? It's famous, and it's use saved thousands of lives and shortened the war.

            Brett

    1. Re:Infamous? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why is the Colossus "infamous"? It's famous, and it's use saved thousands of lives and shortened the war.

      Brett

      Possibly the submitter is German.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  5. a bit more useful by johnjones · · Score: 4, Informative

    bbc report with sound and video

    open in a tab then buy tickets !!!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7895853.stm

    tickets links -

    March 20th, 2009 http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=2285

    March 21th, 2009 http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=2373

    regards

    John Jones
    http://www.johnjones.me.uk

  6. Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers by eyrieowl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I highly recommend "The Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers", by The User. You can find it on eMusic I think (probably elsewhere as well). It's like being in the computer lab of yore, but with style. :)

  7. Re:Can they run Linux? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... and do they boot it faster than Vista on current PCs?

    Speaking as a former Atari 800XL owner, no. In fact, it got to a point where you could memorize the exact pattern of beepbeeeepbeenbeepbeeeeenbeepbeepbebp..*drive rev.. drive rev*...*beep beeeeep been beeeeen beep...*... and have your own little internal count-down. And, on top of that, it booted into the app you were using. Wanna start another app? Turn off machine, insert new disk, turn it on and hold down the Option key.

    In short: your quip was incredibly cheap and utterly unfunny to anybody who actually knows anything about the topic.

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)