Early in September while on holidays in London I had a couple of free days available and decided to head north to Cambridge to visit the Centre for Computing History which was having an event day.
Hidden away in an industrial estate this unassuming warehouse with a faded beige roof soon had an overflowing car park and a growing crowd all waiting for the doors to open.
Centre for computing history, Cambridge UK
Upon entering the building I was greeted by an old friend, setup and awaiting the first person to pick up the joystick for a quick game. The Commodore VIC 20 (1981) looking fantastic for a 38-year computer.
Commodore VIC 20
I’ve added some photos from the day here, but these don’t really do justice to just how awesome this place is, so if you every get the chance to visit make sure you do.
Amstrad CPC 464, Commodore Plus 4, Toshiba MSX
Japanese console kings all on display
I’ve never had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a Commodore MAX, the console/computer that resembles something between the VIC 20 and Commodore 64 in space age grey. This great example was one of two on display running Avenger.
Commodore MAX
Hidden deep in the back on the warehouse was a room configured like an office from the 1970’s. Way too many shades of brown going on but looking beyond that I found an awesome example of the Commodore PET 2001 complete with twin drives and that awful keyboard.
Commodore PET 2001
VAX by Digital Equipment Corp.
Before long the rumour of a mythical machine was in the building but not on display. Some general hints on who might have the machine and some great conversations about Atari PCs lead me to see this Commodore 65 come out from the covers. Missing a function key, badge and unfortunately no longer working.
The ultra rare Commodore 65
Finally I made my way to the gaming sections, walking past a full-size Space Invaders cabinet and a wall size Tetris game (lots of fun to play) into a room containing all the major consoles ever made.
Atari Jaguar
Like many items that I came across on the day, I’d seen them in the magazines and or course online but never in person. This wonderful example of an ATARI Jaguar (although it took a few minutes to get my hands around that huge controller). Then the ill-fated Amstrad GX4000 which looks like its design was straight out a sci fi movie.
Amstrad GX 4000 console
Atari 800