Retro Computers

Last weekend saw the first Vintage Computer Festival in the UK. It was hosted at Bletchley Park by The National Museum of Computing.

Over the weekend, I was volunteering for The Centre for Computing History who are a computer museum that is currently situated in Haverhill, Suffolk.

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Here is a video of a real Sinclair ZX80 computer playing Space Invaders at the Vintage Computer Festival 2010 at Bletchley Park. You can see that the screen does not flicker when a key is pressed.

This computer was on “The Centre for Computing History” display. See http://www.computinghistory.org.uk

This weekend (19^th and 20^th June) sees the Vintage Computer Festival visiting the UK for the very first time. This event has been held in the United States and Germany in the past.

The event will be held at a very important place that helps us deeply during the second world war – Bletchley Park. The event is being organised by “The National Museum Of Computing” who are based at Bletchley Park. Chris Searle, presenter of BBC’s 1980s The Computer Programme will be opening the event.

There are many fun and interesting things to see and do during the two day event. Highlights include…

• Exhibition of private collections
• Guest lectures and presentations about old and some new technology
• Machine demonstrations
• Vintage flea market

There are a few speakers who I would like to go and see if I get the time. They are

• Sophie Wilson talking about Acorn
• Adam Bradley talking about Cray super computers
• Tony Sale talking about Colossus

…and many more. (If I can briefly leave my display!)

Another highlight of the weekend that I will be definitely attending is the OMD session on Saturday. I was very lucky to obtain a ticket as they sold out very quickly – many thanks to Dave Moore for getting mine.

Be sure that you come and say hi to me if you are at the event. I will be working on The Centre for Computing History stand in the Mansion. We will have a excellent display of computers from Amstrad and Sinclair. We will have some of the more popular machines from these companies, and a few rarities too!

You can read more about the event on the following website.

I’ve just updated my list of computers to include the following machines.

• RM 380Z
• Commodore PET 4032

A couple of machines have also been removed. See http://www.retrocomputers.eu/?page_id=9 for the updates.

I have been donated a fantastic ‘little’ machine today. I’ts a Research Machines 380Z. This machine is based on the Z80 CPU running at 4mhz. My machine has 64k of RAM installed and 2 5 1/4″ floppy disk drives. This machine runs the CP/M operating system.

There is more information about this machine at Wikipedia. I will be powering up this system over the weekend so I will upload more photos soon. I may need this Research Machines 380Z service manual!

I have more photos available on Flickr.

Computing history have a new and interesting addition to their collection – the Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ PBS Executive IV.

ZX Spectrum+ planning started in June 1984, and was released in October the same year.This 48 KB Spectrum (development code-name TB) introduced a new QL-style enclosure with a much needed injection-moulded keyboard and a reset button, retailing for £179.95. Early on, the machine outsold the rubber-key model 2:1; however, some retailers reported very high failure rates.

• CPU   Zilog Z80A
• SPEED   3.5 MHz
• RAM   48k
• ROM   16k

The Spectrum+ was taken by Portable Business Systems Limited in 1985 and incorporated in a large briefcase style which incorporated the ZX Intercae I, ZX Microdrive, power supply and the Alphacom 32 printer. Our unit is type: 230186 with a serial number of 1376