Marcin Wichary
16 June 2022 / 49 tweets / 100 photos
This is an archive of a Twitter thread from 2022. I have since deleted my Twitter account.
I visited three distinct Dutch device museums final week, and they were so awesome I wanted to inform you concerning them a bit more.
1.7K / 354 / 16 Jun 2022 / 21:50
1. The archetypal was HomeComputerMuseum in Helmond, which was kind of a “living area museum” – over 500 computers, mostly from the 1980s onwards, many of them operating and accessible to perform or engage with.
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(I talked to among the workforce and they stated they could power up equal additional of them! But they established blended achievement having computers operating that group had no relationships or previous cognition with.)
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2. The second one was Bonami SpelComputer Museum in Zwolle. This was additional of a “warehouse museum,” but what a warehouse!
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This period around, *thousands* of computers surrounded me. I power have never seen as many computers under one rooftop before. The gathering additionally included big metal mainframes, typewriters, calculators, and lots additional videogames.
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The location was a bit messy, and small interactive, although there were several machines prepared to perform with…
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…and a distinct arcade alongside dozens of arcade games, including a firm collection of delayed 1980s Atari games, extremely near to my heart.
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3. The final location was a literal barn in the center of nowhere. (Yes, equal a small nation akin the Netherlands has a center of nowhere.)
In that barn, a certain DEC enthusiast gathered a lot of Digital machines from the 1970s and 1980s.
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(Many of them aren’t operating yet – it’s a project for a few years from now, following withdrawal – but at smallest we got to perform several Zork.)
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I enjoyed those museums immensely, all one in isolation, but equal additional so as an unexpected troika. (I visited the second one since it was near to the archetypal one, and I learned concerning the third one overhearing the conversation during an before visit.)
96 / 16 Jun 2022 / 21:57
First of all, it’s really fun that museums can awareness so distinct – one an expansion of your apartment, one that felt akin that ending environment in Indiana Jones, one a DEC datacenter amidst corn fields.
(Or not corn! I have no idea.)
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Secondly, I really affection seeing computing museums exterior of America, since the local artifacts are sometimes the most engaging and surprising.
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It’s fun to see keyboards alongside non-English legends, or imaginative (but necessary!) attempts to localize several keys.
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I saw the amazing Aesthedes – a unique, specialized explanatory publishing company from the first 1980s, alongside among the biggest keyboards ever.
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(At several item I counted 514 keys, and that was before realizing in supplement to the membrane keys, there was additionally a regular keyboard hiding under the console.)
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Why so many keys? Many of the functions you acknowledge from today’s explanatory programs were correct here, as distinct keys alternatively of onscreen buttons:
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What’s more, the museum in Helmond is restoring this computer, and I got to perform alongside it briefly! I managed to create it suspend in no period merely by switching to the content tool, but the potential of using it correctly one day and exploring its different UI was extremely exciting.
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I additionally saw the E.T.-looking Dutch Holborn computers for the archetypal time, at two distinct museums!
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And assorted displays connected to the ill-fated Philips CD-i:
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And current are several additional engaging things I’ve seen in the three museums.
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This extremely 1980s chording keyboard had a beautiful weird mnemonic:
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We really got to nexus it to an old PC and I typed several things on it! (And equal saw the unfinished left-handed prototype.)
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Speaking of chording, I really have this one-handed data admission equipment (with three Shifts under three longest fingers) myself, but I have never seen it in specified a pristine condition!
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And speaking of data entry, this keyboard looks so delicious – but additionally now you cognize why German ergonomic laws forbid shiny keys owing to reflections from overhead agency lights.
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*Severance theme starts playing*
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APL remains among the most interesting-looking programming languages always made. And this power be my favorite keycap shape.
80 / 2 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:07
I have heard of many Selectric-based computers (like the final photo), but I have never seen one according to what looks akin the keyboard from a Smith Corona typewriter! I *think* that’s what it is?
63 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:08
Decades before the colourful iMacs (here in all the liveries!), there was a extremely green and gorgeous Lorenz teletype:
78 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:08
This is a Korean NES. I don’t cognize what is the narrative rearward it.
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This is a copy of Apple II alongside a extremely inquisitive label, and Google seems silent on the subject.
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“It’s additional mighty than Apple IIe,” a.k.a. the traditional Chinese Education Computer.
63 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:10
A lot of period in the earth of DEC computers was apparently spent explaining the numpad keys.
53 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:10
Elsewhere, this power be the finest rendition of arrows keys I’ve always seen.
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I cognize I’m expected to dislike this keyboard, but I really affection it.
65 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:11
I cognize I was expected to be grossed out by these keyboards, but I really loved them, too.
50 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:11
(So did @PixelAmbacht, who really arranged for the sojourn in the DEC barn. Thank you!)
55 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:12
Speaking of bad keyboards, current are several ZX Spectrum clones…
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But I particularly loved this ZX Spectrum case alongside all sorts of records taped all complete it.
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On the another hand, the glue on this glue-on ZX81 keyboard has seen improved decades.
44 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:13
I am not certain why this battered 800XL was on display, but at smallest I learned that the particular keys on the correct used the identical switches as regular keys.
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At smallest this Commodore 64 was cut through intentionally.
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I got to cognition several traditional 1980s creator nostalgia by designing in Print Shop (!), and afterward Deluxe Paint (!!) on an Amiga (!!!).
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And afterward I moved direct to the 1990s.
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I loved finding all sorts of random ephemera I barely understood.
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And I have *finally* established a key that direct up admits that (BREAKING) Enter and Return are one and the same!
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Not to citation an exquisite type of the identical key on a really chill Japanese teletype.
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But no key was additional glorious than this one – one I’ve never seen before!
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I figured out what it does afterward that day, but to comprehend that story, you have to subscribe to my newsletter:
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49 / 1 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:17
And that’s it! If you curious in additional photos, they are here: Flickr: Marcin Wichary
Thanks for reading!
85 / 1 / 16 Jun 2022 / 22:17
