Vintage Technology Collector

Demo video program promoting the debut of the Commodore 64 computer system, set to various short holiday carols with animation. At the end comes the sale pitch, promoting it's whopping 64 kilobytes of RAM, eye-blazing 16 colors, and all for the amazingly low price of just under $600.

TechRepublic reports: "It's not much to look at--the overriding impression is of several mangled paper clips clumsily soldered onto some chunky scrap metal--but really, the whole of modern digital life stems from it. This was the very first transistor, invented at Bell Labs in December 1947. Known as a point contact transistor, it was first manufactured commercially a few years later, ironically enough, in a textbook example of a Rust Belt locale: Allentown, Pa." Check out this TechRepublic photo gallery, it chronicles some of the history of the transistor.

Yahoo! News reports: "Meet the titans of tech. Here are some of the extraordinary individuals who have changed the world through the power of the computer. From Bill Gates to Steve Jobs to the Google Guys and the founders of Napster and eBay, '60 Minutes' has covered the high-tech revolution from DOS to the iPhone." These are very short interview with some technology luminaries, billionaires, and a few others. I would have liked the clips better if they were longer. Although, I did learn a few things by watching them.

PC World reports: "thinking about all the things we miss about the early days of computing. This week, we've woken up. Let's face it: Lots of things back then sucked. At the risk of sounding like crotchety grandfathers, we'll say it: 'These kids today have it soft, dag nab it.' If you were born after the first Star Wars movie, you might not be aware of just how cushy your computing life is. For proof, we offer five examples."

CNET News.com reports: "I don't want to date myself, but when I was in high school, one of the things I remember was that, among the geeks like myself who hung out in the computer lab, a bit of a culture war was under way. No, it wasn't Macs versus Windows. But Apple was a player in this battle. In fact, it was the Commodore 64 versus the Apple IIe, and while the school had a collection of Apples in the lab that all of us had to use, those of us who had C64s felt like we we owned the superior computer." I was very interested in the part of the article that referenced the culture war that existed between the Commodore 64 and the Apple II users. It was also interesting to see that Jack Tramiel and Steve Wozniak denied that this culture war ever existed. I personally was a fan of the Apple II.

A collection of pictures of water in computer games over the last 25 years. You can see how video games went from unrealistic to photo realistic.

Steve Russell, one of the creators of Space War, demonstrates the game at the Computer History Museum. This video was taken during the Vintage Computer Festival 2006. Russell and some friends at MIT wrote Space War between 1960 and 1962. While others had created Pong-like games in the 50's, Space War was the first non-pong video game ever designed. The computer here is a restored DEC PDP-1, which is the original hardware for which the game was designed.

Dr Ashen reviews the Barcode Battler. This device was released in 1991, and competed against other popular hand-held gaming devices such as Sega's Game Gear and the Nintendo Game Boy. The Battler was a rudimentary fighting game that displayed fights as numbers on the screen. To fight you have to swipe special barcode-equipped cards through the console's card reader.

CNET News.com hosts images documents and other things from computing's history being auctioned off.

TechRepublic reports: "The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., celebrates a nondescript converted bread truck for its instrumental role in developing the first mobile and wireless Internet connection. News.com's Kara Tsuboi introduces the engineers behind a feat that happened three decades ago this month." I never even heard of the Internet van until I saw this video. Its very interesting if you know nothing about this van.

Inside CRM reports: "Some things were just never meant to be, but that doesn't mean that investors won't pile millions of dollars upon a bad idea — or even a good idea gone bad. Whether they crashed and burned or sucked investors dry, these ventures just didn't work out. Check out our graveyard of dreams and money to get a look at VC (venture-capital) investments that just weren't wise."

PC World reports: "These former technology luminaries have all taken different paths. How different? One's a country doctor, one's a budding movie mogul, and one teaches toddlers--and he's not even alive."

Since the Introduction of the first games consoles like Pong and the first personal computers like the Altair. These devices have forever changed our lives by making computer technology available to the masses. As time passes new generation of game consoles and computers are created. Each of these new devices is generally better then its predecessors, and each one trying to build on the success for the previous generation. Today we have game consoles and computers that are literally tens, hundreds or thousands of time more powerful then those only one or two decades previous. Also the graphics and sound rendering on some of the latest video games systems are more realistic then any previous generation of these devices. The television commercial of vintage computer and game console listed give you a brief look at how things once were. Atari 400 : An early attempt by Atari to enter the home computer market (circa 1978). Atari 2600 : One of Atari's most successful games system ever ...

CNET News.com reports: "The World War II-era computer Colossus helped crack the secret codes of the Third Reich and speed the end of the war. For more than a decade, a team has been working to rebuild a Colossus Mark II (pictured). The computer resides at Bletchley Park in England, home to the National Museum of Computing. On Thursday and Friday in the 'Cipher Challenge,' Colossus will go up against a team of people using modern computing power to decode encrypted radio communications broadcast from Germany." It took 14-years to build a replica of the original Colossus computer. All the information for the project came from six black-and-whites photo and some circuit diagram fragments. The original information was burned in 1960.

Wired reports: "Guitar Hero III has become one of the best-selling games in America. Activision licensed the likenesses of real musicians, so players can face off against Slash (Guns N' Roses), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) and Bret Michaels (Poison), instead of shredding contests with Axel Steel and Izzy Sparks. ... But these are only the latest in an illustrious history of rockers and rappers licensing their identities for videogames. Starting in the late 1970s, canny managers and videogame-obsessed musicians urged clients and bandmates to sign their names to pinball and game projects. Some turned out to be classics. Here are our favorite rocker videogames, the best of the nerdy synergy of two overly indulgent mediums." Do you remember any of these games? I know I recognize a few from my childhood.

CNET News.com: "Computer collectors find it all at annual event ... Blow off the dust and get ready to dig through boxes. News.com’s Kara Tsuboi takes a tour of the biggest garage sale for antique computers, vintage video games, and discarded gadgets--the Vintage Computer Festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. And for the first time in decades, the 45-year-old LINC personal computer lights up." I wish I could have gone to the Vintage Computer Festival this year, maybe I will make it next year.

CNET News.com reports: "This gallery showcases several 1970s-era machines from Steven Stengel's vintage computer collection. Stengel has graciously allowed CNET to republish his photos and descriptions. You can find much more detailed information on each machine and additional photos of the collection on his Web site Oldcomputers.net" Great set of pictures of collectible computers.

A timeline of almost every video game system ever made, starting with Spacewar, in the order that they were released. The first video game ever made was Tennis for Two by William Higginbotham in 1958. It was played on an oscilloscope. I made this video around 2 years ago, so the Nintendo Revolution should be named Nintendo Wii, and there should be a Nintendo DS Lite after the Xbox 360.

Take a trip down memory lane and watch all the Windows boot logos and start up sounds from Windows v3.1 through Vista.

I am going to start this blog as an experiment to see if I can find others who share a passion for vintage computer technology and history. I have enthusiasm for current technologies, but I also have a similar interest for the classic technologies from which the modern technologies evolved from. This site is going to cover all types of vintage technologies, including: computers, game consoles, software, hand-held computers, calculators, and more. If its old and interesting, I want to talk about it. I am going to post videos, articles, and links to other sites that contain content related to vintage technology. I hope that you find the site interesting and come back often. Please post lots of feedback, and suggestions because I read everything.