Vintage Technology Collector

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.