Computing History: The Gadget Hall of Fame

One of the coolest stands at the Gadget Show two weeks ago was The Gadget Hall of Fame, set-up by the Centre for Computing History.  It was full of gadgets and gizmos, showcasing products from the past 34 years.

The Center for Computing History was established to create a permanent public exhibition telling the story of the information age. The museum is based in Haverhill on the borders of Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk, but is currently only viewable by appointment. I definitely think I should organize a GeekMeet during the summer to visit, cause it looks like they have a great collection of old computer hardware.

The stand at the Gadget Show was clearly a favourite among most of the visitors. The exhibit was arranged in such a way that there were different sections for each decade, with retro gadgets against the wall and (per decade) two featured game consoles (everybody of course wanted a go on those). The 1970’s section had the Binotone PONG game and the classic Atari 2600 console, the 1980’s had the Sinclair Spectrum and the Commodore 64, and the 1990’s had the Atari Jaguar and the Sony PlayStation. 

I was amazed how many of the gadgets featured there I still own: the NES (with the DuckHunt gun), the Donkey Kong Game & Watch, the Atari Lynx, the Atari Jaguar, the original GameBoy, the GameBoy Colour and the Sony PlayStation (not even mentioning the more newer consoles, like the Nintendo DS and the PS2, of which I’ve “owned” three different ones). It was great seeing some of them in action again, and makes me want to dig up some of my old consoles and play with them again.

There was also a video made of the event, and I’m actually in it! I’m seen playing the Jaguar (very concious that I was being filmed) at around the 3 minute mark:

[Watch the video on MissGeeky.com]

Btw, the Centre of Computing History is always interested in expanding their collection, including calculators, cables and books. Just check out their donations page. Anybody got anything obscure that deserves to go down in history?