The Mid-Atlantic campus has been kicking butt for the last year. My main concern is the museum, which has been pivoting into a computing history learning experience in order to hopefully become much more of "thing" on the east coast, appealing to both tech interested & STEM audiences as well as laymen. Here are a set of photos of a recent early morning high school student visit with docent Thomas Gilinksy demonstrating the PDP-8. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MWbqQhDESH5vS0Z_ZMsbLMLenO5bsUL7?usp... Note the poster of Olsen behind the PDP-8, part of a continuing to effort to honor company founders of the equipment we have and tell a bit the founder's and company's history. In the background of photo 2 and 3 you can see the partially completed exhibits of the PC add-in cards angled towards the viewer. We are now routinely doing paper tape loads and demo programs thanks to David Gesswein's dedicated attention to the straight-8 and Rick Lewis's excellent PDP-8 instruction document. We had 45 high school students come through in three groups of 15 early Wed AM with Thomas, Bill I, and myself as docents. Though we only had 1/2 hour with each group, we packed a lot in and they were very very attentive. One student, suitably impressed, came right back with his brother and brother's girlfriend on Saturday. Other things we have going on for visitors to see and do include an expanding suit of software and activities add recently - The Entrance Exhibit is now able to illustrate what logic gates are, how they are used, and how they are made from any given technology from the 40s to the 70s - relays, tubes, transistors, ICs to Microprocessors. and how memory evolved from the 40's to the 70s physical delay lines to magnetics to solid state charge devices. - Also at the entrance of the museum, Thomas's is developing a mechanical calculator exhibit as an introduction to the reason why the ENIAC was necessary. It has become a big hit and really attracts due to the unique tactile and immediate sound, feel and feedback. - A third row has a very nice Intel Moore's law exhibit with not only the processors, but also the accompanying typical memory stick formats and math coprocessors for the era when these were separate products. - Atari ST - Bart has provided 7 programs and some innovative new signage - The Amiga has classic demos including BOING! and ROTOCITY as well as some great game titles. - Mac - Several games and the classic applications, including an floppy drive emulator to have more software available. - TI 99, which used to be relative to the hard to use exhibit "top shelf" was expanded upon by Bart with a text to speach activity and has now been moved to a bottom shelf. - Bart also supplied a Tandy 1000 complete with Deskmate as part of our "GUI user interface" example options, which is also a great DOS game player which is interesting to note bested out the IBM PC Jr. - A beutiful GRiD 1520 now occupies a top shelf sporting an intersting corporate computer example. It has an intact vintage Colgate mobile computing installation. This machine is a great example of the early design type that started the flip up screen format for laptops. - Apple II runs authentic Oregon Trail in color and is a big big hit. A must have that we didn't have until this year. - TRS-80 tape load and programming example, - Osborne - an example of a useful too programmed in BASIC that would have been typical of the day- decimal to binary converter - Newly restored TRS-80 Model III from the warehouse by yours truly - fully working 2 disk drive system that auto boots into the BASIC program that generated a number of screens for the enterprise on Star Trek: The Motion Picture and also the "Big Five" games, and Dancing Demon- an early example of user-definable behavior, foreshadowing things like Pinball Construction set and SIM CITY type software. This also has a functional RS-232 board ready for some communications. - Apple II runs authentic - Apple I - Woz's BASIC and demonstrating what about the Apple I probably stood out making a few investors interested in helping them get to the Apple II. Newly added Kaypro 10, with a fully loaded HD thanks to restoration by Dave Gesswein. - Silicon Graphics machine by Thomas that runs many demos including Jurassic Park items. - Several primers on BASIC, on a single laminated card, that step interested visitors through the joy of programming- One generic that can be used on many different computers, and one specific to the C64. - Many machines have a default demo instituted that the machines are set to run when the museum opens with a card that tells what the computer is running and why it is significant. - Scelbi and S-100 demos will be functional early in the new year. - The IBM PC boots into a typical batch processing menu system with a number of software titles ready to go. - We are also capturing video testimonies of visitors who had interesting careers or were involved at Camp Evans. Future: - We are now anticipating that the top racks will be the home of an exhibit of portable computers. - Plans for machine language activities on "trainers" - Assembly language activities & vintage art, music and productivity tool activities on several C64 computers set up for the purpose. - An BBS system and demonstrations of different computers using a BBS along with a specific museum tour about computer and peripheral communications innovations over the decades. - Creation of a new Mid-Atlantic Vintage Computer USERS group along the lines of user groups of old meeting monthly. - An exhibit demonstration and lecture open house quarterly. And, as the saying goes, much, much more. IF YOU READ THIS FAR, you are probably quite interested in all this. If you have artifacts that you would like to donate to embellish computing history as we are doing- now that you know it is all happening in earnest as per our mission statement (see below) OR if you might considering being a docent in this exciting operation... ... contact me offline. -- Douglas Crawford VCF Mid-Atlantic Museum Mgr InfoAge Science & History Museums 2201 Marconi Road Wall, NJ 07719 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Mission and Vision of the Vintage Computer Federation Museum in Wall, NJ A Computer History Learning Center MISSION To honor and propagate the history of computer innovation by preserving and exhibiting artifacts in a uniquely hands-on experience for the education of the public, edification of our membership, and inspiration of a new generation of thinkers, dreamers, and visionaries. VISION Develop a growing museum and knowledgeable docent staff. Rescue, preserve, and restore artifacts. Create interesting, educational, functional, and interactive exhibits. Establish educational tours, demonstrations, talks, and hands-on learning opportunities around the multi-faceted technological evolutions in computer subjects. These include hardware, operating systems, programming languages, applications/software, user interfaces, communications and networking, and gaming. Instill an appreciation of the evolution of technology by connecting tech of the past to tech of today. Illuminate our artifacts with information about the people, events, culture, and trivia in computer history. Inspire youth to continue the quest; help them realize that they are the future and give them a vision for that future. Provide avenues for them to get started learning electronics and programming. Cultivate a community of vintage technology enthusiasts by engaging them with the VCF in its mission, and provide opportunities to get involved. Grow the museum by promoting far and wide its value and educational experience. Increase attendance and revenue to InfoAge, encourage the increase in donations to the VCF. Establish that we are worthy of being the beneficiaries of significant, notable, or important artifact donations and monetary support, in particular from industry and influential entities. ASPIRATIONS To be regarded as a premier computer history learning center and museum To be regarded as a must-see destination for all levels of interest, from those casually intrigued with computer history to students studying technology to technology industry veterans to vintage computer hobbyists To embody these goals both in our current museum even more so in our future expanded museum