[vcf-midatlantic] Museum: PDP-8 and beyond. Come see it at VCF East

[Christian Liendo]

I have pictures somewhere where there was event for Claude Kagen when he
passed in 2012. Ted Nelson was there as were some of us. I didn't know if
you wanted the photos for the archives.

On Sun, Mar 10, 2024, 12:04 PM Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> THANKS SO MUCH Dave Gesswein for coming to the repair event and lending
> your PDP-8 expertise to us again for the weekend!
> The progress you made this weekend is so exciting and encouraging.
>
> For those fairly new to VCF MidAtlantic, our Straight-8 has local NJ
> history with the The Resistors (google it) and came to use in "barn
> storage" condition.  Dave massively restored this machine and continues
> to lovingly keep it going.  These fault discoveries and repairs are
> wonderful as we leverage this machine pretty hard as the machine is
> the oldest computer that we can demonstrate at-will anytime in the
> museum. It's one of two that we can show how front panels work-
> the other is the HP 1000 minicomputer.  Its the only one in octal.
> (The UNIVAC 1219 is only demo'd at special events.)
>
> We now have several demonstration options on the PDP-8:
> - A "cylon" mode light demo
> - Create a message on ASR 33 paper tape in readable font
> - Math demo on the ASR 33 TTY
> - Music played to a transistor radio via EMI.
> - Loading a program from paper tape.
> The programs, including the tape loader, are kept in core memory.
> Great stuff!
>
> We are now trying to decide to demo with the A/D board.
>
> There are more plans for DEC restorations in the near term including a
> 8e & PDP-11 restorations on the short term.  These are likely going to
> run even more impressive demos.
> On the longer term we'll have much more DEC in the bigger museum space.
>
> A year has been spent researching and putting in place thoughtfully
> selected and documented software demos on all the working
> microcomputers. This pushing us towards an all new museum experience
> as we become a "must see" computing history location on the east
> coast for the general public, STEM, technology college students,
> and tech industry professional visitors.
>
> --
> Douglas Crawford
> VCF Mid-Atlantic Museum Mgr
> InfoAge Science & History Museums
> 2201 Marconi Road
> Wall, NJ 07719
>