Personal Computer Museum facts for kids
Some personal computers you could try out at the museum.
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| Established | 2005 |
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| Dissolved | 2018 |
| Location | Brantford, Ontario, Canada |
| Type | Personal Computer museum |
The Personal Computer Museum was a special museum in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, where you could see and use computers from the past. It was located in a unique building made from bricks that were saved from the old Brantford Opera House. The museum opened in 2005 and closed for good in 2018.
The main goal of the museum was to save old computer technology. More importantly, it let visitors actually use the old machines. This allowed people to see what computers were like for their parents or grandparents. Admission to this fun and educational place was always free.
The museum was founded by Syd Bolton, who was also its curator. He and a team of volunteers ran the museum. After Bolton passed away in 2018, the museum had to close. Its large collection of computers and software was moved to the University of Toronto Mississauga library in 2020 to be preserved.
What Was on Display?
The museum was packed with cool things to see and do. It had over 50 computers that you could actually play with! These came from famous companies like Apple, Atari, and Commodore.
- Interactive Computers: The downstairs area had more than 45 working computers. The most popular ones were the famous Commodore 64, the powerful IMSAI 8080, and the classic Apple IIe.
- Video Games: The museum also had old video game consoles. It even had a very rare Atari 2600 game called "Extra Terrestrials." It was made by a small Canadian company in 1983.
- Classic TV and Games: A 1953 black-and-white television was set up to play a game of Pong, one of the first video games ever.
- The Tower of Power: This was a huge 16-foot-tall display. It showed the original boxes for computers and consoles like the Coleco Adam and Mattel Aquarius.
- Magazine Library: Upstairs, a library held over 4,000 old computer magazines, like Byte Magazine and Compute!.
- Modem Alley: This display showed the history of the modem, a device that let computers connect to the internet over a phone line.
- Jim Butterfield Display: A special section was dedicated to Jim Butterfield, a well-known Canadian technology journalist.
Helping the Community
The Personal Computer Museum did more than just display old tech. It also helped the local community by recycling old computers.
People could bring their unwanted computers to the museum. If a computer still worked, the museum would fix it up and give it to a family in need. This was part of their computer giveaway program. The museum also held a big recycling event every spring. In 2008, this event collected over 400 electronic items for safe recycling.
Special Events and Awards
The museum was known for hosting exciting events and even won awards for its work.
- In 2008, the museum set a new Guinness World Record for the most people playing in a Tetris tournament at the same time.
- In 2009, Microsoft hired the museum to create a display called "Evolution: 30 Years of Gaming" in Toronto.
- In 2010, the museum became famous for sending a tweet from a VIC-20, a computer from 1980. This made it the oldest known computer to use Twitter.
- The museum won several "Shining Stars Tourism Awards" for its creative marketing and events.
See Also
- Computer museum
- History of personal computers
- List of museums in Ontario and list of science museums
