Centre for Computing History facts for kids
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| Established | 2007 |
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| Location | Cambridge, Cambridgeshire |
| Type | Computers |
| Public transit access | Newmarket Road |
| Nearest car park | On site |
The Centre for Computing History is a museum in Cambridge, England. It was created to show the public the story of the Information Age. This is the time when computers and digital technology changed the world.
Discovering Computer History
This museum is a special place for vintage computers and related items. It keeps and shows old computers and other cool tech. You can visit the museum from Wednesday to Sunday during school terms. In school holidays, it is open every day.
The museum displays many important items. These include very old calculating machines called comptometers. You can also see early personal computers like the Altair 8800, ZX Spectrum, and Apple II series. The museum also has old video game consoles and software. There are many computer manuals and magazines too. A huge version of a computer chip, called the Megaprocessor, is also on display. It was designed by James Newman.
How the Museum Started
The Centre for Computing History is a charity. This means it is a special group that helps people or a cause. It does not try to make money for itself. The museum gets money from local businesses and individuals.
A famous investor named Hermann Hauser helped with funding. He became a patron of the museum in 2011. A patron is someone who supports a group or cause. The museum is managed by a group of people called trustees. Gareth Marlow is the head of this group.
The museum moved to a bigger building in Cambridge in 2013. It used to be in Haverhill, Suffolk. The new building is about 10,500 square feet (975 square meters). In 2012, the museum got permission to build at its new Cambridge site.
In 2019, the museum received "Accredited Museum status." This award from Arts Council England means the museum meets high national standards. It shows that the museum is well-run and trustworthy. Lisa McGerty became the new CEO and Curator in December 2022.
Fun Activities and Collections
The Centre for Computing History offers many educational activities. These are for schools and the public. You can join workshops to learn programming. Some workshops use old 1980s BBC Micro computers. Others teach coding with software like Scratch on a Raspberry Pi. The museum also offers tours about gaming history.
The museum also lends its old items for TV shows and movies. They have helped with props for shows like The IT Crowd. They also helped with Brits Who Made the Modern World on Channel Five. In 2009, they had a display at The Gadget Show Live exhibition. In 2018, they were part of the interactive Netflix episode Bandersnatch.
The museum collects and saves old computer items. They worked on a project to save data from the BBC Domesday Project. This was a huge digital project from 1986. They have some of this data online already.
The oldest working machine at the museum is an Elliott 903 computer. They often show how it works. Other important items include:
- A test version of the ZX Spectrum computer.
- A prototype from Professor Steve Furber's Computer Group.
- A NeXT computer signed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He invented the World Wide Web.
In 2017, some museum volunteers were honored for their help. The museum also took part in Butlin's Astonishing Science weekends in 2017 and 2018. They showed how technology has changed over time. Visitors could also try programming tasks.
In 2018, the museum got money to work on a project about LEO computers. These were the first business computers. The project aims to collect and share the story of LEO computers. They even plan to create a virtual reality version of the LEO I computer.
In 2019, the museum won an "Object of The Year" award. This was for their Sinclair ZX Spectrum prototype.
The museum has a huge collection of over 13,000 video games. They work to save these games for the future. You can find information about all their items in their online catalog. They save game code, like for the Magic Knight series by David Jones (programmer). They also keep original drawings and other materials from game companies like Guerrilla Games. Their goal is to save everything about a game. This includes the packaging and how the game was protected from copying. They also work with game developers today to save their current work.
