Computer History
I’ve always been a fan of the history of computing. The physical artifacts are interesting to study, of course, but the people and stories around the creation of them is where it really gets exciting.
Museums
Computers and technology are often part of larger technology and science museums. Wikipedia has a List of computer museums. Here are a few of the most interesting ones:
- Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA
- The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, UK
- The Computer Museum @ System Source in Hunt Valley, MD
Retro Computing
It’s very easy to emulate older computer hardware and software. MESS (part of MAME) is a general purpose emulator that can run lots of older systems. Individual systems often have enthusiast communities and dedicated emulators. DOSBox is a general purpose emulator for running DOS games and software on modern systems. QEMU also runs lots of platforms, including PowerPC and SPARC.
Sometimes it’s fun to run on real hardware. I recently picked up a Pocket 386 and it’s been a blast to use, but it also reminds me how far we’ve come.