The Cambridge Centre for Computing History (computer museum)

On Saturday I went to the new Cambridge Centre for Computing History. Or just.. The Computer Museum.

Hats off to this museum! If you are interested in computers you should really go to the Computing History museum in Cambridge and also to the The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, which is convenient because Bletchley Park is another place to visit (see a Bletchley Park blogpost, from 2009)

The Cambridge Centre for Computing History museum is in a warehouse, a 20 minute walk from Cambridge railway station. They have a small shop and there are plenty of computers on the ground floor. You can find Amstrads, Commodores, BBC micros, etc. almost all of them are working, with some loaded games, BASIC, etc. to play with.

They also have a class room with some Raspberry Pis where they teach how to do more things with Raspberry Pi (note that Raspberry Pi is from Cambridge too).

If you go there: be ready to spend some time to play with the computers, I think that it’s crucial to enjoy the museum. And perhaps start thinking which small program will you program using BASIC and which of the available BASICs you prefer to use.

The museum is focused on domestic computers. They have a few mainframes but the majority of the computers are domestic computers and video game consoles. You will also find a few mobile phones, calculators, abacus…

There are many video consoles, from some easy-ping pong game to Nintendo 8 bit (my first video console) to newer ones.

They are also preparing more exhibitions, video footage, more/other computers, etc. and they are making a vast effort to have a good inventory of the all non-displayed hardware.

There is a simple video of the museum, not done by me:

I took some photos. I think that next time I’ll take better ones.