Not all computer museums fail - there are a few that have endured. The one in Mountain View, for instance, is a direct continuation of the one from Boston.

A lot of very nice computer collections are parts of bigger ones in larger, less specialised, museums.

It’s rare for museums to keep artefacts operational. The ones that still work are usually treated as the big attraction because they demand attention and maintenance.

I was recently in Bletchley Park, where I saw a partially working Bombe (they only run it partially because of the wear), and their smaller computer museum (there are a lot of machines that are available for visitors to play with) and the one in Cambridge, which has classrooms with BBC micros, as well as many other interesting machines - Suns, SGIs, Amigas, Ataris, Spectrums, and even a Lisa, which had a boot issue.

I have to say the kids in the last two seemed thrilled to play Lemmings on Amigas and Archimedes machines. Not a PDP-1, but still cool.

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Animats 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> It’s rare for museums to keep artefacts operational.

The Living Computer Museum tried until the money ran out. Here's the auction list from when the Living Computer Museum was liquidated.[1]

[1] https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/firsts-history-computing-...

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operatingthetan 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Paul Allen did not structure the financials for it to succeed, which is unfortunate. I got to go there once and it was amazing.

	▲	raddan an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I also went there, shortly before it shut down during the pandemic. A friend talked me into visiting when we’re were in town for a scientific meeting. I am so glad I went. The museum on the afternoon we visited was nearly empty. As a result, the museum docents were happy to let us monopolize their time. I mentioned offhandedly that I had always wished I could try programming SmallTalk on an Alto, and the docent said with a grin “sure!” He reloaded their Alto with a programming environment and gave me a short tutorial. I quickly crashed the machine, but I had a lot of fun along the way. I got to try many other machines that night. I often think with sadness about how my students will no longer be able to easily have this experience.

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ex-aws-dude 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Wow I’m surprised by how high the realized prices are

Who is buying these things? Private collectors?

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jbdigriz990 17 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I am prompted here to ask "Why that name?" Trolling? Lapsed trademark squatting? I recommend a less confusing moniker if this is a genuinely serious attempt at a museum and not just baiting a collector(s) with deep pockets.

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leoc 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the prices are still really modest if you look at them in perspective. One of the small, irreplaceable stock of surviving PDP-10s could be had for less than the cost of a mediocre used Ferrari.

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kev009 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Antiquities and heirlooms can be a good stable investment, the same reason people trade art or watches or guns or cars. Some of these are fun to use without reducing value.

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aleph_minus_one 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Antiquities and heirlooms can be a good stable investment, the same reason people trade art or watches or guns or cars.

It is only an investment if it (likely) gains yield. Otherwise it is just a means of preservation of value.

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kev009 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Most of these things have large categories that are inherently disinflationary. You can't make a new authentic vintage Ferrari. Whether they are fungible is the main problem and case by case. But you generally don't do it to build wealth, it's an expression of it that happens to have yields if taken seriously.

	▲	detourdog 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The mystery of how a computer works is what drove me. I was interested in the mass produced microprocessor based systems. Once I found per integrated circuit system it became a combination of logic and hand crafted boards. This is is the area I focused on. I'm now at point where I would rather shed objects than collect them. I will probably hold on to the rarest handmade objects. The mass produced from the late 70's to the early 2000's I would like to get rid of.

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TheOtherHobbes 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A lot of people had a strong nostalgic attachment to DEC PDPs because they were their first experience of hands-on computing.

So SV always had a community of very wealthy nerds who could afford a used PDP-10 and its insane running and maintenance costs.

But... the community was always very small.

And today, the number of people with that kind of money and a similar nostalgic attachment to increasingly remote history is even smaller.

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Veai 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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detourdog 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There is Large Scale Systems Museum in Western PA.

https://www.mact.io/

Rhode Island Computer Museum https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home

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jhfdbkofdchk 41 minutes ago | parent [-]

Don't sleep on the Rhode Island Computer Museum

	▲	detourdog 37 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That sounds ominous.

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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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