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Computer History Exploration at Wikia


Welcome to the Computer History Exploration mini wiki at Scratchpad!

You can use the box below to create new pages for this mini-wiki. Make sure you type [[Category:Computer History Exploration]] on the page before you save it to make it part of the Computer History Exploration wiki (preload can be enabled to automate this task, by clicking this link and saving that page. Afterwards, you may need to purge this page, if you still see this message).


In the sixty-odd years since the first digital computers came on line, numerous interesting computer designs have been build. While many of these machine no longer exist and most of the ones that do are not exactly usable by the average computer history buff. Luckily the sheer power possessed by a modern personal computer makes it quite possible the create and use software simulations of antique hardware. While the creation of these simulators (often referred to as emulators) is a complex programming task and far outside the scope of this text, the large and growing number of already-available simulators/emulators and properly formated copies of old software make it quite possible to explore the history of computing without ever leaving your chair. While this obviously is no substitute for the opportunity to use a real classic computer in a hands-on fashion, it's still good for many hours of educational and geeky fun...

That said computer history can be a difficult topic to explore given the fact that good, readable documentation is either hard to find and expensive, lost to time or may never have even existed in the first place. This wiki aims to change that by making information about the various historic computer systems out there available as well providing a repository of knowledge about how to find software (all legal) and how to use the various systems and emulators.

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