My school museum

[pliroforikos]

Dear friends,
For over 20 years I have been dreaming of creating a small computer museum in my school. I am referring to computers belonging to the 'home computer' category like zx spectrum, amstrad 464, amiga 500, commodore, electron etc.
They are also the computers that existed when I started working with them when i was at my students age. Of course, our big problem (like everyone's I suppose) is financial. Looking at platforms like Ebay most computers in this category are expensive too and we could hardly afford them. So this is where I want your help with ideas, or even offers on materials that are gathering dust in warehouses and maybe you don't need. Even computers that don't work could serve in the first instance for presentation only. Currently, i have only a not working asmtrad 6128.
Thank you very much for any advice and maybe why not offers!

 

[Peter Meares]

The idea is great. Logistics of shipping to Greece could be a problem. I do have the odd old calculator in draws.

 

[pliroforikos]

Yes you are right. Probably I can't afford long distance transfers. Maybe only from Europe.But thank you anyway.

 

[rabbitBUSH]

Probably I can't afford long distance transfers.

Yup that's going to be the problem I have several things which would be nice in that environment - but.... -> and having worked in a museum as a display tech -> best wishes with the project.....

I once had to give a lecture to university students on PC hardware because the HoD thought they hadn't a clue (he didn't need his professorship to work that out). We borrowed a bunch of bits and pieces from Tech Services and laid them out in a form that gave them "relationship" as in "zones" inside a tower box -> also dismantled HDDs and so on -> then, we boggled their minds with the simplicity of binary vs octal vs decimal vs hexadecimal, and, the question: 1 + 1 = 10.. They could do 9 + 1 = 10 (well some of them) -> they couldn't understand things they had learned in primary school, like, you only have 10 digits 0 through 9 and then you have a 1's column a 10's column a 100's column etc -> add 9 + 1 what do you do? They were lost. Put a zero then a one to the left of it (No?). You know where this going..... in binary - only two digits 0 and 1 -> add 1 + 1 what do you do?

OK (we were rolling below the whiteboard at this stage)

As to BITS BYTES WORDS NYBBLES RAM ROM how stuff is stored multiplication and division (or as we know it adding and subtracting)

DON'T even ask what happened when we tried the same principles on HEXADECIMAL

Just an idea or two for you to contemplate as displays or even B4X/a/j apps as interactive bits for a museum format display. Be nice B4J exercise setting up some of that sort of thing.....for interactive stations and self-learning exercises.......

Might go well with those books you authored.........