Museum of Computing re-opens on 8th August

 

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Posted on 6 Aug 2009 at 17:13

Eighteen months after it was forced to close the Museum of Computing in Swindon is about to re-open in a new venue, supported and funded by companies including Intel, the British Computer Society and Swindon Borough Council.

When the museum opens on the 8th of August, visitors will be able to view 2,000 exhibits, including Nintendo's 1989 Power Glove motion-sensitive controller, a precursor of the Wii controller, an example of the Science of Cambridge Mark 14 with a calculator style LED display, the first computer designed by Sir Clive Sinclair and a surfboard with a built-in touch-screen PC that Intel built to promote their Centrino platform in the early 2000s.

The museum is divided into several themed exhibitions or 'zones', including 'Pong to Playstation', where visitors can play on working versions of vintage games and see both popular and less well-known games machines that cover a span of 30 years. Other zones include 'Computers at Work', the 'Calculator Zone' and 'Computers on the Move?? which includes Psion's first pocket organiser and the 12kg Osborne which, in 1981, was the first commercially successful (just about) portable computer.

Unfortunately, while this all sounds fascinating, the volunteer-run museum's opening hours are extremely restricted: it's set to initially open every Saturday from 9.30am to 5 pm.

The Museum of Computing, which had to close in 2008 when the University of Bath shut its Swindon campus, has moved to larger premises in Swindon town centre at 6-7 Theatre Square, Swindon SN1 1QN, at the top of Regent Street opposite the new Central Library. Admission fees are £7.00 for a family ticket for two adults and two children, £3.50 for adults, £3 for Students and Concessions (with proof of ID), children under five go free, and children age 6-15 years cost £2.50. All children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. See www.museumofcomputing.org.uk for more information.

Author: Kat Orphanides