A trip down the IT memory lane for those of a certain age

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A trip down the IT memory lane for those of a certain age
The Northwest Computer Museum not only has a vast array of old hardware, software, documentation and games on displays, but allows you to interact with much of this. Time to brush up your BBC Basic programming skills?

Posted by Andy Brown on 05 June 2024

Last week I went to the Northwest Computer Museum in Leigh:

Part of the museum's website, which types itself on screen slowly in a pleasingly anachronistic way.

The museum contains an impressive range of computers from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s:

A tiny selection is shown above!

The best thing about the museum: not only does it display so many memorable computers, but it also allows you to interact with many of them. Time to brush off your BBC Basic knowledge?

In addition to the computers on display, you can choose to have the odd game loaded so that you can play it:

The truly impressive range of games that you can ask to play.

There are also oodles of old manuals you can read through:

For young readers: these are what we relied on before StackOverflow!

Best of all, from my point of view, there is a range of old-style arcade games:

Defeder, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Pac Man ... sad to say, I spent most of my time renewing my addiction to Donkey Kong.

if you're a bit younger than me, you can try using Windows XP or other earlier operating systems (there are Apple objects there too):

Me viewing a very early version of our website in Windows XP.

Or you could just sit in the cafe area and chat to fellow nerds (sorry, enthusiasts):

The main part of the museum (the cafe area is not in this shot).

I think what impressed me most was that I went looking for the first computer I learned to program on - the Amstrad PCW512 - and they had not one, but two examples:

Happy memories!

I happened to visit the museum when it was celebrating its first birthday, so here's to many more years to come:

Part of the free cakes and sandwiches avaiable on the day of my visit (but not on every day, I hasten to add).

So if you're stuck for something to do and you're near Manchester, pay the museum a visit. It's £7 admission for an adult, and provided you're fit enough to climb the stairs to the top floor of an impressive old mill you'll enjoy the trip down memory lane!

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