Newsletter from the Museum of Computing Swindon

1. MAY2013
EVENT
8 July 2013
Robot Themed Party at
Swindon Central Library
Sponsored by
This year sees the ten year
anniversary of the Museum of
Computing. To mark the occasion
the Museum is launching a brand
new exhibition, Robots Revealed.
Running from July to January, the
exhibition aims to bring to life the
exciting world of robotics, showing
its progression from Science-Fiction
to mainstay of the modern world.
From the robot that builds your car
to the robot that mows your lawn,
the mechanical men have arrived!
Featuring the best of the museum’s
collection and incorporating
gadgets from some of the world’s
top robotics companies, the
exhibition will allow the public to
both see robots in action and take a
go at controlling them themselves.
And that’s not all. With a planned
series of talks and learning activities
ANNIVERSARY EXCITEMENT AT
THE MUSEUM OF COMPUTING
running alongside the exhibition,
the museum is hoping to build
awareness of the latest
developments in robotics,
encourage the programmers of
tomorrow and put Swindon at
the forefront of the robot
revolution.
As July approaches, the museum
will be calling on supporters to
participate in a series of robot-
themed events to mark the start
of the exhibition. Watch this
space for further details!
ELI DAWSON
1

2. IT HAS BEEN A FABULOUS
10 YEARS!
SIMON WEBB, CURATOR
What an astonishing 10 years it
has been. We have created a
vibrant interactive museum,
which is run by an enthusiastic
team of volunteers. We have
engaged with the community and
assisted with the education of
today’s generation of computer
enthusiasts. Every year there are
seismic changes in technology,
and we have captured an
impressive catalogue of
hardware, documenting its
incredible development. This is
going to be a fantastic year for
the museum with a huge
amount of activity and growth.
We look forward to exhibiting
today’s cutting edge
technological developments.
A CALL FOR ASSISTANCE!
Volunteer wanted to manage
online shop. We have an Amazon
Associates shop on the museum
website, if anyone buys anything
from Amazon via our website,
the museum gets a small
percentage. We've got some
retro computing goodies on
there, but really need somebody
to manage it, look for new
products, update it and try to
promote it. It's probably a couple
of hours a week (a bit more to start
with) and can be done from home
so it doesn't matter where you are
as long as you have an internet
connection! If anyone is interested,
drop me an email:
info@museumofcomputing.org.uk
Thanks!
OPINION
2

3. KID’SCLUB
EDUCATION
BEGONIA SEPA
The Children’s Club has been
extended, and they now have a
Saturday afternoon group. The
club is open every Saturday and
is run in two sessions – 10am to
12 and 13 to 15pm. The groups
are limited to eight children
aged between 8 and 13.
The initial activity is Scratch,
where the children learn to
program without having to
learn a structured language.
There are also a variety of
activities: Mindstorm, Google
Sketchup, Photoshop,
Wordpress, Office Open Source,
and Minecraft. With the help of
the volunteer instructors, the
children built a computer and
made some flipbooks, which
gave them a good
understanding of animation.
The children also have access
to Raspberry pi sessions, and
build robots. By the time the
children are adept at these
practices, learning a
structured computer lang-
uage should come with ease.
Although the sessions have
been extended, there are still
children on the waiting list,
and of course, the museum is
always on the lookout for new
volunteers, particularly to
help with the club. Most of
the volunteer teachers have
IT/engineering backgrounds
and all of the teachers are
CRB checked. If you feel that
you would enjoy sharing your
knowledge of technology with
the children, please get in
touch with Simon Webb
education@museumofcomputing.org.uk
3

4. PROMOTION
VICTORY AT SEA
JAMES CARROLL
DIRECTOR
iEVILGAMES
When I was a seven year old my
brother and I received a ZX
Spectrum 48k computer for
Christmas and nothing was ever
the same again. Sitting in our
bedroom and taking it in turns to
play games such as “Way of the
Exploding Fist”, “Renegade” and
“Barbarian” a whole new world
was opened up to us and it took
a short time to work out what
those possibilities held for our
future.
We didn’t mind that some games
took 10 minutes to load and that
the loading screens were
essentially blinking bright
primary colour’s and high pitch
screaming audio that could be
used to torture people, or that
they frequently crashed and you
had to sit patiently whilst it did it
all again. We didn’t mind
because we knew at the end of it
lay the next adventure.
We didn’t think things could get
any better, but they did, with an
onslaught of technology that
seems to exponential grow in it’s
speed of release. I remember
having the early iPod and
thinking this would be cool if it
was one large screen so I could
watch films on it but knew that
would involve touch controls. I
firmly believed that this sort of
technology was in the distant
future, however in under 5 years
4

5. PROMOTION
VICTORY AT SEA (cont.)
I sat on the train watching a film on
my iPod touch screen thinking if this
screen was a bit bigger that would
be amazing!
It is ironic that the huge American
companies that made it impossible
for indies to thrive are the same
companies that have now made it
possible for small developers to get
their games straight to market,
without having to run it past old
people with suits on. We know
several developers who created
games in the 80s and 90s who have
now flourished in the app game
world and have said they didn’t
believe they would ever get the
chance to do this sort of thing
again.
And now nearly 30 years since our
first computer the mobile gaming
industry feels the same. People can
sit in their bedrooms and develop a
mobile phone game that can make
significant sums of money. However
since the launch of the app store
things are getting tougher for small
fish to carve out a career as the big
boys have moved in and are
putting serious sums of money
behind development and
marketing. As the processing
power of mobile devices
improves this has enabled
developers to improve graphics
and make games larger, which
in turn increases development
budgets. When we first started
developing on the first
generation of the iPod touch we
had to be very creative with
poly counts, textures sizes and
audio file size, as it would crash
if you breathed on it. Although
we still don’t have as much
room to play with as AAA
developers, things have
changed and are changing fast.
However despite this there is
still room for innovative
developers to make their mark
and stay ahead of trends. After
all not every game has to have
Infinity Blade teams behind
them. The endless runner genre
is booming and is an incredibly
cost-effective way to develop, it
5

6. PROMOTION
VICTORY AT SEA (cont.)
also enables developers to
spread the risk over several
smaller titles rather than go all
out on one brand.
The biggest difference between
modern mobile games and
games in the 80s and 90s is not
a difference of technology but
rather one of complexity and
difficulty. Many publishers and
developers we work with have
one rule – it needs to be easy.
Games in the 1980s and 1990s
tended to be more complex and
difficult to complete, in fact I
recall SAS Operation Thunder-
flash on the spectrum was so
difficult I always died after a few
seconds and to complete any
game was a real achievement.
Mobile games tend to be simple
to use and endless, many
publishers want you to play
their games forever which of
course gives you many oppor-
tunities to buy. What next for
the industry? We believe it will
go the same way console
gaming has gone but with a
twist, while games with bigger
and better graphics will herald
the birth of each new device,
users will still be happy to pick
up and play a simple, fun game
whilst waiting for the bus. Be it
cutting ropes of throwing birds
at pigs the simple game will
always have a place in our
hearts and on our mobiles.
www.ievilgames.com
https://www.facebook.com/ievilgames
6

7. RETROGAMING
BEYOND EMULATION
SIMON MORGAN
Emulators are great. They've
been created for pretty much all
the classic consoles and home
computers and these
community-created efforts are
generally made freely available.
Combine an emulator with a
bunch of downloaded disc, tape
or ROM images and you can be
reliving the gaming memories of
your youth within
minutes. However, no matter
how painstakingly accurately
they can mirror the behaviour of
your fondly-remembered
machine, they are intrinsically
limited: they're not the real
thing. Whether it's the rubbery
squidge of a 48k Spectrum's
keyboard or the tone that a BBC
Micro game's sound effects only
acquire when played via the
original speaker, there are
certain nostalgic itches that can
only be scratched by ditching
your emulator and going for the
real deal. It's probably a step too
far to talk about smell, but I've
yet to find an emulator that can
simulate the aroma of vintage
electronics once they've been up
and running for a few hours.
Re-acquiring your machine of
choice needn't be difficult or
expensive in the eBay era
(although perhaps more-so than
in the days of its predecessor:
the car boot sale), but do you
really want (or have the space
for) the clutter that goes with
it? A BBC Micro is easy enough
to house, but it's another matter
once you consider floppy drives
and several giant hinged boxes of
5.25" discs. Thankfully, the urge
that has driven people to make
emulators has also inspired their
hardware-savvy counterparts to
7

8. RETROGAMING
BEYOND EMULATION (cont)
thing. In fact, I'd argue it's better,
as programs load in an instant and
you avoid the reliability issues of
media that has spent three
decades in an attic. I have a BBC
Micro with what it believes is a
1GB hard drive (it's actually a
memory card). It also has four
virtual floppy drives that can be
mapped to disc images on a USB
stick. It's an authentic retro-
gaming jukebox all con-tained
within the machine
itself. Modifying a machine
doesn't have to involve dis-
mantling it, though. There are
Commodore 64 devices that plug
into the cartridge port and similar
options for the ZX Spectrum that
attach to the expansion con-
nector. If you're of the 16-bit era,
then you can get a device that fits
in place of an Atari ST or Amiga's
floppy drive and replaces the disc
slot with a memory card socket.
Go play some games!"
make what I would argue is a far
superior choice if you're looking
for a serious dose of nostalgia:
modifications that allow these
vintage machines to load soft-
ware from modern media. It's
the best of both worlds: Once
your chosen machine has been
augmented with an SD card or
USB stick, you've got everything
at your fingertips. And I mean
everything; Even a modest 1GB
card is unfeasibly enormous
when the machine only had 32,
48 or, if you were lucky, 64k of
memory. It's pretty impressive
to have what would once have
filled a wall of shelves con-
tained in something the size of
a postage stamp. These devices
typically offer some sort of
menu system or simple
commands to 'mount' the disc,
tape or cartridge of your choice,
and from that point forward it's
just as if you have the real
8

9. SCREENPRINTING
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
FLEUR PERRY
Here we have a small, light-weight circuit
board of the kind regularly found in many
common household items.
Circuit board just twice the size of a 5p coin
This particular circuit board was originally
connected to a small speaker, forming the
most important part of a slightly annoying
talking birthday card. In fact, this tiny
component contains within it the voice of
Yoda; and should I ever reconnect the
speaker, Yoda will be once more ready to
be heard. But why is this technology
cheap enough to be used in disposable
novelties? The answer lies in screen
printing. The printed circuit board, or
PCB, starts life as a simple copper
sheet. A non-conductive solder mask
is then screen printed onto this using a
template to leave some of the copper
showing through. Lines of solder are
then screen printed onto the PCB
along with some white paint. The
solder lines act as wires, whilst the
white paint helps to ensure the other
parts are properly aligned. This
process can be done extremely quickly
by automated machinery and the
finished PCBs are so lightweight that
transportation costs are low.
One mystery remains: why are they
green? The solder mask is made from
a glass-epoxy mixture which is cost
effective and easy to work with; and
happens to be green.
From left to right: camera close-up; microscope at 4x zoom; microscope at 10x zoom
9

10. LOOKINGBACK
USING OLD PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGES - BASIC
Computers of the late 70s had
small memories – for example the
Commodore PET 2001 had 4K
(4096 actual bytes!). Therefore
economical coding was vital, and
one way was to combine
commands. In a lot of BASICs the
command to clear the screen was
CLS, but the PET used control
codes embedded in print lines to
save space. To clear the screen
and print Hello you would use:
10 PRINT “Hello”
where the  represents the Clear
Screen command (it actually is a
heart symbol), and was entered
simply by pressing it when the
cursor was inside a print string.
However, pressing it outside of a
print string would actually clear
the screen.
Other BASICs would use:
10 CLS
20 PRINT “Hello”
so the Commodore system was
very intuitive when you got
used to it, as you could
embed cursor commands and
more – saving a few valuable
bytes. You could also use ? as
a shortcut for PRINT when
typing, and remove the space
between the word PRINT and
the double quote, as well as
after the line number. So the
following are the same.
10 PRINT 2+3
10?2+3
One final asset to the PET
system was a full screen
editor, so if you noticed an
error in a line you just moved
the cursor up to the error,
corrected it, and then pressed
Return and that was it. Other
systems required you to enter
something like EDIT 10 to
correct line 10, and then use
the cursor keys (or even one-
key commands) to correct the
line, so a full screen WISIWIG
editor was a real luxury.
JOHN MALCOLM
10

11. LOOKINGBACK
CONFESSIONS OF A
CARTRIDGE JUNKY
I generally consider myself a logical
person who makes decisions
rationally, especially when it comes
to spending my hard-earned cash.
So, why then do I spend so much
money on antiquated technology?
At present I am obsessed with
collecting Atari 2600 carts and it’s
here that I wish to question my
logic (or lack of it). I have a perfect
working Atari emulator (called
“Stella”), that enables me to play
every single 2600 game known to
mankind. Every alpha, beta, home-
brew, licensed and unlicensed
game that is, was and ever will be
is nothing more than a mouse-click
away. Yet, I find myself night after
night spending not just my valu-
able time but my valuable
dwindling funds on buying
cartridge after cartridge for a
system that, let’s face it, I
never really play with. This
defies all logic and find myself
screaming out for an
explanation. Perhaps the
emulator is not “authentic”
enough? No, it doesn’t seem to
be that. Perhaps it’s not
possible to use “genuine”
peripherals? No, it’s not that
either (could it be that some
games are missing?). Ok, no
need to go on. The faulty logic
is with me. So what is it that’s
happening here? It’s simple. I
have a confession to make.
“My name is Mark ... and I’m
an addict”. I am addicted to
collecting cartridges. I want to
possess each and every one. I
MARK HEWLETT (ADDICT!)
11

12. ADDICTIONS
CONFESSIONS OF A CARTRIDGE JUNKY (cont.)
“tantrums” and the future was
being defined from moment to
moment with each step a
milestone leap of imagina-
tion. Logical or not, I won’t
stop collecting. It’s my
addiction “my xfloppy discs”!
This is a past – that whether
you peruse it on one of the
many internet sites or soak up
and “taste” it in the Museum
of Technology – is a past (at
least for me) that will live on in
my heart forever and in the
many ever-growing shelves of
games that threaten to take
over my spare room wall.
want to see it fill an otherwise
empty void in the cabinet. I need
the physical object itself. I need to
smell it, and feel the weight and
oh ... the artwork! This is where I
melt at the knees. There’s some-
thing about the early Atari art-
work that just oozes a different
time and space. A space that from
time to time, I find myself drifting
into in those day-dreamy
moments we all have when sitting
on the bus or waiting in the
queue at the supermarket. A time
that was somehow more
innocent, a time when technology
was still allowed its little
12

13. REVIEW
AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE OCULUS RIFT
MATTHEW O’HARA-BALL
The Oculus Rift is a new, head-
mounted kit, which could
potentially revolutionize the way
we look at video games … literally.
Although Oculus VR, the company
behind it all, has said the
developer kit will target PCs, they
further went on to say “We hope
to make the headset compatible
with major consoles and mobile
devices in the future”. What
exactly will this product bring to
the market then? Well, it could
introduce an original immersive
experience for gamers, allowing
them to essentially see through
the character’s eyes and provide
the capability to look around the
environment using motion
sensors to track the user’s
head movement.
After making its first public
appearance at Electronic
Entertainment Expo 2012, it soon
launched a Kickstarter campaign
to help fund the project. Setting
out with a goal of $250,000 it
raised a shocking 2.4 million to
further develop the headset.
After this unpredicted success,
The Oculus Rift caught much
attention, including big names in
the game industry, which led to
them endorsing the product. Such
names include Gabe Newell, the
man behind Steam and Valve as
well as Cliff Bleszinski, most
famous for his role in the Gears of
War franchise, among many other
key figures. Having these
innovative characters backing The
Oculus Rift, we can expect to see
the virtual reality headset holding
the future spotlight.
The feedback so far has been
beyond promising. After giving
various hand-on demonstrations
and presentations across a range
of conferences, including the
recent GDC (Game Developers
Conference), people have been
walking away giving high praise
and holding high hopes for the
13

14. REVIEW
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE OCULUS RIFT (cont.)
headset. The Oculus also
managed to get featured on a
popular American television
show, NBC's Late Night with
Jimmy Fallon. This puts into
perspective how rapidly the
project has caught the public’s
eye.
Oculus VR have sent out
developer kits to those who
contributed a generous amount
to the Kickstarter campaign, some
of which have uploaded videos to
YouTube showing off what can be
of the experience. More often
than not, they express how it’s
hard to believe or understand
without trying it out for yourself.
One of the more viral videos to
have emerged is of a humble 90
year-old woman testing the
headset, as you can imagine, she
was absolutely astonished.
At this stage in the process, there
are very few games that support
The Oculus Rift. Some of the
games that have been
demonstrated with the kit
so far include Team Fortress 2,
Skyrim and Mirrors Edge. Even
with such a small library
available to test, developers
have a keen eye on the virtual
reality headset, so we can
expect a lot more content
becoming available in the near
future.
So, could this hold a future in
the gaming industry? I say yes,
this is the innovation we need!
With Oculus VR’s prospect of
making it an affordable piece of
technology, I believe this will
eventually become a common
accessory to a gamer’s
household.
14

15. REPORT
SWINDON HACKSPACE
15
JESS ROBINSON
Hackspace, hackerspace (n):
A place where people with
common interests, usually in
computers, technology, science
or digital or electronic art can
meet, socialise and / or
collaborate.
Hackspaces exist all over the
world, in the UK there are a
number of large ones, for
example in London with several
hundred members, and
Nottingham. More locally,
smaller hackspaces exist, in
Bristol and Southampton.
The Swindon Hackspace
currently meets on Wednesday
evenings in the basement of the
Museum of Computing. An entry
fee of £4 covers the Museums
costs for heating, electric etc,
plus a contribution to the
Hackspace' account. Tea,
coffee and biscuits are
provided. Various donated
tools and electronic com-
ponents are available for use
of the members.
Membership is charged at
£10/year, and can be waived
for the first two visits.
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE
HACKSPACE IN SWINDON
In August 2011, two Swindon
residents, James and myself,
started looking for like-
minded folks in the Swindon
area to start a hackspace
with. Despite contacting
several of the nearby

16. REPORT
SWINDON HACKSPACE (cont.)
16
hackspace groups (Bristol,
Oxford, Southampton), and
setting up a discussion group and
a Wiki, we didn't get very far.
In April 2012 Simon at the
Museum of Computing had a
similar idea, and did something
about it. A survey of Museum
volunteers and friends produced
enough people to hold a group
discussion. The attendees agreed
on a meeting day and donation
amounts, so we formed a group
and started meeting weekly from
the beginning of June.
We are about to celebrate a
year of operation, decide on
a logo, and deploy a website
that aims to describe what
our aims are. Projects and
things we get up to will be
covered in the next issue.
HOW TO JOIN IN
If you are interested in
joining us, please contact me
(Jess <castaway@desert-
island.me.uk>) or just turn
up on a Wednesday evening
from 6.30pm.

17. QUIZ
PUZZLE
WORDSEARCH
Find:
The museum sponsors?
What anniversary is the museum
celebrating in 2013?
Where is the museum to be found?
Where was the museum’s previous
location?
What is the theme for the
celebrations this year?
What iconic equipment can be seen
at the museum’s entry door?
Reviewed in this Newsletter?
17
Answers p.18

18. PUZZLE
WORDSEARCH
18
ANSWERS
Who are the museum sponsors? BCS
CIX Forums
Clark Holt
Datalibrium
Denis
Intel
PC Teach
redheadPR
Shepherd
SilentG
Shepherd
Spacecontained
What anniversary is the Museum
celebrating? Tenth
Where was the museum’s previous location? Oakfield
Where is the Museum to be found? Theatre Square
What is the theme for the celebrations this year? Robots
What iconic equipment can be seen at the
Museum’s entry door? Sinclair
Reviewed in this Newsletter Oculus Rift

19. ABOUTUS
GET IN TOUCH
MUSEUM OF COMPUTING
6–7 Theatre Square
Swindon
SN1 1QN
E: magazine@museumofcomputing.org.uk
T: 07834 375628
VISITOR INFORMATION
Opening Times
Friday 10:0 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.
Saturday 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Prices
Adults £2.00 (concession £1.50)
Children £1.00
Under 5 year old Free
Families £5.00 (up to 2 adults and 3 children)
19

20. DISCOVER
MUSEUM OF COMPUTING
SPONSORS
20