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Vintage Computer Festival showcases technology from the 1970s and 1980s

  • 4727212821_45b13767c0_o.jpg

    Sinclair ZX80 playing Space Invaders

    In June 2010, The National Museum of Computing in the UK sponsored the first British Vintage Computer Festival at Bletchley Park. At least 2,000 visitors and 32 exhibitors attended the weekend event, which showcased vintage machines from the 1970s and 1980s.

    There were lots of great old machines from Sinclair, Commodore, Amstrad, Heathkit, and others. There were even a few combinations of old and new technology, such as a 28-year-old Sinclair ZX Spectrum running Twitter.

    Andy Taylor, a systems analyst and retro computer enthusiast in the UK, attended the event and took more than 100 photos. This gallery is portion of his album.

    Many thanks to Andy for allowing TechRepublic to republish these photos. For more information on Andy’s collection of vintage computers, check out his website Retro Computers or his Flickr photostream.

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX80 and monitor

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX80 at the British Vintage Computer Festival

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX80 vintage computer

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Space Invaders on the Sinclair ZX80

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Another shot of the ZX80

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX Spectrum running Twitter

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Twitter running on vintage computer

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Bletchley Park

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • The Centre for Computing History

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Electric Dreams Display

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sonic the Hedgehog 1 running on the Amstrad MegaPC

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Table full of Sinclair machines

    According to Andy, the machines shown in this picture were supplied by The Centre for Computing History located in Haverhill, Suffolk near Cambridge.

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Someone playing the Amstrad CPC464

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad CPC 464

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair Spectrum 128K with 2 micro drives

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Another Sinclair ZX81

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad CPC 6128 running Roland in Time

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Roland in Time computer game

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum 128k

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Vintage computer game

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair Spectrum 48 & QL

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair Spectrum +2 and Spectrum +3

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair Spectrum +3

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair PC200

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair PC200 command line

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Commodore 64 playing Shredz 64

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Osbourne luggable

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • UK101

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Machine used to write disks using Omniflop and CPCDiskXP

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad PC1512 DD running Digger

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad 256k Personal Computer Word Processor

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Green Monitors for Amstrad PCW8256

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad PPC640

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX Spectrum Display

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX Spectrum box

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad Notepad Computer NC100

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair Z88

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair Z88 logo

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Visitors at the Vintage Computer Festival

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Exhibits from The Centre for Computing History

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair C5 electric vehicle

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Old game consoles

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Atari 800XL

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Atari, Colecovision, Philips machines

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amiga sign

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Commodore PET and CBM machines

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Commodore CBM Model 3008

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Commodore CBM Model 4032

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Commodore CBM Model 4032 running Jetpac

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Apple IIe

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Heathkit Analogue Computer, EC 1

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Lincs Amiga Group display

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Commodore CDTV

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amiga X1000

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Compukit UK101 with 6809 CPU and new EPROMS

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • ZX Spectrum running Twitter

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad CPC 6128

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad CPC 6128 playing Bomb Jack I

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Spectrum +2, Spectrum +3, and a Sinclair PC200

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • PBS Executive IV

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • PBS Executive IV closeup

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • PBS Executive IV power warning

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad 464 Plus

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad MegaPC playing Sonic the Hedgehog 1

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3 128k

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Dragon 200

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Dragon 200 logo

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Dragon Alpha prototypes

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • HP V-Class

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Domesday system

    Photo by Andy Taylor

  • Amstrad PCW 8512

    Photo by Andy Taylor

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Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Previously, Bill was an IT manager in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.