Computer Museum Helps the IT Crowd
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Vintage Computing Items for the IT Crowd
 In August 2008, following a news article on the BBC News website, the Centre for Computing History got involved in the set decoration of the third series of the IT Crowd.The writer of Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd appealed to the public to provide props for the show's third run.
 Curator Jason Fitzpatrick said : "Being a bit of a fan of the show, I thought it was a great chance to be involved and help populate the set with some true computing history. The number one item that I thought just HAD to be there was the Altair 8800 computer - widely considered the first commercial personal computer. Kye Mackintosh-Smith, the set designer for the show agreed and placed the machine carefully behind Moss's desk - a centre point for the show.""They asked for 'a few feet' of books and manuals to leave around the set, so I searched though piles and piles of manuals looking visually appealing or highly recognisable ones. I found one particular folder that had neither of these characteristics but did have 'MOSS' in big grey letters down the spine. This HAD to be featured surely ..."
Some of the items you'll find on the set are :
An Oric Atmos, an Amstrad CPC 464, a ZX81 in a homebrew wooden case! (sitting on top of the Altair), Commodore 64, Atari SM124 Monitor, Sord M5, Acorn RISC PC600, BBC Model B, Astro Wars, Spectrum +2 and more ... See if you can spot them !!
The front table was littered with circuit boards including one from a Wang computer. At about 3ft across this board is visually quite impressive. Wang computers were used by many big businesses in mission critical situations. Our oscillioscope from the workshop also ended up on the table!
A number of our posters that adorn the walls including a Pure Energy poster, pictures of Bill Gates, and couple of Computing History posters are hiding up in the top right of the set!
Pictures of the set :
Date : 01-11-2008 |
