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 has appealed to the public to provide props for the show's third run.
"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 ..."
Again, if you look carefully behind Moss whilst he's at his desk you'll see the folder there on his shelf ! By the way in this respect 'moss' stands for Modelling O S Software - it's a software package for the bcbcbchsj computer for modelling something or another ...
The Osborne 1 - Widely considered as trhe first commercially available portable computer.
The Oric Atmos - Classic & Distinctive
The BBC Computer - Seen in schools up and down the country, the BBC Micro is a highly recognisable computer from the early 80's.
Simon - The classic 'follow the leader' electronic game.
The Apple Mac computer. The iconic image of early Apple Computers.
Main circuit board 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.
The Commodore 64 was an incredibly popular personal computer from the early 80's. Generally considered more of a games computer. This machine is in bits and would look great positioned so that yo can see the circuit board inside.
The Sinclair ZX81 brought cheap computing to the masses. 
The Psion Organiser.
The QuickShot joystick - A must for any serious gamer in the 80's !
