Computer History Museum Memories From The Past With [Screenshots]

This week, members of the Greenpois0n.us editorial team got a look at the finished version of the Revolution exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The exhibit tracks the progression of computers over the years, starting with calculating devices like the abacus and ending with modern devices we use today. The following pictures are from the videogame portion of the exhibit, which showcases key pieces of hardware and games that made an impact on the industry as we know it today.

Enjoy with these screenshots from Computer History Museum:

A Revolution

Pac-Man Fever

A big part of the Computer History Museum's videogame exhibit is occupied by Pac-Man and his various contributions to the world of gaming. You can even play a version of Pac-Man located close by.

Now You're Playing With Power

The NES takes a prominent position as a key piece of hardware that ultimately brought console gaming back from the earlier market crash.

Playstation 1
The PlayStation is featured in a few spots in the museum. Here, the system and a few games are on display for everyone to see, but in a another exhibit, you can take a look at its insides

The XBox was Big
On the other side of the videogame exhibit, you'll find a collection of systems released over the years--some more successful than others. Among the notable consoles in view: Microsoft's Xbox, the ill-fated Bandai Pippin, the Atari Jaguar, the Sega Genesis, and the Nintendo 64.

Pong
Different standalone versions of Pong are also on display.

Pre-Game Boy handhelds
There's even a smaller section paying tribute to the forerunners of the handheld gaming market.

High Tech Storage Yep, that's a Commodore tape deck. Tapes were often used as a storage medium for some platforms.

Old Friends

Of course, no collection would be complete without an Atari 2600--a trendsetter in the early years of console gaming, complete with awesome wood paneling.

Magnavox Odyssey

It's interesting to see how console hardware designs changed so quickly. The Odyssey looks like it belongs in a hospital next to surgical equipment.

A Rainbow of Adventure

The museum has a broad sampling of software, including some classic adventure games such as Zork II.

Comfortable?

Besides the hardware and peripherals that many veteran gamers will recognize, the museum also has some sweet surprises in the form of little known devices such as this intricate headgear.

The Original

Chess is pretty old, but videogame chess isn't. Here, you can see a few different digital incarnations of this timeless game among other classic pieces of hardware. And yes, that is a Speak & Spell in the corner.

Evolution

PC aficionados will be able to see a whole lot of branches on the computing platform's family tree. Some successful, others not so much.

The Future (at the time)

The TRS-80 from Tandy rocked pre-installed BASIC software and 4k of memory in 1977. At the time that was some cutting edge stuff.

Keyboards!

Plenty of different input devices to look at. Do you remember using any of these?

A Piece of History

This is actually an original version of Pong donated by its designer, Al Alcorn. If only this machine could talk...it would probably say something derogatory about pizza stains.

The Atari 5200

While everyone owned an Atari 2600 back in the day, the 5200 had a rougher time of it. Lack of backwards compatibility with the 2600 was a pretty big sticking point for consumers at the time.

The Atari 2600

Speaking of the 2600 the museum not only has the console itself, but a prototype of the hardware.

The Start of Something Big

The gaming exhibit has a broad range of the first "consoles" that kicked off the industry as we know it.

Brown Box, Meet White Box

This is a replica of Ralph Baer's first home gaming console, called the Brown Box, which eventually evolved into the Odyssey after he licensed the technology to Magnavox.

Accessibility for All

One of the many cool discoveries to be found in the exhibit are devices, like this mouse, designed to help people with special needs use a computer.

Icon

The Atari 2600 joystick still brings back some fond memories.

What?

At first glance, this looks like some kind of device, in the shape of a cat, that produces a laser. You know what? We're just going to say it's a cat laser, but there's plenty of other interesting pieces of hardware to be found at the Computer History Museum.