Amazing lost media news!

52-year-old 9-track tape found with Unix V4, the operating system that everything else came from. Only 20 copies ever existed. University of Utah found theirs in a storage closet, knew what they'd found, and got the help of the California Computer Museum to reconstruct the delicate data.

I really enjoyed reading this article, which treats its readers as capable of understanding, and explains some of the technical background and challenges. Kudos to the author Courtney Tanner for conveying the excitement of this find to the audience.

Original:

https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2026/01/07/university-utah-finds-tape-with/

Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260107201815/https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2026/01/07/university-utah-finds-tape-with/

(I realize the irony of having to link the archive article. SL Trib promises they'll remove their paywalls soon!)

#RetroComputing #LostMedia #ComputerHistory #technology #unix

Amazing lost media news!

52-year-old 9-track tape found with Unix V4, the operating system that everything else came from. Only 20 copies ever existed. University of Utah found theirs in a storage closet, knew what they'd found, and got the help of the California Computer Museum to reconstruct the delicate data.

I really enjoyed reading this article, which treats its readers as capable of understanding, and explains some of the technical background and challenges. Kudos to the author Courtney Tanner for conveying the excitement of this find to the audience.

Original:

https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2026/01/07/university-utah-finds-tape-with/

Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260107201815/https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2026/01/07/university-utah-finds-tape-with/

(I realize the irony of having to link the archive article. SL Trib promises they'll remove their paywalls soon!)

#RetroComputing #LostMedia #ComputerHistory #technology #unix

Stewart Cheifet, PBS host who chronicled the PC revolution, dies at 87 https://arstechni.ca/rakC #ComputerChronicles #Vintagecomputing #computerhistory #InternetArchive #machinelearning #retrocomputing #StewartCheifet #GaryKildall #Obituaries #retrotech #Tech #PBS #AI

🤔 ❓
Do you ever wonder about the burning existential questions …

What was “ANSI art”?
What was a “bulletin board”?
Were there ANSI comics?
Heck, how do you even define "comics"?

… Well, I've got some answers:

https://breakintochat.com/blog/2025/12/28/ansi-art-and-webcomics-bbses-and-the-artscene/

#retrocomputing #textmode #history #comics #webcomics
#vintagecomputing #computerhistory #textart #bbs #ansiart

🤔 ❓
Do you ever wonder about the burning existential questions …

What was “ANSI art”?
What was a “bulletin board”?
Were there ANSI comics?
Heck, how do you even define "comics"?

… Well, I've got some answers:

https://breakintochat.com/blog/2025/12/28/ansi-art-and-webcomics-bbses-and-the-artscene/

#retrocomputing #textmode #history #comics #webcomics
#vintagecomputing #computerhistory #textart #bbs #ansiart

Warm yourself by the virtual fireplace in this cosy 8-bit #Christmas scene. No MS-DOS or floppy 💾 drive required to stoke this very 1980s hearth. Thanks to software preservation, the flames are still crackling on the Internet Archive.

✉️ Open the full 1986 Sierra On-Line "A Computer Christmas" card ⤵️
https://archive.org/details/sierra-christmas-card-1986

#RetroComputing #VintageComputing #8bit #SoftwarePreservation #ComputerHistory

Warm yourself by the virtual fireplace in this cosy 8-bit #Christmas scene. No MS-DOS or floppy 💾 drive required to stoke this very 1980s hearth. Thanks to software preservation, the flames are still crackling on the Internet Archive.

✉️ Open the full 1986 Sierra On-Line "A Computer Christmas" card ⤵️
https://archive.org/details/sierra-christmas-card-1986

#RetroComputing #VintageComputing #8bit #SoftwarePreservation #ComputerHistory

Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Source Code (2013)

https://computerhistory.org/blog/adobe-photoshop-source-code/

#HackerNews #AdobePhotoshop #SourceCode #ComputerHistory #TechHistory #VintageSoftware #CreativeSoftware

Finally, the ridiculously talented @gloriouscow has decided making one of the, if not *the*, most accurate IBM PC emulators around isn't enough - and is now working on CC0-licensed reference book going into component-by-component detail of exactly how the IBM PC and later PC XT work.

https://www.hackster.io/news/martypc-creator-daniel-balsom-begins-a-mammoth-undertaking-writing-the-pc-emulation-book-9da02298ae3e

#VintageComputing #RetroComputing #ComputerHistory #ComputerScience #Emulation #News #Technology #Hackster

Finally, the ridiculously talented @gloriouscow has decided making one of the, if not *the*, most accurate IBM PC emulators around isn't enough - and is now working on CC0-licensed reference book going into component-by-component detail of exactly how the IBM PC and later PC XT work.

https://www.hackster.io/news/martypc-creator-daniel-balsom-begins-a-mammoth-undertaking-writing-the-pc-emulation-book-9da02298ae3e

#VintageComputing #RetroComputing #ComputerHistory #ComputerScience #Emulation #News #Technology #Hackster

The utopias of yesterday – GfZK Leipzig presents the history of Robotron...

(Robotron was East Germany's largest computer manufacturer and they also made the machine I first got to use on my way to becoming a "computer toucher"... Almost exactly 10 years ago, I wrote about those early experiences and the lessons learned already back then in this long read article here:
https://medium.com/@thi.ng/the-jacob-s-ladder-of-coding-4b12477a26c1

Exhibition info (via @aramba):
https://archive.ph/UWFgT

#Exhibition #RetroComputing #ComputerHistory #Robotron #Atari #Arduino #STM32 #Forth #Assembly #Demoscene

Some not-so-mini Digital minicomputers and their terminals.



See it in person at acms.org.au.



#DEC #Digital #minicomputer #server #computerhistory #computermuseum

A purple Silicon Graphics workstation cube that's a lot bigger than I thought it would be.



Most of Hollywood's '90s CGI special effects were created on SGI machines like this...



On display at https://acms.org.au/



#SiliconGraphics #SGI #computerhistory #retrocomputing #retrocomputer

Here's an interesting machine called the GeoStar, which had a two-monitor display. On the left was a vector display for text. On the right, a raster display for plotting maps. It was used on mining sites.



On display at https://acms.org.au/



#computers #computerhistory #oldcomputer #retrocomputing