Neuromancer for Commodore 64/128. Item in City Tech’s Retrocomputing Archive.
Recently, I posted about the new OpenLab site that I launched for “Retrocomputing at City Tech.” On the site, I included a photographic inventory of the computing hardware and peripherals that I have on-hand in my office in Namm 520. Now, I’ve added to the site with a second page that inventories a majority of the software that is in the vintage computing archive. The software archive includes games (like Neuromancer pictured above, Star Wars X-Wing and TIE Fighter, and Star Trek 25th Anniversary), productivity software (such as Microsoft Office 2004), encyclopedias (Comptons, Groliers, and Microsoft Encarta), and operating systems (Windows 95, Macintosh System 7.5, Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 and 10.5). Follow the link above to see all of the software on its original media followed by textual descriptions.
L to R: Jason Ellis, Lavelle Porter, and Jessica Roman
Over the past three days, I worked with my City Tech colleagues–Laura Westengard, Lavelle Porter, and Lucas Kwong–and student–Jessica Roman–to inventory the City Tech Science Fiction Collection. Two years ago, I began the collection’s finding aid by cataloging the 4,000+ magazines. Last year, I inventoried the collection’s nearly 1,700 monographs and anthologies. This year, we are creating an inventory of the remaining parts of the collection: scholarly journals and novels. Read details of our progress on the Science Fiction at City Tech OpenLab site here.
In addition to working on a book review today, I created a new OpenLab site for Retrocomputing at City Tech. In addition to recording how I use vintage computers in the classroom and in research, the new OpenLab site contains a catalog of my vintage computing archive. I populated this catalog with most of the hardware, but I plan to granulize it further and create a catalog of my software. This, of course, will take time. At least there is a place for me to record these things now within the auspices of the work that I do at City Tech. I updated my previous Retrocomputing Lab page on this site with a link to the updated site on OpenLab.
I’m incredibly stoked to join the City Tech team. I’m looking forward to working with students, colleagues, and the surrounding community.
While I’m sad to be leaving Georgia Tech and the Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Program two years into my three year term, I could not pass up the chance to work with students and colleagues at City Tech. It is the kind of college where I believe that I can make great contributions to its learning environment, support its operation through service, collaborate with top notch colleagues, and contribute to my discipline through scholarship, and work with the New York City community that I will join.
Even though I am looking forward to the future, I have a number of things to conclude here in Atlanta before I leave: I am teaching Science Fiction at Georgia Tech through the end of July, I am giving a presentation on teaching Science Fiction at this weekend’s Atlanta Science Fiction Society meeting, I am completing the curriculum guide for Georgia Tech’s Project One (formerly, First Year Reading Program), and I am working with the Georgia Tech Library Archives to inaugurate their Retrocomputing Lab.
Y and I have a lot of practical matters to attend to as well: finding a new place to live, listing our house in Norcross for sale, moving to New York with our piano and two cats, and saying our goodbyes to family and friends.
I look forward to new students, friends, colleagues, possibilities, and opportunities in our new city!
