Beige pencil stockists on high alert as 'Colouring Book of Retro Computers' hits the crowdfunding circuit
(2021/07/29)
- Reference: 1627550112
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/29/colouring_book_of_retro_computers/
- Source link:
Neil Thomas, host of the RMC vintage computing and gaming [1]YouTube channel , is crowdfunding a colouring book of vintage computing hardware.
Covering the 1970s through to the early 2000s, Thomas's latest nostalgia-grab – following a compact hardback collecting interviews carried out for his YouTube channel – asks backers to keep within the lines as they colour in 30 vintage machines and accessories.
The book has been developed with Stuart "Stoo" Cambridge, an artist best known for his work at British video game house Sensible Software, with three pages currently complete: a Commodore PET, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and an Apple II – with 27 other systems as yet confirmed.
[2]
"The reference images are taken by me and are of machines we have right here in The Cave. We set them up and send images to Stoo who then works his magic on them," Thomas told The Register of the book's development process. "Stoo will be visiting me soon to agree on 27 more systems."
[3]
[4]
Those around for that particular era in computer history will spot something of a dearth of interesting colours there: both the Commodore PET and the Apple II were finished in a less-than-alluring beige, while the Sinclair ZX Spectrum bucked the trend with a black-and-grey colour scheme – although it, at least, boasts a small rainbow in one corner.
[5]UK's National Museum of Computing asks tunesmiths to recreate bleeps, bloops, and parps of retro game music
[6]El Reg visits two shrines to computing history as the UK lifts coronavirus lockdown
[7]Refurb your enthusiasm: Apple is selling an 8-year-old desktop for over £5k
[8]From cash machines to commercial kitchen appliances, Doom really will run on almost anything
"That's nothing a little imagination can't overcome," Thomas told us in response to our concerns the book may trigger a global shortage in beige pencils. "We have a lime green Amiga 500 and a traffic cone orange VIC-20 in The Cave which might offer some inspiration, and I've also worked with Stoo to make sure there are lots of fun backgrounds, peripherals, game boxes, and extras in the images to bring more colour to the frames."
The £10 ($14) asking price for the book isn't just to cover design and printing costs: Thomas has earmarked excess funds for the development of a public computer exhibition space, dubbed The Cave and currently an open-plan studio where he films his YouTube videos, housed in an 18th-century mill in Gloucestershire.
Thomas has some competition, however. Early last year Quick Web Books published the [9]Retro Computer Colouring Book , which at £4.50 ($6.25) as a print-on-demand title is less than half the price of Thomas's offering – though its imagery is simpler, and lacks the draw of Stoo Cambridge-penned art.
[10]
"There can never be too many retro computer colouring books, in my opinion," Thomas told us, "only too few beige pencils."
The project is off to a storming start, already more than doubling its funding goal on [11]Kickstarter , with over £14,000 (around $19,400) raised at the time of writing – about which Thomas describes himself as "stunned." The books, meanwhile, are due to be sent out to backers in December this year. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/RMCRetro/videos
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/27/tnmoc_music/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/retro_computing/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/28/apple_is_selling_an_8yearold/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/23/doom_oasys_retro_computing/
[9] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Retro-Computer-Colouring-Book-Version/dp/1659101859/ref=sr_1_1
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/retroteabreaks/the-colouring-book-of-retro-computers
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Covering the 1970s through to the early 2000s, Thomas's latest nostalgia-grab – following a compact hardback collecting interviews carried out for his YouTube channel – asks backers to keep within the lines as they colour in 30 vintage machines and accessories.
The book has been developed with Stuart "Stoo" Cambridge, an artist best known for his work at British video game house Sensible Software, with three pages currently complete: a Commodore PET, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and an Apple II – with 27 other systems as yet confirmed.
[2]
"The reference images are taken by me and are of machines we have right here in The Cave. We set them up and send images to Stoo who then works his magic on them," Thomas told The Register of the book's development process. "Stoo will be visiting me soon to agree on 27 more systems."
[3]
[4]
Those around for that particular era in computer history will spot something of a dearth of interesting colours there: both the Commodore PET and the Apple II were finished in a less-than-alluring beige, while the Sinclair ZX Spectrum bucked the trend with a black-and-grey colour scheme – although it, at least, boasts a small rainbow in one corner.
[5]UK's National Museum of Computing asks tunesmiths to recreate bleeps, bloops, and parps of retro game music
[6]El Reg visits two shrines to computing history as the UK lifts coronavirus lockdown
[7]Refurb your enthusiasm: Apple is selling an 8-year-old desktop for over £5k
[8]From cash machines to commercial kitchen appliances, Doom really will run on almost anything
"That's nothing a little imagination can't overcome," Thomas told us in response to our concerns the book may trigger a global shortage in beige pencils. "We have a lime green Amiga 500 and a traffic cone orange VIC-20 in The Cave which might offer some inspiration, and I've also worked with Stoo to make sure there are lots of fun backgrounds, peripherals, game boxes, and extras in the images to bring more colour to the frames."
The £10 ($14) asking price for the book isn't just to cover design and printing costs: Thomas has earmarked excess funds for the development of a public computer exhibition space, dubbed The Cave and currently an open-plan studio where he films his YouTube videos, housed in an 18th-century mill in Gloucestershire.
Thomas has some competition, however. Early last year Quick Web Books published the [9]Retro Computer Colouring Book , which at £4.50 ($6.25) as a print-on-demand title is less than half the price of Thomas's offering – though its imagery is simpler, and lacks the draw of Stoo Cambridge-penned art.
[10]
"There can never be too many retro computer colouring books, in my opinion," Thomas told us, "only too few beige pencils."
The project is off to a storming start, already more than doubling its funding goal on [11]Kickstarter , with over £14,000 (around $19,400) raised at the time of writing – about which Thomas describes himself as "stunned." The books, meanwhile, are due to be sent out to backers in December this year. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/RMCRetro/videos
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/27/tnmoc_music/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/retro_computing/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/28/apple_is_selling_an_8yearold/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/23/doom_oasys_retro_computing/
[9] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Retro-Computer-Colouring-Book-Version/dp/1659101859/ref=sr_1_1
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQJ8NZCeJW0mXzoPBVE9DAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/retroteabreaks/the-colouring-book-of-retro-computers
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Data centre
goldcd
And was it?
You can't just leave us hanging here.
Re: Data centre
PM from Hell
in the 80's that may have been the only blue box left in that data hall as that would have been a 1900 series machine, for the 2900 series we went 'Hot Tango' I did visit one user site after they upgraded and they were strident in their complaints that the new colour clashed with the data center decor/
Nice project
Mike 137
I really hope this succeeds. The biggest barrier I've encountered when teaching ICT is the short vision of its history the students have - typically the last decade at best, and that leads to a fallacious view that "everything is changing so fast". In fact, the core principles of computer technologies haven't really changed much in half a century, and the circle has been run round several times in many cases.
Data centre
When I worked for ICL in Reading in the 1980's, the servers were all in the big computer hall in Bracknell. A colleague called up the service desk about a problem on one he was using and was asked to identify it. He gave the reference, and the service person asked:
"Is it the blue one in the corner?"