History of Computers & Internet

Links covering the history and development of computer technology and online access.

Resources in this category:

Atari 8-Bit Computers: Frequently Asked Questions
http://faqs.cs.uu.nl/na-dir/atari-8-bit/faq.html

A collection of Usenet discussion group postings and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Atari 8-Bit Computers (400, 800, and 1200) models, popular in the 1990s.

Atari Archives
http://www.atariarchives.org/

Archive of full-text versions of classic computing books on Atari, programming languages, graphics, machine language, and more. You can also find newsletter and newsgroup archives, and download old and new 8-bit software. Everything provided with permission of copyright holders.

The Atari Museum
http://www.atarimuseum.com/mainmenu/mainmenu.html

Multimedia museum on everything Atari - video games, computing, and the company itself. Archive of news stories about Atari, company memos and press releases, history of consoles and computers, and references to further reading online and offline.

BASIC Manual
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dartmouth/BASIC_Oct64.pdf

Original documentation from the creators of the BASIC programming language at Dartmouth College in 1964.

A Chronology of Digital Computing Machines (to 1952)
http://www.davros.org/misc/chronology.html

"The computer, as we now understand the word, was very much an evolutionary development rather than a simple invention. This article traces the sequence of the most important steps in that development, and in the earlier development of digital calculators without programability." The author also includes a bibliography of books he used in doing his research.

Chronology of Personal Computers
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/

A timeline covering the evolution of computers from 1947-present. "This list is a collection of product announcements and delivery dates from various sources, mainly computer magazines and newspapers. References are indicated in [brackets], which are listed at the end of this document. A [number.number] format gives the page within that reference."

Classic Computer Magazine Archive
http://www.atarimagazines.com/

Archive of classic computer magazines from the 1970s-1990s. View full text and scans on topics including Atari, Tandy, and Commodore computers, single-board computers, and video games. Includes a short history of the magazines. Magazines are reproduced with permission of the copyright holders.

Coding Horror
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/

Coding horror looks at the world of programming and digital culture from a users perspective. Who are the people behind the coding and how do humans interact with software.

The Computer Museum History Center
http://www.computerhistory.org/

Learn about the history of computing at this museum site that includes a rich timeline (with photographs) of five decades of computing and two online exhibits. Information about the museum is also provided.

ECHO: Exploring and Collecting History Online
http://echo.gmu.edu/

Thousands of "websites concerning the history of science, technology, and industry."

The Edsac Simulator
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/

Cambridge University's EDSAC was "the world's first stored-program computer to operate a regular computing service." This downloadable simulator mimics the computer as it existed in 1949-1951 and includes programs from the original EDSAC, including games. There is also a photo gallery of the original EDSAC.

Explore the Internet Now!
http://smithsonian.yahoo.com/index.html

This website by the National Museum of American History provides information about the birth of the Internet, the world wide web, the people and organizations that use the Internet, news and issues related to the Internet, and an Internet glossary.

Ghost Sites: Where Dead Web Sites Live On
http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/

Online graveyard of dead websites. Features .jpg images of defunct sites.

Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Video and Computer Game Programmers
http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/

Interviews with game programming legends conducted in 1997, collected and distributed as a free book. The site retains the same look and feel as the original 1997 disk. Provides suggestions about where to start reading based on your interests, and includes an introduction by John Romero.

A History of Apple Computers
http://apple-history.com/

Apple-history.com is "intended to provide a broad history of Apple Computers, inc., from the invention of the Apple I in 1976 to the troubled times of the present... for both novice and expert computer users." Includes bibliography, links to resources, and directory organized by computer model, processor type, and year.

The History of Computing Project
http://www.thocp.net/index.html

Comprehensive account of computing history. Includes biographies of key figures, and information about computing companies, hardware, software, and a history of video and computer games. You can also view a timeline of computing history, and access a list of historic papers available online in full text.

History of the Internet, Internet for Historians
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/frame_theorie.htm

A narrative of Internet history, divided into five chapters: The Development of Computers till 1960's; From ARPANET to World Wide Web; History of Electronic Mail; Search Engines; Basic Netdata.

Internet Timeline
http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

An Internet chronology highlighting some of the key events which helped shape the Internet as we know it today.

Lisp History
http://www8.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/html/lisp-enter.html

This site traces the history of the development of the LISP computer programming language from its precursor FORTRAN by John McCarthy of MIT. Includes various references, a Lisp bibliography and a searchable database.

Making the MacIntosh
http://library.stanford.edu/mac/

"'Making the Macintosh' is an online project documenting the history of the Macintosh computer. The exhibit features primary documents, such as memos tracing the evolution of the Macintosh mouse; images, such as technical drawings, stills from commercials, notes from user tests; and interviews with members of the Macintosh development team, technical writers, and founders of user groups." A great site to visit for primary historical documents, articles and essays on the history and significance of the MacIntosh computer.

The Media History Project
http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/

Promotes "the study of media history from petroglyphs to pixels." Includes an excellent timeline of media history covering art, music, television, the Internet, and video games from pre-history to today, along with an article archive on media resources.

Pong-Story: the Site of the First Video Game
http://www.pong-story.com/

Detailed early history of video games, including the popular Pong game. Contains images of many different vintage video game systems, information about games and schematics, and articles about aspects of video game history in the USA and Europe.

RFC Editor
http://www.rfc-editor.org/overview.html

Requests for Comments (RFCs) are "a series of notes, started in 1969, about the Internet (originally the ARPANET)." RFC standards are very widely followed by both commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix communities. This website allows you to search for RFCs and read about their history.

Search Engine History
http://www.searchenginehistory.com/

A detailed timeline and history of search engines and directories from 1945 to 2007, with focus on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Explains how search engines should work and gives suggestions for further research.