It seems like a sweet project is coming together right around the time when I'm ready for more work. Banking info and numbers have been traded so that seems positive. If money lands then I'll be able to talk (and release WIP videos) about it.
Can you guess my new project by this part? (dimensions are close but not yet exactly correct)
Hint #1: The part's width is a bit more than 43cm (17").
Hint #4: At the end of the project there will be six of them and they'll be in a museum exhibit.
Hint #8: These are metal frames to which rather beige case parts will be attached. The blue is where the glass would be.
Hint #9: It will run Smalltalk '78.
Ok, I now have permission to talk about this project in full and in public. I'm working with Alan Kay to build six replicas* of a Xerox PARC Alto display for use in a museum exhibit**. Visitors will see a real Alto and then walk over to one of the replicas to futz with Smalltalk '78***.
Here's a nice writeup of a different project that rejuvenated an actual Alto.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring-the-legendary-1970s-gui-computer/
* by "replicas" I mean that they'll look and feel as close to the original as possible but inside will be modern technology. I'm not replicating the original CRTs and driver electronics.
** the museum is in the UK (where Kay now lives) but I'll leave it to them to make their own announcement.
*** this version of Smalltalk was thought lost but then was saved by a dumpster diver who found Alto drive cartridges in the trash!
My general plan is to laser cut and bend inner frames for the portrait oriented displays and the uniquely U-shaped bases, then hang the case elements (with their many complex curves) and electronics on those frames. I've ordered a large format additive printer to avoid seams and joints where they don't belong and while that's in transit I'll be running materials tests and furthering the CAD drawings. I have reference photos of Kay's personal Alto so that I can nail the dimensions.
If this seems to you a bit out of the blue then you're a bit correct, but I have a history of reproducing real and theoretical intellectual infrastructure (e.g. my two Memex builds) and I used to work as a prototype engineer in the PARC lab where the Altos (and laser printing, and Ethernet) originated. That all happened well before I worked there, but that's how I'm connected to that community.
Now that I have permission to share this work I'll start posting WIP photos, videos, and snippets of the design, build, and installation of the replicas. I'm hecking excited to share!
@trevorflowers I'm really excited to see how this comes together! Are you going to use CRTs at all or will these be LCDs behind glass/plastic?
@phooky They'll be LCDs. It won't be as cool as CRTs but we don't have time/budget/skillz to make CRTs work and look right.
@trevorflowers @phooky If the hardware you're running the Alto emulator on has a GPU you probably could at least simulate the characteristics of the LCD display. The retro/emulator community has invested a lot in this sort of technology to better repro CRT-based gaming on modern LCD displaye...
@swetland @phooky That's a good point. We haven't settled on the computer. Originally when I thought I was making miniatures we were planning on a SBC but at original size we have more room inside (where the CRT was) and as an indefinite museum exhibit it needs to be both stable and easily replaced.
Would some simple optics be beneficial in helping create those artifacts? (Or rather, beneficial enough for that to make sense.)
Things that come to mind that might be:
- pixel shape distortion (but that might be easy with a very slight superresolution),
- pixel shape and cross-pixel blending (but that would require one (Fresnel?) lens per pixel, which would probably be very hard to produce~~).
Also, are there ways to replicate the CRT's refresh cycle (both the existence of the flicker and the fact that each pixel is dark for a large fraction of the time)? I guess you could blink the backlight?
