[game_preservation] Hardware preservation

[Martin Goldberg]

Thought this might be of interest to some of the list members like
myself that actively preserve hardware as well as software.  There was
an interesting response/post over at the classic computing mailing
list on the subject of sealing up vs. usage of hardware on
preservation:


[Why not run a rare classic computer]


> simply put, I'd like to have the machines available for those who might

> want to examine them in 50

> years or so, and the parts are really really not available to address

> repair, and having them blown up

> now isn't such a good idea.


There is one problem with this argument. That is that some parts will
fail with age whether you run the machine or not. It's not that you have
X thousand hours of running time which you can use up now, or keep for
100 years time.

The decay of plastic parts, rollers, etc is well-known. So is bit-rot in
EPROMs I(and some otehr programmed devices). And ICs will fail with time
even if they are not powered on (althogh I will grant that they will last
a lot longer if not powered on -- mostly...)

The time to document machines, and work out repair methods is when they
are working, not after htey have failed. A trivial example of this is a
CRT-based monitor. When it is working, IMHO, you should record the CRT
electrode votlages and any other voltages that are meaningful (e.g.
supply lines derrived fro mteh flyback transformer). The point being,
when it fails, you can re-take those votlages and see how they compare.

And of course the time to make copies of EPROMs, etc, is when the machine
sitll works. If it has fialed, you have no idea whether the data in said
chips is still good.



>

> Anything one owns, you can run, back over with a truck, whatever, but

> eventually it will fail and

> be useless.  One of a kind items without hope of finding parts run now

> will have zero hope of


Actually, for a lot of the rare machines I've come across (and worked
on), most of the parts are still obtainable, some of them very easily
obtainable.


> ever being carefully restored and run at any point in the future if you

> run it now and burn it up.

>

> And no matter how wonderful these things are we have to collect, if you

> have one or two of the

> more common items that function, do you really have to have 50 or 100

> that function and are at


Well, if you have 100 fo the same machine, I would agree you don't have
to run them all, But if you have 100 of the same machine, it can hardly
be classed as 'rare'...

If you have 100  different machines, I could see good reasons for wanting
to run a particualr machine. An Apple 1 is very different to a PERQ2T4,
after all...



Marty