Computing Shorts
Description: Zork is a text-based fantasy adventure game series that was first released in 1977 under the title Dungeon. The game was made for PCs, the first version being made for the PDP-10. The game features no graphics or art, and is entirely text based, playing out like an interactive book. The developers, as the company Infocom, expanded and split the game into three titles—Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz, and Zork III: The Dungeon Master—which were released commercially for a range of personal computers beginning in 1980. Players take on the role of an unnamed adventurer who is trapped in a dungeon called The Great Underground Empire and type in contextual commands to escape the dangers of the dungeon.
Description: A tribute to the dawn of interactive computing, built around a weathered mid-century laboratory aesthetic inspired by the pioneering machines of Maynard, Massachusetts. Vintage computer cabinets, reel-to-reel hardware, CRT displays, technical schematics, and old-school data processing typography give this piece the character of a forgotten engineering department shirt from the early digital age. Made for retro computing collectors, programmers, engineers, computer history enthusiasts, and anyone who misses the era when computers filled a room and every blinking light meant something.
Description: Remember when you had to click a button to turn of your PC? "It's Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer". The pixelated effect is on purpose!
It's Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer Shorts
by MalcolmDesigns Retro Merch | Movies | Retrogaming | Saturday Morning Cartoons | Computers
$27
Description: This is a design that displays the text "A:>format c:" in a simple white font on a black background. The style is reminiscent of old command prompt interfaces, creating a sense of retro technology usage. The text "A:>" is on the left, followed by the word "format" and then "c:".
Description: Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet.
Description: Laugh off developer burnout with this witty cartoon core illustration depicting a programmer skeleton coding late at night. Complete with a glowing desktop screen and a floating error 404 cloud, the character admits "I have no idea what I'm doing." Perfect for software engineers, IT experts, and computer science students.
Description: CompUSA was a retailer and reseller of personal computers, consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Starting with one brick-and-mortar store in 1984 under the name Soft Warehouse, by the '90s CompUSA had grown into a nationwide big box chain with at least 229 locations at it's peak. Crushed by competition from other brick-and-mortar retailers, corporate oversight which was out of touch with evolving market realities, and a failure to make a strong transition to online sales, CompUSA began closing what they classified as low performing locations in 2006. By 2008, only 16 locations were left, and by 2012, the remaining stores had all been sold off.
Description: Palm Computing, Inc. was founded in 1992 in Sunnyvale, California. The company was originally started to write software for the Zoomer, a consumer PDA sold under the Tandy name. While Palm provided the PIM software, the PEN/GEOS operating system was provided by Geoworks. The Zoomer failed commercially, but Palm continued generating revenue by selling synchronization software for other devices, and the Graffiti handwriting recognition software for the Newton MessagePad. Moving beyond software, the firm would go on to be responsible for numerous handheld devices including the Pre and Pixi, as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Other products include the Pilot 1000, Palm Pilot Pro, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and, Tungsten.
Description: My source code is dusty, my pixels are alive. I fix it in the assembly loop. A floppy disk with a smiling pixel character sits on a circuit board, with a soldering iron and cables around it. A funny design for programmers, retro computer fans, tinkerers and electronics hobbyists. A good gift for a developer who misses the old days.
Description: This design features a distressed green pixel art message declaring "I am perfectly outdated." Ideal for tech enthusiasts, it celebrates retro computer error nostalgia with a touch of geek humor. Perfect for fans of 80s pc glitches and 90s computing aesthetics who appreciate classic software problems.
Description: A "mission patch" for the "WEST AREA COMPUTING UNIT", celebrating the women of colour working as computers (the original, human kind) calculating orbits for the engineers at NASA's predecessor NACA in the 40's and 50's. They were portrayed in the book and film Hidden Figures. The smoke from the rocket is made up of actual equations from one of computer Katherine Johnson's technical reports. The rocket is the Atlas LV-3B carrying the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 with John Glenn in 1962.
