Site map
All pages and features
72 pages and features in 7 sections. The catalog lists every item in the collection, an exhibit is one item’s page, and the timeline is the history of everything, including things the museum does not own.
The collection
- Catalog — Every exhibit: departments, aisles, shelf and search.
- Timeline — 1975 to 2012, hardware, software, games, books and movies.
- Search — Items, hardware, games and pages. Press / anywhere.
- All pages — Every page and feature, in one list.
- Exhibit pages — every item as its own web page.
- Timeline pages — every timeline entry as its own page.
Repair
Fix old computers and consoles, step by step.
- Recap Bench — Pick your machine, tick off each capacitor, and get a shopping list. Over 80 machines.
- Repair Bench — 69 repair guides for batteries, belts, lasers, cartridge slots, drives and more, with checklists, parts, tools and tips.
- Repair guides, as web pages — The same repair guides as plain pages you can share and search.
- Recap guides, as web pages — The same machines as plain pages you can share and search.
- How to recap, step by step — The order of work, the tools and the safety list for any machine.
- iPod Bench — What is inside every iPod from the 1st generation to the classic: drawn layers, batteries, flash upgrades, Rockbox, common faults and mods.
- iPod Bench, as web pages — The same iPod pages as plain pages you can share and search.
- Fix a dead vintage computer — Where to start when it will not turn on.
- Repair journal — What got fixed, what parts it took and how long.
Explore
Learn your way around 1975 to 2012.
- Era mode — Pick a year and the site changes its look.
- Walk through a year — A guided tour of one year: news, hardware, games, the ad.
- What was happening — Any date: the news, the hardware, the games.
- Zoom timeline — Drag across 1975 to 2012 in six lanes.
- Guided tours — Walk the timeline one stop at a time.
- Does it run? — Pick a machine or a game and see what works with what.
- Dream rig — Wire up a PC and fight the IRQ conflicts.
- Benchmark wall — Real results from the machines, ranked.
- Spec Explorer — Filter everything, then compare up to four.
- Makers — Every company with something in the museum, and what else they built.
- Museum stats — The numbers about the whole museum.
- The 640K scale — How much of the 640K every item leaves free.
- Memory map — The 1 megabyte memory map, drawn out.
- Collection report — A printable snapshot of the whole collection, for your records.
Read
Books, guides and the written word.
- The Bookshelf — Books on computer and game history, with where to find a copy.
- Buyer guides — What gear is worth buying, how to fix a dead vintage computer, how to play old games today.
- Manuals and references — Every manual and reference the museum links to.
- Manuals and datasheets — 350 service manuals, schematics, install guides and chip datasheets for the machines we fix, with a library card that stamps.
- Quotes — Things people said about computers, then.
- Timeline pages — Every timeline entry as its own page, built for sharing.
- Exhibit pages — Every museum item as its own web page.
- The Bookshelf, as a web page — The same shelf as a plain page you can share.
My stuff
Things saved on this device.
- My collection — Own, want and trade lists, with value.
- Wish list — Circle things in the catalog, write a Dear Santa letter, share a link.
- Trophy room — Your XP, level and badges.
- Leaderboards — High scores for the games. Opt in from your account; scores are checked by our server.
- My mascot — Pick the mascot who follows you around, what it holds and how cheeky it is.
- My bench — Sign in (13 and older) to keep recap projects, dates, notes and your collection on any device.
- Back up my stuff — Save everything to a file, or restore it on another device.
- Install and offline — Keep the museum on your device, add a daily reminder, print spec sheets.
Play
Games, things to make, and things to watch.
- Daily Dig — A new puzzle every morning.
- Retro Bingo — Cross off the squares.
- All the games — Trivia, Higher or Lower, Timeline Sort, Mystery Photo.
- Higher or Lower — Which launch price was bigger?
- Timeline Sort — Put five finds in order, oldest first.
- Mystery Photo — Name the blurry photo before it comes into focus.
- Disk Error Hangman — Guess the machine.
- Rig challenge — Pick a year, spend your points, and run the era’s real games.
- The Basement — Staff only. Find your way out.
- Ad Lab — Make a retro tribute ad for any item, with stickers, and download it.
- Retro Theater — A little CRT TV for videos.
- Jukebox — Chiptunes through four kinds of sound card.
- Demo kiosk — Attract mode for a spare screen, like a demo station in a toy-store aisle. Scenes and slides are made fresh from the whole museum.
- Animation library — Every move Connie and her family can make, and a scene composer for any timeline entry.
Connie
Connie Ventional and her family.
- Meet Connie — Her story, her file and the whole family.
- The Family file — Likes, dislikes, opinions and secrets for everyone in the house, with a time machine to watch them grow up.
- Family photo album — Thirty-one years of awkward family photos. Somebody always blinks. Turn them over to read the back.
- The Squabbles — Petty fights and long cold wars, each about a real thing that used to go wrong with a PC. Pick a side.
- Trading Cards — Every Ventional on a card. Connie is the holofoil.
- Sticker sheet — Print stickers for your laptop.
- The Sunday Funnies — Strips and gags about Connie and her family, plus a fresh strip made from the timeline every time.
- Connie’s closet — Pick her look, accessory and color.
- Prize counter — Trade game tickets for stickers, colors, looks and accessories.
- Memory Manager — Fit the game into 640K by editing CONFIG.SYS. Earn stars, unlock looks.
- The Mall (under construction) — Stickers, cards, pins, plush and custom iPods. A mock-up for now.
About us
Meet the crew, help the museum and follow along.
- About — Meet Matt and Tony, and why it is called Conventional Memory.
- Start here — Seven ways in, depending on your mood.
- Terms and privacy — How the site may be used, and what it does and does not keep about you.
- Share or fix — Share a memory or report a mistake.
- Wanted — Hardware and software the museum is hunting for. Have one? Tell me.
- Follow — New items and videos on four platforms.
- Recent changes — What was added or corrected, and when.
- Affiliate disclosure — How the links on this site work.