Old computers at the Diefenbunker

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Mon May 03, 2010 8:18 am

Hi,

This past weekend I visited the Diefenbunker, near Ottawa, Canada, with my Dad. This four story underground structure was the Government of Canada's secret cold war nuclear bomb shelter from around 1950-1994. It would hold 500 of the Government's top honchos for 30 days and contained a cafeteria, medical bay, radio broadcasting studio, barracks, offices, a conference room, etc. etc.

It's now a museum you can take a tour of.

http://www.diefenbunker.ca/

They've restored it to and era sometime between the 1960s and 1980s (depending on the room you are in).

Of interest to this group is all the old computers in there. I saw lots of 1980s era PCs.....but also an Osbourne and a really beatiful PET 2001 with black datasette! (Hey - life reflects art or vice versa - because wasn't a PET 2001 seen in the old 1970s era government bomb shelter in the third terminator movie?)

The PET looked like this one with the blue bezel, but it had the full stroke (non chicklet) keyboard and an external black datasette.

http://dl.maximumpc.com/galleries/25old ... _01_sm.jpg

It's a great place to visit - there were old teletype machines and a lot of old hardware that was more of a scientific / military nature so I had never seen before.

Luzur · Post by **Luzur** » Mon May 03, 2010 12:26 pm

you should have taken the PET with you.

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Mon May 03, 2010 2:00 pm

Glad you made it!!

We had discussions on here before about that museum and I've yet to make it there, but have plans for September with my dad also to go there!!

Any pics you can post?

vic user · Post by **vic user** » Mon May 03, 2010 3:55 pm

Did they put in the new exit?

I heard that once they did, many more visitors could go in at one time.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Tue May 04, 2010 5:57 am

Centallica: sorry, no I didn't bring a camera. You can't use a flash in there or a video camera anyway, so I probably wouldn't have gotten any good ones.

Also , the place is huge, and since the focus wasn't really on the old computers at all, I was often lagging behind the ground and quickly trying to grab an eyeful of these cool old computers I was seeing in rooms we were just quickly passing, unfortunately.

Vic User: No I don't think they put in the second exit, becuase they could only have sixty people in the four story place at a time.

Strange thing was, they host kids birthday parties there! When we were there they were hosting a kids birthday party for six or seven year olds. Good for them, but a nuclearn blast shelter is not the first place I would have thought of to have my kid's Birthday party so it seemed kind of funny.

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Tue May 04, 2010 10:19 am

ral-clan wrote:Strange thing was, they host kids birthday parties there! When we were there they were hosting a kids birthday party for six or seven year olds. Good for them, but a nuclearn blast shelter is not the first place I would have thought of to have my kid's Birthday party so it seemed kind of funny.

I'd have my birthday party in a bunker anyday!! Just don't think the strippers would feel comfortable going in there though

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Tue May 04, 2010 12:43 pm

ral-clan wrote:Also , the place is huge...

Ah, it reminds me of the Dienstagstreff.de bunker in Bochum, Germany, photos being at

http://www.dickestel.com/commgermany.htm

Plenty of Commodores there. And a place where you'd quickly get lost if you went down the wrong, dark corridor.

Good times,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 24-25 Commodore Vegas Expo -
http://www.commodore.ca/forum
and click on CommVEx

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Tue May 04, 2010 2:31 pm

Centallica wrote:I'd have my birthday party in a bunker anyday!!

strange tastes....

vic user · Post by **vic user** » Tue May 04, 2010 4:58 pm

They have sleep over parties at the Aviation museum.

The Diefenbunker would be a cool locale for one.

OBSysteme · Post by **OBSysteme** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:29 pm

ah! love that pet computer.

If there is one computer I don't have which would make me high in getting, it would be a Pet computer, especially the early versions with integrated tape drive and chicklet keyboad.

I know one person who has one locally, but it is off limits, LOL !

Luzur · Post by **Luzur** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:49 pm

RobertBe wrote:
ral-clan wrote:Also , the place is huge...
Ah, it reminds me of the Dienstagstreff.de bunker in Bochum, Germany, photos being at

http://www.dickestel.com/commgermany.htm

Plenty of Commodores there. And a place where you'd quickly get lost if you went down the wrong, dark corridor.

whats with the "priced PC-1"? those are priced over there?

also, why not type the

Good times,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 24-25 Commodore Vegas Expo -
http://www.commodore.ca/forum
and click on CommVEx

part in the signature instead of the message window?

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:59 pm

Luzur wrote:whats with the "priced PC-1"? those are priced over there?

Unknown. You'd have to ask one of the Dienstagstreff members.

Writing from the Portland, Oregon area,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org