In the beginning, my original preservation project, first known as "Dan's 20th Century Abandonware," was not intended to collect and preserve every aspect of computer history.
Instead, my primary focus was the acquisition and preservation of legacy computer software.
While many collectors and museums collect and display old computer systems, many do not collect the old computer software that runs on them. A computer without software is nothing more than an inanimate object to look at…
In September 1999, I began collecting and preserving my first legacy computer software titles. My primary focus was on non-game software, since games were popular items for many retro-computing enthusiasts. If I did find old computer games I felt were worth preserving, I included them in my archive.
In the late 1990's and early 2000's, I did not have computer systems capable of the virtual computing necessary to test the software titles I was collecting and preserving. I had to acquire old computer systems to test the software I was preserving.
I began acquiring many old models of computers. They included old PCs, old PC laptops, old Macintosh systems, very old "home computer" systems such as Commodore 64s and 128s, and very old "luggable" transportable computers such as KAYPRO and Osborne CP/M systems. As time passed, many generous people visiting my website also donated old computer systems and other devices to me. As the years passed, the number of old computers and devices I acquired grew. At its peak I had dozens of computers, PDAs, tablets, and other devices. As the collection grew, so did the storage space required to contain them.
As time went on, and computer hardware and software evolved and changed, there came a time when the older software that runs on the older computers became less available to acquire. And as newer computer systems evolved, so did virtual computing technology capable of running many of the old operating systems I had acquired old computers for. By this time, my software archive included the operating systems necessary for testing much of the old software I was acquiring. Using virtual computing software, I was able to create virtual machines running the same operating systems as many of the older computers I had acquired. As a result, many of those old computers were no longer needed to test software.
After a time, many of those old computer systems sat on shelves, unused. They remained dormant for years…
Since I do not have a building for displaying those computers, and since I took down all the content on my DLCC website on Halloween 2025, including all the photos I took and information I wrote about these old computers, these systems sat in storage, unknown to the world except for a single PDF listing them without the photos I had taken of them.
Since my storage area for all my DLCC archives has always been a fixed area with no possibility of expansion, as I continued to acquire and preserve other items, including old software, my available storage area was steadily declining.
After years with many of these stored items being inactive, I decided to do an archive assessment in the areas of surplus supplies -- drives, expansion cards, media, and other miscellaneous items -- and old computer systems. I determined that there were many surplus items and old computers that not only had not been used for years, but, most likely, would never be used again.
I decided, since there are no local museums or collectors I could donate these items to, these items would, sadly, have to be discarded to our local landfill. Nobody in our local area is interested in displaying or collecting old computer systems. If it can't take selfies and post them on social media, no one in our area is interested.
The first to go were the excess surplus items. Some of these discarded items were mentioned in a previous post.
The latest items to be discarded include the computers and other devices shown in the pictures above. The items discarded include old PC desktops & laptops, old Macintosh desktops & laptops, very old "luggable" transportable computers running CP/M and DOS, word processor machines, PDAs, handheld computers, handheld information systems, e-book readers, tablets, a smartphone, and an Internet "appliance" for streaming online content. All these computer systems and devices were still fully functional, not big paper weights.
Other discarded items not pictured included surplus hard drives, RAM SIMMs & DIMMs, CPUs, more internal CD-ROM & DVD-ROM drives, surplus internal 3½" PC and Mac floppy disk drives, internal ZIP drives, old keyboards, miscellaneous adapters and cables, old CPU fans, surplus power cords, and other items.
This was a decision I did not make lightly. Some of these items have historical value and could have been displayed in a museum.
The discarding of these items freed up considerable storage space for future items to be preserved. Since, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my preservation project's primary goal is preserving old computer software, this will provide ample space for a long time to come.
To be sure, I did not throw out all of my old computer systems. I kept many historically valuable computer systems, some of which there are no operating systems or emulators, for future software testing. They are listed in the DLCC Computers & Devices Collection PDF which is available for free viewing and downloading from this blog's pinned post.
The discarded items in these photos alone could have made an impressive computer museum. Instead, farewell…
May we have a moment of silence for the departed… 😔
