MACON, Ga. — Sounds from the classic game of Frogger may be, familiar if you remember playing video games on a 1982 Commodore 64.
"This is probably the most influential computer we have in this room, this thing changed everything," Middle Georgia State Information Technology student Ryan Ashford said.
Ryan, a 17-year-old Middle Georgia State student, knows everything there is to know about a machine that's nearly twice his age.
"I was born in 2002, so I didn't know any of these things when they were new. None of the machines in here are younger than me, which is kind of weird," he said.
He and his classmates collect old computers and gaming systems through donations, state sales, or in dumpsters and bring them back to life for the college's Museum of Technology.
"Old dentist office had a bunch of them, and I plugged this machine in when we were there, and it actually blew up, and it shot fire in the back of it and terrible, horrible things," he said.
Professor Tina Ashford says a lot of the work is cleaning the hardware.
"They clean them thoroughly, replacing capacitors is one of the main things that needs to be done to them, they get them up and working. They find the software on the internet," Ashford said.
She says it helps her Information Technology students understand the fundamentals of building computers.
"They learn an appreciation of the past, because I think you can learn a lot from past lessons. It also helps them to appreciate where we are now with technology," she said.
Ryan says it's always a process of trial and error.
"The rules of insanity applies to these computers. Sometimes, doing the same thing 17 times will give you 17 different results, and on the 18th time it'll work," Ryan said.
He says seeing people using the machines makes it all worth it.
"It's fun coming in here and seeing what they do, interacting with them and seeing where they've been, and where we're going to go," he said.
There are eight machines available for people to come play games or to explore how these computers worked in their glory days.
You can find display cases filled with other =technology like flip phones and Toshiba laptops all around the library.
The museum is located on the first floor of the Macon campus' library.
It's open during the library's operating hours.
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