Xerox Alto Disks Being Booted For First Time in 30 Years

This is a screen capture of the Xerox Alto II in action. The Alto was the worlds first PC. The prototypes were developed at Xerox PARC during the 1970's. I noticed there was no video out there of one running, so I recorded a few minutes of the XeroX Alto Executive running and playing some games. Be sure to check out the dates in the programs. What you see on this disk is what was probably the world's first Pinball video game, A startrek game, and some sort of Turkey game. It has excellent graphics. The Alto was decades ahead of its time. If you guys like it, let me know and I'll upload more videos of demonstrations of the alto's software in action..

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Xerox
• Alto
• computer
• history
• eric
• bowers
• smalltalk
• squeak
• parc
• research
• design
• principles
• tech
• demo

[benjamin308]

Is this from an emulator?

[ebowers123]

@benjamin308 it indeed is an emulator! :D

[Xerox6085I]

@BennyB5555 I was a software tester at Xerox in 1989. The Documenter Star Workstation blew the MAC SE and IBM PC out of the water.

[Xerox6085I]

@n64wilbert look up the Xerox 8010 (1981) and the 6085 (1985) with Xerox Windows, an optical mouse 2-button, which Xerox designed and patented.

[Tala2n]

That seems better than MS DOS PC.

[JohnMSawyer]

Should the Alto be called a personal computer? Wasn't it called a workstation at the time, since the intent was to use them in companies and other institutions, networked together? Also, the first personal computers were called "home computers" to emphasize their distinction from computers used elsewhere.

[spukus]

Show us more!

[n64wilbert]

@BennyB5555 Did it make the 1980s,1990s looked primitive to your empirical knowledge of the Xerox Alto?

[BennyB5555]

I remember using this in 1973 at PARC when I worked there. The mouse was called a

GUI - and I do remember how amazing it was being able to email/transmissions to each other Alto's connected. When the 80's came around we all chuckled because we had been using this technology for over a decade! I loved how whatever you would have on your screen was exactly how it printed. Those were the days indeed. Xerox at the time had no interest in Personal Computers.

[padawanmage71]

Nice! I always wanted to see more Alto vids. Yes, please post more!