The Interim Computer Museum (ICM) and SDF.org have made 28 vintage computer systems accessible online for free. There’s a plethora of old but gold - some legendary - systems available, so your visit should be like entering a living museum of computing.
All you have to do is point your browser at connect.sdf.org and login by typing ‘menu’ to gain guest access to the systems. Typing ‘1’ toggles between pages, revealing the full 28 choices.
Please be aware that choosing an option will drop you to a command prompt on the system in question. No big deal if you have experience with that particular system and are scratching a nostalgia itch. Others may find that a bit of research is required to do anything productive or fun from the blinking prompt.
You have GUEST access to 28 vintage systems in the browser at https://t.co/rAFRGXH0NvExperience vintage operating systems, architectures, programming languages and GAMES.https://t.co/ihON7y2jBE#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #retrogaming #gaming pic.twitter.com/k7XpBC4JaZ February 14, 2026
In the system menu, there are three columns. The first column begins with a command letter to select a system. Pressing the corresponding key, then Enter, will begin a session on the selected system. The second column shows the operating system, and the third, the ‘hardware.' We’ve put hardware in quotations as SDF explains,” these systems are a mix of emulation, hybrid, and vintage hardware running historical operating systems.” Which systems are real, hybrid, or emulated isn’t immediately clear.
Some notable systems from the menu
Some of the systems accessible, thanks to the efforts of SDF.org and the ICM, are legendary. The Multics (option a, page 1) operating system is a pioneering OS from 1964, designed by MIT, GE, and Bell Labs. It was a big influence on Unix and was still in use as late as 2000. Here it is available at your fingertips on a 'Honeywell 6180.'
Then there is a trio of TOPS-20 systems. These sport the iconic @ prompt and run classic PDP-10 software from the ARPANET era.
Another system with spectacular lineage is the DCD 6500 (option m, page 1) NOS 1.3. Designed for scientific computing by Seymour Cray, before Cray Research was founded, the CDC 6500 was architecturally split with a single main CPU and 10 Peripheral Processors (PPs).
On the UNIX systems submenu, you can see UNIX V7 on PDP‑11/70 at pole position ‘MissPiggy’ (option a, page 2). This system is considered by some to be the Rosetta Stone of UNIX, overflowing with the DNA of this remarkable OS.
I managed to play Chess on the UNIX v7 ‘MissPiggy’ PDP-11/70 system. It wasn’t the most fun I have had today, though. A chess program with graphics and a UI can give me a headache, so this command-line chess game, played without a board, quickly lost its novelty.
The SDF says that funding to run the museum and projects like this comes from BOOTSTRAP membership, sponsorship, and donations. So, if you enjoy this kind of project and want to encourage more, consider signing up for that.
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