Exhibit Curator Kimon Keramidas told CNET that he and his grad students spent five years assembling the exhibit, paying a grand total of $6,300 for all the devices. His team also got them into working order and created programs for visitors to try out. For instance, there's a command-line quiz for the Commodore 64 and an app teaching the PalmPilot's notoriously finicky handwriting recognition. Other devices that you can see but not touch include the Osborne 1, a portable computer that was supposed to outsell the Apple II (it didn't) and the Minitel, a French computer that had internet-like functionality way back in 1982.

Grid Compass 1109 portable computer, 1983

The exhibit will have a companion book written by Keramidas along with a dedicated website explaining the history of each device. It runs from April 3rd to July 19th at the Bard Graduate Center's Focus Gallery in New York.