Punched-card computing experience with Virtual Flossie

Flossie is the nickname of The National Museum of Computing’s ICT 1301, one of Britain’s first commercially successful business computers. Saved from the scrapheap by former users, she is a significant piece of British computing heritage.

However, the museum lacked the physical space to put Flossie on permanent display. Without access to the machine, visitors were missing the opportunity to understand how early computers actually worked – not just what they looked like.

The vision
The museum challenged Blended Past to find a way for visitors to experience Flossie as a functioning system rather than a static object. The ambition was to preserve historical and technical accuracy while making the experience meaningful and accessible to non-specialist audiences.

Our approach
Blended Past proposed presenting Flossie as an interactive, online experience. We developed a clear editorial brief: Virtual Flossie needed to be authentic, intuitive to use and capable of supporting real tasks without training or prior knowledge.

Working with virtual simulation specialist Martin Gillow, we helped shape an accurately rendered 3D model of the system. Through careful programming, the computer operates using a simplified command set and runs on a digitised stack of original 1960s punched cards.

Alongside the simulation, we developed interpretative content that placed Flossie in context, combining text, recorded oral histories and rare period film. Research, design, development and testing were carried out in close collaboration with Flossie’s former users to ensure accuracy and credibility at every stage.

The outcome
The result is a virtual computer that visitors can operate as if in real life: pressing buttons, setting dials, loading and executing programs, and printing results either in the museum or remotely.

Virtual Flossie preserved an at-risk piece of heritage, extended access beyond the gallery space and transformed a practical constraint into a new way for audiences to engage with the early history of modern computing.