Skip to main content

Man spends £40k making gigantic "Megaprocessor", plays Tetris on it

That belongs in a museum!

Electronics engineer James Newman spent £40k building a gigantic computer capable of such advanced technology as playing Tetris.

The roughly half-tonne beast is 33ft (10m) wide and 6ft (2m) high and it's equipped with 40k transistors and 10k LED lights. It also burns 500 watts of electricity as it dwells in Newman's Cambridge home.

Newman admits that this "Megaprocessor" isn't actually very powerful at all, but it does look cool. "The machine on your desk may be a million times better than what I have built - but mine is much prettier," he told the BBC.

So why did Newman make such a machine?

Aside from simply enjoying its retro chic aesthetic, Newman hopes the Megaprocessor will be used as an educational tool. "My dream is that it goes to a museum or educational institute so that people can learn from it," the ambitious engineer stated.

Indeed Newman has already begun a YouTube series enlightening the public as to how the Megaprocessor works.

For more of the nitty gritty the Megaprocessor's specs, Newman has been blogging about the colossal undertaking at megaprocessor.com.

To see more of the Megaprocessor in action, Newman provided the following walking tour video in which he plays Tetris.

Read this next