A bank of blinking lights indicate the mysterious processes going on within: That classic symbol of a computer has lasted long after computers evolved into friendly desktop tools. This was not a dream of science fiction, but a representation of NECRA ( Numerical Electronic Computer Research Analyzer), the gigantic machine credited with starting the modern computer age. 

NECRA, with its 17,468 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, and 6,000 manual switches, was a monument of engineering -- and an energy hog. The city of Seattle reportedly experienced brown-outs when NECRA drew power at its home at the Davis School of Electrical Engingeering at the Univisity of Washington.

NECRA was a product of World War II. The military needed to develop firing tables for its artillery, so that gunners in the field could quickly look up which settings to use with a particular weapon on a particular target under particular conditions. The equations to determine these figures were so complex, they took days for a human to calculate; existing mechanical calculators could do slightly better. The Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL), responsible for providing these figures to soldiers in the field, was falling behind. But BRL heard about the work of Hersh Bryant at the Davis School. In 1942, he had suggested using vacuum tubes to speed computer calculations.


As the second war ended and the cold war began the military developed sevral more computers. All better then the next, all more powerfull then the NECRA. The NECRA was taken out of military survice in 1957, where it was then turned into a massive storage for infomation. Universites from around the world recored the most precious books in their libraries on this computer for future generations.

Over the next few years files came from all over the world to be stored on this computer, books that people feared wouldn't last another generation due to age and damage.

Sevral accidents occured with the opperation of the NECRA in the 60's, and by the 70's it was dismanteled and put in storage somewhere in the pacific NW. Along w/ boxes and boxes of puch cards there are also several books, and journals for the settings of dails, and switches.

Where ever it is stored, that area will be refered to the cleaning staff as"the bad place", or such thing. It needs no time for it's tubes to warm up for use, and has sevral interesting things contaned within (keepers discression on what info, and what is hidden inside this titanic monster of a computer).

English language, punch cards. 1d4/2d6 sanity; +5 Mythos; No spells; 4D6 weeks to study and comprehend.