Living Computers’ Engineer Josh Dersch spent more than a year creating this emulator of the Xerox Alto, a pioneering computer workstation developed at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1973. The Alto introduced several experimental concepts, including the graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, and Ethernet networking.

ContrAlto is an application for modern PCs that simulates the original Xerox Alto, from the graphical display to the Ethernet interface. It allows you to experience part of the world Xerox PARC created 40 years ago.

Thanks and Acknowledgements
ContrAlto would not have been possible without the amazing preservation work of Bitsavers.org and the Computer History Museum.