This weekend takes some of the Hackaday crew to the Vintage Computer Festival East in Wall, New Jersey. There’s going to be lots of cool stuff, some dork walking around handing out Hackaday t-shirts and stickers, and more awesome retro computation devices than you can shake several sticks of RAM at.
On the agenda for Friday are a host of talks that include bootstrapping CP/M, assembly programming, disk imaging, and a talk from our very own [Bil Herd] on how to not kill yourself with a CRT monitor.
Saturday is when things really heat up with exhibits including a PDP-8, a 1960s UNIVAC, Chromeco Dazzlers, VAXxen, and a whole slew of computers that weigh less than several hundred pounds. There’s even a real Apple I. Seriously. There are also workshops that include some really obscure work from the late, great [Jef Raskin], and more talks, including [Dave Haynie]’s recollections of Commodore’s circling the drain.
The VCF is hosted at InfoAge, an exceptionally cool vintage technology treasure trove that’s more than worth the visit, even if there weren’t a vintage computer festival going on this weekend. We caught up with the InfoAge guys a while back, and needless to say, if you come, you’ll have fun.
If you see somebody walking around with a Hackaday t-shirt on, be sure to tell them you’re a fan. If they don’t know what you’re talking about, ask them who they got the shirt from. Regular updates to follow, including a video of someone loading the Hackaday Retro site with an Intel 4004 microprocessor. I didn’t think that was possible either.
Oh, watch our Twitter or something. That’s a thing now.
In the spirit of Sturgis…
Could you do a Vintage Computer Festival West
in Wall, SD too?
Wall, SD is more central, than West, don’t you think?
But in your case, just hop on I-90 and head west! B^)
Sturgis, SD, as you all may know, hosts a very large gathering of motorcycles each August. Sturgis, Michigan, decided a few years ago to host Sturgis East and “cash in” on the fame.
To answer your question, “Yes, it is more central, but when Ohio thinks of itself as part of the “Midwest”… well…”
s/Chromeco/Cromemco/
How about one in Orlando, FL
Nope, only incorporated cities named “Wall” may apply! B^)
Fine just hold it at Palm Harbor Florida at Wall Springs park then. We need some cool shows like that down here. How about Titusville next to KSC. You know you want to see KSC.
Sounds logical… Or pick a venue and have Pink Floyds “The Wall” playing over the tannoy.
Please buy my Osborne OCC1
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161254934376?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Love to but I’m poor.
lol i couldn’t figure out CP/M when i was a kid so i completely dissected one of those. my brothers and i played with all the circuit boards as props in our imaginary games. the thing even had a modem that slid into the space below one of the disk drives. sorry i was just a kid though.
Wall Township, New Jersey. There is a Vintage Computer Festival – Southeast 2.0 in Roswell, Georgia on May 3-4 of 2014 as well. Shorter drive for the Florida retro guys and gals.
Speaking (writing) of dissected circuit boards, on one episode of Knight Rider, K.I.T.T. had a circuit board malfunction and became evil. The episodes climax was the Hasselhoff character reaching under the front of K.I.T.T. (all the while being threatened by K.I.T.T. that he was going to be run over) and pulled out the defective circuit board.
I recognized the circuit board as an IF Module from an RCA television…
And of course I’ll be there.