If you’re on the US East Coast, you should head on over to Wall, NJ and check out the Vintage Computer Festival East. After all, [Brian Kernighan] is going to be there. Yes, that [Brian Kernighan].
Events are actually well underway, and you’ve already missed the first few TRS-80 Color Computer programming workshops, but rest assured that they’re going on all weekend. If you’re from the other side of the retrocomputing fence, namely the C64 side, you’ve also got a lot to look forward to, because the theme this year is “The Sounds of Retro” which means that your favorite chiptune chips will be getting a workout.
[Tom Nardi] went to VCF East last year, so if you’re on the fence, just have a look at his writeup and you’ll probably hop in your car, or like us, wish you could. If when you do end up going, let us know how it was in the comments!
I wish there was something as cool as VCF where I am here in Brisbane, Australia.
I’m in Brisbane too! :)
About the closest equivalent to VCF is the Canberra Vintage Computer Festival (not sure of its exact title), held around June. I’ve not been able to make it for the last two years due to prior commitments but maybe this year. The videos of it on YT are pretty good.
Australia is England’s closet. Get over it
How late do they sell tickets at the door? I’d only be able to go on Sat afternoon.
Side note, what are the best online vintage computer exchanges that aren’t eBay or Craigslist? I have a bunch of 70s 6052 kits, 80s pocket computers, etc I need to find a good home for to clean out some clutter.
I drive from Cleveland over every year. This year was very good as is always the case at VCF East. I make the journey to the Midwest event in the Chicago suburbs every year as well. That is a nice show now that it is in a larger single ballroom again. I have yet to make it to Southeast in Atlanta, GA, Southwest in Dallas, TX or west in Silicon Valley.
Any one you can go to is a great time. Always nice people with running displays willing to explain or give a hand with your vintage hardware issues. The vintage window moves every year and most people are considering first generation Pentium and last generation 6800 as the show cutoff point now. I am seeing first generation Power PC making their way in with the Mac folks And Pentium III for the PC folks Still plenty of late 70s and newer z80, and 6502 machines to play with as well.