Greetings from ECCC!

[KevinO]

Greetings from the Emergency Chicagoland Commodore Convention!

Ok, not really, I never got this post sent during the convention, but I just wanted to say that it was an awesome weekend. Met some really great people and can't wait for the next one. Brought home another PET, some of Brain's hardware, and a lot of miscellaneous stuff that I couldn't possibly live without. :D

I loved the other retro computer stuff that VCFMW had to offer, and even came home with an Apple ][, but the Commodore room seemed to have all the energy and exciting things going on. Naturally I'm a bit biased! If anyone is close enough to come next year, you won't be disappointed.

 

[patscc]

When is it ? I'm in central WI, so that's definitely drivable.
patscc

 

[KevinO]

When is it ? I'm in central WI, so that's definitely drivable.
patscc

Usually the last week in September. This year they had it a week early due to some conflicts at the hotel. It is a combined show, the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest and the C= show.

go to vcfmw.org for information and pics of previous events, but understand that it's somewhat informal, so the exact date won't be set until next summer.

 

[billdeg]

I got a jiffy dos and an µIEC there, for a c64. Amazing what people are doing to hotrod commodore 64's. I was resistant at first but now I see the appeal of the tricked-out c64. The scene is going strong it's almost like the c64 never really went vintage given all the new stuff you can do with them. The only other make with this kind of action is the Apple II to a lesser extent.

 

[barythrin]

I dunno, down here it's the TRS Coco-3 that has all the hardware hacks getting shown off and had the feeling that they're still in daily use. That's pretty nice to see that 3 major vendors all have their hacking crowd busy at work though!

 

[billdeg]

That's true, there are a lot of Coco hackers still busy as well. There were a few at VCFMW in the middle room. There are plenty of vintage hackers who specialize in one system or another.

 

[barythrin]

I'd play along if the parts weren't all so darn expensive! While it's fun, it seems like a lot of the vhd devices, etc all run $150 which is out of my play budget for now. That'd be an extreme improvement though, lower the cost of the hardware and get more folks up and running.

 

[KevinO]

I'd play along if the parts weren't all so darn expensive! While it's fun, it seems like a lot of the vhd devices, etc all run $150 which is out of my play budget for now. That'd be an extreme improvement though, lower the cost of the hardware and get more folks up and running.

Some of them are expensive, but not all. I use fewer and fewer physical disks these days with the uIEC from Retro Innovations. This allows you to load programs and disk images from an SD card, and it's only about 60 bucks.

I also bought an EasyFlash3 cartridge, which is a seriously cool piece of hackery. For those who don't know, it can do kernal replacements (JiffyDOS without opening the case), utility cartridges, and 7 slots for game or whatever kinds of carts you want. And it's programmed right from the C64!

 

[carlsson]

Perhaps the fact the C64 was the biggest selling home computer (at least within compatible models) has anything to do with it still gets a lot of attention when it comes to new hardware and not to forget software - the demo scene and independent game developers still are going strong.