The 8th West Coast Vintage Computer Festival is now over and it was certainly an event to remember.
It all started on Friday afternoon when I entered the empty auditorium at the Computer History Museum and began to unload my gear. Eventually my junk was all in the room so I began to help set up the room for the show.
By 9:00 or so we left for dinner only to show up again the following morning to finish setup.
After much swearing and wrestling as well as a quick trip to a local computer shop my booth was finally ready to go, but before I could enjoy the fruits of my labor I had another mission. . .
The Digibarn Computer Museum (www.digibarn.com) hosted a 30th anniversary celebration of the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer club. I assisted by bringing an Altair 8800 and playing "Fool on the Hill" and "Daisy" Just like Steve Dompier did three decades ago. This was followed up by a panel discussion of the club, its meetings and its significance. Panel members were Lee Felsenstein, Michael Holley, Bob Lash, Allen Baum, Steve Wozniak and Len Shustek (via telephone.)
In addition to sharing this event (and some birthday cake) with them I was lucky enough to track them all down and get them to sign my VCF 8 tee-shirt!
Bruce Damer has put up a great event page at http://www.digibarn.com/history/05-VCF8-HomeBrew30/
I'll have my pictures up later.
Once the Homebrew event was over I was free to rejoin the exhibit hall and enjoy everyone's toys. There were some great machines on display including a VERY nice homebrew TTL computer, some IBM 5120s, a CompuColor II and a great original Apple Lisa.
Then there were the vendor areas. . . let's just say I added a few small items to my collection and somehow resisted adding a whole lot more.
Although the hardware (and software) takes center stage at these events it's really all about the people. I got to meet up with a ton of old friends as well as some new ones including our very own Evan Koblentz and Ray Borrill to name but a couple.
This was, as usual, a great show. Sellam and friends did another fantastic job!
I'll post more about this later, when I have time, including pictures. In the mean time, feel free to ask questions and be sure to make plans for next year!
Erik
It all started on Friday afternoon when I entered the empty auditorium at the Computer History Museum and began to unload my gear. Eventually my junk was all in the room so I began to help set up the room for the show.
By 9:00 or so we left for dinner only to show up again the following morning to finish setup.
After much swearing and wrestling as well as a quick trip to a local computer shop my booth was finally ready to go, but before I could enjoy the fruits of my labor I had another mission. . .
The Digibarn Computer Museum (www.digibarn.com) hosted a 30th anniversary celebration of the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer club. I assisted by bringing an Altair 8800 and playing "Fool on the Hill" and "Daisy" Just like Steve Dompier did three decades ago. This was followed up by a panel discussion of the club, its meetings and its significance. Panel members were Lee Felsenstein, Michael Holley, Bob Lash, Allen Baum, Steve Wozniak and Len Shustek (via telephone.)
In addition to sharing this event (and some birthday cake) with them I was lucky enough to track them all down and get them to sign my VCF 8 tee-shirt!
Bruce Damer has put up a great event page at http://www.digibarn.com/history/05-VCF8-HomeBrew30/
I'll have my pictures up later.
Once the Homebrew event was over I was free to rejoin the exhibit hall and enjoy everyone's toys. There were some great machines on display including a VERY nice homebrew TTL computer, some IBM 5120s, a CompuColor II and a great original Apple Lisa.
Then there were the vendor areas. . . let's just say I added a few small items to my collection and somehow resisted adding a whole lot more.
Although the hardware (and software) takes center stage at these events it's really all about the people. I got to meet up with a ton of old friends as well as some new ones including our very own Evan Koblentz and Ray Borrill to name but a couple.
This was, as usual, a great show. Sellam and friends did another fantastic job!
I'll post more about this later, when I have time, including pictures. In the mean time, feel free to ask questions and be sure to make plans for next year!
Erik