EvanK
VCFed Founder
Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0, May 14-15, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, New Jersey ..... web site and event details to follow ......
- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
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VCF East 7.0 - May 14-15
- Thread starter EvanK
- Start date
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glitch
Veteran Member
Same here...and I'm planning on taking the train down, so I shouldn't get disrupted by travel problems this time!
@Evan: Also, my desktop is down, so any MARCH e-mails haven't been getting read. I think it's a power supply issue, but I've been traveling a lot for work and haven't had time to fix it. Why is it the vintage computers never seem to go down?!
@Evan: Also, my desktop is down, so any MARCH e-mails haven't been getting read. I think it's a power supply issue, but I've been traveling a lot for work and haven't had time to fix it. Why is it the vintage computers never seem to go down?!
I will likely be attending this year. I will try and convince my ex-boss to drive up from NC with his S-100 machine collection. He founded a company that built and sold S100 systems and peripherals and was an active member of ACGNJ for many years.
NeXT
Veteran Member
I so want to do a Unix booth or something at VCF. Just setup a nice and complete set of networked Sun, SGI, NeXT, DEC, and IBM systems all running their flavors of Unix and build the booth around that.
Dammit, why are these always so far away?
Dammit, why are these always so far away?
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EvanK
VCFed Founder
It would be great fun to have a 486 LAN Party whilst there. I love those old games!
Please tell me you are joking.
At the Vintage Computer Festival events, you won't find anything newer than a 186 (at least not on the microcomputer side -- perhaps some slightly newer minis or mobiles.)
tezza
Veteran Member
Hmm...If only these events were about 14,000km closer.
Tez
Tez
EvanK
VCFed Founder
You need think outside the metaphorical box. It's only 14,000km if you travel via the planet's perimeter. Tunnel though a chord instead. Much shorter that way!
EvanK
VCFed Founder
In that case I will not be attending.
Okay.
By the way, of the items in your "collection" (from your sig), I don't consider a single one actually vintage.
vwestlife
Veteran Member
And some people used to not consider anything post-Beatles to be "real" rock & roll music... but time moves on.
I'd probably not think of anything you'd consider "vintage" as vintage, EvanK. I'd call them "ancient". Ex. S-100 systems - I can see that they're strange beasts, perhaps worthy of dissection and study, but I have no idea why you guys would collect machines that can hardly do anything, often have no screens or keyboards, and aren't really even standardized - you don't see me trolling anybody who brings them up, though. I highly respect the precursors of machines I do use and love, but I wouldn't want a machine that takes up half a room and can calculate the first 10 digits of pi if you wait a few hours, myself. The oldest machine I get use out of in my collection is my Panasonic Sr. Partner, and it's running an 8088 with a standard ISA slot available. That's just enough for me to get a HDD installed and run a very small number of ports of arcade games. It finds use maybe twice, thrice a year. Personally I'd call a Pentium Pro vintage at this point (and my personal cutoff, where I'd stop collecting, would be there - but I wouldn't discount newer things as they became vintage..). Generally speaking, the accepted definition is ~15 years = vintage (which the PPro just met this year), and around here we seem to require ~20+ years (damn near 30 in your case) before it's widely accepted as vintage by the older members (and I mean older in age, not membership length). Just because you remember a time before it came out doesn't mean it's not vintage, and considering the vast majority of my collection is 486 systems, I'm frankly a bit offended by your blatant writing off of them as vintage machines. I'm 20 years old, and when I was born the 386 was going out of style and the 486 was coming in. It's a miracle that I have any interest in machines from before I was born, and this is the same for other younger collectors, but you need to understand that time changes, and just because you think an 80186 is the newest thing you'd care to collect doesn't mean that it will FOREVER be the newest vintage item in the lineup.
If the VCF holds the same position as you, I suppose I'll never be attending, either.
If the VCF holds the same position as you, I suppose I'll never be attending, either.
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Raven,
The systems you are so lightly dismissing are the true focus of the forum. Those are vintage computers as defined by the people who run the forum.
If you don't want to attend a VCF that is great. But try to remember you are in the minority when you state that 386 and 486s are vintage. And your rant above is borderline trolling for the rest of us.
Mike
The systems you are so lightly dismissing are the true focus of the forum. Those are vintage computers as defined by the people who run the forum.
If you don't want to attend a VCF that is great. But try to remember you are in the minority when you state that 386 and 486s are vintage. And your rant above is borderline trolling for the rest of us.
Mike
billdeg
Technician
I suggest that people visit vintage.org and take a look at the past events to get a better idea of what kinds of systems are exhibited at a Vintage Computer Festival. We have in the past made exceptions for somewhat "newer" systems when they're configured with out-dated technology. For example an OS/2 exhibit or a NEXT Station exhibit. It's not just about old and date of manufacture.
I am the exhibit coordinator, so please contact me ASAP to let me know your electrical needs, if you are definitely coming, ideas for exhibits, etc. I will post a different thread specific to exhibits, with the judging rules, prizes (yes there will be a best in show prize), and so on. The judges this year will be the MARCH board of directors.
There are only about 22 max spaces available, depending on the size of the exhibits so let me know sooner rather than later.
I can't say this enough - don't wait until the last minute to plan your exhibit.
I am the exhibit coordinator, so please contact me ASAP to let me know your electrical needs, if you are definitely coming, ideas for exhibits, etc. I will post a different thread specific to exhibits, with the judging rules, prizes (yes there will be a best in show prize), and so on. The judges this year will be the MARCH board of directors.
There are only about 22 max spaces available, depending on the size of the exhibits so let me know sooner rather than later.
I can't say this enough - don't wait until the last minute to plan your exhibit.
vwestlife
Veteran Member
Then why does the 386/486 genre on the Forum here have a far greater number of posts than the S100 and Pre-Altair genres combined?
Of course I have no problem with an event that focuses primarily on pre-1980s computers -- in fact I plan on attending VCF East -- but I sure hope the people involved are not disillusioned to believe that interest in these now-antique machines is somehow far greater or more "legitimate" than interest in '80s and '90s PCs.
386/486s outnumber those machines by great numbers. If I didn't work for someone who built S-100 machines for a living, I would have never seen the cards... or toggled the switches on the front panel of an Altair 8800 or IMASI 8080.
Its also a matter of perspective. Those of us who owned 486/386 machines as new have trouble seeing them as "vintage".
We try to be inclusive. We even added a Pentium area to that effect.
But it's hard to argue how a machine built around a 32 bit CPU that runs 32 bit operating systems with pre-emptive multi-tasking is 'vintage' when you compare it to machines that you boot by toggling up the front panel. You haven't been around too long, but we originally split the 386s and 486s away from the more on topic 16 bit machines in the PC class.
And as has been pointed out, numerically there are a few hundred million more 386 and 486 class machines than S100 boards. Posting popularity is a poor metric for what is vintage.
Enjoy ..
Mike
billdeg
Technician
There are plenty of 80's computers at VCF (Commodore, Apple, etc).
VCF is not just personal exhibits!
Our museum which is on-site to the event has computers and artifacts from the 1950's - 1980's, things that the average Joe would not have in their personal collection. Have you ever seen a Univac 1219 system? The original PDP 8? Altairs, IMSAI, SWTPC, etc.?? We are proud to be able to host and demonstrate these items, many of which are functional because of the efforts of our club.
I realize that not everyone here knows all they can about the computers that made the modern stuff possible, such as the S-100's or Digital Equipment Corp, etc. - but I suggest a vintage computer festival is the place to start.
Staying home because you feel snubbed because your 486 is not considered special (yet anyway) is a shame, you're missing out on a great event. I believe that an event like VCF puts the late 80's early 90's stuff in perspective.
The original VCF's discouraged computers from before 1983, slowly this boundary is being pushed forward. This forum in my opinion is too liberal about what is "vintage" but do your own thing. Hold a 386-Pentium era event some time! I would go.
In short, patience my Padawan apprentice.
Bill
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