VCF Gazette
Volume 2, Issue 1
A Newsletter for the Vintage Computer Festival
July 24, 2003
The VCF Gazette begins its second volume with this extra large issue.
We've tried to stay fairly on schedule, but this issue has been
delayed a bit due to lots (and I mean LOTS) of stuff going on. So,
without further ado...
In this issue:
Yet Again, a New (Permanent?) Home for the VCF Archives
VCF 6.0
Commodore 64 Parallel Super Computer Project
Commodore 64 Prototype Up for Auction at VCF 6.0
Coming in August: The VCF Marketplace!
Planning for VCF East 2.0
VCF Producer to Speak at XGDX
VintageTech Launches e-Cycle
PDP-8 Replica Project
New VCF Donation Program
Latest Additions to the VCF Archives
Yet Again, a New (Permanent?) Home for the VCF Archives
-------------------------------------------------------
Ok, so some of you might have been eagerly anticipating the planned
Open House that we were supposed to have last December, which got
delayed due to the move by the Alameda County Computer Resource
Center, the fine folks that have been hosting the Archive for the last
two years.
Well, forget everything we said in the last issue.
The VCF is proud to announce its new--and hopefully permanent--home
for the VCF Archives. We've acquired a lease on a 4,560 square foot
office/warehouse in Livermore, California. The new facility has a
grade level roll-up door, a loading dock (for the big stuff), and lots
of space to store lots of old computers.
The VCF staff has been busily packing and moving the archive from the
old facility to the new. As of this writing, most of the collection
(60 pallets worth plus an additional 20+ SUV loads) has been moved
already, with a couple more truckloads to go to finish the move. The
collection has certainly grown much larger than was realized in the
time we've been at the ACCRC.
Once the remainder of the collection is moved over, the real work
begins. It will take several months to a year to fully sort and
catalog the collection, something we've been trying to accomplish
for years now. However, this time it's different. With a new
venture (see below) and a new focus, we intend to achieve this goal
and finally establish a world class computer history research facility
for hobbyists, researchers, and the business community to utilize and
enjoy.
We'll keep you posted on our progress.
VCF 6.0
-------
Hooray! The sixth annual Vintage Computer Festival has been scheduled
for October 11th and 12th. The Computer History Museum will again be
hosting the event, but this time at their spacious new home.
Being that this is the 20th anniversary of the Commodore 64, it is
being honored as the theme computer for this year's event. We expect
to have some great Commodore 64 exhibits and, if enough people pull
together, perhaps we can finally complete the long-awaited C64
parallel supercomputer. We've also got an amazing auction being
planned: a rare Commodore 64 prototype (serial #19) will be auctioned
during the VCF weekend. See below for more information on each of
these news items.
With a larger budget and a desire to push the envelope of the VCF, we
expect this year's event to be the best and biggest yet. Help make
this year's VCF a success by contributing a talk or exhibiting your
favorite old computer.
Call For Speakers
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the VCF is the series of superb
talks we assemble year after year. We've got some excellent sessions
already lined up, but we're looking for more. Have you got an
interesting computer history topic or workshop you'd like to present
at the Vintage Computer Festival? Let us know! Send your abstracts
to <vcf_at_vintage.org>.
Exhibit at the VCF
Exhibitor's at the VCF enjoy a special status. Not only do they get
all the attention, as well as ribbons and prizes for their award-
winning exhibits, they also get to be part of the behind-the-scenes
action at the VCF. Along with the speakers, the exhibitors are the
VIPs of the VCF. Learn more about exhibiting here:
http://www.vintage.org/2003/main/exhibit.php
Buy, Sell and Trade at the VCF Marketplace
As always, one of the most exciting aspects of the VCF is the
Marketplace, where you can find a large and varied assortment of some
of the most fantastical old computer thingies anywhere. Find that odd
part you've been seeking out for your collection, then touch, smell,
even taste it if you like, before haggling out a deal. There is
simply no better place to buy and sell vintage computers than at the
VCF Marketplace. For more information on selling at VCF 6.0, please
visit:
http://www.vintage.org/2003/main/vendor.php
Stay tuned for more information about special events at the VCF. Get
the latest updates at the VCF 6.0 website:
http://www.vintage.org/2003/main/
Commodore 64 Parallel Super Computer Project
--------------------------------------------
In 1999, the VCF envisioned connecting 64 Commodore 64 computers
together to form one massively parallel Commodore 64 Super-Computer.
The project has sputtered and stalled but the vision has never died.
So this, being the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Commodore 64,
makes it imperative that we finally deliver on this vow to do what no
normally sane group of individuals would waste their time on.
Power supplies will die, chips will burn out, and nerds will struggle
over implementation details, but do this we must! To find out about
how you can contribute to this project, please visit:
http://www.vintage.org/projects.php
Commodore 64 Prototype Up for Auction at VCF 6.0
------------------------------------------------
What's cooler than 64 Commodore 64's tied together to form a massively
parallel supercomputer? How about an original Commodore 64 prototype?
At VCF 6.0, the VCF will auction off a pre-production Commodore 64,
built in early 1982 just after the Winter CES, and harboring serial
number 19. This is perhaps the rarest of all Commodore 64 computers,
as no other prototype Commodore 64 units are known to exist.
More information about this computer will be made available in the
coming weeks, including photos and screen-shots. Auction registration
will begin a couple weeks before VCF 6.0.
Coming in August: The VCF Marketplace!
--------------------------------------
We've been hinting at it for months, nay years, but it's finally come
to fruition. The VCF Marketplace--THE place to buy, sell and trade
vintage computers on the internet--will be open for business in
August.
The VCF Marketplace provides many innovative features, including a
number of different selling methods. You can offer up an item for
sale in several formats, hold an auction in one of several different
formats, even list an item for trade, for give-away, or even for
lending! You choose the format that best fits your preferences or
needs on a per listing basis. The VCF Marketplace will be a veritable
vintage computer bazaar.
We've deployed one of the most powerful search engines on the net.
You'll be able to search on a specific make and model of computer
hardware, a specific vendor and title of software, a specific title
and author of a book, and so forth. No more will you have to wade
through dozens or even hundreds of irrelevant hits to find what you're
looking for. Also available are invaluable notification features.
You can program the service to alert you the very moment an item
you've been desperately seeking gets posted.
Take advantage of the personal inventory functions, allowing you to
manage your computer collection online and share photos and
information with other collectors (a free service!) Future phases
will include store fronts for volume sellers, realtime online pricing
guides (instantly generated from past sales data) and registry
features (track the lineage of your most prized old computers).
To celebrate our launch, the service will initially be free to all
users for the first six weeks. After that, the site is still free to
use for most sellers, with very reasonable fees for volume sellers.
A separate announcement will be sent out when the Marketplace is
officially launched. Stay tuned for further details!
Planning for VCF East 2.0
-------------------------
Knock! Knock!
<and you say, "Who's there?">
VCF!
<and you say, "VCF who?">
VCF East 2.0! That's who, silly!
That's right, the much anticipated follow-up to the first east coast
VCF in 2001 is being planned for April of 2004. You poor denizens of
the right coast vintage computer collecting scene have been starved
long enough. The economy still sucks, and you're probably still out
of a job, but we're going to forge ahead and finally fulfill our
promise to return.
Much more details are of course to come, and we've still got to nail
down a date and place, but we've got plenty of time, and we've got to
get VCF 6.0 out of the way first. But don't fret, this time we mean
it: VCF East 2.0 is coming!
Your feedback is warranted at this point. The Boston area is still
being considered as the location, but enough noise from enough people
in the same place can certainly put other locales in the running. Let
use know where YOU'D like VCF East to be. Send your comments and
suggestions to <vcf_at_vintage.org>.
VCF Producer to Speak at XGDX
-----------------------------
VCF Producer Sellam Ismail will be giving a talk on the history of
video games at the next Xtreme Game Developers Xpo. The talk will
cover the first video game system, Tennis for Two, developed at the
Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958, plus Spacewar! (1962), the
Magnavox Odyssey (the first home video game system circa 1972) and
Nolan Bushnell's Computer Space (1970) and Pong (1972), the games
that launched the video arcade industry. The talk will include video
clips, screen shots, and even actual demonstrations with original
hardware of some of the games and systems discussed.
The Xtreme Game Developers Xpo is the premier gathering for
developers, programmers, designers and anyone with a passion for video
games. This year's event is being held September 6-7 at the Santa
Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California.
XGDX is open to the public and is targeted to all levels of Game
Developer, from the new game programmer to the seasoned professional.
There will be approximately 20-25 technical lecture sessions and
roundtable discussions scheduled each day. If you've attended in the
past then you know that this conference is all about people sharing a
common passion: the creation ofi video games. How will this year be
different? More sessions, more peers, more opportunities to benefit
from the knowledge and experience of others in a select community.
What hasn't changed? The belief that providing a forum where people
in every aspect of the gaming community can gather, interact, share,
and learn, will produce extraordinary results.
To celebrate the inauguration of XGDX (formerly the XGDC), all
attendees who pre-register online prior to August 1 will receive a
$250 library of Game Development books free from Premier Press (you
must attend the event to receive your lirbary in person). For more
information, or to register online, please visit the XGDX website:
http://www.xgdx.com/
VintageTech Launches e-Cycle
----------------------------
VintageTech, the VCF's historical computing consulting firm, has
just launched a new service to serve its local community. Electronic
waste has become a major issue in California and throughout the nation
as well. Discarded computers and consumer electronics--basically
anything containing a printed circuit board--can no longer be simply
tossed in the trash due to the toxic elements teeming inside of them.
To serve the need for electronic waste recycling, VintageTech has
launched a new electronic waste recycling service called e-Cycle.
e-Cycle serves the electronic waste recycling needs of the Tri-Valley
area of California's Silicon Valley. More information can be found
on the e-Cycle website:
http://www.ecycle.info/
To find out more about electronic waste recycling in your area, your
best bet is to do a web search. Not all localities are served by
recycling facilities, and there may not even be requirements in your
area to recycle discarded electronics. But you should start getting
into the habit of finding sensible alternatives to the landfill for
your obsolete electronics because there will soon come a day when it
will be required.
Suggestions for alternatives to the landfill:
o Donate to local schools, churches, charities, or non-profits
o Donate older hardware to local community college engineering
departments for spare parts
o Give or sell your old computers to local used computer resellers
o Sell your old hardware on the Vintage Computer Marketplace ;)
o Donate your vintage computers to a local collector, or to the VCF :)
PDP-8 Replica Project
---------------------
The VCF was hired to create a replica PDP-8 for an exhibit at the
Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, Massachusetts. The replica is part of
an exhibit that shows how computer technology changed the economy.
The PDP-8, which defined the "mini-computer" class, is significant
because it made it possible for small- and medium-sized businesses to
own a computer.
The PDP-8 replica will go on display at the Bank in the next several
weeks. In the meantime, a photo gallery documenting the construction
of the replica can be found here:
http://www.vintage.org/gallery.php?grouptag=PDP-8
New VCF Donation Program
------------------------
In order to help defray the production costs of Vintage Computer
Festival events, the VCF has begun a new donation program. Donations
at various levels will be rewarded with VCF pins, t-shirts, and VIP
passes to upcoming VCF events. Give enough and you can receive a
lifetime VIP Pass to all future VCF events!
Times are tough for the typical geek today, but if you can help,
please visit the VCF donation page to learn more about this program:
http://www.vintage.org/donate.php
We greatly appreciate your support, in any form!
Latest Additions to the VCF Archives
------------------------------------
We've added some very cool artifacts to the VCF Archives in recent
months, including:
o Sphere 6800 (the "first" all-in-one microcomputer circa 1975)
o Basis 108 (German Apple ][ clone circa 1982)
o MAC-8 microprocessor trainer (circa 1978)
With any luck (and possibly with your help) we'll have the VCF
Archives sorted, organized and catalogued within a year. Find out how
you can contribute to this worthwhile project by sending an inquiry to
<vcf_at_vintage.org>.
And remember: almost everything in the VCF Archives is available for
loan to hobbyists and researchers. Let us know if you'd like to
borrow something for a project or some academic research and we'll be
happy to help you out.
That wraps it up for this issue of the VCF Gazette! Until next time...
Best regards,
Sellam Ismail
Producer
Vintage Computer Festival
http://www.vintage.org/
The Vintage Computer Festival is a celebration of computers and their
history. The VCF Gazette goes out to anyone who subscribed to the VCF
mailing list, and is intended to keep those interested in the VCF
informed of the latest VCF events and happenings. The VCF Gazette is
guaranteed to be published in a somewhat irregular manner, though we
will try to maintain a quarterly schedule.
If you would like to be removed from the VCF mailing list, and
therefore not receive any more issues of the VCF Gazette, visit the
following web page:
http://www.vintage.org/remove.php
I'M a PEACH ;)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Thu Jul 24 2003 - 05:39:01 BST