Nice Sellam! I'm glad that it was a big success.
Was Chuck McManis's PDP5 running? I would have liked to see that,
along with much of the other displays...
--tom
At 04:24 PM 2/28/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>VCF Gazette
>Volume 2, Issue 2
>A Newsletter for the Vintage Computer Festival
>February 27, 2004
>
>
>After an unduly long interval, here's the latest news from the Vintage
>Computer Festival...
>
>Vintage Computer Festival 6.0 Wrap-Up
>VCF 6.0 Exhibit Awards
>VCF 6.0 Retro-Code Video Game Programming Challenge Wrap-Up
>Vintage Computer Festival East 2.0
>Vintage Computer Festival Europa 5.0
>Vintage Computer Marketplace Hits Milestone
>VCF Organization Party
>VCF Producer Sellam Ismail on TechTV's Screen Savers March 17
>
>
>Just a quick note to point out the beginning of our VCF organization
>parties, with the first being held on Saturday, March 6. Read on for
>more information. Also, please check out our new donation page on the
>VCF website. The VCF is running low on funds to produce future events
>so any help you might be able to give right now in the form of a cash
>contribution would be greatly appreciated and rewarded with goodies.
>For more information, see:
>
> http://www.vintage.org/donate.php
>
>
>Vintage Computer Festival 6.0 Wrap-Up
>-------------------------------------
>
>VCF 6.0 was a phenomenal success! Thanks to the help of the Computer
>History Museum (the sponsors of the event for a second year in a row)
>we were able to achieve our goal of 500 attendees...and then some!
>Actual attendance was almost 550, beating our peak attendance record
>of about 450 at VCF 4.0 in 2000.
>
>VCF 6.0 featured more speakers than at any previous event, with 19
>speakers in 12 conferences across 2 tracks over 2 days. We had 28
>exhibitors displaying nearly 70 computers, from micros to minis to
>mainframes, plus rare prototypes, early PDAs, video game systems, and
>more.
>
>VCF 6.0 also featured the Retro-Code Video Game Programming Challenge.
>Three teams had three hours to write a video game from scratch. The
>teams worked on three computers pre-arranged by the VCF: an Apple //e,
>an Atari 800, and a Commodore 64. Each team turned in fantastic
>efforts. More on this below.
>
>Throughout the VCF weekend, the Computer History Museum held tours of
>its Visible Storage exhibits which allowed VCF visitors to experience
>a "walk through computer history".
>
>The highlight of VCF 6.0 was the Xerox Alto panel featuring Xerox Palo
>Alto Research Center alumni John Ellenby, Dave Robson, Peter Deutsch,
>and Charles Simonyi. The panel was moderated by Bruce Damer of the
>DigiBarn. Each panelist took their turn recounting their personal
>histories at PARC during the 1970s when the Alto was being developed.
>After the session, everyone in attendance was invited to join the
>panelists in wishing the Alto a happy 30th anniversary. A yummy cake
>bearing a photo of the Alto was served up.
>
>We've put together a photo gallery of VCF 6.0 here:
>
> http://www.vintage.org/gallery.php?grouptag=VCF60
>
>And Bruce Damer has a fantastic VCF 6.0 overview on the DigiBarn
>website, including audio and video of the Alto panel and festivities:
>
> http://www.digibarn.com/history/03-10-VCF6/index.html
>
>Overall, VCF 6.0 was probably the best VCF event of all time. We'll
>be back again later this year to try to top it. I hope to see you
>there!
>
>Of course, the VCF could not have been the success it was without the
>terrific help of the Computer History Museum and their tremendous
>bunch of volunteers that turned out to help in the shadows. I thank
>each of the following people who volunteered their time either
>conducting tours of the Visible Storage area for VCF attendees or
>handling various VCF tasks:
>
> Remi Arnaud Dave Babcock Lee Courtney
> Bob Fraley Bill Goldberg Eli Goldberg
> John Green Tom Halfhill Peter Hamm
> Peter Jennings Tracy King Gail Lampert
> David Laws Frank Lemmon Jim Manley
> Julie Neff Randy Neff Dan Orsen
> Ray Peck Rafael Skodlar Randy Sloan
> Wolfgang Schaechter Tony Sumpter Fred Ware
> Texx Woodworth Warren Yogi
>
>Thanks also to Liza Loop and friends for helping with the setup on
>Friday, and everyone else who helped out that day (I just can't
>remember you all but thanks all the same).
>
>Special thanks to Alex Bochannek for once again doing a splendid job
>organizing the VCF Exhibits and heading up the judging team, and equal
>thanks to Lee Felsenstein and Dag Spicer for continuing their
>tradition as the stalwart VCF Exhibition judges. Also thanks to Stan
>Sieler for filling in as an alternate judge.
>
>Super special thanks to Roger Sinasohn for providing all the yummy
>treats and beverages, and especially for helping me out in a pinch
>on so many occasions. On that note, business owners might want to
>check out the services Roger provides at TechSynthesis:
>
> http://www.techsynthesis.com/
>
>Extra special thanks to Bruce Damer and Galen Brandt for organizing
>the Xerox Alto panel and birthday bash.
>
>Of course, thanks to all the Speakers, Exhibitors and Vendors who
>helped to make the VCF what it is.
>
>I would like to extend a warm thanks in particular to Pam Cleveland
>and Jennifer Cheng, who coordinate CHM events, and Mike Walton, who
>handles all the technical concerns, plus all the CHM staff. They were
>fantastic!
>
>And finally, a heartfelt thanks to John Toole and Dag Spicer, truly
>friends of the Vintage Computer Festival.
>
>
>VCF 6.0 Exhibit Awards
>----------------------
>
>We can proclaim with much confidence that this year's exhibit at the
>Vintage Computer Festival was the best ever. Dozens of vintage
>computer enthusiasts from all over converged in the Hahn Auditorium of
>the Computer History Museum to put on some amazing displays. The bar
>has certainly been raised for future exhibits.
>
>Exhibits are graded by our panel of judges, which comprises head judge
>Alex Bochannek, Computer History Museum Curator of Exhibits Dag
>Spicer, and legendary computer industry maven Lee Felsenstein. The
>judges then tabulate their results and assign 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
>ribbons in each of five general award classes, and additional Special
>Award ribbons in each of 11 special categories. Finally, the People's
>Choice Award is a special ribbon given to the exhibit that garners the
>most votes from VCF attendees.
>
>
>Class Awards
>
>First, Second and Third Place ribbons are awarded in each of five
>classes that represent major areas of effort in computer collecting
>and preservation. Judging is based on a set of criteria including:
>appearance, condition, originality, authenticity, completeness, and
>functionality. Additional judging takes into account the breadth of
>the exhibit by assessing the inclusion of documentation and software.
>
>Herewith, we are proud to present the winners of this year's Vintage
>Computer Festival Exhibition:
>
>Class A: Homebrew, Kit or Educational Computer - Any Vintage
>
>1st Place: Bryan Blackburn - Mark-8
>2nd Place: Erik Klein - Altair 8800
>3rd Place: Larry Pezzolo - Altair 680
>
>Class B: Manufactured Personal Computer - Pre-1981
>
>1st Place: Bryan Blackburn - the digital group
>2nd Place: Erik Klein - Commodore PET
>3rd Place: Erik Klein - TRS-80 Model 1
>
>Class C: Manufactured Personal Computer - Post-1981
>
>1st Place: Cameron Kaiser - Tomy Tutor/Tomy Pyuuta
>2nd Place: Wayne Smith - IBM System/23
>3rd Place: Jordan Ruderman - Apple Lisa
>
>Class D: Mini-computer or Larger System - Any Vintage
>
>1st Place: Stephen Jones - AT&T 3B2/500
>2nd Place: Jim Battle - Wang 2200
>3rd Place: Pavl Zachary - DEC PDP 11/70
>
>Class E: Open
>
>1st Place: Vince Briel - "Replica I" Apple-1 Replica
>2nd Place: Tim Lindner - Modern Intellivision
>3rd Place: Jordan Ruderman - Apple eMate 300
>
>
>Special Awards
>
>Special Awards are given to exhibits based on various practical and
>esthetic criteria. These accolades are meant to award exhibits that
>advance the state of computer collecting and preservation.
>
>Herewith, we are proud to present the Special Award recipients:
>
>Best Presentation: Research
>
>Larry Anderson - Commodore 8-bit Breadboxes
>
>Best Presentation: Completeness
>
>Cameron Kaiser - Tomy Tutor/Tomy Pyuuta
>
>Best Presentation: Display
>
>Bryan Blackburn - Mark-8
>
>Best Presentation: Creative Integration with Contemporary Technology
>
>Bill Borsari - Amiga 4000
>
>Best Preservation: Original Condition
>
>Cameron Kaiser - Tomy Tutor/Tomy Pyuuta
>
>Best Preservation: Restoration
>
>Bryan Blackburn - Mark-8
>
>Best Preservation: Recreation
>
>Vince Briel - "Replica I" Apple-1 Replica
>
>Best Preservation: Simulation
>
>Jim Battle - Wang 2200 Emulator
>
>Best Preservation: Obscurity
>
>Chuck McManis - DEC PDP-5
>
>
>Best of Show
>
>The Best of Show award determines, based on all previous judging and
>awards, which exhibit deserves to be singled out for special
>recognition.
>
>The VCF 6.0 Best of Show award went to Bryan Blackburn for his Mark-8
>exhibit. Congratulations, Bryan!
>
>
>People's Choice Award
>
>Finally, the People's Choice Award taps into the pulse of the VCF
>crowd. Attendees are encouraged to submit a ballot naming their
>favorite exhibit of the show. The exhibit that attracted the most
>votes this year was Pavl Zachary's DEC PDP 11/70.
>
>Pavl (pronounced "Paul" but just spelled with a 'v' because what the
>hell) spent hours putting together an exhibit worthy of the most high
>brow trade shows. Pavl created a DEC backdrop that stood at least
>7 feet tall and spanned 20 feet. Each letter of the "digital" logo
>was hand crafted and meticulously placed, creating a display that was
>right out of the heyday of the DEC we once knew and loved.
>
>Pavl's effort will surely be difficult to rival at future VCF events.
>
>I would like to congratulate ALL VCF exhibitors this year for helping
>to make it the best VCF exhibition yet!
>
>To see pictures of the VCF exhibitors and their machines, check out
>the VCF 6.0 photo gallery:
>
> http://www.vintage.org/gallery.php?grouptag=VCF60
>
>
>VCF 6.0 Retro-Code Video Game Programming Challenge
>---------------------------------------------------
>
>The Retro-Code Video Game Programming Challenge is a fairly new
>feature of the VCF. We attempted it at VCF 5.0 with mixed results,
>but we managed to pull it off this year and had a lot of fun!
>
>The goal of the Challenge is to program a video game from scratch on
>a vintage computer within 3 hours. The computer platforms, provided
>by the VCF, were an Apple //e, an Atari 800, and a Commodore 64.
>Three teams chosen from volunteers were assembled and the coding
>began! (In the end we couldn't get an Atari team so we ended up with
>two separate Apple teams).
>
>Team Apple A, comprised of Hans Franke and Eric Smith working in
>tandem, designed a nice maze-based role playing game. In the
>beginning of the game, a player rolled virtual dice (portrayed on the
>screen using the Apple's low resolution graphics capabilities) to
>determine their game character's attributes. A maze was then randomly
>generated and it was the player's goal to traverse the maze, gathering
>treasure and riches along the way while meeting all manner of evil and
>strange creatures that would have to be defended against.
>
>Team Commodore, comprised of Larry Anderson, developed a fantastic
>effort that put the player at the helm of a shopping cart in a thrift
>store where vintage computers were flying off the shelves and the
>player was required to collect as many of these computers in their
>shopping cart as possible. If too many computers fell to the ground
>and were destroyed, the player was banished from the thrift store!
>Larry's game employed the Commodore 64's built-in graphics sprites
>to render the shopping cart and vintage computers.
>
>Team Apple B was comprised of Lawrence Wilkinson who developed a nice
>implementation of the strategy game Hex. Larry utilized the Apple
>//e's high resolution graphics screen to render the Hex playing field
>(in 3D no less!) and used the joystick for player piece movement. He
>even gave the computer a simple intelligence to allow for human vs.
>computer play.
>
>When the three hour programming period was up, the teams were required
>to put their keyboards down and the judging commenced. Each team was
>required to demo their game to the assembled crowd, after which a hand
>vote was taken from the amassed spectators and a winner was chosen.
>
>Larry Anderson took 1st Place, followed by Hans Franke and Eric Smith,
>with Lawrence Wilkinson bringing up the rear.
>
>It was a really fun event and we're planning to expand it for VCF 7.0.
>Got an idea for a game? Can you write it, from scratch, in only three
>hours? Then come to VCF 7.0 and show your stuff! More information to
>come so stay tuned.
>
>
>Vintage Computer Festival East 2.0
>----------------------------------
>
>VCF East 2.0 is still in the planning stages, and much progress is
>being made. We had hoped to hold the event sometime in April of this
>year, but due to several unforeseen circumstances we've decided to
>move the event back to sometime in June or July. We're almost ready
>to announce exact dates and a location (near Boston, Massachusetts),
>but first we need to dot some t's and cross some i's so stay tuned for
>further updates.
>
>So far, confirmed speakers are:
>
> o Bob Supnik, creator of the wonderful Computer History Simulation
> Project featuring SIMH, a universal computer simulation engine
> with support for dozens of vintage computer models from the DEC
> PDP-1 to the PDP-15 and more
>
> o Jon Titus, creator of the legendary Mark-8, one of the earliest
> microcomputer kits, featured in the July 1974 issue of Radio
> Electronics
>
>Have you got any suggestions or recommendations for speakers? By all
>means, please do contact us and let us know. We are planning to have
>a full line-up of speakers at VCF East 2.0.
>
>This would also be a good time to visit the VCF East 2.0 web page and
>sign up as an exhibitor:
>
> http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/exhibit.php
>
>And we've still got plenty of room for vendors:
>
> http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/vendor.php
>
>VCF East 2.0 updates will be forthcoming throughout the following
>weeks so be on the lookout for further announcements.
>
>
>Vintage Computer Festival Europa 5.0
>------------------------------------
>
>Hans Franke is proud to bring you version 5.0 of the Vintage Computer
>Festival Europa. Hans has been working hard to make this year's event
>the best yet.
>
>The theme for VCF Europa 5.0 is User Interfaces. Exhibits and talks
>will focus on the human computer interface from keypunch machines to
>the mouse.
>
>For more information, please visit the VCF Europa website:
>
> http://www.vcfe.org/
>
>
>Vintage Computer Marketplace: Phase Two
>---------------------------------------
>
>The Vintage Computer Marketplace registered its 500th user sometime in
>December, which was a significant milestone. Since then, new users
>have continued to register and the current registered user count is
>nearing 700.
>
>We're hard at work to roll out the next release of the Marketplace
>software, which will add more features and options. We'll also begin
>to roll out our premium features which will allow you to more
>efficiently and effectively find those odd old computer bits you've
>been seeking for a while, and help you sell or trade items in your own
>collection.
>
>With these new features in place, we'll also be rolling out the next
>phase of our marketing campaign. The beta test phase is effectively
>over and has demonstrated that the software can handle the load of
>thousands of listings, so we'll be embarking on a program over the
>course of the next couple months to get more and more people to use
>the VCM to buy, sell and trade their vintage computing items instead
>of other services. We'll be putting into place several different
>types of incentives to make it the preferred marketplace on the web
>for vintage computers. It has been and will remain more profitable to
>use the VCM to sell than with other services, and for buyers we've got
>much better deals with much more friendly tools and a support staff
>that actually addresses complaints, suggestions and issues.
>
>A separate Vintage Computer Marketplace update will be coming out soon
>to notify you of the initiation of the new phase. In the meantime,
>check out the site if you haven't visited in a while and see the great
>items that are currently listed:
>
> http://marketplace.vintage.org
>
>
>
>VCF Organization Party
>----------------------
>
>The VCF will begin holding volunteer weekend organizations parties to
>accelerate the organization and cataloguing of the Vintage Computer
>Festival Archives.
>
>We'll be working towards getting the VCF Archives ready for the long
>promised Open House. We've got shelving to assemble, documents to
>sort, artifacts to box, books to catalog, machines to schlep, etc.
>The goal is to have the Archives ready to host an after-school
>computer and electronics lab for the local community before school
>lets out into summer recess. At that time, we also plan to begin
>hosting monthly computer collector meetings for vintage computer
>collectors in the Silicon Valley to gather and share experiences and
>information and trade computers (we'll have more on this in the next
>Gazette).
>
>Volunteers will be rewarded with free passes to the VCF, VCF T-shirts,
>and other goodies. Your contribution to this effort will be much
>appreciated and will help to finally make the VCF Archives fully
>organized and therefore more accessible to the vintage computer
>community.
>
>The first volunteer party will be March 6. We'll be starting at
>10:00am and going until at least 5:00pm, at which point the party
>begins. We'll have music, food, and fun baby! If you're interested
>in being part of the shindig, please RSVP by Friday, March 5, via
>e-mail to Sellam Ismail at <sellam_at_vintage.org>.
>
>The VCF headquarters is located in Livermore, California, so obviously
>only those local to the Silicon Valley area will be able to
>participate, but we won't stop anyone from flying in to lend a helping
>hand :)
>
>
>VCF Producer Sellam Ismail on TechTV's Screen Savers March 17
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The VCF's Sellam Ismail will be appearing on TechTV's "The Screen
>Savers" program on March 17th. Sellam will be bringing along old
>computer media for show and tell. This will be Sellam's third
>appearance on The Screen Savers.
>
>Check your local listings for air times.
>
>
>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
>
>;)
>
>--
>
>Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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Received on Sat Feb 28 2004 - 19:01:34 GMT