- See: Part 1 / Part 2
. - In Part 1: Walking in (first impressions) , Mr. Macintosh, OP Workshop (E101/E102), Retro Tech Foundation Bell & Howell Apple II, Whoa.. an Apple III?, NCG Engineering – analog broadcast tech, NTP Time with Jeff Geerling, The Computer Clan, The Macintosh Librarian, Ron’s Computer Videos, and meeting Stan Skora.
- In Part 2: First time trying an Apple Lisa, The MacCharlie, Meeting Mac84, Meeting DosDude1 (Aka Collin), Evanboone & LAVCC, Meeting Superstar64, What a smoke show!, Playing with SGI Machines for the first time, Was the Nintendo Virtual Boy (1996) actually bad?, Seeing many familiar (Apple) devices in-person for the first time, Bringing back some goodies, and “Was this the long-lost twin of my 3,1?”.
Beyond the Macintosh
VCF Midwest has far more than Apple gear, even if it makes a sizable chunk of exhibitions and devices at the event. My favorite part in particular is how diverse the range of displays were.. from early vacuum tubes to Compaq’s, to OS/2 and LAN parties, with spare parts and Macintoshes galore, some colorful PC cases, many mobile devices, many interesting projects, many games and gaming systems, even an atomic clock I didn’t know about until yesterday.
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1970s RCA Video Casette Player
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An IBM Palm Top PC 110 TFT
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Topo the Robot
It’s a song on my ’80s playlist, but at first I didn’t realize it was Topo.. just a preposterously familiar robot at VCF. I also didn’t know it was an early programmable robot, either!
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Sun SPARCstation10
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IBM OS/2 Computers
Interesting to see so many original IBM OS/2 software titles in such good shape, all next to each other. As soon as my eyes crossed paths with Lotus 123, I thought of that 1986 Steve Ballmer Windows 1.0 commercial.. “..watch as windows integrates Lotus 1 2 3 with Miami Vice!“.
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2000s Era XP Gaming PCs
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Texas Instruments TI 99/4A
Vacuum Tubes/Amplifiers-oscillators/Radio Receivers
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Data Control Station for National Gas Pipeline of America
This exhibit stood out to me as it was noticeably one of the few (if not, was the only) computer which looked straight out of a 1960s – ’70s mainframe environment, something I could easily take back to family and say “look, see what they had here”? There was someone already sitting at the terminal so I waited until later to snap pictures of the CRT display, but forgot to. I love the punch cards + bin setup, too.
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Scott’s Gear
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Ultra Portable Japanese PCs & Laptops
The Sony VGN-P90HS looks strikingly similar to something you’d read in a 2000s tech magazine and have on your wish list, only to find out it’s just a prototype, a one-off, or isn’t sold in your country. It’s marvelous and is a whole tiny laptop.
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Complete working DEC PDP-8/1 System for sale
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Washing machine sized Hard Drives
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Franklin PC-8000 with box
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Cray CX40/Intel KNL Compute
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Tandy TRS-80 Model 2000
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A Gateway 2000 4DX-33V + Vivitron + Roland speakers
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Look over there, a Quadro FX 4500!
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Meeting MacEffects
These are the guys behind the high-quality new cases for your Apple gear, as well as the new case for the M4 Mac mini which takes on the style of the Power Mac G4 Cube. It was nice to meet MacEffects team, talk about the different projects, and see the people behind the work face to face.
More things Apple
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Replica Apple I by BorgMac (Table D120)
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ZigZagJoe’s Macintosh Hexdra 650
Thank you for giving a breakdown of the project, chatting for a bit, and also letting me check out that OQO Model 1+ also. ZigZagJoe makes all sorts of modifications to Macs, as well as other ideas he comes up with. The OQO Model 1+ was for sale, too.
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Panasonic Toughbook with N9Tax Retro Lab
I thought they stopped making these so long ago, so when I saw one with a 2nd gen i5 I was like “wow”! Joseph Krajacic gave me the story on how he got that one, and we also talked a bit about his exhibition at the show.
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Mac pins & stickers by GlitchBits
Designed entirely in-house, these are high-quality pins which not only feel sturdy to withstand the test of time, but they look quite aesthetically pleasing as well. I love the traffic light “close/minimize/maximize” pin and app developer pins most, as they stand out but feel familiar.
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As it was getting close to the time to leave..
Despite how overwhelming the entire display of tech, history, gaming, computing, and all else that was in here, leaving that Sunday afternoon felt bittersweet, I didn’t wanna go. As a technology enthusiast I was around likeminded people, tons of them, probably for the first time ever. It’s been a long while since I put myself out there on a trip for myself which I felt really good about and enjoyed, but this trip also reminded me of who I am. It reminded me to also focus, to hone in on the things that work, to not ever give up on my passion for technology.
Now it was 3 pm, time to take the VCF haul, pack my things up, and get on my way. I could’ve grabbed more gear, but really didn’t wanna go overboard. On my way back home, however, there is just.. one more thing.
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Hello from Low End Mac HQ!
Along the way, Dan and I met for the first time. I was super tired from the trip yet so thrilled to meet with a likeminded, longtime friend, especially since writing and designing Low End Mac became more a part of my life over the last few years. It feels great to be a part of something, to share knowledge, to participate, and to feel like your work has some meaning out there.
