Hardware

Photos: Apple II clones, an ENIAC emulator, and more from Vintage Computer Festival East XI

By // April 29, 2016, 12:02 AM PST // technicallyevan

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  • Vintage Computer Festival East XI

    Vintage Computer Festival East XI was held April 15 - 17, 2016 at the InfoAge Science History Museum in Wall, New Jersey. The festival featured dozens of hands-on exhibitions of historic computers, peripherals, and software.

    The oldest hardware there was a DEC PDP-8/E minicomputer and a Kenbak-1 microcomputer, both from 1970. One exhibitor, Brian Stuart, showed his homemade simulation of the ENIAC from 1945!

    Most of the exhibits focused on 1970s-1980s minicomputers and microcomputers, such as DEC VAXen, S-100 "homebrew" systems such as the famous Altair 8800, and 8-bit home micros from companies like Apple, Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, and many others. Other exhibitors demonstrated homemade software and modern hacks, such as a Commodore 64 multiplayer Space Command! game.

    The InfoAge center is also home to a computer museum hosted by the Vintage Computer Federation, which is the nonprofit organization that leads the Festival series. The museum's artifacts include gems such as various analog and digital mainframes from the 1950s-1960s -- even a UNIVAC that formerly belonged to the US Navy.

    Disclaimer: I am the president of the Vintage Computer Federation.

    Image: Dan Roganti

  • Amiga video

    Anthony Becker and Bill Winters demonstrated video capturing and processing on Commodore Amiga systems.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Apple II clones

    People associate clones with the IBM PC series, but there were also Apple II clones.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Apple II clones, the sequel

    Here are more of Tony Bogan's Apple II clones.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • PET Invaders

    Michael Hill, of San Francisco, showed this version of Space Invaders running on a Commodore PET.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Commodore vs. Arduino

    Chris Fala, Doug Crawford, and Todd George teamed up to demonstrate interesting ways of connecting various Commodore computers to Arduino microcontrollers.

    Also see: 12 great Arduino kits for the DIY geek to build

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Rotten to the core

    Jeffrey Jonas is a fan of a core memory, which preceded RAM as we know it.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Apple 1

    Corey Cohen, who consults to major auction houses for Apple 1 sales, demonstrated the real thing.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • DEC VAXen

    Anthony Stramaglia and Bill Degnan each brought DEC microVAX minicomputers and networked them to each other.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • DEC PDP-8/M

    Kyle Owen brought out his DEC PDP-8/M minicomputer. The PDP-8 series turned 50 years old in 2015.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • ENIAC

    Brian Stuart made this incredible emulator of the ENIAC. The correct lights on the virtual computer illuminate in sequence with the program.

    Photo: Mike Loewen

  • IMSAI 8080

    Would you like to play a game? Here's an IMSAI 8080 with an 8-inch floppy drive and homemade joysticks. Bill Sudbrink showed it powering an early digital camera and color graphics.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Dazzler

    Bill Sudbrink's Cromemco Dazzler showed color graphics of the mid-1970s.

    Photo: Herb Johnson

  • Pac-Man

    Todd George brought us good old Pac-Man.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Cyclops

    Here's an authentic Cromemco Cyclops digital camera for the IMSAI 8080 computer, as built by Bill Sudbrink.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • TRS-80 game

    Peter Cetinski and son Alex demonstrated Galaxy Invasion on a TRS-80 Model 1 connected to the internet.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Xerox 820-II

    Mike Loewen's Xerox machine shows us the office system of 1982.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • French computers: Victor

    A whole team of Canadians and Frenchmen brought this Victor setup.

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • French computers, the sequel

    Victor wasn't left alone throughout the show: he had Alice!

    Photo: Bill Degnan

  • Ithica Intersystems

    Herb Johnson brought out S-100 computers from Ithaca Intersystems connected to an ADM-3A terminal.

    Photo: Herb Johnson

  • Panasonic

    The Panasonic JR-200U demonstrated by Jeff Salzman is a rare bird.

    Photo: Mike Loewen

  • Space Command

    Jeffrey Brace and Dan Roganti wrote an eight-player version of Artillery Duel by using modern hardware to network Commodore 64s. Even the server is a Commodore 64!

    Upcoming events in the Vintage Computer Festival series include VCF Europa (April 30-May 1, 2016 in Munich), VCF West (Aug. 6-7, 2016 in Silicon Valley), and VCF Midwest (Sept. 10-11, 2016 in Chicago).

    Also see: Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from the 1970s, Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from 1980-1983, Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from 1984-1989

    Photo: Mike Loewen

Vintage Computer Festival East XI

Vintage Computer Festival East XI was held April 15 - 17, 2016 at the InfoAge Science History Museum in Wall, New Jersey. The festival featured dozens of hands-on exhibitions of historic computers, peripherals, and software.

The oldest hardware there was a DEC PDP-8/E minicomputer and a Kenbak-1 microcomputer, both from 1970. One exhibitor, Brian Stuart, showed his homemade simulation of the ENIAC from 1945!

Most of the exhibits focused on 1970s-1980s minicomputers and microcomputers, such as DEC VAXen, S-100 "homebrew" systems such as the famous Altair 8800, and 8-bit home micros from companies like Apple, Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, and many others. Other exhibitors demonstrated homemade software and modern hacks, such as a Commodore 64 multiplayer Space Command! game.

The InfoAge center is also home to a computer museum hosted by the Vintage Computer Federation, which is the nonprofit organization that leads the Festival series. The museum's artifacts include gems such as various analog and digital mainframes from the 1950s-1960s -- even a UNIVAC that formerly belonged to the US Navy.

Disclaimer: I am the president of the Vintage Computer Federation.

Image: Dan Roganti

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By Evan Koblentz

Evan became a technology reporter during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. He published a book, "Abacus to smartphone: The evolution of mobile and portable computers" in 2015 and is executive director of Vintage Computer Federation, a 501(c)3 non-p...