Photos: Homebrew CPUs, IBM mainframes, amazing replicas, and more from Vintage Computer Festival West XI

IBM 1130 Mainframe

Carl Claunch restored an IBM 1130 mainframe from about 1965. He also brought his homemade replica 1130. The real one is shown here.

Image: Bill Degnan

IBM Card Reader

An IBM mainframe can't do much without a way to read punched cards. The huge peripheral is the model 1442 reader.

Image: Bill Degnan

Replica differential analyzer

Before there were computers, there were differential analyzers based on the work of M.I.T.'s Vannevar Bush. Tim Robinson built a fully working replica out of Meccano toys! The machine took up several tables.

Image: Bill Degnan

Monster 6502

Every fan of eight-bit computing knows about the legendary MOS 6502 processor. Eric Schlaepfer built one from discrete components.

Image: Evan Koblentz

BigBit CPU

Not happy with the available crop of CPUs at Fry's? Build your own! It may not have the specs to rival the latest from Intel, but this homemade "BigBit" lets you step through every instruction and follow along bit-by-bit.

Image: Bill Degnan

HP-35 calculator prototype

This was the smallest thing on display at the show, but possibly the most important: a prototype of Hewlett-Packard's world-changing HP-35 handheld calculator from 1972.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Solid-state Monopoly

This left many attendees speechless. It's a homemade Monopoly game with status LEDs atop every property, Texas Instruments calculators to control your turn, and central processing handled by an IMSAI 8080. Originally built in 1978, the owner polished it up for this year's show.

Image: Evan Koblentz

ContrAlto emulator

Josh Dersch, of Paul Allen's Seattle-based Living Computer Museum, brought his Alto emulator. Alto was a computer built by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s and was far ahead of its time. Here it's running the Xerox Bravo word processor program.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Eight-bit Star Wars

Michael Hill demonstrated video processing using a Commodore 64. That's Luke and Leia on the screen!

Image: Evan Koblentz

Eight-bit Star Wars, continued

Obi-Wan and Darth engaged in an epic battle. "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Image: Evan Koblentz

Northstar computers

Pavl Zachary brought out his Northstar computers from 1977, but everyone was blown away by the backdrop. If you know computer history, then you know about 8-inch disks. Here's an 80-inch disk! He even put fake residue over the edges where the write-protect sticker would have fallen off.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Spacewar!

"Spacewar!" is a game made by M.I.T. students for the Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-1 mainframe in the early 1960s. That computer is up-and-running in a permanent exhibit at the Computer History Museum. A version for slightly newer PDP-8 computers is shown here.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Tomy Tutor and more

Japan's Tomy Tutor series had myriad versions and accessories. This is an amazing collection of the full suite, which is even more impressive to find in the United States.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Cromemco Dazzler

This colorful pattern on a modern LCD may not look like much, but it's a huge part of computer history. The screen is connected to a computer running the Cromemco Dazzler board from 1976, back when nobody had ever seen color and graphics on a personal computer.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Adventure

"Adventure" was among the earliest text-adventure games for computers. This exhibitor demonstrated it on an IBM PC 5150, complete with a map of the landscape you'll explore.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Radio Shack Color Computer artwork

MacPaint? Commodore Amiga? Nope! This is a Radio Shack Color Computer showing what it can do with graphics.

Image: Evan Koblentz

PiDP-8

DEC PPD-8 minicomputers are hard to acquire and harder to maintain. You could run an emulator on a PC, but that's kind of boring. Oscar Vermeulen's compromise is a kit he designed based on a Raspberry Pi microcontroller. Naturally, he calls it the "PiDP-8." Oscar came all the way from Switzerland.

Image: Evan Koblentz

IBM 5100

Not all microcomputers of the mid-1970s were for hobbyists--IBM and others sold professional machines, albeit using custom circuitry, not microprocessors. This one is the 50-pound IBM 5100 series, which IBM called "portable"... relatively speaking. The monitor on top is from a different computer. Most users were fine with the built-in CRT.

Image: Bill Degnan

HP-85B

Hewlett-Packard was also in the technical microcomputer game in the mid-1970s. The 85B was advertised as a calculator, but it was really a full computer.

Image: Bill Degnan

HP-85, continued

Good dog! It's an ASCII artwork image, based on a program from the Hewlett-Packard computer.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Data General One

Laptops evolved in 1981-1982. Data General's DG One, from a few years later, was among the earliest full-screen clamshells to bring laptops into the mainstream view.

Image: Bill Degnan

Analog computers

Not all computers are digital. Systems using analog technology--essentially electronic slide rules--were popular deep into the 1970s. You programmed it by placing the wires in the right configuration. Output goes to an oscilloscope.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Commodore Amiga

This isn't just any Commodore Amiga. It is serial #1--the very first Amiga off the production line. Apple's Macintosh gets a lot of credit for making the GUI mainstream, but Commodore's version was far more advanced.

Image: Evan Koblentz

TRS-80 Chess

Play chess on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1? Sure, why not! Checkmate.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Digital Logic Trainer

Michael Holley traveled from Seattle to show his microcomputer trainer, based on an article in the April 1970 issue of "Popular Electronics" magazine--the "Make" of its day.

Image: Evan Koblentz

Apple 1 Prototype

Here's yours truly holding what is believed to be a prototype of the Apple 1. Charitybuzz is auctioning it to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The auction ends Aug. 25, 2016. Update: The pre-production Apple 1 sold for $815,000.

Also see

• Photos: Apple II clones, an ENIAC emulator, and more from Vintage Computer Festival East XI
• Ghosts of tech past: Photos of data storage from the 1950s - 1980s
• Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from the 1970s
• Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from 1980-1983
• Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from 1984-1989

Image: Evan Koblentz