Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Vintage Computer Festival 8.0

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the places-to-be dept.

Sellam Ismail writes "The 8th annual Vintage Computer Festival is being held on November 5th & 6th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The highlight of this year's event is a Homebrew Computer Club retrospective featuring a panel of original members of the Club including Steve Wozniak, Lee Felsenstein, and others. VCF 8.0 also brings the return of the Nerd Trivia Challenge, a game show style trivia contest for hardcore computer history buffs, and for the first time is hosting the award presentation ceremony for the International Obfuscated C Code Competition."

100 comments

  1. I could have participated too.. by bogaboga · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ...if I were anywhere near that location. Mine is an IBM with a 36Mhz processor and 1MB of RAM, bought 1981 and I recently installed MS-DOS 5.0 onto it. I was not easy as it could not read most of my floppies. It takes 19 seconds to boot and had a 12" green monitor.

    But I am a young man myself...a 35 year old male!

    1. Re:I could have participated too.. by empaler · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have a 1.6 Ghz WXP box. I would love to have a 19 second boot time...

    2. Re:I could have participated too.. by Taladar · · Score: 1

      WinXP takes 19 seconds from the point where MS wants you to believe it has booted (desktop shows) to actually being usable (icons on the desktop react to a doubleclick) on my AMD64 3200+.

      --
      Linux is not Windows
    3. Re:I could have participated too.. by cnettel · · Score: 2, Informative

      I guess it should read 1991, not 1981?

    4. Re:I could have participated too.. by mordors9 · · Score: 1

      Quiet young feller before I sic the dog on you....

    5. Re:I could have participated too.. by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      Damn that's fast.

      It can take 3-4 minutes on my AMD64 laptop.

    6. Re:I could have participated too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Um, what model IBM PC had 1MB RAM and a 36MHz CPU in 1981?

      Answer: NONE. The IBM PC-XT was released around that time, and had a 4.77 Mhz 8088 CPU. As I recall, it came with 64KB RAM.

      You're probably thinking of an 808486/33 MHz CPU... and if you bought one in 1991, then you were a few years late, as they were first released in around 1989, as I recall... and 1MB RAM would have been on the low side by then - 4MB would have been standard, with 8 or 16 more common.

    7. Re:I could have participated too.. by Kashdin · · Score: 1

      Sitting in my basement is my Fanklin ACE 1200 (Apple clone), top-of-the-line 128K RAM HD :)

    8. Re:I could have participated too.. by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      You're joking, right? I need to break out my Tandy Model I [oss-in-efl.info] for this... The 4KB of RAM will astound you all! And I think that your machine wasn't 1981, since mine was 1979? That Z80 chip rocked. (37 myself)

      --
      Put identity in the browser.
    9. Re:I could have participated too.. by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I screwed up the link there (Which is the main reason that I posted it, anyway, haha) -- My Tandy Model I. Preview, preview.

      --
      Put identity in the browser.
    10. Re:I could have participated too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I have a 1.6 Ghz WXP box. I would love to have a 19 second boot time...

      Easy. Install DOS in place of XP.

    11. Re:I could have participated too.. by iceanfire · · Score: 1

      then you're probably loading too much stuff at startup. I also have an amd64 laptop and startup only takes about a miniute (max).

    12. Re:I could have participated too.. by Graemee · · Score: 2, Informative

      80's????

      Try 1977, Commodore PET 2001, 8K builtin Tape and 9" BW display. Chicklet Keyboard.

      Now that's vintage.

      It boot's in about 6 secs. Not bad for 1 Mhz. Runs Microsoft Basic.

    13. Re:I could have participated too.. by Mr+Z · · Score: 1

      My WinXP laptop is similarly slow. I blame all the corporate anal probes installed on there. The hard drive on that thing is always crunching away either a virus scan, a backup scan or some SMS inventory script. I quite often have a system load between 50% and 80% at "idle." And, with that *cough* speedy *cough* 4500RPM laptop HD, you can imagine how responsive it is while it boots and loads all this crap, and how long it takes before I can even so much as open the Start menu....

      --
      Program Intellivision!
    14. Re:I could have participated too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My PDP-11 farts in your general direction. (You just can't hear it over the fans.)

    15. Re:I could have participated too.. by fontkick · · Score: 1

      1991 is more like it. The "IBM" processor available in 1981 was the 8088 and the fastest speed was 8 MHz.

      The 386/486 were available around 1991 and personally I wouldn't consider them 'vintage'. You need at least a tape drive or other obsolete I/O device to fall into that category.

    16. Re:I could have participated too.. by cnettel · · Score: 1
      Agreed, but I would probably count a PC with (only) 5 1/4 floppy drives in, too -- at least the single density ones.

      To some degree, maybe we should consider what the specific machines were used for. If it was mainly for coding things yourself and typing in source listings from computer magazines, I would tend to be "forgiving" and count a few PCs, while if they were just used to run Lotus 123 in a business setting, they're out. (Hey, we need to avoid anything Mac*, while including Apple ][ :-)

    17. Re:I could have participated too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its fans cheers everytime it farts? Man, that's some wicked computer!

    18. Re:I could have participated too.. by Mr+Z · · Score: 3, Informative

      4MB was still a lot of RAM in 1991, unless you were plonking down $4000 for a PC. Then you might get a capacious 8MB or 16MB system. My approx $2000 386SX25 system came with 4MB of RAM, and that was summer of '92. It also had a 1MB video card (ET4000 based).... Ah, the bad ol' days. It even briefly had an out-of-date 68MB ESDI drive in it, but that was quickly swapped out for a 120MB IDE drive. 486s didn't really become popular outside of servers until 1992 or so, and they were still rather expensive. I bet AMD made a lot of money selling 386DX40s in that time period.

      I remember a couple years later paying $475 for 16MB of RAM for that system. (By then, it was upgraded to a 486DX33.) $475 was considered dirt cheap at the time, having come down from $600. Ah, 1994.

      --Joe

      --
      Program Intellivision!
    19. Re:I could have participated too.. by tonsofpcs · · Score: 1

      Semi-customized Compaq Portable III
      Tandy 1000 HT
      Sharp "Portable PC" (same as TRS-80 Portables)
      Amigas!!!
      a YIBM PC (IBM clone)
      TRS-80 Model II
      TRS-80 CoCo
      and alot more....
      Too bad I'm on the wrong coast for this—or is it they who are on the wrong coast?

      --
      Video Production Support
    20. Re:I could have participated too.. by multipartmixed · · Score: 1

      If it makes you feel any better, I recall paying $1600 for Samsung 16MB fast page mode DRAM SIMMs at one point in time. I think I bought them for a Pentium-90 system.

      --

      Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
    21. Re:I could have participated too.. by toddestan · · Score: 1

      I have a 286 from 1988 that came with 4MB of ram installed. Must of cost someone a pretty penny back then. Runs Windows 3.1 just great, by the way.

    22. Re:I could have participated too.. by Mr+Z · · Score: 1

      Yeah, machines that ran databases, large worksheets or CAD software tended to have such extravagant amounts of RAM back then. :-) I believe the 286-12 I was using at work around that time frame had only 1MB, but I could be wrong. My boss was such a cheapskate that when he got a AMD 386-40, he bought a paper-white monitor to go with its VGA card. :-P

      Man... I still remember programming Informix SmartWare on that machine. It was a pretty neat integrated office suite, and Smart 2's programming language was pretty nice. (Smart 1's was like a glorified DOS batch language.) It was my first real glimpse into the world of databases and relational databases, and let's just say I didn't go running back to that space.

      --Joe

      --
      Program Intellivision!
    23. Re:I could have participated too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      6 seconds! Man, that's so slow ;) ... my shiny and oh-so modern (1983) microbee 32 boot(ed/s) to ms basic (ROM) in about 3 seconds from coldstart, less still if you soldered in the battery backup option (ah the beauty of CMOS ram and a battery... oh the pain when the battery went flat after hadn't saved your code to tape for a week).

      Admittedly it ran at a whopping 3 MHz though...

    24. Re:I could have participated too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are a liar and you know it.

  2. Vintage? by geomon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Other computing luminaries were noticably absent from the gala affair including Drs. J Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, designers of the ENIAC machine. The creator of the Antikythera Mechanism was also not in attendence. Conference organizers said that the originator of the ancient greek computer was unknown, so it was understandable that an invitation was not sent. Similar reasons were given for not inviting the designer of the abacus.

    --
    "Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
  3. Old Data Recovery? by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If I arrive, will I finally be able to get those homebrew games
    off my dusty old 5 1/2'' (B:) floppy?

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
    1. Re:Old Data Recovery? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I've never seen a 5 1/2 inch floppy, so I don't even know where to get a drive for that. But I guess since you are referring to a drive with a particular letter, yuo have the drive?

    2. Re:Old Data Recovery? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did that with my old home brew games recently.
      Written in turbo pascal on a 286.
      I finally found a floppy drive that would work and dumped them over on to my pentium 200 running DOS.

      Problem is, I'd forgotten that I'd written them all to access screen memory directly.
      They will only show graphics with a Hercules mono graphics card. I only have executables as well, the source is long gone.

      Perhaps someone will have one at this computer fair. There are about fifty games in all. A couple used a technique to get sound effects and music at the same time that I was very proud of at the time. I could hear that still working at least, and I still think it's cool. :)

    3. Re:Old Data Recovery? by JoeCommodore · · Score: 2, Informative

      Probably more than likely, I myself have been there since the first one, and at times convert data and programs for folks who have the disks and not the computer. Though my forte is Commodore 8-bits (mainly the PETs) but I've ssen people demoing thier TRS-80s, and older CP/M units, etc. If there is any place you can find someone who knows how to do it (or can do it) VCF is the place to go.

      --
      "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
  4. Excuse me? by geomon · · Score: 1

    I have no idea what you are talking about.

    (cue X Files theme song)

    --
    "Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
  5. Re:did anyone else see by empaler · · Score: 1

    No, but don't complain that they pulled a dupe, otherwise they might think twice about it next time...

  6. I wonder? by elgee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if any of the Obfuscated C Code was ever folded into commercial products? Or mission critical enterprise applications?

    1. Re:I wonder? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 3, Funny

      I heard there was a small seattle based software company that was taking it and making products out of it... wonder what became of them?

    2. Re:I wonder? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I de-obfuscated a winning IOCCC entry (LISP interpreter) and developed a popular open source project based on it...

    3. Re:I wonder? by BushCheney08 · · Score: 1

      Not sure, but I heard the same thing about a coupla guys from Albuquerque...

      --
      Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
    4. Re:I wonder? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      I thought it was used by some young swede from Finland?

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    5. Re:I wonder? by Pop69 · · Score: 1

      Do they not call it PERL these days ?

  7. Hmm by linforcer · · Score: 2, Funny

    So it's pretty much a festival for obsolete computers? I guess I can bring my AMD 2400+-pc, too, then.

    1. Re:Hmm by Pegasus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sigh ... If I could, I'd moderate you as 'sad'.

    2. Re:Hmm by grolschie · · Score: 1

      So it's pretty much a festival for obsolete computers? I guess I can bring my AMD 2400+-pc, too, then.

      Is Windows Vista out already? :-)

  8. Even back then by TheCycoONE · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Steve Wozniak eh, so I guess it wouldn't be appropriate to bring my three commodore 64's... Though one of them is one of the original 1980 ones with the buggy rom chip. Even back then Microsoft couldn't get things right.

    1. Re:Even back then by mordors9 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you can get Woz to help you phreak a call to the President for old time's sake.

    2. Re:Even back then by Zedrick · · Score: 2, Informative

      Eh? Could you please elaborate a bit on that? I've been using C64's since the mid-80's, and currently own about 20-22 of them in different revisions (plus 5 C128 and C128D), but I have to admit I've never heard of a C64 from 1980 with a "buggy rom chip". Also, the commodore techs didn't start working on what would become the C64 until January 1981. Are you confusing it with Basic 1.0 for the PET? There has never been anything but Basic 2.0 in any C64 revision.

    3. Re:Even back then by IL-CSIXTY4 · · Score: 2, Informative
      I wonder if it could be referring to the "clear screen" bug:
      In the original version of the Kernal, the routine that cleared a screen line set the corresponding Color RAM to a value of 1, which gives text characters a white foreground color. This was changed in version zero because the white color was found to sometimes cause light flashes during screen scrolling. It was that white foreground color, however, that enabled the user to POKE the screen code for a character into screen RAM, and make that character appear on the screen that contrasted the blue background. This change to the Operating system caused colors POKEd to screen RAM to be the same color as the background, and thus made them invisible. By initializing Color RAM to the foreground color, version 3 of the Kernal solved this problem.
      Source: Mapping the Commodore 64
    4. Re:Even back then by JoeCommodore · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I can assure you the Commodore 64 has had a presence at all the VCFs and this year is no exception with the demonstration of the Q-Link Reloaded, Q-Link recreated over the internet - for the Commodore 64! (or 64 emulator)

      Should be fun!

      --
      "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
  9. the museum has come a long way by rtphokie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember when this museum was housed in an old storage building on the Nasa Ames base. I've never seen so much computing history, or so many adding machines, in one place. Put the Smithsoneums Information Age exhibit to shame.

  10. Re:I love my Amiga by Daengbo · · Score: 1

    posh! Amiga? I need to break out my Tandy Model I for this... The 4KB of RAM will astound you all!

    --
    Put identity in the browser.
  11. Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Interesting
    With only a few k of memory and a few thousand or few tens of thousands of transistors, these old machine were 100% comprehensible. A hobbyist could readily learn the purpose and functioning of every instruction, every chip, and every circuit trace. In contrast, modern machines are largely inscrutable black boxes with millions of lines of code in deeply layered architectures.

    I'l gladly give up knowledge of 100% of the internals in exchange for the power of OS X on a G5, but those old machines do provide a pleasant simplicity.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by NixieBunny · · Score: 1

      The amusing thing about old machines is that you may have had to key in every byte of the assembler or BASIC interpreter in hex to get the thing to do anything useful - we're talking a couple thousand bytes usually. But darn it, the machine could actually *do* something with a couple thousand bytes of code!

      --
      The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
    2. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 3, Insightful

      those old machines do provide a pleasant simplicity.

      Not only that, but everyone "into" computers back in the late 70s and 80s were enthusiasts. A computer show/swap in 1988 would draw every nerd in a 50 mile radius ... It was great to be among such kindred spirits: nerds donning vendor t-shirts like sports fans flaunt team jerseys, nerds with nervous ticks, nerds browsing floppy drive porn, nerds diving into bins of cables/breadboards/proms, skinny nerds struggling to carry bulky XT cases across the parking lot. Sadly those days are looooonnnnngggg gone.

    3. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly

      I don't think that word means what you think it means.

    4. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      everyone "into" computers back in the late 70s and 80s were enthusiasts.

      That's right. Most personal computers came with at least one computer language because it was assumed that if you bought a computer, you would want to program it - even if it was only for the enjoyment of learning how the computer did what it did.

      There was a real appreciation for what a marvel this thing was.

      I suppose that once anything becomes ubiquitous, true appreciation for it is going to wane, but I still flinch every time I hear complaining from a co-worker that their computer just isn't good enough and they need a new one.

    5. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most personal computers came with at least one computer language

      Most personal computers came with *exactly* one computer language, and that language was BASIC, unfortunately.

      Screwed up my programming style for years :(

    6. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Arandir · · Score: 3, Informative

      But darn it, the machine could actually *do* something with a couple thousand bytes of code!

      Actually, modern computers can actually do something with a couple thousand bytes of code too!

      There are three main factors contributing to modern "bloat":

      1) Error checking. It takes resources to detect error, and further resources to recover from them.

      2) Abstraction. Programming in a high level language is not as efficient as programming hand tuned assembly. C is a good compromise, but even there you run across the next problem:

      3) Common code. Common shared libraries, by necessity, always do more than you need them to do. Consider "printf" for example.

      4) User Interface. Textual interfaces bloated software, but they were nothing compared to GUIs. I'm writing a piece of software now that is probably 95% GUI code. I can't see any way to trim it down without losing user friendliness and ease of use.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    7. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... So what is the fifth main factor contributing to modern "bloat"?

    8. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by dabigpaybackski · · Score: 1
      Sadly those days are looooonnnnngggg gone.

      There's still the bins and shelves at Goodwill. I have friends who assemble complete computers and hi-fi systems with the parts they find at Goodwill.

      --
      "OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
    9. Re:Beauty of the old machines: simplicity by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 1

      I do that a lot. Unfortunately, some Goodwills have started packaging everything into a system+monitor+peripherals package and won't sell you individual items, much less individual parts...At least the closest one to me hasn't started doing that yet, and there are always flea-markets.

  12. The first computer I programmed. by elgee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An RPC-4000. Picture here:
    http://home.att.net/~lgaska/images/rpc-4000.jpg
    If memory serves me correct, it had 4096 words of rotating drum meemory. Paper tape or Flexowriter input. It was great.

    Yes, I am older than dirt.

    1. Re:The first computer I programmed. by bgspence · · Score: 1

      I programmed one of these machines in 1962 in Wayne, Mi. There is one at the Computer History Museum.

      I was a Junior in High School and my dad had a friend who was using one to do concrete stress calculations. I hand assembled the code to the machine's drum storage. My first bit of professional programming, but more like crosswords or Sudoku.

    2. Re:The first computer I programmed. by elgee · · Score: 1

      One of my favorite computer stories of all time is "The Story of Mel."

      http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html

      The best Mel quote is:
      "If a program can't rewrite its own code," he asked, "what good is it?"

  13. What a shame... by Landak · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pity I can't send my school's 'Sysadmin' there for retraining. He might actually pick up a few new tips too.....

    --
    My UID is prime. Is yours?
  14. Website belongs in the collection too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's too bad that the Computer Museum website belongs in it's collection instead of on the web. I found it almost impossible to view their collection of artifacts. Maybe the designer should read up on a modern book of website design.

  15. Re:I love my Amiga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it was a Model I it wasn't a "Tandy Model I". It was a "Tandy / Radio Shack Model I". The Tandy-only labeling started later, but certainly not with the Model I.

  16. Re:I love my Amiga by Daengbo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah. My Dad bought it from Radio Shack. Over $1000. I didn't even know the brand name for years later, just "Model I."

    --
    Put identity in the browser.
  17. Bah to the commadore 64 by drn8 · · Score: 0

    I have a vic 20.

    I'm lookin to go -2 here.

    1. Re:Bah to the commadore 64 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Pah and pish to the Vic 20 with its extravagant 5KB of RAM.

      My ZX81 has only 1KB, and that should be enough for anyone.

    2. Re:Bah to the commadore 64 by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      My ZX81 has only 1KB, and that should be enough for anyone.

      Well, they did manage to get a basic (full) chess program to fit into the 1K memory, didn't they?

      However, remember that with the extravagent 16K ram-pack, you could play exciting Doom-style 3D games on the ZX81.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  18. my first computer experience, HP 2000 by rheotaxis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In early 1970's, I recall this computer, the HP 2000, with real-time BASIC, paper tapes, and teletype terminals with modem connections. (My first computer program was on this machine, 1972!) It had great interactive games, all text of course, and some based on real physcial science. I recall one our Physics teacher wrote, trying to land Apollo Lunar module on the surface of the Moon, without running out of fuel, or crashing into the surface too fast. It wasn't easy, and I remember kids screaming with joy when they actully made it safe, which wasn't very often. This was real science teaching at its best.

    --
    Software freedom...I love it!
    1. Re:my first computer experience, HP 2000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I was in junior high, I used to sneak into the university building that housed terminals to an HP 2000.

      I don't remember how I found out about them, but it was then, that I started to appreciate the power of learning.

  19. Custom ZX81 here by smchris · · Score: 1

    Bought a metal "keybaord case" and a set of keyboard keys and hard-wired it to the ZX-81. The computer and PS went into the case. The keyboard added a reset key and with the PS in the case I added a power switch and an LCD "on" indicator. Hardwired the 16K memory expansion to the computer so I could point the "bus" out of the case where I could plug in the printer and a sound effects card. Grommetted output for the tape drive cord and put in a recepticle to the 6-8 keys (if I remember) so I could use a joystick for the flight sim.

    Got something called a stringy floppy that used tiny videotape cartridges. Made access about as convenient as a Commodore floppy drive.

    Fortunately, I worked in a decently large city and could pick up ZX magazine. The Brits came up with the best programs to type in.

    1. Re:Custom ZX81 here by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      Got something called a stringy floppy that used tiny videotape cartridges.

      2 things; I didn't know that there were stringy floppies available for the ZX81- I thought that they (the microdrives) only worked with the Spectrum and the QL.

      I know there were other brands, but I never heard of them being released for the ZX81.

      BTW, was there any significance to your use of the phrase "videotape" instead of "magnetic tape" or just "tape"? Just curious...

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    2. Re:Custom ZX81 here by smchris · · Score: 1

      Yup -- A&J Microdrive, Sunnyvale, California. Claimed to be backward compatible with an (8K) ZX80 too.

      I don't see it mentioned in the manual but I seem to remember they said it was some microformat for portable video at the time. They are quite small cassettes (1-1/2"x2-3/8"x3/16"), like a micro audio recorder so tape is much thinner than a standard audio cassette. You can hear it spooling rather quickly when it is accessing data -- they claimed "almost 30 times faster than cassette recorders". They came in different "foot" lengths of storage: 5, 10, 20, 35 and 50.

      I went as far as taking a photo of the lot for ebay but never went through with it. I also have a ZX morse code decoder and I think the setup would make an even cooler dystopian sci fi prop this decade if I actually used it.

  20. Commodore Question... by LEX+LETHAL · · Score: 1

    I used to own a C-64 back in the day. What was the difference between the 1541 disk drive and the 1541C? If I remember correctly, didn't the 1541C spin up each time a disk was inserted or removed?

    1. Re:Commodore Question... by NadaTech · · Score: 0

      The 1541C was slightly faster and white. OK, How many of us would have went to jail if there were laws against what we were doing? I was busted twice. All they did was take away my computer and send my mom a HUGE phone bill. I started on a VIC-20 then C=64, C=128 then this IBM clone crap. What a step backward that was!

    2. Re:Commodore Question... by Zedrick · · Score: 2, Informative

      From Jim Brains Commodore Trivia:

      Q $0E0) What is the difference(s) between the Newtronics 1541 and the 1541C? (only one difference is needed)


      A $0E0) (George Page, a noted authority on CBM Drives, indicated that Commodore made this a tough question to answer.) By the time the 1541C was introduced, Commodore threw a number of drives together and called them 1541Cs. The theoretical 1541C exhibited the following features:

      No head banging, and other problems fixed by modified ROMs.
      Case color matches C64C and C128 computers.

  21. Timex Sinclair by jackbower · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was one of the lucky ones and actually owned a 1000,1500, and then a 2068. I had an uncle that worked for Timex.

    Those were the days....

    TS-1000
    http://www.brtb.com/articles/timexindex.shtml

    TS-2068
    http://www.timexsinclair.org/

    1. Re:Timex Sinclair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bought the TS1000 in Kmart when they came out, also the 16K memory expansion pack.
      I wish I still had it, I also bought a keyboard kit the motherboard installed into. One day while cleaning out the closet, I fired it up but several of the keys no longer worked, so I chucked it...

      Also has a Commodore 64, TRS-80, Atari 512ST...

      While those are miserably underpowered machines by todays standards, it was an exciting time being interested in computers.

  22. I'm not that oldskool... by ShaolinTiger · · Score: 1

    I had a ZX-80, then a ZX-81, then a Spectrum 48k+ then a Spectrum 128k with a TAPE drive, that was awesome.

    --
    Share your Knowlege - Kung-Fu Geekery
    1. Re:I'm not that oldskool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I used to dream of a ZX-80. I had a Science of Cambridge Mk14 - playing Lunar Lander on a 7-seg LED dispay.

  23. Poor Choice of Acronyms by CaptainFlyingToaster · · Score: 1

    They DO know that VCF is the trade name for a particular brand of Vaginal Contraceptive Film, right? I guess few geeks have need of such things...

    1. Re:Poor Choice of Acronyms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It also stands for "Voltage Controlled Filter." I guess few geeks have need for such things...

  24. Obfuscated C Code by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

    ``...Obfuscated C Code...''

    Is there any other kind? ;-)

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  25. Time to mine the Garage of Doom? by mpaque · · Score: 1

    Perhaps it's time to dig out my old gear. The oldest system in the Garage of Doom is currently:

    Intellec 8 8008 development system with the 8080 upgrade card, FDOS in ROM.
    Dual Frugal Floppy drive. 2 8" drives and controller in a compact 17" rack mount case.
    ASR33 Teletype, with the big yellow paper roll, and that oh-so-convenient 1" paper tape punch. (Hi, Bill! Want a copy of a BASIC interpreter?)

    http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~hl/c.Intellec8.html

  26. Why can't we have a midwest vintage computer fest? by StarvingSE · · Score: 1

    Because I am dying to show off my sweet Atari ST, still in perfect working order. I have many find memories playing the original zork on that baby..... damn that was a sweet computer at the time!

    --
    I got nothin'
  27. Re:Why can't we have a midwest vintage computer fe by StarvingSE · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I don't normally reply to my own posts... but I better catch it before the grammar police do...

    find is supposed to be fond

    --
    I got nothin'
  28. What my wife would like to know is... by Dystopian+Rebel · · Score: 2, Funny

    Will they take a donation of some of the boxes of stuff that I have in the basement?

    --
    Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
    1. Re:What my wife would like to know is... by Tongo · · Score: 1

      I dunno about them, but I know I would. Depending on what it was and where you are I'd pay for shipping even.

  29. Mine is vintage last week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It should be ready to power up any time now.

    Would you care to sniff the power cord?

  30. Who is Evan Koblentz? by stickyc · · Score: 1

    Who is Evan Koblentz and why is he hosting the trivia contest and not Stewart Cheifet?

    1. Re:Who is Evan Koblentz? by evanak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hi, I am Evan. My main qualification for moderating the VCF's Nerd Trivia Contest is that I am editor of a publication called "Computer Collector" which is a free, weekly, subscription-based newsletter for, well, vintage computer collectors. There is a relatively simple web site at http://news.computercollector.com/ if you would like to learn more about us.

    2. Re:Who is Evan Koblentz? by evanak · · Score: 1

      Further clarification from Evan: I'm not affiliated with the actual domain of www.computercollector.com -- that site is owned by another collector who kindly lets me borrow it with the "news.-" prefix.

  31. Obfuscated C code is for amutures. Use PERL by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Real masochists and shitty programmers prefer to obfuscate code in perl.

    I would attempt to show a beauty of previous perl code but the /. garbage filter wont let me post it :-)

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  32. Re:Why can't we have a midwest vintage computer fe by evanak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, you just missed VCF Midwest, check it out: http://www.vintage.org/2005/midwest/

  33. Re:Why can't we have a midwest vintage computer fe by StarvingSE · · Score: 1

    Nice, thanks for the info!

    --
    I got nothin'