Vintage Computing

Close to a couple hundred people, which is a total guess, took in the sights of vintage computer, TV and radio gear this weekend. The Vintage Computer Festival East X was held in Wall, New Jersey at a small museum.  As I walked the halls and rooms of the museum it was easy to be nearly overwhelmed by all the old and very cool technology.  I'll get to more of that shortly.  The real story though, to me at least, is of the people.  The colorful, passionate and friendly people that make up this niche community made me smile all day.

hmm, looks like a trash receptacle now

The Festival was held in the InfoAge Museum.  The setting and buildings have quite the history, being founded back in 1913 when the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. built a receiving station there.  It became Navy property and RCA Communications laboratory in WWI.  It had an interim use as a Christian College and then private property before being a US Army Signal Corp research lab shortly before WWII becoming known as Camp Evans.  Local historians and volunteers have taken on the role of care takers since the Army's retreat in the 1990's to more modern facilities. 

The Museum and its array of old equipment from tube radios to old computers was a perfect backdrop to the 34 exhibitors of old computer gear as part of the festival.  You have to understand the passion these folks have for technology and antiquity at the same time.  Christopher is a prime example.  He has developed circuits and software to allow old disk drives from the 70/80's to be connected to a modern USB port on a modern computer.  Regardless of asking "why" would you want to do that, the fact that he did is amazing.  There are others in the world with similar interest and Christopher was all smiles - literally- when telling anyone who wanted to hear more about his projects.  I didn't spend much time talking to the exhibitors, because my interest in old computing is limited to the curiosity threshold.  I'm not agog at what was accomplished with such equipment.  I can certainly appreciate the advancement that these early machines ushered in, and more than that I absolutely was thrilled to see the enjoyment all shared. 

one of the antenna outside

The earliest Apple products were on display near the old style main-framed machines - like early PDPs.  There were Ataris to Commodore and TRS80s.  Among this mix of gear were a delightful mix of people.  There we young and old, though admittedly the testosterone was far greater than the estrogen in the room. I loved the styles being sported.  Pony tails were popular - all belonging to men I believe, and age was not an indication of which men might be wearing them.  There were some great bushy beards, and a nice hat - a Bowler I'd say.  The Riddler, or close relative was present as well.  Colorful attire, while rare was definitely in the mix, as were accoutrements like stuffed animals.  Well, not really stuffed animals, but small stuffed astronauts with "Intel" printed on the suit.  Please, please understand that I think all of this is fabulous! In some respects there is a somewhat stereotypical flavor to the styles, but that's not the point either. I loved the diversity of all the 'fashion', even those with the branding of choice on them.  Amiga, ATARI, etc could be found being sported, as well as some DIY lighted names on T Shirts.

Part of Christopher's gear

I'll add a little as I add the photos.  This is a long one, but I hope you'll hang to the end.  Let's jump in.

 The museum had a section dedicated to ships that sunk of the New Jersey coast.  I had to take a shot of the radio room transmission between a sinking vessel (Republic) and a ship on the way (Baltic)





There was also a fair amount of stuff related to the World Wars.

I really wanted to try on this helmet!

 Hard to imagine that this technology, in the scheme of things, is not all that old.

The legendary Woz(niak) was at one of the former Computer Festivals.  A shirt with his autograph is featured in the museum.





















Punch cards!  yes, my first year of college included a computer class.... with punch cards as the input.






























 Two racks about six feet high to contain an analog computer...  not sure what it could actually compute.  Don't you just love buttons and knobs little lights?

 Don't you want a Think-A-Tron?  You can get answers in LIGHTS!


One of the military radios.

One of the tube radios.















This little phonograph was playing.

























 If you didn't know, phonographs played at different speeds (rpms) depending on how the record was recorded.  The 45's had a larger 'hole' in the middle and these inserts fit over the smaller diameter 33 rpm spindle.





This is an actual satellite, that was produced but not launched.

 From this graphic you can see the rapidity of technology.














Radios used to be 'furniture' in a very real sense with wonderful custom cabinetry.















Unless it's a military product of course!





 There was even a 'canteen' radio for covert operations.












Okay, now we're getting to the Festival proper.

Christopher showing his wares.

And below you have the first of the beard brothers.  What's your preference.. fully and shaggy or trimmed?

This must be the first keyboard to connect to a computer!


Do you remember the Apple Newton?  It was pretty leading edge, but was killed when Jobs went back to the company.





Two guys look to be sharing data between their Newtons

 You can't tell from this angle but the guy in the purple and purple outfit is probably only 18 and as bright as his outfit.  He got a GED so he could move on in life and get in college!  Awesome!


















 Pony tails and long hair... yep.















 Old connected to new... yep!

 Now that pony tail did not happen in a week.
































I mentioned there weren't nearly as many ladies as men.  This young lady was with her dad and they spent quite a bit of time talking with Christopher.  I liked this shot.  The lighting was tough (low) and I had to use my highest ISO setting and accept the 'noise.'

I was walking around and taking photos, and paused for a minute to look around.  I heard a rather quiet voice say something like:  "Do you want to look at this?"

This young lady shows me an old setup with a keyboard, joy stick and monitor (TV.)  I say "Sure", and she lifts the lid off the keyboard and says "Here's my Raspberry Pi" point to a credit-card sized sized board computer located within the keyboard.  I asked what it did, and she softly answered that it was broke right now.  I asked some more questions and she would glance to dad for some courage and answered.  She's not been working in the computer world long, but knows how to solder some and it getting there!!  Fantastic!  Dad was trying to trouble shoot, but thought they may have fried the board when his daughter touched the board.  She was too sweet.
























Another pony tail.... this one female!



And another ...  male tail (tale?)












It's nice to have a cheering section/support staff.  Lauren and Deb looking at a layout of a business card.  Deb found Christopher hadn't brought any with him, and thought this was something that needed to be fixed pronto.  We went to a nearby staples where a wonderful young lady named Morgan helped us out.  We had cards back to C within 1.5 hours, and they were handed out within minutes of our arrival.









That's a lot of gear to hookup for a festival!










It's always good to have The Force with you! 

A very nice Bowler that Alexander sported!


























The first room of the exhibit had more 'gaming' kinds of machines,  and you're never too young to get started.  This was the only young family that I noticed.  They were amazing to watch.  Dad right there, and mom was just out of frame.

A close up of some more of Christopher's gear

















 A on-line Hacker magazine 2600.com 

And... another pony tail.

 We're in the home stretch.  This one courtesy of the museum..  Did you know Hot Wheels had a real radar gun?

 The museum also has some hands-on features, including teaching folks - including kids - how to solder.




















  Yes, those are 'stuffed' astronauts or something on the bag.  I'm fairly sure they say "intel" on them

























 I have not idea what to make of this guy, but I did tell him I loved his hat.











































 There was also a section that had used gear on 'consignment.'  There was quite a bit of stuff: 8 track tapes, Commodore PC, several Newtons (like the one of the right that needs an adapter), a digitizer and so on.

Withing the same space we came upon a nice lady selling handmade soaps.  She had quite a selection and had them all named after computers or characters in video games.  It turns out her significant other is a computer guy and has his stuff in the exhibition hall.  She was doing pretty well with her sales.. which we helped with as well


She didn't want her photo taken, but in the end, I think I got one that was pretty good.







Thanks for taking the tour with me.

It truly was a great day, filled with lots of smiles.

And since I was in Jersey, I tried a pizza with anchovies...  not the best move, but hey, I can cross anchovies off the bucket-list.

The parting shot below is from the beach.  We stopped at Belmar for a bite of breakfast before heading the few miles to the venue.

Till next time,

Brian