Tag: tandy

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Vintage Computer Festival East 2019 Recap

A few days ago I mentioned a crazy weekend where all my hobbies had their big events at the same time. One of the events was Vintage Computer Fest East 2019, or VCF East for short.

Suffice to say there are several Vintage Computer Fests that take place around the country world, and you can find a listing of many of them here: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/. VCF East happens to be the North-East version of the Vintage Computer Festival, hosted by the Vintage Computer Federation, who’s home and museum is at the InfoAge Science Center, an interesting complex that was once an army base, as well as part of Marconi’s original company amongst other things.

VCF East is an annual affair for the group, and helps raise funds for them to further their collection and restore many of the artifacts they have waiting for love. They host a museum space at InfoAge that includes not only your typical 8-bitters like your Tandys, your Commodores, Apples and so on, but some fairly big old iron as well, like a Cray Supercomputer, a WORKING Univac, and more!

The event is typically 3 days (Fri-Sun), with the first Friday being instructional classes on repair, restoration, and use of vintage computers, as well as a keynote speech. Unfortunately I missed Friday’s events in lieu of attending Pinfest this year, so no pics or recap there, but past classes are usually well attended and include a lot of info.

Saturday and Sunday are the show days where 2 large rooms of exhibits on vintage computing are on display, as well as a keynote speech, a consignment room (used stuff), a vendor room (new/reproduction stuff), a maker space where you can both buy and build your own single-board-vintage-computer right on site. other resources. During the show the rest of the museum is also open and included as part of the admission, and VCF’s own museum is open and manned as well.

Each show tends to have a theme, and this year featured large exhibits on the history of Atari Computers, as well as the Unix operating system, with all sorts of Unix flavors including Linux, Unix, AIX, Irix, and other ix’s.

The other room featured various display, such as the GEOS OS for Commodore, a DIY computer exhibit featuring an IMSAI-lookalike with functional switch panel, a display featuring various plotters making live works of art, information on the original ENIAC computer, amongst many more. (I apologize to anyone I missed as I’m typing this from memory.)

The vendor room had vendors selling new parts and accessories for vintage computers, including but not limited to new single board computers, add-ons for the MOS KIM-1, replacements ICs and helpful doohickeys for Commodore 64s and VIC-20s, and even some used stuff.

The show is growing – there were definitely some growing pains this year as the attendance numbers weren’t expected, but next year VCF East will be bigger and better. The Saturday keynote was not only standing room only, but included the outside hallway as well…

Keynote at capacity

All in all, I’m really glad I found the VCF group and the VCF East Event. It’s awesome to attend, and being close to Asbury park there’s other things to do in the area, including the Silverball Museum where you can play all sorts of Pinball and Video games. If you’re near the Mid-Atlantic states (PA/NJ/DE) and into retro computing, its definitely worth the drive (or flight) to check it out!

Did they really run Unix on an Apple Lisa?? Yup!
Atari Computers for days!
If there was an award for the heaviest computer at the show, I’m pretty sure this would have won it.
Fun with paper tape – generated on a Teletype ASR-33.
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Already Missing Radio Shack

Yes, Radio Shack may still be around in some minor form and via web site, most of the stores, including all the ones in the PA area, are gone. Walking around the mall a couple days ago, I was reminded of what was once my favorite store, likely the only store I would really “shop” at in the mall….Radio Shack!

While in recent times, Radio Shack struggled to keep up with my massive need for all things technology, I did still frequent the store just to see what they had that was new, and especially what was on clearance. While they were all around, the one I remember and likely visited the most was the store at the Plymouth Meeting Mall, in Plymouth Meeting PA. Every now and than I would manage to find a connector, a weird battery, or some other oddball item that I could use.

Radio Shack – Plymouth Meeting Mall, Plymouth Meeting, PA Feb 2015

That said, I remember fondly growing up where I was cutting my teeth playing with TVs, VCRs, boomboxes, and other stuff, where most of the time I needed batteries, or usually some “RCA to (some other plug) adapter”. We’d always mess around with the computers, and make sure we got our free battery from the free battery club! (While the club is long gone, Rat shack’s web site has t-shirts themed on it!)

The distinctly fond memories I have though, going back to the late 80s and early 90s, would be checking out the computers in the back of the store, and playing a game called Thexder on a TRS-80. I also remember the robotic arm called the Armatron they had at the counter that I’d play with while waiting in line. The one with the constantly-grinding gears that felt like it was going to break at any moment.

Lastly, I also remember the newer computers, one of which my parents finally bought me the family for Christmas, and the look of horror in my dads face when I told him we needed a “VGA” monitor, and when we went back, the $400 price tag that monitor had (after dumping over $2k into the actual computer). It was a Tandy 2500 SX 386, and I still have it!

Soon after I got the 386, a friend of mine also got a new computer, a Tandy Sensation 486, complete with the new MULTIMEDIA speaker sound system! Oooh!
(Yes, still jealous!)

I’ve had lengthy discussions with friends over what Radio Shack could have done to save themselves, and honestly from what I heard, they sorta knew. In reality though, having quick access to nearly any kind of component within a couple days certainly put a hurting on them, and I think its ironic that they really died off at a time when the Maker movement was really starting to take off. I realize more and more that malls have become mostly havens for clothing and jewelry, with Sears gone (the “other” store I’d shop), its somewhat difficult to actually buy hard goods at a mall anymore, especially anything having to do with “repair”.

Oh well…I’m just glad that with the writing on the wall, I learned to take the initiative to take a pic of the store before it closed up. The pic above was taken by me in February 2015. I have a couple other pics and videos of the Plymouth Meeting mall dating back to the mid 90s, so stay tuned for more nostalgia posts!

If you’re a nostalgia nut like I am, there’s tons of Radio Shack media out on the internets, including commercials, catalogs, other blog posts, and more. One example I found was this web site that has tons of Radio Shack catalogs. Cool!