VCF SE 1.0 Exhibits

Registered Exhibits

Retro Tinker’s CoCo Projects
John Linville (Mebane, NC, United States)
I am a retro-programmer, and the Tandy Color Computer is my platform of choice. Over the last few years, I’ve done some cool stuff with my CoCo! This exhibit will show some or all of the following: a digital video player for the Color Computer 3; Fahrfall, an original video game for the original Color Computer; a technique for displaying 44-color still images on an original Color Computer; and Follow Me, a clone of “Simon” for the Color Computer.
The Personal Computer before the PC
Kyle Owen (Auburn, AL, United States)
A display showing the evolution of Intel development systems intended for software and hardware development to systems like the Altair 8800b, Northstar Horizon and SWTPC 6800, full-fledged *usable* computers that could be programmed in BASIC from a terminal. The Northstar and SWTPC will both be demoed with games and other programs, and the Altair may be functional by then.
The World of MSX Computers – 30th Anniversary
Olivier Hustin (Marietta, GA, United States)
Along with Olivier, Thomas Liebert of Alpharetta, GA is co-presenter of this exhibit. The display will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the computer standard conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi and Microsoft. The exhibit will retrace the Japanese standard’s history, present some of the classic games created for the system and give an overview of the active users scene still developing hardware and software for the MSX.
Atlanta Historical Computing Society
AHCS (Atlanta, GA, United States)
This is the multi-table exhibit for the local club cosponsoring and staffing the show:

Brad Arnold: Atari 8-bit display

David Iwanicki: Small 80’s computers – ts1000, //c, TRS-80 mc-10, model 100

Mickey Dossey: Mindset / Sony video production systems

Michael Rhoades: A comparison of actual DOS on a vintage system and DOSBox

Homebrewed Tic-Tac-Toe computer
Jim B. Steiner (Atlanta, GA, United States)
4 / 8 bit Micro Trainers & Flashy Blinky Thingy
Flash Corliss (Mableton, GA, United States)
Early 4 and 8 bit Microprocessor Trainers

This exhibit will include early kits of the 70’s that got engineers and hobbyists alike excited about the new world of single chip personal computers. Items on display: Kenbak, ELF, SYM, KIM, AIM-65, Pro-Log, Altair, and other trainers. The exhibit will have some modern-retro trainer kits like the ELK-2k and 1802 Membership Card, which will be available for purchase. A collection of Vince Briel’s kits will also be available.

Flashy Blinky Thingy

This is a support and programming table for the Flashy Blinky Thingy kit that is offered at the show for the kids and adults to build. The Thingy is a fully programmable 8 bit computer with 6 blinking LEDs that fits in the palm of your hand. Additional soldering / de-soldering facilities, as well as AVR programmers, will be available to ensure that everyone’s Thingy works. The Thingy runs on compiled BASIC (BASCOM-AVR), so users can customize their Thingy firmware at the show if they wish. Users can also program in Assembly – but this task is not for the beginner. USB-ASP programmers and larger memory Atmel processors will be available for purchase so that future programming can be done at home.

History of Commodore’s Color
Peter Rittwage (Augusta, GA, United States)
All of the Commodore color computers will be exhibited, from the Vic-20 to the Amiga 4000, along with some history of the computer lines and the company.

Demos will be running on the C64, Amiga 1000, and likely others, plus some games to play.

Analog Computing & Neo-classicism
Brian Stuart (Bogart, GA, United States)
Two exhibits:

Analog Computing

The centerpiece artifact of this display will be a Comdyna GP-6 analog computer with a custom hybrid interface connecting it to a modern digital computer. Several slide rules will also be on display. Other examples and illustrations of analog comptuing may be included.

Neo-classicism in Vintage Computing

The focus of this display will be on modern engineering related to classic computing. Currently planned elements of the exhibit include software simulations of classic machines, an electronic recreation of a German Enigma cipher machine, and a newly-designed 6809 single-board computer.

Pre-Production Macintosh SE
Scott Baret (Fort Mill, SC, United States)
Believed to be the only remaining specimen of its kind, this machine was made in late 1986 prior to the release of the actual Macintosh SE. While it appears to function as a normal SE, it has some interesting features such as a smooth-textured case, a brightness knob from an earlier machine, a space for a huge Apple logo (never produced), and a serial number far earlier than any SE produced for the public. This seems to be an earlier version of the SE case than the well-known gray translucent computer given to SE team members.

The computer was found in a warehouse in Pittsburgh, PA in 2008. While I know little of its origin, my thought is it was somehow connected with Carnegie-Mellon University (although I have no way of confirming it).

Some history of handhelds, PDAs & organizers
David Greelish (Johns Creek, GA, United States)
The Development of the “Third Tier of Personal Computing.”

The first tier of personal computing was the desktop computer, and then the second was the portable / laptop. The third tier sort of evolved, then devolved, then evolved again into what a lot of us now carry around. On display will be handhelds, palmtops, PDAs, organizers, smartphones and tablets. Don’t forget too, before your finger “stylus” was the pen stylus!

The Third Tier of Personal Computing

Early PC networking related to multi user gaming
Samuel Lysinger (Atlanta, GA, United States)
We are presenting an Ethernet network running IPX and using 10base2 thin Ethernet for the purpose of gaming.

Before the commercial Internet, or even Windows for Workgroups, there were other technologies that existed to network PCs together. The big players were IBM and HP with Mainframes and terminals (way unaffordable), Thick Ethernet (unaffordable), and then Token Ring (still unaffordable).

On the small business scale, as networking equipment became more affordable, there was ARCnet, and then there was thin Ethernet. For medium to large businesses there was Novell Netware and for small businesses there was Lantastic. Netware was client server networking. Lantastic was peer to
peer.

The gaming development community discovered that they could use Novell’s IPX networking protocol to create a multi-user gaming experience without an actual Novell server.

Two early micros from entrepreneurs of the ’70s
Mike Willegal (Tewskbury, MA, United States)
I’ll demonstrate operating a reproduction Apple 1 “Microprocessor System” and a reproduction SCELBI 8H “Mini Computer”. These reproductions are near exact duplicates of the original designs, featuring all the capabilities, limitations, and faults of the originals. There are only a handful of original Apple 1s remaining in operating condition and even fewer original operating SCELBIs. The ones that do work, are rarely operated in public.

The Apple 1 uses a 1 MHZ 6502 processor. It supports 8K bytes of memory, a composite video output, keyboard input and a cassette interface for mass storage. The SCELBI 8H uses a 500KHZ 8008 processor. The SCELBI 8H supports up to 4K bytes of memory, 6 input and 8 output ports. The reproduction 8H that I’ll be demonstrating will have 2K of memory installed and be interfaced via a RS232 port to enable downloading code and user interaction.

I’ll be running 70’s era software on each machine. Games I’ll be able to demonstrate on the Apple 1 reproduction, include lunar lander, life, 4K Star Trek. I’ll be demonstrating Mandlebrot generation and a calculator program on the SCELBI.

Visitors will have an opportunity to join in the fun by operating these unique computers.