Winter is here, and so we at Vintage Computer Federation reflect on the year past, look excitedly to the new year ahead, and think of the many ways for more people to be involved.

Vintage Computer Federation is, at our heart, a user group. Our mission is to enable collectors/hobbyists and to spread awareness of the history of computing. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

We achieved many of our goals in 2017. Highlights include refreshing our computer museum with digital signage, interactive kiosks, and new artifacts; diving into a massive inventory project; making more of the collection available to restorers; beginning work on a hobby knowledge base; upgrading our museum infrastructure with 208/3-phase power; substantial progress on restoring our mid-1960s Univac mainframe; and announcing the inaugural Vintage Computer Federation Pacific-Northwest with our newest partner Living Computers: Museum+Labs scheduled for February 2018.

For 2018 we’d like to continue working on the inventory, knowledge base, and Univac projects; determine additional regions to expand the Vintage Computer Festival series; begin installation of our dial-up BBS service; offer a wider variety of classes/workshops; select additional exotic systems for restoration; and much more!

We do all this thanks to the hard work of volunteers and those who make contributions to our mission.

There are many ways you can help. At the VCF museum in Wall, New Jersey, we’re always looking for volunteers. We need docents, inventory specialists, and technical restoration experts. At the Vintage Computer Festival events in New Jersey, northern California, and now Seattle, we need volunteers in roles such as setup, class instructors, security, front desk, consignment booth, and cleanup. For the under-construction knowledge base, we’ll need subject-matter experts, and for the Vintage Computer Forum we could always use additional moderators. And of course, we always welcome your suggestions for new ways that we could serve the vintage computing community!

Behind-the-scenes, we ended our previous fiscal year 2016 with $8,368.51 and more than doubled the year-end amount to $20,765.79 this year. Our major expenses include general operations, event venue rental, forum hosting, insurance, rental trucks for large artifact rescue missions, museum improvements, artifact handling, and marketing. As with any growing organization, the more we engage in exciting new activities, so too do costs increase.

Please help us succeed in reaching our present and upcoming goals. Visit https://vcfed.org/contribute/ where you can make a tax-deductible donation. You can also share this post with friends and colleagues via email, social media, or a dot-matrix printout pinned to your company’s lunchroom corkboard. Another way you can help is by including us in your Amazon Smile purchases.

All feedback is welcome! Feel free to reach me by phone or email anytime.

On behalf of the Vintage Computer Federation, I wish you a joyous holiday season and fond moments of vintage computing!

Thank you.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! We’re @vcfederation or subscribe to our email announcement list.

Vintage Computer Federation is bringing the Vintage Computer Festival to the Pacific Northwest. The first VCF PNW will be held February 10th-11th, 2018 at Living Computers: Museum+Labs in Seattle, Washington. We are actively looking for exhibitors, speakers and volunteers.

For exhibitor information and registration please visit our exhibitor registration page. For general information about the show please visit the VCF PNW page.

If you have questions, suggestions or comments please contact VCF PNW producer Michael Brutman (michael@vcfed.org).

“Seeing the early equipment at VCF is an amazing experience… It touches on all the hopes and dreams of the time and the many efforts to achieve what others thought would never happen. It brings back memories of a revolution in the making… The people you meet at the VCF are amazing.” — Steve Wozniak, co-founder, Apple

Still not sold!? Come read what Al Alcorn (Atari), Lee Felsenstein (Homebrew Computer Club, Sol-20, Osborne), Gordon Bell (DEC PDP-8), Jon Titus (Mark-8), Bil Herd (Commodore 128), Dave Ahl (Creative Computing), John Dilks (Personal Computing ’76), and Michael Geselowitz (IEEE History Center) all said about VCF.

There is still time to sign up for an exhibit booth at Vintage Computer Festival West XII. The deadline is noon ET on Monday, July 17. Take your favorite vintage computer, software, or homebrew project out of the basement and bring it to VCF West to show off to the world! If you’re unsure or have questions, then email show producer Erik Klein (erik@vcfed.org).

Vintage Computer Federation is pleased to announce an expansion of the Vintage Computer Festival series to the Pacific Northwest.

The first VCF PNW will be held at Living Computers: Museum + Labs in Seattle, Washington on February 10-11, 2018. Seattle is a rich and vibrant tech hub with beautiful scenery and every variety of rain possible, but it has been missing the Vintage Computer Festival experience. With the cooperation of the LCM+L we are fixing that by providing a weekend full of interesting exhibits and even more interesting people in what is already a great destination.

In the next few weeks we will put out more formal calls for exhibitors, volunteers, and speakers. If you would like to chat feel free to reach out to me at michael@vcfed.org.

Vintage Computer Federation is a national user group serving collectors, hobbyists, and anyone interested in the history of computing. More information about the Vintage Computer Federation can be found at vcfed.org. Living Computers: Museum + Labs provides a one-of-a-kind, hands-on experience with computer technology from the 1960s to the present. The LCM+L is online at livingcomputers.org.

Thank you,

Michael Brutman, on behalf of Vintage Computer Federation

Last summer we brought back Vintage Computer Festival West from the bit bucket. Now it’s almost time to do it again! The show is August 5-6 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Click here to learn all about exhibit registration and to reserve your spot.

Friends-of-the-Federation are hosting Vintage Computer Festival events in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) and Munich, Germany this weekend. VCF Southeast has Macintosh legend Andy Hertzfeld, TRS-80 mover-and-shaker Don French, and MOS 6502 pioneer Chuck Peddle (video of his 2007 talk). Of course, VCF Europa has much better beer. 🙂

Vintage Computer Festival Southeast is produced by our friends at the Atlanta Historical Computing Society. The show is April 29-30 in Roswell, Georgia. This year’s keynote speakers are Andy Hertzfeld of Apple Macintosh fame and Don French of TRS-80 renown. You’ll find two dozen exhibitors, vendors, a consignment sale, the Apple pop-up museum, and much more. This show gets bigger and better every year, so check it out if you’re anywhere in the southeast! New this year: the Vintage Computer Federation booth featuring eight-bit Lego robotics.

Vintage Computer Festival East XII was held last weekend in New Jersey. Five hundred people attended over three days! Click here for the picture thread. We are processing many hours of video and will post it as soon as possible.

Vintage Computer Festival East XII is imminent! In just 10 days from now there will be a three-day weekend featuring a dozen technical talks, three keynotes, two sold-out exhibit halls, a consignment / vendors room, learn-to-solder classes, and of course the year-round VCF museum will be open (Saturday/Sunday; not Friday). Online ticketing stays open until this coming Sunday; after that you’ll have to buy tickets at the door.