Vintage Computer Festival SoCal is a highlight every year, with the bonus that it is all of 15 minutes from my house. This year, the exhibit hall and vendor booths were expanded. Consignment spread across a couple of rooms. The only downside was the limited space in the speaker’s hall. I popped in for what I could, including a little rundown of the various adventure game engines used to create Sierra Online and Lucas Arts classics.
But the fun of the experience is getting to take a look at classic machines, well-loved and honored, as well as some hilarious experiments that make you giggle. Case in point, a beautiful TRS-80 Model 4P, taking me back to my father’s numerous hours spent writing on his upgraded unit, pictured below. Also, pictured below – a husk of an Apple Lisa that someone popped a Mac Mini G4 board in. Cute!
Among the other highlights, a fine fellow had a PowerPC network running, powered by a G4 XServe and a G5 Xserve (even though it had issues). He had picked up most of the equipment from a video production business that gave him an ultimatum to get rid of it. Alongside it, a bevvy of PowerPC (and one Xeon) Mac that pulled applications and data from the central raid. You could even join the local WiFi network and read fun little webpages about the period-correct setup.
I grabbed a quick PDF of the base html page with a little bit of background info. Just fun stuff.
Overall, it’s good to hear updates on great projects like FujiNet that help vintage computers access the internet and serve up new purposes. And it’s fun to see intriguing projects, nostalgia, and an appreciation for computing history mixed into one. I highly recommend.
I’m already thinking about presenting a talk on the state of PowerMac G5s as a viable machine next year.
— Nathan
