Subtitle: Did I Really Need This?
The Vintage Computer Festival has been going on for 18 years, but this is the first one I ever attended. I had no idea what to expect, but after CoCoFest in May I had an inkling. Same level of geekery, but more brands and models of machines to gawk at.
I took two of our kids with me and had fun explaining how things worked back in the day. Aside from vintage computers on display, there were old phones (Kermit phone!), video games, and more computing parts than you could shake a floppy at. One person had created a ginormous keyboard out of a bifold closet door and snack trays. It really worked — it was hooked up to a Commodore 64 and I programmed a quick print line in BASIC.
I swear, I did not plan to buy anything. I only wanted to gaze at the tech. But I got…itchy. I stumbled upon a Toshiba Tecra 700ct that works perfectly and for $50 I deemed it worth playing with at home.
After looking at the dozens of Apple I and Apple II computers in the space, I remembered how I always wanted one. But in 1989 I didn’t have an extra $3,000 (or any multiple of a thousand) to spend on a computer. In 1990 when I went to art school, there was a hall cubby devoted to the one Mac the school possessed, but it was off-limits to Freshmen. So when I saw a Macintosh SE FDHD on a back table today for $149, I had to have it. And since the show was closing down and they didn’t want to lug it back to their shop, I got it for $90. Boots up fine. It only needs a serial mouse, a better keyboard, a little cleaning, and it will be a beautiful addition to my collection.
This is probably the last computer festival I will attend this year. And probably a good thing, too.
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