Vintage Computer Festival

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PDP -12 exhibited at the Vintage Computer Festival East in Marlborough, Massachusetts 2001
HP 2647A terminal connected to an HP 1000 minicomputer , Vintage Computer Festival East 2012

The Vintage Computer Festival ( VCF ) is a multi-day event located between the festival and the conference , which is dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of historical computers and other (e) data processing equipment .

concept

"The aim of the Vintage Computer Festival is to promote the preservation and maintenance of 'historical' computers and other (E) IT equipment, to arouse interest in 'superfluous' hardware and software and, above all, to enjoy it."

- vcfe.org, accessed August 1, 2013

The events of the various vintage computer festivals serve through private engagement in the field of computer technology history on the one hand to preserve historical hardware and software , which can not be provided by institutionalized bodies such as technology museums . On the other hand, historical practical knowledge of experts is secured, which otherwise would not find any written down.

history

The VCF was founded in 1997 by the American Sellam Ismail, a collector of old computer hardware and software who, as an entrepreneur, provides services against digital forgetting . In 1998 the first collectors' meeting took place in Pleasanton , California . The venue changes annually in the USA , for example in 2002 the festival took place in Silicon Valley in Mountain View (California) .

Offshoot

United States

Offshoots of the festival were successively created: the VCF East on the east coast , VCF Midwest in the Midwest and the VCF South in the south of the USA .

Great Britain

In 2010 the VCF GB was held for the first time at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire .

Vintage Computer Festival Europe (VCFe)

View into the hall of the Vintage Computer Festival Europe 2013

Since 2000, the Vintage Computer Festival Europe (VCFe) has been a European offshoot that takes place around May 1st in Munich . The event consists of an exhibition of historical computers, lectures and excursions are carried out, for example to the Cray-Cyber project of the Society for Historical Computing Systems . V. Further topics are benchmarks of historical hardware or historical computer games ( retro games ).

The VCFe serves various associations in the field of computer history as a platform for presentation and cooperation, for example the Apple User Group Europa e. V. AUGE or the Association for the Preservation of Classic Computers e. V.

With 1500 devices (as of 2012), the VCFe has its own collection of historical hardware.

VCFe / CH

In October 2013, the first VCFe took place in Winterthur, Switzerland. The second edition in October 2014 was also not very popular.

In 2016 the Swiss VCFe was relocated to the Rote Fabrik in Zurich and took place there on 19/20. November. The restart was extremely successful with over 1024 visitors in 2 days and the festival has been held annually in November in the Rote Fabrik since then.

Berlin

VCFB 2018 in Berlin

The Vintage Computing Festival Berlin (VCFB) has been taking place in Berlin since 2014 at the beginning of October .

reception

The Vintage Computer Festivals regularly attract hundreds of visitors. The British offshoot had over 2000 visitors in 2010, and the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast in 2013 had 1100 visitors. There were a total of 2600 visitors at the Vintage Computing Festival Berlin in 2018.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Markus Böhm: Vintage Computer Festival Europe: With the agent case in the mobile home . In: Spiegel Online , May 7, 2012, accessed August 1, 2013.
  2. ↑ Detlef Borchers : Retrocomputing: punching and copying . In: Heise online , April 28, 2004.
  3. ↑ Kahney, Leander: Computer Trash Is His Treasure (English) . In: Wired , October 23, 2002. Retrieved July 28, 2013. 
  4. ↑ a b c Stefan Höltgen ( Memento from April 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ): Retrotopia . In: Telepolis , May 1, 2012, accessed August 1, 2013.
  5. ↑ Vintage Computer Festival Europe
  6. ^ Cray Cyber ​​Project
  7. ^ Society for historical computing systems e. V.
  8. ↑ Detlef Borchers: The ultimate benchmark: Z80 or 6502? . In: Heise online , May 22, 2011, accessed on August 1, 2013.
  9. ↑ Detlef Borchers: Vintage Computer Festival: Daddling until the doctor comes . In: Heise online , April 14, 2008, accessed on August 1, 2013.
  10. ^ Association for the Preservation of Classic Computers e. V.
  11. ↑ Announcement, program. Retrieved September 13, 2013 .
  12. ↑ VCFe-CH leaflet. August 2013, accessed November 28, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Michael Gisiger: Review VCFe Winterthur 2013. October 11, 2013, accessed on November 28, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Roman Hodel: "Cool games, but the graphics are too pixelated for me". Switzerland Zurich. In: 20 minutes. November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
  15. ↑ vcfb: Vintage Computing Festival Berlin
  16. ↑ http://www.zdnet.com/bletchley-park-loads-2000-for-vintage-computer-festival-3040089305/
  17. ↑ Jacqui Cheng: Gallery: Apple Pop-Up museum and Vintage Computer Festival Southeast ( English ) arstechnica.com. April 28, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013: " The Apple Pop-Up museum was so popular, it'll re-open on May 18 and June 8. "
  18. ↑ Closing event VCFB 2018 . media.ccc.de. Retrieved October 16, 2018.

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