diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'content/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022.md')
-rw-r--r-- | content/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022.md | 100 |
1 files changed, 100 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/content/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022.md b/content/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2edbf62 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022.md @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ ++++ + +title = "Retro Computing - Vintage Computer Festival Zürich 2022" +categories = [ "Retro Computing", "Vintage Computer Festival", "VCF" ] +date = "2022-11-21T07:56:22+01:00" +thumbnail = "/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022-lisa-harddisk.jpg" ++++ + +## Intro + +This is the last vintage computer festival in Zürich in the "Rote Fabrik" +(which has to be restorated after a bad fire back in 2012) - at least +for now. It was held on November 19th/20th. + +It was back to what it was before the pandemic in terms of exhibits, +the amount of people attending, the talks (which where held again this year). + +It's an ever growing community of exhibitors, most of them try to +attend every year, so I'm just pointing out the new things, which +catched my attention (the others can be seen on older blog entries +of the series). + +This year we had challenges, so visitors could try their skills by +solving puzzles or programming tasks at the exhibition desks. This +is a good idea to get visitors more involved and it's not just a +museum then, where exhibitors have to say 20 times the same stuff +or people are just walking by the computers and making photos. + +I was sceptical in the beginning (basically because I don't like +puzzling), but in the end I also did one or two of the challenges: +trying to use a Lisa desktop and trying to get a message to Mastodon +from an old Unix System V. + +## Local Heroes + +Again we had the ETHZ Lilith and Ceres as local Zürich computers, but +this time also the group around Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud from the EPFL +Lausanne. He showed some really interesting things. + +### Teaching Electronics + +{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022-electronics-teaching.jpg" alt="Teaching Electronics" >}} + +Those blocks are basically 74xxx series logic chips in a block with +schematics on top. You use cables to connect them and form logical +blocks like for instance a small adder with carry. This is much nicer +to deal with than with breadboards and the real logic chips. + +### Smaky + +{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022-smaky-100.jpg" alt="Smaky 100" >}} + +This is a series of 8-bit computers, the first one based on Intel 8080, later on Z80. +This one is based on a 68k processor. The really nice thing is the graphical interface, +the keyboard and the mouse which feel absolutely modern. + +### Self-made computers + +On Youtube you can find a lot of people doing their own computer +projects based on 6502 and Z80 CPUs. This one is a really early example +of it (and totally without Youtube - the green one on the left with +the high voltage sign and the cards sticking out as in a toaster): + +{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022-self-made.jpg" alt="Self made computers" >}} + +## Apple Lisa + +This is a computer you usually see not running and only behind some centimeters of glas. +At the VCF you had the chance to experience the GUI (especially its speed, ahem). + +{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022-lisa-front.jpg" alt="Apple Lisa" >}} + +## CP/M + +Hidden in a corner were some really nice CP/M-based machines: + +{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2022-cpm-machines.jpg" alt="CP/M machines" >}} + +## Important Lessons Learned + +My IMC-2001 is still not running and I'm currently fighting all kind of +broken stuff (keyboard circuit, power supply, broken ROM-chip). Not having +an exact twin of this machine makes it hard to repair. + +..and yes, I know how to create a document on the Apple Lisa now. ;-) + +## Links + +* general links + * [Vintage Computer Festival Zurich](https://vintagecomputerfestival.ch): official webpage +* Smaky (sadly a lot of the links are broken) + * [Smaky Mouse and Keyboard](https://www.informatiquegestion.ch/mouse-and-keyboard): close up images + * [Smaky machines](https://www.smaky.ch/chapitre.php?id=lami_4): the timeline of the Smaky computers + * [Smaky@museebolo](https://www.museebolo.ch/): where the Smakies can usually be seen outside the VCF + * [Video on Smaky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vt01NJIy18): on Youtube, shows off various Smakies, + history, games, etc. @debConf +* videos + * [Youtube Gamo Tech25](https://youtu.be/rL4lvOuebJE) + * [Tomaniac](https://youtu.be/hIb0VxhVU2M) + * [The Phintage Collector](https://youtu.be/baWwDEKfXBA) |