+++
title = "Retro Computing - Vintage Computer Festival Zürich 2019"
categories = [ "Retro Computing", "Vintage Computer Festival", "VCF" ]
date = "2019-12-08T09:37:22+01:00"
thumbnail = "/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019.jpg"
+++

## Intro

My first visit to an exhibition of old computers. It was held on 
November 30th and December 1st in Zürich in the "Rote Fabrik".
Given my collection of not-so-old computers I wanted to see a collection
of really old computers.

## PDP-11

The first thing which catched my attention was a PDP-11 emulator with
frontend also simulating a Tektronix 4010 graphical terminal. It's
running on a Raspberry-PI fully emulating a PDP-11 running BSD 2.11.
I was aware of old Unix V6 or V7 versions running on emulators, but
a BSD 2.11 with a TCP/IP-stack is so much nicer.

The following is a real desktop PDP-11 with some emulators for things
like tapes and external devices:

{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-PDP-11.jpg" alt="PDP-11" >}}

## Apple ][

I brought some old floppies and was astonished they were booting the
oldest Apple machines without any problems. Even the chess program
worked (one of my earliest encounters with a computer was playing
chess in the computer room back at my high school on an Apple \]\[).

{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-Apple-2.jpg" alt="Apple \]\[" >}}

I was also able to run a "games disk" with a menu system I once typed
in from a book during my holidays back in school (yes, floppies where
too expensive back then and you learned BASIC as a bonus while typing).

Obviously too excited this still worked I didn't take any photos of it,
so here is a placeholer, the original book with the program listings:

{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-apple-games-book.jpg" alt="Apple Game Book" >}}

## old PCS

While everybody else at the exhibitation was showing off their machines,
the IBM-PC guys were trying to make sure that monitors didn't explode
(one did) and building up a network, so they were constantly busy
doing something on those machines. I was able to run a Flight Simulator 4
from Microsoft on an EGA-based machine, really nice:

{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-FS4.jpg" alt="Fligh Simulator 4" >}}

## SoftVGA

Really interesting speech on how to implement a VGA "card" on an Atmel-based
board. This catched my interest because I'm all in for minimalistic
hardware and software on an FPGA.

## Fluxengine

This was more out of personal interest, as I still own 100nds of Apple \]\[,
CP/M and PC-disks reaching back into the mid-80ies. My oldest two machines
(an IMC-2001 Taiwanese Apple/CPM-clone and the Olivetti M290) are not working
anymore and I can hardly find a floppy connector on the already old machines
I own.

Fluxenine reads floppy images via a 5V FPGA on a stick, one side is an
old floppy connector, the oder side a normal USB connection.

I brought some old floppies I could donate (in form of an image) for
future analysis.

## What else

SGI, a Next, IBM/360 on an FPGA, Amiga, Commodore, tons of Apple/Macintosh,
ZX Spectrum, ...

## What not

I personally missed some CP/M-based machines (not counting the electronic
type writer running CP/M and running games from a small tape drive, which
was interesting to see). Closest (from the outer appearance) came the
following IBM portable:

{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-IBM-5155.jpg" alt="IBM 5155 Portable" >}}

Also I missed some Atari (like the ST TT series) machines (or maybe 
I just didn't see them).

## Important Lessons Learned

Talk to everybody! Every single one is an enthusiast and has an interesting
history. If you just walk through the hall and stare at the machines, most
things will not be impressive at all. Also the talks I can recommend.

## Links

* general links
  * [Vintage Computer Festival Zurich](http://vcfe.ch/doku.php): official Webpage with exhibitors and schedule of speeches held
  * [Event Information "Rote Fabrik"](https://rotefabrik.ch/#/events/5084?utm_medium=display&utm_source=kulturzueri.ch&utm_campaign=kulturzueri#/events/5084):
    event information
  * [Wikipedia entry on vintage Computer Festival](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vintage_Computer_Festival): history and purpose of the event
  * [Gallery 2019](https://www.skv-net.ch/mobilegallery/gallery.php?a=456)
* PDP-11/Tektronik:
  * [Tek4010](https://github.com/rricharz/Tek4010)
  * [BSD 2.11](https://github.com/RetroBSD/2.11BSD)
* [SoftVGA](http://neil.franklin.ch/Projects/SoftVGA/)
* [Fluxengine](http://cowlark.com/fluxengine): the FPGA-based USB-floppy reader