VCF East 2023 finds and highlights

[Dude.JediKnight]

Had a great time at VCF East and picked up a few smaller things at Consignment. Got a boxed AirPort Extreme Base station, a PCI FW card, and a couple stray cables I needed. They had at least a dozen early Mac Pros for sale, of varying quality and specs, took a lot of restraint to not buy one and get myself in trouble when I got back home.

So much stuff to see at the show, and got to talk to a good number of YouTube folks at their exhibits. Got to tell Sean from Action Retro that I personally preferred the “Cursed Mac” when it was still in the black shell, and that I liked the black speaker cloth he put on the G4 TAM, and saw both machines in person. Also pestered him and Steve from Mac84 about advice with my liquid cooled G5 PowerMac. Saw The 8-bit Guy there, and his table was quite busy… but still got to shake his hand and tell him that I enjoy his videos. So many weird and interesting exhibits, as well as catching a demo of an old UNIVAC system at the VCF Museum. Didn’t see any talks that day that really piqued my interest, but they are all going to be uploaded online in the next few weeks anyway, so I can always watch them later.

Also, happened to randomly walk down the right hall at the right time to meet Adrian of Adrian’s Difital Basement. Actually got to chat with him for a couple minutes and got a picture with him!

Overall, the show itself was great, certainly worth the price for a whole day of cool vintage computing stuff. Cannot wait for the Swap Meet this June, as well as next years show!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Sounds like a fun time! I really wish that I could get to one of the main events but it never lines up with my schedule due to always being in April, which is right at the beginning of “final season” in school, which is unfortunate. I’m 95% sure that I’m going to be able to get to the swap meet in June though - quite excited to see what I’ll be able to find there!

 

[NJRoadfan]

Andrew from Amiga of Rochester revived my Amiga 4000's audio and recapped my Apple II Video Overlay Card....... yes those have surface mount caps that leak! The Amiga repair attracted some folks, which surprised me. Also pretty amazing to see board level repairs in person done so quickly.

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

Andrew from Amiga of Rochester revived my Amiga 4000's audio and recapped my Apple II Video Overlay Card....... yes those have surface mount caps that leak! The Amiga repair attracted some folks, which surprised me. Also pretty amazing to see board level repairs in person done so quickly.

Did see those guys and all the tools they had brought with them. Never had them work on anything of mine, but their name does come up often as a great group to use when people need board work done.

 

[Forrest]

I’ve been to a few shows over the years and was surprised at the large numbers of Macs and Mac exhibitors at this show. During the two hour discussion featuring Youtube Creators, there were 3 Mac guys (Michael Stanhope, Steve Matarazzo and Sean Malseed), the 8-bit guy David Murray and Bill Herd from Commodore/Hackaday. I really enjoyed the show and the talks By Thomas Cherryhomes (Fujinet) and JerI Ellsworth (C64 DTV/Tilt Five)

 

[omgmonsters]

Great seeing you there! Noted your vote for the original cursed Mac look

 

[olePigeon]

I keep meaning to get to VCFWest, but life keeps getting in the way. It sounds like a ton of fun.

 

[oldmacuser]

oh man, I missed it! next year for sure!

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

oh man, I missed it! next year for sure!

VCF East 2024 is listed as April 5-7 next year, mark your calendar.

 

[CC_333]

Ooo, the last day is the day before the total solar eclipse!

I don't know where VCF East is held, but I doubt its within the path of totality, but it'd still be quite a remarkable show, I'm sure!

c

 

[oldmacuser]

VCF East 2024 is listed as April 5-7 next year, mark your calendar.

Thank you! marking my cal now

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

Ooo, the last day is the day before the total solar eclipse!

I don't know where VCF East is held, but I doubt its within the path of totality, but it'd still be quite a remarkable show, I'm sure!

c

VCF East is held on the campus of InfoAge Science Center, 2201 Marconi Rd., Wall, New Jersey, 07719.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I always read that as Macaroni road…
Who here’s going to the swap meet in June? I’ll be there.

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

I’m going. Arrived later in the day last fall, so didn’t get the full experience, so this time I’m planning on getting there early and making a day of it. Certainly helped convince me to see VCF East this year, so that’s a plus.

The Repair Workshop is also that weekend, but don’t really have any projects ready.

Long term goal is getting the supplies for, and find someone with a sonic cleaner and knowledge of G5 liquid cooling, or at least liquid cooling in general. Certainly not a project I want to tackle solo, hopefully I can get things lined up before the next workshop in October.

Got next week off, so I can hopefully find time to start getting that stuff in motion. Also got a few smaller things from VCF East I need to test, and a bunch of RAM I bought at last fall’s swap meet that still need to be installed in their proper machines.

At least my want lists are already up to date.