#vcfe11

[commodorez]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDCKNDitH38)

Behold something amazing: John Blankenbaker (with help from Corey Cohen) diagnosing what’s wrong with an authentic Kenbak-1 computer from 1971.  This was done before John’s keynote at Vintage Computer Festival East XI to determine the viability of a demonstration.

[commodorez]

Apple I - 1976

Gather ‘round Apple fans.  For the final post of my exhibit photos from VCF East XI, I give you one of the rarest beasts I’ve ever laid eyes on.  An original, working, restored Apple I computer from 1976. 

According to Apple I expert and restoration master Corey Cohen, this one took only a little bit of work to restore it to functional status.  It is seen here pulling data from an iPod instead of the normal tape deck in order to boot BASIC, and demonstrating the capabilities of the machine.  The keyboard and case were original era-appropriate hardware, however by no means were they something that simply came with the computer.  The white ceramic & gold 6502 is also a rare beast to match, which even on its own I find to be beautiful. 

In the case sat another Apple I, guarded by a protective shadowbox.  Both machines always had someone on duty to secure them, because an original Apple I is worth a fortune.  So two of them is worth even more than that.

Click here to check out Corey Cohen’s demonstration of the Apple I.

[commodorez]

During a brief lull in the action at VCF East XI, I brought Hero Jr. outside and recorded the greeting I had prepared. 

Oh, and that sound you’re hearing?  No idea what that is, but I’m betting it was coming from Hero Jr.  This was filmed only an hour or so before the catastrophic failure occurred that put my robot out of commission for the rest of the weekend.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctpQp_uEbFA)

[commodorez]

William Sudbrink usually brings an Altair 8800 or an IMSAI 8080 to VCF East.  Seeing these machines always makes me happy, and it made me doubly happy to see both on display this year.

Both the Altair and the IMSAI were equipped with Cromemco Dazzler cards, producing the color graphics seen on both of the televisions.  The Cromemco Dazzler is the first color graphics card ever created, and it looks beautiful.  Each machine was equipped with Dazzlers and dual 8″ floppy drives.  The Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal was shared by the machines to facilitate easier use.

The Cromemco company got their start by creating the “Cyclops” camera.  Initially, it was a hobbyist project as seen in the February 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, but Cromemco eventually created a commercially sold version.  The Cyclops is the first ever low cost solid-state TV camera, and uses a 4008-9 RAM chip without the top cover as its sensor.  The RAM chip contains a bank of 32 x 32 bits arranged in a grid, and it’s light sensitive.   With an optic and a bit of logic, the camera can show a crude black and white video image.

William painstakingly recreated a replica using period correct parts, right down to the date codes on the capacitors.  The final product looks indistinguishable from the genuine article as pictured in Popular Electronics 41 years ago.  In order to demonstrate the Cyclops, it was connected to a Tektronix 2465A oscilloscope operating in XY mode to show the grid of dots that make up the image.  Eventually, an interface card was created for S-100 machines to allow the Cyclops to connect with computers like the Altair 8800.

Once Cromemco got off the ground, and the Dazzler burst onto the scene, computer graphics changed forever.  Apparently a demonstration unit was on display on a large projection TV in a store front in New York City back in the mid-1970s.  The storefront showing off the product’s color graphics left the TV running after hours, drawing the attention of many a curious onlooker.  Cars kept driving by to see the display first hand, and they ended up creating a several block-wide gridlock as a result.  The owner of the shop was called at home by the NYPD to tell him that he needed to come back and turn off the display, or else they would break down the door and start unplugging stuff until it shut down. 

These were some of the first major stepping stones into the world of digitized video, and I was glad I got to see them first-hand.

[commodorez]

Damn I look good in an Amiga color pallet.  Thanks go out to Bill Winters for taking this souvenir photo.

[commodorez]

Anthony Becker & Bill Winters are major Commodore Amiga aficionados.

This year they focused on digital imaging on Amiga’s, this time using the “low end” machines of the line: the A500, A600, and A1200.  Using a variety of digital image capture methods, conversion software, and editing programs, they demonstrated just how powerful the platform was at scanning in images of the real world, when the concept was novel. 

One demonstration they used was to take a photo with a DSLR, then convert it on an Amiga into a native color pallet, then save the image for later to be sent to you via email as a souvenir.  The DSLR took the place of an older camera method.  Stay tuned for the digitized photo of me, as I would have appeared on an Amiga.

Another demo involved a black and white camera that used a vacuum tube to take still images.  This camera would have been on-par with the price range of a normal consumer budget, but it had a trick up its sleeve.  By using 3 different color filters, it would take multiple captures of a subject, then piece together the RGB channels to form a color image on screen.  It even had a little motor to rotate the color wheel.

Then there was the frustrating, but economical hand scanner approach to image digitization.  You would move a little scanner across the subject, and if you did it right you got your image.  However these scanners were a real pain to use correctly.  That’s why they had an early small bed scanner, made by Sharp to automate the traversal over a document, allowing for a much more consistent and clean image.

The Amiga line was one hell of a powerhouse for still images, just as much as it was for video work.

[commodorez]

Dean Notarnicola displayed the “Evolution of the User Interface” with examples of the major players in the early consumer GUI market.

Starting things off was a Texas Instruments Silent 700 Teletype, a rather modern example of one.  It includes an acoustic coupler for cradling a telephone receiver to dial into a remote computer system, be it mainframe, minicomputer, or micro.  It serves as an extreme example of a command line interface, with a very limited amount of interaction, and no graphical trickery possible via ASCII characters -- just line by line messages to the user.

Then we get into the real GUIs with keyboards and mice (or a joystick in one case):

GEM, or Graphical Environment Manager on an Atari 1040ST.  GEM was created by Gary Kildall’s company, Digital Research Inc. (of CP/M fame), and overseen by Gary himself during its development.

Up next was a Commodore 128 (signed by Bil Herd no less) running GEOS 128, or Graphical Environment Operating System.  GEOS is one of my personal favorites, so it was sad to see the C128 powered down when I passed by to take my round of photos.

After that, it’s an Apple IIGS running GS/OS.  Designed in parallel with the more famous Mac OS, it includes many similar facilities to OS 5, but for the 65C816 processor instead of the 680X0 series.

Following that is everyone’s favorite Macintosh Plus running Shufflepuck, so I didn’t get to see which classic Mac OS variant it was running underneath.  Speaking of underneath, the Mac Plus sat on an external hard drive, and had a sweet VCFeX mouse pad.

Then it’s a generic IBM PC compatible running what I can guess is Windows 3.0 (the 16-bit version, not to be confused with Windows 3.1) in black and white no less.  The monitor was IBM, and the keyboard looked like a real Model F, but I couldn’t tell you who manufactured the machine itself.  Right next do it for comparison was a decidedly not-vintage Toshiba Portege 300CT running Windows 98. 

Lastly, a Commodore Amiga 1200 running AmigaOS...  gotta love that Workbench. 

[commodorez]

Bill Degnan had a nice set of Digital Equipment Corporation VAX machines on display.

On the table was a MicroVAX 3100 Model 30, with a pair of expansion boxes, connected up to the famous standard VT100 terminal.  Meanwhile on the floor was a VAX 4000-200, connected to a VT220 terminal.  He also brought along a Zenith Data Systems MiniSport laptop, which uses the unique 2″ floppy disk format.  I don’t think Bill got a chance to hook the MiniSport up to one of the VAX’s as a terminal like he had planned to.  Still, it was a beautiful and rare machine to behold.