ECCC/VCFMW 2015

The ECCC (Emergency Chicagoland Commodore Convention) and VCFMW (Vintage Computer Festival MidWest) teamed up again this year, this time in a new, bigger location. There was a real sense of excitement as the new venue allowed more exhibitors with larger machines, and of course, more attendees able to consume mass quantities of nerdity. The show was held in Elk Grove Village, IL, USA (in the Chicago area) on August 29-30, 2015. Click pictures to embiggen!

This was our biggest event yet, with a cavernous exhibit hall.

Another view of the exhibit hall.

VCFMW organizer Jason Timmons ("Silent700") gives a keynote address before beginning a new feature: the show auction!

Jason Compton, the voice of ECCC, keeping attendees up to date on the presentation schedule.

Although our former venue will be missed, we will always remember it in our hearts.

Meticulous planning on every level went into the preparations for the first show at our new location.

As usual, prominent Commodore sceners were in attendance (from left: Six, Elwix, Burning Horizon).

Sloopy with his beloved Ataris.

My table, complete with laser-printed posters created in geoPublish. I gave a talk on GEOS programming.

Goog (from the PDXCUG group) ponders the spin properties of an electron.

There was room for bigger machines this year; for me, the highlight of the show was Jay West's beautiful HP1000.

A closer view of the HP1000. Sadly, it suffered a head crash, but there's always another day and another show!

This handsome PDP8 awaits restoration by its proud owner.

But for those who don't have a PDP8, there's the PiDP8! Oscar Vermeulen visited from Europe to show this popular project.

PDP8's big brother, the PDP11. The machine is in the early stages of restoration, and underwent memory testing at the show.

A working teletype machine. The human-readable paper tape it was set up to punch made a sought-after souvenir.

Tools of the trade, for those of us old enough to remember.

Another tool, thought to be used by sysadmins for educating their users.

Sure you've seen an Altair, but have you seen an Altair 680?

A homebrew COSMAC.

Several trainers were on view at the show...

...including the legendary KIM (6502 processor).

An old friend, the Apple I, visits us again.

Jim Leonard ("Trixter") showed his cannot-possibly-exist demo, 8088 MPH, and gave a talk on it. A proper monitor and headphones were provided for the full experience.

An old dog learns new tricks.

A lot of hardware hacking gets done at these shows.

A classic Amiga. Amigas running UNIX were also on display.

Mouse makes music on another Amiga.

Schema talks about his new Commodore 64 projects (including Wifi!) in our well-appointed talks room.

A panel discussion on PDP8 restoration.

The traditional Friday night dinner at Aurelio's. Sadly, the consensus seemed to be that we have outgrown this tradition as well.

The after-party in the lobby. What happens when geeks get together and find they have several brands of cinnamon whiskey? Testing and diagnostics, of course!