The Vintage Computer Festival Midwest is a fun event in the Chicago suburbs. It's a chance to connect with fellow enthusiasts and see some incredible vintage hardware. I wanted to show a bit of my exploring and conversations with people. This was my second time visiting.
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| A lenticular Commodore 64 motherboard image on display. |
I was immediately drawn to a display featuring a Commodore 64 motherboard. The presenter even had a cool visual effect: if you moved your head back and forth, the RF shield appeared to lift off, revealing the components underneath! Also the glass acted like an actual magnifying glass, which was neat to look through.
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| 100 year old typewriter next to the C64 photo. |
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| Taking photos. |
A typewriter collector had brought a piece that was almost a century old, stating that he picked it up for cheap at a garage sale.
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| A whole table full of various types of camera technology. |
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| A view of various MSX computers on a table. |
Various MSX computers were on display, representing a collaboration between Microsoft and the ASCII Corporation.
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| Telecom networking equipment. |
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| A beautiful wood electronic chess game. |
This wooden electronic chess set really stood out. It was a Fidelity, made back in the 1980s. It was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.
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| The internals of a Chuck E. Cheese animatronic setup. |
The creator of the exhibit explained that the system was based on a 6502 processor like a lot of the technology at that time and how they re-created a lot of the circuit boards that make up the animatronic system.
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| This is a deep dive into the hardware that makes it all work. |
The system was based on the same team, and some tech, that designed the Atari 2600.
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| A look at vintage cameras on display. |
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| The original Polaroid digital camera. |
Check out
the linked video for a lot more information!