- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Looking for a DOS-era laptop for VCF East
by Benjamin Krein 26 Feb '25

26 Feb '25

I'm looking for an inexpensive DOS-era laptop (8088-80486, maybe Pentium I or II) in working condition that I can use at the FujiNet table for showing off the latest developments of the RS232 version of FujiNet. Unfortunately what I currently have is either unreliable or unpresentable & I need something better. I prefer a laptop for portability/built-in display if possible. Floppy & serial port is a must, hard drive would be nice (I have a CF card adapter for IDE). Working display & keyboard is important. I'm happy to clean something up so if it's dirty that's fine. I'm going to be at the System Source repair day this weekend if anyone has something & wants to meet me there. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! -- - Benjamin Krein

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Leading Edge Model M and Mitsubishi 1982
by Bill Degnan 26 Feb '25

26 Feb '25

Anyone have a 1982 Leading Edge Model M? "M" for Mitsubishi parts. Not easy to find them. So I was wondering if there might be a 1982 Mitsubishi PC sold in Japan....? There is the 1982 Mitsubishi Multi16 - a CP/M computer:(16 bit? but it's not MS DOS) https://www.reddit.com/r/cassettefuturism/comments/1fi249f/mitsubishi_elect… Anyone have either of these computers? Mitsubishi could have put out a PC of their own but they chose to partner with Leading Edge instead. As many of you know the Japanese stayed with CP/M longer than the US. Or maybe Mitsub. sold Leading Edge Model M's as "Mitsubishi" OEM in Japan but no one has written about it, low sales. Interesting. Bill

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FAQ: MARCH Hack-a-Thon, March 8-9, 2025
by Jeff Salzman 26 Feb '25

26 Feb '25

Since starting this *NEW* idea of Hack-a-Thon events at MARCH, at the InfoAge Science Center, questions have been asked. Here is a FAQ covering details for the upcoming Hack-a-Thon on March 8 and 9, 2025, and for future Hack-a-Thon events that get scheduled. FAQ Is this a real event? Yes, it's real. It's new for us, but not necessarily new for others. Events like this have been held in all sorts of other locations and venues. While this is our first attempt to host an event where we task contestants to use their favorite vintage computing platform in a themed challenge, there are plans to host several Hack-a-Thons each year. Is it called MARCH Hack-a-Thon, or VCF Hack-a-Thon??? VCF, or Vintage Computer Federation, is an organization that grew from the original MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Retro Computer Hobbyists) organization. Since then, and for quite a few years, all events hosted at InfoAge Science Museum in Wall Township, NJ that involved vintage computing were done under the VCF moniker. The VCF moniker has been applied to many vintage computer events all around the world, namely the Vintage Computer Festival (East, West, Southwest, MW, etc.). Since VCF (the festival) and VCF (the Federation) have created confusion with VCF (the moniker), it was decided that all lesser vintage computer events, such as the workshops, museum, and now the Hack-a-Thons that take place at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall Township, NJ will be run under the adopted former name of the group that started there in the first place, MARCH. Other than Vintage Computer Festival - East, along with the VCF Swapmeets, Workshops, and Hack-a-Thons at this location will be called MARCH Workshops and MARCH Hack-a-Thons. Will the Hack-a-Thon events always be programming challenges? No. The first event will be a programming challenge, but even the details of the challenge won't be released until the start of the event. Future Hack-a-Thon events could still be programming challenges based on specific themes, or they could be hardware challenges. Perhaps even both as any particular theme will allow. Why are you doing Hack-a-Thons now? For a long time, MARCH (in its present and former name) has been hosting vintage computer workshops, where anyone can bring their vintage computing equipment into an event space shared by others in order to learn how to use, repair, or recondition their equipment. This became a popular social event where like-minded collectors could meet up to get their collections repaired with the help of others who may be familiar with these systems. Or to simply have an open workspace to work on something they may not have the resources, tools, or space to work on at home. But there's more to just fixing these systems. The Hack-a-Thons were created under the concept that people might not need to repair their systems but would want to meaningfully engage in the use of these systems. During a Hack-a-Thon, you have the chance to put your knowledge to use and give your system(s) a good workout while competing for a goal. These are sanctioned events to allow you to use your vintage computers among other like-minded collectors, or even if you simply enjoy working with your systems in a shared creative environment. Are the listed systems for the first Hack-a-Thon the only choices? No. The primary challenge is to use an 8-bit era system. The list provided in the initial announcement are examples, not limitations. When you enter the Hack-a-Thon contest, you are given the option to put a different system than those listed. Your submission will be considered for its relation to the 8-bit era theme before it is approved. That being said, systems like Altair 8800, IMSAI, PDP systems, etc., and even certain 16-bit systems, would most likely be allowed. All you have to do is ask. "But there's no way my ZX-81 can compete with a Commodore 64. The C64 does so much more. How could I possibly win?" Nonsense! The grading of the competition is not based solely on a superficial "wow factor" of one system compared to the next. Part of the grading rubric will include how the contestant made their computer system do something unique and creative within the scope of the system's own capabilities. For example, if the Hack-a-Thon theme was "Show us what you can do with your computer's graphics capabilities", the judges know that a PET 4032 does not have the same graphics capabilities as a Commodore 64, and would take that into account. By using some real-world examples to explain this, if a Hack-a-Thon contest were to allow the use of modern custom hardware, an example like the PET 4032 that was on exhibit at VCF-East years back which took live video, digitized and converted it to PETSCII characters that displayed real-time on the PET display would probably score very high against an Atari 800XL which was running a cool looking player/missile graphics demo on its own. That's just one example. The point is, that the judges are looking at what you can make your system do in alignment with the output expected by the contest theme... a theme which won't be announced until the start of the event. Is it too late to enter? Not yet. The cutoff for online entry is March 7, 2025. Although we *might* make an exception for those who just show up at InfoAge to enter the contest, we are not obligating ourselves to do so. Pre-registration allows us to have a proper headcount so we can provide location resources to set up your equipment. https://vcfed.org/2025/02/13/march-hack-a-thon/ Can we work this Hack-a-Thon contest at home? Not at this time. The Hack-a-Thon intends to bring like-minded people together in a shared environment. And since the rules of this particular contest state that period correct hardware and software are only to be used, and not emulation, modern IDE environments, cross-compilers, etc., in-person participation allows the contest rules to be properly adhered to and managed. There may be a future Hack-a-Thon theme that could be considered a "work from home" contest, but if so, will be rather infrequent.

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Sam’s photofacts discarded
by Sentrytv 25 Feb '25

25 Feb '25

I saw no mention these were to be discarded. Would it be possible that an email get sent out prior to doing this again? If there was an email sent about these being destroyed, then I missed it. Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > On Feb 24, 2025, at 9:31 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM Thomas G via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >> I just threw a pallet of these into the shredder! >> > > Oh yeah. The ones that Jason Scott donated. I remember that! > > >> >>> On Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM Mike Rieker via vcf-midatlantic < >>> vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: >>> >>> hey it does say "or best offer" :) >>> >>>> I think the price is just a bit high for this. >>>> >>>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/365420431210 >>>> >>>> It's interesting that these are now being graded. >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Sam’s photofacts discarded
by Patrick Finnegan 25 Feb '25

25 Feb '25

Whoosh On Mon, Feb 24, 2025, 23:18 Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > I saw no mention these were to be discarded. > > Would it be possible that an email get sent out prior to doing this again? > > If there was an email sent about these being destroyed, then I missed it. > > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Feb 24, 2025, at 9:31 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM Thomas G via vcf-midatlantic < > > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > >> I just threw a pallet of these into the shredder! > >> > > > > Oh yeah. The ones that Jason Scott donated. I remember that! > > > > > >> > >>> On Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM Mike Rieker via vcf-midatlantic < > >>> vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >>> > >>> hey it does say "or best offer" :) > >>> > >>>> I think the price is just a bit high for this. > >>>> > >>>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/365420431210 > >>>> > >>>> It's interesting that these are now being graded. > >>>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >> > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] I think that's a little high
by Thomas G 24 Feb '25

24 Feb '25

I just threw a pallet of these into the shredder! On Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM Mike Rieker via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > hey it does say "or best offer" :) > > > I think the price is just a bit high for this. > > > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/365420431210 > > > > It's interesting that these are now being graded. > > > > >

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I think that's a little high
by Christian Liendo 24 Feb '25

24 Feb '25

I think the price is just a bit high for this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/365420431210 It's interesting that these are now being graded.

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Large collection of Sam's "PhotoFact" service manuals on CL near York, PA
by Rich Kulawiec 24 Feb '25

24 Feb '25

There's a Craigslist ad for them: https://york.craigslist.org/ele/d/york-sams-photofact-service-manuals/78239… After I noticed this ad, I asked the Internet Archive if they wanted them, but apparently they're already set. But it wouldn't be a bad idea for another institution to acquire and keep this collection so that it doesn't just disappear. (I can't, I'm way past merely "out of space".) ---rsk

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VCF Montréal Survey
by Jeffrey Brace 23 Feb '25

23 Feb '25

This survey is in its final days. You are invited to add your anonymous input by clicking here https://bit.ly/vcfm2026pre-en Ce sondage entre dans ses derniers jours. Vous êtes invité à ajouter vos commentaires anonymes en cliquant ici https://bit.ly/vcfm2026pre-fr DATE: January 25 & 26, 2026. LOCATION: Montréal, QC, Canada Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President

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Announcing the new-old-fashioned MARCH website!
by Thomas G 23 Feb '25

23 Feb '25

Hello all, As part of our re-establishment of MARCH, the creation of a new, MARCH-specific website became a priority. In keeping with our shared hobby, I felt the new website needed to be something that even the most paleolithic web browser could reasonably handle - so I used the most paleolithic web authoring suite I could scrounge up - none other than WebMagic from SIliconGraphics (later rebranded as Cosmo Create), which was the first WYSIWYG html editor to be sold, circa January 1995. It's roughly styled after the original MARCH site, though the font and colors are a bit different! I have tested this site to be functional with Lynx, Netscape Navigator, NCSA Mosaic, and even the accursed Internet Explorer. It's currently served over plain http, though https will come along in time to stop modern browsers from whining about security. Without any further ado: http://midatlanticretro.com/ Some of you may notice the different TLD - the original MARCH website was a .org. Unfortunately, that domain is currently registered by someone else - last I checked it was redirecting to some Japanese company. But no matter - the .com TLD granted me the ability to do some very stupid wordplay... Of course, the new website is nowhere near a finished, set-in-stone work. Wording, content, layout, etc. is bound to change in time - this is just what I've thrown together thus far! Let me know if you see anything factually incorrect or confusing so I can correct it! Thanks, -Thomas G. Chairman of the MARCH Committee

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