The Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2023 was a truly special event that showcased some of the most iconic and fascinating pieces of vintage technology from around the world. One of the main attractions was a crusty Macintosh computer that had been dug up out of the ground, which was paired with a Passport Designs Soundchaser synthesizer for the Apple II, a hand-wound paper tape reader for the Altair 8800 and its clones, and some early 2000s Alienware Area 51s that have become surprisingly rare to see still working. These items were just a few examples of the incredible variety of vintage technology on display.

In addition to these amazing artifacts, there was also a phenomenal preservation of Yamaha OPL FM synth music via The OPL Archive, a fantastic selection of Macintosh breakout PCBs and adapters for more convenient interfacing, CompactFlash and MPU-401 MIDI boards for the Epson QX-10, and even a beautiful tribute to turn of the millennium aesthetics with everything in translucent teal. There was also a most excellent digital guestbook taking place on a 32K Cromemco system, as well as writing to this absolute unit of a Winchester hard drive. Furthermore, attendees could draw nearly in real-time using a torturously restored PDP-11 connected to a paper tape puncher that you can make say whatever you want.

The festival also featured the famous Topo robot wheeling around out and about, marking its 40th birthday this year, which was a great excuse for everyone to get together and party. However, it's worth noting that these were just a few examples of the many incredible pieces of vintage technology on display, as there was much more to see and do.

The writer lamented being unable to easily stroll around and investigate everything while they were there, but hopes that others may have been able to explore the exhibits at their leisure. The writer also expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to meet so many of the attendees, whether it was on the windy streets of Chicago or in the crowded halls of Elmhurst. They are genuinely fortunate to have made so many genuine connections this year and previous years.

The showrunners were clearly doing their best with a convention that's outgrown its britches, but the writer believes it would be beneficial for them to take some time to breathe and come back with fresh eyes in a couple of years. In the meantime, the writer plans to visit other VCFs and events that they've never been to before! For now, though, they hope that viewers enjoyed this episode, and extends their thanks to everyone who met and hung out with them, as well as those who generously dropped off items at their table.

A special shoutout goes to the writer for those who did meet and take down their name, but were elsewhere when you came by due to the frantic busy nature of the show. The writer would love to give credit where it's due, so if you provided one of the things that are featured in this video, do feel free to let them know who you are in the comments or through email. And as always, thank you very much for watching, and for your support.

Finally, the writer looks forward to even better VCF Midwest shows in the future, whatever form they may take!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings and welcome to another LGR Vintage Computer Festival Midwest thing! Yeah, going to  the show again with my brother to film the whole experience. And this time it's not just one video,  but two! So you have a choice this time around. Over on LGR Blerbs is a completely different  type of video than I've made before. It's just a straight up, like, travel vlog. Two and a half  hours of the entire trip, over two weeks of just, stuff happening at VCF Midwest. But before and  after, in Chicago and traveling, and just all kinds of things. It’s very much just a day to  day like, “here's what happens on one of these types of trips,” uh, videos. And then this one  that you're watching now is going to be obviously much shorter, and just going over the show itself,  really focusing on the VCF Midwest experience as it was in 2023. And on that note, I've been asked  by people behind the show to be totally honest, y’know very upfront, about any critiques or  thoughts. Or you know, the good and the bad, just whatever, I'm gonna lay it out there. So yeah this  is gonna have a a little bit of that as well, and yeah, just my general thoughts on how it went. As  well as what we're going to start with, and that is before the show, because there's always a lot  of prep work involved getting all of these LGR things ready to take all the way up to Chicago!Now as for the pre-show prepwork, in all my excitement I made it far more  complicated this time! With the addition of the Bear-A-Byte PC and the Oddware Tower,  alongside the ol’ Woodgrain 486 as always.  They all needed testing to get ready for the show as usual, which mostly involves making sure the  darned things still work. But each system also needed a table placard thing so people at the show  could see their specs and story if they hadn’t seen my videos, so I made those up and printed  them out real quick. And there were specific areas of attention to address on each system, like how I  wanted to upgrade the Bear PC with a GPU to ensure people could play accelerated 3D games at the  show. I made a whole video about that, in case you missed it, so I won’t dwell on the process here.  The Oddware Tower was mostly ready to go, I just needed to make sure all that spaghetti was still  correctly hooked up, and of course the cigarette lighter needed to be disconnected for safety’s  sake. I considered leaving it on and just using it to power random 12V devices or something,  but ehh, I’d rather not push my luck. Besides, the Woodgrain 486 needed more attention than I  thought, since I’d forgotten about removing the sound card and stuff for another project. So it  needed the Orpheus 1 card put back in place, plus all the drivers and software reconfigured again,  which thankfully isn’t too big a deal since I keep hard disk images of everything for exactly this  purpose. Another system that needed work was the Ridiculous Pointy Pyramid PC! Haven’t seen that  in a while huh? Not something I was gonna have at my table, but instead something to be auctioned  off. Yeah I haven’t used this thing since doing that video, and it’s all huge, taking up space  and deserves a new home. So I decided to donate it to the VCF Midwest Auction and give them the  proceeds, it’s one of the primary ways they raise money for the show since the entire event is still  completely free somehow. The main thing I needed to do was clear off any personal info and whatnot,  but also let it update everything, all the drivers and software and Linux stuff was about three years  outta date. I also took the opportunity to install some RGB speakers I got for it a while back, since  I always thought it’d be neat to have the sound come from inside and hey, why not more ridiculous  RGB? And I also picked up this little glass pyramid and mounted that in the pyramid too, cuz  yo dawg, I heard ya like pyramids. And it’s kinda mesmerizing with all the animated lighting, too.Then there was the LGR merchandise side of things, which was pretty much all-new this time around. I  still had crab stickers and patches leftover, but I’ve spent the last few months sourcing  new stuff like shinier holographic LGR decals, a run of cute little Cool Crab keychains, freshly  redesigned LGR case badges made in collaboration with Geekenspiel. Plus what I’m most excited for:  the first run of “LGRware.” MS-DOS shareware games on floppy disk! These are physical working  3.5” floppies containing classic PC shareware from the 90s, many of which I’ve featured on  LGR. In accordance with old vendor agreements, you’re allowed to sell shareware for the cost  of materials. Which is what countless vendors did back in the day so I’m bringin’ it back! And after  getting all the right files for each specific version of the games I wanted and testing the  installers, I got to work writing all the disks. No small task . I do at least have a double  speed USB floppy drive so that helped, but it still took a solid couple of days to test, format,  and write 140-something disks. Next came designing the labels, which I kept simple and monochrome but  in-line with the way many vendors did it back in the day. And I found these spice container labels,  which it turns out are the exact size needed for 3.5” floppy disks, too. They only go on the front  of the disk and don’t wrap around how I might’ve liked, but they did the job nicely. And since they  were new, the adhesive is still nice and sticky, which is why I didn’t try and go for old stock  labels. I’ve tried that before and they came off far too easily, especially in warm environments.  They of course needed some packaging and artwork, and I looked at a few different things over the  past few months but came up with this solution here. These transparent cookie bags are darned  near the perfect size for 3.5” disks plus artwork, and they even have a pre-punched hole above the  zip lock top. Perfect for this spinny pegboard retail display thing I found a while back.  As for the artwork, I really wanted to print borderless and avoid doing any cutting since that  only adds time to the process, and then I found these. They’re 3.5” square sheets of photo paper,  which not only fit the size of the disks but also slide snugly into those cookie bags. Only problem  is you need a specific model of printer to properly print on them without borders,  so yep, I bought the dang printer. After that it was just a matter of putting all the pieces  together inside of all the bags, which in and of itself was not the smoothest process,  those bags could stand to be like 1/8” of an inch larger, but ah well, the results are nice. And I  was able to get ten copies of each game on each peg, with six games on two sides for a total of  twelve titles. The third side is for the price list. Oh and at the last minute I got a roll  of these made for extra authenticity: these little “Certified Virus Free” stickers, which  you often saw back in the day on shareware sold in stores. If I was thinking I would’ve included  this on the artwork, but putting stickers on the bags was a nice effect and I’m glad I did it.Eventually I got everything crammed into the car the night before leaving,  and it was quite a bit more cramped this time due to the bulky additions of the Pyramid,  the Bear, and the Tower of Oddness. But at least the pyramid will be going home with someone else  once we’re done. And yeah, so begins the roughly 11-hour road trip from North Carolina to Chicago!  Though it ended up being closer to 10 hours this time since I took a slightly different route and  managed to avoid bad traffic. And yep, it was just me driving up alone here. My brother Luke flew up  separately from his home in Virginia and checked in early to our first hotel downtown. Which,  yeah, that’s another thing! This time around we decided to do all of our Chicago vacationing  and sightseeing before VCF instead of after, giving us a good three and a half days in the  city before heading off to Elmhurst to set up for the show. For more on all that, much much more,  you can watch the aforementioned vlog that shows the trip up there, our time in the city, and a  whole lot more VCF Midwest as well. But to sum things up, doing all the tourist-y stuff before  the show was absolutely the right move, since we’re always half-dead after the madness of the  festival. I felt significantly more relaxed and ready for the show as a result, too. Anyway, yeah!  Chicago was welcoming and entertaining and absurd as always, but Thursday it was time to check  out of the Regency and into the Clarion. With everything happening once more at the Waterford  Banquet & Conference Center and visitors staying at the Clarion Inn Elmhurst hotel. At least,  if you were lucky enough to get a room, that is. I reserved ours back in the first week of April,  but I know people who've attended the show for years who couldn’t get one. It sold out fast  this time, so there were two assigned overflow hotels, which by all accounts were pretty packed  as well. But yeah, once it was time to unload it was the standard process for the most part. We had  two tables this time, which I requested due to the sheer size of the Bear, but also because I really  needed a spot to meet people, sign stuff, take selfies, sell things and so on. For now though  it was the calm before the storm, just setting up, testing and troubleshooting things at the  table. Something that always takes way longer than you’d think. Lots of friends and fellow exhibitors  take the opportunity to say hi and get their own selfies and stuff signed, and that’s more than  fine! But they also don’t seem to vet anyone, so there’s always a few dozen regular visitors  that wander inside as well, so like last year I ended up with a small line forming to see me  before the show even opened. I’m happy to oblige but this happens each year and I wish they vetted  building entrance during setup, like make us wear exhibitor badges the way other shows do. It’s a  security issue since who knows who’s wandering in at night, and it makes me anxious leaving  my table. The bigger the show the more chances stuff can happen, and I feel some checks need  to be introduced during setup period. Anyway, we eventually got all set up, and after that we were  invited over to Jim Leonard’s. Vintage computing legend and friend of the channel and all-around  awesome dude behind a lotta things at the show. And yeah anyway, he just invited a buncha folks  over to hang out with some good pizza and good company. And unwind a bit taking a look at all  the random awesome stuff in his collection. I always what he’s done with the space that he has,  finely walking the line of collecting without going over into hoarding. I can relate.After another couple hours hangin’ out enjoying the show floor till things closed down,  it was onto bed, followed by the first full day of the show on Saturday! And wow, I was expecting the  usual madness but this 18th VCF Midwest was truly absurd. Just take a look at this line out front,  jeez. Far as I know this was only the queue for t-shirt sales, the official VCF merch and  whatnot. The show itself is free and there aren’t even tickets, just badges that are  encouraged but not strictly enforced, so folks can simply head inside without question. Makes  me wonder if everyone in line realized that or not, but either way, wow what a crowd.  It’s estimated there were a few thousand visitors over the weekend but yeah, lacking ticket or badge  counts makes precise numbers elusive. Either way, the hallways were clearly more packed than before,  with both visitors and tables alike! Vender and exhibitor reservations were claimed faster than  ever this year, so they increased the number of tables any way they could. Which not only meant  moving panels downstairs, down a spiral staircase into a room that was previously unused by the  show. But it also meant just about anywhere that could fit a table had a table, including  halls inside the hotel near the cafe, which held a soldering and repair workshop, as well as a sweet  PC gaming LAN party setup. Finally, I’ve said we needed this for years! I didn’t get to play nearly  as much as I’d like, but it was a real treat playing Unreal Tournament with opponents sitting  shoulder-to-shoulder, talkin’ trash and rackin’ up frags. My brother got in on the action too, which  sure did bring up some vivid high school memories. Good quality stuff, man. Back out into the bonkers  hallway though, and down to the end where the free pile normally resides. And it did again this year,  just a giant grabbag of goodies for anyone to leave stuff and take stuff free of charge. But it  soon became so sprawling and cumbersome that they actually moved a good chunk out of it outside,  right around the corner on the other side of the hallway windows. I dunno what they would’ve done  if it started raining, but yeah, it was a hot sunny day so if you were willing to roast a  bit then the gargantuan growing free pile was a great place to be. Confusingly though it wasn’t  all free this time, or at least, it wasn’t super clear where the freebies ended and the paid stuff  began. Cuz right at the end of the free pile was another pile of items for sale, continuing on down  the lawn. And yeah, this was a whole ‘nother side of the show this time. The relative lack of tables  for people to set up inside meant that tons of folks brought their own tables and set up outside!  I know a good number of sellers cleared this with the people in charge, but from  what I learned through discussions later on it seems that this really became a free-for-all  in terms of people setting up as they pleased. Now the parking lots, the sidewalks, the grass,  and along the street became an outdoor flea market, a kind of car boot sale/swap meet/hamfest  extravaganza that was actually kind of awesome. Also an inconvenience for anyone trying to park  and a bit sketch if you consider the liabilities, but still! Really fun to witness nonetheless.As for the core of the show, it��s back inside with exhibitors and vendors helming tables throughout  each conference room. Of which there are now four, with an additional room gained over last  year due to the VCF auction and panels being moved downstairs. This time around the YouTuber types  were spread out a bit more, with me and Computer Clan side by side, Ben Heck and The 8-Bit Guy  in the same area the next room over, and many more creators scattered around in the corners.  This certainly kept lines from merging together as much, but this still needs some tweaking.  Especially at my own table where folks got confused about where the line began or ended, or  if there was one at all. Without any kind of line indicators, either taped on the floor or roped-off  queues or something, people were left fending for themselves trying to reach my table. Or skipping  one entirely since there was no official line, and just came up to my left instead of my right.  Still, most people who wanted to come up talk were able to do so  eventually. At least when conversations weren’t cut short by loud announcements.Don’t get me wrong I get their purpose, especially back when VCF Midwest consisted of several hundred  visitors. But with several thousand? It’d make sense if announcements were kept brief, cuz it  sucks not being able to hear the people in front of me who’ve been waiting ages in line to talk.  Feels like a vestigial sign of how this used to be a small show that’s rapidly grown into a big one,  and hasn’t fully adjusted yet. On a related note, how ‘bout that YouTuber panel! From my perspective  I thought it went really well, but once again it quickly ended up being a “standing room only”  situation due to the smaller venue. So, at least there’s a recording of the hour and a half affair  over on the VCF Midwest YouTube channel, so head over there and check it out if you missed it live.  The fundraiser auction also happened in this room, which isn’t something I got to witness  myself since I was manning my table. But it’s always fun to see what comes up for sale,  with everything from rare minicomputer hardware to ridiculous pointy pyramids made by YouTubers with  little impulse control. Yeah the LGR Pyramid PC is now sold and gone, I believe it went  for $210? I think that’s what I heard, I wasn’t there but thankfully Steve of the channel Mac84  filmed part of it and sent over this footage. I tracked down Matt, the guy who bought it,  to get it signed later on too, as we just happened to see him carting it off that night. No clue if  he plans to sell it or keep it but hey, props to you sir for giving the pyramid a new life!As for the rest of the show floor, well! I really wish I was able to get around to see all of it  myself in detail, but that is unfortunately not possible. Even at the end of the day or when  Luke’s taking care of the table, it’s just the kinda show where I can’t walk two feet without  someone stopping me for a selfie or a signature or a conversation. Which is absolutely why I’m  there so zero complaints. I can at least give some general thoughts on the show itself! Which,  despite the understandable growing pains and massive need for a more suitable venue,  VCF Midwest is still truly something special. The entire weekend is a loving celebration of  technological obsolescence! Or, perhaps more accurately, an outright rejection of it. Where  passionate enthusiasts gather to show just how much they refuse to let these systems  become useless and die. I often get comments and questions on these videos asking “why?” Why bother  with all this “old junk,” as they say? And well, as with so many niche hobbies, one person’s trash  is another person’s weekend project that spiraled out of control and turned into a years-long  obsession. Vintage computing is a lotta things to a lotta folks, and you really only get out of it  what you put in. So on the surface, sure, no one needs a goofy monochrome business machine from 40  years ago. But what if you could find the original software it was designed for and get that going,  or play games on a thing that was never designed to handle anything but equations? Or you find a  way to run modern machine learning models on it, or you just think it looks neat and like having  it as a piece of modern art? Any reason at all is valid for enjoying this stuff, and every single  person here has justified it in their own ways. There’s always a unique story of acquisition,  a homebrew project that brought it back to life, or a new modern use case for it. It makes sense,  right? If someone went out of their way to haul cranky old stuff to a show, then there’s a darn  good reason. Practically every machine you see is someone’s pride and joy, the most unique and  noteworthy items in their collection. Otherwise they wouldn’t have brought it out here at all.  Which leads to a bizarre effect, where because everything is special,  it’s kinda like nothing is. And browsing VCF, you’re hit with a counterintuitive blase feeling  after a while. It’s the same sort of feeling I get visiting huge art museums, where seeing so  much priceless awesome stuff at once leads to a kind of museum fatigue. And I end up missing  some of the best stuff because it’s right under my nose surrounded by all the other best stuff.  Of course, I thankfully got some firsthand details of several nifty things, including but not limited to:This crusty Macintosh dug up out of the ground, the Passport Designs Soundchaser  synthesizer for the Apple II, the hand-wound paper tape reader for the Altair 8800 and its clones,  these awesome PalmTop PC 110 case swaps officially sold by IBM in Japan, some early 2000s Alienware  Area 51s that have become surprisingly rare to see still working, this phenomenal preservation  of Yamaha OPL FM synth music via The OPL Archive, this fantastic selection of Macintosh breakout  PCBs and adapters for more convenient interfacing, CompactFlash and MPU-401 MIDI boards for the Epson  QX-10 of all things, this beautiful tribute to turn of the millennium aesthetics with everything  in translucent teal, a most excellent digital guestbook taking place on a 32K Cromemco system  and writing to this absolute unit of a Winchester hard drive, this utterly captivating Tektronix  vector graphics workstation where you can draw nearly in real time, a torturously restored  PDP-11 connected to a paper tape puncher that you can make say whatever you want.  They even had the famous Topo robot wheeling around out and about, for the first time  I’ve seen! It was its 40th birthday this year so hey, what better reason to get out and go party?  But yeah, these things were only scratching the surface, there’s obviously much, much more to  see and do. I lament being unable to easily stroll around and investigate everything while I’m there,  but hey, chances are you can! So hopefully this footage conveys the vibe well enough for you  to plan on attending yourself! It can still be a bit of a madhouse, but it’s also pure infectious  joy that has to be experienced in-person, and I’ve no doubt it’ll only get better from here.And that is it for Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2023! For this video at least. Once again,  I also have the vlog video over on LGR Blerbs, where the convention is still a core part of it.  But it’s largely the rest of the trip surrounding it, covering a good two weeks of stuff before,  during, and after the show. That being said, the very best part of this trip is always getting to  meet so many of you, whether it’s on the windy streets of Chicago or the crowded halls of  Elmhurst. I am legitimately fortunate to have made so many genuine connections this year and previous  years, and I’ll truly miss attending in 2024. The showrunners are clearly doing their best with  a convention that’s outgrown its britches. But whether or not they get a new venue soon, I simply  wanna give it time to breath and come back with fresh eyes in a couple years. That, and my plan  for ‘24 is to visit other VCFs and events that I’ve never been to before! For now though, I hope  you enjoyed this episode! And a big shoutout to everyone I got to meet and hang out with, and to  all who generously dropped off things at my table! A bunch of you I met and took down your name,  but a bunch of you I didn’t, either due to the frantic busy nature of the show or I was elsewhere  when you came by. So if you provided one of the things that you see here, do feel free to lemme  know who you are in the comments or through email, and I’ll be sure you’re credited if things end up  featured in a future video. As always though, thank you very much for watching, and for your  support. And here’s to even better VCF Midwest shows in the future. Whatever form they take!\n"