Vintage Computer Festival 6.0 will take place Saturday, October 11 and Sunday, October 12, from 10 AM to 6 PM daily. The event will be at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.The event will be taking place at the new 119,000 square foot facility recently opened by the Computer History Museum; it’s now the largest computer history archive on the planet.

This year’s event features:

  • Xerox Alto 30th Birthday Bash. The 30th birthday of the Xerox Alto. The Alto is the granddaddy of the Macintosh and all other systems with graphical user interfaces. VCF is celebrating the Alto by having a panel of past and present Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) luminaries speak about the development of the Alto. An assortment of classic Xerox machines will be present as well, including the Alto, Alto II, and other machines, which you’ll be able to actually try out.
  • Retro-Code Video Game Programming Challenge. Three classic computers — an Apple //e, an Atari 800, and a Commodore 64 — will be provided, complete with an operating system, technical manuals and programming books. Participants will be assembled into three teams. The goal? To create, in just three hours, the best video game they can. This event will be held on Saturday, beginning at 2:30 PM. Arrive at 2:15 if you want to participate, since that’s when teams will be chosen.
  • Computer History Museum Mega Book Sale. The Computer History Museum will be selling over 1,000 books on contemporary computer topics starting at around 1:30 PM on Saturday, October 11. The sale will also include duplicate copies from the museum’s library; many of these are very interesting (and often old) books on various computer-related topics.
  • IMSAI Series Two to be Debuted.Tom Fischer of IMSAI will debut the IMSAI Series Two, a modern-day reincarnation of the venerable IMSAI 8080 computer. The new machine features the classic IMSAI 8080 cabinet, a newly designed IEEE-696 compatible Programmer’s Front Panel, a 10-slot active termination IEEE-696 motherboard and a 350-watt switching power supply. The machine is powered by a Zilog Z8S180 20 MHz processor with 32K of flash memory and 1 MB of static memory. Other new products will be exhibited as well.
  • Exhibit Your Vintage Computer. Ribbons — and a cash prize for first place — will be given to the top three judged exhibits. Bring your Apple II setup along and show them what a real computer looks like! Hans Franke will be there with Jeri Ellsworth’s Chamelon USB/VGA/IDE/CompactFlash interface card, which Hans still prefers to call the “AnyCard.” The new Apple 1 clone will be there as well.

There are also three tracks of speakers, including Jef Raskin, the father of the Macintosh, and many other events. This is gearing up to be a great event, so if you can make it, you should go! We need a huge Apple II contingent to be there. Show those other geeks up in a big way!