The VCF Midwest 2025 Report
Do you remember that old computer show in September? Here in Userlandia we’ve returned to the biggest computer show of the year: VCF Midwest.
Ah, it’s my favorite time of year. Leaves are turning, the air’s a little cooler, and the sounds of clattering keyboards fill the air. For geeks all these autumnal signs point to an upcoming event of extraordinary importance: Vintage Computer Festival Midwest. This year’s event will be the 20th edition and as always expectations are high. VCF Midwest has found itself as a standard bearer in the scene and last year it moved to a venue befitting that status: the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center. I won’t be doing a full review of the venue since it hasn’t changed much since last year’s video review. But the too long didn’t watch summary is that every part of the VCF experience got an upgrade: exhibits, lodging, parking, food, even the lines! With a year’s worth of experience under the show’s belt, what improvements could we expect for 2025?
One reason VCF chose the Ren as the show’s home for the foreseeable future is because there’s plenty of room to grow. Last year the exhibit floor occupied three of the six main expo hall partitions, and VCF secured a fourth partition for 2025’s event. Now the show had 66,000 square feet to host nearly 240 exhibitors—that’s 20% more booths than 2024. Aside from expanding the expo hall the show made other changes to its room utilization. Schaumburg Ballroom E was last year’s lounge space, now it’s been transformed into a second panel room. The lounge space is now located on the hotel side of the complex, and those new rooms could serve double-duty as impromptu meet-n-greet space—more on that later.
Back to the expo hall, the show runners rearranged the table layout to take advantage of the extra space. The new layout resembles a butterfly, with wings of horizontal tables spreading from a central column. Throughout these aisles you’ll find almost anything relating to classic computing, and odds are your hyperfixation is somewhere on display. Why not start with the early days of computing? Brian Stuart’s Explaining the ENIAC is back with some new ways to explore the groundbreaking system. The neatest one by far is an augmented reality walkthrough which I unfortunately couldn’t capture with a camera, so you’ll have to take my word that it’s extremely cool. Illinois has a long history of supercomputing innovation thanks to the Argonne National Laboratory, and Wilkie Olin-Ammentorp’s exhibit shows off hardware and software used to build some of the world’s most powerful number crunchers. More Illinois natives can be seen at Beehive Bit Bunker’s bevy of Beehive terminals.
Digital Equipment Corporation may not be with us any longer but its spirit always lives on at many VCF exhibits. A DECNet powered LAN lets these Windows machines play together at Doug’s Vintage Computing. Or if you’re allergic to Windows, why not play around with a VT420 terminal connected to Tru64? Even more DEC fun was on hand at E’s table with this absolutely monstrous AlphaServer running VMS. Michael Katz’s table is decked out with decent DEC gear. When you’re done poking around on a PDP-8E you can also check his considerable collection of HP calculators.
It wouldn’t be a VCF Midwest without Forgotten Machines stacking their booth full of machines from the earliest days of personal computing. Will you accept a challenge to conquer the Convergent Technologies AWS? Flash back to the 1970s with your choice of an Altair or a Cosmac Elf at Dave Runkle’s table. Next door is Lee Hart, with some early computer kits which show off how we built our own computers before NewEgg. Michael Shartiag’s table collects some curiosities like a PDP-8 and a Commodore cash register, but you might be more interested in a demonstration of 1977-era CGI in Star Wars.
Fans of S100 and pre-IBM PCs made a strong showing this year. Test your targeting skills by taking on this text-based shooting gallery running on Steve Hatle’s SOL-20. Nevets01 has a novel way to control a robot: an Altair! Compete with up to four other players in multiplayer Pac-Man served up on a Cromemco 8/16 at the S100 Projects booth. The Osborne Computer Group returns with a new group of PCs, but their major attraction is computer pioneer Lee Felsenstein! The leader of the Homebrew Computer Club was on site to chat about the good old days and offer some of his wisdom on these very fun signs. Sellam Ismael was nearby on behalf of VCF West with some relics of the olden days. Have some HeathKits with Daniel Pellam and his assortment of Heath PCs powered by smooth-running compact flash storage solutions.
IBM played a crucial role in the history of computing and it’s no surprise that many tables had a piece of Big Blue on display. IBM’s vision of networked workstations returns at Aaron Polivka’s IBM PS/2 Obsolete Networking featuring a functioning token ring network. He also sold me some hard-to-find 30 pin parity SIMMs for my Model 30 286 to max out its motherboard memory at a whopping 4MB. If you’re more into midrange Blue, Mike Mason and and Mike Stroz have an AS/400 set up with a custom navigator menu to load programs. Play some Pac-Man and sign the guestbook with your high score! Kevin Moonlight’s miniature ThinkPads and Joshua Conboy’s OS/2 and You are perennial exhibitors at Midwest and they’ll be sure to satisfy your cravings for 1990s IBM nostalgia. How many Ms could a model M model if a Model M could model Ms? Eric Moore’s got all the goods for buckling spring buffs.
Apple enthusiasts had plenty to see in the expo hall. Traveling all the way from Connecticut is the Retro Tech Foundation, who brought some highlights of their collection to demonstrate the evolution of Apple computers. Pick up and play on an Apple II, or make a movie on a rare black Power Mac 5500 Director’s Edition. If you love your Lisa, Sapient Technologies can help you keep it running. Check out the replacement LCD display that brought this Lisa back from the brink. Covering VCF can feel like a marathon, so the best way to take a break is to play some Marathon instead! John Robert La Porta’s ode to network Mac games lets you relive the old days of misappropriating school or work LAN resources.
For those looking for new software for new Macs, Joshua Stein was selling floppy disks which harken back to an older time. I don’t need the BlueSCSI Utility on a floppy, but I sure do want it! Then stop by Peter R’s photo booth to get your photo printed on a Mac OS boot screen card! There’s no school like the old school, and the Pittsburgh Classic Mac Lab brings you back to a time when Mac LCs lined the tables of your middle school computer room.
It’s easy to run Windows on a Mac today, but in the past you needed extra hardware to accomplish that feat. Evan’s Before VMs shows off the various add-in cards which let your Mac masquerade as a Windows PC. All-in-one Macs come in all shapes and sizes, and John Obst has a greatest hits collection of the iconic Mac form factor. Lilia Roo and Raezinus’ PowerPC Oddware showcases BeOS, Windows NT, and Apple Copland all running on period hardware. Do some stuff with DanaDoesStuff and his collection of parts and servers. He was joined by Mr. Macintosh who brought some his own Apple gear to show off.
Commodore fans continue to show up in force to highlight the company’s place in computing history. 2025 might be the 40th anniversary of the Amiga and Atari ST, but another landmark PC is celebrating four decades of service: the Commodore 128. John Riney III has brought all three variants to midwest, including the original 128D that we didn’t get in the USA. Returning to VCF Midwest is Maiden Ariana and her Retro Alcove. This year she’s brought even more Commodores, including one with a fabulous pink custom keyboard. Rad! We can’t forget the SX64 Ultimax, which is back for another year of mega-sized computing. All the gear on display at the Atari Guy’s table is Commodore kit—how ironic! Machine coders will want to try Monster, Bryce Wilson’s modern assembler for the VIC-20. Commodoreman’s plus one for the show is a Commodore Plus/4. Style64’s got some more tricks up their sleeves to wring more performance out of the C64, and you can see the fruits of their efforts in games like Hat Trick. Want to try a never-before-seen VIC-20 game from ages ago? Ken Van Musburger recovered the lost version of Icom’s Moonsweeper for the VIC-20 from paper source code. Amiga fans were all over the original breadboard prototypes of the A1000’s custom chips. Try an A1200 at Mister Great’s booth then pick up some of his Amiga odds and ends. Dan Beaver’s showing off an A3000 along with some nice Amiga accessories.
Atari fans come out in force to VCF Midwest and they won’t be disappointed with these exhibits. At The Power of Vintage they’ve set up Atari home computers ranging from early 8-bit up to the fearsome Falcon 030. Stopping by in Schaumburg is Scott K’s ST Road Trip where Sega Mega Drives and Atari Mega STs can coexist in peace! At least, until the llamas invade. No, you’re not seeing things—that’s a rare Atari Super STacy at the Atari BBS Gurus’ booth. You can also check out Atari modems and other gear that connected 8- or 16-bit Ataris to other systems. Were you one of the kids in 1978 who had an Atari on their wish list? Well, the Sears corporation was happy to take your parents’ money to make your dream come true and John Buell’s table is full of Atari products plucked out of a Sears Wish Book. Although I think the Moviecart might be from an alternate future where that catalog still exists. At the nearby Suburban Chicago Atarians booth is an Atari Najm. It’s a tweaked Atari 65XE with Arabic ROMs intended for the Middle Eastern market. These export machines are a sometimes forgotten piece of history, and shows like VCF are a great opportunity otherwise see such rarities.
The spirit of SepTandy is alive and kicking throughout the expo hall. Malcolm Raney chronicled Tandy’s journey from TRS-80 to T-4000. Richard Lorbieski is showing off a CoCo floppy emulator. I’m a big fan of Spy Hunter so Rich Natilli’s Adventures in Spy Hunting caught my attention straight away. He developed his own version of Spy Hunter for the Tandy CoCo and hacked in controls from a Spy Hunter cabinet to give it a real arcade feel.
You could barely walk ten feet without seeing a table featuring an IBM compatible or PC clone. Taking over the endcap of group G is Start Me Up: 30 Years of Windows 95. I saw it back at VCF East and it’s just as good here as it was there. Dude, you’re getting a Dell exhibit! This corner booth has a lineup of Dell systems from the early aughts during its dominance as the number one PC manufacturer in the US. Compaq was an innovator in all areas portable, and at i80386sx’s table we’re treated to some fine examples of Compaq laptops, like the Contura and LTE. Make sure you pay your respects to this massive throne of a docking station. Friend of the show Ben Gennaria upgraded his timeline of laptop history with more models and more information placards, and he brought some PDAs as well. Why buy two computers when you can get one for half the price? That’s the logic behind Seequa Systems’ PCs which can run both Intel MS-DOS and Z80 CP/M and Matt Jones will be happy to show it off to you. Try out a prototype IBM Desk XX 486 PC at the Classical Computing Laboratory or pick up some parts from their surplus collection.
Mixed in with regular PCs are more powerful workstations and severs. The Silicon Graphics Usergroup and Irixnet’s assortment of colorful SGI workstations to show the power of real time 3D rendering. Did you forget to fill out your TPS reports? If so, you can make a quick stop at Initech to log in to their systems and get it done. Four’s the lucky number for Whistler’s booth, where a quad Pentium Pro server meets a four player Halo deatchmatch.
Video games are one reason folks join the wonderful world of retro, and that includes consoles, arcade systems, and computer gaming in general. You might remember Joe Marlin’s It’s Just a PC from VCF East, but it’s grown considerably larger here at VCF Midwest. Passersby took an opportunity to try Linux on a PlayStation 2 and XBox. Sierra Back-OnLine returns this year with an even bigger selection of classic Sierra software running on period hardware. The centerpiece is this giant Gateway full-tower which I lusted over back in the day—in my opinion there’s no better way to play Space Quest. Ready for a test of your adventuring skills? Try some games written for Evan Wright’s Lantern text adventure development kit. Superstar 64 brought his favorite systems for you to try. Alan DeYoung offered four-player Nintendo 64 shenanigans. I’m seeing red at Zee Mehciz’s booth thanks to this dual Virtual Boy setup. It’s hard enough to find one in the wild, and now I can say I’ve witnessed actual two player face-offs in Mario Tennis. Game Boy players will be interested in trying a new game for the Nintendo handheld courtesy of Zap Coders.
Be it MIDI or chiptunes the digital music scene is thriving at VCF. Nephrite.fm is back with more Japanese gear to please weeaboos both young and old. Kill some Draculas with some Vampire Killer on MSX or shoot up some shmups with Tohou on an NEC PC. Returning with more digital music history is the OPL Archive where you can play along to live modtracker demos on a Yamaha Portatone. Skye Janis’ music production workshop is a little bigger this year with more MIDI kit for you to test your compositional skills. An Apple IIe might not be the first thing that comes to mind for music sequencing, but Bea Thurman’s Sampling Apple returns to VCF with more keyboards and mixers to boost your music production skills. Maybe you prefer your old music to be a bit more analog. If so, take a minute to listen to some classic cylinders on an old-fashioned hand cranked gramophone. Try composing multitrack masterpieces at Paul Wilga’s booth using a Commodore 64 and Music Port software. MDCon returns with a new mix of Minidisc players and recorders. The star is the Sony Vaio Compo PCV-M350 which is paired with a PC-compatible MiniDisc deck like the MDS-PC1. This combination lets a user easily read or record MiniDiscs with computer assistance.
Sinclair fans and their Timex friends were well represented this year, with multiple booths collected in what I call the Clive cluster. Carl Milles leads off with his display of prototype Sinclair PCs and homebrew carts for your Spectrum. Mark Martin brought a Sinclair QL to show off the less popular but still quite interesting successor to the Spectrum. Stewart Newfeld had all the goods for ZX81 and Timex 1000 fans. David Anderson’s corner booth was covered with oddly interesting variants of Sinclair and Timex computers, and if you’re interested in making your own software or accessories you could pick up one of his books to learn all the secrets of exploiting these 8-bit wonders.
Audiovisual systems were an engine powering computing progress and there’s many to see at VCF. Genericable is still the headline act, with an ever growing roundup of the hardware that brought TV into our homes. Avery Grade’s demystifying a descrambler along with presenting old Japanese TVs. Ever thought about building your own CRT monitor? This guy did, and it’s all open source too. Evan Allen and Frank Palazzolo are continuing their work to recreate the custom boards that made the shows and spectacles of Chuck E. Cheese possible.
Right, wot’s all this then? It’s Chris Roth’s Home Computing in the UK, featuring a selection of your favorite UK micros. Stop by to get some hands-on time with an Amstrad CPC and munch on a jammy dodger or two. Danielle the Girlgeek is back with her Casio Loopy and a bigger selection of Japanese PCs. If an Apple isn’t your style, maybe you’d fancy an Apricot? Check out an Apricot Xi at Chip Black’s table, where you can test drive Britain’s fruit computer. The Berlin Wall didn’t just divide people; it divided their computers too, and Noah Burney can show you the differences between computing in East and West Germany. Try the Robotron Z9001 to see the GDR’s take on a personal computer.
Does your booth need network connectivity? Shadytel Midwest served as internet service provider and central office, wiring up booths for phone calls and online service. Chat with fellow attendees and the outside world at Steve K.’s Diversi-dial. Experience some classic door games over at the Never Never Land BBS. Tom Major brought back his time division multiplexing equipment. If you yearn for the wild west days of the old World Wide Web’s, Protoweb will transport you back to the days of 56K modems and frame relay networks. Try out Tim Berners-Lee’s original WWW on their NeXTstation and stream some modern day video to old PCs with WarpStream. Aaron A. Collins brought a sizable collection of radio and computer gear. N9TAX has cooked up a complete point-to-point protocol network. Brian Johnson and Joe Rork’s Packet Radios let you try a wireless network from the days before WiFi. You can also test packet radio transmissions on ByteShift’s TRS-80. Here’s a most interesting thing at his table: Jim Happel’s Meshtastic node for the Commodore 64. Meshtastic is a long-range low power open source radio network and a C64 seems like a perfect retro terminal. And you can build out the rest of your Meshtastic network with a portable Meshtastic radio from Spec5.
Several computer clubs and organizations made the trek to Schaumburg to put their local flavor on display. The Southeast Michigan Computer Club had this intriguing Sony PCV-MXS20. It’s got a Minidisc drive with custom player software and a dedicated speaker system. The Wisconsin Computer Club is back again with a nice demonstration of the Little 16, an open source recreation of the Commodore 16. Students from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have formed a retro computing club and they’ve taken the next step in their fandom by setting up a table at VCF Midwest. Take a spin on a Dreamcast or one of their classic Macs to see what they’ve been up to.
If you can’t make it to a computer museum you can always check out the ones who travel to VCF. The Museum of Batch Computing’s centerpiece this year is a massive VAX-7000, certainly the biggest piece of DEC equipment on the floor. System Source now has its own dedicated island decorated with some excellent pieces of IBM history and a monstrous Calcomp 960 plotter. Anchoring the Sprawl Technology Library’s display is this old telephone switchboard, which let passersby play the role of an old-school phone operator. Test your skills at connecting the world by plugging different phone circuits together. Explore the recently expanded collection of the Interim Computer Museum. Indiana’s Midwest Computer Museum brought some examples from their collection. At the Dayton Computer Museum’s traveling exhibit you can find cool projects like this relay crystal computer which drives a cool little robot. Or maybe you’re more interested in this SCELBI-8H which was one of the earliest Intel 8008-based PCs. And Inverse Phase is spreading the good word about the Bloop Museum, which recently relocated to Pittsburgh. Midwest Classic Video Game Museum exhibits regularly at VCF and has a massive game collection on display this year. And the Vintage Computer Federation staff set up shop to encourage visitors to attend other shows like VCF East and West. So did Midwest Gaming Classic, who set up a photo backdrop to promote their next show.
Are you curious about modern retro computer systems? Dan Sanderson of the Mega65 project brought several examples of the modern retro system for people to try. Programmers like AwesomeDolphin and their port of Sierra’s Adventure Game Interpreter are doing their part to bring more software to the Mega65 platform. Or you can try out a modern operating system for 8-bit Commodores with a c64OS demo at Retrodores. Foenix showed off their latest updates to the F256K, including a future 68000 variant and the latest updates to NitrOS-9. Stephen Anderson’s table has more practical applications for FujiNet.
Want to use of the earliest systems with a 3.5 inch disk drive? Then get your hands on the Sony SM-70 at RF Computers’ booth, at least, after you’re done pawing through their excellent pile of stuff for sale. Josh Makar brought a video phone terminal and two Monorail PCs. I haven’t seen one of those since I visited North Haverbrook! Command Center Labs had a massive endcap with tons of items for sale and demo setups for Amiga, Atari ST, and SGI. But how can you resist this old GM video center plucked from the depths of some dealer’s basement? It’s paired with this powertrain control system ripped out of an Olds Delta 88. Ever seen a scanning electron microscope? The folks at the Analytics Lounge brought this Amray unit to let you see the world at an atomic scale. Have fun watching robots roam about with James Balmer’s Huey and Avatar.
Kushi’s collection is Patchouli approved, and if that giant yellow ATX case didn’t grab your attention then this Sanyo color luggable certainly would. Come on down to Evan Gildow’s Small Systems Showcase to test your skill at destroying some invaders that are possibly from space or test drive an Apple IIGS. James Wilkinson brought nearly a dozen different 8-bit PCs to demonstrate the diversity of decades past. Take a break for some 1990s gaming at Steve Rundle’s Junk Hoard. It’s got all your aesthetics covered from aluminum Lian Li to strawberry iMac. According to my calculations, these programmable calculators at Holovoo’s table are guaranteed to bring my math grades up to an A+.
Thumb through some pages of 99er magazine to get more familiar with Erik Olson’s TI/99. Byte Magazine played a crucial role in chronicling the rise of the personal computer and Ethan Dicks honors the magazine’s legacy with It Came From Byte. Items featured in the pages of Byte are on display like this AT&T UNIX PC. Computers come in regular or mini size courtesy of David Haynes and his triple-decker stack of systems. Kokoscript’s revamped their System Sampler setup with more distinct architectures. Let off some steam with CityXen by punching a few chickens. The hosts of the Floppy Days and ANTIC podcasts will be happy to host an impromptu live show when you stop by.
Make some memories by learning about core memory by building a Core64 simulator kit. If you wanted to sharpen your skills you could sit in a learning lesson with June of Nybbles and Bytes, whose computer school will teach you the finer points of Turbo Pascal and Novell NetWare. Not many of us have designed our own computer, but Bill Buzbee’s Magic-1 is a homebrew minicomputer with a CPU made entirely out of 74 series TTL chips. It runs his own self-designed software stack compiled to his own instruction set on a CPU he wire-wrapped himself. Impressive!
Chris and Gavin Tersteeg are celebrating 50 years of the 6502 by decking their table with systems featuring the famed CPU. You won’t be afraid of no ghosts after you get your hands on Ted Niespodziany’s Gimix Ghost. Developed by a Chicago native, Gimix systems were a favorite of Defender developer Eugene Jarvis. Relive your millennial memories of journeying from monochrome DOS games to Halo deathmatch at Millennial Computing.
My pick for Best in Show goes to this homage to all things orange by the Retro Tech Foundation. This loving simulacrum of a manic pixie millennial teen’s dream bedroom features a tangerine iMac and iBook surrounded by artifacts of the turn of the 21st century. Fantastic work all around!
Section L might’ve been the busiest group of tables in the entire show thanks to its collection of special guests and content creators. Making his return to VCF Midwest is LGR with a greatly expanded booth featuring classic machines and the most square footage of woodgrain at the show. Sean of Action Retro was next door having a totally normal VCF Midwest experience thanks to this IBM PowerPC desktop. Join the PC Liberation movement with Steve “VoidStar” Lewis to learn how to free yourself from the restraints of corporate mainframes. David Murray was ever present to chat with folks about the Commander X16. Taylor, Amy, and Veronica were behind the nearby Stop Bits table, where you could pick up a copy of their new released album. Adrian Black brought some of his C64s out of the digital basement and into the show, including the famous field found C64 that still works despite everything that’s happened to it over the years. Around the corner is Kate the Macintosh Librarian with one of my favorite CRTs: the Apple 21 inch monochrome display. It can render a two-page spread without breaking a sweat. At Ron’s Computer Vids we’re playing with power—PowerBooks, that is. He’s gathered every example of 100-series PowerBooks including the not-like-the-others 190. Steve from Mac84 brought a face-tracking mouse controller for classic Macs which was recently featured on his channel. Are you hyped up for a HyperCard adventure from Eric’s Edge? Get ready to get stacked by giving it a test drive on an SE/30. Tour the latest projects from BigBadBiologists’ workbench like this single board 486 pumping out PicoGus powered tunes.
Now one might think that gathering all these luminaries in one spot would cause some traffic jams. VCF anticipated such a problem and created some queues using rope and traffic cones. Overflows still happened from time to time on Saturday, but the situation would’ve been far worse without them. I think this worked overall, but let’s upgrade to real stanchions next year. Another downside to queues is that they tend to imply the queue is for the table, and not just for meeting the guest. You didn’t necessarily need to wait in the meet-and-greet line to try out a computer at somebody’s table, and in the future these high-demand exhibits might need more coordination between the show and the VIPs to better design booth spaces to avoid these pitfalls.
This year I made a point to ask exhibitors about their experiences tabling at the show. They were happy overall, with many loving the crowds and vibe of the floor. Most of the gripes I heard revolved around setup time and electricity. Some booths had problems with power outages and circuit breakers. Power problems were by no means a universal experience—most exhibitors I talked to said they had no electrical issues at all. The venue certainly has the capability to supply tons of electricity because it hosts the Pinball Expo and those machines are notoriously power hungry. Based on my observations the power issues resulted from mismatches between demand and supply. Some tables underestimated how much power they actually needed, and some PDUs may have been undersized for certain groups of tables. This isn’t an easy logistics problem to solve, but I think the show will need to rethink its power budgeting processes for next year. Maybe all guests should be required to submit their expected amperage draw—I know the big iron folks already need to do that.
Which dovetails into another gripe of mine: the table layout is too cramped. The aisle spacing isn’t the issue—it’s the same ten feet as last year. It’s the lack of gaps between exhibits and using the same tablecloth colors on neighboring tables. I know arranging all these disparate exhibits is a complicated task that gets more difficult every year because the demand for tables outstrips the supply. So the show tries to accommodate as many exhibitors as possible by cramming as many tables as they can into the available floor space while still maintaining ten foot aisles and some semblance of entry and exit flow. Speaking as an attendee I hate that I can’t easily tell a single table, or a double table, or most any exhibit apart from another. I was constantly asking people whether an item on display was part of one table or another because there’s no gaps between most exhibits. A few people brought custom tablecloths or signage, but they were exceptions. Those little green paper table identifiers are hard to see, and many exhibitors buried them or tossed them aside. I’m humbly asking that the staff please consider solutions that other conventions use, like adding space between exhibits, alternating tablecloth colors, and making basic foamcore table signs with booth names and numbers. It might even be worthwhile to think about actual booth constructs for, say, the VIP guests. I know that means you won’t be able to fit as many tables and it would cost more money to set up. But the claustrophobia is real, and a little bit of space goes a long way.
Activities, Events, and People
Need a break from the vastness of the exhibit hall? Rounding out the VCF experience is a packed schedule of activities, panels, and events open to all attendees. Like the exhibit hall itself the slate hasn’t radically changed from last year but many iterative improvements have been made. Perhaps the biggest change came to the panels and talks thanks to the addition of a second panel track. This was one of my wishes from last year and I’m glad to see it happen. Located in the Schaumburg E ballroom, the second panel space offered an intimate location with 48 seats and a full AV setup for presentations. There was always a decent crowd whenever I stopped by, which is a good sign.
For this year’s panel schedule VCF did a great job of curating talks covering the wide and wonderful world of old technology. Topics ranged from historical overviews to technical deep dives, and while Apple, IBM, and Commodore had their share of discussions there’s no lack of highly specific subject matter for the choosy enthusiast. Dig in to the history of Loadstar magazine for the Commodore, learn about the current state of the art in optical drive emulators, or attend a masterclass in recapping and refurbishing your boards. Those were just a fraction of what was on hand, and if you weren’t there, you can catch them all on VCF’s YouTube channel. There’s enough content now that even people who attended the show will need to catch all the panels they missed online because they can’t be at the expo floor and a panel at the same time. But for the times I stopped by the panel halls the presentation was just as good as last year. That’s in part to the great efforts of Jim Leonard and the VCF AV staff, who were busy doing camera and audio work all weekend long. I heard that Jim is taking a break from AV after this year, and it’s a well deserved one. The panel halls also played host to live music events, including a concert by the Stop Bits and live synths from Bea Thurman. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see either because they were very late in the evening. I’m sure they were great!
The headline event which still draws the biggest crowd—both in the seats and on the stage—is the YouTube Creators panel. If you had trouble getting a seat last year the facilities team managed to make more space this year by retracting the wall separating both panel rooms to temporarily expand the seating area. The usual cast of suspects is back—Taylor and Amy, Veronica Explains, Macintosh Librarian, Action Retro, 8-Bit Guy, and Adrian—but the roster is even bigger thanks to the return of LGR and the additions of Polymatt and This Week in Retro Host and VCF Midwest emcee Jason Compton. There’s enough tech tubers here to field a baseball team!
For those ready for some hands-on activities there’s plenty to do in the expo hall. LAN-lubbers will be happy to visit the VCF Midwest LAN party, set up once again in the main hall with over a dozen stations for pickup games against your fellow attendees. Can’t game without your own gear? Then plop your box down at the bring your own PC section where there’s plenty of room for your Chieftec Dragon—assuming your back survived the haul from the parking lot.
Inspired by all the cool homebrew projects available at the show but aren’t sure if you can put them together? Build-a-Blinkie’s back offering how-tos and DIY kits for you to practice your soldering skills. There’s now dozens of options to build your own colorful memento of the show. If you couldn’t get a seat there you could also check out Hakz4Kidz’s class workshop on the south side of the hall.
After a long day walking the show you might need some time just to take a break, and VCF provides some quiet space for attendees to get away from the chaos. With last year’s lounge space in Schaumburg E drafted into service as a panel room the show needed a new home for lounge space and it found it in these conference rooms on the opposite side of the venue. These cozy spaces were perfect to hang out with pals and relax. There was enough room that they could even be used for ad-hoc meet and greet spaces, and there were a few such sessions, like one for Homebrew Computer Club legend Lee Felsenstein.
Saturday’s other major event was the trademark Fabulous VCF Midwest Auction. The format hasn’t changed much from last year, with Jason Timmons back in his regular role as auctioneer. Thankfully an auction preview list was available, and the energy in the room was high as bids came in hot and fast. I didn’t pick anything up, since nothing caught my eye like last year’s butterfly keyboard ThinkPad. But I saw plenty of happy bidders winning cool items and replenishing the show’s coffers in the process.
A Massive Midwest Marketplace
What convention would be complete without a little bit of commerce? VCF Midwest’s massive size attracts sellers from near and far hoping to make a buck or three. There’s e-waste companies, entrepreneurs selling their homebrew upgrades, and random folks clearing the cruft out of their basements. This tidal wave of stuff means you’ve got a good opportunity to find the oddly specific retro doodad that’s been eluding your grasp.
The first place you should spend your money is VCF Central Command which is conveniently located by the front door of the expo hall. It’s been greatly expanded this year with a dedicated island that doesn’t have to share space with other exhibitors. VCF Midwest may be free to attend, but it’s not free to run, and buying merchandise is one way to replenish its treasury. The most popular product is the annual T-shirt, but this year there were new options for merchandise like these VCF coffee mugs.
If you already have enough t-shirts, you can take something home from the VCF garage sale instead. Attendees generously donated hundreds of items like big box games, hardware, and memorabilia to help raise funds. The extra space in this year’s booth definitely helped the garage sale, as it was much more visible than last year with extra signage and more staff to help tend to buyers. But no purchase is necessary to help keep the party going—the SparcStation will happily much on any donations you feed it.
One downside to locating VCF Centcom at the main door is that the rush to buy merch at the start of the show creates a massive line. It snakes out the hall and around the venue which caused some confusion last year when people who weren’t interested in merch thought it was a line to get into the show. The line was back this year, but the show dispatched some volunteers in the early hours to help direct traffic and make sure people knew they didn’t have to wait in line to get in the expo hall. Personally I’d like to see some dedicated queues and signage, but things worked better than last year and that’s what counts.
As you make your way past Centcom you’ll notice that the northern wall is still the domain of the big resellers like Bonus Life Computers. You could spend most of the day combing through crates of boxed software and then nab a C64 to play it all. Walker Computer Solutions didn’t just bring computers to sell, they also sold tools and supplies to enhance your workbench. Ecotech had a new supply of old PCs and games, while Ecotronix expanded their selection of HiFi and audiovisual gear. Gamers hunting for CRT displays will always find a good supply at Digital Thrift, but you shouldn’t overlook their computer selection either. The variety at the E-Waste Mates is staggering: boxed Gateways, a pile of video cards, and huge magneto-optical cartridges are just some of the items on hand. I was mesmerized by the demonstration of these giant Sony 1 inch videotape recorders. There’s something irresistible about giant spinning reels!
You’ll go bananas when you see the prices at Jonathan Herr’s smorgasbord of PC parts. Crazy Aaron is actually quite reasonable when it comes to price and selection. You can buy both Apple and IBM equipment with PowerPC processors from Matt and Shannon. Grab some old floppy drives and volumes of documentation at Marvin Johnston’s table to complete that seventies-era computer lurking in your basement. Are those 3D printed replacement panels on that Power Mac at RaynorPat’s table? Ronald Strojny’s making sure these ViewSonic monitors find good homes. The boxes from John Burch’s garage contained some neat parts like a Teac combo 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drive. If you need components for a Gridcase or a complete Sun Blade setup with CRT you’re in luck at Black Bag. Every purchase comes with free gum when you buy from Bryce Lanham. 2tailedfox’s huge corner booth was covered in swathes of PC parts, boxed games, and crates full of Nintendo Power magazines.
Stuff is my favorite, and stuff is what William Donzelli brought. There sure is a lot of it, including this massive CRT TV. You can complete your bookshelf of boxed operating systems or play with some Sun workstations when you peruse Paul Rak’s collection. Are you ready for a PDP-8? Adopt one from Jack Rubin and maybe this teletype will follow you home too. Then you can grab some boards and accessories at Paul Anderson’s place to power it up. Or if he doesn’t have what you need, it might be hiding amongst John Elson’s pile of Q-bus boards. Some spectacular big box games could be found at table E17. Baldur’s Gate, Monkey Island, and Street Fighter? Now those are some primo picks. Alas, I can’t name who was running the table because it wasn’t listed on the exhibit list or map. If you see this, speak up in the comments!
Numerous vendors were selling modern upgrades and replacement parts to keep your old systems running. Pete Cooper’s got upgrades for your IBM PS/1s, including wifi modems and replacement power supplies. MacEffects wants to save your iMac G3 from the fate of a shattered CRT bezel, and their new injection molded replacement is available to prevent or replace a broken inner bezel. Their partner table 8-bit Stuff has 3D printed micro-sized computer models and copies of Undead, a new game for the Apple II.
Be sure to make a visit to Joe’s Computer Museum. He’s got all your favorites like the Pico Micro Mac and A2DVI, but this year the coolest new products are 3D printed items using the platinum PLA filament he commissioned from Polar Filament. Next door is BlueSCSI, and they’ve stuffed their booth with many practical demonstrations of computers powered by their versatile SCSI drive emulator. Flanking the IIGS and LCs are a working DuoDock and a monstrous Apple Network Server, all given a second wind thanks to BlueSCSI.
Connecting old computers to modern devices is the name of the game at 8bitdevices, where you can pick up the latest version of their Apple2DVI, VGA boards, or USB adapters to connect modern mice to retro computers. A common question people have with old computers is “what are you going to do with it?” An easy answer is to plug in a FujiNet adapter and connect to a wonderful online world. The team’s set up most of the available platforms for you to see how it works with your favorite system. Mac SE/30s can get a shot in the arm thanks to the upgrades for sale at ZigZagJoe’s booth. Connect an RGB monitor to your Tandy CoCo or Apple IIGS with Cocoman’s selection of cables. Supercharge your Tandy 1000 HX or EX with a three-way upgrade from Steve Keppner which adds memory, XT-IDE, and a serial port.
Getting data off your Commodore disks doesn’t have to be a pain thanks to Retro Innovations and their Zoom Floppy adapter which lets you connect your Having trouble getting a certain cable for your retro system? I bet 8bitclassics will have it, and if they don’t, you can always pick up some retro reading material from their book selection. Friends don’t let friends use old failure prone Commodore power supplies, and the Iowa Guys have modern power delivery solutions for your collection of chickenhead computers. If you’re having trouble finding a 1581 disk drive for your 64 or 128, BitBinders is serving up modern single or double drive units to complete your ultimate Commodore setup. If you’re looking for Gotek-like functionality for Commodore cartridge ROMs, DDI Project’s multi-carts and state freezers might be the fix for you.
American Retro Shop returns to serve discerning Commodore and Sinclair owners. It’s hard to miss their colorful keyboards but that’s not all they offer—new this year is a prebuilt version of the WiC64 Commodore WiFi adapter. Do you have an old US Robotics and Hayes modem laying around? You can give them a new lease on life and get your retro computers online thanks to Wifi Retromodem boards from Tattler Solutions. No retro PC case is complete without stick-on badges and Geekenspiel is here to help you bling out your box. And don’t forget a matching coaster to make your drinks as cool as your case. Tech Dungeon’s bare metal Commodore interface emulator now has a cool 3D printed case that resembles a 64C. Old iMacs can avoid becoming eWaste with Juicy Crumb’s boards which convert them into usable external monitors.
If only I could bring home this IBM PS/2 model 77 at Anne Barela & Amy Lendian’s table. It’s got a 486 and a Model M keyboard, making it a perfect gateway to the world of Micro Channel. Community effort comes together at FreeGeek Chicago where the team has some absolutely lovely restorations for sale. Discerning buyers could add some flavor to their collections by picking up a Kaypro or Axxis PC. Auramarket IN is happy to serve the console gamers at the show with domestic and Japanese games and consoles to expand their collections. Greenie’s booth would be of interest to Sinclair users, with plenty of cartridges for a ZX maniac.
Having a neat display is always a help and Neil’s Computer Service has a nice arrangement of things to buy alongside some Tandy PC demonstrations. Some say the key to computing success is your keyboard, and Jayden Sparks wants to hook you up with a fine mechanical typing instrument for your word processing or gaming pleasure. Real Altairs are hard to find but you can get the next best thing with Adwater and Stir’s modern reproductions.
Making the trek from St. Louis is the Nostalgia Nexus, bringing a truckload of interesting items like these beastly full-tower PCs. You can find that particular old anime you’re looking for in Matt Anderson’s boxes—assuming that NeXTstation doesn’t catch your eye first. Are you holding out for a Hero Junior Robot? Debra Staples had one for sale if you’re looking for a new 6808 programming project. You need to keep your eyes sharp or you’ll miss rarities like Bill Staples’ Bell and Howell Apple II. Attention VCF shoppers: there’s a blue light special on big blue boxes at NK Tech Fix, so make sure to get one before they’re gone! Some vendors offered repair services, like Amiga of Rochester who returned with their usual on-site repair service, but their booth had tons of boxed Amiga software and other helpful items. Sloopy X. Malibu was also available to do some on-site repairs and kit building.
Chips and cards are just a few things you’ll find scattered in BitHistory’s surplus collection. Hunting for an AT&T UNIX PC? Maxx has an example complete with documentation and software. Mike Connick’s Apple stand has plenty of fruits ready for harvest. Building a late 90s gaming god box? RobJenCollections has the SLI Voodoos to make your dream machine scream. Invite a vampire into your home with an accelerated a1200 from Dragos.
Roaming around Sam Mijal’s forest of beige towers and PC parts was this Cozy Coupe mouse. One booth that got a good chunk of my money was The Atari guy, who just happened to have all the things I needed to whip my newly acquired Mega ST into shape. A two-chip Rainbow TOS upgrade, an ACSI2SD, and a mouse adapter! Talk about a one stop shop.
You don’t have to sell computers and parts to be part of the vast VCF Marketplace. Melissa Barron’s artwork can bring some color to the walls of your gaming space. Pick up an Adventure Time or classic game-inspired canvas painted by Art by Allee. Chicago Gamespace brought a slice of their museum store to VCF, including art books and prints of classic game artwork for the retro art appreciator. Old School Gamer Magazine had a table pitching subscriptions for their publication, but if you aren’t ready for that kind of commitment there’s always pins and keychains based on old game cartridges.
I don’t often see networking gear for sale at VCFs but Wade Meyer had a full rack of switches along with cables and adapters to help you wire up your retro kit. Grab some S100 and CP/M guides from Jim Woznicki’s corner booth to boost your before-MS-DOS bonafides. You can be back in the iLife again after picking up one of Daniel Poarch’s many old Macs. TI/99 fans could buy a bunch of cool stuff at Wumpus Hunters and the neighboring TI/99 table while using the demo machines to convince the crowd to join them. Steve Mahoney’s big box bonanza had several cool titles not just for PCs but also for Amigas and other systems.
Your wallet might be empty after buying up all the items on your retro shopping list, but you’ve still got room in your car, right? You oughta fill it up with some items from the legendary VCF free pile. It’s back at the same spot it was last year, and it’s just as crowded and chaotic. The flurry of items coming and going means you won’t see the same offerings twice. That also makes it impossible to judge the quality of what was on hand. I’m sure there were plenty of killer bargains, but while you won’t spend money at the free pile you’ll certainly be spending your time and effort. And that causes some knock-on effects in the area: the crowd and traffic created by the free pile interferes with nearby exhibit tables. That’s not all bad; you might get some people by your table that might not otherwise stop by. But I don’t think it’s enough to outweigh all the jams and jolts that come with the crowd. The day will come where it’ll need a more dedicated space, and I hope the staff is working on those plans.
The Show Must Go On
A convention is an ecosystem. There’s a delicate balance between the needs of attendees, exhibitors, events, and the show staff. Showrunners can’t put on a show without attendees, attendees won’t come without events and exhibitors, and exhibitors will abandon ship if there’s no crowds or if the staff fails to accommodate their needs. All three groups have a role to play in sustaining the event, and the growth of VCF Midwest is a shining example of how these sometimes competing factions can succeed.
But one consequence of that success is that the show is starting to get too big for its schedule. Given the size of the exhibit hall it’s hard to spend a lot of quality time at all the tables while also enjoying other parts of the show. It feels like there’s three days worth of content stuffed into a day and a half bag, and it doesn’t help that some exhibitors are bailing by noontime on Sunday. I get why they bail—they’ve either sold all their stuff or they have to make a long trek back to their home base. But adding a Friday exhibit day would go a long way to make the show feel like less of a mad dash to see everything. Adding that third day would bring its own set of challenges, primarily on the show itself and its volunteer staff. They’d have to shell out even more cash to the venue, there’s heavier demand on the hotel booking blocks, and so on. Three days also places extra demands on the exhibitors too. I’m used to tabling at comic cons where the Friday, Saturday, Sunday vendor hall is open from 9 to 6 and people tend to treat it like a part- or full-time job. Many VCF exhibitors are hobbyists who have day jobs and families and are spending precious PTO to travel and exhibit. They might not be able to accommodate a longer show. It’s a delicate balance but on the whole I think the balance is tipping to Midwest needing another day for a show of its scale.
Another place where the seams are starting to show is the lack of staff visibility. Aside from the folks at VCF CentCom and the few people whose faces I recognize—Hey, Jim!—I couldn’t tell volunteers apart from attendees. Yes, they have little flags on their badges, but at some point a convention becomes large enough that it needs a more visible staff presence. People should be able to see and recognize staff walking the expo floor on a regular basis. Maybe they were, but I couldn’t tell them apart from the rest of the crowd! Having some dedicated volunteers minding the VIP tables and serving as guest relations would also be a good idea too. I’m sure I’m not saying anything the show isn’t already aware of, because Chicago Classic Computing has been taking detailed surveys of attendees and I bet they’ve been weathering a barrage of feedback during and after the show. As the show settles in to its newer digs the old problems will fade away and be replaced with new ones, but based on their track record I’m sure they’ll devise fair and equitable solutions.
Next up, I hope you can forgive the following self-indulgence. How long has this video been running? I’m sure it’s almost an hour at this point. Over the years I’ve gotten a lot of compliments from viewers and some show volunteers saying they love these videos because they’re the most comprehensive overview of the show. And I appreciate their kind words, but I fear that the show has grown too large for me to keep making these reviews. It’s just basic math—if I have between 9 AM to 9 PM to visit all 240-ish booths on Saturday, that’s twelve hours of time to film 240-ish booths. That works out to about three minutes per exhibit! In practice I spent 90% of my time on Saturday filming the expo hall and I managed to record about 80% of the exhibits. I barely got to attend any panels. I had to duck out of the auction early to do more filming. I had no time to paw through random piles of junk. And my time at the exhibits was spent filming instead of interacting with the exhibits that people invested so much time and effort creating. With the show’s growth showing no signs of stopping I can’t realistically see myself being able to provide the same level of coverage next year when they add even more floor space and exhibits. I would need a second person whose sole task would be to help me film exhibits, and even if I had such a helper it wouldn’t reduce the amount of time the both of us would spend filming.
I have no one to blame but myself, of course. At a certain point it’s folly to try capturing “everything” at a show of a certain size. Despite my best efforts I missed a few tables this year because a few people left on Saturday night or they ended up not attending the show despite being on the exhibit list. I don’t want people to feel left out, or think I’m snubbing them, and I’d like to issue formal “I missed you” apologies to the following exhibitors whose footage folders were empty: Russ Fierce, Dave’s Retro Video Lab, Clint Thompson, Luke Marr, Matt Reichert, Craig Buchannan, the Antique Radio Club of Illinois, Lori’s Lost Treasures, and Tim Williams. Hopefully I can see you next time. And instead of making a video just being one of the things I do when I go to the show, it’s now consumed everything around it for me. I’ve had to put other projects on hold to get this out the door, and it’s been a struggle to write new and insightful things. So for now I think I have to put these huge wrap-up videos on hiatus. That doesn’t mean I won’t be going back to VCF Midwest—in fact, I’d like to get back to my comic con artist roots and table at the show next year. It also doesn’t mean that I won’t make VCF videos anymore. But if I do, they’ll likely be in a different format. Stay tuned.
So that’s another VCF Midwest in the books. With a year to go until the next one there’s no time like the present to make some plans to get together with your fellow geeks. If you can’t make it to Midwest, don’t worry because new events are popping up and there might be something close to you—my Quebecois friends are already psyched for VCF Montreal. But if you’re ready for a unique vintage computing experience, it’s time to put Midwest on your itinerary. You won’t regret it.
