Welcome to the tech antiques road show! Here, in Userlandia, we’re back in New Jersey to explore every inch of Vintage Computer Festival East.

Where do you want to go today? If it’s a meatspace meetup with your favorite group of geeks, you’re in luck. Conventions for retro gaming and vintage computing fans are in vogue because we all know it’s more fun to experience this old tech in person. And with a new year comes a new edition of the venerable VCF East which is back with a fresh slate of exhibits, talks, and a consignment hall packed full of vintage treasure.

It’s hosted at the familiar confines of the InfoAge Science Center in Wall Township, New Jersey. A ticket buys your way into the VCF show as well as the associated InfoAge museums and exhibits. Single day and three-day passes are available, and like all things in life they’re a little more expensive these days. My pre-sale three day pass with fees totaled $103—$15 more than last year. That’s still less than the at-the-door price of $128, so it pays to pre-register. But I was less annoyed about a modest price increase than I was about the return of wristbands. The first 150 three-day pass holders to check in got a badge, but they were still required to wear a specific day’s wristband to get in the show. Boo-urns. If you’re ponying up three digits for a three day pass, you deserve a badge and the privileges therein.

After securing entry you’re free to explore five exhibit halls packed with dozens of unique computer exhibits. Your first stop in Hall A is Alex Jacock’s laptop extravaganza, where you could buy one of his many sensible ThinkPads for a sensible price. Flanking him was Happy Hardwear, offering an array of circuit board inspired jewelry crafted in a cute pixel style. Setonix Synth brought a sampling of their synthesizer kits, which you could buy to construct a rackmounted synth setup to create out of this world sound.

It wouldn’t be hall A without the folks from Tech Dungeon brightening things up—and they’re literally doing that with their new light-up marquees! Combine them with one of their joysticks to make your home computer feel a little more like a home arcade.

Long Island’s American Retro Shop is also back with their selection of light-up keyboards for many of your favorite retro computers. Or pick up a Retro Chip Tester Pro and finally figure out which chip is trapping your Commodore 64 at a black screen.

Do you like cute things? I love cute things, and these little mini Commodores made by Yankee 3D Forge amuse all my adorable senses. You could buy a C64 with 1702 monitor and 1541 disk drive to give your figures and dolls their own retro setup!

Back in its usual spot in a corner of hall B is the RCA Cosmac display. It’s a perennial feature and the hosts do a good job of keeping things fresh by showing off different games and materials.

Today’s game consoles share a lot of technology with PCs, but that’s not a new idea. Consolization shows three past attempts at porting computer architectures to a cost-reduced console format: the Commodore CD32, Fujitsu’s FM Towns Marty, the Apple Pippin, and Microsoft’s original Xbox. These machines didn’t dethrone Nintendo and Sony as the kings of console gaming, but they were cool in their own ways.

Eli’s software encyclopedia is back with more tables to hold his bounty of big box software. With a three-for-twenty dollar deal Eli found many willing adoptees of new old stock games and productivity packages. This year’s unique selections include this Felix the Cat Cartoon Toolbox which can turn your Mac into an animation studio!

What’s all that clatter? It’s John Lucas and the Baudot Basement… bau-dot? Correct me if I’m wrong, John! This fleet of teletypes hammered out news feeds throughout the weekend.

Are you bonkers about Betamax? Dave’s Retro Video Lab is back this year with Beta taking center stage. Tapes, decks, and cameras were on hand to tell the story of Sony’s groundbreaking video tape technology.

Pen plotters have seen a resurgence in the retro scene and they’re getting some excellent rep here at East. Paul Rickards is back with his plotters at The Plot Thickens, where his machines are drawing live at the show. And if you like what you see you can bring home prints of his colorful and quirky designs. Next door was Kate Szkotniki with Apple’s 410 plotter. People throw the word “rare” around too much for Apple gear but this is a legit rarity, given how few were sold and survived to this day. Luckily for you an Apple IIe was driving it throughout the weekend for lovely pen drawing action.

Business Computer: Japan is Quinn Quirble’s tribute to the NEC PC-98. These PCs from the land of the rising sun feature home-grown graphics and sound capabilities which made for unique business and gaming applications.

Retro music composers will be interested in Michael Weitman and Stefany Allaire’s Foenix 256 digital audio setup. Composers who want to make retro sound in a retro way can use both the Foenix’s built-in sound chip and external MIDI devices like this Moog synthesizer to create their perfect soundscape.

We take multiple displays for granted today, but there was a time when they were rare and expensive. The Forgotten King’s Power of Two Displays shows us practical applications for multiple monitors in the early PC era. One of the most common was AutoCAD, which used a monochrome display for its command interface and a CGA display for your drawings.

Are you hungry for HeathKits? In this corner of the hall there were two tables showing off Heath systems. Alex Bodnar brought boxes of programs to show all the things his H89 setup could do. And for more Heath goodness there’s Darrell and Evelyn Pelan, Joe Travis, and Glenn Roberts. Their booth was overflowing with multiple Heath and Zenith systems modded to the hilt, like systems with speech and sound synthesis. Or pull up a game of Galaga on an H8 with MSX capabilities!

It might’ve been gray outside but it was very colorful at EmmyBear Retro, with their combination of electronics and handcrafted cloth gear. After buying a ZuluSCSI or Greaseweasel why not pair it with one of their bags or mousepads in cool new retro patterns?

Our Dutch friends from the Home Computer Museum are back with a new sampler of European computing, featuring an Amiga CD32 and a Commodore PC1. Check out the Exidy Sorcerer, an American PC that found a lot of success in the Netherlands. And don’t forget to munch on some stroopwafels! I’ll make a trip out there some day.

Also, I need to give a nod to MacEffects. They had a table, but unfortunately by the time I went to go film them on Sunday they were already gone. Sorry I missed you, guys!

If the show hadn’t settled on the sound of retro as its theme it could’ve focused on the many microcomputer anniversaries taking place in 2025. The tour of the decades in Hall C starts at 1975 for a celebration of fifty years of Altair. Hosted by William Sudbrink, S-100 systems like the Altair might be known for their switches and terminals. But when equipped with the right combination of boards they could play sound and draw graphics.

Jump ahead ten years to 1985 at 40 Years of the Amiga and you’ll be amazed at the advancements made in a decade. Eight Amiga minds banded together to put the life and times of Commodore’s Amiga on display. You can track some mods, boing some balls, and even toast some video. Hot stuff.

Once you’re done marveling at the Amiga as it was, you can check out New Old Computers to see what it could be today. If your old Amiga needs a new motherboard then these modern recreations can bring your old friend back to life.

Of course the Amiga isn’t the only PC turning 40 years old in 2025, because its friendly rival the Atari ST is also celebrating its ruby anniversary. Peter Fletcher and Bill Lange’s booth set up 1040 and 520STs along with Mega STs and a rare Falcon 030. MIDI music, desktop publishing, and CAD drawing are just some of the applications you could try on these Atari desktops.

Our next stop on the timeline is ten years later in 1995 for Start Me Up: Thirty Years of Windows 95. This time capsule curated by Alexander Pierson and Katherine Alskog combines software and pop culture for a celebration of peak Microsoft. Take a seat and you can explore multimedia masterpieces and productivity apps powered by period appropriate beige hardware. But if that’s too corporate for you, don’t worry—you can go back to school at the Pittsburgh Classic Mac Lab with a row of LCs and compact Macs running edutainment titles and KidPix.

One of my favorite exhibits was Dan Forsythe’s Fuji Apples: Macs from Japan. The Macintosh was popular in Japan, and Apple and the clone manufacturers created specific machines to cater to the market, and many of them are on display here. But the cherry on top is this pair of Macintosh manga geared towards new users. I loved this particular one featuring new Mac buyer Lisa and her boyfriend Hoshio—that’s Japanese for Star—learning how to navigate the Mac desktop thanks to their magical bear friend Alto. Now that’s a mangaka who knows their GUI history. Had I known these existed when I was visiting Japan last year I would’ve scoured Bookoffs to find them! Thankfully a scanlation is in the works for us English readers.

Are you looking for a computer musical instrument? Then pick up a Commodore 64! Brigitte and Dan Laskowski combine the C64’s powerful SID chip with a MIDI-controlled Yamaha YM2149 to make some soulful synthesized songs.

In the blinkenlights department we have Experiencing the ENIAC presented by Brian Stuart. This miniature replica of the grandfather of digital computers features a live representation of its calculations dancing across a glowing orange matrix. It’s the perfect display to prepare you for the 80th anniversary of ENIAC’s debut next year.

Core64 is a regular exhibitor at VCFs across the country, and they’re back at East with their simulator kit. Pick up an interactive core memory module and test how computers remembered things in the mainframe era.

For some heavier metal, Maki Kato and David Griffith’s Motorola 88K exhibit returns this year with a new focus on the Data General AV5500 running DG/UX. And Chris Randall and Mike Rieker brought this PDP-8L back to life with a new FPGA based disk controller to make it sing some tunes for the crowd.

If you’re an exhibitor and the computer at your table goes pop, what do you do? I would head over to Amiga of Rochester for some expert advice. They were equipped with soldering stations to work on boards and troubleshoot issues all weekend long.

What was your first experience with computers? Justin Morgan’s Computerized Start wants you to think about your entry into technology by putting his first computer and other systems on display. After you’ve had your fill of classic Mac and Commodore action, try out this MSX synthesizer program by tapping the keys on a MIDI connected keyboard.

Video game music isn’t just a soundtrack, it’s essential to the interactive experience. A cavern full of consoles isn’t a requirement to check out game music you might’ve missed because the folks at The Sound of Emulation can show you how to explore the wide world of game sound without original hardware.

Brian Boellner and Ryan Schiff’s Early Microcomputers is here to remind you that PC history didn’t start with the Apple II or IBM PC. Check out interesting and influential machines like the Sol-20, a Kenbak-1, and the Mark 8 microcomputer. They also had a selection of restored machines for sale, like these recapped Mac IIci’s.

Now here’s a booth after my own heart: Ryan Burke and System Source’s IBM PS/2 & Micro Channel Mayhem. A monstrous PS/2 model 95 boasting a 66MHz Pentium complex will draw you in, but you’ll stick around to check out this cute Edquest all-in-one running Windows or Doom. Make sure to shuffle through some Micro Channel cards, like these Intel systems-on-boards intended for RISC workstations. But what’s this—a Model 80 with an authentic IBM CD-ROM drive bay bezel? It sure is! I’ve been working on something relating to replicas of these inserts—stay tuned to the channel for more—and Ryan had not one, but two different styles of these unobtanium beauty bezels for half-height drives on hand.

Over here is Mike Loewen’s “It’s not Unix, it’s Cromix!” Cromemco developed their own Unix-like multi-user OS to give their S-100 systems extra sophistication. Back in the day this setup could give you the flexibility of a mini for a lot less money.

It wouldn’t be VCF without the FujiNet folks, and they’re back this year with a new RS-232 variant for PCs. It joins the other versions in the stable which were on hand for demonstrations like the one on this Apple IIGS.

A short walk away over in section D is MDCon. The traveling Sony Minidisc fans brought a chunk of their collection for attendees to see rare and interesting players. Don’t forget all the docks and accessories, which are the spice that make this exhibit so authentic.

Communication is a beautiful thing, and this collection of Sun, SGI, and Windows boxes are all networking in harmony in the Y2K intranet set up by Stephen Mayo. A Cobalt Qube serves up files while this SmartBits tester monitors performance.

Finally we arrive at Hall E, the new exhibit expansion for 2025. In previous years this space was used as a bunk room for those wanting to stay overnight. Well, that’s not happening anymore, and this opened up room for five exhibits. My pals at Totally Normal Computing filled one corner of the room with the wackiest ways to use a Mac. Sean from Action Retro set up two compact Macs that couldn’t be more different. Ever thought about gaming in grayscale? It’s possible thanks to an M4 Mac Mini transplanted into this transparent SE! And this 512K running Laurie Spiegel's Music Mouse lets you improvise fun tunes by moving the cursor around the screen. Next is everybody’s pal Mike featuring two special G5s: a prototype iMac G5 with a card reader and a working liquid cooled Power Mac G5. And Steve from Mac84 brought not one, but two multiprocessor Mac clones. The dual UMAX SuperMac is a special computer, but even that machine must bow in the presence of the fabled DayStar Genesis quad. Both machines spent the weekend doing what they do best: 3D render demos and Photoshop bake-offs.

Hackers love stuffing a computer where it doesn’t belong, and Joe Marlin accepted that challenge. Here at It’s Just A PC he’s hacked an NES into an Apple II just because he could. It’s an interesting counterpoint to the comptuers-turned-consoles we saw earlier, which makes you wonder where to draw the line between computer and console.

Nick Mailloux’s luggable computer exhibit returns with an interesting new addition: a Minitel. Thanks to enterprising enthusiasts Minitels can be brought back online and you could experience old-school online services here at Nick’s table.

Video editing and playback are capabilities users take for granted today, but in the nineties most computers needed special hardware to handle video. John the BigBadBiologist featured four different computers capable of capturing video and television, including a Mac LC II with the SuperMac Video Spigot, the Macintosh TV, and a Performa with Apple’s TV/Video system card. But don’t count out Windows machines—a Compudyne 486 shows that Windows users could play director too.

You can always count on DosDude to deliver a unique exhibit, and this year it’s cellular phones. He set up a miniature cell network for folks to go hands on with handsets from Sony, Nokia, and Apple. And it wouldn’t be a DosDude exhibit without rare prototypes like an Intel Android phone and a Qualcomm Surf.

And last in Hall E is the massive Genericable booth hosting their ongoing efforts to preserve our memories of 1990s cable networks. Their collection of preview guides, descramblers, weatherstars, and cable modems is growing so much that they’ve expanded vertically. Talk about a tower of tubes!

Hall E certainly is a welcome expansion, bringing about 15% more exhibits to the show. But it wasn’t without it’s foibles. Exhibitors were tripping circuit breakers all weekend, likely because this dormitory room wasn’t wired to the same level as the other exhibit halls. I have a hunch that next year’s placements will be ones that require less power or get briefings on which outlets are on which circuit. And poor John the BigBadBiologist saw his gear crash to the floor when one of his tables spontaneously collapsed. Fortunately nothing broke and everything was back up and running within short order. Crisis averted!

Events and Panels

After you’ve exhaustively explored every exhibition at VCF East there’s still a whole ton of show left for you to see. If you’re into hardware the Computer Destruction Lab will be at the top of your list, with Glitchworks hosting three days of DIY makerspace. You could assemble the kits you purchased from exhibitors or pick up one of Glitchworks’ own kits. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, soldering classes will teach you how to put it all together without burning your boards.

When you’re finished hacking hardware you can head next door to the VCF classroom. Tandy’s Color Computer was the platform for this year’s sessions, with BASIC and assembler programming classes to teach you how to get the most from the CoCo. But unlike previous years there weren’t rows of CoCos set up for students to work on during class, and only two examples were set up at the edges of the room. The VCF class guide made it clear that attendees were expected to bring their own laptops to run an emulator, so I’m sure that the syllabus was planned around it. There are other classes that don’t cater to the headline platform, like ones for FujiNet and chiptune composition, and having clear tables might’ve been helpful to those sessions.

In addition to the VCF exhibits and classes there’s a wide range of InfoAge museum exhibits open during the show. Learn about the legacy of Camp Evans’ radar research at the newly renovated World War II radar exhibit. Or check out the New Jersey train museum, with scale models of lots and lots of trains! But the obvious attraction for VCF attendees is the VCF museum. It’s been reorganized into a new layout that snakes through a timeline of computer history. This is a great idea for the general public, because it gives them some perspective as computers evolved from mainframes to minis to micros to handhelds. The downside is that the narrow pathways were a bit crowded thanks to a surge of convention-goers. Still, I think the new layout is the right move for the museum’s day to day operations.

You might find yourself a bit hungry after exploring these exhibits, and VCF brought in the Boardwalk Bites food truck to serve lunch, snacks, and drinks. While I thought OCEAN’s food quality was decent last year, Boardwalk Bites’ menu is considerably longer with new options like cheesesteaks, veggie sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, and onion rings. On Friday I ordered a cheesesteak, onion rings, and a lemonade which rang in at $21—thriftier attendees might stick to burgers and chips. I thought the quality of the food was good, and it saved me from the possibility of losing my parking spot if I left the campus to get lunch. Based on the lines I saw at lunchtime every day I think they did a pretty brisk business. My bet is that Boardwalk Bites will return next year.

After recharging your physical battery—and maybe your phone battery too—you’ll be ready to attend one of the many panels and talks. There’s twenty four sessions across three days with the majority centered on the show’s theme of vintage computer sound, with topics focusing on sound chips, sound programming, and computer music. Friend of the show Ian Scott chronicled the development challenges he faced when designing his multitalented PicoGUS retro sound card. Brendan Becker had two panels covering the different facets of chiptune music where he analyzed our favorite old synthesizers from technical and aesthetic perspectives. Rebecca Heineman took us on a tour of computer sound based on her extensive history in programming. But my favorite of the sound panels was the history of Ensoniq. Commodore historian Dave McMurtrie brought Al Charpentier, Bill Mauchly, and Joe Friel together to tell the story of Ensoniq from their breakup with Commodore to their sale to Creative Labs.

Other talks about interesting non-sound subjects were sprinkled into the schedule. One favorite of mine was Bart van der Akker’s panel detailing the recovery and restoration of the Aesthedes computer graphics workstation. Years before Photoshop and Illustrator these mammoth workstations brought digital drawing and design to people used to paste-up and airbrushing. Dean Notamicola and Justin Hopkins had back-to-back slots reserved for talking about how we curate and manage our collections of old tech. And I appreciate that VCF lets extremely specific subject matter like Alastair Hewitt’s bare metal booting or Frank O’Brien’s SAGE panel.

But this year’s headline events were two roundtable discussions celebrating the Commodore Amiga’s fortieth anniversary. The Saturday session was packed full of Amiga fans who wanted to steal a glimpse of the original breadboard prototypes and other engineering samples. Dave McMurtrie was joined by The Retro Hour host Dan Wood to chat with over a dozen Amiga Alumni in irreverent free-for-alls where they reminisced about the good and bad times forging one of computing’s crown jewels.

These panels and talks took place in the usual panel room which hasn’t changed much these past few years. New decorative LED display panels and ambient lighting brought some color to the space this year. VCF’s AV team always does good work here, as their projector, recording, and PA setup has been battle tested over years of shows. There’s only one weak spot, and it’s the handheld microphones given to guests and presenters. Holding a mic up to your mouth for an hour can get a bit tiring, and I noticed in a few panels that some speakers had trouble staying on mic. Audience members shouted “talk into the mic!” on multiple occasions because they couldn’t hear someone speak. Maybe some stands or lavaliers might be in order to help speakers stay on mic.

Also noticeably absent from this year’s programing lineup were any panels or group discussions with community content creators. It wasn’t for a lack of a host or guests—I certainly saw many qualified panelists at exhibits or just walking around the show. I’m not quite sure who organized those panels in previous years—did the show invite a host and guests, or did a host gather some guests and then propose the panel to the show? If it was the former, I could definitely see the Amiga roundtables taking up all that effort. If people though the show put it together they wouldn’t have suggested it themselves and by the time the schedule was published it was too late. That said, if the show had to choose between that and the Amiga’s fortieth anniversary, I think they made the right choice. I’m sure we’ll see the return of the content creator panels in the future.

Consignment

The business of vintage computing is booming, and there’s no better example than VCF East’s bustling consignment marketplace. Over the years the pile of things for sale and the crowd of people wanting to buy stuff has always outpaced the available space in the consignment hall. Last year’s move to the Monmouth County Fire Museum was a good idea on paper, but an unexpected floor collapse held it back from its full potential. For 2025 the VCF staff found a new home for consignment at Camp Evans’ former radar laboratory in building 9036. And after years of consignment struggling with tight quarters these new digs might finally solve the problem once and for all.

One peek inside the laboratory hall and you’ll forget all about those old cramped consignment halls. There’s more than twice the floor space of the fire museum, and it dwarfs the old cafeteria. Thanks to this abundance of square footage there’s plenty of room for all your stuff. I was able to keep all my items for sale together on one table for the first time—nice! Crowd management also benefitted from the extra space. Rope poles defined clear entrance and exit lanes to direct people in and out of the hall. Wider aisles between tables and shelves created plenty of breathing room between you and other shoppers. The only floor plan improvement I can think of is a dedicated queue for people to line up to check out. And buyers could test their potential purchases using these strategically placed power bars. Just plug and play to try before you buy. Excellent!

How about price and selection? Browsing consignment is like flipping through eBay or Craigslist in real life. I see a lot of people trying to downsize their collections, or rehome a few things they’ve rescued from estate sales and thrift shops. I can also sense when a seller “knows what they have” and lists something for an… aspirational price. Hey, if you think someone will spend the money, go for it—just don’t be too sad if you have to pick up unsold items at the end of the weekend. But I’d say hunting for whales is the exception and not the norm—most people selling their items in consignment know the general value of their gear and are pricing it accordingly. Toss in the show’s 18% commission—which hasn’t increased this year, thankfully—and you end up with a lot of prices in line with the market. Maybe that’s an indictment on what nostalgia-crazed buyers are willing to pay for this stuff, but there’s still plenty of bargains to be found.

But if a bargain is still too rich for your blood, you don’t need to spend money to take something home. Set up along the exit side wall was the free pile, overflowing with what could possibly be called trash or treasure depending on your point of view. It’s a smart location that was impossible to miss as people walked out. Boxes of books, old company swag, projects that people would rather forget—it’s all here. There’s also plenty of things that can be useful to somebody but are too much of a pain to sell, like still-working but not cutting edge networking gear. I can usually see a home for most of this stuff, but I have my doubts when it comes to things like these flat panel TVs that sat around all weekend. C’mon. They’re better left to a thrift store.

How about the checkout experience? Buyers brought their finds up to the registers where volunteers scanned barcode labels and settled transactions with cash or cards. This is built upon a NexoPOS system where sellers entered their inventory into a web app and printed out barcodes at home or at the show. I thought this setup worked pretty well last year, and I was curious what improvements would come this year.

As a returning seller I was able to use the my credentials from last year, and upon login I was greeted with last year’s inventory and sales reports. I tried deleting them to clean things up, but I was just left with a bunch of dependency errors. I reached out to the VCF staff, who said all items from last year had their quantities zero’d out and that new entries should be made for this year’s items. Fair enough, and I did just that. Fast forward to the show itself, and as I kept tabs on my sales during the weekend I noticed this year’s sales were mixed in with last year’s. I was able to track my sales with a little math, but I would’ve preferred to see only 2025’s sales in the report.

I asked the VCF consignment team why they didn’t wipe the database and start fresh, and their response was that they want to track historical sales data so they can see price trends and give guidance to sellers on how to price their items. It sounds like a great idea in theory, but as it stands I’m not sure how practical it’ll be. Am I really gonna see stuff I sold a few years ago clogging up my listings in the future? And how will they account for all the variances in listings and descriptions? I know I wasn’t the only one confused by the old items—some people reused listings from last year which didn’t play well with their sales estimates. Thankfully the system tracked when items were sold so it properly calculated everyone’s payout totals. If it were me I’d export out past data or flag it as historical so it doesn’t interfere with entering or tracking the current year’s items.

I also had a minor issue where items were shown as sold during one part of the weekend but disappeared off the list at another. When I alerted the register staff to the issue, they investigated it and found out a problem with how they were marked on the back end which they quickly resolved. So I give them a lot of credit in fixing the problem, and it’s in line with the good service I’ve received from the VCF volunteers over the years. And when it came time to settle up at the end of the show the line moved quickly as they handed out cash or PayPal receipts.

Another Year, Another Show

Vintage computing is such a weirdly wonderful thing. We willingly throw ourselves into the pursuit of the obsolete for reasons that might make sense only to ourselves. And that’s the spirit that draws us to these sometimes wild but always interesting events. When I talk to VCF East first-timers they usually respond with “It wasn’t what I thought it would be!” And that’s not a sign of disappointment. VCF East is more symposium than convention, and that goes a long way to make you feel like you’re part of history.

Naturally this places a limit on how much and how fast VCF East can grow. In the bubble era of retro gaming and computing there’s certainly a rush of both newcomers and old hats looking to see old hardware and software in person, and this is a unique, welcoming environment for them. VCF clearly values the community and its input, and this is evident in the post-show survey. You don’t have to be a writer like me to get your point across—just post your comments in the survey and they’ll be seen by the folks in charge. They take constructive feedback seriously.

I’ve mentioned the limits imposed on VCF East’s venue in past reports, and those aren’t really going to change. What makes it such a fun and pleasant experience does have some downsides. If it’s cold, rainy, and dreary like early April tends to be you’ll need to dress appropriately. You’ll get a workout with all the walking you’re doing between the various exhibit halls and other buildings. If you buy something heavy from consignment you’ll need to haul it all the way back to the parking lot unless you brought a wagon or managed to flag down a shared golf cart. But remember that giant hotel conference centers also have their drawbacks. I prefer VCF East working within the canvas of InfoAge so it can continue to grow while keeping its spirit intact. And they did exactly that with the upgrade to consignment, which was the area that needed improvement the most. Maybe they’ll have to move some day, but I don’t see it happening any time soon. So if your heart hungers for the beeps and boops of old computers, schedule a trip next spring to the sandy shores of New Jersey. We’ll see you there.