I attended VCF (Vintage Computer Federation) East 2025 and had a great time learning about retro-computing. I went with my dad since I couldn’t find anyone else who was interested in going with me so he wanted to keep me company while I was there, even though he’s not into computers himself, which was nice of him. The event took place at the InfoAge Science and History Museums, a former military base in Wall Township, NJ, so we got to learn a little bit about history and military equipment alongside the vintage computers.
We got there at 8am since admission is free for college students if you get there at the beginning. First we got to talk to some of the exhibitors and I was tempted to purchase another Thinkpad but held off since I don’t need another old laptop. Throughout the day I partook in various workshops that taught BASIC and 6809 assembly programming for the Color Computer. I began to realize that people appreciate these retro machines for more than just nostalgia, but for their simplicity and repairability. This became evident to me after someone brought a broken Color Computer they bought from the consignment shop to the workshop area and the guys there were able to fix it in around 20 minutes. You could theoretically understand every aspect of a vintage computer, which is a luxury to me coming from the world of highly complex modern machines with proprietary firmware and software that abstracts away from bare metal.
One of the highlights of the day was listening to Brian Kernighan’s talk about the development and propagation of UNIX. We got to chat with him a bit before the talk since we were sitting next to him before it started. I really liked the atmosphere there and felt like everyone was there because they love simple computers, software, and the principles that Unix was developed upon. I recommend checking out similar events if they’re in your area.
