Ideas for VC&G 10th Anniversary?
April 15th, 2015 by Benj Edwards
I just looked at the calendar and realized that Vintage Computing and Gaming is turning 10 this year. I started this blog in November 2005.
I’m not quite ready to break out the party hats yet, but I’m wondering if you guys had any ideas of what I could (or should) do to celebrate this milestone.
I’ve considered possibly compiling some of the site material into a book of some kind, but I’m not sure how well any of the VC&G content will translate to book format. Of course, 99% of the posts on this site over the past 7-8 years have been Retro Scans, so maybe there isn’t much to celebrate. There are a lot of stories buried in there, however — maybe I could pull them out into some kind of collection (although I am loathe to be responsible for yet another crappy eBook or print-on-demand tech memoir).
So…any ideas? Contests? Retrospectives? Or just sit back and do business as usual? (Not a bad option.) I’m all ears!
April 15th, 2015 at 2:50 pm
Here are some ideas:
* Life and work of Gary Kildall and CP/M.
* Alan Turing and origins of computers.
* Alan Kay and the Dynabook.
* Analysis of the first desktop PC by HP.
* Xerox Alto and the first GUI.
Please don’t print a paper book, save some trees, use eBooks or PDF format.
Nice blog u have here, I am one of ur fans. Keep it up Benj. 🙂
April 15th, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Maybe a tour of your collection of vintage computers?
April 15th, 2015 at 5:21 pm
Actually as book isn’t a bad idea really. A nice e-book about the history of your site and your HAM festing adventures would make for a really good read. You could also include some of the great pictures you have posted here with you using old technology and maybe some of your previous articles about them as well. I mean I really enjoyed reading about you using the old IBM PC for the week for business use in today’s environment. Also some of your Apple stuff is pretty interesting as well, though I am not a Mac user myself. Just something to think about.
April 15th, 2015 at 10:32 pm
Select best articles from computer magazine history.
Partner with panic.com to make a commemorative retro poster.
Love the blog, keep it up
April 16th, 2015 at 4:24 am
Do an in-depth article honoring the greatest forgotten video game system of all time, the revolutionary ahead-of-it’s-time Studio II.
…
I kid, as I’m sure anyone who knows of the S2 can figure out.
April 16th, 2015 at 5:50 am
I think it’d be interesting to see a “behind the scenes” post or two about your favorite articles/interviews, things that didn’t work out or went horribly wrong, memories of last-minute submissions, late-night writing sessions, your first article sale, etc. — sort of a mix of retrospective and blooper reel, except in text.
Also perhaps you could share an animated GIF collection or two focused on celebrations, anniversaries, and so forth?
(I’ve read VC&G for at least 7-8 years now, just haven’t been consistent in my username.)
April 16th, 2015 at 6:12 am
PS. In case you didn’t see it, HackADay has a fascinating pair of articles on computers, peripherals, and life as a young computer hobbyist in 1970s/80s Czechoslovakia:
http://hackaday.com/2014/12/15/home-computers-behind-the-iron-curtain/
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/13/peripherals-behind-the-iron-curtain/
Also, a book on “Public Access Microcomputers” from 1984 being tossed out was posted to “Awful Library Books” that I thought you might (or might not) want to see if you can rescue:
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/a-handbook-for-librarians-national-library-week-2015/
April 16th, 2015 at 9:22 am
Whatever you do, please make sure Ulaf plays a role.
April 16th, 2015 at 5:20 pm
Cool ideas. Behind-the-scenes stuff sounds like it might fun, if anyone else is interested in that sort of thing. And thanks for the links, Xyzzy.
My vintage comput collection is currently packed away in storage since my last house move, so if I can get some stuff out and line it up, it might be fun to show some of it off.
And Geoff, I think you may be the only person who ever enjoyed the writings of Ulaf. 🙂 I have found that as the Internet social sphere has become much more globally connected (and generally reactionary), Ulaf is not nearly as…shall we say, insightful and relevant as he once was.
As far as the new article ideas go, those are great, but I was thinking about features or retrospectives that are about or directly related to VC&G. There will be plenty more history features ahead, although they will continue to be published mostly on other sites.
April 17th, 2015 at 1:26 pm
Data is meaningless without context. I enjoyed the occasional contextual and perspective deviation that the Ulaf articles represent.
There were a lot of sites that waxed reminiscently of 8-bit joys of our childhood. VC&G had/has its own voice; that’s what has kept me coming back for every new post for nearly nine years.
April 17th, 2015 at 6:30 pm
I second the proposal for behind-the-scenes. It sounds really interesting to me. Other than that, maybe some kind of looking forward? What you think you’ll be writing about in another 10 years, that sort of thing.
April 19th, 2015 at 7:55 am
A book is a great idea!
April 19th, 2015 at 8:35 am
A virtual party online!
April 23rd, 2015 at 1:34 am
As someone who was born in India in 1990 and didn’t get a PC till 2006, I missed the early days of computing, and now watch Computer Chronicles and browse your site to get a feel of the era.
The sections of your site I like the most are the Retro scans, it brings back memories of old ads in Reader’s Digest. I would love some sort of new thing with the Retro scans section, though I don’t really know how one can do something new with that.
Either way, I just wanted you to know I appreciate your site greatly.
April 23rd, 2015 at 2:52 pm
How about a compilation of available emulators so we can still enjoy running in those environments?
April 27th, 2015 at 12:46 am
The behind-the-scenes is a great idea. I also like the poster idea.
Whatever you do, just make it grand! But I’m sure you can come up with something.