VCF Update: RedWolf Meets Woz
November 5th, 2006 by Benj Edwards
Just a quick update from VCF 9.0: I had a great day yesterday at the festival. Everyone I talked to was friendly, courteous, and obviously quite passionate about vintage computers. All in all, they’re a great crowd to mull around in.
The VCF exhibits and marketplace were cool, but the Apple 30th birthday session was even cooler. Steve Wozniak, Chris Espinosa, Daniel Kottke, and Randy Wigginton were on hand to discuss Apple’s early days in front of a packed audience upstairs in the Computer History Museum. I chatted with all of them after the session and they’re all great guys. Woz, despite feeling under the weather yesterday, was kind enough to stay after, brave a long line of computer nerds like me, and sign copies of his new autobiography iWoz and anything else (t-shirts, Apple hardware, manuals) that people wanted him to sign. I told him about the Woz Halloween costume I suggested last week on VC&G and he laughed.
Great times all around!
November 5th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
yep… I am SO beating myself up for forgetting about the VCF this year.. thanks a lot, Redwolf 😛
November 5th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Wow, that has to be really special to meet a computer icon like Woz in person! Very cool, Redwolf!! Sounds like you’re having a great time. We’re looking forward to a full report when you get back.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
And you didn’t even say hi!
November 7th, 2006 at 11:47 am
I’m actually quite disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone that I wanted to at the festival. Apologies to anyone else I missed — perhaps next year.
November 19th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Hey RedWolf, did you get a chance to make it to the Tech museum?
November 19th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Nope, didn’t get a chance. I would have liked to, but there were so many things to see in the area that I couldn’t visit everything in one trip. Perhaps next time!
November 19th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
you definately have to go next time, the basement level is filled with “retro” game consoles and stand ups!
November 19th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Sounds kinda like my basement level. 🙂
Well, without the stand-ups.
November 20th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I think Mark is referring to The GameOn exhibit at The Tech, which has now moved on. It subsequently went to Chicago, then Seattle, and recently ended its tour and is now headed back to England (Dec 1 – May 1).
You can book it in late 2007 for only UKP40,000 per month (3 month minimum 😉
http://www.gameonweb.co.uk/
Definitely a lot to see in the SillyCon Valley. If you come, plan to stay a week to take it all in. I have been toying with the idea of Geek Tours so let me know if you’re interested and I’ll put together a pilot and see how it works out.
December 1st, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Just wondering! I always hear the names Gates, Waz., Jobs, etc. in stories related to the pioneers of the PC. I just wonder if people have ever heard of Williams. Ken & Roberta Williams are key locksmiths in helping to open the doors to the home PC as we know it today. Now, I don’t know that much about them but Ken was school mate & friend of Steve & Steve(Waz. & Jobs) & I remember reading a Readers Digest Article about Roberta many years ago regarding her intellict & success. I also remember the first PC game I ever played, Space Quest(Sierra) software. I don’t remember exactly but the game came on 5.25 floppies, there was 8 to 12 discs, sent to my friend David Williams by his brother Ken, & it took several hours For Dave & I just to load the game(on a PC in my garage with 4 MB memory, a 420MB? or 430MB hard drive & a mono-tone screen). Anyway, “Sierra” was created & owned by Ken & Roberta Williams without whose ability to write programming(software) we may not be as advanced with the home PC as we are today & when I read about or see documentories about the early PC years, why do I never hear anything about these pioneers.
December 1st, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Gene,
Yes, I, and I think many other people, have heard of Ken and Roberta Williams. I’ve even seen them featured prominently in a few video / computer game books, so I don’t think their legacy is in jeopardy. You probably don’t see them mentioned often because you’re probably talking about books and documentaries that focus on the history of computer hardware and operating systems, not the history of computer games.
October 31st, 2014 at 6:24 am
Needless to say, we usually don’t know the countless nameless geeks that made all these come true. Usually the media is full of praise about the millionaires who own the companies like they were the geniuses behind everything. I do respect Steve Wozniak since he was always a real geek, programmer and hardware hacker. I think Bill Gates was into programming in the earlies. But Jobs, I never liked the man and most account doesn’t paint him as a geek nor as a very nice person. Now, you have big names who still are programming and directing, like John Carmack. Not many though. Most of the CEOs are just praised. The more interesting programming geeks are something like the unknown soldier.
And yeah, Sierra was another good chapter, didn’t know the role of Ken (I read, besides cofounding the company, he was a game programmer, hmm) and Roberta is well known game designer (although I usually prefered Lucasfilm adventures, rather than Sierra). More respect to them and they are not well known, media will not obsess too much about them as Jobs, so I liket this.