Vintage Computing and Gaming Turns 15
November 2nd, 2020 by Benj Edwards
Greetings, fellow retro tech fans. 15 years ago today, I launched Vintage Computing and Gaming. The origins of the site have been well-covered elsewhere, so I’ll spare you the rehash.
While I haven’t updated the site all that much over the past five years (since our big 10th anniversary celebration back in 2015), I still thought it would be nice to mention this anniversary. As you can see, VC&G is still online, and we still gets lot of legacy traffic from our old posts. In particular, I feel that this site’s archive of comments are a priceless historical record of people’s memories of the past. The server still costs money to keep running, and generous folks on Patreon make that possible without advertisements.
And even though I only post on VC&G a few times a year these days, the site is still not dead. Our patron saint Steve Wozniak recently posted on the site, marking a sort of full-circle fulfillment of how much my career has changed since I started the site 15 years ago. Back then, I had no idea I’d still be talking and writing about vintage computers and retrogaming 15 years later, or that it would became a career path. It’s mind-boggling to think of all the historical tech achievements that have taken place in the past 15 years, and now this site itself is vintage.
So what’s next for VC&G? I’m not quite sure yet. I plan to keep it up as long as I can, and I’ll post on it when I have something to share that I can’t post anywhere else. For example, I’ve recently been experimenting with setting up the TTL RGB input on one of my old monitors. I might put some of that info on here at some point so it doesn’t get lost. And my wife wants me to try doing some YouTube some day. Not sure when I’ll ever do it (and the topic is so well-covered by others), but if I do, you’ll hear about it on this site.
Other than that, it seems retrogaming and vintage computing are both covered very well all over the Internet now (on YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, and more), unlike back in 2005, so I don’t feel like the world needs VC&G as much as it did then. But this site has served its purpose, and the old posts and scans still continue to serve as a valuable historical resource for people. I don’t know why but I almost felt a tear well up inside this old vintage head of mine.
Anyway, if anyone is still out there and still reading this site, thanks for sticking with VC&G for so long. I’m grateful to have had you along on this 15-year journey. If you have the time, I’d love to hear some of your memories about your favorite VC&G posts of the past in the comments. Happy Birthday, Vintage Computing and Gaming!
November 2nd, 2020 at 5:09 pm
Congrats!
My favorite feature has always been the retro scans. It reminds me of thumbing through computer magazines back in the day. That was really the main way to get info about technology before the internet.
I should go back and peruse them again.
Thanks for all your hard work. Your site will always be in my RSS feeds!
November 2nd, 2020 at 5:29 pm
Cheers, Benj. I don’t even check my RSS feeds that much these days, but I’m glad you’re still kicking around and able to live doing what you enjoy. So, yeah, there’s my favorite vintage thing: let’s bring back RSS feeds that we want to check in on.
November 2nd, 2020 at 8:45 pm
Benj,
Still have your your site in my RSS feed as well. Favorite memories of the site off the top of my head are: Your Christmas print-outs, interviews with Jerry Lawson, Ralph Baer and Carol Shaw, and all the retro-scans of how expensive home tech used to be. Thank you!
November 3rd, 2020 at 10:12 am
Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the kind words and the nice memories. Thanks for sticking by VC&G — I’ll try to post more updates soon to give those RSS feeds a workout.
November 3rd, 2020 at 10:56 am
Not much to add here, but always glad to see a new post out of you!
November 4th, 2020 at 8:27 am
Happy Anniversary Benj! It’s always nice to see something last this long on the internet.
November 4th, 2020 at 11:29 am
Been reading the site for a long time, always appreciate the content and effort. It’s sad that there isn’t the level of content like the old days, but I understand it. I wish you well, and appreciated whatever attention to the site you give.
November 8th, 2020 at 3:21 am
Awesome. Keep going! 😀
November 8th, 2020 at 5:08 am
Love the site. Bring back ulaf!
November 13th, 2020 at 10:59 am
I like the “Fuzzy Memory” posts, especially since I think I “solved” the first one 🙂 There have been several additional posts on the T.E.A.M.M.A.T.E. over the years that I hadn’t seen, so it was to go back through and read. May have to search ebay for one of those and see if my kids would be interested.
Thanks for the 15 years, it’s always enjoyable to read the new content here!
November 19th, 2020 at 11:14 am
Still reading and following you on How To Geek.
Never did get that OSX split screen stuff working. 🙂
Thinking of buying a Retropie 4b raspberry system this year to play old games. Yes, emulation, but so much cheaper 🙂 than buying all the old machines. Have never played Atari games after the 2600 so maybe this year…
November 19th, 2020 at 4:04 pm
After dabbling with retro a bit about 15 years ago, I rediscovered the joys of the sights, sounds, and the “real steel” feel of retro hardware a few years ago and found myself reading your articles during lunch. Perhaps you can allow others to submit pieces? that would surely keep it going with less work from your schedule. Take care!
November 19th, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Funny you should mention that, Dave. I was just thinking about asking people if they wanted to write for VC&G. I had other contributors many years ago, but it’s been a while. I’ll definitely explore it. Thanks for reading!
December 3rd, 2020 at 12:28 am
Not sure when I started reading, but it had to be well over a decade ago. I’ve always loved all the content (and also your appearances on podcasts, etc). Thanks for all the work you’ve done!
December 3rd, 2020 at 9:11 am
Thanks for reading all these years, Nick! (And everyone else too)
December 28th, 2020 at 1:21 am
Hi Benj,
Chessmaster died in 1997 – Reading that post touched me because I used to research years later about things I didn’t find in a certain time. Knowing about Will Hare made me want to honor him in some way and finally, in December 2020, I’m releasing a 3D chess set modification for Chessmaster XI depicting Hare. I would be happy if you could take a look because your post was my inspiration. Thank you.
https://cmawesome.blogspot.com/2020/12/tribute-to-will-hare-after-deciding-to.html