North Dallas Area Retrocomputing Meetup

Hackerspace
#1

It’s time to schedule the next Retrocomputing meetup. The target timeframe is Feb-March. Usually Saturday, 3-6pm, but can fall back to Sunday, or to different time slot on Saturday to avoid conflicts. The location is the Interactive Classroom. Many of us will be bringing retro systems for show & tell. We’ve had some great exhibits in the past, and repeat exhibits are always welcome. However, it’s not necessary to bring anything other than yourself, and shoot the breeze with other hobbyists about retro stuff. It’s always a fun time.

You are all welcome to join the meetup group: North-Dallas-Area-Retro-Computing. You do not need to be a member to come, or to bring your computer. But if you plan to come and can’t RSVP via the meetup group, please RSVP here, so I’ll know how much pizza to order.

If there are any suggestions for dates, or any related events that could post a conflict (such as a pinball convention) post it here. The date will be set in the next week or so.

Thanks!

Dave

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#2

Thanks Dave for posting about this. I love what you guys do.

Plan on having two join, myself and a plus one. With Saturdays working for our schedule.

It would be great to see VCC members attending as well.

Would there be any focus, presenters, or special topic this meetup?

#3

No featured presentation or topic, but most of us bring some kind of retrocomputer and do some show and tell. We usually have plenty of table space and electrical outlets for all the exhibits. Repeat are just as welcome as new ones. We’ve had some interesting exhibits including genuine and clone Altair 8800 machines running CPM, a SOL-20 running SOLOS on a rare Helios II drive, an Altair 680b running Microsoft 6800 4K basic from paper tape over an ASR-33 teletype, collections of single board computers (like AIM, KIM, etc.) IBM 5150 (is that right?), japanese 80’s computers, an HP-01, all kinds of Apple, commodore, and atari goodies, and much more than I can list.

I’ve been cycling through some HP scientific workstations of the 60’s-80’s, and last time I brought a Mimeo I and a Replica I.

Not sure what I’ll bring next time. Some stuff I’d like to bring this year, if I can get it ready, include some ELF systems, some PDP-8 stuff, some OSI stuff. I didn’t prepare much for my prior exhibits, so I may prepare a better presentation, and redo some of the stuff I’ve already brought before.

However, if you have any ideas for different kind of presentation, like a like a repair clinic, or a retrobrite demo, or a great repair show-and-tell story, etc., or retrocomputer themed cakes/cookies :slight_smile: , by all means do so.

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#4

OK, We’re now looking to schedule a meetup this summer. So far July 15 and July 29 look like good dates, with least potential for conflict.

Location will be in the interactive classroom, as usual.
Any thoughts?

The last attempt at putting together a meetup never really took hold, due to scheduling issues and email/meetup.com issues. Hopefully this try will be the charm.

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#5

Count me in. I’ll have some QBasic code to demo by then. July 29th is close to when I was hoping to host a retro pc/demo party so maybe we can combine efforts and NDARC can take point?

#6

I think it would be great to combine efforts.

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#7

Lets chat a bit more about how we can combine efforts

#8

The meetup is set for July 29, 2017, in the DMS interactive classroom, from 3:00pm to 6:00pm.

Show up and bring something for show & tell, or just browse and chat with other hobbyists.

RSVP by joining the meetup group, or by replying in this thread

EDIT: fixed date to July 29, 2017

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#9

Good. I had a conflict on the 22nd.

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#10

The turnout on Saturday was the largest yet. We had a lot of great machines, with a really great mix including

  • a poly 88 s-100 system with two working disk drives
  • a Nextstation (pizza box, color)
  • an original PET 2001, with calculator/cash register style keyboard
  • a couple of C64’s and Apples
  • a COSMAC VIP
  • a remarkable pair of Tandy Model 100’s with disk and video interfaces
  • C64 emulation with a ton of freshly created disk images
  • a Superboard II and Briel Superboard III
  • a nice working HP Vectra portable.
  • and more.

Thanks to all who came. The next meetup is targeted for late October / early November, before Thanksgiving.

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