Software engineer Josh Dersch loves old computers, spending countless hours in his garage restoring decades-old machines. He owns over 200 vintage computers and devices in his Seattle home.
Vintage Computer Festivals Bring Collectors Together
This year, more than 3,500 people attended the two-day Vintage Computer Festival in Mountain View, California, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apple. The festival featured a panel with co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne reminiscing about the company’s early days.
Collectors like Dersch are part of a growing community preserving classic machines that helped launch the digital revolution. They delight in hearing the beeps and chimes of their childhood and firing up low-def games like ‘Pong’ or ‘Space Invaders’.
The Vintage Computer Federation, led by president Erik Klein, organizes festivals and events, including repair workshops and swap meets. Klein says the enthusiasm for computer history is growing, with more demand for vintage computers in online marketplaces.
Rare, iconic computers like the Apple-1 can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. Collectors exhibit restored computer systems, allowing attendees to play with machines built before the internet and AI transformed the world.
Dersch showcased his restored Xerox Alto, considered the ‘grandfather of the modern computer,’ which inspired Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to incorporate its technologies into their early products.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
