Man, i am SO jealous of the fact Free Geek exists...there's literally nothing like that here :( Also, that Otrona - I MUST POSESS THAT, it looks SO painfully 1970's, yet the keyboard looks like a more modern TKL.
Shows like this have to start somewhere. The first time we ran one in Canberra we ran it in a tiny little community hall at the far end of town (because it was cheap) and the place was packed (too packed) from beginning to end. Second time round we chose a bigger place and the same thing happened. Third time around, an even bigger hall with side rooms for specialist displays and seminars, and we still had to shoo people out at closing time. Now we’re in talks with VCF to make it an official VCF-Down Under event. Point being, the interest is out there, and good on Free Geek for putting it on, and if they want to - it can only get bigger from here.
That vintage Mac industrial computer was amazing! Macs were typically the bane of big business in the old days outside of Entertainment and Media so that was surprising.
As someone who used to go to their retro meetups, it's because the notices are pretty much exclusive to their Discord server, and more recently their Facebook page. Their official website hasn't had updates about any retro meetups since last July.
So glad you’re back! Hope you had a fab break. There’s something about a TDNC video on a Friday that eases me into the weekend. In the UK, they get uploaded when I’m winding down from work.
The ASRock Dual939 was such a great board. As a teenager with limited funds it meant I knew I could upgrade from AGP to PCI-E without having to upgrade everything else at the same time too. Thanks ASRock! Never did see that add-on board for sale however.
Wow. This one was really awesome. Ill have to go out that direction next year if they do this again. See what beer and table top rpg deals you folks have going on. Thanks and have a great day
Lovely looking event, thanks for the tour. That rackmount touch screen LC 580 is amazing. If anyone is ever in South Australia we have a monthly Adelaide Retro Computing group meet up in a hall with loads of various machines being brought in and themed nights, it's great!
Thank you for the Mac reference. I couldn't remember that thing forever. I just remembered I played in one in 3rd grade. Had some kinda Egyptian game on it.
Another great video! My city desperately needs a store like Free Geek. we used to have an electronics recycler that was open to the public, but it got sold to a big corporation that didn't care about the reuse side of things.
My dad was a hardware engineer for California Microwave Radio. He hated Macs! I doubt he knew that that product existed. Woulda been fun to tease him about it. Thanks for showing such a rare find!
What I liked about a lot of machines built back in the 70's and 80's were they were built like a tank. I had for quite awhile a complete HP 250 computer system which each drive was the size of a large mini fridge and put out enough heat to warm several rooms. I also had one of the high speed line printers used to print out forms for billing. It was a really cool system that used Business Basic and you could stop the interpreted code while running ,make a change to the program and continue. Miss those days haha.🤔
NEVER seen an Intellivision in person? That was my first console, actually. My grandma got it for me at a garage sale with about fifteen games for $50 because the owner's kids "didn't have any respect."
Hey, I see me in the background! I scored a Slot A motherboard and CPU, a Radeon 9800 Pro, and a bunch of other goodies. Half-Life and Opposing Force in the box for a screaming deal! So much awesome stuff here to see, and buy. :)
That looked like an awesome show! Tech expos don't have to be massive in order to be enjoyable and informative, although I do really want to be able to attend VCF Midwest sometime in the future!
I worked at a television station and we had three of these little MAC 1000R beasts to steer in remote TV truck STL microwave dishes into the big radome on the Canadian CN Tower... Yes that CN Tower... They worked fairly well, but every now and then decided to lose their setup and you'd have to reboot and restart the RF GUI software after rebooting or rebuilding the HD after a crash. Fun times!
So cool to see the Asrock motherboard with the RAM/CPU sockets on a PCi-E board, i actually have that same board and never knew how that worked... now i see the daughter card that goes with it. Always wondered how the "future CPU" jumpers were supposed to work. Maybe now i can try to find the card on ebay to complete that build! (probably not lol)
Ah, sad I missed this. Free Geek had a retro game room set up at 2DCon this weekend as well and I got to try the Vectrex (peeking in next to the CD-I at t=187) and the 3DO as well!
Id bet that red shield on the weird red tv was a "night time" mode. Kind of like Flux for an analog world. Like all the bedroom audio solutions marketed in "the old day" for ir or rf headsets to listen silently (with an overlap for hearing impairment).
i cant wait for the next time this happens so i can visit, iirc family was over the weekend this happened and i 100% wouldve dragged them with me to the event if id found out about it beforehand
The MIDI hardware was great to see! I have a working Yamaha TQ5 and Korg Symphony Orchestra P03 Modules! Would have been nice to see a Brother PDC-100 sequencer. 32 Tracks + 64 sub tracks!
My first gaming experience was the intellivision, it was my Dad's/uncle's from when they were kids. found it in my grandparents attic one weekend and gee was i disapointed! the games really were barebones and not even on the level of atari of the time lol. Worst part was the controllers were nothing more than TV remotes with plastic inlays you'd slide in. Every game had wildly different controlls lol. We rented a NES shortly after from blockbuster and wow what a difference.
6:10 - I had the LGA775 variaint of the 4CoreDualSATA2 featured here. the PCI-E was only 4x, but man was it ever handy still having an AGP X800 All-In-Wonder when everything was going to PCI-E; you couldn't use the AGP and PCI-E bus at the same time though. I've got no clue what in all that is holy is going on with the expansion board here.
Some IMSAI and like computers definitely could be fitted with proper boot/OS/monitor ROMs or BIOSes for hooking up disks or small routines to load data from magnetic/paper/audio tape. Such that you could use them more or less like a desktop computer, in as far as such a thing existed. The most you'd maybe have to use the front panel for is setting the program counter to the ROM entry point and maybe entering some parameters like what serial port to use for the console.
you have never seen an intellivision? same era as atari and a great console from my childhood ..in my case never had an atari but did know them from friends or family.
6:09 I had that ASRock motherboard and eventually bought the future CPU card. Neat idea but the cost of the card was pretty high and the bios never properly identified the Athlon processor.
If i had a nickel for every time a computer was put in a microwave for this video, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, But it's weird that it happened twice.
i dream of hosting something like this but theres not quite enough people nearby into old tech, and i live in a relatively unknown area, and im not well known around here except for the guy who likes old stuff
![Diggy Graves - Red Vineyard [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8Ro085T0mnQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Man, i am SO jealous of the fact Free Geek exists...there's literally nothing like that here :(
Also, that Otrona - I MUST POSESS THAT, it looks SO painfully 1970's, yet the keyboard looks like a more modern TKL.
Shows like this have to start somewhere. The first time we ran one in Canberra we ran it in a tiny little community hall at the far end of town (because it was cheap) and the place was packed (too packed) from beginning to end. Second time round we chose a bigger place and the same thing happened. Third time around, an even bigger hall with side rooms for specialist displays and seminars, and we still had to shoo people out at closing time. Now we’re in talks with VCF to make it an official VCF-Down Under event.
Point being, the interest is out there, and good on Free Geek for putting it on, and if they want to - it can only get bigger from here.
We need a NSW specific event. I would not mind going to buy vintage computers at these events.
@@nathanbrown816 VCF NSW OMG WTF BBQ LOL 😛
@@HalianTheProtogen Absolutely, Since I live in the Maitland area, it’s hard to find vintage computer stuff down here.
That vintage Mac industrial computer was amazing! Macs were typically the bane of big business in the old days outside of Entertainment and Media so that was surprising.
Welcome back. Missed your great videos on my Friday afternoon
My family and I are huge fans of Free Geek TC. How had I not heard of this! Totally in for the next one. Excellent channel, btw.
As someone who used to go to their retro meetups, it's because the notices are pretty much exclusive to their Discord server, and more recently their Facebook page. Their official website hasn't had updates about any retro meetups since last July.
This gets me excited for VCF Midwest in 2 weeks!
So glad you’re back! Hope you had a fab break.
There’s something about a TDNC video on a Friday that eases me into the weekend. In the UK, they get uploaded when I’m winding down from work.
That was awesome! Thank you!
The ASRock Dual939 was such a great board. As a teenager with limited funds it meant I knew I could upgrade from AGP to PCI-E without having to upgrade everything else at the same time too. Thanks ASRock! Never did see that add-on board for sale however.
They also made at the same time a variant with PGA478 and LGA775 sockets
3:21 For only $250, I could not have resisted buying the very first computer I ever used.
9:40 Blinkenlights! 😄
Happy to see Y again 🙂
Wow. This one was really awesome. Ill have to go out that direction next year if they do this again. See what beer and table top rpg deals you folks have going on. Thanks and have a great day
Im glad you enjoyed your time in our little state.
Lovely looking event, thanks for the tour. That rackmount touch screen LC 580 is amazing. If anyone is ever in South Australia we have a monthly Adelaide Retro Computing group meet up in a hall with loads of various machines being brought in and themed nights, it's great!
Thank you for the Mac reference. I couldn't remember that thing forever. I just remembered I played in one in 3rd grade. Had some kinda Egyptian game on it.
That motherboard was crazy!
OMG seeing that Sony Beta VCR yanked me back to my childhood... oh the memories...
Ooooooh nooooo! Beta!
That is so cool, need something like this where I live
Man, it's been so long good to see new videos on this channel again!
6:58 I was a beta tester on Pop Pop! Great game from some real OGs.
I wish we had events like this in the UK 😪
We do! The Retro Festival is on the 9th & 10th of November at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge :)
Was going to mention the center for computing history in Cambridge too ✌️
all computers would be sinclair ones
@@1sonyzzeveryone on the spectrum?
Love your videos, I wish we had something like that here. I always make sure to like the videos.
Great video, really enjoyable. Wish you had more documentation, it was fun. Thank you.
if only we had something like that where i am , that looked like a fun time
In radio amateur circles, this kind of event is known as a hamfest.
4:50 At my first Air Force station in northern Japan, we were still using Teletype machines like this in the mid 80s.
Amazing - thanks for sharing
Your back sooner than I thought pretty cool computer show that you are at
Another great video! My city desperately needs a store like Free Geek. we used to have an electronics recycler that was open to the public, but it got sold to a big corporation that didn't care about the reuse side of things.
My dad was a hardware engineer for California Microwave Radio. He hated Macs! I doubt he knew that that product existed. Woulda been fun to tease him about it. Thanks for showing such a rare find!
Man I like watching your videos. Old memories lovely.
Welcome back! And thanks for the awesome content you provide!
Shameless plug for VCF SoCal February 15th & 16th, 2025. It's a fun show, and you can pair it up with a trip to Disneyland!
What I liked about a lot of machines built back in the 70's and 80's were they were built like a tank. I had for quite awhile a complete HP 250 computer system which each drive was the size of a large mini fridge and put out enough heat to warm several rooms. I also had one of the high speed line printers used to print out forms for billing. It was a really cool system that used Business Basic and you could stop the interpreted code while running ,make a change to the program and continue. Miss those days haha.🤔
Wasn't aware of this - definitely a few hours closer than VCF Midwest! If they do it again next year i'll definitely have to think about coming up.
Oh man, I live in the Twin Cities metro and I'm sad I missed this! I'll have to keep an eye out for next time, very cool!
I bought the MT-32 at 1:17 along with the SC-8820 in front of it and the Yamaha MU-5. They all sound freakin' amazing.
I wanted to attend this but I was out of town… I love Free Geek TC and hope they do more of these!
Tested and formatte diskettes at 1 dollar each? Heck, I'm sitting on a gold mine :D.
Really cool little overview video, thanks!
Welcome back!!!!!!!! We've missed you! Fridays have not been the same for a while...
@9:22 Haiku!
Missed you. Welcome back...
totally not me on the other side of the planet craving to have events like these
NEVER seen an Intellivision in person? That was my first console, actually. My grandma got it for me at a garage sale with about fifteen games for $50 because the owner's kids "didn't have any respect."
I couldn’t believe that either. It was my first console too. It’s in near mint condition (That’s what happens when you take care of your stuff)
Its spherical !!
great coverage
You are still alive. Thank heavens
Nice variety of gear. Gota love the Sony Trinitrons too :)
I interned at WEHT TV in Evansville, IN. We had one of the California Microwave Mac’s in master control. And this was not that long ago. 2009.
I wish I'd known about this! I might've gone.
Thanks for showing it, though! I'll have to look for the next one.
Hey, I see me in the background! I scored a Slot A motherboard and CPU, a Radeon 9800 Pro, and a bunch of other goodies. Half-Life and Opposing Force in the box for a screaming deal! So much awesome stuff here to see, and buy. :)
Loveliness! Time to call Joshua...
That looked like an awesome show! Tech expos don't have to be massive in order to be enjoyable and informative, although I do really want to be able to attend VCF Midwest sometime in the future!
The return!!!!!
🎉
I worked at a television station and we had three of these little MAC 1000R beasts to steer in remote TV truck STL microwave dishes into the big radome on the Canadian CN Tower... Yes that CN Tower...
They worked fairly well, but every now and then decided to lose their setup and you'd have to reboot and restart the RF GUI software after rebooting or rebuilding the HD after a crash. Fun times!
That Intellivision is making me feel old. Colecovision was more of my jam in the day.. similar specs to my Ti99
I'd love to fly out to the states to do this.
oh im so jelly...what a a nice event
I am also looking forward these happening moore
So cool to see the Asrock motherboard with the RAM/CPU sockets on a PCi-E board, i actually have that same board and never knew how that worked... now i see the daughter card that goes with it. Always wondered how the "future CPU" jumpers were supposed to work. Maybe now i can try to find the card on ebay to complete that build! (probably not lol)
Ah, sad I missed this. Free Geek had a retro game room set up at 2DCon this weekend as well and I got to try the Vectrex (peeking in next to the CD-I at t=187) and the 3DO as well!
Free Geek Twin Cities is awesome! i went there for the first time last week and bought a dinky little Samsung CRT for 15 bucks :D
Good to see you again 😄
seeing the thinkpad x230 at the end, my current daily laptop, classified as retro T_T
I had an intellivision growing up , it did not survive my washing it with garden hose. I had it in my Red Ryder wagon 😂
Id bet that red shield on the weird red tv was a "night time" mode. Kind of like Flux for an analog world. Like all the bedroom audio solutions marketed in "the old day" for ir or rf headsets to listen silently (with an overlap for hearing impairment).
i cant wait for the next time this happens so i can visit, iirc family was over the weekend this happened and i 100% wouldve dragged them with me to the event if id found out about it beforehand
Now this is worth visiting for cheap!
The MIDI hardware was great to see! I have a working Yamaha TQ5 and Korg Symphony Orchestra P03 Modules!
Would have been nice to see a Brother PDC-100 sequencer. 32 Tracks + 64 sub tracks!
I used teletype/telex/whisperwriter machines back in the early 1980s. Slow and clunky, and had to be careful to not make a typo.
1:00 My first computer. Even the joystick is the same one I had.
2:41: Yay! Nice to see the 3DO getting some love.
3:21: Sorry, but as long a shadow as Steve Jobs cast, the Apple ][ will always be Steve Wozniak's.
that California microwave mac seems like its set up to control a rotor for a directional antenna and if it is that is one snazzy rotor controller
My first gaming experience was the intellivision, it was my Dad's/uncle's from when they were kids. found it in my grandparents attic one weekend and gee was i disapointed! the games really were barebones and not even on the level of atari of the time lol. Worst part was the controllers were nothing more than TV remotes with plastic inlays you'd slide in. Every game had wildly different controlls lol. We rented a NES shortly after from blockbuster and wow what a difference.
So awesome
in television. "you invested in television?!?!?!"
I loved this video!
Thats a jurrasic park computer terminal in the thumbnail dennis nedry
Very cool!
Wait what?! I wish I would have known I would have been there 😢
Congrats on having one of the best state flags in the union!
Starfleet!!!
6:10 - I had the LGA775 variaint of the 4CoreDualSATA2 featured here.
the PCI-E was only 4x, but man was it ever handy still having an AGP X800 All-In-Wonder when everything was going to PCI-E; you couldn't use the AGP and PCI-E bus at the same time though.
I've got no clue what in all that is holy is going on with the expansion board here.
Welcome back
Wish there was something like that in Sweden
Some IMSAI and like computers definitely could be fitted with proper boot/OS/monitor ROMs or BIOSes for hooking up disks or small routines to load data from magnetic/paper/audio tape. Such that you could use them more or less like a desktop computer, in as far as such a thing existed. The most you'd maybe have to use the front panel for is setting the program counter to the ROM entry point and maybe entering some parameters like what serial port to use for the console.
Wish I had this in my area. 😢
Man, I would like to have been there. I found a few things I would have com home with......grin
you have never seen an intellivision? same era as atari and a great console from my childhood ..in my case never had an atari but did know them from friends or family.
6:09 I had that ASRock motherboard and eventually bought the future CPU card. Neat idea but the cost of the card was pretty high and the bios never properly identified the Athlon processor.
did a spit take at the "World's ugliest SNES" !! 🤣
I'm the owner of that one. It was in a pile of e-waste to be recycled and I had to save it. It's definitely a looker. 😂
Please tell me that the Toasty Bros make that gaming PC in a toaster. That's totally on brand for them!
Man, every time I hear about Free Geek Twin Cities I end up thinking they are even cooler than I originally thought. HA
If i had a nickel for every time a computer was put in a microwave for this video, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, But it's weird that it happened twice.
Sounds like it was fun, I wonder if someone was selling an all in one Sega Genesis clone?
This was only 4 hours from me. I wish I would have known about this sooner I would have went.
I love it ❤
i dream of hosting something like this but theres not quite enough people nearby into old tech, and i live in a relatively unknown area, and im not well known around here except for the guy who likes old stuff