I’m leaving for California today to attend VCF 9.0, or more properly, the ninth iteration of the Vintage Computer Festival. It’s taking place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California (home of Google and other cool tech companies). As a result of my trip, regular posts will be thin in the coming week or so, but I hope to be reporting on the going-ons at the festival if I get a chance. If nothing else, I should be able to post a full write-up of my Silicon Valley adventure when I get back.

Maybe I’ll see you there. If you spot a weird, squirrelly-looking guy with a handlebar mustache, neon-pink jumpsuit, and a gigantic sombrero swaggering around, you’ll know it’s me.

One year ago today, I posted my first entry on Vintage Computing and Gaming. Little did I know at the time that it would be the start of something that would grow much faster and larger than I could have ever expected.

I started this site because I wanted to share my love of vintage computers and video games with the world. As it turned out, the world shared its love back, and it did so quite generously. What started as a personal project and blog became nothing less than a quasi-magazine nearly overnight, with all-new, original features published regularly, but on a quality over quantity basis. I personally try to ensure that every article that appears on VC&G is high quality and unique. The results of my efforts have spoken for themselves in the form of an active, steadily increasing readership. We still have plenty of room to grow, however, so the most exciting times for VC&G are still ahead of us. I know there are plenty of untapped vintage computer and “retrogaming” enthusiasts out there, so anything you do to spread the word about VC&G is incredibly appreciated.

It’s always a joy to gain new readers because the community that has gathered around VC&G over the past year is a generous, friendly, insightful, intelligent, and positive one that I am extremely proud to call my own. You guys are great, and every time you post a comment, it honestly makes my day. As long as you folks keep reading and sharing your passions with others, I’ll keep writing new articles for you to enjoy.

Thank you so much for reading my words — and the words of our contributors — for these last twelve months. With your support, I hope to be writing a similarly positive statement around this time next year…and for many years to come. Thanks again, and happy birthday VC&G! — RedWolf

With Halloween only three days away, it’s getting quite late in the game to figure out what you’re going to dress up as this year. Here to the rescue, as always, is VC&G with the second of two parts on last-minute Halloween costume ideas. The first part dealt with vintage computer-related costumes. This second part deals exclusively with video game-related costumes. So if you’re desperate for some ideas, feel free to take a look what we’ve cooked up for you below. And by all means, share any of your own ideas with us as well.

Special thanks to Matt of Video Game Obsession for providing the Urban Champion and 3-D World Runner scans used below.

[ Continue reading VC&G’s Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas: Video Game Edition » ]

Matt Groves, a regular reader of VC&G, is hosting a vintage gaming contest with an innovative concept called “Name Those Pixels.” He’s selected an excerpt from a NES game’s graphics in the form of a square block of pixels (pictured to the right). Your job is to guess which game the pixels came from. The winner of the contest will be selected randomly from all the correct entries and will receive a copy of Dr. Mario for the NES as a prize. If all goes well, he could be hosting more contests like this on VC&G in the future. To enter the contest, visit his site and send him an email. Good luck!

With Halloween only four days away, it’s getting quite late in the game to figure out what you’re going to dress up as this year. Here to the rescue, as always, is VC&G with the first of two parts on last-minute Halloween costume ideas. This first part deals with vintage computer-related costumes. The second part will deal exclusively with video game-related costumes and will be published soon. So if you’re desperate for some ideas, feel free to take a look what we’ve cooked up for you below. And by all means, share any of your own ideas with us as well.

By the way, if you like these, here’s even more costume ideas:
2010 Video Game Edition
2009 Video Game Edition
2008 Video Game Edition
2007 Video Game Edition
2006 Video Game Edition

[ Continue reading VC&G’s Last-Minute Halloween Costume Ideas: Computer Edition » ]

If you’ve ever wondered what really went on inside the game Super Breakout, then wonder no further. The explanation that Atari contrived is so dramatic and exciting that I’m not even going to make anything up this time. I’ll just read directly from the instruction manual for the Atari 2600 version of the game…

[ Continue reading Retro Scan of the Week: Super Breakout’s Rainbow-Smashing Astronaut » ]

In Part I of “Inside a Hamfest: An Annotated Slideshow,” I gave you an introduction to hamfests. In Part II, I told you about guys who try to sell utterly useless crap for too much money, but I also found some choice non-crap to purchase for very little money. We also met a Simpsons-like supernerd with a passion for redheads (himself) and video games. Below, in the concluding part of the series, we pick up exactly where we left off in Part II.

[ Continue reading Inside a Hamfest: An Annotated Slideshow, Part III » ]

For someone who was highly disappointed with the Generation NEX, I’ll have to admit that Messiah’s latest product looks pretty cool. But then again, the NEX looked awesome when it was announced, and you know how that turned out.

The product is the “NEX Wireless Arcade Stick,” a supposedly arcade-quality wireless arcade stick for Messiah’s NEX system. And that right there is the catch, and it’s a major one: it’s “exclusively” compatible with the NEX system, which is likely a horrible business move on the part of Messiah. Why would they limit a great stick design (which looks…absolutely nothing like a NES Advantage, by the way) to such a cheap NES-on-a-chip famiclone machine when they could probably triple their sales if they included a wireless receiver that worked with a standard NES? This stick is essentially what the Advantage should have been back in 1987, and NES freaks would love to get their hands on it for their own NES. But sorry, folks, you’re out of luck. That’s Messiah for ya — just shy of the target, as always. Gotta love ’em.

So why on earth am I telling you about it?

[ Continue reading Messiah Announces “NEX Wireless Arcade Stick” » ]