Commodore Computer Club – USA

Commodore Computer Club member and good friend Gordon “gsteemso” Steemson recently started the Seattle Retro-Computing Society up in Seattle, WA and a group of us from PDX piled into cars loaded with some retro gear and headed up for the inaugural meeting.

The event was held on Saturday June 25 and took place at the Living Computer Museum started by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and a list of other world-class technology pioneers.

After the 2.5 hour drive North from Vancouver, WA, the Commodore Computer Club carpool was greeted by Keith Perez, primary hardware restoration engineer at the Living Computer Museum.

Once on site, we unloaded our vehicles, grabbed our vintage gear and headed into the 3 story building for the SRCS meeting. During the event, over 170 pictures were taken between 10:30 am and 5:30 pm. Here is just a small sampling of all those photos. Enjoy!

Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote Altair BASIC. Soon after, they formed their own company – Micro-Soft, and sold Altair BASIC as their first product for the MITS ALTAIR 8800 Computer:

Earl Evans from the Retrobits podcast did a presentation on the EPSON PX-8, TRS-80 Model 100, SX-64, IBM PC 5155 portable, TI CC-40, Sharp PC-1248, PC-1250, and PC-1500:

Here we have a working Apple I replica computer built by Neil Breeden II. You can also see a picture of Neil with Steve Wozniak both wearing Nixie Tube watches:

Apple IIc computer with 9″ monochrome monitor and Apple II joystick courtesy Commodore Computer Club. You can see Oregon Trail being displayed on the screen:

Members and guests of the Seattle Retro-Computing Society enjoying the meeting at the Living Computer Museum:

A variety of tasty pizza, soda and juice drinks were on hand thanks to Gordon for all the hungry and thirsty attendees:

Commodore VIC-20 computer using the Mega-Cart, the ultimate cartridge for any VIC 20 provided by the Commodore Computer Club:

Here’s another view showcasing some of the vintage retro computers that were on display at the SRCS meeting held at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, WA:

Seattle Retro-Computing Society members and guests watching one of the many presentations that took place at the Living Computer Museum meeting:

Battlezone by Atarisoft being played on the Commodore VIC-20 using the highly sought after Mega-Cart provided by the Commodore Computer Club:

The IBM System/360 Model 91 was introduced in 1966 as the fastest, most powerful computer then in use. Here’s one on display at the Living Computer Museum:

Another picture showcasing the full control panel of the IBM System 360 Model 91 computer:

The DEC PDP-7 produced by Digital Equipment Corporation. Introduced in 1965, it was the first to use their Flip-Chip technology. The PDP-7 was the third of Digital’s 18-bit machines:

During the Living Computer Museum private tour, Keith Perez showed us some cool retro technology. Keith called this giant cable USB 0.1:

Some people use floppy disks, CD’s, DVD’s or even cassette tapes for backups. The Living Computer Museum has some pretty cool XEROX magnetic tape data storage machines:

To go along with the magnetic tape data storage machines seen above, the Living Computer Museum has a room filled with hundreds, maybe even thousands of magnetic tapes:

SRCS members watching and listening to Keith Perez discuss some of the retro computers that are currently being restored at the Living Computer Museum:

The DEC SYSTEM-20 was a 36-bit Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 mainframe computer running the TOPS-20 operating system:

The 12-bit PDP-8 was the first successful commercial minicomputer, produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 1960s. DEC introduced it on March 22, 1965:

If you’d like to see the additional pictures taken at the SRCS meeting or get high resolution copies, feel free to contact us and we can set you up no problem.

Special thanks to Gordon for starting the Seattle Retro-Computing Society, Keith Perez for the great tour and Paul G. Allen for allowing all of us geeks private unrestricted access into the Living Computer Museum. It was a spectacular time for sure!

If you like this post, then please consider subscribing to our full RSS feed.