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Car is packed, ready to go! And for the first time ever, the  Swiss Vintage Computer Festival is held at the ENTER Technology Museum  in Derendingen, close to Solothurn. I love old computers, I love to  collect them. I love to fix them. I'm THE PHINTAGE COLLECTOR  and these are my stories. The committee, as well as the exhibitors,  have been working for weeks already to prepare for the event, but on Friday,  it’s all about setting up the venue. The ground floor still looks a bit deserted,  but after receiving first instructions, we quickly began building up  the tables for the exhibits. There are also plenty of talks and  presentations held during the event, which requires a studio to be  set up for the live streaming. I was also happy to have my friend Steven  join me for setting things up on-site, as it was quite a dense schedule. And it  didn’t go without some glitches — like the Mac SE/30 once again showing zebra  stripes. How many times more do I need to fix that machine? Though it was  only a loose RAM module, so all fine. Almost at least — as I definitely  had to remove the Kaypro II, since it suffered a more critical breakdown. At least I was ready for the next morning,  before the first visitors dropped in. And there was lots to see — be  that the famous NeXT machines, of which, unfortunately, also the  NeXTcube was unconditionally broken. Of course, there were plenty of  opportunities to experience retro video games or do some multiplayer  gaming at the LAN party booth. The admission was valid for the whole museum, so you could also walk around or  go explore the dungeons downstairs, walk through the storage room, or enjoy a  game on old arcade and pinball machines. And if you like classic cars, there were  a few of them on display — be that KITT from *Knight Rider*, Herbie from *The Love  Bug*, or the Ford Anglia from *Harry Potter*. What about a ride in the *Jurassic Park* tour  car, or a scenic chase in James Bond’s 1981 2CV? Meanwhile, the talks and panels were in full  progress, as I was visiting the flea market. I was really tempted to get this ASUS  single-board PC for installing into an industrial PC, but then again, not my  current objective. But I did find an LK201 keyboard that goes with DEC VT terminals  — and I tested it right away with my own terminal at the event. Good thing, as I have  three DEC terminals, but only two keyboards. And Alisha from the Amiga User Group Switzerland donated me a working 1541 drive for the  C64. Awesome — thanks a lot for this one! On display were also Jost Bürgi’s *Progress  Tabulen*. He’s acclaimed for documenting the first logarithmic scale in 1620 and for  devising these mechanical calculators 400 years ago. As he worked with Johannes  Kepler — the name patron of the Kepler Space Telescope — Bürgi used his *Progress  Tabulen* for astrometric calculations. One exhibitor also demonstrated a  fully working replica of the ENIGMA, made entirely from 3D-printed parts. The ENTER Museum also moved some  exhibits downstairs to have them on display in the dedicated  Swiss Computing History booth. Certainly, many people know  Niklaus Wirth for Pascal, Oberon, and Modula-2, and for the famous  Lilith computer, built in 1980 at ETH Zürich. Other systems may be lesser  known — like the Gigabooster, a supercomputer built by Anton Gunzinger  in 1992. Only about five were ever made. Then there was the SMAKY — a portmanteau  of *Smart* and *Keyboard* — a home computer devised in 1972 at the  EPFL, the University of Lausanne. Only a handful of SMAKY 1 through  SMAKY 5 were produced until, in 1978, the company Epsitec was founded to produce  the SMAKY 6, for a total of 450 units. The SMAKY would see several iterations  through the following years, with the SMAKY 100 in 1984 and the SMAKY  130 in 1991, topping out at 1,500 and 2,000 units produced — with a clear  focus on the Swiss educational market. And even though Silicon Graphics was  based in Mountain View, California, their European headquarters  was in Cortaillod, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. This is also where the  machines for the European market were assembled between 1989 and 2001 — and why two  SGI machines sneaked into the Swiss corner. And have you ever heard about the VOYAGER?  Nope, not that one — but this one here! The MONEC VOYAGER was a pioneering Swiss  mobile device from 1999 that connected to cellular networks. It was devised as an  all-in-one tablet for internet & email, online banking, and office programs — powered  by an Intel Pentium Mobile MMX processor with a touchscreen display, targeting  mobile professionals and students alike. Meanwhile, my own booth centered around network  evolution. Starting to the left with the DEC PiDP-11 replica and a serial terminal, the  VT320. Terminals appeared as early as 1969 and provided a way for remotely working with  the mainframes and minicomputers of the time. The two Macs showcased Apple networking  of the era — either by using the Farallon PhoneNet for a whopping 232 kbit/s, or via  the also-equipped 10Base-T Ethernet cards. And while the TravelMate laptop to the left  showcased 90s RealVideo streaming, I also brought a Raspberry Pi that connected to the  Compaq notebook for the sake of emulating an analog modem — so you could also experience  a true 56 kbit dial-up internet connection. The rack housed all the network  gear needed for 10Base-2, 10Base-T, and 100Base-TX networks, alongside  a fully working Token Ring network. And if that weren’t enough already, the Sun Fire  V120 came along with the Sun Ray thin client as a modern Ethernet-based evolution of  the original serial terminal concept. The SGI O2 finally served as an example  for 90s video telephony — although, truth be told, we couldn’t get it  working on-site. Maybe next time around! And there was so much more to see —  time was barely enough. In the evening, once the doors closed, we enjoyed  some pasta and retro demos afterwards, giving us a much-needed break and time to relax. I’m THE PHINTAGE COLLECTOR, and this was my  story about the Swiss Vintage Computer Festival 2025. Unfortunately, it’s all over now, but one  thing is for certain — VCFe will return in 2026! Thanks for watching, and see you next Sunday.