9/14/25 VCF MW 2025
Easily, one of my biggest regrets of most trips I make, is that I never take enough photos (if I take.. any). So guess what I proceeded to do this time haha. I did take two photos, maybe I'll add them oneday.
VCF MW 20 is now over! for me at least, I know there's a sunday I cant attend too.. It was a nice trip to make. I didn't do what all I wanted either, nor get everything I wanted to get, but oh well. I'll take this time to reflect and look back at my experience! Originally I intended to go for the full event and stay at a hotel, but for reasons that maybe one day I'll explain, I had to downsize to a day trip..
I woke up at 3 in the morning, put on my concert t-shirt and didn't remember to bring any cool shades, and went on my way. The drive itself wasn't super eventful from what I remember, but I was still in my early stages of sleepiness during them (not the type to make you unable to drive, I should clarify!). I get to the airport, smooth sailing through and through, and I get on my flight at 6. That's when it all goes to hell.
Originally, I was supposed to get in at 8, plenty of time to then go to VCF at opening hours! Unfortunately, after circling the sky for a while, the pilot then alerts us there was a ground stop at the chicago airport, and we'll have to go almost an hour out as a diversion. WHY you couldn't tell us about the ground stop BEFORE we started circling, no clue. Was extremely annoying on United Airlines part. But after landing, we then stay for 30 minutes and finally take off BACK to chicago. We land, and then another 20 minutes of going in circles on the runway's because why not. Extremely annoying flight experience.
Finally got in an uber and arrived around 11... I know to many, it'll seem "2 hours late? That's nothing!" But when this event's kind of your only time to buy cool computers, jeez.. Anyway, on twitter, I wrote something like "All the people that seemed cool weren't, and all the people that didn't seem cool were the coolest to talk too." I would say I stand by that statement! I met some nice people at the more lax tables selling off bad iBooks, but any of the displays of bad apple meant you'd see two people who don't actually care about the con and are just staring at their phones.
To the displaying of devices, there was alot more COOL displays of themed computers, weird computers, even some NeXT and 20th Anniversary Macs. To the selling of devices, there was both less unique stuff (No rare boxed mac's or anything, neither were you getting those nicher cool devices or stuff like pismo powerbooks or g4 cubes), but there was more Graphite and Indigo iBooks and Xserve g4's! It was a weird mix-up for sure. Also less commercial bulk sellers, no more dedicated tables for the selling of thinkpad’s or powerbooks.. Womp Womp.
I don't really meet many people either way at these types of cons, and since I was on a time limit for my flight back I didn't go to the auction or any speaker event. Sucks, but is what it is.
After a while, I wrote on the whiteboard what I'm looking for (you never end up getting any leads off this, but its worthwhile) and I later wrote my website, probabllyyy not my best idea but! One paper caught my eye, a listing for a guys sales.. and there was two aloominum Powerbook g4s, a 15" and 12"! I text the guy, and we meet up in the parking lot at his car. We ended up talking for a bit, and he even offers to throw in a boxed copy of OS 9, 10.2, and 10.3 if I buy both powerbooks. I offered 10 bucks off for both, which I feel bad about in hindsight.. But bam, I am now the owner of two powerbooks and boxed copies of MacOS!
The 15" is in GREAT shape, and the battery even has some signs of life (but I'll need to do testing.) its a 2003 though... I already own a 15" (the one I got LAST VCF MW) and that ones in good condition, but the battery is slowly getting worse battery life (used to get a full hour, now I have to downclock the GPU to get acceptable life.) And there is a few outwards bends (but otherwise no damage?). I wish I could rob the old powerbook to repair the newer one.. But the 15" oddly had too much variation in its lifetime, so I guess I'll keep it for a while as a backup.
The 12" is in alright-ish shape. It's not bad by any means, but it has asset tags, weathered off bottom info and a display thats faulty and showing some bleed. needs replacing. However, it IS a late 12", the most ideal one! Sooo It's 100% worth keeping, and its really the ideal machine I wanted if I was gonna get a 12". I'll def keep it around. It's newer than the 15", but has a completely dry battery. Which sucks when that could be the ULTIMATE portable writing machine.. It's keyboard feels REALLY great. sigh. I'm typing this post on this machine in bed... damn it.. Even the trackpad feels good.. only the speakers aren't great, but..
The story behind the two is that a university professor upgraded his laptop every two years, and these were his! Which is why they're in good condition for their age (and especially for old powerbooks). They have asset tags for that reason too, and the professor apparently went onto.. lets say, even better workplaces. That's a fun story for these two!
I later go and buy a few stickers.. I got two "This PC98 is FREE of eroge, if you don't like it, leave!" sticker, but they're REALLY Poorly cut. The booth itself was ran by two people who didn't really seem to pay attention to the people viewing their booth, so I probably shouldn't of bought anything from them.. But sigh, I am a faithful consumer.
There was a bunch of used game booths this year, these two people were selling TONS of weird 5$ n64 games, and I bought Puyo Puyo from em. I then bought a boxed copy of 10.4 from a booth for the price the 12" was originally listed for (hint, its LOW). I get my VCF shirt as I always would, some y2k stickers from a shop I already know of, and that's.. what I thought would be my last of the last for the day. I planned on going to the airport extra early to get some food while there, but BOY did I then come upon a great whiteboard listing.
I see a paper listing for a PowerComputing PowerTower 166, with a G3 Card from XLR8 (company of the time!) and.. I can't believe a mac clones here. I mean, it IS vcf, but still! I texted the number immediately, and I then lowballed 150 off their price.. I, didn't expect they'd accept and I just tossed money at the powerboks and needed to be conservative. BUT THEY ACCEPTED!
We meet up at the whiteboards, then me and their friend walk to their hotel room (staying at the event, nicey nicey). One person noticed their flyer for a upgraded g4 quicksilver, and tags along. They're actually MY friend now! They might read this.. Once we get there, we're kinda just all chatting (and I'm busy feeling out of place as usual.) and after a brief look at this Mac Clone, and a paypal transaction, I'm walking out with this beast. Holyyy shit god what the helllll!!!!
I booked an uber, get to the airport, and I have to lug this thing through. TSA took it out of the scanner to swab it..? not even open it, then hand it back. I end up going to mcdonalds and im still holding it as I pick up my food.. I get to my gate, sit down, and after an hour and a charge of my phone I get on the plane. My new machine goes overhead, and once I land I only needed to carry it to the car. The night driving was great. SO great. Some of the best times ive had driving. Maybe I'll make a mini post about it, basically 0 traffic on the way back.
AND NOW ITS HERE WITH ME! Its a PowerTower 166 (non pro from when they rebranded the powercenter) with a 400MHz G3 from XLR8. It's got a blue scsi (nicey, but not amazingly helpful due to the 8gb limit of these machines) too, and maxed out at 128mb with full 4mb vram! Basically the dream clone machine. You can technically go further, but OS X is shotty so this is the best you get for OS 9 besides getting a dedicated GPU, but those are pricyyy.. I played around with it all night, and now I have much more important work to handle that i didn't do cause of it.. hehe.
Overall, I came in with the hopes of getting a G4 Cube, PowerBook G3, anything of the sort. and left with something much rarer and better. And I think that really says something! Even if the event itself wasn't as good as last year, this alone is something amazing I could never get anywhere else. And now I'll have to start flexing this everywhere I go, alongside my diva cab and mac pro 2019. Lol.
I will say, while I wanted to end on that happy note, I got to say how weird you start feeling when you spend a whole day somewhere else like that. It felt alien that I somehow could do that, yknow? It also sets into perspective how small and boring life really is most the time. And how much I hope to do stuff like this again in the future.
That's all for now. SeeU.
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