Last weekend marked the fifth annual meeting of the International Retro Computer Expo (formerly BoatFest) in Hurricane, West Virginia. For the fifth summer in a row I drove 1,000 miles from Oklahoma City to Hurricane to attend the event.

Officially the event took place July 10-11, although the organizers got access to the building on Thursday which allowed people to set up their displays a day early. It’s hard to imagine more old computers existing anywhere else in West Virginia during that time. Computers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s quickly filled tables. If you wanted to play games on an Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, vintage Tandy computer, or play games on everything from a Neo Geo to a vector-based Vectrex system, they were all available.

One of the most mind-blowing setups this year involved essentially duplicating a weekend’s worth of television broadcasting from matching dates back in 1981. Over the past year, one of the attendees (Bill) with help from a few others recreated the exact television lineups for June 10-11 back in 1981. Using multiple Raspberry Pis he then broadcast ABC, NBC, and CBS to multiple analog televisions around the room. Many attendees (including myself) brought our own televisions and so you could literally check the vintage TV guide from 1981 sitting at Bill’s display to see what programs were about to play. The last thing I thought I would be doing at BoatFest was messing with the antenna on an old television so I could watch Saturday morning cartoons. Bill’s display included a Sears Wishbook from 1981, an Atari 2600 hooked up to the large console television, and even a few hidden trinkets (like a mix-tape from 1981) shoved into his couch’s cushions for attendees to discover.

Directly behind my table, another attendee had set up a dot matrix printer and was printout out banners using Print Shop and making signs using GEOS. The guy sitting next to me, Petzel, spent a good portion of the weekend trying to get a Commodore 64 to connect to the internet to play an online trivia game. Like previous years, you can find everything from current projects to shiny systems all on display. And perhaps I shouldn’t use the word “display” because every single thing there is hands on. Nobody goes to BoatFest just to stand around and look at these old systems.

Friday has turned into more of a “free-form” day while Saturday is full of events. The hosts of the popular Amigos Podcast (John “BoatOfCar” Shawler and Amigo Aaron) did a live version of their show, followed by a live version of ARG Presents by Amigo Aaron and his brother, The Brent. Next up was a Q&A with one of the attendees, Marshall, who brought reproduction systems of a PDP, IEMSA, and Altair. After I did my own show (Sprite Castle) we did BoatFest Jeopardy, a raffle, and a live auction. As usual I sold more than I bought at the auction, but there were lots of great things at the auction this year and everything was going cheap. I saw a complete IBM 5150 system with monitor go for less than $100. There were stacks of old computer games, computers, hardware, complete runs of vintage computer magazines, and more.

The “free” table was overflowing this year with lots of old computer parts, magazines, joysticks, and even a vintage stereo system with an 8-track still poking out of it. I grabbed a joystick and a 3D printed replica of the idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark (because why not!) and donated some old DOS manuals, modems, network cards, stickers, and more. Removing items from the free table only semed to free up more space for others to refill it.

Saturday night ended with an impromptu visit of a friend’s backyard arcade, complete with pinball machines, working arcade games, and a couple of jars of supposed West Virginia moonshine. I’m sure a lot of interesting conversations happened that evening but, you know… moonshine.

By Sunday morning tables were being cleared off, handshakes and hugs were exchanged, and all of us left West Virginia with a bit of inspiration. I saw so many neat projects I want to buy, build, and experiment with, and conversations were already beginning to swirl about ideas for next year. I will certainly be there again to see them.