Hi all!

I'm a lifelong vintage computing and gaming collector based near San Francisco, CA. I've really loved building my collection over the years, but after a while it started to feel kinda boring to have all this amazing stuff locked away in a storage bin. Thankfully my wife is smarter than I am, and she realized that we could create a mobile museum! We call it The Retro Roadshow, and we've become the San Francisco Bay Area's premiere hands-on pop-up museum of vintage technology.

We've got several really fun events coming up, and I thought one in particular would appeal to Tinker Different members: we've partnered with the Sunnyvale Public Library for a special event on October 5th, from 2pm to 5pm. This event is called "Tales From The Orchard: Exploring Apple's Innovations and Influence." We'll begin with a dynamic multimedia presentation exploring Apple's origins, and then shift focus to some of the fascinating projects and companies closely connected to Apple, including Newton, General Magic, NeXT, Be Inc., and more.

Following the presentation, we'll invite everyone to get hands-on with some of the coolest and rarest items from our collection. We're still working out the specific details for this particular show, but in all likelihood we'll be exhibiting:

• An Apple II
  • This originally belonged to an Apple engineer who did some interesting "DIY" upgrades
• An Apple IIe "Platinum"
  • This machine has a number of cool upgrades, including a TransWarp CPU card, MockingBoard audio card, Ethernet, expanded RAM, etc.
• An Apple ///
  • Our Apple /// previously belonged to a Canadian architect who ran his business on the /// deep into the 1990s
• An Apple IIgs
  • Our IIgs is upgraded with an AppleSqueezer, CompactFlash mass storage, and a bunch of other cool stuff
• An Apple Lisa 2/10
  • This is the newest addition to our collection - we're very excited to share it with everyone!
• A Macintosh 128k
• A "MonsterMac"
  • This is a Mac 512k which was upgraded with a very cool "MonsterMac" RAM + SCSI board
• A Macintosh Portable
  • Our Portable is the awesome backlit version, and was originally used during the early design phase of the New Mexico SpacePort
• An iMac G3
  • This is the rare "Flower Power" edition
• A NeXT Cube
  • Complete with NeXT MegaPixel display, matching accessories, functional Magneto-Optical drive, etc.
• A BeBox
  • Easily the rarest computer in our collection, and a machine that the general public would typically never get a chance to play with
• Various Newton General Magic devices

Here's a 30-second video showing one of our previous Apple-themed events, just so you can get a sense of what it's like. Anyways, if you're in the Bay Area and you're a member of Tinker Different, I can almost guarantee that you'll have a great time at this event. Hope to see you all there!

Huxley

That's a great idea! If you ever get down to SoCal there is a big community who would love to see it here.