Vintage Computer Collectors Preserve Digital Revolution

A growing community of vintage computer collectors is preserving classic machines that helped launch the digital revolution. Josh Dersch, a software engineer, has spent countless hours tinkering with his collection of over 200 vintage computers and devices in his Seattle home.

Dersch's passion for collecting old computers stems from his fascination with their origins and the challenge of debugging and repairing them. He estimates he owns more than 200 vintage computers and devices in his Seattle home, and is part of a growing community of collectors who are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today's laptops, wearable devices and smart phones.

The Vintage Computer Federation, founded by Sellam Ismail, organizes an annual festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This year, over 3,500 people attended the two-day festival, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apple's founding in 1976. The event featured a panel with co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne reminiscing about the company's early days.

Rare, iconic computers like the Apple-1 can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Erik Klein, president of the Vintage Computer Federation. Dersch showcased his prized Xerox Alto at the festival, which he spent years restoring to its original working condition. The Alto was one of the earliest computers to move beyond text on screen and use a graphical user interface.