[Coco] Countdown to CoCoFEST: T-7 Days

[Jim Brain (2022-23 GCCC President)]

If you’re like me, you’re panicking a bit at this point, feverishly 
finishing up stuff before you pack for the show and leave. In actuality, 
it’s T-5 for me, since I’ll be arriving Thursday evening to help with 
setup and just general prep. If you are, stop, take a deep breath, and 
remember that we’ll enjoy your presence no matter the situation.

As John Mark and others have noted in the past, the official title is 
*The <number> Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST!*, where <number> is 
nominally the number of years since the first Annual event in 1992, with 
a skip in 2020 we don’t talk about much :-). Though, to be pedantically 
correct, except for the number, pretty much the entire name of the show 
is a lie…

As noted, with the skip in 2020, the word “annual” probably should have 
a “*” by it, as a few folks have noted. But, ignoring that for a moment, 
except for the current fest, the word “Last” in all the previous show 
names are lies, as we have held another one a year later. Obviously, 
it’s a bit of CoCo inside humor. But, if we give a pass for everything 
shutting down a year, us included, and keep a bit of humor in the title, 
I posit even the name “CoCoFEST!” is a lie.

Why, you may ask? Well, though we do tend to see quite a few Color 
(Colour for our members up North) Computers, we also see CoCo-like 
machines such as the Dragon 64, the Z-80 based Tandy machines, some 
related products (like the MM/1), and our favorite little Tandy system, 
the MC-10. Talk about an underdog!

A number of our community cater to this tiny member of the family, 
including Brendan Donahe. Here is Brendan explaining some novel 
constraints around the Tandy MC-10 video system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Cl-BVsy4Q

So, if you have a non-CoCo Tandy or Radio Shack computer (or even a 
clone), you’re part of our people!

-- 
Jim Brain, 2023-24 President
Glenside Color Computer Club (GCCC)
president at glensideccc.com
www.glensideccc.com