The European SOciety for COmputer Preservation NEWS

The European Society for Computer Preservation

European Society for Computer Preservation NEWS:


Saturday and Sunday 13th and 14th April 2024 Esocop will be at the "A Bit of History" event held in the Ecomuseum of Freidano in Settimo Torinese, Turin, Italy. We will talk and show how early IA driven music towards technology, and how all it began. More informations on the event site here: A Bit of [Hi]story.

Saturday and Sunday 11th and 12th November 2023 Esocop will be at the Zurich Vintage Computer Festival 2023 in Zurich, Switzerland. We will show the history of demoscene and demos themselves on Amiga computers and we will show how in the 90s electronic music was done with midi sequencers and original music keyboards, expanders and drum machines with Atari Mega ST machine controlling the sound. More info on vintagecomputerfestival.ch.

Sunday 8th October 2023 ESoCoP will be present in Brusaporto (Bergamo), Italy. We will exhibit the remake or "relive" of the famous Amiga family poster. And some other sweety. More informations on www.brusaretro.it.

Sunday 17th September 2023 ESoCoP will be present in "Varese Retrocomputing" exhibition, in Tradate (Varese) Italy. We will exhibit the "triad", the first three massmanufactured desktop computers: Apple II, Commodore PET 2001 and Tandy Radioshack TRS80 Model I. We will also present the first homebrew desktop computer, the MITS Altair 8080. More informations on www.vareseretrocomputing.it

Thursday 16th March 2023 ESoCoP will be present in the event "Computer che hanno fatto la storia" in Lugano, Switzerland, at the SUPSI (Professional University of Italian Switzerland) University Campus. We will talk about Digital PDP 1, 8 and 11, Olivetti Programma 101, MITS Altair 8800 together with SUPSI professors, directors, RSI State TV journalists and the AStiSI president prof. Carlo Spinedi. The event will be held in Italian language. Click here to register and reserve a place: https://form-gen.app.supsi.ch/form/view.php?id=143903.

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th November 2022 ESoCoP will be present at Vintage Computer Festival in Zurich, Switzerland. More info on vintagecomputerfestival.ch.
We will make two exhibitions: An eighties music studio reproduction, with an Atari Mega ST2, several synthetizers, drum machines etc, midi driven with Cubase as sequencer to give public a little taste of how music production worked between the 80ies and 90ies. The second one will be related to CP/M in 70ies, with an ICL a General Processor, an Altair and other CP/M rare machines.

Sunday 2nd October 2022 ESoCoP will make an exhibition at Brusaretro vintage computer fair in Bergamo (Italy). More info on www.brusaretro.it.
We will have a real 80's and 90's FIDONET BBS running on an IBM PS/1 directly installed from a backup of the time, and several old computers from 80's and 90's connecting with modem to the BBS in real dialup, such as Commodore Amiga, IBM, Osborne. Visitors will have the possibility to experience the real feeling of a BBS connection from different operative systems to a real BBS as we were used to in late eighties and early nineties.

Saturday 26th March 2022 ESoCoP will be present @ Gardacon 2022 (Comics Videogames Pop Culture, more info on www.gardacon.it) Our exhibition will be titled "5 years to 5 years, 70s to 90s" showing a 1970 PDP8, a 1975 Altair 8800, a 1980 Commodore PET, a 1985 IBM PC, a 1990 Amiga. The main focus of the exhibition will be the incredible technology, ux and multimedia differences in just 5 years during the golden age of personal computing. Waiting for you Saturday 26th March in Brescia Fair, Italy.

Sunday 3rd of October 2021 Esocop will attend the Brusaretro vintage computer fair in Bergamo (Italy). This will be our first exhibition post covid. We will exhibit only two computers, two Commodore relics. The Commodore 65 and the only Amiga Walker survived to the Amiga technologies bankruptcy. Feel free to reach us there. Informations here: Brusaretro Website.

The pandemic is not over yet, and most of the events are still cancelled in 2021 too. The European Society for Computer Preservation decided to host the second release of Esocop And Friends, LIVE from our warehouse and from different sites and locations in Italy and Switzerland. This event will be in Italian language only, and it will be held from 15.00 to 17.00 CET (Gmt+1) of Monday 5th April 2021.
Read more in the special ESoCoP and Friends II dedicated page.

In Covid ERA many of the exhibitions planned in southern Europe have been cancelled. That's why we are hosting a virtual Event called ESoCoP and Friends LIVE from our warehouse in Italy, and LIVE from different friends associations sites in Italy.
This event will be in Italian language only, and it will be held from 14.00 to 18.00 CET (Gmt+1) of Sunday 25th October 2020.
Read more in the special ESoCoP and Friends dedicated page.

After a long pause due to Covid19 emergency restrictions our main warehouse restarted normal operations in the beginning of July 2020 and we are back in restoring. We are not making exhibitions yet as main Museums, Festivals and meetings are still paused. We will inform you as soon as the exhibitions will restart.

The weekend of Sturday 8th and Sunday 9th February 2020, Esocop has been invited to the Nerd Show 2020 in Bologna, Italy, where we showed the history of the Demoscene and real time demo coding in assembly on Amiga hardware. A lot of people came and visited us. We will plan a bigger exhibition for next year's Nerd Show.

Sturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December 2019 Esocop will be present at the Vintage Computer Festival Europe in Zurich (Switzerland). We will exhibit weird Commodore 64 models such as the PET 4064 (father of the PET Educator), the Max Machine (Japanese father of the C64 itself), a "touch" C64 and naturally the never born successor, the Commodore 65, real holy grail for Commodore collectors.

Sunday 6th of October 2019 Esocop attended the Brusaretro vintage computer fair in Bergamo (Italy). We made three exhibitions. The first one was about HP and it's marvellous HP150, first touchscreen in history, and the incredible HP86b. The second was about the first desktops in history. The Olivetti Programma 101 from 1964 with it's discrete components was the first programmable desktop computer ever sold. The Altair 8800 was the first desktop computer with a CPU available to the home market in 1975. We connected it to a DEC Digital VT100 terminal to let visitors play with it's CP/M. Finally an Atari Mega ST2 was connected to a bunch of keyboards and electronics drums via midi showing the power of that machine in the music environment during late 80's and early 90's.

Saturday and Sunday, 1st and 2nd June 2019, Esocop will be in Martigny (Switzerland) at the Ouf Party, a retro fair of passionates retro computer lovers, to exhibit the unique prototype of the Amiga Walker, the last Amiga ever built before the bankruptcy.

Sunday, 19th May 2019, Esocop will be in Vicopisano (Italy) at the Vicoretro computer show. We will exhibit a rare MOS KIM1 (the first board with a 6502 cpu, father of Apple, Commodore and many others), a rare Goldene version of the Commodore 64 and an Altair 8800: the first desktop computer with a modern CPU.

Saturday and Sunday, 27th and 28th April 2019, Esocop will be in Rome (Italy) at the Vintage Computer Festival. This is the most important vintage computer event in south Europe and it is intended as a fair, workshops and events for anybody. The European Society for Computer Preservation will exhibit the first Macintosh, a SE 30 Macintosh and a CBM 8296, with a fil rouge about the design which changed the rules in early 80's.

Sunday, 7th October 2018, Esocop will be in Brusaporto (Bergamo, Italy) at the 12th year Brusaretro retrofairshow event. The European Society will make in cooperation with The Retrocampus Italian association an exhiibition about the history of the Commodore 64. There will be any Commodore 64 model ever built, by Commodore and not, official and unofficial, related or compatible, from the Max Machine to the Commodore 65. Esocop will exhibit an early US Silver label C64, a Goldene C64, a weird green phosphores b/w PET 4064, a Commodore 128Dcr and the Commodore 65.

The weekend of June, 2nd and 3rd 2018 Esocop will be in Martigny, Switzerland at the "Ouf Party 5" event, hosted by the Old Computer and Console Club. We will partecipate in the Atari exhibitions with models like Atari 800, Atari 130XE, Atari 600XL, Atari 7800, and a rare Swiss clone of the Atari TT 030 called MEDUSA T40.

The weekend of May, 12th and 13th 2018 Esocop will be in Turin, Italy, at the "A Bit of History" event hosted by MuPin Museo Piemontese dell'informatica. We will make an exhibition of old CP/M machines in cooperation with Retroacademy. We will show a Xerox 820, Digital Rainbow 100, General Processor model T, IMSAI 8080, Amstrad 6128, Commodore 128, Commodore 64 running CP/M. We will also make some stunning effects with old printers live. Come and meet us in Turin.

The weekend of 17th and 18th March, 2018 Esocop will be in Thun, Switzerland, at the Vintage Computer Festival 2018 hosted at the KonzetpHalle6. Esocop will make an exhibition called "The Pet Revolution. The Commodore all-in-one 1977-1984". There will be the first Pet ever, PET 2001 blue monitor with white phosphors chicklet keyboard and black tape recorder - the real first all in one desktop computer; the unique PET CBM II P500 the only pet with colours - never sold to the public; the rare PET CBM II B500; the very rare PET 4064 the predecessor of the Pet Educator 64; the PET CBM II 8296D the last Pet and the only one with embedded floppy disks, and other Pet milestones.

December 2017. Esocop did save a General Electric GE120 from 1969. Together with the Italian no profit associations Miai and MusIf we did a crowdfunding and succeded in recovering the big old computer from destruction. Our people gone nearby Sankt Gallen in Switzerland several times to organize the recovery. Then, after the successfull crowdfunding a couple of big trucks with 8 persons from ESoCoP, Miai and MusIf took the 3 tons old baby towards its new house, in Cosenza (Italy). 2000 km far away. A team of several experts has already started in restoring it, the goal is to let the GE120 work again within a year.

Sunday, 26th November, 2017 Esocop will be in Florence, Italy, at the Firenze Vintage Bit. Esocop will introduce the event, dedicated to the 30th birthday of the Amiga 500. We will exhibit some Amiga 500 and rare perypherals. We will also show the only existing prototype of the Amiga Walker, created in 1996, the last Amiga.

The weekend of 18th and 19th November, 2017 Esocop will be in Zurich, Switzerland, at the Vintage Computer Festival. Esocop will make an exhibition called "Olivetti: The desktop revolution". There will be a Programma 101 from 1965 (The first desktop computer in history), a P6060 with basic and integrated twin 8" floppy disks from 1975 , the first Olivetti modern desktop (M20 with PcOS from 1982), one of the 5 existing prototypes of M22 portable from 1986, and the first portable and iperportable Olivetti (M15 from 1987 and M10 in 1983) to the world known M24 (first DOS desktop by Olivetti in 1983).

The 7th of November, 2017 the new Esocop website is live!

The 8th of October, 2017 Esocop will be in Brusaporto (Milan, Italy) at the "Brusaretro 2017" 11th edition. Esocop will make an exhibition called "Weird CP/M". There will be a Commodore 64, a Commodore 128D, an Amstrad CPC6128, An Epson PX-8 a Xerox 820 and maybe others, all running CP/M Os.

The 11th of June, 2017 Esocop will be in Vicopisano (Pisa, Tuscany, Italy) at the "Vicoretro 2017" hosted by the Vicoretro' Cultural Association. Esocop will exhibit the history of Atari from 8 to 32 bits. Starting from KIM-1 and VCS to Falcon 32 through the 400, 800, xl, xe and ST series. Moreover a monographic about Jay Miner's machines, together with an Amiga 1000. We will also have a stand for the Vampire 68080 Amiga project

The 4th of June, 2017 Esocop will be in Martigny (Valais, Switzerland) at the "OufParty 4" hosted by the Old Computers and Consoles Club (OCCC). This event is about the history of Commodore, and The European SOciety for COmputer Preservation will exhibit the following Commodore rarities: Commodore 65, Commodore VIC 1001, Commodore Max Machine and the Commodore 64 Goldene Edition. The event will last Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th but Esocop's stand will be open only on Sunday the 4th.

13th and 14th May, 2017 Esocop will be present in Turin at "A Bit of History" event hosted by MuPin (Museo Piemontese dell'informatica). We will make an exhibition called "From Altair to the Triad, the desktop revolution". There will be the Altair 8800, the IMSAI 8080, the MOS KIM-1 and the triad computers: Apple II, Commodore PET 2001 and Tandy Radioshack TRS80 Model I. We'll tell some stories about the 1975-1977 era, the beginning of the desktop revolution.

29th October, 2016. Esocop will be present in Zurich @ Vintage Computer Festival making an exhibition called "History of Amiga". There will be the Hitoro Joyboard, the first Amiga product and the Amiga Walker, the last Amiga Technology prototype. In between Amiga 3000 Unix (Amix - Amiga Unix System V), Amiga 2500/30, Amiga 1000 with the A1060 sidecar and A1020 FloppyDisk, and realtime demo coding and live assembling on Amiga 1200 by our friends RamJam.

2nd October, 2016. Esocop will exhibit in Brusaporto (Bergamo, Italy) a lot of Very rare Commodore 8 bits in the Brusaretro (http://www.brusaretro.it) retrocomputer fair. There will be a Commodore 65, one Commodore 64 Gold, a VIC 1001, The Ultimax Max Machine with the full original software collection and a Commodore PET CBM II P500! Come and see!

5th June, 2016. Esocop has been present at Vicoretro' in Pisa - Italy , sunday 5th. Esocop was present showing an Amiga 3000 Unix, with the original Amix package from Commodore, the HiToro Joyboard with the first Amiga logo ever and the only existing working prototype of the Amiga Walker, turning it on while preseting the Walker to people. Photo of the event on the right side, or scroll down on smartphones.

27th May 2016. Esocop will be present at Retroacademy in Rovigo, sunday 29th. In this happening it will be presented officially the new book sponsered by Esocop: Corso completo di programmazione assembler in due dischi. Download Freely from the Book site.

7 April, 2016. RETROQUOTE.ORG public live. The site hosted and realised by ESoCoP as a free service for the Community: The Database of retrocomputers sold with prices and conditions. Every retro item has a quote now.

2/3 April, 2016. ESoCoP was present in Rome at Retrocomputer Club Italia meeting in Rome with: Apple III, Apple IIe, Apple IIgs and Apple IIc.

18 March, 2016. The first pre-release of the ESoCoP website is live!!!

5 March, 2016. ESoCoP made the first event in Milan, Italy. We were present at the BITStory. ESoCoP did two speeches (about linking altair to C65, and about Phreaking and Hacking in the '80), and exhibited the Altair 8800 and the Commodore 65. Both computers has been powered on and demonstrated to the public. It has been a great success!!     

December 2015. ESoCoP is born! In a long meeting nearby the wonderful Lugano Lake, Six retrocomputer passionates, coming from Switzerland, Deutschland and Italy decided to create the European SOciety for COmputer Preservation!