VCF SoCal 2026

(Click the picture to go to the full photo album.)

On this Valentine's Day weekend, I was actually able to exhibit at VCF SoCal 2026 with the help of a few good friends. Normally, I can't do events like these outside of my home turf because hotel and travel costs quickly add up and make it untenable. Even cheap hotel options have gotten expensive, and fuel costs are also plenty expensive.

This year, though, two things lined up and the rest kinda fell into place. The first was an awesome person, RevisionY2K, stepping in to offer to cover the table fees for SoCal. While these weren't expensive and plenty reasonable, it was still money that couldn't be used for other costs.

The second was longtime friend AK having moved to SoCal and offering up his living room for me to crash at for the duration of the weekend. He usually stays at my house for West so this was a fun turning of the tables. His house was roughly 30mi away from Anaheim, which is certainly closer than my house is to the Computer History Museum for West (70mi, one way).

All I really needed to do was to make sure my car was ready to go and get everything packed. Given I was going to be traveling for this, I wanted to keep it light so I centered my table around small machines with a big punch, small vintage machines that punched above their weight class. I would bring the Windows 98-equipped Shuttle SB61G2 I had been working on, as well as calling the G4 Cube out of retirement.

Both those machines deserve articles of their own, and in the case of the SB61G2 I even did a YouTube video on it. The Cube will get its turn eventually but I ran out of time (and sadly due to flooding it's going to be even more time. Yay.)

RevY2K stepped in a second time further down the line by helping to buy a 0.2mm nozzle for my "new" printer (a decently used Bambu P1S) so I could make some swag for the show, as well as buying some Instax Mini film for slugging people. In this case slugging being taking Rootie the Sea Slug (a stuffed sea slug with a cowboy hat) to random tables and taking an Instax shot (and leaving the photo hidden somewhere on said table for the exhibitor to find later). It's a fun, wholesome little tradition I started at West 2025, and something I'll continue to do as I can.

I was able to score another bonus for this exhibit, as well: Another good friend (Onii, the guy who was running the luggables exhibit this year) found some USB Harman/Kardon soundsticks, the ones that specifically go with devices like the G4 Cube. He graciously offered to trade me as I had a set of Soundsticks incoming, but they were the universal, 3.5mm minijack variant.

Unfortunately, this was a point of sadness: While I had remembered to pack damn near everything else, I forgot to pack the Soundsticks, and realized halfway to SoCal that I had forgotten them. Really, really unfortunate.

Lastly, at the 11th hour, yet another awesome thing would happen: Richard, a person from the Bay Area Discord, had just bought an older Tesla Model S, one of the ones with grandfathered  supercharging tied to the car's VIN. He graciously offered to give me a ride to and from SoCal, and I am eternally in his debt for this freed up so much for me financially that it gave me significantly more wiggle room and it was one less thing to worry about.

With everything locked in and ready to go short of me forgetting the damn Soundsticks...let's get on to the actual show.

Day 0/Load-in

The journey there was mostly uneventful save this being the first time I've ever been in a Tesla, let alone a full-fledged EV. Also the first time I got to experience how doing a road trip with an EV worked, at least from Tesla's point of view.

 

First off, it was just weird how Tesla's systems space out charging: We arrived to each supercharger with about 10-15% battery remaining which from what I understand is intentional as it allows fast charging to actually function properly. Just an interesting note as coming from the batteries in most electronics draining it that low super often isn't really a desired outcome.

 

Then again, I know EVs use a different battery chemistry so they're better equipped to handle that kind of use.

 

All in all I would estimate the EV charging stops added about an hour to transit time, which is fine. When I was in my 20s I would usually cannonball run road trips but as I enter my mid-to-late 30s I realize I should probably pace myself more and having an EV that necessitates charging stops for 10-30 minutes at a time encourages you to get out and stretch a bit.

 

Before too long though, we get to LA proper, and right into good ol' LA traffic. Which makes what normally would be a 6 hour trip an 8 hour trip. Eventually, though, we get to Hotel Fera, where VCF SoCal is held.

 

Right off the bat, however...this was so much easier than West ever was. The exhibit hall for SoCal was on the ground floor, with a loading zone almost directly in front of the entrance. This meant loading stuff in was a snap. There were no inclines to climb, no stairs to climb, no elevators to use, and not a far distance to walk, either.

 

(Compare and contrast to West: To load in, you typically have to park a ways away from the loading dock, and to get up the loading dock is a somewhat steep incline. Sucks if you're pushing something weighty. Then you have to go up an elevator and depending on where your table is in the grand hall, a bit of a walk to get to your table. Hotel Fera was easily half the distance on flat terrain.

 

Load-in was supposed to start at 5pm but they were letting some people in to get their stuff set up earlier. Around 5pm was exhibitor check in (something West started doing last year, thank the gods. Having to check in on the first day when every exhibitor was rushing the front desk is annoying, letting exhibitors kinda drift over there throughout the day on load-in is so much better, I feel). It was smooth, painless, and even came with a fun bonus: Goodie bags! With snacks! Oh my T1 diabetes thanks you.

 

In those bags also came a nice little $10 discount off merch, which was much appreciated. I usually don't partake (because money is usually tight) but I was able to get some cheap merch with the help of that discount, so it was much appreciated.

 

Unfortunately as a part of my table was dependent on another table (as they were providing networking services), I didn't get absolutely everything done up, but I got the majority of it done.

 

Some of us gathered up and went to a nearby Del Taco (my first time!) for dinner, and then the long trek to AK's place began. While he lives only about 30 miles away from Anaheim, due to LA traffic the trip ended up being an hour long. Thankfully as it was now entering the weekend, this would be the last time we would have to deal with that level of traffic.

 

Day 1

As the day opened, I realized an unfortunate thing: The backup pair of Soundsticks that AK gave me were FUBAR. By that I mean that the iSub they were paired with had blown caps and the speakers themselves were in not-so-great condition. I had plans to restore these later, but, well, I had hoped they'd work for now, at least. Thankfully Revision had some USB speakers that worked with the Cube so it could get some form of audio output.

 

As the day began and people began filing in, it reminded me a lot of the first few years of West, for me. It did get decently busy here and there but it was manageable. Had quite a few awesome people come by and reception to the Satanicube was off the charts good. People loved it.

 

Midway though the day, we got the local AOL Instant Messenger instance up and running and of course, that was a blast (until it wasn't the next day). But the real highlight of the day? The Stop Bits were here. That meant Action Retro was here. A guy whom I knew to some extent, but still, the person who indirectly got you into Cubes, who kinda made the crown jewel of your table possible? Still just...a lot to take in. In a good way. 

 

 

 

Of course, he's an awesome guy in person and even let me take a picture of him with Rootie on his guitar. He even came to my table and took a look at the Cube (and liked it)! Definitely the highlight of the day for me, by far.

 

AK even brought his own Cube to my table once he was able to get over, a Cube he had acquired from Action Retro. He of course took it over to him and got some photos.

 

Another awesome thing was Steve (Vintnerd, which is one of the showrunners) actually remembered me and what I was doing with my table and saw someone drop a small cube-like PC case on the free pile, and proceeded to run it over to me because he thought I would be able to put it to good use. Which I would love to! But it was just a heartwarming thing that amidst all the hustle and bustle of helping throw this event that he thought of me when that case appeared on the free pile.

 

The day eventually came to a close, and thankfully we did have a small bit of time to tend to our exhibits if they needed it, but fortunately my exhibit was doing pretty fine. This was the first VCF at which the "new" Satanicube (with the 1.8GHz accelerator and ClearCube chassis) would be running for an extended period of time, so it was a relief that it didn't have any major issues running for multiple hours for the weekend. (It only ever crashed once, surprisingly!)

 

Another thing I noticed about this day in particular is that the exhibit hall was warm. It wasn't scorching hot like the grand hall of West 2024, but it was definitely a bit toasty. I mean, I'm sure having a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 blowing on you doesn't help, but...

 

Anyway. Post-day 1, as people were deciding what to do for dinner AK and I decided to just break off and go back to his house as he was definitely feeling the fatigue of the day. We got some pizza at an awesome local joint and spent the night (along with the other person staying there when he got home) screwing about with some Commodore stuff (and going over a fun Newton found at the free pile...)

 

Finally falling asleep around 1am...

 

Day 2/Load Out

Day 2 began with a trip to the local 7-Eleven and a couple cans of Monster because hoo boy I slept too good the night before.

 

This day once again reminded me of the earlier years of West, for me. A slow start, people trickling in during the morning, not much going on. I was able to just crack a Monster and sit at my 98 box, playing around in Bryce 4 and making stuff for a bit before heading back behind my table.

 

Day 2 would be a fun day and unfortunately not necessarily in the good sense. The first notable interaction I had was with someone who recognized the shirt I was wearing day one (it's Cathode Ray Dude's Amogus shirt, but done as a parody of the Amiga logo) and complimented me on it...before following it up with "I don't like it when he talks about politics."

Which...given Gravis and I probably have a lot in common when it comes to political beliefs...I'm going to be charitable here and hope that person just wants a break from political discourse. Which I can understand to some extent. I really hope that person wasn't saying it in a "I don't agree with their politics" way. or in a "they should stay in their lane" way.

 

There was also a person who hung around our general area who really enjoyed all of our exhibits and was very excitable, and hey, that's great! But it also got to a point where they were butting in and demanding my attention even when I was mid-conversation with another attendee. Which really, really threw me off as I was trying to stay focused.

 

At a point, I also put my 3DS on display as it had a cool Windows 98 theme installed. This...would prove to be a mistake, as a kid (and his sole parent) would come over to play with it. This is fine! I don't mind kids getting handsy with stuff on my table. What I did kinda mind is that when it looked like this kid was about to wipe my Animal Crossing New Leaf save, I kindly asked for my 3DS back. He refused.

 

I kept getting more and more stern. This kid had a death grip on my 3DS. And his parents were distracted. I did manage to get him off the "nuke everything" screen, thankfully, but it was just...yeah. I decided to keep my 3DS behind the table after that one. I don't mind people playing with it, but if I ask for it back, you need to give it back.

 

The coup de grace of the day would happen in our AIM group chat that we had set up between three of our tables for attendees to type into. I was sitting behind my table, on my portable XP box (2010 15" MacBook Pro) when I saw something very fun pop into the chat, and no, it wasn't censored:

"FUCK N****RS" 

 

Oh you have got to be kidding me. Really? We're dropping racial slurs in the chat now? This is why we can't have nice things.

 

I went to all of the machines, cleared and remade the group chat, and then not even ten minutes later...

"I HATE ALL YOU ASSHOLES! N****RS!"
 

Except this time I knew what machine sent it, and the dumbass kid didn't think to go try it from a different machine. I ran over there, phone drawn, ready to get a picture, and did. The kid saw me, tried to book it, and I stood in his path and told him to never, ever, EVER do that again as he dodged swiftly around me and ran.

 

Judging by the photos, the kid had to be in his preteens. As much as I enjoy kids going through VCF and enjoying it, this, THIS is why I seriously feel like there needs to be a rule where parents of kids under 13 or so need to keep their kids on a tight leash. This isn't the first time I've had issues with children at my VCF tables, and I'm sure it won't be the last (though admittedly previous times were mild compared to this).

 

I did report the kid to the showrunners but alas due to the nature of the situation all we could really do is keep a closer eye on our tables and kick the kid off if he bothered to turn up again. Thankfully he didn't though a fellow exhibitor from another table did mention he tried similar crap on his table.

 

Cool beans.

 

That said, the day did begin improving toward the end. I got to talk at length with Jeri Ellsworth (who is awesome and actually gave me a hug when I mentioned who I was on Bluesky) specifically with regards to her time at Newtek (as I have a Tricaster Pro 2 I need to do some digging on before West this year, and information is scarce). JRC was also there with her (sorry! I only know your Discord alias!) and provided a lot of good info as well, and was also awesome to talk with. 

 

Further, I got a good response to my tradition of "slugging" people (which is taking an Instax Mini and taking pictures of Rootie at people's tables...and leaving the photo tucked away somewhere for the exhibitor to find it), with someone even doing a slugging of their own with a full fledged Polaroid! People really loved Rootie, and that made me happy. 

 

There's also just posts like this... 

 

 

...that made me feel this was all so worth it, and seeing the Satanicube pop up in places (like some Facebook groups) to positive response just made me feel that much better (and that I did a good job with the Cube! I was seriously doubting myself for a bit but the positive response has been awesome for my self esteem!)

 

The end of SoCal was a blur, really. There wasn't a cheesy (saying this in a loving way, not a negative way) awards ceremony at the end, it was really just a "that's all, folks, you may now load out!" kind of announcement, and we were free to go.

 

Load out, as always, is chaotic. But thankfully due to the way things are people were able to get out pretty quick.

 

Unfortunately we hit a small snag: As we were headed out, the cart we were using hit the door sill and proceeded to spill the contents of the cart everywhere. It turned into a moment of awesome however as a bunch of people saw what happened and ran over to help grab everything and take it to the car. Nothing was damaged, far as I know (I haven't yet fully unpacked, you'll see why in a sec).

 

We went to AK's house for the final time, shot the shit for a bit, and finally went to bed. This was awesome, but boy it would be nice to sleep in my own bed.

 

Famous last words.

 

Day 3: Disaster

The morning was relatively uneventful. We packed our remaining bags, got in the car, and took the same route back home. Getting over The Grapevine was where the fun began, though, as a nasty rainstorm had begun to hit SoCal and we were going right through the middle of it.

 

It is a good thing I did not take my car, for I am confident it would not have made it. The Tesla handled it just fine, though!

 

We passed through several accidents, even heard of some people in the SoCal chat that were opting to stay behind to wait out the storm. Maybe we should have, too, But thankfully, we made it through okay.

 

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the fun. I got home, and was able to enjoy the comforts of my own bed for not even one night, as due to the torrential downpour, my room began to flood. Wonderful.

  

I had to get a dehumidifier set up while I was having one hell of a melatonin hangover + getting over some con crud, but alas, the rain continued to fall, and what was previously a very minor leak had gotten significantly worse and started to flood further into my room. It ended in us having to rush dismantle my desk/PC/audio gear and run it out of my room before the water could reach it.

 

Fortunately, nothing was damaged, and the flooding is contained to the left side of my room. Unfortunately, this pretty much means my room is uninhabitable until this is fixed, and worse yet due to how our neighborhood was constructed, the leak is coming from the concrete wall that makes up the back wall of my room. Which is shared with our neighbors' backyard. Whose property is owned by a different landlord. 

 

Thankfully after some difficulty we got in touch with the owner of the other house, they let the contractors go over and patch the wall, and at the moment now I'm just waiting in hopes that the fix worked and I don't have to do this again. Of course, the rain in the forecast never came, and everything is as sunny as could be for the foreseeable future. Sigh.

2027?

Would I come back? Absolutely. I loved my time at SoCal. There was lots to like and a good bit of it I enjoyed more than West, even. Steve and Micki are great showrunners and definitely know how to put on a good VCF.

 

But also...a lot really lined up to make this show happen for me. Having friends in the right places and financial help with some of the costs made this all possible where it wouldn't have been otherwise. If it all lines up again next year? Hell yeah, I'll be back. But there's a lot of moving parts to that equation, specifically:

Will I have enough to cover the table fees? (Dec/Jan are usually very rough months for me financially and Feb is when I start to recover from it all.)

Will I have a place to stay, again? (Plans change fast, and alas, hotels aren't cheap. Even cheaper options like Motel 6 aren't the cheap option they used to be.)

Will I have transit or will I have to take my own car? (If I could get another ride that would be great, though I'm not above driving. But I also have to consider my car is only getting older, and it's getting up there in age, too.)

 

Everything's got to line up and I do really hope it does next year. Not sure what I'll exhibit if so, but SoCal was great. I really want to come back. 

 

In the mean time though...time to start planning out VCF West in August!