Silicium is a whimsical French society with a serious goal: collecting ancient computers.

Comprising a dozen active members, along with “hundreds of sympathizers”, they organize meetings where thousands come to commune with beautiful (and hideous) old machines.

Silicium’s tenth annual exposition, Vieumikro, will be held this December 2 and 3 at the convention center in Labège near Toulouse.

They don’t take themselves too seriously. As they say of their top picks: “There are only French machines here. It’s not our fault if our national computing system is a museum.”

Vieumikro is (roughly translated) “the event to relive and rekindle old computers and monitors”. And it’s no ordinary expo:

The beauty contest will as always be the event of the evening. Pick the machine you’re going to bring, then show it at the beauty content. The public vote for the most beautiful machine will follow the criteria of rarity, condition, and the quality of your demonstration. A superb prize awaits the winner.

There will also be a multi-player game tournament on old machines, with different sections on different machines: Atari 2600, Videopac, PC Engine, Saturn…

Of course, you can bring as much stuff as you want. You’ll be able to swap them with others on Sunday morning.

Silicium has a tremendous collection with photos, including their first acquisition: the Hewlett Packard HP85, with integrated printer and tiny screen.

Update: very good article about this event (in French)

Tags: Silicium, Vieumikro, HP85, Hewlett Packard, delightful

Posted by Antony in: General