What is it about retrocomputing? For some people, it’s nostalgia. For others, it’s the appeal of simplicity. For still others, it’s the chance to save old machines from the graveyard.  Whatever your motivation, there’s no denying that we’ve seen a metric ton of retrocomputer projects here at Hackaday. And we’d like to see more!

Now’s the chance to put your retrocomputer project up for all to see. Open up a hackaday.io project that features your retrocomputer project, and we’ll pick our three favorites for a $150 gift certificate courtesy of this contest’s sponsor, Digikey.

Honorable Mention Categories:

  • Old Iron: Are you saving an old C64 from the scrapyard? Restringing the core memory of a PDP-8? Or working on even more esoteric ancient devices?  If you’re restoring or running the old hardware itself, it’s an “Old Iron” project.
  • Modern Retro: Computing power is plentiful, but the nice interfaces of computers past still make them a joy to use.  This honorable mention category is for emulations, work-alikes, and all the other retrocomputers that are TRS-80 on the outside, but modern electronics on the inside.  
  • Retro-Modern: You love your C64, but you also love reading Hackaday on the Internet Of The Future™, so you built a web-modem to bring the old beast into the modern era. This category is for keeping the old machines relevant.
  • Coding Like It’s 1999: Retrocomputers don’t run without software, and it’s a continual source of amazement to us how programmers today can get more out of old machines than we could back in the day. Think of the demoscene, for instance. But it doesn’t have to be showy either. If you’re writing new code for old boxes, it fits in here. 

Rules:

  • All entries must be about retrocomputing. We know that’s a nebulous definition, but we also know it when we see it. 
  • We want to learn from you. Document your project as well as you can so that we can follow along. 
  • All entrants must agree to have the design published on Hackaday.
  • Employees and contractors of DigiKey, Supply Frame, Siemens, Arduino, and their immediate family members are ineligible to win, but are still encouraged to enter.
  • Rules and categories are subject to change and judges' decisions are final.

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