Floppy Days 161 - Byte Shop Interviews

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Hello, and welcome to episode 161 of the Floppy Days Podcast for March, 2026. I am Randy Kindig, your host for this wild ride through vintage computing.

This month I have a special episode prepared. For the 50th Anniversary event of the opening of the Byte Shop that occurred in California in December, 2025, I interviewed 11 different people with some sort of ties to Paul Terrell and the Byte Shop. Prior to the event itself, I published an approximately 30-minute-long video with just sound bites from those interviews to help get the word out (https://youtu.be/ANR1fYicwxI). This month, I've taken the complete interviews (except for one) and created a longer episode out of it so you can hear the entirety of the interviews.

To be clear, each of the interviews has as its main topic the Byte Shop and Paul Terrell. However, at the same time, we're able to learn a bit about each of the people who have ties to the Byte Shop and Paul.

For this month's show, the 9 total interviews include the following people:

Rick Kahn, who worked at the Byte Shop of Placentia
Michael Tomczyk, Vic-20 Czar at Commodore
Rob Terrell, Paul's nephew and frequent visitor to the Byte Shop
Chuck Mauro, worked at Apple and Byte Shop #2
Lee Felsenstein, developer of the SOL and Osborne computers
Scott Shekels, frequent visitor to the Byte Shop
Teryl & Gloria Burt, Northstar distributor to the Byte Shop
Howell Ivy, developer of the Exidy Sorcerer and worked with Paul Terrell at Exidy
Paul Freiberger, computer historian

Intro

30-minute video of sound bites for Byte Shop 50th Anniversary Event - https://youtu.be/ANR1fYicwxI

New Acquisitions and What I've Been Up To

Indy Vintage Computer Club - https://www.indyvcc.org
Midwest Computer Museum - https://www.midwestcomputermuseum.com
Power of Vintage - https://www.youtube.com/@powerofvintage9442
Tech Dungeon - https://www.techdungeon.xyz
8bitdevices - https://www.8bitdevices.com/
lightboxes:

Upcoming Shows (thru June, 2026)

VCF East - April 17-19 2026 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/
Midwest Gaming Classic - April 24-26 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/
The Annual "Last" Chicago CoCoFEST! - April 24-25, 2026 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Commodore Los Angeles Super Show 2026 - April 25-26 - Burbank, CA - http://www.portcommodore.com/class
VCF Europe - May 1-3 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/
Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest 2026 - May 2-3 - Tukwila Community Center, South Tukwila, WA - https://vcfpnw.org
VCF Southwest - May 29-31, 2026 - Westin Dallas Ft. Worth Airport - https://www.vcfsw.org/
Retrofest 2026 - May 30-31 - Steam Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon, UK - https://retrofest.uk/
INIT HELLO (Apple II) - June 19-21 - System Source Computer Museum, Hunt Valley, MD - https://init-hello.org/
Vintage Computer Festival GB 2026 - June 19-21 - Leigh, Wigan, United Kingdom - https://www.facebook.com/events/25457837877216829/
Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 20 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/index.html
Pacific Commodore Expo NW 2026 - June 20-21 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex
Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub

Feedback

Stewart Cheifet tribute from S.M. Oliva - https://www.computerchronicles.blog/podcast/chronicles-revisited-podcast-018-the-publics-broadcaster/