Legacy Labs Summer Camp 2026

"What's still alive in there?"

This summer, we're asking a simple question: What's still alive in there?

Pick something overlooked; a device in your closet, a platform everyone abandoned, a protocol nobody uses, a piece of software that solved a problem we've forgotten. Then dig in. Find out what still works, what's broken, and what you can do with it.

The Challenge

Spend at least one week investigating something.

That's it. No specific hardware constraints, no arbitrary limitations. Just curiosity applied to something the rest of the world has moved on from.

Your investigation might look like:

• Reviving old hardware and documenting what it took
• Porting modern tools to abandoned platforms
• Turning e-waste into something useful
• Exploring forgotten software and explaining why it existed
• Building something new with old tools
• Teaching someone else through the process

The question isn't "can you survive on this?"; it's "what's actually in here, and what can you do with it?"

Dates

July 12-19, 2026

You're welcome to start earlier or continue longer. The week is a focusing point, not a hard boundary.

Participating is easy!

Just pick something and dig in. That's the whole requirement.

If you want to write about what you find, blog posts, gemlog entries, gopher phlog, whatever works for you, we'd love to read it! We'll collect writeups into a community zine at the end. But writing is entirely optional. Hanging out in IRC and sharing what you're poking at is just as valid.

Whether you produced a professional post mortem or project log, or simply took a detour and grabbed a couple of screenshots along the way, both are totally valid and we'd love to share the experience with you!