"Boxer_4" (Boxer_4)
03/25/2015 at 22:30 • Filed to: None
3
17|
"Boxer_4" (Boxer_4)
03/25/2015 at 22:30 • Filed to: None | 3
| 17 |
Twenty years; that's how old my Gateway 2000 is today, and it's making me nostalgic for '90s computing.
A fair amount of my early computing was done on various Gateway 2000 computers. This was mostly in early grade school, at a time when computer based learning was becoming popular. The first CNC I learned to use (which was somewhat recently) was a Gateway 2000 system. We even had an early 486 Gateway 2000 when I was really young (but I don't remember that one too much). As a result, I'm a big Gateway 2000 fan.
Roughly four years ago, I ended up with this P5-90 out of a group of many computers of various ages and in various states of disrepair. A lot of those computers were fixed up and found new homes, but I just couldn't part with the Gateway. It is a bit yellowed and needed some help, but with a bit of work I ended up with an awesome vintage system.
The specs are not impressive by today's standards: 90 Mhz Pentium processor, 96 MB RAM (originally 16 MB), 1.1 GB hard drive, and a 4 mb STB PowerGraph 64V graphics card. However, this was a fairly nice system for 1995, and retailed for ~$3,000. I added the 5.25" floppy drive and 100mb Zip Drive when I got it, and accumulated the other peripherals over the last few years.
It's currently running DOS 5.0 and Microsoft Windows 3.1, which are both extremely light on system resources. As a result, the P5-90 is very quick. I even had the original 5.25" install floppies for both from the old 486. It does have the Win32s 32-bit runtime environment installed, which means it also has FreeCell.
As you may imagine, it's not the most useful computer anymore. However, I still enjoy using it. I fired it up last weekend to play some SimTower and SimCity. It's also found use recovering files from long forgotten floppy disks and tape backups.
The full system in all of its yellow and beige glory.
Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
> Boxer_4
03/25/2015 at 22:39 |
|
Were computers of that age always so yellow?
Jcarr
> Boxer_4
03/25/2015 at 22:39 |
|
I love this. We had a Gateway 486 when I was in junior high. I spent countless hours on it playing Wolfenstien, Doom, Strike Commander, Jet Fighter, etc.
When we got a newer one with a 500mhz Pentium III a few years later I thought it was the fastest thing in the world.
Crazy how quickly things change.
carcrasher88
> Boxer_4
03/25/2015 at 22:41 |
|
Ah, Gateway. Our first desktop was a Gateway. I think ours was a '97 or '98.
It's good to see that unlike some other smaller computer brands, Gateway hasn't fallen by the wayside. In fact, Acer pretty much saved them, and the brand is still around today .
beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard
> Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
03/25/2015 at 22:57 |
|
nah, the bromine in the plastic oxidizes over time. (not caused by UV, because they'll still yellow hidden away in a cupboard.. though UV exposure hastens the reaction)
Textured Soy Protein
> Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
03/25/2015 at 22:59 |
|
The plastic turns yellow over time.
|
Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
> beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard
03/25/2015 at 23:00 |
|
I've read on that before, so I assume so, I used a computer in the mid-90s-early 00's that was in that shade of yellow.
|
Textured Soy Protein
> Boxer_4
03/25/2015 at 23:01 |
|
I had a Packard Bell with a Pentium 90 that my parents bought for us brand new in like 1994. We had been rocking an old AST 286 even though a lot of my friends had 386s and 486s running Windows, and Macs. But I was one of the first kids at my middle school with a Pentium .
Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
03/25/2015 at 23:13 |
|
The cases yellowed more over time, but they were more yellowish in that era. I believe it was something about the plastic cladding they usually had. This was before "white boxes" became metal on the outside (no plastic cladding) and started getting painted cream or black like we have today.
Some of these computers yellowed more due to tar from nicotine smoke, too. You see this especially often in computers from the 70s-80s, since they were too expensive for average people to own and therefore suffered in office environments prior to the widespread implementation of indoor clean air acts.
|
Boxer_4
> carcrasher88
03/25/2015 at 23:32 |
|
Gateway is one of those companies that has surprised me with how they have managed to survive, even with all of the rocky times they have had. Acer has certainly been a big help for them. Much more so than Gateway's purchase of eMachines.
Actually, I have a newer Gateway from around 2007. It was a Best Buy special with Windows Vista that my grandparents originally bought. They didn't want it anymore, so I ended up getting it. With a RAM upgrade and a switch to Windows 7, it has been a pretty good computer for light-weight tasks.
|
Boxer_4
> Jcarr
03/25/2015 at 23:36 |
|
I remember my Aunt getting a 500 mhz Pentium III PC and broadband internet back in 1999 or 2000, while we still had our 450 mhz Pentium II PC and dial-up internet. I'll never forget that first feeling of being able to download things in minutes instead of hours, and how fast her computer was.
|
Jcarr
> Boxer_4
03/25/2015 at 23:41 |
|
I've been spoiled with connection speed. Our local utility installed a fiber infrastructure in the mid 90s so we've always been a bit ahead of the curve. They've been offering gigabit service for about year now and prices are starting to creep down to an affordable level for residential users.
|
Boxer_4
> Textured Soy Protein
03/25/2015 at 23:56 |
|
The Pentium was a big leap over the 486. I can only imagine how much of a leap the Pentium was over a 286.
|
Boxer_4
> Jcarr
03/26/2015 at 00:05 |
|
We didn't get broadband until ~2006. Even then, it was only 10 Mbps. The prices for higher speeds are getting cheaper here, too, but we still don't have anything near gigabit service for residential areas.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> Boxer_4
03/26/2015 at 02:47 |
|
time to update , buy an iMac.
8)
|
Textured Soy Protein
> Boxer_4
03/26/2015 at 10:10 |
|
The 286 was all DOS command prompt. I used the original old school non-GUI WordPerfect for typing up homework. You had to make things bold or italic or whatever by opening up a markup pane in the bottom half of the screen and putting tags around the text you wanted to be formatted, kinda like HTML or posting on a forum. I played a bunch of games on it, like Reader Rabbit, the OG Carmen San Diego, and the classic DOS golf game, Mini Putt.
Whereas the Pentium machine had Windows 3.1, a CD-ROM, MS Office, halfway decent ability to mess with audio and video, and I'd go back out to DOS to play games like Space Quest, and Wolfenstein 3D that a kid at school had copied on to a 3.5" floppy for me. I'd sign up for AOL free trials with my parents' credit cards then cancel them before the 30 days was up so they wouldn't get billed. When my mom walked in on me typing away in an MTV chat room where hopefully your chat would get shown live on tv, I then convinced my folks to sign us up for real dial-up internet instead of crappy AOL. But I used the shit out of AOL instant messenger with my friends.
TheHondaBro
> Boxer_4
03/27/2015 at 15:22 |
|
It's the cow boxes.
|
TheHondaBro
> Boxer_4
03/27/2015 at 15:23 |
|
The computer nerd inside me has a soft spot for old beige towers.