The Computer Chronicles - Home PCs (1990)

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[@lenovovo]

Man, I just love this show ... The Computer Chronicles Rock!

[@rooneye]

"Is there a home computer market" Seems odd to think that question could even be asked lol

[@tyronedrane8394]

Ground breaking and educational series that offered tech knowledge and awareness before the internet.

[@Nunavuter1]

I watched. The show didn't always predict the bigger trends (who could?), but CC was always informative.

[@compaqdeskpro5770]

"At $999 its Apple's most affordable model ever!" I've heard that many times over the years.

[@DeenaMilkers]

thanks to inflation, it might be true each time

[@HardCase1911]

God I remember DeskMate. Junk. Tandy trash. Ripped me off with a EGA monitor telling me it was VGA. Got home and couldn't run god damned Tank Wars which required VGA. I cried.

[@jessihawkins9116]

tank wars 😆 who was your favorite opponent? Lob & Shoot, Lobber, Rifleman, Windless Wit, Windmaster, Twanger or Mr. Stupid? 😂

[@McVaio]

​@@jessihawkins9116 He couldn't play it

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@McVaio I’m sure he played it eventually 😠

[@evanbarnes9984]

God i was 6 months old when this aired. I've been fascinated by old computers for years now, and I don't own any yet, but I'm really hoping to find one from 1990. Some good options here! I like the idea of owning a computer that is from the year I was born. It feels like an anchor in history, if that makes sense.

[@user-tx4kd3bj6x]

Did she just say that apple computer was $3,769.00, no wonder we couldn’t afford a computer in the 90s. Me and my brother stuck with the Commodore 64 until the late 90s.

[@MattExzy]

We had an LC II in '94 as a kid. First ever home computer. It was relatively 'cheap', but somewhat useless as the internet appeared - a 16MHz '030, a chip launched seven years prior. Although it was a 'low cost' machine it's amazing to think it was sold as something new. But the 90s generally sucked in general as a time for buying a computer, anything one or two years old was already hideously outdated despite high cost.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

@@MattExzy Did you guys manage to connect the LC II to the internet? Was it through dial up or Ethernet? What browser were you using?

[@Daehawk]

No matter how much people wanted to ignore it or considered it a stigma....PC gaming is what caused the home computer market to explode. We carried it into the 21st century.

[@Phenom98]

And if you think about it, your fancy new iPhone wouldn't exist without gamers! We fueled the computer industry almost as much as businesses

[@BlownMacTruck]

Oh please. Get off your cross.

[@chubbycatfish4573]

The Internet, too.

[@iAmCodeMonkey]

Video games and porn did it.

[@stolte95]

VGA was a much improved graphics card. EGA video, as I see it, was an under powered and overpriced card. For example, it included a 64 color palette, but the medium resolution (160x200 and 320x200), could only produce the CGA 16 color palette. You had to use high resolution (640x200 and 640x350) for any of the 64 colors.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

"Is there really a home computer market?" :)

[@anonUK]

We estimate a world market for about 5- and 640K ought to be enough for anybody.

[@captainkeyboard1007]

As a technology fan and end user, this story fits right up my niche. I hope that The Computer Chronicles is alive and working.

[@Thaleios]

The toys r us computer spot brings back a lot of memories. As a kid in the mid 80s, I remember going into that store and just being amazed at the commodore 64 and amiga computers. We had an 8088 pc at home but it was cga and just felt old compared to the commodore and amigas. It's like I can almost smell the buttered popcorn that they had at our local toys r us. It was so magical to a 10 year old kid in 1985. I would stand in front of the action figure aisle and just dream of taking home He-Man and Battle-Cat. Takes me back.

[@thadoggma]

The Magnavox Headstart 500CD was the first new computer I bought. Wooff it was about 3000 bucks with the monitor and speakers and math Co pro and memory upgrade. I had to mow so many lawns and fix a lot of computers to afford it. It had so many cool games that came with it, Lotta good memories!

[@Mnaughten601]

Prodigy, that was my first internet access.

[@AcornElectron]

Aw, just been googling Seymour, turns out he died in 2010. The CC curse? Great series. Wish we'd had something like this in the UK during the 80s/90s.

[@Minalkra]

Ya guys had Tomorrow's World, which had a broader scope - to it's credit, IMO.

[@user-tx4kd3bj6x]

I still have a working Commodore *64 😊

[@stolte95]

Another thing is America was hit with a recession in 1990-1992. People were laid off and we just didn't go out and buy a Windows (and definitely a Macintosh) computer. 1993 was the year when home PC purchases took off.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

To me it wasn't until the 486DX2-66 had not just rolled out but was in the prime market spot, that was 1993. The dx2-66 had a lot of power and could do amazing things in windowed type environments, plus was a requirement for Doom in its full glory.

[@ShishakliAus]

The rest of the western world were home PC crazy during that time. We never suffered the video game crash that the US did

[@mariomullins1602]

That store only sold 5 Commodores a month 😂

[@DavePoo2]

Still pretty amazing considering it's 8 years old at that point. If 2000 outlets were doing that then it was still selling 10,000 per month just in the US

[@PoyanPanah]

The Macs are killing it as usual :)

[@derekkeeping9761]

"LOW COST Home Computers from APPLE" LOL

[@jesuszamora6949]

Apple doesn't know how not to rip off consumers. Their computers have always been ludicrously priced for what you get.

[@s.t.phoenix]

In comparison to some of the others, those were low cost. The IIfx from the previous year was almost $10,000...

[@BlownMacTruck]

Jesus Zamora If you can point out where else you can get a supported copy of MacOS I’m listening.

[@rooneye]

@@BlownMacTruck MacOS is awesome. I hate that I have to use Windows 10 on my gaming machine. I much prefer MacOS it's just so much nicer and sleeker and designed better aesthetically. Started out on PC's in 1999 with Windows 98 and have used all Windows since, but I got a Mac in 2008 and fell in love with the OS. Specially back then in 2008 with Snow Leopard is was just sexy af compared to windows at the time. Based on Unix too ofc. so you get a really nice terminal

[@lucius1976]

@@rooneye I switched from MacOS to Linux Mint because i found the interface not very intuitive. I guess i am somewhat too attached to the old Windows XP interface

[@sandrinowitschM]

I got a PS/1 in 1996 I think. That thing somehow could barely run any games. Even the ones that had an AT as their minimum requirement mostly failed to run. I'm pretty sure it was something that we missed as we had virtually no computer knowledge back then. Bought a RAM extension on a flea market but that didn't change anything unfortunately. But it was my introduction to Windows (3.11 I believe) and various office software. I remember writing a short story... in Paintbrush 😅🤦‍♂️ Then one day while playing Solitaire it spontaneously switched off and never turned back on again. Brought it into two repair shops but none if them could help. I still miss the built in ROM.

[@MrVIB113]

That feeling when you hear PS1 and immediately think they are talking about the PS1 in 1990. Oof.

[@NavodWickra]

Nowadays office computers are slower than your home pcs

[@stolte95]

DRAM was very expensive in those days. And the reason why is that the Japanese had control of the DRAM chip market and was flooding them for peanuts. So in order for American chip companies to take back the market, which was impossible, the Reagan Administration put out a No Dumping Policy. This made DRAM chip prices to rise quickly, and none of the American chip companies had plans on producing them due to the expense on production and planning. A 386 machine with 2 MB of ram and VGA graphics with Windows 3.0 would cost $2,000+. Way too much for the average home user to afford.

[@MarkMphonoman]

Back in the early 80’s i bought myvfirst computer to write magazine articles. Used WordStar on a CP/M machine. Still write articles today with my PC. Only difference is that I now use Microsoft Word or Apple Pages.

[@nyccollin]

Imagine, if you will, a guest on the show that Stewart doesn’t feel the overwhelming urge to cut short, and talk over, time and time again. That guest, simply does not exist.

[@jefferee2002]

Wow...look at all the home computer computations!

[@robwebnoid5763]

The thumbnail of this shows the photo & his name at the bottom of "TIM WHITE". For a split second, I thought it said "I'M WHITE". Which makes sense lmao. Chronicles was a show I regularly watched back in the day & I remember this episode on TV.

[@JohnAranita]

In the '90s I would go to a Goodwill Surplus Store and find Macs and PCs for $5.

[@wallacelang1374]

I bought an Atari 800XL back in the early 1980s which was the chief rival of the Commodore 64 back at the time. Later on during the mid 1990s I bought a Pentium MMX Windows 95 PC for greater graphics and sounds as well as a lot more capabilities.

[@shankao]

Apple saying "we don't think that one size fits all"

[@mintsauce82]

LOL Frankie Muniz

[@robertfoster6070]

Does anybody remember when programs on magazines were written out on the page so that readers could type them into their own PC?

[@jessihawkins9116]

The Macintosh II came out in 1987 and makes that IBM PS/1 that came out 3 years later look like a dinosaur.

[@jordanroherty4483]

Did.... Did he pronounce debacle as "debbickle"?

[@oo0Spyder0oo]

The software program to show you how to use a keyboard and mouse, that requires you already know to do so to use it in the first place!

[@sandrinowitschM]

It taught 12 yo me with no prior computer knowledge how to use that very PC so I think they did a pretty good job.

[@captainkeyboard1007]

Today, Apple computers are dedicated to design and creative art; while the Windows computers are dedicated to business productivity applications that are all left out of the digital software market.

[@user-tx4kd3bj6x]

Dam, look at the size of those CRTs. 🤪😄

[@jessihawkins9116]

yeah people were stupid back then 😂

[@neoasura]

I love this show, but it always seems like Stewart is rushing the guests...I know they are on a time constraint..but still.

[@Daniel-ok1ul]

Commodore Amiga!!!

[@ShishakliAus]

Amiga was still King in 1990. I'll never forgive American consumers for sleeping on the Amiga

[@oldtwins]

Totally ridiculous how the Amiga was never even mentioned! 1990 was a rocking period for the A500/2000. Made the PC and Mac graphics look as primitive as did the C64 they quote in this segment.

[@metafis2490]

Yes...its only in retrospect that The Amiga is seen to be the great system it was. Back then it was regarded as a toy by 'serious users". However, the Amiga 3000 was the subject of another episode that year(1990)

[@feamatar]

are you from the US or UK? Amiga is not mentioned because the A500 was never as popular as in the UK, and PAL games had issues on NTSC machines, so in US home computing meant the tandy 1000 instead of the amiga in the late 80s...

[@Phenom98]

Yep. But the progress of the 1990s never ceases to amaze me even though I was born in 98. Just 3 or 4 years later, Pentium-based PCs with Windows and later 3DFX cards blew all competition away and Amiga took a nosedive faster than a meteorite.

[@ArumesYT]

There were Macs with 24-bit color already. And the PC had VGA. Not exactly the primitive graphics you seem to remember...

[@jetfrog4574]

Amiga graphics were actually pretty underwhelming in 1990. The Mac had 24 bit true color and flicker free higher resolutions than it for years at that point. VGA offered greater color depth on the PC side as well. Though it really depended on what you might want do the Amiga was arguably still a better choice for animation work compared to Mac or PC but that's about it.

[@LoneTaurus82]

18:13 Did he say 20MB hard drive?? System $1698 yikes!! Programs and files must not have taken up a lot of space then. I wasn't as into computers back then but looking at where they are now it's hard to believe those specs were optimal.

[@danielOconahap]

+Ken Gevon imagine 20 years from now.. we'll probably say "2tb drives? that would barely fit any of my games!"

[@LoneTaurus82]

+Light 1988 irk haha..at the rate technology is progressing now I wouldn't doubt it. SSDs are quickly becoming the new wave now though and blow HDDs away as far as speed although you pay a lot more for the storage but they are quickly starting to come down in price now.

[@danielOconahap]

Ken Gevon and looking at these vids, lowering of prices makes them available to the wider market, and consumers is what pushes the market. so, a few years from now we'll have 500gb SSDS for $bucks as standard :D

[@0525ohhwell]

In 1990 we got a brand new 386sx 33 and it had a massive 120 MB HDD which we partitioned into 3 40 MB sections cause ... No one would ever need more than 40 MB.

[@stolte95]

DRAM was very expensive in those days. And the reason why is that the Japanese had control of the market and was flooding DRAM chips for peanuts. So in order for American chip companies to take back the market, which was impossible, the Reagan Administration put out a No Dumping Policy. This made DRAM chip prices to rise quickly, and none of the American chip companies had plans on producing them due to the expense on production and planning. A 386 machine with 2 MB of ram and VGA graphics with Windows 3.0 would cost $2,000+.

[@TheCRTProductions]

You can send it to a tape!

[@infinitecanadian]

_Magnavox?_ I didn't know they made a PC in 1990.

[@jessihawkins9116]

you never heard of headstart or magnavox professional monitors?

[@infinitecanadian]

@@jessihawkins9116 No, I haven't.

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@infinitecanadian millennial 😒

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

Radio Shack Eastfield Mall(former), Springfield, MA

[@cherkas009]

Wow in 2033 we will receive faxes that is surprising

[@layzer80]

apple continues to produce value packed low cost consumer iphones

[@hobolooter]

The same curse we're all afflicted with unfortunately.

[@carfo]

TV was worth watching at some point. it's so garbage now

[@matta4756]

His eyebrow is epic

[@jeffyp2483]

she said elsie. wonder if she was a mac user then?

[@Daehawk]

If anyone paid money for a C64 in 1990 contact me..I have some swamp land wit ha bridge to sell you.

[@Phenom98]

Lmao. Well, they stopped selling C64s in '88 so it wasn't that old. Plus, the games were still decent, abundant and cheap. You gotta remember that not even the SNES was out yet in 1990

[@LionheartNh]

No no no.....they wanted computers for gaming....not fiddling about with data bases.

[@larryk731]

Sears, Toys r us - I guess they will always be around? (sarcasm)

[@channelkerr]

Besides Apple, all these "GUIs" sucked. Even IBM's was terrible. Maybe this was filmed before Windows 3.0 came out? Or was Win3.0 too pricey for home users?

[@bojankotur4613]

Yeah C64 is sooooo user friendly omg it's friendly!

[@Phenom98]

That's why the Macintosh revolutionized the PC market. It wasn't priced cheaply and it was still monochromatic, but that Graphic OS and the mouse made it easy for the normies lol

[@Vaso-p1f]

I love USA 🇺🇸

[@yogibear2k220]

Man, selling a massive 5 a month, no wonder Commodore is where it is today!

[@jasonking1284]

12:50 Once the dark shades and hat are on... this guy becomes Andrew Eldritch, Sisters Of Mercy

[@edoardodalpra4742]

Apple was the greatest. Nowadays they're just a bunch of moneygrabbers imho.

[@jessihawkins9116]

i still use system 6 and 7 for some stuff today buy no modern mac stuff

[@aliren6118]

Apple has always price gouged. Some things never changed.

[@Tony_7791]

The Computer Cunticles