The Computer Chronicles - Consumer Electronics Show (1997)

[@soupy-san]

I want the lost future where the concept of "Personal Area Networks" really took off and became widespread. That sounds like a much more fun dystopian future than the one we're in now.

[@desther7975]

And Johnny Mnemonic-style use of "unused" parts of the brain to store _80 gigabytes_ of data!

[@soupy-san]

@@desther7975 - There’s still hope left on that one. Are your dreams really just dreams?

[@straightpipediesel]

Uh we have PANs today, the standard that won is called Bluetooth. Your smartphone talks to your watch, your headphones, and your computer via Bluetooth. You get in your car and it connects to your phone via Bluetooth. Your streamer box remote talks to the streamer via Bluetooth. Those are all PANs. The problem is IBM was thinking about human-to-machine interaction (something which we do via NFC) when there is a huge space of machine-to-machine (phone to car) makes more sense.

[@traviskitteh]

Man, I was born far too young. I can only imagine what it must've been like to have been alive in a time when the internet was not only exciting, but so, too, was the technology used to access it. Imagine having enough money to be able to experience all of this stuff!

[@jollygoodshow1587]

ikr. most of us nowadays grew up with the internet and see it as a standard technology, so it's not as exciting. the guys back then must've been on the edges of their seats to experience these things for the first time in their lives, it was revolutionizing the world and changed how we communicated forever

[@LugeoOrbis]

Heh, honestly, it was kind of a frustrating time to be alive however yes it was very exciting. You have to remember that things were moving so quickly. At the time this came out, we JUST got cell phones about 5 years ago, and they were the size of a suitcase. That being said, these devices were all insanely expensive. Heck, a laptop back then was several thousand, and that was just for a base model. You had to be more intelligent about your purchases because you would only get one device, and often, you'd find that the device you bought was garbage compared to what was released next year. Imagine if Apple released the iPhone 14 this yeah but then released a holographic device that used antigraviry to float and can beam thoughts directly to your social media the next year. That was literally how fast technology was moving. It wasn't just increasing speed, but the general use for technology vastly changed from month to month. To give an example... when this was filmed, the internet had only been mildly popular for about 6 years. In 1995, the internet was mainly used as a research tool in schools to allow for books to be read from far away. By the time this was released well... you can see... The major downside to all of this was the number of dead-end technologies. It was very difficult to determine what tech would stay supported and what tech would become abandoned. Also NOTHING rver worked the way it was advertised. It was expected for ads and buzz around a product to lie to us. We were generally happy if a product was even remotely useful at the end of the day.

[@bumble1057]

I am that old :) When I went from 56k modem to actual online all the time was incredible. Before Wifi, just .25gb download

[@zerotheliger]

i was alive during that time... in the 90s the internet was just as insane and still played runescape.

[@JohnWick-qr4yc]

The internet was shit back then but the 2000s that’s another story that’s the greatest era of the internet not this boring shit that could barely do anything

[@NathanChisholm041]

I remember those Sony MMX machines and being amazed at how modern they looked!

[@michaelbodine6142]

MMX were quality, with great service. HP great ALSO. ¿ DELL blah blah blah.?

[@halo2600]

1:47 Had that Acer Aspire. Best looking PC from the mid-late 90s.

[@wallacelang1374]

I bought my Pentium MMX PC running on Windows 95 in 1997 and it was such a huge jump from an old 8-Bit computer running on DOS 2.0 just a year earlier. I would be phasing from VHS video tapes to DVD video discs in about a year later. I also began to use an internet connection within a couple years from this point.

[@Alexzw92]

2:37 dang check out that frame rate!

[@yellowblanka6058]

Yep, lol. Those were the early days of 3D. That's why people who obsessively stare at FPS counters and complain about slight FPS drops make me laugh.

[@tourmaline07]

Quite funny how that stuttery mess would be considered good enough to demo at a tradeshow back then, whereas now anything dipping below 50fps is "unplayable"

[@aniym21000]

Back then this frame rate was still relatively playable. The concept of "gaming PCs" didn't happen until later when dedicated graphics cards started being produced (3dfx and PowerVR). Gaming back then was a side thing you did on a computer that was 90pct used for emails and document editing, so only Id Software games pushed the limits of what comouters could do.

[@DarylDawkins]

Please tell me more about this 17GB CDR media back in 1997

[@GoldSrc_]

It was DVD lol.

[@michaelbodine6142]

MIDI connections were sampled & programmed in 1992. Play the song , the notes come right out of computer.

[@Finallybianca]

sitting here on my 1gn2 connection and having flashbacks to being 16 in 96 and at the time when i got my 56k and was blown away by the speed.

[@JamieLikesGames]

2:58 Holy shit it's Al from Home Improvement

[@oo7warrior]

I don't think so Tim.

[@WannabeMarysue]

18:00 handheld devices segment. don't mind me, note 2 self, thanx for the uploads, and so on+

[@sternkrieger1950]

Ah, back in the modem days when waiting for a website to load took as long as a Simpsons episode.

[@Emsyaz]

@SteelRodent no, loading a website was not that slow back then. If you're talking about downloading files, then yes, that would be true

[@desther7975]

Using your body to form a LAN. I sense pickup possibilities in this.

[@MannyDer]

"digital VCR" -- he was sooo close

[@gentuxable]

MMX so your solitaire runs faster... LOL (I played Solitaire on a 386/16 with a black&white VGA screen, ran fine until nearly at the end of the game...)

[@GP1138]

15:00 - SAMSONITE! I was WAY off!

[@rushmore3927]

When did a DVD store 17GB of data, LOL.

[@GoldSrc_]

Dual-side dual-layer DVDs can store 17GB. And since DVD was designed with layers and sides in mind, so pretty much since it came out.

[@rushmore3927]

@@GoldSrc_ Not aware of any of those being released. The practical production total is 8.5. Applying the needed substrate layers to both sides was not a practical thing.

[@yellowblanka6058]

@@GoldSrc_ But the format was very rarely used due to issues like the cost of the media etc.

[@sandrinowitschM]

I've seen double sided DVDs on some PC gaming magazines in Germany in the early 2000s. This way they could pack lots of high quality (for the time) videos and demos on their discs. Shortly after that DSL became widespread enough that this wasn't a selling point anymore.

[@richard-davies]

@@sandrinowitschM Had some dual-layer, dual-sided DVD films from 1998/1999 as they stored the film in 16:9 on one side and 4:3 on the other. Soon stopped seeing those once 16:9 took over pretty quickly.

[@kadeneharvey3850]

If they saw our laptops and flat screens and smartphones they would be shocked

[@ABizzyBYT]

you should see what we have now! You would be shocked!

[@Emsyaz]

@@ABizzyBYT If you see what I have now, you'd be shocked. My computer is from another planet that is 100 lightyears more advanced than you pathetic humans

[@ABizzyBYT]

@@Emsyaz only 100 lightyears? We have advanced 2000 lightyears past that. And +1 more than any of you whenever you advance na na na na naaa :p

[@JaredConnell]

​@@ABizzyBYTif you could see what we had now! Well you probably wouldn't be very shocked, it's basically the same but faster, lighter, more battery, and a better camera.

[@ABizzyBYT]

haha!@@JaredConnell

[@quarterburnt]

It’s funny how they mention DVD18 standard but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dual layer double sided DVD ever.

[@JaredConnell]

I've never even heard of that capacity in a DVD before. I didn't even know they had dual layer DVDs back then.

[@billn.1318]

I wish i can go back in time, especially in 1996 and started my own ISP. 56k back in 1997-1999 was really something else. Then DSL came around. Only benefit to that was faster napster downloads.

[@Clay3613]

Smart Cards and WebTV were off by 14 years.

[@ezydenias8505]

22:20 holy shut, phantasmagoria 2, I just played that game that game is awesome.

[@unnamedchannel1237]

The guy in the thumb nail is doing duck face before duck face was a thing. A true pioneer of his times.

[@hamamotodesigns]

That was an exciting time. I was in college in the late 90s. But now we are in the beginning of AR, VR and A.I., so 20 years from now, the young people will be saying the 2020s must have been an exciting time. Or maybe A.I. will take over the world, and the future generations will blame us.

[@HuggieBear39]

The good old days. Little did they know that people will not want to surf the net on the TV just stream the latest TV shows and movies. The phone is where they surf the web. :) I am old school, I do my surfing on a PC.with a 100+ mbps cable connection.

[@HuggieBear39]

@Andrew Tarrant True, you don't *need* it but it is a nice to have thing.

[@tommyeastwood4393]

1000mbp s is a new standard.😅

[@psychoticgiraffe]

whats teh game at 3:10

[@Alexzw92]

The world may never know

[@lmcgregoruk]

@@Alexzw92 POD:Planet of Death.

[@julskechap]

I'm digging the radgap lol

[@willptech7565]

16:53 hey it professor frink!

[@user-jt5vm3mi1w]

IBM making vaporware forever

[@maricate]

Absolutely all this devices is crappy now, it's crazy think about it

[@weaponofmassconstruction1940]

7:04 Damn, I'm 23 years too late!

[@Silvers24]

XD two years later, i think. And then we had Eric Cartman using the power of the V Chip like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia.

[@Valitzu777]

@5:27 "So, even if you're dead, it will work for several years".... Well, that's helpful! I guess when I kick the bucket, identity thieves will be diggin me up to carry me around and touch phones to share my calling cards to the payphones :) Hope they have plenty of ice though, I will be one gassy decomposing corpse :)

[@kevingrems]

Part of me misses all these crappy peripherals and software. The other part of me knows that all this old junk is sitting in a landfill somewhere...

[@roossi]

wow ?! wtf? mind controlled pc and 3d gaming?! this is 97 ? wtf ?

[@ryanexx5250]

Who’s here after CES 2021?

[@yellowblanka6058]

A lot of wonky Internet tech that would never take off/companies that would go under.

[@jamontearobinson9628]

so we had FaceTime lol

[@Dookie69uk]

The Internet what's the Internet?

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Trump invented it.

[@hypercube33]

At about 7 minutes in - just watch how long it takes to load a crappy, actually very small image even though it fills the screen. You're seeing this on a video that is higher resolution and is updated at least 30 times per second. Also around this time you could get a mod for Quake II where kills would earn you money and you'd lose everything you earned when you died lol.

[@goodiesguy]

The girl at 2:08

[@willptech7565]

goodiesguy I was think the same thing, now that's what I call... A VALLEY GIRL!!!

[@mutalix]

Ugh get your standards up bruh

[@Maskddingo]

I would agree that they might be "shocked", but not for the reason you think. I think they would be shocked and saddened that computers have only gotten that far in 15+ years. I think if you asked most people back then where we woudl be in 2013, they would have guessed we'd be much further along. What a laptop does for you in 2013 isn't much diffrent than one bought in 1997 aside from the amped up specs. Amped up specs in the future aren't "shocking" but rather quite "predictable".

[@ezydenias8505]

Maskddingo I can agree to that. Not even Smartphones where that impressive. Today they also celebrate tons of inventions ad brand new which are old news actually. Even virtually reality would be pretty underwhelming to their dreams.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

The main difference would be falling of prices and rich experience using the operating system's of androids, ios, and the likes. If in 1997 you told people in the tech industry that a huge market segment would be the 65+ year old retirement crowd, they'd look at you as if you were on drugs.

[@tommyeastwood4393]

AI is something that has already changed everything.

[@Thaumazo]

Sometimes I imagine bringing my galaxy s2 back into that time to see their reactions haha

[@Daehawk]

Not sure what Hughes was thinking. 400 kilobits....thats 0.05 MB lol. Start a webpage and come back after high school graduation.

[@dorlaretz5901]

Fast for 1997

[@Slawek361]

Quake I, lagging ;d

[@psychoticgiraffe]

what game is at 3:10

[@yellowblanka6058]

Yeah, because it came out just one year before this show, and Quake was the first full-3d FPS and was pretty demanding on the hardware at the time. In 20 years somebody will be posting "lol, Crysis 3 lagging" on a gameplay video I can guarantee it.

[@lmcgregoruk]

@@yellowblanka6058 POD:Planet of Death.

[@dcn66100]

WOW 56kbps my internet is 30,000kbps. or 30mbps.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

30mbps ? very slow. 100mbps service is standard today

[@lucius1976]

@@oldtwinsna8347 100mbps? Slow. 300mbps is standard today

[@abbythings]

all these gadgets are ridiculous they should’ve known they’d be completely obsolete with the iphone coming in a few years lol

[@snk7]

Stupid comment, all this earlier tech gave the companies ideas in going forward. Apple decided to design the iphone around 2005. This video was in 1997, you mention a 'few years' try a decade. iPhone was launched in 2007!

[@joetioeb]

"a few years" = 10 years The iPhone wouldn't have been possible without prior technological advancements.

[@abbythings]

@@snk7 🤓

[@abbythings]

@@joetioeb no shit i was just kidding omg

[@PyrosPelagics]

pan. fast forward to the 2020's, makes me wonder how many nsa agents ive shaken hands with that have all my brain data.. lol

[@enzovicente1]

'97 computer games runs at 2 fps :v

[@YouTubeCensorshipStinks]

Ahh the days when you could be kicked off the internet because your parents picked up the phone or had call waiting.

[@thylacine1154]

Sadly, most of this cool stuff now resides in a landfill or in your grandparents' attic... 🖥📀🖨💽