Discovering a Time Machine: Mint Packard Bell PC from 1995!

[@ChishanFipz]

The name 'Packard Bell' still strikes fear in me as a PC repair tech back then due to those awful propriatory sound/ide/game/modem cards which would change models randomly even if the PC models were identical. The modems were software controlled like the cursed 'winmodems' of the time - getting one of those cards to work properly was an art in itself as I remember downloading the huge driver packages for them and then running each driver package individually to try and get the whole card working.

[@Snarkapotamus]

LOL! Yeah, they were absolute junk! Remember them well..

[@jeforiley8236]

I’m always amazed looking back at the interfaces created during this era. You’re right, it is a bit cheesy, but you get this feeling that hardware and software companies gave a crap back then. There is a degree of friendliness and care about the presentation of the graphics, and overall user experience. These days, not only do you not get any kind of operator’s manual, but you’re likely to receive such a very low level of customer support should you not be able to figure everything out on your own. Owning a computer was a fun experience back in the 90s… full of hope and promise.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Nice. Didn't know that.

[@atruceforbruce5388]

As a member of the computer club in 1995. I agree the companies wanted to get everyone hooked.

[@joshallen128]

Now that we have what happened did they rug pull us ​@@atruceforbruce5388

[@mikeg2491]

I got my first computer at 14, it was a Packard tower but had the navigator like this. Within a week or two I figured out how to get out of it into regular Windows 95 and my dad was PISSED thinking I broke it.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

@mikeg2491 lol

[@legacyoftheancientsC64c]

Wow... the gray wavy plastic at the bottom just unlocked a forgotten touch memory.

[@tallpaul9475]

That looks exactly like my first Windows PC from Montgomery Wards Electric Avenue in mid 1995. I had the monitor with side mounted speakers, along with keyboard and mouse. I got rid of it back in 2000. I should have kept it. I learned a lot from it, how to reinstall Windows 3.11 WfW, upgrade to Windows 95, change to Windows NT 4.0 WS. Good way to learn without worrying about hurting things, since it included restore media.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Nice

[@northprime_unlimited]

Yup I got mine from Montgomery Wards too but mine was a tower. I believe it was 133Mhz. My first computer.

[@trem0lo]

We had one of these that featured a 486SX 25mhz. I eventually upgraded it with an overdrive chip that doubled the clock speed to 50mhz, then I installed a 33.6kbps modem which I bought at Best Buy with my employee discount. So many memories of late-night Doom deathmatch sessions. Thanks for the nostalgia vibes!

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

You're welcome!

[@Ramdileo_sys]

​@@RetroHackShackAfterHours Aaron .... Christian @Retro Recipes shout-out to your Knight Rider Modem video... in his last one.... in case you want to put some comment over there.. ;-)

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Oh. Nice. I'll check it out.

[@notneb82]

What a fantastic find. My family's first computer was a Packard Bell. We got it near the end of 1996. I don't remember the model name but I remember all of its specs: 100mhz P1, 1gig HDD, 8 megs ram, 14.4 modem, Aztek soundcard, 1 mb vram, 8x cdrom. The power button was in the center of the machine but other than that it looked exactly like this one. We got ours at Walmart and got the whole package, the computer, monitor with the built in speakers, and an HP printer. The speakers were to be installed by the buyer once unboxing the monitor. Our speakers didn't fit right and we were going to return the monitor but the guy over electronics at our Walmart was a retired IBM engineer. He asked us to just wait a few min and he retapped the screw holes that held the speakers on. They were out of stock of PB monitors so it was let him do that or wait until they got more in. We used that machine until around February of 2000 when it was starting to show its age, failed PSU that was replaced by a local computer shop but at no cost since our warranty still covered it...somehow, even though I had cut the QC sticker when installing a whopping 8mb upgrade, the hdd was out of space, and it had gotten super slow and couldn't run newer games like StarCraft.

[@darkfalzx]

Packard Bell Legend CD with a 486DX2 66Mhz processor and 4MB of RAM was our family PC in the mid-90s that later was gifted to me. That machine was indestructible!

[@troyquigg4411]

I worked at PB during these years. That "new" logo was called "The Face of the Future"

[@411DL]

"Well preserved Packard Bell". Not a phrase I could even conceive 25 years ago.

[@Sidicas]

Anybody remember? "Your mission, if you choose to accept it. Is to use this Packard Bell computer, which is made from failed toaster parts and used rubber bands. If you fail, we will destroy all evidence of you ever being a customer. this pc will self destruct in 5 seconds...." Used to be one of the most downloaded mp3s back in the day! Kick off that bootleg Mission Impossible theme music! Think I still got it in my mp3 collection. My friend had it set as his win95 login sound so you heard it kick off everytime the pc started!!

[@MrMoogle]

What an absolutely amazing find! That thing is basically new old stock. I've never seen one in such good condition in recent years. My first computer was this exact model but with the P75 (every other spec exactly the same). I got it for Christmas 1995 along with a Cannon BJC bubble jet color printer. This was such a fun trip down memory lane! And the computer being in brand new condition really added to the nostalgia. Thanks for sharing!

[@dj-jazzy-jimbob]

When new these were new old stock LOL! Speaking from personal experience. These and eMachines later on were the absolute worst!

[@MrMoogle]

@@dj-jazzy-jimbob oh for sure, haha! The one we had constantly had problems. That's what makes it so cool to see one that has survived in such great condition.

[@Staren01]

This was my first computer. Though 95 hadn’t quite come out yet. Ours shipped with 3.1. I was 11. It was supposed to be a family computer, but it was basically mine. I upgraded it to Win 95, and taught myself how to replace the floppy drive because it was over used and eventually broke. I learned basic programming out of necessity because the DOS games I wanted to play were so finicky. I replaced the HDD with a 2GB drive because I needed more space. I learned how to do that on computer forums online. I remember the Voodoo graphics cards being the hottest thing and wanting one so bad, but we couldn’t afford that.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Back when you could literally wear out a floppy drive 😉

[@Staren01]

@@RetroHackShackAfterHours I was in middle school, and so many games and programs of the era were still installed with 20 disk packs before CDs were as common. Plus downloading a ton of stuff off the net. I admit I was pretty rough on the thing, slamming disks in and out.

[@crossbow1203]

I worked at Sun tv in 1995 and in truth the PB computers were a pos but for the family just starting out they couldn't be beat! The software that came with it was huge! Over a dozen CDs covering everything from games to home finance, to encyclopedia disks. Perfect for the new computer owners.

[@dlinkster]

I can definitely assure you that quite a number of people had no idea how to use a mouse in 1997. I taught courses on computer literacy from 1997 to 2001 to adults and around 90% of the class in the early years of the class had no idea how to properly use the mouse.

[@shmehfleh3115]

There is a legitimate market for anything older than a Pentium 4 at this point. I wonder if these E-waste companies know about this, and are pulling these machines out of the waste stream. I sure hope so.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Not really 😞

[@joechevy2035]

I bought one of these at Sears back in the day for $2000! Turned it back in the next and got an OEM with similar specs for less than $1000 a few days later...

[@annareismith6843]

My uncle had one of those, and I remember playing Doom and Mech Warrior on it a lot.

[@enigmanemo9352]

Back in 1995, I was working in the electronics dept. at WalMart. I bought a PB PC. For what it was, I actually liked it.

[@gehx]

$25???? Dam, that's amazing! Really nice find :) that's legit. I remember looking at these in the stores and ads back in the day :)

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Thanks

[@mesterak]

This is almost the exact model I bought as my first PC. I picked it up from a pawn shop back in 1997. I used it for a couple years before I built my first custom build PC. Such great memories with that Packard Bell.

[@madmax2069]

Seeing this brings back memories. I had a Packard Bell Multimedia C115 which was essentially an upgraded 2 drive bay version of this with a 120Mhz CPU. I had the darndest luck with it though. It was my first pentium based PC I was "buying" by myself from rent a center. It played the games I owned just fine except for one that I bought when I got the system. The first PC release of Road rash (which was the 3DO/PS1 version). It was the retail version I got from WM. That game would wipe the drive. The people at Rent a center was thinking i was intentionally wiping the drive to get out of buying it. They replaced the HDD and I tried playing it again only for it to happen again (I just figured the first time it happened was due to a bad HDD). I brought it back and brought the game with me. I told them to restore the system, and play the game. They did and found out I was telling them the truth, because it happened to them as well. I never got the game back, and told them to shove the system where the sun doesn't shine.

[@OzzFan1000]

Very cool find! Something about these early Packard Bells that I find endearing. Can't believe you found one in mint condition with the Navigator CD still in the drive.

[@rkgaustin]

I want to go back in time and live in that Packard Bell navigator building.

[@cynic5581]

Saw the thumbnail had to watch the video. I had a Packard Bell that looked identical but earlier 486sx2 model when I was a kid. Even had the monitor with the speakers on the side. I wish I would have held on to it.

[@dlinkster]

This system takes me back to the good ole days! I used to think that all of that free software was a good thing and I still have nostalgic feelings for some of it. Thank you for this great video!

[@Davemte34108]

Looks like a store demo computer. Employee may have taken it home after it was discontinued.

[@grumpywurzel1973]

Love this, my first ever "proper" PC was a Packard Bell Pentium 150 Mhz. It was the wild west of computing back then, literally the system was obsolete the moment you took it outside of the store! If memory serves mine was superseded by a 166 MMX system. I'm ashamed to say that I never once opened it up, would love to be able to get my sticky paws on that system today.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Cool

[@JoCrt]

I had the 60Mhz version of this PC. Wish I kept it as it was Socket 4. The grey accent panels detach and there was the intention to provide other colors but I never saw these sold anywhere.

[@Symplegades]

I worked at Best Buy starting around mid-1995. The PB rep showed up one time with a package of trim panels in the same purple, teal, and red contained in the logo. They were supposed to be 'available soon' but we never saw them again.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

That's cool. Never knew that.

[@JarheadCrayonEater]

I repaired, or replaced with a clone, hundreds of those back in the early to mid 90's as a tech in Denver. Haven't seen one in years, and to see a new one these days it's special! Nice one!

[@PeopleAlreadyDidThis]

I still have the one my dad bought new, with all the pieces…monitor, kb, mouse, speakers. It was his attempt to “do something with a computer” and get on the internet. He compiled a big database of compact disc and LP recordings. Not bad for a guy born in 1921. If I recall correctly, he paid $649 for it. It still boots Win 3.1. I use it occasionally when I need to bridge back to those days, especially regarding floppy discs for old music gear.

[@matthewgatskie1287]

Something with these Packard Bells from that time that didn't have bad batteries and kept their settings at least while plugged in! Nice!

[@JLP802]

I used to work at Staples when these were new, and the return rate on Packard Bell was... not good. It was close to 50%. I remember we had a vendor training one time and we had a bunch of different vendors come to talk to us about their new product lines. The Packard Bell rep totally tried to gaslight us on the quality control issues but we knew from our experience that there were really bad problems because of the return rate which was absolutely bonkers compared to Compaq.

[@jeforiley8236]

Thanks

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Wow. Thanks!

[@bchristian85]

I didn't have that exact model but I had one very similar from that exact time period. It was a 75 MHz with a 1.2 GB hard drive. Everything else was exactly the same as this model. That thing was definitely not used all that much, given the fact it still boots to Navigator. I remember upgrading mine from the stack 8 to 32MB of RAM. The 1.2 GB hard drive by 1995 standards was enormous. Tech was changing so fast at that time. It was a lot more fun to be into computers.

[@krad2520]

The Aztech combo soundcard/modem is one of the few soundcard/modem combination cards that's actually worth owning. It's essentially the Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16L without the wavetable adapter (you can still use a gameport MIDI breakout cable though). It has nearly 100% stereo Sound Blaster Pro 2 compatibility as opposed to mono-only SB 2.0 compatibility that a lot of cards offered, sports the genuine OPL3 chip, and even supports ADPCM + responds to SB Mixer instructions thanks to it being the Crystal mixer chipset.

[@Brian-L]

What a blast from the past. I used to sell and repair these in a local consumer electronics store.

[@TheDigitalslayer]

I had this exact computer during my college years during the mid 00s. Wow, I didn’t realize it would become a piece worth reviewing.

[@drumboy02]

this looks EXACTLY like my family's first PC! excited to see what's inside it

[@jerryorr7559]

My wife said she needed a computer for doing college class work in 1996, this was our first computer. We purchased it at the Sears. Pentium 100mhz 8 megs of ram 1.2 gig HD Crazy.......

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

@jerryorr7559 Awesome

[@gt1man931]

One of my buds had this very model, and at the same time we picked up the mini tower version that had the same P100 CPU, both of us bought them at Comp USA in the same sale, it was our first PC and my bud had had several previous from a 286, 386, to his desktop Packard Bell pictured here. We got a lot of mileage from ours, upped it to 24 MB of ram, even ended up with a P166 overdrive and a rendition verite GPU (I remember going to an online bulletin board to get the update for that card, not many will remember those days)in it and it was a pretty stout gaming PC at the time. Did a lot of Papyrus Indy Car II, Nascar racing, Duke Nukem, Links/Links LS golf, and lots of others I don't recall off hand.

[@coondogtheman]

My mother bought a later multimedia C115 machine similar in shape to this one but it has a 120mhz Intel pentium processor, 16 mb of ram (upgraded to 32mb by me) 1.2 gb hard drive with windows 95. It had that combo modem/sound card which later ended up dying because it got hit by lightning. I kept it running for about 10 years then I bought a new PC and everyone used that. It was in my room so if a family member wanted to use it they were in my room.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Must have been awkward 😊

[@TheSnoopyclone]

We had the 486dx2 66mhz w/ 4mb. We didn’t really knew how to use a pc other than for typing school reports or running some of the built in games like the 3d dinosaur or Mandy old dos games like trot. It was a big leap in learning how to operate such a machine.

[@paulwarner5395]

Thanx for th video. You got a real bargain there. I got one of these for my Wife's church in about 1997 . After a week or two the PB Navigator was removed and it went straight to Windows.. Was a nice OC back in the day.

[@chrisdelong2932]

I have that same model. Answers the phone. Pages me.

[@rickhalverson2252]

My Packard Bell looked identical. Same case. Got it 1997. My speaker is mounted on the side of the monitor. The most amazing thing is that it came with Groiler encyclopedia on CD... I would handle it so carefully with its Chrome like shiny surface on one side.. blown away that you could fit an encyclopedia on this. I would watch the short film clips that were not full screen but rather the size of playing cards. A fascinating machine.

[@SenileOtaku]

Forget about Grolier's Encyclopedia. I'm still waiting to see someone find one of these that had Infopedia bundled with it. I had done software test on Infopedia around the time of these systems.

[@rogerrowsell5926]

Had BY&CEL PC shop in the 90s. Bought, this PB, from fire sale, "real fire" for $300, cleaned it up, replaced CD rom and sold it for $1,800.00.

[@RobynDavisAlbany]

I had one of these. I also upgraded it with an Overdrive, more Ram, and a multimedia kit from Creative and a sound card from Turtle Beach who i worked for in the early 90s

[@JeordieEH]

I had a packard bell as what was technically my first computer. It had windows 95 on it and a few things. I purchased it second hand and it was a bit dated at the time. I had experienced computers beforehand with my dad having an AMD 486 133mhz and had windows 3.11 and windows 95 later. We had a family PC with windows 98 se and a 500mhz amd k6-2. So this packard bell being a pentium machine on windows 95, it was a bit of a step back. I do not remember the specs of the machine and it was short lived, and it was a stop gap as I was slowly buying a new PC with each afterschool paycheck. So while I had a packard bell and knew of them certainly, I wasn't too attached to it, but it's still nice to see. They were known to be lackluster and often just bad in general computers. However the navigator living room while terrible, still fascinates me, like microsoft bob. Terrible marketing and execution, or it might have made for a cool niche product, but like windows 8, a full screen navigation environment just fails hard and most people hate it.

[@andrewhofmann5453]

I worked for a phone based customer support company that supported Packard Bells. They were quite the PC at the time. They were low cost components and some items like the sound144a modem/soundcard combo would be a high failure item.

[@gamersplaygroundliquidm3th526]

Damn this was the computer we got when i was in highschool, i remember my father laughing that he would have to buy a new one in another year because the way the computers were getting faster and faster back then at suck a rate it was crazy. He did end up replacing it like 16months later 😂

[@parkerlreed]

I had the 102CD! Beautiful machine.

[@garyfranks2586]

Cheap plastic shit.

[@Jim-ks1dt]

These were the days where you can overclock those cpu by 25MHz to 33MHz and can see the speed difference. The next speed up from 100MHz would have been 120MHz or 133MHz. Socket 5 systems were good for their time and you could slap on some of those Evergreen CPU upgrade that worked in socket 7 systems. Was exciting times then. 14.4K modem was god awful slow. That is 1kb per second on a maxed out 14.4K connection.

[@richardmarkert7736]

This was my first PC back in 92! It came with a 386 and I think 4mb of ram. We had a service plan with Circuit City and it kept failing. CC eventually upgraded it to the Pentium 100 model. I would love to get my hands on one of these again. Even if it was just an empty case. I really wish I had kept it. That's my childhood right there!

[@danthompsett2894]

Amazing find, looks factory fresh, maybe it was a store display piece, in the front window of the store never switched on and used, either that or it was opened up and cleaned regularly considering the looseiness of the tamper sticker.

[@danw1955]

OMG! I got two of these from a friend of mine in exchange for a broken down 70's Honda Gold Wing that I rescued from a field and got running.🤣 One had a dead power supply, but the other was in operating condition, and had a Pentium 66, 16 mb. of RAM, and a 1.19 gb. HDD. Of course Win 95 was the standard for the day, and with a built-in 28.8 modem, it was the first PC I owned that was capable of getting on the 'interwebs'. I struggled with AOL for several months until our local phone company finally started with 56K dial-up internet service.😉

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Honda Gold Wing!

[@danw1955]

@@RetroHackShackAfterHours Looking back now, I probably should have kept the Goldwing!😂 It really didn't need much to make it roadworthy..🤪 It's just that, at that time, those Packard Bell computers were going for big money, but who knew, right?

[@RetroTechChris]

Yea, you got a stellar deal on that. The CD in the drive... is that a Packard Bell Master CD? If so, you can use that to restore the system to factory defaults!

[@robertthurman9866]

I have two in storage. Nice machine. Somewhere are the "restore" cd's to reset it to original settings. The original monitor had places to mount the speakers to it.

[@MacCrafter707]

Oh wow. I worked at Packard Bell/NEC for the last 2 years they existed. Weird and cool machines.

[@thewhyzer]

Oh hey, we had one of these! In fact, I think it was this same model! Pentium 100MHz with, IIRC, 8MB RAM (later upgraded to 16MB), 1MB Cirrus Logic video card, 850MB HDD! IIRC it came pre-installed with DOS + Windows 3.1, but with the Windows 95 CD provided (I think it may have been an option to pick it up later as it wasn't fully out yet, but I'm not sure), or I may be confusing it with some other PC and a later version of Windows. Came with CDs for the Encarta encyclopedia, Journeyman Project Turbo, and Silent Steel (a submarine FMV game), among others I forget. Played Duke 3d on it in 640x480 and probably around 15fps. This was 2 years after we got a 386 and 2 years before I built me a Penitum 233MHz w/Voodoo 1, which itself was 2 years before I got a Celeron 466 w/TNT 2. Man, changing PCs every couple years back then, crazy times!

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Nice

[@8bitwarrior]

One of these was my first computer. I had a pentium 200 one with windows 95 and I upgraded it to 128mb of ram and a voodoo 2 card. It was awesome. Also mine came with a 28.8kbps modem which got firmware updates that converted it to a 33.6kbps, then later a 56k modem. It was awesome to not have to buy a new modem!

[@mryon314159]

Oh man! I've been looking for (almost) that exact Packard Bell for ages. They're always in terrible shape and waay overpriced on eBay. I bought a P75 version in 1995 at Best Buy specifically to run Linux after selling my Macintosh LCIII. I couldn't get the modem working in Linux. Turns out it came with one of the new, awful soft-modems. But I still loved it as I could then do my school work at home instead of waiting in the queue for the UNIX machines at school.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Wow! I have a Force 101CD Pentium 60 "mint in box" with all original packaging software, manuals etc. that I will list on eBay after seeing this. I bought it new in 1995 just before W95 came out. I am FredCPA1 and I will get it out in a week! Thanks!

[@ImnotgoingSideways]

Add me to the "my first PC" list. That was the computer which introduced me to Virtual Pool and Carmageddon.

[@GlitchSystem-xf7jb]

Dude looks exactly like the one I had as a kid back in the mid 90's. That's how I played Doom and Star Wars Dark Forces at the time

[@Canthus13]

I had this machine. And yup. I bought it from Circuit City.

[@Hatch3dLabs]

This computer (or very similar model) of Packard Bell was my first computer. Bought it for $80 from my co-worker. Don’t even remember what I did with it after I bought a Sony desktop to replace it.

[@riderofthewhitehorse]

I remember the packard bell model that had that desktop unit with a VGA monitor connected to it. It was great.

[@cabbitkisser2620]

back in the 80's i grew up with an trs-80 coco 2. i picked up a Packard bell thru Sam's club in 93 or 94 it had windows 3.1.1 installed. it had a 66mhz cpu - 4mb onboard memory can be upgraded to 64mb - it had a 420mb hdd - dual speed cd drive - 1mb video memory. it was a good little computer

[@PatrickJFurlong-c6z]

Great video! The machine almost seems new old stock

[@Vile-Flesh]

I wish there was an ewaste center near where I lived where I could get more old hardware. I have never come across a computer that clean, even from an original owner. We used to scoff at Packard Bells 30 years ago but now I like the idea of using them for gaming and seeing what can be played with a budget system and how far I can upgrade it. Our first PC was a Pionex 486sx-25 in 1992 and we didn't get a Pentium until January 1997. We suffered for soooo long with that slower than hell 486 but could have been worse, we could have been the super thrifty family with a God damned 386.

[@Fred_Raimer]

Wow! I have a Force 101CD Pentium 60 "mint in box" with all original packaging software, manuals etc. that I will list on eBay after seeing this. I bought it new in 1995 just before W95 came out. I am FredCPA1 and I will get it out in a week! Thanks!

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Nice

[@Wageslave645]

I used to have a fully kitted out Pentium 60 version of this PC. You should try to find the Packard Bell Fast Media remote and receiver kit for this. Between this and the TV tuner card that came as an option, they tried to make this an all in one media center.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Yeah. Wish I had the remote.

[@Wageslave645]

@@RetroHackShackAfterHours The multimedia kits for those are still oddly easy to find on eBay. The TV and FM radio card is also possible to find, but probably costs more than you paid for the computer.

[@antonsteijn3027]

I had this one! Only mine was a pentium 133. Love to find one of these.

[@nightstryke]

I had gotten one of those in 95 and then traded it in for one of the Packard Bell Towers instead in 95 that looked very similar.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

I have three of those funky towers. That will be another video.

[@VLC8792]

My first computer was the UK variant, 133mhz Pentium. Unfortunately it didn’t take long before problems appeared. The monitor needed replacing, they tried to fob me off with a repaired one, that went back to the shop & was replaced with new one also the mother board failed. Packard Bell were excellent at marketing/sales after sales was awful at least in the UK.

[@ironhead2008]

I remember seeing these things in Wal-Mart for more than a few years later, right up to the turn of the decade IIRC.

[@Omega_Mark]

I remember seeing these in the store (newer model, but similar case design). It was the fall of 1997. They had also some with cut-off sides (corner PC?). Went with a Compaq Presario with Pentium MMX CPU, as it had better specs and a bigger hard drive. Got a matching monitor with speakers on the side :). Btw, I still have the huge box from it that I use to store old stuff in lol. It still has the Compaq label and MMX logo along with some graphics on the cardboard. Wonder how many of them are left around?

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Nice

[@leehudson8202]

I had that exact PC! It froze up every time I moved the mouse from day 1. Never figured out why it did that. Then again I was only 15 years old.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

LOL. Sounds like a short on the serial bus or in the mouse.

[@RetroJay1974]

I managed to save one of these machines years ago. Belonged to a close friend. There is something bugging me though I vividly remember him showing me something hilarious. I cannot remember if it came with this machine or was on a cover mount magazinecd! I think it was called "Bug Eye Joe" and was some kind of comic strip?.

[@SGTMacBC]

Amazing that it never had a USB card installed. That was my first upgrade to any computer back then.

[@Omega_Mark]

They got native USB support with Windows 98 SE. My uncle got an IBM with USB port in 1998 that was not active yet, but "for future compatibility." Had to buy 98 SE upgrade CD to get it to work.

[@SGTMacBC]

@@Omega_Mark Correct. Windows 98 supported USB 2.0. Windows 95 had a later version with USB support which was only USB 1 and 1.1.

[@joenichols590]

that exact model Packard Bell was my first PC man it takes me back it had a 14.4 internal modem which i upgraded to 28.8 internal and then 56k external when they came out

[@Tribute2JohnnyB]

YES. My cousins had a similar PBell Legend model. Took a half hour installing/loading Wolfenstein 3D. Also really abused those AOL free hours and talking to randos on IRC/chatrooms about whether Kirk or Picard were the better captain.

[@GrannyDryden]

I had this Packard Bell, but the original P60 rather than the P100. I eventually upgraded it to a 166MHz with a matrix mystique graphics card, so I could keep step with running games in 800x600 and above.

[@TheGameBench]

Looks just like my my first PC, the Axcel 455CD, which has nearly the same specs. Only difference is mine came with the PI 75MHz, but I upgraded it to the PI 133MHz not too long after getting it and it looks like the sound card/modem is different too. I still have it, but I just wished I had kept the original monitor. I need to find some of these as spares.

[@arudanel5542]

Red keys match the old logo just fine, almost perfectly.

[@NamesGolden]

first computer my dad came home with was a p75 packard bell. I was around 9y/o. such a pile of junk but that's why I got into fixing computers. went through tons of 486 crap, fixing them and flipping. really got deep with a p200mmx build and the piracy scene. being ruthless with vendors at computer shows, haggling for lower prices because I was "just a kid" but I always walked in with $300 (about $600 today) and out with enough gear to float me til the next show. every thunderstorm meant I just sold three modems for triple what I paid.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Fun memories

[@RazorBucks]

My family had this machine going up, I took it with me to college. Ours was P75, 4MB edo ram, onboard video.

[@miked4377]

that was awesome ...i love looking at or owning a new retro pc or console....that is a beautiful machine ...i would keep it maybe beef it up for gaming...nice!!!

[@Lesxxxgk]

95-96 was a lot of people’s first time on a visual os. The mouse was new to some.

[@Roobotics]

Very much the same form factor as my first PC I ever used! Fond memories indeed! I know for a fact I probably had a slightly later model though, due to mine having a 33,600 modem and the sticker on-top reflected that..and became one of my first passwords.. probably for AOL IM.. too bad our phone lines were parity and even after we upgraded to a 56k modem it still ran at ~28k, lol. 'Large' downloads were atrociously slow, and it was certainly fun when someone needed to use the phone-lines.

[@Youngie761]

I had this exact box. It was our first family computer, I was 16. It was a pentium 60 and I upgraded it with a 133mhz overdrive and added 8megs of ram (from 4) along with a 6meg Canopus 3Dfx accelerator add on. You can also add 1 meg to the onboard video making it 2 whole megabytes! I couldn't get any 28.8 modem to work, my model had a 14.4 built in. Very upgradable otherwise.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Nice accelerator

[@thanhmcgriff3387]

Great machine. So mint!! Great video.

[@jaybird57]

Man, Its like new.. im jelly... I hope you find a good home for it .

[@ezvic420]

This is the first machine I ever seen with the Intel inside ™️ sticker . Before that was all apples K-4th grade born in 81’ . Nice find ❤great video

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Thanks!

[@AlanCanon2222]

I had one from a couple years earlier, based on the 486. I think I put a 486 DX4/100 in it.RAM: 4 MB soldered and 16 MB worth of socketed RAM (1 MB or 4 MB, 40 pin modules). That computer SMOKED for my purposes, including learning Slackware Linux, and HTML. I was really sorry when it breathed its last: I had abused every slot and every connector on that thing through countless hours of informative experiments.

[@LatitudeSky]

PB caught a lot of flack for being cheap but they were incredibly important for putting PCs into stores as a regular stock item, and then into homes as a first PC. PB broke ground and the likes of Gateway, HP, and Dell ran with it.

[@SenileOtaku]

I just remember when we had a mid-90's PB at a multimedia software company, one that shipped with MSWindows 3.11. When we got our first beta disk for MSWin95 we tried installing it on the PB. That machine never ran right again (even after doing the factory install from the restore CD). W95 basically killed the machine.

[@Great_White_Great_White]

Can you imagine how badass UIs would be if only we had all stuck to the "interactive room" paradigm instead of a flat-ass, boring desktop?? Real-time raytraced rooms with bookcases, actual windows you can look out of instead of a stupid flat JPG, your windows placed in a 3D environment, lighting that shifts on the time of day, a newspaper that actually has REAL news, not clickbait crap crammed into the taskbar, etc. Sortta like Real Myst, but for your OS. I want THAT timeline!

[@tonyvreal]

When i was heading to college in 1996, my dad bought me this, it was a Pentium 120mhz with a 1.2Gb hdd, but otherwise identical. Believe it or not, theres a jumper on there for bios recovery for a failed bios flash, something that saved me from destroying the $1600 computer. I also upgraded the ram to 40mb, and overclocked to 133Mhz. Seems laughable, but at the time (1997), it made playing mp3s far more possible.

[@CoMmAnDrX]

I had a Legend 415 CD with a Pentium 75MHz 8MB 4x CD 14.4k, basically the same specs listed on the unit. I OC'd the CPU to 100MHz stable and 133MHz which was stable enough to run a benchmark but not real-time use. I added a larger heatsink and a fan for the CPU.

[@RetroHackShackAfterHours]

Awesome

[@Endzs768]

wow not even yellowed, a beauty indeed. and oh god with 32" being a big screen tv in that circuit city ad 😅

[@bluetheta]

Computer literacy wasn't strong until the late 2000s as many schools didn't get computer labs until then. I know as my college had courses just for adults who received computers for Christmas and don't know what to do with their new "TV attached to a broken typewriter".

[@CrucesNomad1]

Owned this one. It came with reference cd's that were just awesome.