The 1987 CD-ROM Experience: Hitachi CDR-1503S

What was the PC CD-ROM experience like in 1987? Let's find out with the Hitachi CDR-1503S / Amdek Laserdrive-1, both launching in '87 at just under $900. And for that you got a whopping 153 KB/s sequential transfer rate from 550MB discs spinning at a leisurely 200-535 RPM! Ahh, single speed read-only goodness.
● LGR links:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● Grab an archive of the Hitachi interface drivers here:
archive.org/details/hitachi-c...
● Music courtesy of:
www.epidemicsound.com
#LGR #CompactDisc #Retrospective

[@vanboy5697]

This guy is definitely not a regular KZbinr. He is operating a tech museum from his home, rescues historical computer pieces from around the world and even puts an archive of seemingly lost in time software online. What a champ, what a saint!

[@whoosWE]

I think something like that too

[@theblubus]

Welcome to the LGR community :)

[@henrysmith8163]

Absolutely. Really impressed with his archival skills and wealth/depth of knowledge. With how many youtube videos he’s produced, LGR deserves an honorary PhD in computer history or something.

[@Leatherargento]

Indeed. I am having a great time going through tech history, here.

[@para_dies8071]

Hitachi: THIS LASER CAN KILL YOU Lgr: N E A T

[@doubtful_seer]

G R E E T I N G S

[@docswatchbox8321]

LOL You'd think that the Death Star's primary weapon was encased in that beige metallic box. Awesome.

[@yuriko_AH]

T H E D R I V E I S A D E A D L Y L A Z E R

[@rcmero]

Huh. Neat.

[@wta1518]

Commence primary ignition.

[@philtkaswahl2124]

"The only thing more exciting than obsolete media is even more obsolete obsolete media." That is pretty much the mission statement of this channel right there.

[@thomask5434]

Its all more interesting than a new iphone.

[@DewtehDew]

“ nice velvety strips for cds to lounge on, before being mounted inside. “ did the cds at least get dinner first?

[@marshallmcluhan33]

The CDs double as throat lozenges after they’re done being mounted. 💿 👄

[@pflaffik]

Sure, they got flowers too.

[@liammay7756]

I'll see myself out.

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

It is a Hitachi after all. Lol

[@psivewri]

No time for sleep! Must learn about a 33 year old piece of technology that I'll never own!

[@PeacefulAutistic]

Psivewri wow! Never thought I’d see you here! Who doesn’t love LGR?!

[@crazyboi6108]

You are my favourite

[@Ceph_Bluejay9]

I thought of an idea though a probably expensive one!!! Could you get each of the MacBook Airs (for example) and then do like a mini review on each of them and see how they changed through the years?

[@brtamur1443]

YOU MUST

[@JonathanPersaudx]

Never say never.

[@gassnake2004]

Hey, my wife loves Hitachi products!

[@skankcor3]

cappaculla that’s the joke

[@HannahFortalezza]

Honestly they're magic

[@patprop74]

They use to make toys for him and now they make toys for her.

[@patprop74]

@@HannahFortalezza hehehe perv lol

[@mixermaster10]

@@cappaculla They actually did make one... hitachi magic wand

[@Lost_n_Found_1]

I love how the game "Adventure" is under Strategy, and not Adventure.

[@dorpth]

2020's The Game Awards merged "Strategy" and "Simulation" into the same category, so you had the insanity of Microsoft Flight Simulator competing with Crusader Kings 3. At least a 1980s piece of software has the excuse of home video games being in their infancy.

[@Carbine64]

@@dorpth game awards is only fun and worthwhile when you watch your favorite streamer react to it. that's it.

[@cjs95]

Another oddity (and there's a few) I've found with that disc is that it lists a number of Apogee & id Software games on the back of the case, none of which are actually included.

[@polocatfan]

@@Carbine64 I mean once in a while it lets stuff like the Muppets Goose thing and the Cuphead DLC trailer happen so I'd say it's pretty cool.

[@lucasrem1870]

we did ascii adventure back then, Bikini model of Heather Locklear in Mac.Paint

[@NoobGyver]

Slaps roof of Hitachi: This bad boy has a laser that can kill ya

[@Harey0407]

LGR: Neat!

[@lukecesarin7266]

I love that intro, it’s so smooth, buttery, beautiful and welcoming!

[@techme3807]

Yup

[@PH96Official]

I don't know if I like it as much as the 2D one...

[@randombrokeperson]

I actually said "oooh" out loud 🤣

[@jamiem5068]

His intro is BBW? Hawt.

[@BrettHoTep]

The smooth jazz he has going is so satisfying.

[@dwaynezilla]

"there wasn't even a copy of this online" well i hope... "There is _now_ " Yesssss. Not only do we get awesome interesting videos of the stuff you get, but it gets documented and archived so nicely. Love this channel and your work!

[@rapidpig]

Aye, there's the rub!

[@lowkeylowkey1000]

Have a link? I don't see the CD anywhere.

[@chadmasta5]

@@lowkeylowkey1000 archive.org/details/MS_BOOKSHELF_87

[@TheGoreforce]

@@lowkeylowkey1000 he covers where he puts it, he is in several archiving groups. archive.org/details/@lazygamereviews

[@AR-so6ch]

@@lowkeylowkey1000 why didn't you check descripion

[@zed-xr4353]

I found that phone directory CD far too amusing. Funnily enough, when you were in the K's I saw a radio station listed. Looking them up they still have the same address and phone number as listed on the CD !

[@HuskyGamersUNITE]

That's not all too uncommon. You can't exactly move an entire radio station and a 500 foot antenna tower. Radio stations usually stay put unless some big megacorp consolodates them.

[@menuly]

Take a moment to respect the Microsoft workers who typed in all the data for the CD.

[@highpath4776]

Copyright ? Source of Wiki and Google search??

[@menuly]

@@highpath4776 There was no Wikipedia or Google in 1987.

[@highpath4776]

@@menuly my point precisely, See EB

[@highpath4776]

@@menuly That was my point ....

[@brentboswell1294]

You mean the contractors who happened to work inside Microsoft?

[@joshm7769]

I love how you reviewed the fastest CD-ROM drive and also the slowest CD-ROM drive

[@joshm264]

Hey I'm Josh M not you D:

[@redpup6931]

@@joshm264 You're Josh MC (McCellan), not Josh M

[@alierengam1749]

thats full coverage right there

[@Henhenjamib]

Josh M checking in

[@flavorfulsoups]

I wish I was Josh M I feel like I’m missing out :(

[@JeremyLucas1879]

I had to Frame-By-Frame 15:20 to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Thanks for that.

[@lukey666lukey]

im glad someone else noticed, I did the same

[@KevBehindACamera]

Isn't his name Owen Wilson?

[@lemonade030]

@@lukey666lukey Me too

[@lukey666lukey]

@@KevBehindACamera yes I think it is

[@st3ddyman]

I thought this was a subliminal message to calm down our excitement at the product

[@eFeXuy]

He entered the casino and went straight for the black jack tables. Sat down, placed his chips and an aged piece of electronics over the table. Before the inquisitive glances of the other players he only said: "Lucky CD-ROM"

[@dogfromthepurplezoneoffici5182]

I love the fact that Clint still gets excited over retro tech after all this time and all the videos.

[@llary]

Hooking my first CD ROM drive up to my Amiga 1200 circa 1995 was completely mind blowing. I suddenly had access to more software on a single magazine cover disc than my entire previous collection.

[@wraithcadmus]

Similar story here, and with the Amiga moving to an 'enthusiast platform' at that point you could get some pretty good software on the discs as companies kept going bust and no-one was left to stop them being distributed.

[@Timmysteve]

5:15 "If you like quadrilaterals..." SOLD

[@mikeyjnz]

It's almost macintosh "show white design" really, quite elegant.

[@treespunk]

6:10 Techmoan: Did someone say belt?

[@xxoanna603]

LGR: "There weren't that many games available" Also LGR: Here's this CD with 250 Games on it! ;)

[@maighstir3003]

That collection came out a fair bit later, I'd think.

[@Redhotsmasher]

@@maighstir3003 Yep, just checked my copy and the disc says "© 1995 SoftKey Multimedia Inc.".

[@purgatory7180]

Yep, just checked my copy and the disc says "© 1995 SoftKey Multimedia Inc.".

[@TedSeeber]

In 1989, our campus bulletin board system at Oregon Institute of Technology had 4 of these- each with a different shareware disc permanently installed, allowing us students to download all sorts of things over the on campus phone lines to the dorm.

[@KingPK]

LGR installs extensive reference library. First use: looking up definition of fart.

[@hurdad]

legend

[@TheGreatAtario]

An accurate simulacrum of typical usage in schools

[@MrDuncl]

Even funnier was the full scientific explanation the CD gave.

[@eclecticreader961]

What's funny about a full explanation? Were you not interested in obtaining a full understanding?

[@MrDuncl]

@@eclecticreader961 If it was against the medical term flatulence that would be expected but it was amusing to me see a scientific explanation against a slang word.

[@iananderson2496]

I love seeing all this old tech, it makes me super nostalgic for my childhood. Thank you LGR for sharing this!

[@hmvocaloid7360]

I love CDs. The sounds that it makes is so cool. The whoosh of it spinning up, and the little clicks of it reading the disc.

[@kuzadupa185]

I had the same feeling over caged cds, the little plastic housings for cds. They looked so futuristic

[@TheLeggedOne]

1987, when a rectangle could win a design award

[@TheLastLineLive]

In those terms, not much different from today's Smartphones or TVs.

[@u0aol1]

It's a pretty damn nice rectangle.

[@MagicMoshroom]

It is impressively rectangular though

[@CharlesHepburn2]

Maybe because the way in which it loaded CDs became the standard... they were ahead of their time... maybe? I don’t know... it was a Beige box, so maybe that was it. Lol

[@Yeen125]

The 80s were the peak of modernist industrial design philosophies. Starting in early 90s, everything started moving towards postmodernist industrial design (eg round edges, clear/translucent plastics, etc) that would become popular until the late 2000s when smartphones made modernism popular again (at least in terms of industrial design).

[@Markimark151]

I love old CD drives, I remember when a computer having a CD-ROM drive was like having a state-of-the-art add on!

[@FeedMeMister]

And then CD-r made piracy worth the entry price ... Not that I know anything about that.

[@philbuilds116]

I remember when 3.25" drives were state of the art 🤣

[@Markimark151]

Phil Builds you mean disk drives or internal drive that was diskless?

[@Khorne_of_the_Hill]

Now it's completely the opposite lol

[@philbuilds116]

@@Markimark151 the answer is yes...

[@DavidWonn]

Ah, the good old days of CD-ROM drives that had a dedicated volume adjuster. Some even had a button to skip to the next track of an audio CD, and could play even while in MS-DOS or even in the CMOS menus.

[@zenkim6709]

Some even came w/ both a Play/Pause button *and* Next / Prev Track buttons ... & 1 Creative Labs Sound Blaster / CD-ROM combo kit included a Audio CD app that let U control music CD playback from DOS (complete w/ a graphical "virtual" CD player UI). Why? Because, well, uhhh ... REASONS!!!

[@pflaffik]

Theres was an internsl audio cable from the cdrom to the soundblaster (sound card), so they could play audio cds pretty much all the time but iirc the soundblaster drivers had to be installed and loaded - and they were since at the time all good games were ms-dos.

[@bigtank2185]

I absolutely love how the focus was on the drive, but you also gushed over MS Bookshelf... 🤣 That's why I love your channel.

[@mattb154]

I'm in awe of the graphic design on that '87 Microsoft CD. It's virtually indistinguishable from the design they were using for optical media well into the noughties. I'm not talking about premium optical media that might have a holographic surface, but your mundane mouse driver or service pack CDs really did look like that for a long time.

[@RickinBaltimore]

This was out at the same time as the Commodore 64 and Apple IIc. That's just mind-blowing

[@benjaminj1866]

Then again, sim city 2000 was released while the C64 was still being sold. Granted, the C64 was wildly outdated, but it was still selling.

[@RickinBaltimore]

@@benjaminj1866 Good point, the C=64 was out until 1994.

[@mindphaserxy]

Like most Americans I didn't get a CD ROM in a computer until the early 1990s with a 386/VGA powered machine. In 87 to 89 there were more AT class computers and the drives were expensive

[@mattx5499]

@@benjaminj1866 The huge library of games that you could copy on a standard 2 deck tape player. It's the same reason as popularity of Amiga computers. Huge crackers scene and data medium that was easy to copy for a 10 years old kid. Piracy...

[@baby333]

15:30 This is actually insane, even for a program without internet in today's standard that's a lot a lot of information! From so many cultures, continents, race, religions, language it got it allll covered that's amazing honestly, let alone being in the 80's when most of these were on books only!

[@2beJT]

Owen Wilson style 'woww' had me laughing.

[@jimmcconville]

I genuinely thought he'd flashed up an image of Camilla Parker Bowles.

[@Voxel-Ux]

Yh, that Owen moment was a nice touch! lol

[@UpLateGeek]

I remember when we got our first CD-ROM drive for the family 386. It was an internal drive that came in a pack with a sound card of some kind. It used this weird interface with a super skinny data ribbon cable which I haven't come across since. Used even fewer pins than the Sony interface on some of the SB16 cards. Definitely a lot fewer pins than the huge connectors on that drive! It wasn't a caddy drive, but the tray wasn't motorised either. You had to push in the tray and it would pop out, then you could pull it the rest of the way out. My dad didn't know much about computers, and I was just a kid, so we had no idea you had to load drivers to make it work. But I did figure out that you could get it to play an audio CD if you pressed the volume knob on the front. That made my dad very happy, because the only reason he bought it was so he could play a music CD he bought. Eventually we got some help to load the drivers and get it working, we also got the sound card working, but that took longer I think because it wasn't a common one like a sound blaster. Really wish I knew what the drive and sound card were, I'd love to re-build that machine the same as when I was a kid. I'd love to relive the memory of playing games on that machine.

[@adejupe8308]

Drive sounds like a Mitsumi LU005S. Single speed, very weird tray, and the only one of it's type IIRC. Used a 36-pin interface I believe... There were versions bundled with all kinds of soundcards

[@adejupe8308]

May have been some revision of the Mediavision Thunderboard with CD interfaces onboard

[@AndrewAMartin]

Possibly an early Philips CD drive, or an early Mitsumi drive/sound card. Until they settled on IDE, each manufacturer had its own interface. I still have a ton of old computer hardware down in my basement collecting dust, including a 1x Philips, many 2x drives, and a 3x NEC external drive with SCSI2 interface. I should probably sell most of that stuff, if it's worth anything now...

[@aaron71]

I have the drive you speak of at work somewhere. It did indeed use a small ribbon cable.

[@UpLateGeek]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, Mediavision did sound familiar, so I did a quick google image search and found it was most likely a Pro AudioSpectrum 16 card due to the 16 pin CD-ROM header. The wikipedia article suggests this is known as the LMSI interface. The CD-ROM drive still has me stumped. It wasn't a Mitsumi LU005S as suggested, the tray was very different from that one. I remember it was relatively thin compared to many others around at the time, only marginally thicker than the tray that the CD sat in, and protruded from the front of the drive so you could press it in to eject. The volume knob was a fairly narrow cylinder that also protruded from the front of the drive so it could be pressed to play audio CDs. I think there was also a 3.5mm headphone jack. I remember my dad had to plug a cable into it so he could record his CDs onto tape so he could listen to them in the car. Now I'm off to eBay to find one of the sound cards! (If anyone has one that they're willing to sell and ship to Australia, my twitter DMs are open @UpLateGeek!)

[@phlydude]

The 1st time I realized how CD-ROMs were amazing technology was when I went to the HS Library ~1993 (which at my school [a college prep school], rivaled most town libraries) and was able to access the entire encyclopedia (Encarta) with the ability to search - periodical books were just given their pink slip

[@EddieBurke]

That fact that we’re able to do that still blows me away to an extent even if I grew up utilizing it to its full extent, mainly because I was stuck with a shitty W95 computer until around 2005

[@phlydude]

@@RWL2012 fixed -thanks for keeping me honest

[@MaxUgly]

We had some multi disk version of Encarta bundled with out Gateway 2000. It was so amazing for me as a kid that I spent full days at a time clicking through entries.

[@benn454]

@@MaxUgly 1995 edition of Grolier for me. I wasted (well, maybe not wasted, since I was learning) SO many hours looking through all the articles, and watching all the videos. Good times.

[@beartackle]

I loved Encarta! I remember wanting to look up all the articles with videos because I was fascinated that something would have them to watch.

[@pepe6666]

thats actually a really neat software suite for 1987. kind of mind blowing that you could have access to so much information right from inside programs like that. that is computing with power.

[@CB-pf5lb]

23:35 _"The price you pay for not paying any price."_ Man, that was deep.

[@jerome2794]

I really like that new intro it's so smooth and good looking

[@ThoughTMusic]

“Nice velvety strips for CDs to lounge on before getting mounted inside.” - Clint 2020

[@alexanderalfonsson5874]

Hahaha I didn't even realise how dirty that sounded until I read it. XD

[@milesbailor5019]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@Kevin_2435]

Damn it! That's crazy I missed that the first time.

[@sugarbunify]

Love your channel so much ❤️ Thank you for doing what you do. 😊 So interesting seeing this kinda stuff!

[@brandonschaufele8844]

“Unexpectedly jazzy tame impala plays” When Clint even makes his subtitles humorous!

[@fremandn]

You really do a great job of demonstrating the excitement that using something like this would bring to someone of that era

[@cooltube2000]

Someone has to make this bumper sticker... "I'M A BALLER OF A COMPUTER USER"

[@FeedMeMister]

"MY OPTICAL DRIVE IS 1X"

[@talon262]

"I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him 'money' for short."

[@carlosfvs]

"HONK IF YOU EDIT YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT"

[@Blood-PawWerewolf]

“THE ONE THING MY CAR HAS IN COMMON WITH MY COMPUTER IS A TURBO (BUTTON)”

[@jstagzsr]

1987: get dressed, go outside, get in car, go to the store, Spend 2 thousand dollars on a cd drive, spend who knows how many thousands of dollars for the pc, get home, set it all up, Run all the cables, install the drivers with commands, run the cd with commands, open the very non user friendly UI, open the dictionary with commands, navigate to where you can actually enter the word, enter the word, wait for it to load, read the definition 2020: "ok google, whats the definition of ____" god i love technology.

[@georgehope5477]

At least the 1987 version wasn't trying to manipulate you.

[@comradesky5931]

@@georgehope5477 Well less so... The USSR was still a thing. I bet a lot of those definitions took a very cold war mindset to the definitions.

[@michaelblosenhauer9887]

@@georgehope5477 people with power have always tried to manipulate those without

[@momaw627]

Such a great vid! My first experience with a CDROM (besides lusting after it in Computer Shopper) was the Encyclopedia Brittanica multimedia disc demo in my local computer shop. My mind was blown! Honest to goodness video on a computer! Still get warm fuzzies thinking about those early computing days!

[@Raymondplaysdeath]

“Voyager 2 Images of Uranus” made me laugh and I hate myself for it.

[@misterscienceguy]

I don't even remember a time when I had a CD-ROM that wasn't at least 8x speed; I knew 1X existed back then but the concept is still unfathomable for me.

[@omegarugal9283]

im old enough to have owned a 4X... i did see 2X units at school...

[@llary]

I used a single speed drive at school with a caddy and parallel port interface. There was one drive that we had to share across the whole school. Hooked up to Archimedes RISC computers that were state of the art at the time.

[@lockingBlock]

I had a 1x SCSI drive with a caddy mechanism, but I don't remember the brand.

[@Johan-ez5wo]

I had a 2X speed, and wondered what it ment.. haha

[@misterthegeoff9767]

I remember when I upgraded from a 2x Speed to a 6x Speed CD ROM. I put in the CD for Rebel Assault 2 and the game's benchmark flipped out because my CD ROM transfer speeds were "faster than is possible"

[@SkinnyVinnie514]

I love that you take the time and make the effort to put stuff on the Internet Archive, making it available with everyone. Thanks a lot! This is truly invaluable.

[@0meat]

Dear LRG, you make videos that deserve to be watched full screen. Thank you.

[@SiD3WiNDR]

The World Almanac & Book of Farts. Loved the Owen Wilson insert too. :D

[@javaking1000]

Is there a joke there that I'm not understanding??

[@benn454]

@@javaking1000 LGR's first use of the program was to look up the definition of "fart".

[@futonrevolution7671]

@@javaking1000 Owen Wilson has an... interesting way of pronouncing "wow".

[@pettersvard5990]

"The files are IN the computer" - its a reference to the movie Zoolander :)

[@NGNetwork1]

"imagine feeling like a baller walking out with this" Nowadays people laugh at you if you have a dedicated CD or DVD drive. How times change.

[@nslouka90]

I have a cd drive...1x speed! Beat that! 😎

[@MinorLG]

I will never not have some sort of odd in a computer. These days, it's a bd-rw drive. I'm going to be putting a tape (lto) drive in my next build (in addition to a bd-rw)

[@SinisterPuppy]

Still disappointed bluray is where it died. There were some strides into getting holographic storage and other wild optical tech working; doubt there's a market for that anymore. Personally I love having 50GB on one single optical disk. More reliable than spinning rust, longer life than SSD and more secure than cloud. Added bonus! It would survive an EMP blast.

[@AmyraCarter]

Not I; this 'all-digital' trend is absolute traaaaassshh...lolz

[@chrll]

@@SinisterPuppy ahh? SSDs only deteriorate by writing, not by reading. If you use an SSD like a optical disk (that is, write once, read many times) it will last you forever (well, probably not forever, but for a much, much longer period of time than optical disks that tend to suffer from Disc Rot)

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

My first CD-ROMs were bonus disks that came with the driver I got with my first win95 PC. It came with an encyclopedia, some educational games, some shareware, Descent and Cyberia full games. It was my first pc and as someone who just played on consoles, it blew my mind.

[@Milenko1041THEEDGE]

I've yet to find another KZbinr that does what you do! Its original! Love seeing old tech getting attention in 2020, I love what you do here on KZbin!

[@onesketchyguy6050]

Love watching you geek out about some old tech, always gives me a certain amount of joy ☺️

[@TrainerCTZ]

"Fart, ~n: A usually audible discharge of intestinal gas"

[@Trowo]

URanus ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@yeaaaaaaaaaaahff]

how nice.

[@adamcowood7553]

OMG! I remember my dad upgrading to this drive when I was like 5 years old. The drive before you had to put the CD in a caddy. I never knew what he did for work then so thought it was something futuristic and amazing! Turned out it was Health & Safety. 😕🤦‍♂️

[@nastybedazzler]

It's these things that make me love this channel. I remember back in the 90's when we got a Sony Viao PC (was it Vaio? I dont remember) and we got a Zip drive for it it was insane. 100MB of storage! You've gotta be crazy!!! Just thinking about the things we thought were top of the line back then is so hilarious to think about now. And that PC came with 2 gb of hard drive space and I believe 16mb of ram, which to me, at the time, seemed outrageous. It was our first family computer when I was growing up, and my parents were so out of loop I had to sit there and do everything they needed the PC to do because they didn't even know the first thing about how it worked. It was such a crazy time where everything seemed so brand new and experimental. I don't know if anything will ever be like that again, people just aren't that impressed by tech these days but back then everything was mindblowing. And another story for another time, I remember when my dad impulse bought me the game Unreal just because he wanted to see what the PC could do. Seriously as a teenager back then, playing Unreal for the first time was something else. It was light-years ahead of what I was used to seeing I couldn't believe that a game like that was possible.

[@pmgodfrey]

LGR: "I have this..." Everyone: "WHERE ARE YOU FINDING THESE NEW THINGS! LEND US YOUR TIME MACHINE!"

[@Adam-ln4og]

Ebay? Vintage computer stores?

[@ReallyRyan.]

@@Adam-ln4og That and classic computer forums on places like Reddit can help you get stuff, as well.

[@AndrewAMartin]

@@ReallyRyan. Or I just rummage around in my basement, LOL! I hate to throw old, working gear out....

[@ThommyofThenn]

Technically not new and go online or to goodwill. I live in alaska and my local thrift store often has many old things that would be right up LGR alley

[@pirosoffaireyes]

Poor CDROM is being molested at 7:12 "Do not make the center hole larger" GG

[@ThommyofThenn]

Rape jokes, funny

[@DuckReconMajor]

The thought of a time when someone might think they need to make the CDrom hole bigger seems baffling now but im sure back when one malfunctioned that might be an idea someone had

[@wolverine6104305]

I love watching these as i relax before bed, his choice of lounge music and his calming voice chill me out and an added benifit... i learn stuff

[@TheMx5Channel]

I love your channel, the very nice jazz music, old tech and your golden voice. Keep it up cheers from The Netherlands.

[@foxtail4358]

Love the nostalgia on your channel Clint and I especially appreciate the consistency. All the best from Poland!

[@ManleyEvangelista]

Meanwhile, I just tossed my optical drive for a second SSD. I remember first getting my CD/VCD player in 2001. I was amazed how a disc can hold an hour worth of movie or 80 minutes of songs.

[@macgyver6999]

Yup I still love vcds

[@thierrykurt3867]

I am always grateful that you can retrieve information from the disks, thank you!

[@skins4thewin]

Lol I love how you're able to transport yourself back in time & legitimately appreciate this old bit of tech. Not everyone is able to get excited like this about something so old. It's part of what I love about this channel :)

[@johnsimon8457]

You know, I’ve never seen a text mode audio CD player and for it to be DOS and proprietary from Sony

[@SpearM3064]

I have. My first PC-compatible came with a Sony CDU-31A (1X), which I upgraded to a Sony CDU-33A (2X) as soon as I could afford to. That was a DOS/Windows 3.1 machine.

[@NicolaiSyvertsen]

I used a DOS CD player late 90s that could do bitstreaming to extract audio to WAV files. Then later compressed them to MP3 also in dos using a DOS version of l3enc. After having used Windows 95 for a while I went back to explore the world of DOS that I missed out on as I was a toddler when MS-DOS had its hey day. With protected mode, MS-DOS is really capable and can do a lot of stuff that Windows can as long as you have device drivers and such and it takes advantage of faster Pentium processors except multi-threading.

[@jgrimsley2000]

I installed a bunch of them in the early 90s. The affordable ones had ISA cards that had either the Panasonic or Sony interface (or both.) They required a TSR to be loaded (MCDEX or MIcrosoft CD extension) that was usually loaded from AUTOEXEC.BAT. Most people bought them because it was an inexpensive alternative to buying a set of encyclopedia.

[@MrDuncl]

Look up Cthugha When I got that I was so impressed I sent the author a copy of Robert Miles - Children which I thought suited it perfectly.

[@vmsysprog]

Used Bookshelf a lot. For its time, pre-Google internet, it was wonderful! I worked on mainframes during this time period and the ability to search for related topics across multiple documents was great.

[@teparadox]

I am loving this channel. I have been binge watching all weekend. Love your stuff! It's lighting a fire in me to build an old school PC.... until I look at prices for parts on ebay. :D So with that, I am glad I have your channel.

[@nickbnash]

Thanks for the video. It was cool to learn about a CD drive from the 80s. It’s fun to imagine doing work that would use this in 87.

[@muddymikedd]

My first CD experience was with Civilization 2 Gold Edition back in the day.

[@ckjuicyj82]

I burst out laughing at the "cd rom snuff comic" line. :D

[@thehouseofpain920]

Dear LGR, i like all of your NOSTALGIC topic about computer. It is very informative. Keep up the good work. I used to be a computer technician back in 1992. It brings back the memory of 8086, 8088, 286, 386 and 486. I hope you can feature in your blog about the INTERROGATOR alignment that we use to align the head of 5 1/4 disk drive..

[@ryanmalin]

Fancy new intro Clint! Im liking that very much.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

When these came out I remember mostly being excited about being able to swap around 600mb of files for my BBS users at will.

[@marcusdamberger]

Do you remember how BBS's would only allow you to download so much from their site unless you uploaded crap to offset your download ratio! So instead of finding interesting stuff to download, you found so much crap other users had uploaded and tons of duplicated stuff, that just wasted your download allocation.. It was such a stupid idea that I would have to upload a certain amount to be able to download a certain amount. I'm not a programmer or computer artists. There is no way I could produce enough "content" back in the dial-up days to contribute anything of value. Or were they expecting me to find stuff on other BBS's to upload to their site? So dumb.. Or I'm the one guy with a brand new CD-ROM that cost $2k in today's money, willing to upload the few CD-ROM's available to their site? I was so glad when my father got access to the universities dial-up pool and account and I was able to connect to the internet when it was still mostly academic but just before it got commercialized. There was so much stuff available and no limits on what or how much I could download, I never called another local BBS after that day. Good riddance to them.

[@AChannelFrom2006]

Most BBS's would want you to pay to go off-quota. Back in the day when I was like 10 I would make some BBS software, I even made a program that would display what CDs were online (for BBS's that had multiple CDs). Some of my old BBS doors are still on virtual telnet BBS's even today. I still used BBS's for like about 2 years after I first used the internet, but only because to go on the internet was $5 an hour vs going on a BBS that was the cost of a phone call. BBS's had like a community too much like what Facebook is today where you write on the wall and play some games.

[@nerfspartanEBF25]

1:55 "Improbable baloney" disc. It wasn't enough to have an "Unscrupulous Nonsense" disk?

[@thomasg86]

23:42 OMG! The long lost golf game of my childhood! I haven't seen this since 1994ish? I tried to buy the full version with my allowance but when my dad called to order the company was out of business. Off to DOSBox!

[@Applecompuser]

I must give your credit. You make good videos which have a distinct flavor of their own.

[@MrPeteykins]

I'm old enough to remember the early marketing for CDs when they portrayed them as indestructible, literally showing people driving cars over them and throwing them in the dishwasher and then working perfectly afterwards, LOL.

[@gwishart]

There was some truth in that, since the error detection and correction protocols allowed for successful playback of discs with minor scratches. However, when it came to mass producing CDs it was cheaper to use lower precision equipment and rely on the players to compensate for manufacturing errors.

[@PH96Official]

(22:32) *Just go til I bust* - LGR Out Of Context, 2020

[@rommelgalicia7283]

Just awesome content Clint! Looking forward to the next retro hardware goodie! Stay safe (due to COVID-19), more power, and God bless from the Philippines!

[@projectz975]

installing drivers for a CD-ROM off of a 5 1/4" disk is soo wild to me. deff illustrates just how big of an advancement CDs were

[@SMGJohn]

Stuff like this makes you appreciate computers of today.

[@Benjamin-David]

I’ve noticed on more than one occasion the addition of a random still image. “Luke Wilson” was in this video.

[@patprop74]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZ2vfp-AZ9l3ock the reference

[@Imedge6]

LGR Illuminati, freemacon Confirmed !

[@airspeedmph]

Love the sound editing. The way that the sax faded out exactly at the right moment (9:30). Is like I'm watching a movie.

[@DE-GEN-ART]

18:31 "THITH IS JUST THA SOWTH"!!!- yes Clint, your Appalachian drawl is adorable😊

[@Sowells]

I bet 95% (or more) of those businesses on that 1993 phone book on CD are permanently closed!

[@yogidemis8513]

Crazy on how far technology came in the past 33 years. I can't wait to see what technology will be in another 30 years. It's kinda exciting. I remember my uncle always had the greatest computer tech back then. I didn't want anything to do with it all I was down for was the NES.

[@pegcity4eva]

I predict we've kinda peaked.

[@mrshadowbright4041]

i know this might seem late but thank you LGR for doing those cross overs with pushing up roses i enjoy those videos alot

[@annareismith6843]

For me, it was me working at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Save Program, In Supply in 1987. A looking up stock and parts numbers catalog program. Far better than all those many really big books I learned to use at first. All of them on one small CD-ROM. That was a really big thing to me at the time. Made my job so much more easy. The disc was in a caddy. And CD-ROM Drive was twice as big as that one. More the size of that computer under it. It often had to be cleaned out of all the dust it sucked up in it like a vacuum cleaner. 1st time I saw canned air too. Canned air. That really blow my mind when I saw that existed. I was only 16 years old and working as a student aid part-time in a high school vocational program. I later worked there for a contractor doing Auto CAD for the engineers and using big printers to print the ships plans out. Using the first Computer Coax Cable Network I ever saw to.

[@RetroPCUser]

First CD drive we had was a double-speed back in the early 1990's.

[@karenelizabeth1590]

7:50 OCLC? I can see how a library might want a set of these drives to be able to search OCLC records without having to connect to the internet.

[@carlklitzke9455]

I remember back in the day our library had a row of computers including access to Infotrac (magazine article database.. not the actual articles just cataloging what issues had articles about what), and there was a computer with a 3 or 4 stack cdrom that had.. um.. maybe a road trip map program and one of those "every phone number in America" listing programs.

[@mattbowd]

In the late nineties, every month or so I used to load about 8 CD's into a CD tower (SCSI connected) with legal information on them for a company I worked for. The internet was still too scary for the legal folks back then :)

[@ulfayirtahskberg2]

This was wonderful to watch, one of my favorites so far 👍🙂

[@domtomazo]

Nice! First CD-ROM experience was the bundled software with family's first PC, a 486-DX2 in 1994. It was Microsoft Dangerous Creatures (still got it!) which I remember to be quite fun as a 10-year old at the time.

[@RandomRetr0]

That cd drive is sick! Love the shareware CD, which leads me to the question: what’s your favorite “Shareware Compendium” from the DOS or Win9x period?

[@MaskedGEEK]

Damn, proPhone almost has as many CDs as what the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator has in DVDs.

[@teh_supar_hackr]

I heard the latest Flight Simulator release will have 10 dvds, which is crazy to me for a new release in 2020.

[@EvertGuzman]

iTheGeek exactly how I plan to buy it

[@kojisyntax]

im so glad you stopped on something in the phone directory in my city. Wild.

[@therealfox]

Thanks LGR for remembering my childhood with this nice old piece of technology.

[@twothreebravo]

It's amazing to think about how expensive these things once were when most of us computer people now have a few of them (if not a literal crate) of disused CD drives laying around.

[@nerdmeister2]

15:20 - spooky!... I mean "wow!"

[@LMacNeill]

The first CD-Rom I ever bought was in 1992. It was an NEC half-height drive that required you to load the disc into a caddy. It had a 50-pin SCSI interface, too. I don't remember exactly how much I spent on it, but it was not cheap, to be sure. I remember it came with a discount for a subscription to a CD-based "magazine" called Nautilus. It was a monthly publication that you'd receive on CD every month (or maybe it was every other month? I don't remember.) Kind of silly today, but it was amazing back then -- a magazine with *VIDEOS* and *AUDIO.* Absolutely stunning for 1992.

[@SkuldChan42]

My dad was a librarian and had a bunch of those - they were bundled with the turnkey Ebsco kiosks (Ebsco is still around!) - used for searching magazine index's. When Ebsco transitioned to having multiple cd's (CD changers) he brought one home and I used it for years. It was definitely sub 1x speed - you couldn't play any games with it. It was polled polled io as well. One of the nice things about it - you could set your monitor on top of it - so it acted like a monitor stand for quite some time too. What I did with it was attach it to my BBS system (Maximus BBS!) so my BBS had tons of files for almost no cost.