LGR - Strangest Computer Designs of the '90s

[@SnapshotOfASoul]

I had that Hot Wheels PC for a few weeks. Then they heard of the recall and returned it. I felt betrayed by this, as a small child, because the replacement computer did not have flame decals.

[@jakewilson4679]

I had a pet rock. 😕

[@ConvincingPeople]

I honestly think that the Amiga Walker's design is adorable. I would put itty bitty animal ears on it and name it Betty or Torgo.

[@paulstubbs7678]

How about K9

[@Milamberinx]

I agree, such a cute little compy.

[@hughjass2024]

he's a good boy

[@countingsheeple2428]

You're always trying to convice people of weird... things.

[@QuasarRedshift]

get therapy . . .

[@rexthesheep]

Look, if you can't run Doom on a smart fridge then what's the point?

[@MrYaotubo]

+SheepyTina "Cyberdemon for dinner? Nah ill go with hellknight today."

[@jruonti]

+SheepyTina I was just about to kill the cyberdemon but then mom came to get some milk.

[@bartz0rt928]

+SheepyTina If it's a pentium 2, I don't see why you couldn't. You'd probably need to crack it open to get at a peripheral interface for reprogramming, though.

[@xerzy]

+SheepyTina A Pentium II with Linux could perfectly run the game, huh.

[@alexlelel]

That would be cool to play Doom.

[@DokkaChapman]

I own one of the most 90's photos ever. Its a shot of my dad in double denim unpacking his brand new 'Gateway 2000' (It came in a box covered in cowprint XD )

[@internetranger4702]

link to pic?

[@hlavco]

My dad still uses our Gateway 2000 cowprint box for storing Christmas lights in the attic.

[@boheyo]

A record store recently closed down here in town and took their sign down revealing the BALLER Gateway 2000 store marquee which had apparently been hidden behind it for the past 15 odd years. It's been proudly hanging there in all its cowprint glory in the busiest part of town confusing busloads of tourists for a good six months now.

[@guddergo7116]

No homo, I wanna see

[@rennegaddefoxxe]

Steal it @@boheyo !

[@THEmuteKi]

Oddware and related subjects are actually one of my favorite LGR segments, so, yes. More of these please!

[@idklol4197]

i concur

[@RandomInsano2]

I also agree

[@greenphlem]

same!

[@baadkeming]

Also seconding this.

[@arthas640]

I live not far from Microsoft's HQ so the neighborhood I grew up in had a ton of Microsoft employees (as well as other tech companies), so I had 3 nieghbors and 2 family friends that were total tech geeks when i was growing up. Seeing videos like these is total 90's nostalgia for me and brings back alot of memories of playing around with weird gadgets, trying to figure out WTF half of these things were for.

[@iamsean92]

wow that internet fridge was really ahead of its time

[@Figureight]

That Sega TeraDrive is AWESOME! I want one :D

[@BiggerbyteNet]

+Figureight omg are you kidding? I was just on a binge of your GTA V videos and now you're here? Hi!! :)

[@Armageddon-yt3so]

+Figureight me too. looks pretty cool.

[@TheRealFobican]

Dual Boot before it became a thing for one PC as of today.

[@eshneto]

Exactly what I though when I saw it.

[@o.hudson7363]

Lol me to

[@funkyfox2041]

Packard Bell was _notorious_ for flaky case designs in the 90s--I recall there being a TRIANGLE version of the Corner Computer that barely had enough room to hold a CD-ROM. I personally owned a Spectria 144, so named because it had a 14.4 modem inside, which was a big deal in 1995. On the other hand, the case was an all in one in the most ultimate of definitions: the speakers, monitor, and mainboard tray were one giant unit, all connected and powered by one cord. This worked as well as you'd think. * Everything was managed by a single power button, so you couldn't shut off the monitor without shutting off the PC too. * The speakers were mounted unshielded against the monitor body, causing mad magnetic interference. * The mainboard cavity was a low-profile design, using Packard Bell's infamous ISA riser card and allowing only three tightly packed sockets. Longer cards simply didn't fit. * The unit shipped with a *deep breath* Aztechnologies Washington 144, a combo sound card (SBPro 16) and 14.4 modem that worked poorly at best. (On the other hand, it had the obscure Panasonic CDMKE controller, which came in handy years later.) * The power supply was integrated into the monitor. If it failed, it required sticking your hands into the monitor capacitors to fix (and was a proprietary part, of course). * The VGA cable for the monitor was a 4" pigtail that barely reached the VGA socket it was intended for. Said monitor was also 15" and prone to distortion, but it was hard to replace for obvious reasons. * The IDE controllers were marked upside down on the mainboard. * Worst of all, the mainboard was in a pull-out tray that connected to the power supply via a custom edge connector at the front. This meant that in order to do anything on the board, it had to be completely re-assembled and put back in the case every single time--there was no other way to power it. If that connector broke, the machine was history as the mainboard had no power headers. My particular unit, purchased 1995, had a 420M hard disk, 8M of RAM, and a 1M Cirrus Logic video chipset; my parents paid around $1600 for it with a package of mostly educational software from Knowledge Adventure (which notably was modified to not work on a non-PB machine). I'd offer photos and the like but the unit failed spectacularly in 1997--the IDE controller frotzed, and over the course of a week blew out everything else until it posted nothing but garbage and the CMOS crashed.

[@xnonsuchx]

I think Packard Bell was notorious for flaky/crappy computers in general...probably why they went out of business.

[@danielvogel5252]

Spectria 200CD here... our first home PC. Kept trucking from 95 until 2000 when the monitor circuits started dying and the colors were all funky. Upgraded to a beastly Cyrix built x86 133 MHz processor and a whopping 32 MB of RAM. Damn thing never would accept the Lite-On 32x CD-ROM drive we bought though... still have the books, keyboard and mouse.

[@thetman0068]

HOW DID THE TERADRIVE FAIL?????????!!!!!!???

[@LGR]

Having a 10Mhz 286 CPU in 1991 didn't help!

[@SapphireDensetsu]

+tman008 I can't say the Mega Drive itself did much better in Japan...

[@Domspun]

+Lazy Game Reviews they did came out with a 486, but I guess it was too late and too expensive, oh well.

[@GeoNeilUK]

+Domspun Didn't Amstrad put a 386 in theirs? And sell it for less than the Teradrive?

[@Domspun]

I only know of the japanese Teradrive. Maybe somebody from the UK can chime in on that.

[@fyto2418]

I'd love an internet fridge! Keeping track of the four things in mine has always been a pain.

[@joonasfi]

An Excel spreadsheet could help you with that

[@k-leb4671]

I only got four things in the fridge and two of them still manage to go off.

[@Corkoth55]

people loved using "2000" as a suffix to products especially before the year 2000 even hit.... lol

[@Sheovion]

WINDOWS 2000 *launched in 1999*

[@chevyfan7930]

Omnibot 2000

[@westbrooke1174]

SimCity 2000 was released in 1993

[@thohangst]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4nLipqmp7V1b9E Good ol' Flight of the Conchords.

[@anonUK]

It was passé as of 1/1/00.

[@SuperMouseDV]

You caught my subscription due to covering the Amiga Walker .. thanks for including the amiga and commodore in your channel they cannot be forgotten ..

[@PolarTrance]

I didn't know I wanted this, but now I can't be without it. Dear LGR, please give us more of this.

[@cooperhanke]

I remember the Gateway Destination. When I was an 8-year-old and saw it in a computer magazine ad, I thought of how cool it would have been to watch TV on the same computer you played games on. Never thought I'd have more powerful hardware in the form of a phone in my hand.

[@PixelCollie]

I love learning about weird technology that existed before I did. Its actually so fascinating, your Oddware and Tech Tales videos are some of my favourites :)

[@112BALAGE112]

The sega terradrive is awesome af. We need one with current technology.

[@nathanclark2424]

The closest I can think of is an edition of the PS2 that came with a SDK for turning it into a Linux computer. And that was when I was 5.

[@jayesper4390]

The PS2 and Xbox could have modchips that basically turned 'em into PCs before those were banned. I have no idea what happened with the systems after that (it might have been impossible to sell 'em on eBay).

[@trexindominus8119]

​@@jayesper4390 Wait, why were they banned?

[@Deadagent]

Man, those Megadrive Compatible PC's sound cool.

[@JwopDk]

+Deadagent Especially since you could develop and test games on the same machine!

[@openSUSE5]

+Based King Potato Nowadays, every PC is a Megadrive compatible PC because emulators. And you can develop and test your own ROMs on there if you wish.

[@JwopDk]

openSUSE5 True, but for the time it would have been pretty cool.

[@satibel]

+Deadagent origin pc used to make a pc with an xbox360 built into it.(the big O).

[@Deadagent]

manaquri Newer consoles aren't as interesting imho as they tend to be stripped down PC's to begin with. The Last consoles to be their own thing are PS3 and WiiU. PS4 and every version of Xbox ever uses the x86 architecture wich is just what all modern PC's use.

[@d.l.rittenberry6394]

Anyone remember WebTV? I was just thinking it's funny how things come full circle since I'm watching this video on my living room tv right now.

[@revenevan11]

I'm hoping that the same thing happens with VR now.

[@obsoletegeek]

The original Fujitsu FM Towns PC (Japan only) was another oddball. It has a graphic equalizer on the front, as well as a vertical CD-ROM drive with translucent door so you can see the disc spinning. Groovy.

[@incrediblySmart]

Just found your channel and am really enjoying the old computer gear stuff. There are some interesting stories to tell ... Linspire, Packard Bell, Unisys ... maybe those old pizza Box Mac's to review ... what else? OS's? I still haven't seen Plan9 in action. Keep 'em coming. I really enjoy it.

[@robintst]

Yeah, I remember the PC market in the 90s getting really bizarre once the world wide web began to form and become a new life necessity for the average folk. I don't think my family fit that category though, we were a Commodore household for years before that and I had stuck with my Amiga 1000 even after they went bankrupt. We didn't have a Windows/MS-DOS-based PC until 1996. Never had any of these bizarre cases though, it was just your average bland beige tower with Windows 95, a 133 Mhz Pentium CPU, and an ATI VGA Wonder video card. We had it built by a local mom n' pop computer store that we always bought our Commodore machines from. Great video, LGR, as always! :)

[@Private19872]

I really liked the video. As a suggestion, what about a list of some of the most iconic computer designs. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the compact Macs on such a list.

[@Darthhelmet86]

Would love to see more of these PCs. Ahead of their time or just flat out mistakes its interesting to see the creative twists and turns that have led us to this current day tech.

[@AllAroundBang]

I vaguely remember something about those Hot Wheels/Barbie PC's from '99. Don't remember when or how exactly, I was only 4 at the time, but certainly brings back some nostalgia I had forgotten until I watched this. Awesome stuff!

[@GardevoirEx1]

As a product designer, this video was a pleasure to watch. You know what they say, hindsight is always 20/20, and im sure someone thought it was a good idea at the time, but I wonder whose call it is to revive the fridgeternet device project.

[@tombates9122]

+Daniel Macías The problem with all of these fridge devices in the past is that they were essentially a gimmick, but a very expensive one. With technology being so inexpensive now, I think they will not become popular due to some big manufacturer incorporating the tech into their top-of-the-range products (as has been done in the past), but by the gradual inclusion of cheap tech incorporated into mass produced budget hardware (likely from China). When people are choosing between a $3000 fridge or a $5000 fridge with a gimmick, they will likely choose the $3000 fridge. However, when the choice is between a $500 fridge and a $550 fridge with a gimmick (such as internet access touchscreen, likely ras-pi platform or similar), a lot of people will spend the extra $50. Just my opinion :)

[@vgamesx1]

+tom bates well hey, as someone who likes to cook on occasion $50 extra for a fridge with a built in tablet would be great for looking up recipes, not only that with a notepad always being attached it would make up keep easier too, since you can immediately write down what you need now instead of doing it later and forgetting. (but maybe that's just an issue with me}

[@TheRetarp]

+vgamesx1 I bought my fridge specifically because the doors are dry erase boards. Need milk and eggs boom write it on the door!

[@stigrabbid589]

Daniel Macías You don't need a fancy Fridge, just duct tape a Tablet to your existing Fridge and hook the charger up to it. A roll of duct tape costs less than $5 unless you get fancy stuff, and you can get a cheapo tablet for under $50, go all the way up to one of the Samsung Galaxy Tab or iPad models on the high end, or any tablet in-between the 2 extremes. You can also duct tape a bluetooth keyboard to the door, or even duct tape one of those tablet/laptop hybrids, such as a Microsoft Surface Pro series tablet/laptop.

[@1BalBal1]

the packard bell corner pc was actually my first modern pc (old one being the xt). it's funny how I remember the awe I felt while I was putting it together and running it for the first time... it was amazing seeing it again in this video!

[@Letmeseethattron]

This is the sort of stuff I love. Keep it up LGR!

[@NexeL_NKC]

2:23 THAT'S STUNT TRACK DRIVER!!!!! Oh the nostalgia! I absolutely ADORED that game when I was a kid. Won that trophy at the end of the game room track many times. That victory music still gives me chills. If mattel re-released Stunt Track Driver with more modern graphics and more gameplay, car and track customization the like, I would be ecstatic. That game defined my childhood man!

[@BrenTenkage]

MORE STRANGE TECH MORE STRANGE TECH PLEASE!

[@PAPASTAIN]

+Bren Tenkage oddware, IMO, is the most fun bit of looking back at old technology, since it brings light to how technological advancements are actually made (AKA: they're always a crapshoot) I can't wait for ten years from now, when people make videos on all those weird-ass tablet forms that cropped up around 2010-2013

[@GeoNeilUK]

+TRASH?????? Or netbooks which seem to be strangely ignored

[@nastystang113]

The cheap ones were so bad lol.

[@OznerpaGMusiC]

another killer vid! even a history of computer monitors would be interesting, since i'm sure they started off tiny and progressively grew bigger until the Gateway monsters history of mice, keyboards (maybe they all didn't start out with the current standard layout), consumer printers, USB, sound cards, video cards...

[@HAZARDOUS88]

That TeraDrive honestly looks so awesome!

[@ovalwingnut]

I've been compu'ten since the Trash-80 arrived and I've never seen any of these... What a WILD LIFE I could have had :) Thank you 4 the VIDeO.

[@kuzadupa185]

I miss the freedom the designers and engineers seemed to have with computers and gadgets of the 90s and early 00's... it was like the wild west. Designers were drawing up random designs, throwing them against the wall, and seeing what sticks! Heck, rhe designers were NOT even bothering to talk to the engineering team to ask if th3 design makes sense from an objective engineers point of view! Who cared! The updated version that actually worked would be put out in stores the next year, and people will still buy it!

[@bobbobato]

Those Mattel PC ads were so ubiquitous when I was a kid. They were the coolest thing ever! I almost feel like trying to get all the games released for it.

[@Schnikemotha]

Is there a chance you could get your hands on an internally broken one of these and build in a new computer? I'd love to see what one of these cases looks like running 1080p++ games.

[@LGR]

I've already got a broken Hot Wheels PC on the way to me :) We'll see what I can do with it!

[@oz_jones]

+Lazy Game Reviews Can't wait man!

[@wildbilltexas]

+Lazy Game Reviews Have fun with it! I hope it has a ATX design. I've seen those Hot Wheels PC's and/or monitors now and then for 15+ years at thrift stores here in the southwest and never thought about buying one.

[@AnkMyrandor]

+Mike Malat with those flat cases, placing the mb is quite hard and not talking about airflow, which wasn't really a thing those days. A decent cpu fan won't even fit inside most cases. not even talking about top of the line stuff ;)

[@guerillagrueplays6301]

+Br0kenRudder True, but with how lightweight modern monitors are I'm sure an industrious user could cut out a lot of the support chaff inside, including on top, and mount an extra fan or two where they wanted.

[@Karls_Clips]

As soon as you told me the price of the TAM i shouted "WHAT!?" in public, good job.

[@GameSack]

I don't know if it counts because it's still modern and being sold, but how about the computer I'm using to type this comment on right now? That's right, the Mac Pro Late 2013! What a name! This one can literally be mistaken as a trash can but it has tons of power which is fantastic for commenting on KZbin videos. Tests show it can make 36 more comments per hour than the best Windows PC on the market. Time is money and it adds up!

[@LGR]

It'd totally be on a list of strange modern designs! It reminds me of the subwoofer that came with the Twentieth Anniversary Mac.

[@GameSack]

tical2399 How very judgmental of you!

[@GameSack]

tical2399 That's cool bro.

[@Automatik234]

+Game Sack You need to get one of these SEGA PCs and make a review!

[@Automatik234]

tical2399 Well. They don't game on PC, so they don't need a Windows PC. Also, Mac has better software for like Video and Multimedia.

[@confucious42]

My uncle had a Gateway destination with the 36” CRT. he passed it on to me in the early 2000s when he updated to xp media center and a plasma. That screen was a beast! I'd be willing to bet its one of the biggest CRT displays ever made, when it came time to get rid of it it had to be taken out in pieces.

[@Barnacules]

I remember the Gateway Destination PC, I wanted one so bad when it came out but the price was ridiculous.

[@darioperezdario2638]

Very good selection of computers, Lazzy. I remember the first one that appears in the video. I believe I have seen him in the computing accessory of a Buenos Aires newspaper. The rest did not know them. This video was curious and interesting.

[@EposVox]

The 20th Century Mac's subwoofer looks just like the new Mac Pro!!

[@Viczarratt]

somewhere around 2001 or 2002 i remember seeing some of those Packard Bell corner PC's... and it was in my local library! i did'nt care too much about computers at the time and i forgot all about it until i stumbled across your video. nice design.

[@SendFoodz]

wait did I just hear "$7000 Apple trashcan"? huh..

[@VuULF]

The new iPhone or Mac Pro? 🤔

[@elizataylor1726]

The more things change huh?

[@oscarmacintyre6007]

Nah they ment the iPhone X

[@justingovak3632]

i remember seeing one of those barbie computers at a place i was working at, and like the vio states it was broken and couldent figre out what was wrong with it.

[@cool3865]

it pretty much was, yes it had a BOSE speaker sound system but it also came with OS7.5, luckly you could upgrade that to OS9 but if anything went wrong with it you couldnt repair it at all. the screen was smaller than the performas and quadras of the time. i still like the computer but if you can find one, be prepared to pay alot of money for it.

[@IncapableLP]

"Apple Product[...]Subwoofer that looks like a trashcan!" I am having a strange deja vu!

[@MarkTheMorose]

Yes, more please! I remember an odd desktop case, most likely Packard Bell. As I recall, the motherboard sat in a horizontal position in a hybrid tower/desktop case, the bottom bulged out and held the mobo. I don't recall if it was just an angular inverted 'T', or if it curved outwards. It was probably contemporary with the 'corner PC'.

[@Jimboola]

I recall the 'Internet Fridge' caused quite a stir when it was shown on UK programme 'Tomorrows World' - although I'm pretty sure very few were sold. As the name implies the show was a nerds wet dream & actually lasted about 3 decades in a prime time slot.

[@neeneko]

Another fun area to look at strange designs is to get away from the consumer grade stuff and look at what workstations and mainframes were doing. Thinking Machine put out mainframes that looked like they were right out of sci fi, and SGI got pretty creative with its cases. In another direction, the whole 'computer on an expansion card' was a fun experiment. Bought a Mac but wanted to run PC stuff? No need for an emulator, just put an entire IBM AT in your expansion slot!

[@StrobeFlashLite]

Computers made for browsing the Internet? *coughCHROMEBOOKScough*

[@StrobeFlashLite]

kfcnyancat Did I say Chromebooks are garbage? I just said that companies like Dell predicted internet-focused devices. Plus, stuff like the WebPC were made before things like the cloud were a thing

[@sinephase]

+StrobeFlashLite true, and they wouldn't be so bad if they were cheaper, or at least cheaper than laptops that can do the same (and more). Not to mention the $1000+ chrome books I've seen before :O

[@sinephase]

***** botnet? LOL what? XD

[@sinephase]

***** do you know what a botnet is? XD

[@unholylillim]

I fucking despise Chromebooks.

[@VicodinElmo]

This was awesome. I'm sure someone has already mentioned this but that final Dell system just screamed "coffee machine" as soon as I saw it. Well, not literally. PCs that scream out the names of random kitchen appliances are probably not practical consumer devices, but you catch my drift.

[@RustyNickels]

Tonight I'm gonna compute like it's 1995.

[@1775Dreamer]

No mention of the NeXT? That was a truly weird and innovative computer--inside AND out. It was so far ahead of it's time that it took the industry nearly 10 years to catch up to it's design principals...

[@oofta.gaming]

I thoroughly enjoyed this! 😊 Thank you!

[@LGR]

Happy to hear it!

[@oofta.gaming]

Nicholas Scarpinato ^ 100 percent agree

[@ryang239]

+SupaNintendoGirl cool to see you on here :)

[@Dustie1984]

Random note: Internet-equipped fridges will become standard only once most major markets start offering online shopping and delivery. Only then having a fridge that can place orders for you will start making sense. That, and having some way to let the fridge read labels on food products inside it (RF, near-field communication, etc.?)

[@HonestUsedCarReviews]

90's was the decade of fuzzy design in everything! Good video LGR.

[@valkir293]

The Packard Bell corner PC was my first ever computer, bought for me by my parents. It was a Pentium 120mhz with 16MB RAM and was freaking amazing at the time. I remember me and my brothers running down the stairs on xmas morning and it was all setup on the new desk, complete with a copy of Frontier Elite 2 and Duke Nukem 3D. Good times.

[@mikekz4489]

That Apple computer can be seen on the desk in Jerry Seinfeld's apartment in the last season of the show Seinfeld. It wasn't until now that I knew it was an Apple computer.

[@bobbyberetta4206]

Cool little Easter egg

[@gameboypunk660]

was also shown in Bruce Wayne's home office in "Batman and Robin" man I saw that garbage in movie theatre!

[@tomysshadow]

I remember as a kid going to Compesmart or Smartecomp or whatever that store was called and thinking the computers with their see through coloured plastic cases that let you see the inside looked so cool.

[@spiff2268]

The Corner PC might've faired better if they'd had the cords coming out the bottom.

[@DanSlades]

man some of this stuff I remember others I had no idea existed. but those magazine shots at the beginning of the video... that nostalgia

[@deanfranz]

Wasn't that Apple 20th Anniversary computer on Seinfeld?? That was in Jerry's apartment! By his phone!

[@powerpete3111]

Yes it was and it was also in a Batman movie

[@bebespeaks7827]

In 2001 my parents tried to get my elderly grandma connected to email and basic typing word pad by buying her the 1999 Compaq Presario. It had a monitor on a solid frame but all the corners were rounded and the then the tower unit was also very rounded and bumpy in how it jutted put away from itself. She learned to use email and a word pad, and a few cd rooms but I think she never truly liked using computers. She had a Dell XP later on down the road until 2012 but then decided to writing everything longhand in cursive script and using us postage stamps. I don’t miss that Presario one single bit.

[@null2846]

Man, I want a Sega Teradrive.

[@Rokios]

I had the Mega PC it was badass.

[@LGR]

+John “The Justified Ancient” Jenkins I've got the Mega PC myself, it's a very fun machine to mess with!

[@Lukeno52]

+Literally an Xbox So do I, it was a great idea even if they only sold a small amount of them.

[@RightfulFallen]

+Literally an Xbox We all do, man.

[@tripdefect87]

I love the little cartridges for the Tiger Learning Computer, kind of has a cyberpunk feel to it

[@AnonymousCaveman]

the Sega one is a real cool idea tbh. mixing PC gaming and console gaming... plus my childhood megadrive (genesis) too :D

[@gregoryschaiberger3573]

My first IBM compatible computer was an emerald green Acer Aspire that I got in 1995. That was quite unique in a day with beige box computers.

[@TigerofRobare]

The Dell WebPC looks like it began life as a coffee maker.

[@zackakai5173]

I'm impressed that anything from 1996 had a DVD drive in it. Pretty cutting edge stuff for the time.

[@1903tx]

I'd like to see an episode on pre-internet "online" services. I have vague memories of a small computer with a flip-down keyboard that my dad rented from maybe the phone company that had some really basic online functions. I don't remember much about it but I think it was about the size of a portable 5" CRT TV. This was probably around 1988 or so.

[@lilyrose1117]

Your videos always leave me so nostalgic, I recognize a few here from my childhood.

[@matthewrease2376]

That Dell computer looks like a coffee machine.

[@revenevan11]

Now I want a computer that runs water through the cooling loop to heat it to brew coffee lol.

[@unfazedjae2645]

Or an XBOX 360

[@nathanallan1]

I used to own a Magnavox desktop PC-- NOT a game machine but what seemed to be a really expensive SCSI machine from its time-- had a very fancy reconfigurable 3.5" floppy drive, scsi internal CD and a hard drive that I cant' remember much about. I had never seen a Magnavox computer before or since, had no idea they even made one-- but this one seemed very high end. I want to say it was a 386 (may have been a 286) that was running win 3.1.

[@ItsJustMilkISwear]

japan was way ahead of the curve releasing their computers in black.

[@jeanqui339]

The Teradrive looks awesome.

[@mccalejk2]

I have this "corner" PC in my attic right now. I bought it on clearance at my BX. It was the first PC we bought that had a CD-ROM drive in it.

[@tacojiminez7243]

I'm surprised no SGI systems made it in. Want to talk about things that look like trashcans? The O2 is it! If you're looking to do various timeframes, the Tezro is one from the early 2000's that has to be seen to be believed. Definitely hoping you do more of these.

[@backslash_iii]

I would KILL for a teradrive. DOS and SEGA side by side in one machine? You've got my entire childhood in one box!

[@Barnacules]

How was I not already subscribed to you? You're amazing... #Popcorn (If you'r ever in Seattle I'll buy ya a beer).

[@LGR]

Haha, well I'm glad you stumbled onto the channel then! I've enjoyed quite a few of your videos myself, especially the room tours and 3D printing stuff :) I was in Seattle for the most recent PAX Prime, maybe I can take you up on that next time I'm nearby!

[@Barnacules]

+Lazy Game Reviews Let's do it, I should be at PAX prime this year, just need to find the right sponsor to let me take over their booth and say obscene things over the microphone like I did last year in the 3D printed Storm Trooper suit at Cooler Master booth :D

[@thebaron512]

We sold Packerbell's for a short while and had one of corner PC's for display. Don't recall selling many of them, but we stopped selling them after too many failures.

[@bradleybeauclair8282]

I remember the Barbie and Hot Wheels PCs cost too much. It was like paying an additional $100 to say, "Barbie" or "Hot Wheels" on it.

[@mermaidgirl0075]

1990s “let’s make a internet fridge” 2020 “huh, what’s a internet fridge”

[@NoobixCube]

I'm surprised Sega never released the Teradrive outside of the Japanese market. It would have been a small hit. Not a gigantic success, but it would have sold well enough, I think. That said, the computer market in Japan was entirely different at the time. For all the Atari, Sinclair and Apple machines here, there was an entirely different gamut of manufacturers in Japan doing similar things.

[@Kantaros]

+Michael Vaughan I don't know. Maybe they could've attained a small success in Europe, where they already had a strong market presence with the Mega Drive. But then again, at that point we Europeans weren't really that interested in home computing.

[@trailersic]

+Andrea Luciano Damico Are you kidding? Europeans had a really large interest in home computing, it was more common for someone to play games on a computer than on a console. Also as said in the video we did essentially get the sega pc in europe. the Mega PC. I remember there was an advert in my town which somehow got left up way into the late nineties (I guess someone lost the key to the poster case) The problem is it was a really overpriced low powered PC with a megadrive built in, really you may as well have just bought a pc and a megadrive separately.

[@Kantaros]

Well, at least where I live computers started catching on in the mid-2000, when the ISP in my countries started providing ADSL plans that didn't suck. Growing up (we're talking about early-to-mid nineties) computers were relegated to government buildings that needed to process relatively large amount of data (essentially, hospitals and town halls). Sometimes you ran across the odd ad for a computer in non-specialized press, mostly by Olivetti (who at that time was struggling to get a foothold in a sector that wasn't the Italian government) and IBM. At that time consoles, especially Mega Drives and NES clones, were largely prevalent here. Heck, I actually *was* the first kid in my classroom to get a computer at age 11. I do admit, however, that thing may have been different in other parts of the EU.

[@trailersic]

Andrea Luciano Damico Yes I agreee things are probably different in other parts of the EU I'm in the UK and grew up in the 80s in the UK. and everyone I knew seemed to have a computer, not pcs as we know them today but home computers that you plugged into the tv

[@NoobixCube]

In Australia, home computers were commonplace. All of my friends had Ataris or Commodore 64s, into the early 90s. I was the odd one out with an IBM compatible machine. I think an IBM compatible machine with a Megadrive built into it would have gone fantastically in the Australian market. Parents wanted computers they could use for their work, not that any home user had an idea what that might be at the time, and they wanted something they could put games on for kids. Obviously, _any_ computer fit that description at the time, but one specifically marketed that way would have captured a lot of attention.

[@JoeBee9]

Your exotic hardware videos are my favourite. Fascinating what hardware manufacturers came up with only for it to fade into obscurity again. I would love a video featuring the Unisys Icon; my elementary school had them at one point but I never saw them again thereafter.

[@Barnacules]

I had a Compaq Persario 3020... Well, no not really, nobody did :P

[@LordAndHighMasterOfExcellency.]

that amiga walker case is adorable and i kind of want one of that design for my modern rig.

[@md_vandenberg]

Okay, I know I can't be the only one that wants an Amiga Walker. Alright LGR, time for more weird computers!

[@tombates9122]

+Matthew “Crash McNeal” VandenBerg And it should be said - the Walker isn't what caused Amiga and Escom to go bust. They were already deeply in debt to creditors before they purchased Commodore and really should not have been allowed to do so.

[@TiredFerret]

It kinda looks like the houndeyes from Half Life! It's cute!

[@james64468]

+Matthew “Crash McNeal” VandenBerg Interesting fact. I found out someone made a case like that. He had to promise a person not to make another one or to give away his away. I believe it on amibay.

[@5roundsrapid263]

The Walker looks like a Sybian. If you don't know what that is and want to look it up, it's definitely NSFW.

[@rogertulk8607]

Fun to watch. I'm a bit surprised I didn't see the Sinclair/Timex computer in here.

[@lactobacillusprime]

Love them beige boxes, they're so boxy and b-b-beige

[@synystur21]

They go great with a boxy '90's Volvo!

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

Me too. I hate those boring black boxes. So dull, so gloomy like hi-if I separates.

[@jennybailey2998]

The bit about the Amiga Walker is really sad! before PCs I had Amigas & I quite like the look of the Walker's case.

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

I remember reading CU Amiga about the Amiga Walker. I think they’ve called it “video toaster.”

[@909crime]

I knew I remembered this video.

[@Magnavox-1972]

It comes at a shock to me that the founders of Compaq didn’t talk about these weird PCs they made in their own documentary. I’ve seen “Silicon Cowboys” multiple times and they don’t mention any of this. How disappointing. :(

[@jacksonjack7838]

So you've done PC Box videos... but what about the manuals man? Lol maybe its not as interesting as I think it is, and though not a PC gamer myself, I always enjoyed the thicker manuals that came with my Ps1, Ps2, Gamecube Games and such... and reading about Characters and Story Synopses. Lol probably my favorite part of every video is when you show the box and pull out everything. ...That sounds creepier than I mean it to.

[@LGR]

PC game manuals are a planned topic for the future!

[@jacksonjack7838]

Lazy Game Reviews It is wise to meet my Demands...

[@Snolferd]

+Jackson Jack :O

[@fountaincap]

+Lazy Game Reviews Awesome topic! Check out the manual for Dangerous Waters if you haven't already. The thing is a beast. You could probably operate a submarine on your own if you read it.

[@theprincesspeach94]

I remember when I was little my mom would come in and work on this computer plugged into this giant heavy tv. Its amazing how light and small these things are these days

[@SoundBlackRecordings]

Those Dells at the end looked like coffee pots lol

[@Ghelmaron]

Thank you for your videos, LGR. They are always a nice balance of information and entertainment!

[@DeepVoiceGamer]

I would like more videos like this. I like catalogs of the bizarre.

[@LGR]

Got another one in a couple days actually, stay tuned!

[@DeepVoiceGamer]

Sweet. Can't wait to watch it.

[@lazydragon2551]

I swear the 90's and 80's as well as the 70's will always fascinate me in terms of technology, cartoons, toys and what have you.

[@dunbrine47]

Those were interesting examples. How about Strange Computer designs of the 80's or 2000's next?

[@LGR]

Definitely on the table if enough people like this video and request more!

[@upyoursize]

+Lazy Game Reviews Was that even a question??? I've been watching your show for years and I've loved every bit of it! More Oddware, more reviews, more Sims, more everything, please.

[@Scorpious187]

+upyoursize I personally think LGR's Tech Tales could be its own channel in and of itself. I love every one of those videos. (Well, maybe not the McAfee one, but that's 'cause McAfee was one weird dude. lol.)

[@moretimebeats1566]

Wow, that first one was my first PC in 1996, I totally forgot about that. I played a lot of games on there, that I am rediscovering on your channel. Pure nostalgia!! Love your channel!

[@vincentmartin2222]

the dell webpc look like a cofee machine mix with a cash register