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The cadillac of all computers..

Blogs > lvent
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lvent
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States140 Posts
October 18 2011 15:26 GMT
#1
circa 1996 are these:

[image loading]


Sad thing is I remember growing up around this time and would have killed for one of these lol. I felt so damn old when it was emailed to me .

***
DamageControL
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States4222 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-18 15:47:31
October 18 2011 15:42 GMT
#2
What level of computer would this be comparable today? Less than a smart phone?

edit: actually, i think it's pretty clearly less than a smart phone. Is there anything today that would be equivalent?
Liquid | SKT
RubiksCube
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Germany259 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-18 15:50:17
October 18 2011 15:45 GMT
#3
I actually remember having a 33 MHz PC that had a "Turbo Button" that made it go up to 66 MHz.

Thing was a beast had 16 MB of RAM, too.
aguy38
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
131 Posts
October 18 2011 15:49 GMT
#4
1.6 gig hard drive! shit just got real.
lvent
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States140 Posts
October 18 2011 15:49 GMT
#5
On October 19 2011 00:42 DamageControL wrote:
What level of computer would this be comparable today? Less than a smart phone?

edit: actually, i think it's pretty clearly less than a smart phone. Is there anything today that would be equivalent?


I doubt it lol, I just find it fascinating that this was a monster back in the day; hell it didnt even have a 56k modem in it! Perhaps an old school Razr phone with web browsing?
lvent
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States140 Posts
October 18 2011 15:50 GMT
#6
On October 19 2011 00:45 RubiksCube wrote:
I actually remember having a 33 MHz PC that had a "Turbo Button" that made it go up to 66 MHz.


Overclocking like a champ haha
DamageControL
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States4222 Posts
October 18 2011 15:50 GMT
#7
On October 19 2011 00:49 lvent wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 19 2011 00:42 DamageControL wrote:
What level of computer would this be comparable today? Less than a smart phone?

edit: actually, i think it's pretty clearly less than a smart phone. Is there anything today that would be equivalent?


I doubt it lol, I just find it fascinating that this was a monster back in the day; hell it didnt even have a 56k modem in it! Perhaps an old school Razr phone with web browsing?

I think my current phone with web browsing which isn't smart is actually better...perhaps.
Liquid | SKT
Ropid
Profile Joined March 2009
Germany3557 Posts
October 18 2011 15:56 GMT
#8
On October 19 2011 00:42 DamageControL wrote:
What level of computer would this be comparable today? Less than a smart phone?

edit: actually, i think it's pretty clearly less than a smart phone. Is there anything today that would be equivalent?

This is the best possible PC graphics from that time:


This runs in 320x200 resolution completely on the CPU without any help from the graphics card. It is perhaps comparable to a Nintendo DS? But I think the Nintendo DS processor gets help from a graphics chip for 3D stuff.
"My goal is to replace my soul with coffee and become immortal."
Belano
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Sweden657 Posts
October 18 2011 15:59 GMT
#9
Haha, I too feel a bit old now.
Bring back 1 supply roaches.
josemb40
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Peru611 Posts
October 18 2011 16:02 GMT
#10
almost had one of those :p back in the days
wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
lvent
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States140 Posts
October 18 2011 16:06 GMT
#11
Im just trying to remember how I played games like WC2 and Rainbow 6 on these "graphics" lol
fezvez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France3021 Posts
October 18 2011 16:09 GMT
#12
Ah, so much good memories

My father bought in 94 the very best thing available, because he wanted something that would last (how wrong he was!)

If I remember, it was a Pentium 90 and a, wait for it, 15 inch screen! For the modest sum of 4000$ (I cant believe someone could put that much money in a PC...)

And yeah, Quake was THE hype game at that time =)
endy
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Switzerland8970 Posts
October 18 2011 16:32 GMT
#13
It's funny because my first PC had exactly those specs. Pentium 133mhz, 16mo ram, and 1.6 gb hard drive. I remember my dad feeling like a pimp telling everyone he had a 1.6gb hard drive and everyone going 'whoaaaaaa'. And indeed pimps we were, because we had a Matrox video card with it's own dedicated 2mb memory !

Feels weird when I compare it with my Samsung Galaxy S2....
ॐ
eviltomahawk
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States11135 Posts
October 18 2011 16:34 GMT
#14
Woah, nostalgia to to the max.

My dad didn't let me mess with our Packard Bell too much since he was afraid of crashes so much. However, he did install a bunch of games from a bunch of demo CDs as well as some educational games.

Freddi Fish. 3D Dinosaur Adventure. Louis the Lion. Ah, the memories.

Oh, and I also played my first RTS on my old Packard Bell in the form of the Age of Empires: Rise of Rome demo from one of my dad's demo CDs. I still remember how I thought the game was "Age of Vampires" instead of "Age of Empires," and I was thoroughly confused when I couldn't find any vampires in the game. Fun demo, though I struggled to play it as a 5-year-old.
ㅇㅅㅌㅅ
GigaFlop
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States1146 Posts
October 18 2011 16:44 GMT
#15
I remember seeing a box in my attic for a Pentium 3 computer, that's as far back as I can go. I think I used it mainly to play chess. It was a lot of fun, because you could change the colors of the board and pieces, so I would play black vs green and red vs white.

I also have a Commodore 64, but I have no clue what kind of display it needs :/
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ "Shift-Q oftentimes makes a capital Q" - Day[9] || iNcontrol - Alligator from heaven = ^
Sm3agol
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States2055 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-18 16:55:56
October 18 2011 16:54 GMT
#16
I probably had something like that back in the day. Playing Battle of Britain!! Good times. I remember thinking, "Wow, can graphics get any more real??"

[image loading]
jdseemoreglass
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States3773 Posts
October 18 2011 17:04 GMT
#17
My first computer had a 7GB drive. I honestly have no idea how I managed.

Then again, it was enough to play brood war Oh, and Sim City 2000 on floppy disks! Oh the nostalgia...

These days I've been shopping around for a 120GB solid state drive. It's amazing how fast technology advances.
"If you want this forum to be full of half-baked philosophy discussions between pompous faggots like yourself forever, stay the course captain vanilla" - FakeSteve[TPR], 2006
Zombie_Velociraptor
Profile Joined May 2011
274 Posts
October 18 2011 17:07 GMT
#18
I still remember 'gaming' on a 64bit Commodore, where you'd literally have text characters for graphics in some of the first games...
eu.exodus
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
South Africa1186 Posts
October 18 2011 17:24 GMT
#19
lol windows 95 ftw! i remember that shit like it was yesterday. playing prince of persia 2d and gateworld was so epic back then! the pixels were the size of peanuts. I remember when my da bought a compaq presario pentium 3. i was like i champion among my friends because i could run war3 fullspec without lag lol. awesome times
6 poll is a good skill toi have
Vansetsu
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States1454 Posts
October 18 2011 17:33 GMT
#20
I can totally remember thinking 64mb of ram was just godly... I can see something just stupid like tb of ram someday...

I makes me wonder though, soon how long will it take to make something that can push technology? I think the characters in the FF movie hand like 10,000 pores or individual strands of hair or something like that, and were considering them as "digital actors" as I imagine the amount of time it takes to create these types of models is insane.
Only by overcoming many obstacles does a river become - デイヴィ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ド
lvent
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States140 Posts
October 18 2011 17:34 GMT
#21
I wish I could remember the specs of the first computer my parent's bought my. However what I can remember is it was so slow that the 1st night we had it; we got setup on AOL(yea yea haha) And they were all amazed how you could chat with people via im. The computer itself was so bad that the letters came in the window one at a time lol
Thorakh
Profile Joined April 2011
Netherlands1788 Posts
October 18 2011 17:43 GMT
#22
Haha my first computer ran Windows 3.1, I was so happy I had a computer! I had no clue how computers worked though. Oh, how things have changed...
RaLakedaimon
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1564 Posts
October 18 2011 17:45 GMT
#23
My first family computer didn't come until like 1996 but I remember playing Need for Speed and actually "thinking" I was there, but then again I was 7 and also thought our printer was used to print real US currency. Fun times. Oh and my favorite old game was one that came with a box of Check called Chex Quest ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest ). Sexy fucking game it was too.
Equinox_kr
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States7395 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-18 18:17:16
October 18 2011 18:16 GMT
#24
On October 19 2011 02:33 Vansetsu wrote:
I can totally remember thinking 64mb of ram was just godly... I can see something just stupid like tb of ram someday...

I makes me wonder though, soon how long will it take to make something that can push technology? I think the characters in the FF movie hand like 10,000 pores or individual strands of hair or something like that, and were considering them as "digital actors" as I imagine the amount of time it takes to create these types of models is insane.


There are things that "push technology."

Some animated movies (Pixar-type 3d movies) take hours just to render one frame. Just imagine how long it takes to make a complete movie, including editing and recreating scenes because they weren't good enough or whatever.

[e] Also, my first computer was 200 mHz Pentium 1 processor (fuck yea) with 3 gigs of HD memory. Came with a floppy drive AND a CD drive, too.
^-^
T.O.P. *
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Hong Kong4685 Posts
October 18 2011 18:19 GMT
#25
Yeah, my parents paid 2k for a pentium 1 computer. If you factor in inflation, that's a whole lot of money today. I can't even remember doing much with that computer. My parents didn't use that computer much either; we were all noobs. I just remember asking my parents for a new computer because neopets took too long to load a page.
Oracle comes in, Scvs go down, never a miscommunication.
T.O.P. *
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Hong Kong4685 Posts
October 18 2011 18:21 GMT
#26
On October 19 2011 02:45 RaLakedaimon wrote:
My first family computer didn't come until like 1996 but I remember playing Need for Speed and actually "thinking" I was there, but then again I was 7 and also thought our printer was used to print real US currency. Fun times. Oh and my favorite old game was one that came with a box of Check called Chex Quest ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest ). Sexy fucking game it was too.

Omg, I remember playing Need for Speed 2 a lot. For some reason, the colors always loaded wrong on the computer. The sky would be green and the middle of the track would be purple. I knew it was wrong because one in a while the game would tease you by loading the right colors. But I didn't mind it at all, Need for Speed was fun.
Oracle comes in, Scvs go down, never a miscommunication.
Gridlock
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United Kingdom517 Posts
October 18 2011 19:35 GMT
#27
Hehe I had the Packard Bell one.

IT HAD SPEAKERS BUILT IN TO THE MONITORRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
Mementoss
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Canada2595 Posts
October 18 2011 19:37 GMT
#28
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Hospital I remeber playing this game and thinking it was so hard and awesome as well as the free captain crunch game and 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night, get an insanely high score by like letting out frankenstein?

Also before having a computer I used to go to my friends and watch him play the skiiing game where the monster ate you and chips challenge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu96xMwFVXw
-_-
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
United States7081 Posts
October 18 2011 19:50 GMT
#29
On October 19 2011 00:56 Ropid wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 19 2011 00:42 DamageControL wrote:
What level of computer would this be comparable today? Less than a smart phone?

edit: actually, i think it's pretty clearly less than a smart phone. Is there anything today that would be equivalent?

This is the best possible PC graphics from that time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weDzy_FovQQ

This runs in 320x200 resolution completely on the CPU without any help from the graphics card. It is perhaps comparable to a Nintendo DS? But I think the Nintendo DS processor gets help from a graphics chip for 3D stuff.


Quite a few old 3d games look horrible with the perspective we have today. Particularly FPS games. Quake's graphics, however, are clear and enjoyable. It reminds me of SC and BW.

When designers create graphics in order to serve the gameplay, the graphics always stand the test of time.
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 18 2011 19:59 GMT
#30
OH SHIT I think I had the one on the left lol
Derez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Netherlands6068 Posts
October 18 2011 20:19 GMT
#31
These days there seem to be fridges and washing machines with more capabilities then these had.

Goes so fast.
Warble
Profile Joined May 2011
137 Posts
October 18 2011 20:20 GMT
#32
On October 19 2011 00:42 DamageControL wrote:
What level of computer would this be comparable today? Less than a smart phone?

edit: actually, i think it's pretty clearly less than a smart phone. Is there anything today that would be equivalent?


Go much more basic:

My calculator is more powerful than those computers.
Torenhire
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States11681 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-18 20:32:49
October 18 2011 20:32 GMT
#33
I have (had?) a working PC junior....man. 11" floppy disk or w/e they were, hahaha. That stupid display built into it...I just remember the keyboard it comes with is all messed up, letters and numbers are all wrong and I have no idea how that happens.

I have three games for it I think, I forget which though...some rogue-like (maybe rogue itself?) game with 100% ascii graphics, it's good stuff haha.

SirJolt: Well maybe if you weren't so big and stupid, it wouldn't have hit you.
Kal_rA
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2925 Posts
October 18 2011 20:58 GMT
#34
Just makes you think about all that we take for granted now days...
Jaedong.
jacosajh
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
2919 Posts
October 18 2011 21:31 GMT
#35
I had one of those $3000 Dell's @ 266mhz, 2GB HDD, and 32MB RAM.

I was so excited I skipped school for two days and read Britannica Encyclopedia (included discs) all day long.
Deleted User 135096
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
3624 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-18 21:59:32
October 18 2011 21:59 GMT
#36
Good lord this brings me back. The first computers in our house were a Commodore 64 (fuck yea!!) and a BSR that originally came with the Cyrix 386 processor. I remember playing games like Ringworld and Legends of Valour on it, as well as all of the kickass games (Ultima I-III) on the Commodore...how things have changed.
Administrator
rebuffering
Profile Joined December 2010
Canada2436 Posts
October 18 2011 22:05 GMT
#37
lol i remember having a turbo button on my 1st computer, think it was like 66mhz or something. good times playing commander keen.
http://www.twitch.tv/rebufferingg
HardMacro
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Canada361 Posts
October 18 2011 23:18 GMT
#38
I have memories of playing educational games on an INTEL 80586 when I was around 3, my dad was the province's chief computer engineer at the time so it was pretty cutting edge technology.

Then the first Pentium came out in 1993.

I feel so old.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ saving this here because I use it, don't know how to make it, and don't know it's name
Torenhire
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States11681 Posts
October 18 2011 23:22 GMT
#39
On October 19 2011 07:05 rebuffering wrote:
lol i remember having a turbo button on my 1st computer, think it was like 66mhz or something. good times playing commander keen.


Hahaha, I remember that button....the front of my computer had "POWER" "TURBO" "RESTART"

My dad was like DONT TOUCH THE TURBO BUTTON ITS BAD


Fuck I wanted to press that button so bad every day.
SirJolt: Well maybe if you weren't so big and stupid, it wouldn't have hit you.
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