Originally published at: What it was like buying a computer in 1995 | Boing Boing
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Amiga? We used to have an Amstrad back in the '90s. The joke at the time was that the British weren’t any good at making computers because they couldn’t find anywhere to put an oil leak.
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Harsh but fair.
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- Lucas Electrics has entered the chat. FRESH MEAT!
(The joke being that British automobile electronics of the era weren’t any better than mechanical bits, I guess?)
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The joke being that even the decent British cars were vexed with oil leaks, so much so that it could be presumed to be a feature. By extension, a decent British-made computer could be assumed to require an oil leak.
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What I remember about buying a computer then was reading computer magazines to figure out what specs were now worthy of consideration, generally 2x as good as my old computer in every way, and then deciding to again order from Quantex Microsystems - Wikipedia . I miss Quantex.
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If we’re being nostalgic for old computers…
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That last conversation about what will you be doing with your computer is one I’ve had many times with friends and family looking for advice on what to buy.
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Joe Lucas - Prince of Darkness…
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Username checks out
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Because of my family’s austerity politics, I grew up with a vague sense that any kid with an Amiga or a Teddy Ruxpin was either landed gentry or grotesquely spoilt, and when someone I knew got a Power Wheels I assumed the police would be called. The idea that someone my age could own a Macintosh didn’t even occur to me until I was in my teens.
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Oh it had that scent over here too. Apple very very nearly did not survive the ‘90s. I’m an Apple fan, but ‘90s Macs (of which I did own a couple) were objectively not great.
Somewhat annoyingly, it required Jobs coming back and bringing NextSTEP with him, along with ruthlessly optimizing the product line to save it.
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By 1995 you had companies like Gateway who sold full PC packages mail order who were stealing the thunder of electronics stores. I liked getting my PC that way. It gave me the illusion of customization. They took up an entire desk. CRT monitors were such a pain to move around.
3.5 floppies still dominated the storage medium. CD ROMs were making inroads.
3 of my all time favorite computer games were from that era:
Civilization, Wing Commander and Ancient Art of War (at Sea, In The Skies).
The last one being one of the first real time strategy games, was also customizable.
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I will say this about Macs of that era, unlike PCs they were compact. They left room on your desk.
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Back then the San Fernando Valley had a couple of weekend-only open-air tented marts where industrious geeks would put together a system for you on the spot and substantially cheaper than ‘store-bought’. Customers would choose monitor size, memory, etc. In the market at that time for a desktop PC, I visited one of these marts. A surprisingly large crowd of customers. Very busy. I have no idea what sort of assurances or warranties were offered if at all.
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So this is the topic for us oldtimers, then?
Bring it on, I say!
I can add my first modem to the mix. Connected to a 80286 12 MHz with 1024 kB of RAM, it was thrilling to see the bytes falling through the landline at 9600 baud. If I had had someone who helped me sustain my interest in programming, I would have landed a completely different career. I am sure of it
Buying that thing was a mess, I read the magazines and dreamt about the 32 MHz 80386, but family austerity politics (kudos, @bobtato , I’m totally stealing this) did not allow for that. The 286 was a bit embarrassing, sometimes. But at least it had a 40 MB HDD! And I did use it for a bit of Pascal, not much more… so the usual conversation, as @Amstrad described it, had me on the receiving end and I ended up with that kind of outdated tech. Still big money…
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My family was quick to have a 14.4K baud modem. My Dad was using the family PC for work with the Army Reserves. Using DARPANET for logistics systems. Basically delivery tracking for stuff going from one base to another.
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Luxury.
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