Gateway Astro: $800 All-In-One PC from 1999! 

My PC growing up. We actually got ours by collecting points from the back of potato chip packages. Looking it up the points were called "Ploids". The points could then be used on a site from the company which held regular auctions. We figured out based on the average points the Astro was going for, it was a bit cheaper to buy a ton of chips from Costco than it was buying the PC outright. We spent days cutting out the points, taping the chip bags to preserve them for a bit longer, and sending them in. In the end we got the PC for a couple hundred cheaper and a huge supply of somewhat stale chips.

That new shot you're using of the desk with the window behind it is absolutely next level

You know, I gotta really stop and appreciate the fact that EVERY LGR video has full on English captions That is an amazing job done by Clint, and I deeply appreciate it! English is not my main language so I still have a little bit of trouble hearing it sometimes, it makes watching these videos a lot more fun! Thank you, Clint!

The internal VGA connector was probably very handy for Gateway's Techs who needed to test the machine on their workbenches, rather then being forced to reconnect the machine's CRT every time. So +1 for thinking about those people.

LGR videos make me feel like I'm trapped in a 1991 mail-order computer catalog, but in the best possible way?

That clip of the Rugrats Astro commercial hit me like a nostalgia truck. I know I saw that ad as a kid but had completely forgotten about it. Seeing that clip was like a small revelation.

The cow pattern is why I wanted a Gateway when I was younger. I was told that it was only on the boxes. Thank you for showing me actual cowputers.

Anytime I watch an LGR upload, I have this inexplicable urge to buy late 90's beige hardware for my own nefarious nostalgia purposes.

When I see 90's PCs that I didn't even have, I'm filled with nostalgia I never knew I had!

This was my very very first pc! we got it used from a family friend and used it as the main family computer for a few months before my dad bought a kitted out gateway performance 1000. After we got the performance 1000, I had the astro in my room and used it to play stuff like Falcon 4.0 and rollercoaster tycoon a bunch

That storage room is better organized than any Radio Shack I ever worked at.

I worked in a Gateway factory for a couple months in 2001, specifically on the teardown line, where they'd take all the parts out of the units folks traded in and set them up for refurbished or rebuilt units to sell later. I don't recall having seen any of these come through, though. Coulda been that the CRTs were taken off beforehand. But I was only there for a couple months either side of 9/11 and only worked the very end of the line where they sent the empty cases to wherever it was they went with all the labels and stuff removed.

I remember these. My local mom-and-pop computer store back in the 90s was selling them as "kitchen computers." They even seemed to have put a custom disk image with a bunch of recipe and home software (like a demo for Quickbooks or something).

Great vid. You're like the Bob Ross of old hardware.

Wow! You sure have stepped up your production game! That new home is serving you well!

Videos like this are exactly what I need when I'm feeling low. The jazz, the tech, and LGR's sense of humor. Thank you for the top notch content as always.

Wow LGR on Friday🎉 thank you Clint the gateway to a good weekend!

I love the insanity of the design inside the case - it's like someone made the prototype version and management were like "brilliant, ship it tomorrow, don't change a thing"! Nothing better than fixing a stone dead machine by simply replacing a battery (or removing it) either.

Technology changes and years move on, one thing that will always be the same is how pleasing it is to look at the shadows of leaves in sunlight. Great job on the setup. Really gives that good nostalgia feel

10:35 My favorite LGR thing is the "Jazz and Boot break" where the voice over fades out, the jazz stops soon after, and then it's the satisfying sounds of the POST and boot sequence. So so so cozy.

Oh my gosh your storage room 🤯 Looks like old tech heaven.

Having grown up in North Sioux City with parents that both worked for Gateway, I always love to see coverage on anything Gateway related, but to see the Astro? The very computer that raised me? You are doing god’s work here XD I don’t remember the exact details, but Christmas 1999 they gave the employees free Astros, so my parents had two, one for me and my brother, and one they gave to my grandparents, while my parents enjoyed their high end Gateway tower with all the bells and whistles. So many memories using the Astro, Age of Empires was indeed one I played tons, as well as classics like the Madness games (Midtown, Monster Truck, Motocross, etc), Re-Volt, Road Rash, Rollercoaster Tycoon, the vast library of Humongous Entertainment games as well as other edutainment titles, I could go on and on and on. My mother recalls finding me up in the middle of the night with a carton of ice cream on the Astro at age 2 or 3 on multiple occasions, you couldn’t keep me away! My father thought the Astro was junk and that they were hard to repair, maybe other issues apart from the battery popped up? Or he was just spitballing, who knows. He got rid of my Astro without telling me one day in 2010, and it took me 10 years of off and on searching to find another, never letting this one go!

Former Gateway country store employee here I remember working on the Astros a lot. They were pretty finicky didn’t run well and had overheating issues but I love the way they looked!

That is the most well composed shot of a desktop computer that has ever existed. Seriously, no million dollar TV ad in the 90s ever looked that good. And just a very nice photo/video clip. Very rich, pleasing contrast, layers of complexity, just a great shot.

This is definitely one of the most cutest looking PCs I've ever seen.

I think I speak for all LGR fans when I say we would love some official tours of your storage rooms! I admit I went back and paused it multiple times throughout that part of the video so I could see all the goodies you had in there. Another great video, as always.

All the shooting locations in the new place remind me of those super detailed nostalgia paintings that one artist does with all the different games on the shelves and computers or consoles around. Real cozy brought to life.

Am I the only one that was so impressed with the storage room; no wonder the number of video went down for some time; this is some serious professional organisation; so neat and nice to see I would love to browse that room!

In my city they were going to open a Gateway store, they had it all setup, painted the walls up with the cow pattern, had the sign up and the retail space setup and everything... and then it never opened. This was sometime between 1999 and 2001.

I loved the initial shots of the PC in the kitchen; it called to mind all the old advertising copy when the PC was being framed as a household appliance much like a television!

We used to fix these back in the day by replacing the CMOS battery. Our first one on the bench we replaced everything to no avail. One of the techs happened to think the only thing that hasn't changed was the CMOS battery that was transferred over to the new board since it didn't come with one. Old and new board worked fine with a new battery. We made a mint off of these in the day.

When I worked in a Gateway tech support call center in 2001, this was the machine _everyone_ wanted to get a call on. Walking grandma through replacing a hard drive on anything else was just a nightmare. This one was so easy. It was super rare but sometimes we'd get someone calling in for support on it.

Your computer video shooting room has come out so nice and cozy. It's so unique compared to tons of RU-vid backgrounds of only walls of games and random nerdy nick-nacks. 🤓 love it

I think I remember these being higher end prizes on Double Dare 2000. Quite the interesting piece of 90s computer nostalgia.

I am SO jealous of your storage room. So many old CRTs and old PC parts, so much tinkering potential!

Big step up in production values, I appreciate the effort that went in to this video, well done LGR.

Man, when you first boot it up it sounded like the thing was about to launch into space. Those were some sweet, nostalgic sounds.

I often find myself watching these videos and feeling a nostalgia for a time I'll never have back. From when I would go to my mom's house on school holidays and we would play for hours on the ancient pc in the kitchen she had been gifted by a friend. I wish I had the kind of money to try building an old machine myself, if only to gain confidence to do a new one, but I have no idea what I would do with the thing once it's built as I have very limited space. As it is, my tower stands on the floor with my table having barely the room for a mouse and keyboard side-by-side.

lol 2:06 got to love the fan screwed directly into the heatsink

Brave choice with the IBM Deathstar! I went through three of them on my first own computer.

Love those weird shaped 90s relics, great video!

Thanks for the video Clint! My grandparent had one of these for a number of years. I spent hours playing a snowmobile game on it. When they got a new one, it became mine. It ended up dying a few years later. I loved that machine.

The love, care, and attention that you give to old obsolete technology just warms my heart.

Clint, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the details -- between how you dress and stage the shots, to highlighting the sounds and noises the vintage tech makes --- the details in the user experience. Thanks again for what you do! And further congrats on the new space. It seems great that you are now able to have it all under one roof with space to spread out (proper workbench, storage, etc).

Oh man, Gateway will always live in my heart. We had Gateway computers in my house growing up, from our Windows 95 PC, to the XP machine we upgraded to, to my first laptop. I still have some extreme brand loyalty to those things. And Gateway Country stores will forever be my happy place.

Nice to see your new house starting to pay off, that storage room is awesome!

There is something satisfying about your videos. Soothing voice, musack and mechanical hard drive nostalgia is good for the soul.

Love how Clint cleverly hid the thermal paste application. Nicely done! Your thermal paste is neither correct, or incorrect! Perfect!

Oh Gateway Astro one of the few pc's that I barely even see. I only see them in some magazines or some grainy old photos on the web but not in a video. It is so nice to see one in action and being able to see what is capable of when it came out way back in the late 90s. Pretty neat

Your framing is getting really good. Very pleasing shots of the computer with almost mesmerising shadows playing through the window in the background.

Man, I really miss the random PCs from the 90s. They definitely had a weird style to them that is timeless in a way.

I so love the fact that you hold the fan blades when blowing them out with compressed air. You wouldn't believe how many people blow up stuff from their pc just by simply blowing fans without holding them and unknowingly create voltage which goes back into the board and other components and fries things up. Kudos!

We had a Gateway Country store close to where I grew up. My friend and I were in our early teens when it opened up and we would walk there once in a while to see the new computers. They had a few computers setup with internet access and printers that you could use freely. We would find guitar tabs online and would print them out to take home. We'd literally walk out with like a ream of paper we had printed guitar tabs on and nobody in the store ever cared, haha.

Had one of these as a kid, and it was such a fun computer. It was my first real experience with USB!

That was one of your best videos in awhile my man. Thanks. You channeled LGR of old there.

Windows 95 to Windows Vista era stuff is always such a nostalgia trip for me. Great video as always!

5:30 At least this means that if the monitor ever goes bad, the computer isn’t completely useless since you could just take it apart and connect a different one.

Yay new LGR always makes my day when these come out 😁

Had one of these back in 2000-ish that was given to me by a local office. The blue channel had given out on the CRT display, so it was permanently dyed this weird pink hue and was relatively dim. I found out that it was still under warranty while I was looking for a replacement tube. I claimed the warranty, and after it came back, it worked great for years. I remember specifically using it as a side PC to look up stuff on Thottbot and for Yahoo messenger before the mainboard finally gave out in I want to say 2006.

My Grandma (RIP) and Step-Grandpa had a Gateway (granted an actual tower/monitor but still) for the longest and it actually aged pretty well with it being net and gaming capable even 5+ years later. Windows 98 makes it all the better as it has some of the best retro games. So many fond memories that I never knew how much I'd miss.

I really love the shape of this computer. It's very cozy.

Great new sets/ illumination, congrats on the new place!

Being from Durham, NC myself it's cool to see a local shop donate a classic PC like this for one of your videos that you managed to resurrect!! Never knew of the shop personally but they seem to have rave reviews. May have to give them a look!!

810 graphics, early onboard sound, no expansion options... Truly the stuff nightmares were made of. It totally deserves being stuck with a death star HDD.

That could make a really nice CRT sleeper PC actually, esp. with their decision to have the monitor connection as a regular VGA socket, etc.

Nice to finally show off the house as close to finished now with as much cinematic flare as possible.

this is the 2nd pc my family had. my mom tried to open a sewing shop, and this was meant to be her work computer. after her shop failed, we brought it home, and it pretty much became my computer since i used it so often. one neat piece of default software that came on it was an instructional video that introduced what USB was since it was new technology at the time, and it predicted that it would be the default port going forward for all peripherals

This was the first computer we had in my house growing up. I remember it so fondly and miss it so dearly. I've been trying to find one for sale for ages but it seems like these are one in a million now. Gosh how this brought back so many happy memories of my parents and I sitting around browsing the "new to us" internet. Thank you LGR for bringing such nostalgia back to me.

I remember when Gateway was the best thing around. It's really sad the company crashed so hard 😭

Dude, when I heard the Intel chime, all the memories came crashing down.

That shot of the PC and the wavy reflection from the windows was pure 90s bliss

It looks like an eMac, and iMac G3, the Molar Mac, and a classic 90’s Gateway monitor all rolled into one and I love it.

Just made myself a warm cup of tea, and LGR happens to upload at exactly the same time ... Oh yeah, this is going to be a wonderful afternoon.

I recently bought a Compaq desktop that has the 810 chipset. Mine came with a 500mhz piii though. The 810 graphics actually aren’t bad for many games earlier than 1999. They have a nice output quality as well.

My mind is blown that thing ran NFS and Quake as well as it did. Neat little PC I'd never heard of. Nice work dude.

Well done on a great video as always LGR. I'm always intrigued by Gateway machines, since there were very few of them here in Aus back then. The move to your new house is already doing a tremendous service to the quality of your videos. The sets, the workshop, the storeroom, it's all paying off. Bloody awesome mate keep it up.

Hey Clint! As always, thanks for the awesomeness 🎉

My first PC in the nineties was a Compaq. I loved that the installation tutorial featured John de Lancie from Star Trek: The Next Generation

your videos like this one always bring me back to being a kid playing games on my old windows 98 HP Pavilion desktop, very cozy and relaxing stuff to watch man

Just what I was waiting for a new video! 😎 Always a delight to watch. Thanks!

I saw one of these years ago on a forum and always wanted one, totally thrilled to see it on LGR!

Love these retro computer videos.

Nice filming spot. It had that nostalgic feel from the childhood

Sweet! Thanks for the very nice and cool video once again Clint. 👍 It was astronomical. 😄

Love your retro computer videos!!!

That Rugrats game you featured at the end... Did they seriously make the in-game inventory screen... _Inside Tommy's friggan diaper?!_ What the *Hell,* Gateway? Did you even LOOK at this game before approving it as a bundle?!

Thanks for the video review. You have the most interesting and detailed video reviews. I sink into nostalgia.

Clint, this was a lovely watch. You have really nailed your presentation and production. I never had one of these machines as my dad typically had mid-high level PCs in the house.

Now thats a brand name ive not heard in a long time

Oh man I remember working on these. The biggest issues with it were the fact it uses the Intel i810 chipset (limited to 512MB of RAM) and the USB controller would flake out and stop being recognized properly by Windows 98. Since it ONLY has USB ports, this meant you had a driver install window, for the crucial device for mouse/keyboard functionality, that you couldn't interact with. Even more daming, no PCI/ISA/PCMCIA slots either.

I remember as a kid I thought FPS drops were just part of the game lol. Wasn't until Half-life 2 came out that I got into actually upgrading the ram, GPU and overclocking. I thought "upgrading" a computer was adding a CD-RW drive or an external HD lol

I love your videos, and your voice is so soothing!

I worked at GW country stores from 1999 to 2004. Right up to the point when they were purchased by eMachine and closed all stores. The Astro was Ted's answer to Steve's iMac but the iMac had better marketing and the ipod gen 1 was right around the corner. Those were the days. I can't wait to see your next oddware review of a Gateway Plasma TV from 2002!

The wait for new vids to start showing since your move was definitely worth it. I can see a few improvements from the main shots, b-roll, and other shots like in your work area. Makes me want to finally redo my desk to record larger projects. That storage solution seems pretty well played out with motion lights, if I'm not mistaken. Might do something similar for my things.

A PC that was only made for a year and doesn't work at all when the clock battery fails - no wonder these are so hard to find. Great video, Clint.

Thank you for making sure each episode is properly captioned.

what a fantastic looking all-in-one!

Totally love this PC :) Would be so epic to toss in a new age upgraded system. There is some great usb to IDE and floppy controllers, ;) Plus the wire harness looks super easy to convert :)

my favorite Clint quirk is when he randomly slides into his duke nukem voice

Thank you for sharing this tutorial