LGR - Strangest Computer Designs of the '90s 

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.

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

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.

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 )

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

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

wow that internet fridge was really ahead of its time

That Sega TeraDrive is AWESOME! I want one :D

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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

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! :)

Man, those Megadrive Compatible PC's sound cool.

That TeraDrive honestly looks so awesome!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 RU-vid 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!

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

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

Computers made for browsing the Internet? *coughCHROMEBOOKScough*

MORE STRANGE TECH MORE STRANGE TECH PLEASE!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I remember seeing that Packard Bell corner PC on display at the local Circumcision City back in the 90's. PB was known for their weird computer cases. I actually still have a Packard Bell (Multimedia PB500) I use exclusively for programming older Motorola two-way radio gear, which I use only because of its unique compatibility to run Motorola's older radio software. I bought it new in 1997 for $1,400 and that was just for the tower, keyboard and mouse with NO monitor! It came with a 200 MHz Pentium-II with 16MB EDO ram, 4.3 GB hd with Win95. I "upgraded" it to 32 MB ram and Win98. I've never had to replace so much as a single component and 21 years later it still works perfectly. Originally, programming Motorola radio gear was it's secondary task but the past 15 years that's been it's ONLY function. To date, that old Packard Bell has been THE most reliable, longest operating PC I've ever owned!

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

Man, I want a Sega Teradrive.

I'd love to see more of these! really anything about the history of computers to stuff like this, your informational videos are always super entertaining.

That gateway dimension also came with a Harman Kardon stereo receiver and speakers :-D perfect gaming station!

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!

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.

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

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

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

This was like a month's worth of LGR oddware in one video. I'm hooked

That Dell computer looks like a coffee machine.

Who else was brought back by the opening and seeing Encarta as a program the first Wikipedia ha ha. I really loved not having to flip through big encyclopedias.

LGR, I'd like to see a Tech Tales about Commodore and the Amiga. The Amiga line seems to have this mystical reputation, and would like to learn more about it.

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

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.

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

I'm so glad you mentioned the Hot Wheels and Barbie PC's. When I was working at a local computer store back then we saw a handful of those come in. All of them came in for different problems, so I couldn't really say what the major issue was. I will say that we had one that let out the blue smoke when we turned it on after the customer had brought it in. That one turned out to be a power supply issue. From the looks of them though, I never got the sense that they were particularly well built units.

The Teradrive looks awesome.

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.

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.

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!

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

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

The internet fridge is like the flying car. Always being touted as "coming soon" and offering a bunch of great features that sound great on the surface but never pan out to be all that useful in real life.

Somebody, I think that it was Olivetti, made a portable wrapped in friendly reddish rubber. It was likened to a hotwater bottle.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! 😊 Thank you!

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.

The internet fridge feels like something you would see in the Fallout series, considering they have Mr.Handy's, a form of smart cars, pip boys and other stuff like that.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

I knew I remembered this video.

I used the Compaq integrated PC, it was actually pretty good, it had nice sound (JBL speakers) and was a useful audio CD jukebox. Went to the bin around 2005 or 2006.

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...

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

Those Dells at the end looked like coffee pots lol

Awesomeness!!! I also liked the IBM Aptiva M series, and the S series, the black S series was super cool.

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

_2019: Quadstellar case_

Get a TeraDrive/Mega PC. GET IT.

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.

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.

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

I think the last one looks like a coffee machine

Man, if the corner PC had front-mounted cable ports, it’d be incredibly cool and if probably want to collect one now for how cool it looks.

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

This Narrator is fun

MORE LIKE THIS DUDE

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.

When I grew up in the 2000s, we had these huge ass COMPAQ monsters in primary school. Most of my experience with desktop PCs was at school, and despite the fact that I only left school the early 2010s, they were still using those huge ass CRT monitors!

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

Worst computers from the past 6 years: Chromebooks.

There were some really interesting designs back in the 90s. I specifically remember my compaq and packard bell PCs for having weird (read unique) tower designs. The PB had a base that was about twice the width of the actual tower, also felt like it weighed twice as much as a normal PC at the time did. The compaq was just strange, all sorts of new buttons on the case and the keyboard, the tower wasn't a box it instead had some oval elements to it - 20+ years have passed I can't recall the exact details but I clearly remember that it was real interesting to look at, not so nice to use though and it went back to the store within a week or 2 of purchase. That teradrive thing looks neat, I've never heard of that before... seems like a great idea, combine console and PC - they're mostly using the same components so why not?

Love this type of content!! Not sure if you've done it yet, but you should talk about software that came bundled with PC's. I was always intrigued by the selection of random games, educational titles and bloatware that came with each iteration of PC's my parents purchased. From the first IBM that came with EGA Trek (weird?) to our Alienware that came with a boatload of Sierra OnLine/Activision games (Mechwarrior 2 being one of them which I'll never forget).

i want to go back in time with a microsoft surface or an ipad or something and show it to myself in the past... 1994 me would probably shit his pants

the long line of apple trashcans

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!