Finally found it! | TheaterFire

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WhenDarknessFalls81@reddit

Oh god....the horror of selling these at circuit city.

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CSHawkeye81@reddit

Hopefully someone on here has an eMonster. They were at least halfway decent low end gaming pcs at the time.

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LameSuburbanDad@reddit

I assume you took it home and booted it up....I also assume its still booting up. Jokes aside, cool find!

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

It did not. :( silver lining was the dvd rom & floppy drive work perfectly and read disks no problem on another machine.

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uberRegenbogen@reddit

Perfectly good Win2k machine (other than the corrosion damage mentioned in another comment).

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ParsnipLate2632@reddit

NEVER OBSOLETE!!! 466 MHZZZZZZZ!!!

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ParsnipLate2632@reddit

No I will base my reality on the large print and demand the manager if their reality doesn’t match mine, for it is them that are wrong!

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

This brings many nightmares back from when I was the Staples computer tech/BM sales dude.

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Sentrinal@reddit

I never had to be sold on a BM. After a few days, the pain always forced my hand.

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uberRegenbogen@reddit

Reading this on the throne, after getting past a couple of days of constipation. 😆

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nucflashevent@reddit

Out of curiosity, what was the trick? Obviously they weren't handing out new computers every two years, etc.?

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canthearu_ack@reddit

Nah, a lot of them were really good for people on a tight budget back in the day.

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

I mean, yea. They were budget option silicon back in the day.

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MacAddict81@reddit

IIRC some Celerons had decent overclocking overhead, but I was rocking a 486DX4 still in 1998, and didn't get into overclocking for a couple more years with the Pentium MMX and AMD K6-2.

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The_Grungeican@reddit

my first PC was a K6-2. i loved that thing.

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MacAddict81@reddit

I got into the K6-2 mainly because I already had a Socket 7 motherboard, it was an easy upgrade, and quite a boost over my overclocked Pentium MMX.

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when i was younger we had a family PC (PowerMac 6100) at my moms. later i moved in with my dad and didn't have a proper PC. my grandmother on my mom's side recognized my interest and put up some money for my uncle to build me one. i still have the case to it. on a side note, we had a subscription to MacAddict magazine, and we still have a collection of all the CDs they sent out with the magazine.

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MacAddict81@reddit

I have scans of the entire run of the magazine and ISOs of the discs on one of my iBook G4s, the other is my Photoshop machine. The family PC in my case was an IBM PS/2 Model 80 upgraded with a 486DX4 that was monopolized by my brothers, my main interaction with Macs was doing Desktop Publishing in Aldus Pagemaker on a IIsi with a Radius Full Page Display, and I desperately wanted a Mac of my own (I bought "Build Your Own Mac and Save a Bundle," and carried it everywhere). Eventually my aunt gave me a Quadra 610 (virtually the same "pizza box" case as your family Power Macintosh 6100) of my own, that I had until my stepmom smashed it to bits for something that didn't concern her at all. I moved out at 15 shortly afterwards, and I'd visit and use the family PC when nobody was home for years (the house had the aluminum framed windows you could lift out of their track and remove, even if they were"locked"). I bought the Pentium MMX system from a guy named Darren whose house was always covered in hair from his German Shepherd and always smelled faintly of dog pee, it cost me 4g of weed and a power bong made from a Super Soaker 150 (I called it the "Super Toaker 150," because I was too stoned to be original with the name).

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The_Grungeican@reddit

This is a pretty awesome story, even if it wasn’t the best times for you.

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MacAddict81@reddit

It definitely wasn't the worst of times, I moved in with my girlfriend from my dad's house (she made a sinner out of me at least three times a day), and her absentee mother used to bring us cigarettes and groceries every Saturday (she stayed with her boyfriend, closer to work, the rest of the week). Most of the time it was just me, her, and her two younger sisters. We had on-site laundry, my girlfriend knew how to cook real food (not just stuff from a box), and we always had places to hang out and chill, people to see. It could have been a lot worse. Sure, there were some downsides, we had a TV and VCR, but only animated movies appropriate for her five year old sister. We'd get the second day on three day rentals when her best friend's mom would rent movies though. We had to walk, hitchhike, or take the bus to get anywhere else, and bribe the ten year old to watch the five year old, or find somewhere to park them while we were gone. The small grocery store within close walking distance had a very limited selection. All of the doors, except the bathroom, were blankets held up with push-pins, and most of the time people ignored the existence of the bathroom door because we only had one bathroom.

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The_Grungeican@reddit

i can dig it. i remember times like that when i was growing up. i kind of bounced around from time to time, staying with friends in less than ideal conditions. i wouldn't exactly rush to go back to those times, but i look at them fondly. something about the wonderful chaos every new day brought. adventures against less than favorable odds, and whatnot. it's the kind of stuff that makes us into the people we are.

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

You could push em a bit for sure. I had a 486DX2 from 93 up until 1999, got this same model 466 as a replacement for it then graduated to a k7 850 build and doing the graphite trick on the pads to bump it up to 1GHz.

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MacAddict81@reddit

I read about that trick in Maximum PC, back in the day.

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

I was so nervous bridging the pads, but it worked! The K7 I had was the thunderbird version. Used a HB pencil & a credit card to keep it straight & not make a mistake.

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MacAddict81@reddit

I would probably have used masking tape and any random #2 out of my girlfriend's sister's backpack, because I'm classy like that.

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carcenomy@reddit

As opposed to what at the time?

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Pierlas@reddit

The Pentium series of course. I had a Celeron for a short stint but it was so bad (just, everything cut down) compared to the Pentiums. The price cut wasn’t that much compared to the significant performance drops in games and applications at that time.

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n1ghtbringer@reddit

The original cacheless ones were hot garbage, but once the Mendocino came out they were a solid deal. Especially the 300A for obvious reasons.

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carcenomy@reddit

And gave 440LX owners meaningful upgrade - Celeron 533 drops in and absolutely smashes any of the Pentium II FSB66 family.

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Suturb-Seyekcub@reddit

They are shit. This computer is e-waste.

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Sample_And_Hold@reddit

Celeron 300A begs to differ.

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OldDiehl@reddit

Never obsolete. *wink*

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randombits0110@reddit

Celron was nearly obsolete leaving the factory.

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thepfy1@reddit

Not if you overclocked it.

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PiratesOfTheArctic@reddit

I remember their bioses being tied down a fair whack, had one of these with windows me!

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bhiga@reddit

I'm a longtime Windows guy but "Windows ME" has always felt like a torture request.

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PiratesOfTheArctic@reddit

Yes! Trying to do any kind of reconfig on that was virtually impossible

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Stcharlesmatt@reddit

Awww Netscape!

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BacklashLaRue@reddit

I had one.

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MBSMD@reddit

Think the $99 upgrade to the newest model offer is still valid?

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MainlyMyself@reddit

Good ol' Intel Celery.

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

With real fiber!

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Inspiron606002@reddit

I've got one of these never obsolete eMachines too. It's a 633ids. It's about as awful as you'd expect lol, but its in pristine condition.

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Putrid_Succotash_175@reddit

i still shudder when i see "celeron"

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

CELERON

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il_biggo@reddit

\*shudder\*

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DangKilla@reddit

Quite possibly the worst PC’s ever made

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

I believe this one was worse: [the i-Opener](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-Opener)

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emuboy85@reddit

I had that celeron, go in the bios and push it to 525 MHz, it's free real estate, I survived 4 years with that trick

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TheEvilBlight@reddit

I had a Cyrix one and one of these. Those were the days.

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

Now that’s a name I haven’t seen in a while. Cyrix, the CPU killed by Quake!

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Killertigger@reddit

The first free computer! With lots and lots of strings…

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AppendixN@reddit

I designed all those labels!

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HardlyRetro@reddit

Really? Sounds like you might have some stories! Did you work for eMachines in the 90s?

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AppendixN@reddit

eMachines was our client in the '90s. I worked for Razorfish, it was early days when we were just a small office of about 30 people in San Francisco. We had been working with the big retailer Computer City, creating the "future of online retail" (ha) for them, when they got bought out by CompUSA. Our main client was their CEO Stephen Dukker. He took his payout and used it to co-found eMachines along with Young Song. Dukker had done a lot to innovate how computers were sold at retail, and Young Song was well-connected in Korea from his work at TriGem. They wanted to basically make the VW Beetle of home computers, inexpensive machines anyone could understand how to buy and set up. We did all their branding and marketing strategy, including designing their logo and all the "identity" work both on the screen and for their packaging. Kelly Kliebe designed the logo, I did a bunch of packaging stuff including the labels on the machine. It was pretty fun. I was with Stephen Dukker while he made all kinds of "bloatware" deals that let them sell the computer under $500. It was a crazy low price for 1998, so they basically subsidized the cost of the machine by bundling software from companies that paid them to be on there. Young Song was a fun guy - he'd always have a bunch of eMachines in the back of his van and just hand them out to whoever wanted some. We were using them in all kinds of projects around the office, like an R2D2 in the bathroom that used an eMachine for its guts, and I mounted one eMachine in the trunk of my Honda Civic, and wired it up to a custom console I built that had a screen from an airplane seatback mounted in it, so I could play MP3s in the car. eMachines are kind of a joke today, but at the time, they made it possible for a lot of people to have a home computer who would never have been able to afford one from Apple or Compaq. I think they were eventually bought out by Gateway, by then we weren't working with them anymore. I still connect with Young and Stephen every so often, just to say hi.

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ezkarabetis@reddit

Holy hell. I worked at a small PC repair shop in the early 2000’s. I must have replaced 20 of these motherboards in the few years I was there. This image brings back several forgotten emotions.

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Familiar_Asparagus14@reddit

1.44mb floppy drive will never be obsolete!

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

Absolutely! The machines board is cap plagued and corroded from electrolyte leakage, BUT… the dvd & floppy drive still work! I will be converting the innards to new, with adapters for the floppy & IDE dvd drive so I can use it. Will have to mod the bottom of the case to get some extra air in there to cool whatever I put in it.

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deja_geek@reddit

Are you going to keep the hardware period accurate or just gut it and put modern hardware in it?

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Bulky-Travel-2500@reddit (OP)

I will be updating it with a modern ITX board & PSU. The chassis will be left alone completely along with the drives. Going for a sleeper build with functional DVD & floppy drives. No rainbow puke hardware. The TriGem Florida C board that was in there suffered catastrophic multi cap failure & ruined it. Only thing salvageable was the celeron & 1 stick of sdram.

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DavidLaderoute@reddit

What is rabow puke hardware?

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No-Structure-2021@reddit

Probably RGB lighting would be my guess.

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DavidLaderoute@reddit

These guys marketing was great. They were the recreation of Gateway 2000. The cow guys from South Dakota IIRC.

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cheezballs@reddit

Never obsolete, has a disk drive molded into the plastic.

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DeadSkullz627@reddit

I have a few of the newer models of eMachines (2002-2004.) I found that while they sold them with minimalist ram and CPUs, the motherboards were often quality brand boards easily upgradable. I picked up most these for around $35 or less.

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UrWHThurtZ@reddit

You should be ashamed of yourself for even purchasing one of those things. Definitely not something to be proud of!

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Previous_Pass_4592@reddit

Man I had this as a kid but with 32mb of ram and AOL internet. NHL 99 and Need for speed was the shit back then

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Zesty-B230F@reddit

We sold quite a few of these at Staples. Just sign up for MSN internet and here's your free PC.

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tempfoot@reddit

Posted my crazy Staples story above. Bought one of these off a clearance endcap at staples. I think it was literally $8.88. For my settlement of the e-machine class action lawsuit I picked out an Acer NAS that after many upgrades I still use as my main NAS to this day (Runnjng Open Media Vault).

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tempfoot@reddit

I had one maybe two years newer than this. It was a weird markdown at a Staples - display model - literally priced $8.88 (also bought a display model all-in-one printer/scanner/fax for $1.88 off the same markdown display). Combined it with a bargain touchscreen for my toddler daughter to use with baby software - like learn the alphabet and simple words, pre-k stuff. I must have sent in the registration card for some reason, because in 2013 I get an email about a class action lawsuit against e-machine. I can choose from either $65 or pick something from a little catalog. I choose an Acer Aspire Easystore H342 NAS with a 1 TB drive (4 hot swap bays) and an Atom 510 running good ole (terrible) Windows Home Server. Use that for my main NAS ever since. Still reasonably low power, doubled the RAM to 4gb and packing 18TB of spinning drives and a system SSD. Been on OMV for like 5 generations. Solid as a rock and super easy to back up, though I run zero Docker containers on it. Thanks for coming to my E-Machine TED Talk!

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The_Grungeican@reddit

these things were trash when they were new. not unusable trash, but trash all the same. basically when Walmart finally started selling PCs, this was what they sold.

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ChiefWeedsmoke@reddit

What an artifact

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SoftRecommendation86@reddit

No laughing.. I think I'm using that exact unit.

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SnakeHaveYou@reddit

It says “NEVER OBSOLETE”, but how that $99 upgrade worked at the time?

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Suglid@reddit

I worked at Circuit City while I was in college and sold these. The catch was that you had to lock into 3 years of dial-up internet service at, like, $35 a month when other ISPs were charging half that or less. So you really ended up paying for the computer one way or another. This was just an early, early version of a subscription service. It was brilliant, though: I sold a ton of these, and often to people who said they always wanted to buy a computer but didn't have the money. It let people spread the payments out so it kind of helped to democratize computer ownership.

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SnakeHaveYou@reddit

Thanks for both of your answers!!

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Scoth42@reddit

You're remembering correctly as far as I remember. I worked for a competing ISP at the time (MindSpring/Earthlink) and we had tons of new customers who did the math and realized that with the money they saved on cheaper internet, they could upgrade the computer in a couple years.

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