The Goodbye Letter: Compute!'s Gazette 1995

Gazette masthead, recreated by David Henderson

 While falling down the rabbit hole that is nostalgia-induced Internet diving, I came across an archive of every issue of COMPUTE!'s Gazette ever published. I read through the very first issue. It brought back a flood of memories from my childhood - the ads, the "new" technology, the type-in programs. 

I skimmed through a few other issues before jumping down to the FINAL issue ever produced. The magazine ran from 1983 through 1995. The last set of issues were fully disk-based. And on that lest Gazette disk, I found a heartfelt letter that announced the end of the magazine's publication.

I am posting it here for your perusal and for posterity. 

 Gazette, February 1995

64/128 VIEW: Time to Say Goodbye

By Tom Netsel

In July of 1983, a new magazine devoted to the Commodore VIC--20 and the Commodore 64 hit the newsstands. Founded by Robert Lock and edited by Thomas Half hill, that magazine was called COMPUTE!’s Gazette. After almost 12 years, numerous editors, and several changes in format, Gazette ceases publication with this issue. This is the last Gazette. 

When Gazette started, Commodore was selling more than 100,000 VIC-20s and 64s each month. Dozens of software suppliers were rushing products to this rapidly growing market. The initial press run for Gazette was 175,000 copies, up from an originally planned 75,000. And all this was at a time before the 64 itself really took off to become the most popular home computer ever built, selling more than 14 million worldwide.

If you look back at that first issue, you'll notice that Fred D'Ignazio had a column that was called "Computing for Kids." Jim Butterfield’s name appeared on the masthead as an associate editor. You'll find their final columns in this issue.

Larry Cotton is another long time contributor. His "Beginner BASIC" column has been a regular feature for many years.

A few years ago, I was looking for someone to write a GEOS column. It had been an on and off feature in Gazette, but readership surveys told me that there was considerable interest in this operating system from Berkeley Softworks. I went searching for someone to write a monthly column. I'll have to thank Robert Nellist for recommending Steve Vander Ark for the job. Robert and Steve had been corresponding for some time about GEOS, and he suggested I get in touch with Steve. I did and Steve agreed to supply Gazette with a column each month.

Sometime later, I wanted a column to pay tribute to the great work being done by programmers who offered their work as public domain. Steve volunteered to do it and added "PD Picks" to his busy schedule. It was about that time that Robert wrote me a letter complaining in a good natured fashion that while Gazette had gained a columnist in Steve, Robert had lost a pen pal.

The junior member of the Gazette columnists is David Pankhursto The author of fantastic spreadsheets, Calc and Calc II, David took over the reins of "Programmer's Page" a little more than a year ago. Each month he has supplied a number of good programming tips from his own library and from those submitted by our readers.

I'd like to thank all these gentlemen for their great contributions to Gazette, without their help, this magazine couldn't have lasted a fraction of the time it did.

Last, but by no means least, I want to thank all of you readers who have submitted programs to Gazette over the years. My biggest regret is that I still have so many good programs here that I'll never be able to publish. My budget allowed me to buy only so many each month and I still have almost 30 submissions still in my Pending basket. Gazette had a number of staff programmers in its early days, but it has been our readers who have supplied the bulk of the programs that we've published over the years. To all of you who have submitted a program, I offer you my thanks. Without your submissions, this magazine would have folded years ago.

Gazette's closing follows shortly on the heels of COMPUTE's demise, but it is for totally different reasons. COMPUTE was bought and closed because a competitor didn't want the competition and was hoping to convert those subscribers to its publications. Gazette is closing simply because there aren't enough Commodore enthusiasts subscribing to make Gazette profitable.

So what's going to happen to your subscriptions? You'll have one of three options, but as I write this the week before Christmas, I don't know all the details as yet„ We are talking with other publishing companies that may have an interest in taking on our outstanding subscriber liability. If one of these companies takes over, then you will be offered a Commodore-related publication equal in value to the number of Gazette issues yet unmailed.

The other option is that you may elect to take the remainder of your subscription out in Gazette disk products. The specialty disks that we offer, such as SpeedScript and the GEOS Collection, are examples.

The final option is to simply request a refund of the remainder of your subscription. Each unmailed issue is worth approximately $2.50. 

As I said, negotiations have just started and I don't know what the outcome will be. You will be contacted shortly with an explanation of your options. I'm sure some of you will be getting letters asking you to renew your Gazette subscriptions. These mailings are scheduled months in advance and some undoubtedly will be mailed out after I write this. Please ignore them.

Normally, publications close and readers learn about it after the fact. With Gazette being on dii»k and having a short production time, I was able to convince the powers that be to give me this final issue in order to say good. bye. As I said, I don't yet have all the answers but I was at least able to offer some word of explanation as to why you won't be getting any more Gazette's after this one.

COMPUTE Publications will still be around, but involved with online publishing. COMPUTE Online has been on America Online for 18 months and it will continue, but with a new name. Starting in February, it will be called I-Wire. It will also be on the Internet with a world wide web home page. I have been the online editor during this time and I will continue with my duties there and as editor of Saturday Review Online.

Once again, thank you for your support over the years. Keep those 64s and 128s humming. It's been a pleasure. 

Gazette, February 1995

First Saturday Computer Flea Market, Dallas Texas (1st Saturday)

 Way back in 1994 or 1995, a group of my co-workers told me about a computer flea market in Dallas, Texas, that only took place at night. I was skeptical. Turned out to be true! What appears below is from an archived web page I had on the subject. NOTE: So far as I have been able to determine, the flea market has been long defunct.

So, you've been trying to figure out how to get to the now famous Dallas Computer Flea Market? Well, look no further! I thought the once a month, midnight computer flea market in Dallas was a big secret or something. It took a lot of digging and prodding, but my family and I found it. We wanted to be sure that NO ONE else ever had to go through what we had to, so:

The Dallas Computer Flea Market (aka 1st Saturday) is located at the corner of Ross Avenue and Routh streets in downtown Dallas. The closest approximation I could come up with is North Central Expressway and Ross Avenue. The market actually takes up several parking lots near the Ross/Routh intersection, but the vendor check-in (thus, most vendors) are in the lots at Ross/Routh.

The vendors start setting up around 11:30 p.m. on the first Friday of the month, but actual set-up starts at Midnight Saturday. When we went, we started at Midnight and hung out until about 4 a.m. I'd say the best time to get there is around 3 a.m. Most of the vendors are there and it's pretty kickin'. The whole things closes down at noon on Saturday, so don't wait! Have fun!

We hope this helps! If you have ANY questions, please contact me: David Henderson

Here's a map for clarity (The general area is marked in RED):
THIS MAP IS ABOUT 85k! (Note: Back in those days, this was a HUGE picture - haha!)

A couple of notes in hindsight:

• The area marked in red was the parking. The actual event took place southwest after you crossed the street under the freeway.
• Note the hand-drawn black lines to indicate a new highway being built! That is now 366 (Sorry I don't know the local name for the interchange).

Thin Client: Neoware CA10 (BL-Q2-JD & BK-00-00) (Updated: 03/17/2021)

Rear view of opened ca10

 NOTE: Updates appear at the bottom of this article.

 I bought this version of the CA10 because, well, it was blue. I hadn't seen a blue version before. Turns out that the reason it is blue is that COMVoice had them painted that color. I bought it "as is" for about $10USD.

SPECS:

CPU - VIA C3 800MHz / 1Ghz

GPU - Apollo CLE266 (VIA UniChrome) (shared memory up to 64 MB)

RJ45 - VT6103 Built in PLUS a PCI 3COM NIC

Sound - VT8235M/VT1612A AC97 (Selectable MIDI port addressing and IRQ)

Storage - 256MB DOM (44-pin IDE PATA)

RAM - 1x256MB PC2100 (2 DIMM slots total, 1 available)

USB Ports - 4 Total (@ on back, 2 on front)

Video Ports - VGA / DVI

Power Requirements - 12v 4A, though I was able to use 12V 3.5A

Other Ports - PS2 Keyboard, PS2 Mouse, Line in, Mic out, Two 9-pin serial, 25-pin parallel (printer), PCI

BIOS/CMOS - Phoenix AwardBIOS P640 V:5.03.20F-110205, Ver 6.00 PG, 11/02/2005

Installed OS - Just enough FreeBSD to boot, then system hangs.

The BIOS in this thing allows you to boot from just about anything - HDD0/HDD1, floppy, LS120, SCSI, CD, a slew of USB devices, and more. I could *NOT* use a USB keyboard. However, the BIOS has an option to enable USB keyboard support and that was disabled. I enabled it and was instantly able to use the USB keyboard while still in BIOS. Whoa. The BIOS allows the user to set memory speed timings, theoretically opening the door for some overclocking.

Crystal sound card shown along with ide-to-sata cable and 768mb RAM.

 

The unit I got had high corrosion and would only post every so often. I swapped DOM cards and tried IDE/SD Readers, but the system always corrupted the drive data. Instead, I created a bootable microsd with DOS 6.22 and tried with that plugged into the USB port in the back. That, too, eventually quit working at random intervals.

Below is what I could make work for short periods of time:

Operating Systems:

DOS 6.22 PARTIAL (256MB RAM, 2GB DOM) -  DOS installs. None of the sound drivers I downloaded would allow the audio to play in DOS games. Sound only worked via PC Speaker. However, I installed a Sound Blaster Live! PCI card and the DOS driver. It works very well! Games like Wolf3d, Duke3d, Doom, Ultima Underworld 1, etc had digital sound and music.

WFW 3.11 PARTIAL (256MB RAM, 2GB DOM) - Installed fine, but again no sound drivers.

Windows 95 PARTIAL (256Mb RAM, 256MB DOM) - I had to delete everything except just enough to boot DOS with HIMEM.SYS after copying the Win95 installation folder to the drive. I also deleted AOL*.*, MSN*.*, CHL*.CAB, and possibly a few other files from the Win95 setup directory. I chose the "Compact" installation. I chose to select options not to install, but the only options were Disk Defrag and Disk Compression. So, I deselected them. Setup asked for the now-deleted AOL files, but I told it to just Skip them. When Windows installed, it wanted to set up active channel. ctrl-alt-del to bring up task manager. Kill IE4Setup then kill the Active Setup. You are now at the desktop! At the end of the install, I had 82 MB free. No sound, etc since sound is HD. (Though could install the SBLive and use Win95 drivers).

Windows 98SE WORKS (768MB RAM, 2GB DOM) - This took a bit of creative problem solving. When you boot from a USB stick, the computer treats it as a hard drive (C:), so installing Windows would mean installing to the USB. So, I booted to a DOS-ready USB, FDISK and formatted the 2gb DOM. I then copied the Windows 98 setup files to the DOM. After that, I rebooted with a Win98 CD. Because the setup does not recognize USB drives, the CD defaulted to A: which allowed me to switch to the C: drive (DOM) and run the setup from there. I installed the Vinyl-7b sound drivers and the UniChrome VGA drivers.

Windows XP WORKS (768MB RAM, 120GB SATA) - I installed a DOM-to-SATA adapter then plugged in a 120GB 2.5 SATA HDD. I booted from a WinXP setup disc. This is a SLOW process. I don't think I have ever seen every single pre-loaded driver's name on the screen before. Usually those whip by. Not with this device. The network card was detected during setup. I disabled everything but TCPIP when prompted, as I had encountered blue screening during certain phases of the installation. After installation, I installed Vinyl7b (v700b.zip) drivers for sound. For video, use the UniChromeIGP driver. Video supports DX7, DX8, and DX9. I did not test anything beyond DX9. Research shows that XPEmbedded was the OS of choice for this, so it makes sense that XP does moderately well once installed.

Windows 7 WORKS (768MB RAM, 120GB SATA) - I installed a DOM-to-SATA adapter then plugged in a 120GB 2.5 SATA HDD. I booted from a Win7 setup DVD. This was *NOT* fast!  It took nearly 10 minutes to get to the partitioning screens.  Once setup finally finished, I was able to install Crystal CS4281 drivers to go along with the PCI sound card I had installed using the riser adapter. Unfortunately, the system always reported "not enough resources." I thought this was an IRQ/DMA issue, but after disabling a bunch of built-in devices, I believe the issue is simply that no Windows 7 driver exists (that I could find) for the card. The system functions, but is much too slow to serve as anything other than novelty.

TBD: Windows 8.1

TBD: Windows 10

*NOTES:

03/17/2021 - I installed a SBLive (CT4830) using the PCI slot and a 90-degree adapter. I installed the DOS drivers for it and after a reboot, I had Sound Blaster emulation running for DOS games! 

03/16/2021 -  I received a replacement unit that was a slight "upgrade" from my original board. This one has the "BK" designation, indicating it had the DVI connector on the back in addition to VGA and the processor is bumped to 1Ghz. Everything else, so far as I could tell, was the same.

03/12/2021 - Unfortunately, after the initial Win95 install, the unit would no longer POST. I think the corrosion on the motherboard finally caused the thing to bite the dust. 

I do plan to get a replacement motherboard, though. I just can't help myself. I love this blue case and the form factor will make for a fun little retro machine.

I received a new board on 3/11/2021, but it was DOA - it would show a red light when plugged in and I could press power, but it would never boot. The company I bought it from is doing a cross-shipped RMA, which is very nice of them!

The original board went through some more testing. I was able to get it to boot so long as it was out of the case AND the power button panel was no longer screwed into the case. I surmised we had a grounding problem. This was confirmed by experimenting with various configurations on the system inside the case and out. I eventually laid a piece of anti-static bag under the system board. This works intermittently, but more often than not working.

Thin Client: Wyse WT1200Le (Updated: 03/15/2021)

 

Picked up this thin client hoping to make a fun little DOS machine out of it. Turns out, that's a bit of an issue. The device will not boot to USB. There is also no accessible BIOS/CMOS that anyone has discovered so far as my research goes. 

Let's look at specs and such.

CPU - AMD Geode GX

GPU - Geode GX CS5530A

RAM - 32MB (Soldered onto motherboard)

Sound - LM4546AVH (AC97)

Storage - 512kb SoC (System on Chip)

RJ45 - Pulse PE-68515L 10/100

USB Ports - 2 on back

Video Port -  VGA

Power Requirements -  12v 3.33a

Other Ports - Headphone, Mic

OS - Wyse ThinOS

BIOS - Winbond; not accessible by keyboard so far as I have been able to determine.

 

System booted and within seconds, presented a desktop that appears to be some kind of no-frills Windows 98 or XP, but is more likely some version of Linux. 

A "System Information" window opened up for a few minutes as the system grabbed an IP address. That screen disappeared and a "Connect Manager" screen popped up, trying to connect to "jtc-gp." Of course, that failed.

System Information shows Memory (32MB) and ROM (512k). There is a NAND Size option, but it shows zero, as there is not storage device on the unit. The 32MB RAM is soldered onto the motherboard but there are no means for expansion without soldering a SODIMM socket to the thing.

 

 

 

 

The "Start" button says "Desktop," and leads to a variety of applications to examine. System Setup provides options for setting preferences, configuring network and display, and setting serial/parallel ports (even though the unit doesn't actually have any).

System Preferences cover naming the device, time zone, DST, and other options.

 

The Network Setup allows for assigned or DHCP addressing.

There is a wireless setup screen, but there is no wireless adapter in the unit. There is a header for a micro-wifi card, but there is no socket soldered in the spot.

 

The Display setup auto-selects the resolution and color depth based on the monitor the system detects, but the user can override this, changing the resolution and/or the refresh rate.

 

 

The Serial Setup must be a holdover from an earlier version of the device, since there is no serial port nor is there a dial-up modem port.

 

 

Like the serial settings, there is a Printer Setup. The default is LPT1, however later versions of the software allow for various USB printers to be used.

 

 

 

We looked at the System Information earlier, so next we have Applications - which is empty by default.

 

 As you can see, there are a few more tools - PPOE Manager, Dialup Manager, and PPTP Manager for handling different types of connectivity. The Network Test section has Ping, Trace Route, and Print Queues.

Inside the Connection Settings, we can create new items to connect via ICA, which is a Citrix-based server, or via RDP, which is how most people connect remotely to servers.

 

 

I do not have a Citrix server on site, but I do have various Windows servers, so I created an RDP connection to a local server.

   

I did not provide a username/password combination when I set up the connection, and the server promptly provided the login screen for me to enter my credentials.

 

 All in all, this is a very simple device for folks who want to provide no-frills access to network resources. Parkytowers has a cool write-up about this thin client and addresses the limitations of not being able to access BIOS. 

I think if someone were capable, they could devise a way to sneak DOS into a firmware build and replace the built-in TOS with it. The main problem is the 512k "storage." One would basically have to keep the OS inside a 512k "drive." Not sure how feasible that is.

I think it would great if someone could hack the wt1200le to drop a DOS loader package. Basically, you would have enough OS to boot, then it would create a ramdrive that the OS in unpacked into with whatever games/apps you were going to run in DOS. The main issue I see with the 512kb boot space is that it would have to house the "MBR" etc PLUS the compressed disk image. The issue with the 32MB RAM is that the ramdrive would be limited to roughly 20-25MB. That's a 20MB hard drive. Not a lot to say the least. The other problem you have is that none of the data can be saved back out again. So, if you were playing a game, you could save the game as long as the unit was powered on, but once you turned it off, the ramdrive is gone and so is whatever save games you had.

Still, it would be a cool project if it were possible.

*Update 03/15/2021 - I found someone who provided the 4.4.079i firmware image and I setup my desktop as a FileZille FTP server. In the 1200LE, I configured the network settings to point to my desktop and it upgraded to the original OS. The person also provided 5.2_035 firmware, which I then tried on the device.  The updated OS runs VERY quickly, but the mouse wouldn't CLICK. I could move it around the screen, but the system would not register any mouse clicks. Weird.I reverted back to 4.4.079i and everything seems fine.

*Note: My unit was running v 4.4.079i when I got it. I found a firmware "update" that turned out to be a downgrade to 4.4.010i. That downgrade killed the USB mouse. Well, technically, a USB mouse kills the OS, causing it to throw up a "divide by zero" error. I am still looking for the firmware to upgrade back to where I was.

*Note: If you are presented with a login screen, turn off the device. Turn it back on. While it is booting, keep spamming the G key on your keyboard. The unit will force itself into a "Factory Reset" mode which will eliminate the login screen.

Tract Computing, Inc - My days in computer retail

 

Back in 1989, I worked for a retail computer company called "Tract Computing." The operation had two locations: one in the Potomac Mills Mall in Woodbridge, VA, and the other in an office complex in Alexandria, VA. I have tried to research information about the company since, but have come up empty.

What I do remember, however, are a few of the things that I will probably never forget. They help lay the foundation for some of my core beliefs regarding business and handling employees. In this post, I'll share some of the things I remember (which may or may not have anything to do with business practices, but are rather memories).

• I worked with several guys at the store. There was Rick and CJ (I cannot remember their last names to save my life). There were at least two other guys as well. The place was managed by a woman named Karen (I believe her name is/was Karen Williams, but that could be wrong). The company was run by a man named Alex and his wife (also named Karen, I believe). Alex's brother did the books, but I'm afraid I cannot recall his name. Their last name was either Nassif or Nassir, perhaps.
• Alex had a vanity license plate with "DOS EXE" on it. So appropriate for the late 80's/early 90's.
• One of the guys had an Amiga 1500 or perhaps 2000. We would go to his house to mess with it and eventually cobbled together a very cool PC/Amiga hybrid. I don't remember the details, but we used an IBM-PC bridge card from the Amiga with a ribbon cable that led to an AT chassis where a separate board served to add expansion ports to the PC side. That was crazy.
• One of my most memorable moments came by way of a woman who came into the store one day. She held a computer mouse in her hands, and she approached me asking if we happened to sell just the balls that went into the computer mouse. In those days, we didn't have optical mice. Mice had a little ball that rolled around inside for movement. When I told her that we only sold complete mice, I asked her why she just needed the ball. She opened her hands and showed me a computer mouse that had been marred and scarred with a cable that looked like it had been chomped on for quite some time. She said, "Well, you see, my cat was playing with my mouse, and I think she killed it." Truly one of the funniest moments I've had. We sold her a replacement mouse.
• Another stand-out situation came by way of an older couple. The woman had come to the store early in the day, picked out some software, then asked if it would run on an IBM-PC. I assured her that it would and she bought it. Later that day, she came back with her husband. Her husband was angry about something. When I asked what was wrong, he barked, "Are you the one that sold this (holding up the box) to my wife?" "Yes, sir," I said, confused. "Well, it will NOT work on an IBM-PC! This has five and quarter inch disks and we need three and a half! Where's your manager?" I tried to explain that the software WOULD work, but that I was not told the computer only had 3.5" drives. Didn't matter. He found the manager and proceeded to tell her how incompetent I was (using pretty colorful words to do so), and that I should be fired on the spot. She got him calmed down. One of the other guys copied the program to a 3.5-inch disk and sent the couple on their merry way. The manager got my side of the story and we decided it was a lesson learned - one I still practice as best I can to this day: ASK ALL THE QUESTIONS, ASSUME NOTHING. From that day on, I have tried to ask all the possible questions I can when given a task or a project.
• Even though I couldn't find information online regarding Tract Computing, Inc, I do recall that the company had folded not long after I left in 1990. I was offered a manager's position in late 1989 as an enticement not to back to college (I was out for a semester, taking time off). They offered me a decent amount of money, but in the end, I thought it better to get my degree and return should the opportunity and offer still stand. By the time I graduated, they no longer existed. Plus, I wouldn't have gone back by then anyway. Life had taken me in a different direction.

In those days, we sold everything from hardware including PCs, Amigas, C64s, all kinds of peripherals. We were basically like Computer Shopper magazine in a little store. We weren't anything like Software, etc or Babbages or the myriad of other computer-related stores, but we were one of the few in the area. Sometimes, just being there is enough to have a moderately successful business. 

Shortly before I left, the manager was fired for allegedly stealing money from the company. Apparently, she wrote company checks to herself, which she signed, and then she endorsed on the back. The bank raised a few questions after the check amounts continued to grow, and things spiraled from there. Note: this is the story as I heard, so if facts are askew,  I am not making any accusations nor legal claims here. Nor am I trying to slander/libel anyone.

Anyway, I thought I would write this post in case any of the folks from back in the day started poking around looking for info about Tract Computing. Thanks for reading.

Packard Bell Legend 316sx (386sx-16) - Memories of my first IBM-PC

Though my first computer was a Commodore 64, my first PC was a Packard Bell Legend 316sx. It had a 386sx-16MHz processor, 1MB of RAM, and I can't remember if it came with the 120MB hard drive or if I upgraded to that, but I believe it came with the 120MB HDD (A Seagate ST3144A, if memory serves). Installed OS was DOS and Windows 3.0. I got it for a combo Christmas/birthday gift and I am almost certain it cost around $1600. I also got a Packard bell monitor with it.

The very first thing I did with it was to go to the store (heck, it was probably Walmart since Walmart actually sold computer parts in those days) to buy memory so that I could upgrade it to 4MB. I distinctly remember this because each megabyte was $40! That is crazy to think nowadays where, in 2019 anyway, we can grab 16gb of RAM for that price!

The system came with a 5.25" floppy and a 3.5" floppy. There was NO sound, no CD-ROM, and only had a built-in Oak VGA video card. It worked well for what I needed when I first got it (typing papers for college, mostly, and some rudimentary gaming). But, it wasn't long before the upgrade itch really got me going.

I started with a Multimedia Upgrade kit from Creative Labs. Unfortunately, the only images i can find online are of a later version than the one i got. I am pretty sure mine had a short audio card, CD-ROM drive, software and related cabling. I believe the upgrade included Windows 3.1 or 3.11 as well, so that the user could take "full advantage" of the new multimedia offerings. I think the CDs had to be put into a special cartridge tray that would then be inserted into the drive itself.

From: https://books.google.com/books?id=a2YTCyIAwwIC&pg=PP168&dq=sound+blaster+multimedia+upgrade+kit&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGuujwxJ3hAhVBG6wKHQZfAdUQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=sound%20blaster%20multimedia%20upgrade%20kit&f=false

While that sufficed for a while, allowing me to play and experience games in a way I hadn't before, I soon wanted more power under the hood. Rather than shelling out another $1500 for a newer machine, I looked into upgrading the CPU itself.

Since this was a 386SX, I had several options: 1) Upgrade from a 16MHz to 25 or 33, 2) Add a math coprocessor (the motherboard had a socket for that), 3) Upgrade the CPU with an adapter kit.

Yes, that's right! Back in the early 90's, there were adapters you could buy that would sit directly in top of your 386 CPU. The adapter would then house a 486 CPU piggybacked onto the 386 chip. Now, since my 386 was an SX variety, I had to stick with SX versions of the 486 (no DX for me).

I bought the Make-it 486 SX upgrade kit for about $100. This was quite a bizarre arrangement. In addition to the CPU upgrade sitting on top of an adapter socket, I also had to install a 486 CPU fan on top of that. Now, look back at the case for this computer. It's a small form factor, especially for those days, and this stacked-up CPU made for one VERY tall apparatus inside. Nevertheless, it worked flawlessly! Er, well, as flawlessly as Packard Bells could perform, anyway.

I also upgraded the modem several times over the years, and added a network card for local gameplay via IPX (Doom, etc). Heck, I think I even upgraded to windows 95 before it was all said and done.

Packard Bell became synonymous with low quality, cheap components that would fail completely, or worse, provide intermittent issues that would leave users frustrated, dazed, and confused.

In the meantime, though, I used my Packard Bell Legend 316SX from 1991ish when I got it until about 1994/5 when I was afforded the opportunity to upgrade to a newer machine through my employer.

The 316SX holds a fond place in my heart because it was the first IBM-Compatible PC that I ever owned. I can remember putting it in a backpack once to carry it on to the airplane for a trip. The airport security made me plug it in and turn it on. Of course, I didn't have a monitor, so the fans whirred, the lights came on, and the system speaker chirped to let me know there was no keyboard attached, but it passed security (much more lax in those days, pre-9/11) and I carried onto the plane with me (I wasn't about to let it suffer the agony of checked baggage).