#emachines

[hisinvisiblefriend]

A collection of fun old technology on display at the Spring 2025 DFW Retrocomputing Meetup in Grand Prairie, TX.

Presented by the Vintage Computing Collective of North Texas. Sponsored by Mouser Electronics.

[coffeecoloredbadger]

cammy ft my 2006 emachines xp tower :3c

[commodorez]

Strange question, but I'm curious. Do you have a least favourite computer?

Ohhhh, good one. I'm going to make some enemies for these, I'm sure.

Least favorite vintage computer:

Apple I

Not for any technical reasons, or anything about its history. I happen to like and respect Steve Wozniak, and everything he did in the service of computing in the 1970s. His ROM monitor known as WOZMON is only 256 bytes so it can fit into a first generation 1702A EPROM, which is damned impressive. I use the newer EWOZMON regular basis on other 6502 machines.

The Apple I exemplifies a computer that no longer exists as a computer. Rather, it's become the legendary trading card for the ultrawealthy techbro types who seek to commodify the history of the home computer revolution that they didn't bother to study. It's been reduced to no more than a static display piece, and a cornerstone of revisionist history, ignoring the larger picture.

An Apple I is considered too monetarily valuable to risk applying power to or fixing, "gotta leave it original!" with failed, leaky capacitors, doing nothing. Well if you can't use it, it ceases to be a computer because it isn't computing anything. They had almost a dozen of them at VCF West XIV, most of which were under plexiglass with a hired guard to keep an eye on them because the high price they fetch. Only one was powered up at a time under the watchful gaze of experts, handling things with museum gloves. Unlike other exhibits, these were not available to be touched or interacted with (which defeats the whole reason people enjoy vintage computer festivals).

Assuming you look beyond the hype, and get your hands on a working Apple I? It turns out to be quite underpowered and limited -- which makes sense, Woz was optimizing the shit outta his part count and budget! I wish I had his skills. It was a major technical achievement to get it to do that much with so little. It's a TV Typewriter (RIP Don Lancaster) bolted to a minimal 6502. If i had one at my disposal in the 1970s, I'd probably do like the contemporary hackers did and modify it as my budget and skills allowed. But it's 2024 and an Apple I -- you aren't allowed to do that. No, if I had an Apple I, I could sell it and buy a house with that money.

If it weren't for all that, I think I'd probably just be indifferent to it, or maybe even like it for what it is.

Least favorite general computer:

eMachines eTower 600is

What a piece of shit. I had one when it was new, running Windows ME and it was hot garbage. I could not stand this underpowered excuse for a computer after a few months when the new computer sheen wore off. Floppy drive died too soon. Didn't come with the advertised 64MB of RAM (who puts 33MB of RAM in a computer?). Hard drive was only 10GB, kept filling it up. It was filled with bloatware, the keyboard was cheap garbage. I don't begrudge my parents for buying it, they didn't know any better and I was too young to have any say in the matter. That said, it endured the shortest tenure of any computer in my house to date.

Never obsolete my ass.

[raven-the-cat-bird]

We doing something?

[semiconductorwave]

eMachines eOne (1999) - The eOne is an all-in-one desktop computer that was produced by eMachines in 1999. The eOne was heavily copied from Apple Computer's "Bondi Blue" iMac. As a result, eMachines was sued by Apple for allegedly infringing upon the distinctive trade dress of the iMac. Apple and eMachines settled the case in 2000, requiring the model to be discontinued.⁠ ⁠ The eOne had a 433 MHz Intel Celeron microprocessor, 64 megabytes of PC-100 SDRAM RAM, a 15-inch CRT monitor, a 10BASE-T Ethernet port, a floppy drive, an 8 MB ATI video card, a 56k modem, and a CD-ROM drive, along with the ability to use PC cards, which were commonly used to expand the capabilities of laptops. As a Wintel-based computer, the eOne ran Windows 98 or Windows Me, as opposed to the iMac running Mac OS 9.⁠

[legacydevice]

eMachines eMonster

[dogfetussuperstar]

never obsolete

[thisisrealy2kok]

March 8, 2000: Apple Settles with Daewoo, eMachines over iMac Look 

2000 – Apple concluded their iMac trade dress infringement against Daewoo and eMachines. The two companies made machines too similar to the iconic iMac look – the eMachines eOne computer and the Daewoo E-Power.

Apple was granted an injunction for the two machines. Daewoo didn’t even get their unibody computer form out to the public. eMachines took out all color, making it a single grey computer, which allowed them to continue with sales.

Apple changed the look of the iMac with the introduction of a flat panel in the iMac G4, ultimately discontinuing the G3 CRT computer in March of 2003.