A color TV use to cost around $800 in the 1980's, with inflation this is around $3500, this was something the family saved for and nobody had two tv sets.
In '95 I bought a used 386 for $50, and it got me through college classes using dos + professional write to type up papers. Computers don't depreciate as fast these days, but it was crazy how fast hardware got outpaced in the 90s and 00s.
When we bought our first family PC in 2001, the salesperson told us to not look at prices afterwards, because there might be a much cheaper and better PC available within weeks. He wasn't wrong. That said, this computer ended up being used for about a decade, with "a few" modifications. By the end, only the case, power supply and motherboard were still original.
So were those who said motor cars would never replace horses. Yet here we are. Both opinions wound up being wildly off the mark just a few years later.
For sure. Terrible predictions, and some futurists of each era for sure already knew the trends that were coming, but they're an astonishing jump in technology I wouldn't necessarily criticize anyone for not seeing/believing.
We have the power of hindsight. It's easy to make fun of people from the past who don't have access to the same information we have today. Have you never made predictions that didn't come true?
Yes I have, what's your point? I was merely illustrating how even those leading an industry or technology can make completely wrong predictions. I wasn't condemning the man to the fires of hell for all eternity. Perhaps the internet isn't a good place for you.
I have to look it up, but when I bought an Apple with extra RAM and an optional 256 color graphics card you could buy a nice house if you converted that RAM-prices and -sizes to the prices we pay now.
Radioshack was involved from the beginning of personal computing... theres a reason they were all over the place and why Tandy was one of the big 3 in personal computing through the 80s with Commodore and Apple. The TRS-80... "Tandy RadioShack-80" from 1977 on...
Once, I had an IBM 286 6mhz in my office with 640K, a 30MB HD, EGA and a 1.44MB 3.5" and 1.2MB 5.25" floppies. The company paid $18,000 for it. The sales papers were tucked inside the case. They made a lot more money selling their software I compiled on it.
The use cases of laptops were so minimal back then, that yeah, they were probably at least double what the equivalent desktop would be. That's around when we had a 386, our house was robbed a year or two later and the insurance payout was enough to buy a far faster 486. Even had a 1x speed cd-rom drive in that bad boy, though too early for the far superior DIMM memory options.
and the massively larger hard drive, and way quite faster and more capable cpu... youre missing a bit here. 1 vs 2mb ram isn't it by itself... 60 -> 120mb HDD is a fuck ton... going from a 16mhz 386 to a 25mhz was a big jump, and that would have came with more cache and other stuff as well or the speed would be wasted. A fair bit of engineering went in to squeezing those extra 10-15mhz out of those chips, just like now, just different scales.
That CPU is 20 around 20 percent faster than my desktop chip (at least until it throttles), but in a device that is around five times as expensive, you'd hope it's faster - until you take the GPU into account, of course. Still outrageously expensive and I can see plenty of nepo-babies and brainless CEOs speccing their laptops like this just to post AI-slop (generated online and not on the device, of course, because the latter requires a modicum of skill) to Instagram and LinkedIn.
Apple has always charged ridiculous money for anything over the basic spec. It doesn't help when it's a component they've soldered to the board; you can't go and buy it separately for less than the cost of the upgrade.
RAM prices are at the level of 2009 right now, except that even phones are rarely rocking the two to four gigs that were common back then, because software that is mostly doing the exact same thing as back then needs many times more RAM.
It's funny when you go to read like a short story and the page of text loads as like 3 megabytes. Like wow, that's two pieces of paper in text, and two NES carts worth of ads.
That popped into my head instantly. "Those are new car prices, WTF." Just shows how far tech has come when you can get a *Macbook* for $600 new these days.
It is worth noting that these were high-end devices, full-on desktop replacements. There were lower-priced laptops, but unless you were fine with an Atari Portfolio, laptops simply were a pricey business expense. The Portfolio is IBM-compatible (more or less - text mode is usually fine), it can actually run for weeks on a three AA batteries and it's very handy, but you're not going to work for hours at a time with it, unless you hate your hands, neck and eyes.
It's actually not, AOL predates this. 'Quantum Link' changed it's name to 'America Online' in October 1989, which had been operating since 1985 after having it's roots as GameLine for Atari starting in 1983. Quantum was meant for Commodore 64/128. What you know of is what came directly after, is when it was officially launched on IBM PC running in MS-DOS in early 91(it was already running in MS-DOS off-market), windows 3.0 the year after. I was using AOL in 1990, and Q-Link in 1989....
Programs and software were constantly changing. Nothing was standardized yet. The price RAM was off the charts. The cost of keeping up was enormous for the graphic arts related industries. Print related businesses were dropping like flies, and entire trades disappeared in a matter of months. Sounds kinda familiar, actually.
It's really amazing to see the innovations throughout the years until standards were set. The only problem was there were multiple iterations for storage for example. Like every invention, different types and setups were put on the market, and those that sold made enough money to keep going, those that didn't became obsolete. VHS for home and office, Beta for professional quality recordings and programs. Why? Because one sold in a different market than another. CDs, flash drive, now cloud.
As an old 3d developer i remember when Maya cost £5000 before fucking autodesk bought it and ruined it. I switched to blender 4 years ago. Life is looking good at least in that one small space. Open source ftw.
It is hard to believe how technology has evolved from almost nothing. Now we live in a world where so many people use computers that 8 people got the username CitizenK before OP. /s
I know you put a "/s" after this but a 286 dates it to late 80's to very early 90's if I remember correctly. (This is based on my first computer being a 100MHz Pentium purchased in 1996.)
I cannot begin to tell you how much of an upgrade it was not to have to swap floppy discs in and out anymore. An external HD was the best purchase I ever made in college.
lol I remember reading about some crazy super high-end 233 mhz processors and thinking that's like some star trek shit. lol and dreaming of having 16mb of RAM.
I mean it seems nutty but at the time we had one and couldn't figure out what to do with all the space. No video, games were measured in kb. We threw norton disk doctor and wing commander on it, also lotus I think...
I remember way back when Elder Scrolls Daggerfall came out. The "gargantuan" install was 1.2gb. I remarked to a friend "Who even has a hard drive that big?!?!"
DaddyDune
8 character file names
smhippy
A color TV use to cost around $800 in the 1980's, with inflation this is around $3500, this was something the family saved for and nobody had two tv sets.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
And a mobile phone set you back $3,995 in 1983. Like the early cell phones, a laptop was something select few people needed at the time.
friendsofsandwiches
Sounds like trying to buy shit in today's market.
Frenchz
I love when my laptop is tremendously viewable.
Gindipple
and a month later they were undercut by competition
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
At least one of them is smuggling coke in the cases.
Either that or planning...sabotage
RexBry
I can't stand it, I know you planned it
cryborg
PeteyVonWho
I was ready to call these prices outrageous, but 16 greyscale? Totally worth!
jcal1771
Was thinking the same thing. 16 Grayscale!
Gerbergerflerberhgher
Thats some impressive 80's geek flexin right there!
sadurdaynight
In '95 I bought a used 386 for $50, and it got me through college classes using dos + professional write to type up papers. Computers don't depreciate as fast these days, but it was crazy how fast hardware got outpaced in the 90s and 00s.
DdCno1
When we bought our first family PC in 2001, the salesperson told us to not look at prices afterwards, because there might be a much cheaper and better PC available within weeks. He wasn't wrong. That said, this computer ended up being used for about a decade, with "a few" modifications. By the end, only the case, power supply and motherboard were still original.
TheMayorOfTittyCity
It is tremendously viewable
goflyblind
machmach
AdrianDunne
The way they say the prices seems strange to me. "49 99" means $49.99, not $4,999.
Fargus57
StarmineRendezvous
This was still 7 whole years before Apples first commercial GUI for a home computer even came out, for perspective. Kinda reasonable really.
Fargus57
So were those who said motor cars would never replace horses. Yet here we are. Both opinions wound up being wildly off the mark just a few years later.
StarmineRendezvous
For sure. Terrible predictions, and some futurists of each era for sure already knew the trends that were coming, but they're an astonishing jump in technology I wouldn't necessarily criticize anyone for not seeing/believing.
DdCno1
We have the power of hindsight. It's easy to make fun of people from the past who don't have access to the same information we have today. Have you never made predictions that didn't come true?
Fargus57
Yes I have, what's your point? I was merely illustrating how even those leading an industry or technology can make completely wrong predictions. I wasn't condemning the man to the fires of hell for all eternity. Perhaps the internet isn't a good place for you.
machmach
ChloeRed
Cereal.. Fix the phones
ClawsOfTheWolf
freestyle4all
I have to look it up, but when I bought an Apple with extra RAM and an optional 256 color graphics card you could buy a nice house if you converted that RAM-prices and -sizes to the prices we pay now.
oldguyexlurker
Rule of thumb in the late 80s, early 90s was $100/meg for RAM. My laptop right now has 32g. Let's see... 32*1000*100 is... yep! $3.2million.
freestyle4all
Haha, yep. That's what I mean.
JarJarDrinks
Then RadioShack got involved.......
APuffOfAirTicklingYourNose
Radioshack was involved from the beginning of personal computing... theres a reason they were all over the place and why Tandy was one of the big 3 in personal computing through the 80s with Commodore and Apple. The TRS-80... "Tandy RadioShack-80" from 1977 on...
Evenmoreuselessname
I've got a Model 100 sitting in my office right now.
KAPTKipper
Once, I had an IBM 286 6mhz in my office with 640K, a 30MB HD, EGA and a 1.44MB 3.5" and 1.2MB 5.25" floppies. The company paid $18,000 for it. The sales papers were tucked inside the case.
They made a lot more money selling their software I compiled on it.
jqubed
I’d be curious to compare the prices to equivalently spec’d desktops in the same time period. Of course, this video doesn’t give us the full specs
Kalli
The use cases of laptops were so minimal back then, that yeah, they were probably at least double what the equivalent desktop would be. That's around when we had a 386, our house was robbed a year or two later and the insurance payout was enough to buy a far faster 486. Even had a 1x speed cd-rom drive in that bad boy, though too early for the far superior DIMM memory options.
ProbablyCrazier
I'm a little confused by the prices here, the 2mb of RAM is definitely the kicker that brings the price up.
DdCno1
It should be noted that these IBM PCs were significantly more expensive than comparable (and often superior) clones.
APuffOfAirTicklingYourNose
and the massively larger hard drive, and way quite faster and more capable cpu... youre missing a bit here. 1 vs 2mb ram isn't it by itself... 60 -> 120mb HDD is a fuck ton... going from a 16mhz 386 to a 25mhz was a big jump, and that would have came with more cache and other stuff as well or the speed would be wasted. A fair bit of engineering went in to squeezing those extra 10-15mhz out of those chips, just like now, just different scales.
GorillaFLicks
The top of the line MacBook Pro is at the same price-point. As much as things change, they stay the same.
endem1c
obligatory "dollar has less purchasing power now" comment
APuffOfAirTicklingYourNose
With all the options... More... LUL
https://imgur.com/VEhFXhB
DdCno1
That CPU is 20 around 20 percent faster than my desktop chip (at least until it throttles), but in a device that is around five times as expensive, you'd hope it's faster - until you take the GPU into account, of course. Still outrageously expensive and I can see plenty of nepo-babies and brainless CEOs speccing their laptops like this just to post AI-slop (generated online and not on the device, of course, because the latter requires a modicum of skill) to Instagram and LinkedIn.
AdrianDunne
Apple has always charged ridiculous money for anything over the basic spec. It doesn't help when it's a component they've soldered to the board; you can't go and buy it separately for less than the cost of the upgrade.
machmach
TakuanSoho
Hot like lava !
Affray
That's almost certainly Dustin Hoffman.
salunatics
Adjusted for US inflation, that $8,500 is ~$23,400 ! $11k -> ~$30,300
paintbullits
Wow. the inflated ram prices of today seem almost reasonable by comparison
DdCno1
RAM prices are at the level of 2009 right now, except that even phones are rarely rocking the two to four gigs that were common back then, because software that is mostly doing the exact same thing as back then needs many times more RAM.
astrangehop
It's funny when you go to read like a short story and the page of text loads as like 3 megabytes. Like wow, that's two pieces of paper in text, and two NES carts worth of ads.
Evenmoreuselessname
For comparison, a 1989 2dr Honda Accord DX was $11880 MSRP.
RocketKokket
I had an 89 accord that lasted over 20 years and 550000km unlike these machines
freakdiablo
That popped into my head instantly. "Those are new car prices, WTF." Just shows how far tech has come when you can get a *Macbook* for $600 new these days.
DdCno1
It is worth noting that these were high-end devices, full-on desktop replacements. There were lower-priced laptops, but unless you were fine with an Atari Portfolio, laptops simply were a pricey business expense. The Portfolio is IBM-compatible (more or less - text mode is usually fine), it can actually run for weeks on a three AA batteries and it's very handy, but you're not going to work for hours at a time with it, unless you hate your hands, neck and eyes.
L0rdinquisit0r
287 its a maths coprocessor for the 286 used for stuff like autocad and spreadsheets
its like $15-30K now and this is pre AOL
APuffOfAirTicklingYourNose
It's actually not, AOL predates this. 'Quantum Link' changed it's name to 'America Online' in October 1989, which had been operating since 1985 after having it's roots as GameLine for Atari starting in 1983. Quantum was meant for Commodore 64/128. What you know of is what came directly after, is when it was officially launched on IBM PC running in MS-DOS in early 91(it was already running in MS-DOS off-market), windows 3.0 the year after. I was using AOL in 1990, and Q-Link in 1989....
ManholeStellarReconveneSubstanceOlympicsReunion
NERD!
Evenmoreuselessname
This is the kinda info dump facts smackdown I'm here for. TIL
Californiajackson
Programs and software were constantly changing. Nothing was standardized yet. The price RAM was off the charts. The cost of keeping up was enormous for the graphic arts related industries. Print related businesses were dropping like flies, and entire trades disappeared in a matter of months. Sounds kinda familiar, actually.
Sticklebrickk
It's really amazing to see the innovations throughout the years until standards were set. The only problem was there were multiple iterations for storage for example.
Like every invention, different types and setups were put on the market, and those that sold made enough money to keep going, those that didn't became obsolete. VHS for home and office, Beta for professional quality recordings and programs. Why? Because one sold in a different market than another. CDs, flash drive, now cloud.
GabbyJayYay
12 MB ram
500 MB hd
28k bps modem
https://youtu.be/V6dQxQBHiB0
JohnSmithterms
As an old 3d developer i remember when Maya cost £5000 before fucking autodesk bought it and ruined it. I switched to blender 4 years ago. Life is looking good at least in that one small space. Open source ftw.
cryborg
It is hard to believe how technology has evolved from almost nothing. Now we live in a world where so many people use computers that 8 people got the username CitizenK before OP. /s
TheShoggothOfMosquitoCreek
In forty years they'll be saying the same thing about AI and robots.
ILikeFood2000
cryborg
I just try to notice things. Like apparently 1,999 other people like food. /s
Californiajackson
Took me a minute.
HandoB4Javert
...at least 7 minutes.
Ankylosaur
Buying a home music studio in 1992
Affray
maincarrot
Wow, this dealt 1d4 cringe damage to my intestines
Zapathasura
For anyone interested, this programme was called: The Computer Chronicles. It originally ran from 1984 till 2002.
SteersAndQueers
Twisted
MuffinProof
I wasn't interested, but thank you for the info. +1
Zapathasura
Not interested?!? That does not Compute. Anyhoo. thanks for the +1 buddy.
TeamToasterNeverForget
I'm guessing this was aired around 2002 then..?
TeamToasterNeverForget
/s
Omicron416
I know you put a "/s" after this but a 286 dates it to late 80's to very early 90's if I remember correctly.
(This is based on my first computer being a 100MHz Pentium purchased in 1996.)
VosperOfAntarctica
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU NEED A 40 MEG HARD DRIVE FOR???
munin295
I cannot begin to tell you how much of an upgrade it was not to have to swap floppy discs in and out anymore. An external HD was the best purchase I ever made in college.
DrKonrad
Surely nobody will ever need so much space!
Thisisbullshitalready
I recall getting an 80 meg external hard drive and saying "I will NEVER fill this up!"
3HourShower
lol I remember reading about some crazy super high-end 233 mhz processors and thinking that's like some star trek shit. lol and dreaming of having 16mb of RAM.
pookieeatworld
I'd like to be able to store more than one photo.
IHateThatIReddit
For ASCII porn.
VosperOfAntarctica
(.)(.)
CPTBRUMBL3Z
For forty Megs, obviously.
MyGreatestFearBoner
So its a Meg heavy computer. https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1NTAwcGloNHNsazN0NHAwcndzam94MXJ2ZW1iNnM4dmxvazRlNHhwaSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/149tyWctX8JUli/200w.webp
APuffOfAirTicklingYourNose
bewbs
KAPTKipper
For all those Wordperfect fonts.
zFUBARz
A bit later, but my mom demanded a gig in our machine and the guy laughed at her.
SuperGeniusPS
The salesman literally told my folks that was all we would ever need. Besides, we had a CD-ROM
DragonThunderUndertaking
I mean it seems nutty but at the time we had one and couldn't figure out what to do with all the space. No video, games were measured in kb. We threw norton disk doctor and wing commander on it, also lotus I think...
enterusernamehere25
to save a single 8k img of OPs mom
maincarrot
That's like 10 floppies. No body needs that kind of storage!
Dthblayde
I remember way back when Elder Scrolls Daggerfall came out. The "gargantuan" install was 1.2gb. I remarked to a friend "Who even has a hard drive that big?!?!"
sadurdaynight
The difference between running programs off floppy vs hdd was like hdd vs ssd today. Big bump in speed.
OriginalAndWitty
"games and stuff"
goflyblind
could this BE any more accurate?
GabbyJayYay
12 MB ram
500 MB hd
28k bps modem
https://youtu.be/V6dQxQBHiB0
MoistyFart
"Hey it's printing!"
MuffinProof
What's the internet for again?
Cranbananarama
Cats?
choppedliveraldente
And porn. Cats and porn.
pookieeatworld
Sometimes cat porn.
choppedliveraldente
no