LGR - Setting Up a 1996 AST Advantage PC
Added 2023-02-05 03:51:55 +0000 UTCGreetings, folks! Today's been a strange one, ha. Woke up to that weird Chinese balloon flying overhead, got a pic of that while drinking my morning coffee. And the rest of the day was spent finishing this video up while the news went on about fighter jets and missiles off the coast... unusual times.
So anyway, here's an old computer! An AST Advantage 600-series, specifically the 622 model from early 1996. I purchased this last year under the assumption it was new in box, but while that ended up not being the case, it's still an incredibly well-preserved example. And JEEZ is it slow, haha.
There are still a few bits of b-roll that I need to film and add in later, but the video's like 99% complete so I hope you enjoy the early look at it.
Comments
Nice, happy to hear it! I’m increasingly enjoying revisiting this era myself, especially the mid-to-low end setups. Just something special there.
LGR
2023-02-08 16:45:44 +0000 UTCGolly, I thought this was just GREAT. I love that era of PC, when it was becoming more common for people to get computers, me getting jealous that my Amiga 1200 was getting showed up by "Windows" computers... getting an A4000T with the intention of putting a Pentium Bridgeboard card in it... yeah... those were the dayz!
CubicleNate
2023-02-08 14:16:35 +0000 UTCI mean obviously it’s not AST anymore, but it’s just odd that it’s the same campus. My father worked there for a long time, and a lot of family friends were from AST.
Skoddie
2023-02-07 02:12:13 +0000 UTCFun fact…I currently work on the Irvine campus shown in the beginning, and it’s got a new address and is not AST anymore 😅
Skoddie
2023-02-07 02:11:11 +0000 UTCThose Labtec speakers just transported me all the way back to some specific childhood memories. Also, loved what you said at the end. Like you, I never had the envy of other computer users, but... I was blessed enough to _have a real computer_. And it was easy to take that for granted.
John Covil
2023-02-07 01:52:20 +0000 UTCTotally. It’s designed like someone with zero self-control just discovered a clipart disc 😄
LGR
2023-02-06 19:51:35 +0000 UTCFully agreed! It's arguably more interesting these days than a fully specced-out PC that can run anything from the 90s. We've seen so many of those, but the authentic lower-end stuff is increasingly uncommon!
LGR
2023-02-06 17:49:29 +0000 UTCI love the reference to David Murray's career in AST tech support.
Steve Lovelace
2023-02-06 17:03:44 +0000 UTCTheir graphic design department was definitely in a "malaise era". That box is charming in it's own way, but it's amazing how much they crammed on there!
Steve Lovelace
2023-02-06 17:01:13 +0000 UTCMaybe it's just me but I love an under powered 90's pc. It's the authentic experience for me as me and my friends never had high spec systems then, struggling to get your games to work was all part of the fun :)
Mat Cooper
2023-02-06 15:04:05 +0000 UTCIt was only for a brief time in the grand scheme of things. Another nail in AST’s coffin was when Radio Shack stopped selling AST machines in favor of IBM in late ‘95 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-08-10-fi-33645-story.html
LGR
2023-02-06 14:25:24 +0000 UTCAround that time my house-mate helped me build my first ever PC - we started with an A-bit BX-133 Socket 370 & Celeron 1GHz and my house-mate was perplexed when he saw my PC case & keyboard connectors... "um, we're going to need to upgrade more than just your mobo & CPU!!"
Gareth P
2023-02-06 09:33:13 +0000 UTC"24/7 support...or talk to Dave Murray (sp?)". :D Interesting side-history about AST and how large they once were. I probably only heard about them through the 8-bit Guy's stories about working for the company. I remember Tandys and IBM Aptiva's being sold at Radio Shack, but never recall AST computers. (shrug)
Chad Armstrong
2023-02-06 03:41:45 +0000 UTCAT connectors were still used on certain mainboards up until the Pentium 3 era, though I’m not sure why! I’ve come across a number of Socket 370 boards like that.
LGR
2023-02-06 03:41:42 +0000 UTCcapcom must've seen the what is a belly button disc and thought that was a great idea.
AOL
2023-02-06 02:48:04 +0000 UTCNice! Was a nostalgia hit to see Grolier mentioned, pity the disc wasn't included - think I got a copy with a Creative CD-ROM upgrade kit in the mid-90s. I think in 1996 I still had a 486 and it wasn't until 1998 that I inherited a used P120 machine with a Diamond Stealth (2MB?) graphics card. Seem to remember it had old AT-style keyboard and mouse connectors, if that even makes sense?? Not sure what would dictate that instead of PS/2 ports!
Gareth P
2023-02-05 23:27:16 +0000 UTCOops. I was watching the video, quickly browsed that there was no comments... aaand happily skipped the initial post. Duh. 🤦♂️
Lari Palander
2023-02-05 22:44:24 +0000 UTCYes, that's what I was referring to in the post with "a few bits of b-roll that I need to film and add in later." Thanks though, they're in the next edit :)
LGR
2023-02-05 22:30:26 +0000 UTCJust a note, missing B-Roll shots 11 and 7 there at the beginning. Thanks again for the awesomeness, nevertheless!
Lari Palander
2023-02-05 22:25:14 +0000 UTCI don’t recall that specifically. But sometimes the store would sell the display model without restoring the HD and thus the customers would call in to ask how to get rid of the demo mode.
The 8-Bit Guy
2023-02-05 18:45:36 +0000 UTCMS Agent? If so I covered it briefly in my episode on BonziBuddy since that "classic" was built off of it :)
LGR
2023-02-05 18:24:58 +0000 UTCThe talking heads just kept going and going and going… felt like I was stuck in a timeshare meeting, heh
LGR
2023-02-05 18:24:23 +0000 UTCI’m kinda curious if any home users chose the store demo mode on startup by accident. This is the only time I’ve seen such a thing on first boot!
LGR
2023-02-05 18:23:02 +0000 UTCThese computers were pretty solid for the time, except for the modems. Those were crap. And Spot was awful. Synchro Multimedia connect was useless.
The 8-Bit Guy
2023-02-05 18:12:30 +0000 UTCI was laughing so much after the initial boot the AST explanation your reflection in the screen had me dying 😂😂😂
Jordan Ficara
2023-02-05 17:46:18 +0000 UTCNow you've got me curious if my old shareware titles, Super Minesweeper and PixelShips Retro, would actually run OK or not with that little RAM on Windows 95. The lowest-spec system I've ever had a chance to run them on was my P120 with 24 MB of RAM under Windows 98 SE, and while they ran fine they would occasionally hit loading snags when accessing the swapfile since not everything fit into RAM but most of it did. With only 8 MB... I'm a little scared at how that might play out... o_o;
Kris Asick
2023-02-05 17:42:07 +0000 UTCI don't know why, but seeing such a basic ass Win95 install reminded me of that really weird Microsoft cartoon chat program
Hernando Heilbron
2023-02-05 17:16:04 +0000 UTCYou bet, Paul!
LGR
2023-02-05 15:14:47 +0000 UTCStill can’t believe how utterly useless that list of specs was.
LGR
2023-02-05 15:14:28 +0000 UTCSERIOUSLY. A necessary Blerb follow-up.
LGR
2023-02-05 15:13:50 +0000 UTCThat PC is begging for a RAM upgrade, holy shit
Alyxx the Rat
2023-02-05 10:26:17 +0000 UTCMan I remember XingMPEG player. I was really fascinated with VCD player on computer. I still have 2 disc in VCD. Dances with Wolves and Kenny G Live.
Allan Au
2023-02-05 07:18:40 +0000 UTCHaha. Yep. This is one of the units I used to support.
The 8-Bit Guy
2023-02-05 05:06:06 +0000 UTCThe entire video all I could think of was David saying "Is this AST?" in his presentation about working there
Cole Lepper
2023-02-05 05:02:36 +0000 UTCFast processor! Lots of RAM!
BatteryPoweredBricks
2023-02-05 04:50:49 +0000 UTCThanks for another great video, Clint!
Paul G
2023-02-05 04:45:17 +0000 UTCOh nice, very similar to this one indeed!
LGR
2023-02-05 04:27:09 +0000 UTCHeyooo
LGR
2023-02-05 04:26:58 +0000 UTCI haven't watched the video yet, but I'll already say I'm in love with it! I had an AST around the same time with that exact same box! A Pentium 100 with 8 MB of RAM (upgraded to 16), a 1.2 GB HD, an 8X CD-ROM and Windows 95. I have such awesome memories of that computer
Frederic St-Georges
2023-02-05 03:55:02 +0000 UTCIt’s good that the government is fighting inflation,,
Thomas Fuchs
2023-02-05 03:53:58 +0000 UTCWell I guess I know hat I am doing for 48 minutes and 22 seconds this evening. Excellent.
Garoninja
2023-02-05 03:53:20 +0000 UTC
