LGR Woodgrain 486 Upgrade! Windows 3.1

Great episode. I'm one of the old guys around here... I was an avid Windows 286 user and part of the beta testing for Windows all those days ago. When Win 3.0 was released I was SUPER excited, but when 3.1 arrived I felt we FINALLY had something that actually WORKED. 3.1 was so much better! Thanks for doing these - brings it all back.

This video was a cavalcade of "I REMEMBER THIS" and waves of nostalgia. Our first computer was a 486 SX 33 with 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Christmas 1992, man. Four and a half years old and that thing went on to define my childhood.

Peter Metzger

Anybody else notice that all the illustrations in the Mouse manual showed it being a left-handed device?

Peter Metzger

This was my favorite Mouse.

QUiKSR20

Ahh Norton Desktop. Yeah there are a few desktop replacements/alternate shells for Windows 3.1 like that I'd like to look at in the future.

LGR

Windows 3.1 was the first windows I ever really used. Ran quite well on a 486 DX50 with a #9 GXi Level 25 card (TIGA cards were surprisingly good at speeding up windows 3.1) and a Gravis Ultrasound Classic. A Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 20 was also a nicer monitor to work with with a lot better resolution. The benefits of playing with a machine that was primarily a CAD system and hence had 8MB ram and 213MB disk. Program manager was awful though and using Norton Desktop for Windows made it way nicer to deal with. It didn't match the Amiga though at the time as far as I was concerned.

Lennart Sorensen

Haha, yeah it's really not great. Very low resolution, soft image. Colors are super vivid though! Coffee is from a local roaster, Summit Coffee's Nyampinga <a href="https://www.summitcoffee.com/product/nyampinga-2/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.summitcoffee.com/product/nyampinga-2/</a>

LGR

I wish I had branding as strong as those puppets.

LGR

I had that same model of Packard Bell monitor, ooof, it was not a good monitor.The machine I most remember was our family's next computer. A 'multimedia' Toshiba Infinia, big black machine with a matching monitor/speaker setup, FM &amp; Cable tuner, and of course, CD-ROM. I miss that thing! Also! How can you taunt us with that lovely chemex and not share what your brew of the day is ;-)

JennaKay

Techmoan Cup HYPE!!!

ElPlagiato

Windows 3.1 was my first experience with a Pc, allthough i also learned to Master DOS, since Windows wasnt so game “happy” Then As it is now. Also, looooved the Techmoan coffee cup cameo.

Because Why-Nerd

That and Return of Arcade were just great. Deserving of their own video sometime, perhaps.

LGR

They did, played that version quite a lot! Though my first introduction was the Mac version, so I tend to return to that one more for nostalgia

LGR

🌴🦀🕶️🥤

LGR

Woodgrain 486 does deserve more screen time. Though it's starting to show some wear and tear, might be time to re-do the finish!

LGR

Interesting! That'd explain what I've seen, only ever come across the matte finish MS Mouse loose or with third party company branding.

LGR

I dunno if it's because the rest of the store seemed so boring as a kid or what, but yeah I loved the vibe of the computer setup areas there. Always had to leave immature messages on the scrolling marquee screensavers too.

LGR

Don't recall that one, but I certainly saw a lot of 256 color parrots, butterflies, fields of flowers, etc. Love those kinds of images.

LGR

I always preferred Windows for Groups Who Mostly Slack Off. (Joke plagiarized from Dave Barry, but I still giggle at it.)

Steve Lovelace

no copies of windows 3.11 for workgroups? thats the only version of windows 3 i have, got 3 copies on back disk and 1 copy on beige disk

my main mdern computer is down, my dad is using my powersupply for my backup workstaion. so im stuck on some laptops from 2001, and im on a slower one here and PATREON IS MURDRING my 1.6ghz sinlge core with no HT. but thinks to a outdated video downloader in my outdated chrome i still can watch this episode in HD in almost 2 decade old hardware.

Wow, Microsoft Arcade is a blast from the past. I completely forgot about those games.

Brian Gordon

the mug!!!

evistre

Windows 3.1 will always have a special place in my heart. First used it on a hand me down PS/2 Model 60 that I still have! I managed to find a 486 SLC2 upgrade for it sometime last year as well as Video/Sound/SCSI/Network/CDROM so it's a pretty mean machine. Always wanted to find a way to share it with the masses. Perhaps a post on Reddit one day... Anyway, did they ever have an Oregon Trail release for Win 3.1 that was just like the Mac release? I remember playing the hell out of Oregon Trail back in my middle school days on LC II/III and LC 500 series Macs

🦀🦀🦀 WINDOWS 3.0 IS GONE! 🦀🦀🦀 This message is brought to you by Cool Crab

Akfamilyhome

NO COMMENT

LGR

It's such a classic combo on a 486, yeah!

LGR

Even though I was born in 1995 and used Windows 9x (most likely 98 but not sure) the first time I used a computer, my 486 machine is my baby, and I run MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on it, and I am keeping it that way. I love it! Glad to see you share the love as well.

More classic PC stuff? I approve. Never got to mess around with 3.1 to much. 3.11 was my first OS with gui, used it a lot in school back in the day. At home not so much. Was always more a DOS kind of guy until windows 95. The Woodgrain 486 needs to show up on camera 😁

Deckard Games

How much did Techmoan pay for that product placement ? 😂

Peter Jensen

When I worked at IBM back in the 90s they had Windows 3.1 running on systems, then they got a wild hair and sent around an internal memo saying all systems had to be "upgraded" OS/2, then after maybe a year and a half of nothing but people bitching about OS/2 they finally upgraded again to Windows 95. Luckily I worked in a customer support section for some big companies that mainly used Thinkpads, so I had an extra computer at my desk that continued to run Windows during the dark days of OS/2 only.

Chris Munch

3.1 was my first operating system when I first ventured into pc's from the Amiga. I had a Packard Bell 486-sx33 with 4mb ram, 1mb Cirrus Logic video card and I installed my own SoundBlaster Pro which was my first ever pc upgrade.

Bryndal Dwyre

Ah, windows 3.1. Such a disappointment for me. Coming from an Amiga that I got in late 1987. It just seemed such a backwards step. I had to await ‘95 before things looked promising. Another great video though.. Thank you. Brought back the memories of me scratching my head whilst trying to get an awe32 and STB velocity 128 graphics card to work together.. IRQ/DMA and base memory hell. After a day I finally disabled the Second serial port and could finally bask in 24bit colour..

Richard Shears

The OEM MS Mouse that came with computers was matte, the retail version was always glossy. This was to keep the value of the retail mouse higher in the channel.

Dinty's Hideaway

TECHMOAN! He looks more green then usual...

Allan Au

Aw yiss, those arcade ports itched that deep nostaliga thought from many years ago. Our next door neighbors had a Windows 3.1 machine with a bunch of games including those arcade ports of Tempest/Centipede/Battle Zone/etc. Used to spend quite a bit of time playing Battle Zone... and promptly getting shot at after a certain level. :P

The Enforcer

An MS-DOS+Windows 3.1 PC is what I first learned on, so this video contains all of the awesomeness and nostalgia for me! And a great coffee mug, I should really get one of those.

Cetega

Awesome episode, really made my commute from work more enjoyable. I really want a PC like this at some point cause this was my early childhood in a nutshell.

Alyxx the Rat

Glad I'm not the only one who used Office Depot/Max as my own personal arcade.

Steve Lovelace

I remember firing up that 256 color background for the first time when I upgrade my video card and was amazed. Does any one remember the VGA demonstrations they always used to run in computer stores back in the day showing things like a rose, a vase of flowers and other pictures? It was amazing to see actual photographs on a computer back then when we had just been used to only 16 color and CGA before that for so long.

Jason Dupree

We're all woodgrain friends here 👍

LGR

Someday, maybe! Seeing GEOS on a PC fascinates me.

LGR

So, Geoworks Ensemble next? ;)

BastetFurry

I make no promises, but I give you props on trying a more unique method of requesting a video than most people :P

LGR

Yay! Took me a little longer to get to than I thought, but worked out with the anniversary this year.

LGR

Heh, now that I think about it, I don't think I actually showed the woodgrain-clad system itself. Oh well, its reputation precedes it I'm sure.

LGR

Kind of wanna grab a boxed Intellimouse just to see how big the documentation really is!

LGR

Yesterday I thought to myself, I’m going to rewatch your fantastic review of the Zork games. Not just the trilogy , but that video where you go through the lot including installs. I searched for it everywhere, it took me a while but I’ve concluded that I dreamt the whole lot. Just wanted you to know that it was a great video anyway. I really wish I could click a like, but I can’t because the video doesn’t exist. But you really should make this video. It would rock.

flippin 'eck!

LGR

Welcome back Woodgrain Friend!

Seth C

Dope coffee mug yo

David Simmons

Hurray for the return of the Woodgrain 486! I love that 50-pages manual on how to use a serial, 2-button mouse. Thank go it didn't have a scrolling wheel, imagine how many extra pages it would have required

Frederic St-Georges

Woah! Awesome to see the woodgrain 486 again :-D

Eric Siegel

I've been looking forward to this!

Headset Guy