Austin Loses His Mind in StarCraft: A Nostalgic Adventure with Microsoft Bob

We've got eight floppies, which has our Microsoft Bob on it. I'm like, I can't believe how cool this all is. Like someone got this back in 1996, apparently, January of 1996 and kept everything absolutely pristine. Oh, I haven't heard that noise in so long. Chunk! So here's the thing. Bob was not beloved. People thought it was a dumb idea but it did bring some really important things to Windows.

This is the birth of the Comic Sans font. Yes. This beautiful font right here. And this is where Clippy got started. Yeah, buddy. Clippy. Time to experience the Bobinator. Oh my God, that's, wow. Wow. That's a graph. Okay, we're good. Good afternoon. Click on the door to sign in. Okay. What's a password all about? Oh my God, they have to explain what a password is. Yikes. I'll see you inside.

Oh wow. There we go. We are now in my home. I've got myself a calendar. I've got myself encyclopedia. Oh, it's a decorative object. It doesn't do anything. Okay. I will say there's a problem with this. There's no like indication of what's actually clickable and not. What else can I do? Can I move stuff? Oh my. Oh dude. Okay, that's kinda cool.

I found a vault! There's a vault behind the calendar. What's in the vault? Oh I got a secret spot! I, this is really dumb, but it's kind of cool. All right, what kind of car am I gonna buy? Oh wow. It actually tells me, so like, it's actually like advice. Okay, maybe I'm starting to see why Bob wasn't actually super expensive for us to find a box copy of.

I get the idea. Microsoft Bob was a very, very poor idea. Even giving them the benefit of hindsight. I understand why everyone hated this, because like it is oversimplified to an extreme degree. There is no freedom at all. It's like basically like you're constantly being like handheld by Clippy or Mr. Doggy clip dude or whatever.

You're being handheld the entire way through. So you can do a lot of stuff with this. Or you could just install actual real things like Microsoft Works or whatever and do pretty much all these exact same things just without the annoying interface and the constant handholding. Like, I can't do anything without following all this stuff.

Like it's like, Hey, do this, do this, do this. You know, we also could play some games too. Let's play some Diablo. Diablo came out in 1996. I always thought it was later than that. Mattio. Wait, did Matt already play? Matt already played Diablo, didn't he?

You know what, this loads really fast. You know, I will say the game looks like we're running at some good settings. The sum of our knowledge is, and the sum of its people. Should you find a book or scroll that you cannot decipher, do not hesitate to bring it to me.

Oh this. Oh, dungeon time. Ah, get 'em, get 'em, get 'em! There we go. I believe my friends, it is time to play StarCraft. It's funny. So one of the things I know that a lot of people like about older systems like this is the fact that you can use the PS2 like mouse and keyboard.

If you're playing on a CRT, you actually find that like the input latency is incredibly minimal. Oh no, hell no. Hell no, no. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. That's way too many dudes. It's starting to... Ah, no no, no, no. Go away! Go around and get around and get around and go!

Go, go get 'em, get go, go, go, go, go! No, you do... what are ya doing? They're right there! They're right there! Get them! Get them! Yeah! We got it!! Oh no, there's another one.

Okay, well thank you very much for watching this episode of Austin loses his mind in StarCraft. I will say though, NIXSYS is dope. I am so happy to see that, while it's obviously not for everyone, someone is out here not only keeping the dream alive for old hardware and software that simply just doesn't exist anywhere else.

But on top of that, they're actually building these things right. They're building it with new components. They're actually manufacturing new like motherboards and stuff. And that is incredibly cool. Maybe though we can leave Microsoft Bob back in 1995.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- So when I saw an ad offeringto sell me a brand newWindows 98 computer, Icouldn't help but investigate.So this company is knownas NIXSYS, and they havea few things including theyadvertise legacy computers,also custom built industrial systemswhich I don't even knowwhat the point of that is.But essentially they'llbuild you a computerfrom Windows 10 all theway down to like 7, XP.I get the idea that ifyou're like a businessor you have a piece of softwarethat requires Windows 98that you would need anewer computer to maybereplace something that's been sittingaround for 20, 25 years.But I'm just very curiouson like where do they source these from?Is this actually a new computer?Are they just building it fromlike refurbished components?Holy, $1,100!The fact that they're charging,$850 is the cheapest modelthat they've got.Oh, they have servers sowe can buy motherboards toowhich does kind of make sense.Have they rebadged these? Oh, $465!Oh my god, they're not buildingnew motherboards, are they?They just give you the ISO filesfor like Windows XP and likeWindows NT and Windows 98.What! Is that legal?Could they just just, oh, okay.They also have driversfor all the motherboards.So if you buy this stuffyou can just grab whatever you want.Let's build a computer.Let's go with Windows 98.I think Windows 98 is the right move.I'm gonna go with oneof the actual desktops.I kind of wanna do a smaller one.What about the micro workstation?When Windows 98 was out,I didn't really have it,'cause I was like six years oldand I didn't really havea computer at the time.So this is gonna be new.For context, I grew up with Windows XP.That was the first computerthat we had at the house.That was what I used.So this is a little bit before my time.So it starts out at $865 for not a lot.You don't get a lot for 865 bucks.I think they're really charging you thatfor the motherboard.So we've got chassis,motherboard, yada yada yada.So we've got ourselvesa Intel Pentium IIIone gigahertz processor.So we'll spend $15 on a512MB RAM update.It does come with aRage ATI Graphics card.So if you're not familiar,ATI is what AMD used to bebefore the CPU and theGPU sides kind of merge.Previously AMD made CPUs, ATI made GPUsand then a AMD bought out ATIand created a largercompany that we know today.But before that,they made the RAGE XLGraphics card for Windows 98.And this my friends, is mybrand new Windows 98 computer.So after placing the order for the systemI emailed NIXSYS basicallysaying, Hey, I'm a YouTuber.I would love to actuallycome and take a look.And they were verygracious in allowing me tonot only pick this up inperson at their officebut they also gave me atour of their facility.And honestly what these guysdo is way above what I thought.What's really interestingabout these guys is thatthis is a small niche, right?Not a lot of people need abrand new Windows 95 or 98computer, but thereare a lot of businessesthere are a lot of corporations that relyon not only older softwarebut also older hardware.Imagine you've got yourself a CNC machinethat's worth $200,000.Well if the computerthat's running it goes downyou can't exactly goplug in a Windows 11 box.All right, I am very, veryhigh-key excited to open this up.So I actually got to meet theguy who built this system.It's just so cool.Like I have so much appreciationfor what these guys do.Like I 1000% going into thisvideo thought that they'rebasically a company whojust recycle and refurbishlike old systems and resell 'em.But that's not what they're doing at all.Like, this is almostentirely new components.So they were very graciousto include not a a mousebut also the keyboard,important because I don'tthink this system hasUSB, maybe it has a coupleUSB ports, but this isa PS2 mouse and keyboardwhich is very important for our system.This actually might be myfirst time trying Windows 98on camera.So the chassis doesn'tlook particularly oldand that's because it kind of isn't.So this is a modern style of chassis,but it has been customized by NIXSYS.So we've got ourselvesa 3.5 inch floppy disc.We also have a DVD drive,which I'm not entirely sure.I think Windows 98 was thefirst version of Windowsto support DVDs.Other than that,it does have a little NIXSYSbranding on the front.We've got some ventilation on the sideand here where we get alittle bit more spicy.So let me go through these ports.So we actually do have USB ports.Okay, so this does supportUSB, which is fair enough.We also have our mouseand keyboard PS2 slots.So while this should workwith a USB mouse and keyboardthey actually did includeboth a PS2 keyboard and mouse.We've got ourselves VGAfor onboard graphicsalthough this is optionedwith our graphics card.We've got ourselves serial,we've got ourselves audio.We've got ourselves a 100megabit ethernet card.So open it up.You have these little like flippy guys.I mean it's stillactually screwed togetherbut you could like literallyjust like pop it open.That's actually kind of neat.The moment of truth.Let's take a look at our system.That's so red!I didn't realize howred that one's gonna be.Yo. So this is, for allintents and purposes,a brand new Windows 98 computer.Whoa, whoa, whoa.Okay, hold, I gotta liketake this in for a second.So bunch of stuff here.So going from the top to the bottomwe do have a power supply.So there's a 300 wattpower supply, but eventhis power supply is not astandard off the shelf component.It has a minus 12 volt railwhich is not something thatany modern power supply hasbut I assume you need forthe motherboard or something?So they have to havethese custom made for thepower supplies.Right here we've got ourselvesa one terabyte WD blue.And because it is amodern SATA hard drive,it actually does have aSATA to IDE adapter on it.Again, as I'm gonna saya lot in this video,this is based on a lot of older tech.So this motherboard does not support SATA,which is already kindof old at this point.But instead uses thepredecessor, which is IDE.We also got Molex, Molex, Molex.This is the only acceptabletime when Molex is allowed.All right? If you're using Molexon your RGB hub in 2023, stop it.- Get some help.- We've also got on top hereit's another Molex to SATAadapter for our DVD driveand it looks like, yeah,so the actual floppy disk.So looking at this floppydisk drive, it does look olderalthough it is apparently new.So what they're telling meis that they source componentsfrom a bunch of differentplaces, the logisticsof running a business likeNIXSYS would keep me up at night.Because not only are youhaving to remanufacture stuffso you've gotta call factories who likeHey remember when you madethis motherboard in 1999?Can I go order 10,000 of them please?And then you gotta waitmonths, you gotta, you know,hold all this inventoryand even some stuff that,I had no idea you could still get.So this right here is a512 megabyte stick of RAM.I'm gonna open this up.This is, and I cannotbelieve that this is true.A brand new stick of RAM.Look at that. It looks absolutely ancient.In fact, actually it looks,it actually looks cool.Wow. Yeah, that you know what?It looks way cooler than like regular RAM,look, it's like double sided.There's no funny business there.It's just straight RAM.This, even though againthe last time anyonerealistically probablybought a new system with thiswas like 20 plus years agothey are still able tosource this brand new.You're not using old RAMyou're not using any old components.The only component thatI was told that is usedin the system is the IntelPentium III processorwhich obviously Intel arenot making new PentiumIII processors anytime soon.Oh you know what actually,there's one other thing that's not new.Let me, lemme pull that off.So if you take a look herethere are a couple of expansion slots.So we have three PCI slots, which is wherewe have our graphics cardas well as our ethernet.But down here we have an ISA port.Now this is the predecessor to PCIwhich is the predecessor to PCI Expresswhich is what you would plugyour graphics card into today.If you've bought a graphicscard the last 20 years,then you probably haven'tseen one of these lately.This my friends, is the ATI RAGE XL.This is what graphicscards used to look like.To tell you how farwe've come on graphics,this is the entire GPU of the system.So we've got ourselves the actual GPUand we have some memory of some amountprobably a megabyte or two,it's not gonna be a lot.And then we have a single VGA. This is it.This is completely unmodified.It just show how far we've comebecause there's no heatsink or fans or anything.It's just the GPU just sitting right thereletting air cool it off.So I was gonna say thatwe have acquired a periodcorrect CRT for the properWindows 98 experience.But that's a damn lie.This CRT was made a fulldecade after this system.This is a 2006 CRT.Obviously Windows 98 is from 1998.So, an almost period correct setup.Oh, I hear all like the harddrives and everything just, oh,and the monitor's coming up too.Yo, let's go Windows 98 baby!It probably looks reallybad on camera, doesn't it?Here's the thing, to myeyes, it's a beautiful imageof Windows 98.When we actually likeplay some games and stuff,we'll probably swapover to another monitor.But for now, I want toappreciate our old school systemwith the greatest technology of all time.And there we go. We're up and running.We've got ourselves Windows 98.We've got Internet Explorer.I also see our little ATI.You know what? I'm not gonna lie,that booted up way faster than I thought.There we go. That's thescreen saver right there.You know, I really enjoydoing these old school videosand just like, I haven'tseen this stuff in forever.We used to have a Windows 98 computerat school and I remember oneof my classmates was acomplete freaking moron.And so here's the thingif you've never used a CRTbefore, they're really cool.But one of the downsides isthat they are highly allergic to magnets.And so my stupid classmatewould take a magnetand wreck the screen and myteacher would get so mad.We had one computer in the whole school.It was in my classroom.And he is like, he, he, he,my teacher was about tolike throw him outside.In a lot of ways, Windows 98 was oneof the first OSs that was kindof meant to be online, right?I mean there's obviouslyinternet compatibilitywith some earlier devices, but like,this actually has InternetExplorer 5 installed.Wow, I didn't realizethat 98 went that far.So to properly put our brandnew Windows 98 computerthrough its paces, it istime to go back in time.Whoa, whoa, whoa. It was actually boxed.Oh, I thought it was justeverything individually.Okay. So when we startedtalking about doing this video,it's one thing to show the computerand obviously it's verycool what NIXSYS are doingbut it's another thing toactually do something with it.And while we're gonna playsome games and whatnotwe were able to get aapparently boxed copyof Microsoft Bob.It's like even an emojibefore emojis we're a thing.I'm gonna be super honest with you.I don't fully understand howthis works because it's got,if you look on the back,it's got a bunch of stuff.So you've got a calendar, a letter writer.The way it works, though,is that your desktop islike an actual desk andthe things you wanna doare all the things on your shelf.Like this is really designedto very much kind ofease someone who does notknow anything about computersinto, well, using a computer.This was released back in 1995.So the box is in incrediblygood shape, I'll say.Someone took care ofit and oh my goodness.Oh, oh, okay. So before yougot your software on CDs,you got it on floppies.And for this we've got1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,we've got eight floppies, whichhas our Microsoft Bob on it.I'm like, I can't believehow cool this all is.Like someone got thisback in 1996, apparently,January of 1996 and kepteverything absolutely pristine.Oh, I haven't heard thatnoise in so long. Chunk!So here's the thing. Bob was not beloved.People thought it was a dumb ideabut it did bring some reallyimportant things to Windows.This is the birth of the Comic Sans font.Yes. This beautiful font right here.And this is where Clippy got started.Yeah, buddy. Clippy.Time to experience the Bobinator.Oh my God, that's, wow.Wow. That's a graph.Okay, we're good.Good afternoon. Clickon the door to sign in.Okay. What's a password all about?Oh my God, they have toexplain what a password is.Yikes. I'll see you inside.Oh wow. There we go.We are now in my home.I've got myself a calendar.I've got myself encyclopedia.Oh, it's a decorative object.It doesn't do anything.Okay. I will say there'sa problem with this.There's no like indicationof what's actually clickable and not.What else can I do? Can I move stuff?Oh. Oh, you can just grab stuff.Oh my. Oh dude. Okay,that's kinda cool.I found a vault! There's avault behind the calendar.What's in the vault?Oh I got a secret spot!I, this is really dumb,but it's kind of cool.All right, what kindof car am I gonna buy?Oh wow. It actually tells me, so like,it's actually like advice.Okay, maybe I'm startingto see why Bob wasn'tactually super expensive forus to find a box copy of.I get the idea.Microsoft Bob was a very, very poor idea.Even giving them the benefit of hindsight.I understand why everyone hated this,because like it is oversimplifiedto an extreme degree.There is no freedom at all.It's like basically like you're constantlybeing like handheld byClippy or Mr. Doggy clip dudeor whatever.You're being handheldthe entire way through.So you can do a lot of stuff with this.Or you could just installactual real thingslike Microsoft Works orwhatever and do pretty muchall these exact same thingsjust without the annoyinginterface and the constant handholding.Like, I can't do anythingwithout following all this stuff.Like it's like, Hey, dothis, do this, do this.You know, we also couldplay some games too.Let's play some Diablo.Diablo came out in 1996.I always thought it was later than that.Mattio. Wait, did Matt already play?Matt already played Diablo, didn't he?You know what, this loads really fast.You know, I will say the game lookslike we're running at some good settings.The sum of our knowledge is,and the sum of its people.Should you find a book orscroll that you cannot decipher,do not hesitate to bring it to me.Oh this. Oh, dungeon time.Ah, get 'em, get 'em, get 'em!There we go. I believe my friends,it is time to play StarCraft.It's funny. So one of thethings I know that a lotof people like about oldersystems like this is the factthat you can use the PS2,like mouse and keyboard.If you're playing on aCRT, you actually findthat like the input latencyis incredibly minimal.Oh no, hell no. Hell no, no.Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.That's way too many dudes.It's starting to..Ah, no no, no, no. Go away!Go around and get aroundand get around and go!Go, go get 'em, get go, go, go, go, go!No, you do... what are ya doing?They're right there! They're right there!Get them! Get them!Yeah! We got it!!Oh no, there's another one.Okay, well thank you very muchfor watching this episodeof Austin loses his mindin StarCraft.I will say though, NIXSYS is dope.I am so happy to see that,while it's obviously not for everyone,someone is out here notonly keeping the dream alivefor old hardware and softwarethat simply just doesn'texist anywhere else.But on top of that,they're actually buildingthese things right.They're building it with new components.They're actually manufacturing newlike motherboards and stuff.And that is incredibly cool.Maybe though we can leaveMicrosoft Bob back in 1995.