Farmer Buys Computer In 1995 Computer Store. He's Shocked By The Price.
The first thing I want to tell viewers is that these are 1995 OUTTAKES from a film that I was making on behalf of an incredible startup back then called General Magic. That's why you will see the soundman and his boom microphone and some pretty sloppy zooming. Normally I would cut all that out because it is the cameraman focusing his lens, but I left it all in for historical context.
It was 1995 and early one evening we walked into a local computer store in Palo Alto, California and filmed what was going on. Customers were having fun as you can tell. There were several fantastic stores in the Silicon Valley at that time. There was Fry's Electronics, a popular electronics retailer known for its wide selection of computers. Back then Fry’s and other computer stores stocked hardware, software and accessories that catered to the growing personal computer market.
Although the PC dominated the market, the Macintosh had a huge reputation and although people didn't know much about computers, everyone was talking about the Mac versus the PC, about gaming, about peripherals, about a printer! Some of the items that were for sale included:
Personal computers: Desktop computers were the primary form of personal computing. Popular brands and models included the IBM-compatible PCs (running Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 which was released in August 1995) and Apple Macintosh computers (such as the Macintosh Performa and Power Macintosh series).
Laptops and notebooks: Portable computing options such as laptops and notebooks were available in 1995 but they were less common and more expensive than desktop computers. Examples include the Apple PowerBook and IBM ThinkPad.
Printers: Dot matrix, inkjet and laser printers were peripherals for home and office use. Brands such as Epson, Canon and Hewlett-Packard (HP) were popular choices.
Monitors: CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors were the standard display technology in 1995. Flat-screen LCD monitors were not yet widely available or affordable.
Keyboards and mice: Wired keyboards and mice were essential peripherals for computer users.
Storage media: Floppy disks (3.5-inch and less commonly, 5.25-inch) were widely used for data storage and software distribution. CD-ROM drives were becoming more common and CD-ROM discs were starting to replace floppy disks for software distribution.
Modems: Dial-up modems were used to connect to the internet or BBS (bulletin board systems). Typical speeds ranged from 14.4 kbps to 28.8 kbps.
Software: Popular software titles included Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows 3.1, Norton Antivirus, Adobe Photoshop, and various games such as Doom, Myst and SimCity 2000.
Computer components: For those interested in building or upgrading their computers, stores carried components like RAM, hard drives, video cards, sound cards and motherboards.
It was so exciting to go into any of the great computer stores. This video gives just a small sense of it. These "machines" and all of the software and peripherals offered were a new world. And while this video doesn't show Dell computers, early 1980s computers, the beginning of computer science, the dawn of quantum computers, it does give a sense of a world that felt wonderful – a world that just about everyone at least in Silicon Valley, felt they needed to be part of. Maybe AI will provide the same kind of experience someday.
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David Hoffman filmmaker