Welcome!
Welcome to Boring Beige Box! Here we talk about collecting boring beige boxes. Yes, the computers that are sitting in your garage which you used to play King's Quest on.
I grew up in an era of boring beige boxes. They were the Compaqs, Dells, IBM PS/1s, Gateway 2000s, Acers, ASTs, and so many more. You could custom build them or order them pre-built. There were enormous magazines like Computer Shopper that had hundreds of vendors selling their wares. It was a lot to choose from!
I did a lot with my boring beige box. I played all the classic Sierra and LucasArts games. I hacked away at autoexec.bat and config.sys. I ran DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, and finally Windows 95. I got "online" with The Sierra Network, Prodigy, CompuServe, and America Online. I even dialed up to BBSes and got that dreaded $500 phone bill. I used Grolier's Encyclopedia on the new fangled CD-ROM. MPC standards and multimedia were all the rage. The Internet came about and everyone was using Netscape 1.1N. I remember connecting with AOL and then running Netscape just to get on the Information Superhighway!
These were the days of the boring beige box. Times have changed. Now you just buy a Dell and hook it up to your blazing fast DSL or cable modem. The emergence of case modding has made things more fun and interesting. But think back to a simpler time when you were exploring the new world of computing. Come with me as we explore those good old days and celebrate the boring beige box!