Cleaning Out Our Computer Graveyard

There's a thin line between "prudent developer" and "hoarder."

Less than half of the tech junk we purged.

I've been running Spiderweb Software since 1994, long enough to become a dedicated tech hoarder. I'm terrified of getting rid of any computer, because at any time I might need to locate an obscure file from 20 years ago and if I don't I will die.

I have needed to do this exactly once. To release Blades of Exile as open soure I pulled some cursor icons off an old machine. Instead of spending 5 minutes recreating them.

Now that we are close to moving, we need to empty out the elephant's graveyard. Here is a small selection of the mountain of garbage-treasure I dumped on a somewhat startled electronics recycling place.

The label says “Out out!! You demons of stupidity!!” It’s a joke from a Dilbert cartoon from a different century.

This is the first grown-up computer I ever owned, a PowerMac 6100 purchased in 1994. Its release price was $2000 in then-dollars, or about $4310 in today-dollars. Expensive machine, with a princely 48 KB of RAM. Ungraded to 64 KB for $860 in today-dollars.

This unlovely beige box was actually pretty cool-looking at the time. The plastic tabs in the back could be pulled up to get access to the innards, though they grew brittle with age and snapped off the moment I tugged on them.

Things were snug inside but easy to swap out.

The precious DOS Compatibility Card, which I used to do battle with Windows 3.1. So much financial success came from my being one of the rare people bloody-minded enough to write games for that monster.

I had multiple terrifying sessions of tinkering with the inside of this highly expensive box. The key accomplishment was buying a card with an Intel chip that enabled Windows to run natively on the machine. My apartment was tiny, so there wasn't really room for 2 computers.

Looking back, my mutant were-computer was a truly nifty bit of tech. Some Windows box manufacturer could make a card with an Apple silicon chip that could also run Mac natively. You'd have a computer that could run every video game, but you could also use it to pretend you're in a hip band!

That rusty-lookin’ gook is what you get when you mix battery acid with a motherboard and let it marinate for 30 years.

This Mac has huge sentimental value to me and I really wish I could still use it. However, it shipped with a battery on the motherboard. Some time in the last 30 years, the battery leaked acid all over the delicate innards. Not even I could hoard this.

I did ask the recycling place guy if these older computers were worth anything. He laughed.

When I pressed him, he told me that the computers are all taken out into a desrt and left in big piles. Then, when we invent AI-powered robots, the robots will go out into the desert and make out with the old stuff.

I was surprised to find that Magnavox is still a going concern.

This is the monitor I got with my first Mac. A majestic 14" Magnavox that could draw art in literally hundreds of colors.

$970 in today dollars. Which seems a lot, but, if you look closely, you will see this is a "Mac Color Display." Which instantly multiplied the price by 5.

Macintosh in the streets. Windows between the sheets.

Eventually, my trusty old PowerMac 6100 started making weird grinding noises. The graphics flickered. Sometimes, it belched out sulfurous smoke. At last, I gave up and bought my second Macintosh.

This PowerMac 7200 actually came with the PC board already inside it. In retrospective, this is a hilarious surrender on the part of the normally arrogant Apple Computer Inc. A brief window of humility, long before the Apple Vision Pro.

I feel weirdly self-conscious showing you how dusty this machine got.

I will close with one of the many PowerMacs we bought over the years with the late, lamented flop-open design. Need to install more ram? A new card for something? Tug lightly on the side and the whole thing flops open. Tons of air free space inside to poke around. Or just clean out the dust, something we apparently never, ever did.

Apple products are different today. When I had an Apple II+ as a kid, it had commands called Peek and Poke that let you edit the computer's RAM DIRECTLY. Now you can never ever poke around or mod any Mac that costs less than $10000.

All gone now, hundreds of pounds of it. I've reached a life-point where getting rid of objects feels better than obtaining them. All of my old code is in the Cloud, waiting for the day that will never happen when I want to see it again.

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Spiderweb Software creates turn-based, indie, old-school fantasy role-playing games. They are low-budget, but they’re full of good story and fun. You can still late-back the Kickstarter for our next game, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory.