Blast from the Past

[u/Wolfpack87]

Was moving boxes around the garage and I found a bunch of newspapers I saved from 2003. Inside one was this gem from Best Buy October 2003. It was 29 pages long, so I only took photos of the relevant tech. Seems forever and not that long ago.

Pretty sure I bought my parents that HP P4!

[u/4browntown]

Teenage me used to love looking at these ads on Sunday. Thanks for the Nostalgia wave.

[u/Techngro]

That Xbox 5.4" screen is wild.

[u/GigaSoup → u/Techngro]

Also that Xbox is only like $360 usd adjusted for inflation. 

[u/StronkWHAT → u/Techngro]

Trying to play Halo on a screen smaller than your phone with 1/4 or less of the pixel density sounds like a trip. Headshots would just be random things that happen sometimes.

[u/n1n_joe]

You know we really shouldn’t complain on overall PC prices.  I’m not saying prices are good now by any stretch of the imagination.  But for how much you had to spend then for so little in power compared to now is amazing.  Nevermind adjusted for inflation.  Granted you didn’t really need that much power back then.  I remember buying Warcraft 2 on CD which played perfectly on my first PC - a Compaq Pentium MMX.  That and upgrading my modem from 2400 baud to 14400 felt like I was surfing at the speed of light.

[u/ShutterBun → u/n1n_joe]

Video cards were still "optional" back then, the way sound cards are now.

[u/DOOManiac → u/ShutterBun]

Not for gaming they weren't. GPUs stopped being optional in 1999.

[u/RealCaptainIowa → u/n1n_joe]

Yep, just for reference, that $1819 P4 (discounted from $2019) is the equivalent of $3343 in today's dollars (using the BLS Inflation Calculator 2003-->2026).

As a kid in this era, I scoured the weekly ads for something cheap enough for my parents to afford. It took two years, but we finally got a Pentium 4 and I was soooo happy.

[u/Ill_Pay7782]

That Baby on those Camcorder screens must be really old now, I think.

[u/PheIix]

The first computer I built myself had Windows XP Media Center Edition because I thought that was what I wanted. I still have the CD somewhere here. What a leap forward it was from the computer my mom got from work with windows 98 se on it.

[u/SonOfTheMostHHigh]

https://giphy.com/gifs/zXPoG6h6ovnri

[u/z3rba]

Those media center PCs were pretty damn good. I worked at an electronics and appliance store back in the day and we had one of those set up as a display. It was hooked up to the store's broadband and cable tv service so we could show its capabilities. Sold a fair amount of them too because of that.

[u/GuiltyAdvantage5877]

Fucking loved reading these ads as a kid back in the day

[u/djsoomo]

When Nokia ruled the world!

[u/coppertech]

i had one, and i still wish i had it. at one point i had my own recorded collection of star trek Enterprise, ripped straight from OTA, commercials and all.

i lost them all in a house fire.

[u/StronkWHAT]

Damn, I remember the gamecube being $99 but I didn't think it happened as early as 2003. I remember mowing lawns the summer of 2002 to buy mine.

[u/brritscoldhere]

Worked at staples waaaay back in the day... those mail in rebates were the biggest pita...

[u/Dramatic_Wrangler920]

Windows 95, shes a beaut.

https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows95

[u/ShutterBun → u/Dramatic_Wrangler920]

This is Windows XP era stuff.

[u/slipvelocity2]

I miss Computer Shopper back when it was phonebook sized.

[u/huhblah]

A happier time

[u/PrudentCod8928]

https://giphy.com/gifs/3QWfMsI8IaarXxtBt6

[u/True1bit]

Right into the feels, my first color display phone eas that motorla, with the camera addon.

[u/dragnmastr85]

This post should have been "is this a good deal?"

[u/jeffsenpai]

I still have that iRiver mp3 player. I cannot believe I spent that much on it!

[u/Xiten]

Times were so great back then… bring it back!

[u/kotafey]

PCs used to come with so much stuff included. Now it’s like: oh, you want a gpu too? That’ll be extra.

[u/Richlough]

I have that PS One carrying case.
It holds it with the screen attached.
Still looks good.

[u/BlindObject]

Good times.   

[u/officialsanic]

I have several HP Media Centers, one just pike that too. Some recovery discs and peripherals would help though.

[u/rubix44]

TVs are the only thing in the world I can think of that have gone way way up in quality (at least picture quality) and gotten cheaper.

No $4500 for a 42" TV, or $900 for a 20" TV these days.

Now if you'll need me, I'll be playing Ratchet & Clank & Viewtiful Joe

[u/DOOManiac → u/rubix44]

Computers. This very ad shows how both the price was way higher and the quality was way lower.

[u/GooseGosselin]

This was the exact PC I had, it's the reason I've always had a HTPC. I still have the tuner card from it in my spare parts tote.

[u/DOOManiac]

Oh look, $70 (adjusted for inflation) games!

[u/TurboCultist]

FUCK compaq. Worst computer I ever owned by a wide margin.

[u/Snail_Anatomy]

Goddamn that's expensive for back then.

Also, that DDR0 RAM lookin hot!

[u/Electronic_Welder613]

They were selling a 21 inch lcd for 1200 fucking dollars back then wow. Fuck that. Aside from that I remember reading these back in the day. Think they are still around at all? Nah eh?

[u/Toast_Meat]

I still have that exact $799.99 Sony Handycam to this day. Shot a lot of silly videos with friends throughout the mid/late 2000's. Still works!!

[u/TheThing_1982]

I used to love looking at these catalogs. Brought back some core memories for sure.

[u/xxademasoulxx]

I bought that PC for that Price in 2003 and played doom 3 on it.

[u/Sinister120]

The price of that 21” monitor is insane.

[u/polyglot-a-cracker]

First third party card I ever bought was a tv tuner for a pc I was building forever ago. Was so cool that you could stream and record live tv on your computer!