Turns out all those ICEMANSG.* files are just savegames! I initially assumed they were something more interesting since they were ~40KB each, but I guess not haha. Seems the game just creates some pretty beefy save files. Still, it's neat to have a bunch of old saves from the Sierra QA department though.

We're watching literal computer archaeology.

Leave it to LGR to complete a 30-year-old work order for friggin' Sierra On-Line!

That sudden, happy panic when you realized it booted up and you needed to copy everything off before it failed was the best part of my day.

Awesome! What an amazing piece of history that is. Thanks for bringing it back to life. Watching it made me feel SO old... (sigh)

“Ken Williams modified Super-Junior” When I saw that I nearly crapped my pants.

My 44 year old self literally squeed when that Ken Williams message popped up! Thanks to you and everyone involved in preserving the history at Computer Reset.

This was before my time at Sierra but still an AMAZING FIND!

Wow the Sierra QA department, that means it'll hardly have been used!

So when i can't sleep i think about every stupid thing i've done in the past and worry about the future. Clint thinks about computers.

When the drive started to work, I got really excited O_O

WOW! First time I've heard a HDD sound like an old snowmobile. I was on the edge of my seat when you were copying those files.

Hey Clint! The hard disk didn't work on your AT because on those ST506/ST412-style hard disks the controller and drive become one unit during low-level formatting. The only way to use a drive with a different controller is by doing another low-level format. Every controller uses a slightly different format, hence they are not compatible with each other. It might work with a different controller from the same manufacturer, but chances are slim when any kind of virtual configuration is used. For example, some newer 8bit Western Digital controllers using the WD SuperBios save the drive geometry on the drive, reducing the number of usable cylinders by 1. This is needed, because on an XT-class machine, there's no CMOS setup to set the drive parameters, should they differ from the defaults. Western Digital by the way were the first to integrate the controller to the drive's PCB, eliminating the need to use low-level formatting to pair the controller and drive. The integrated controller is then connected directly to the system bus via a 40pin cable. These drives are called IDE drives (Integrated Drive Electronics) ;) Back then, they were only producing controllers and needed a drive manufacturing plant to realize their idea, so instead of developing own drives they simply bought a drive manufacturer: Tandon. The first IDE WD drives used exactly the same drive mechanics as the Tandon drive in this PCjr!

Watching you furiously try and copy all the information off that drive before it died was awesome, like something out of an early 90's spy movie.

Have you thought of running some sort of undelete command on that harddrive? perhaps there might exists some deleted stuff still readable.

LGR just grabs a box of disks like it's nothing, but in reality he reached back into portal to 1990 to retrieve them.

As a long time Sierra fan, that Ken Williams prompt was one of the most mind-blowing things I've ever seen. I also love how that prompt is exactly the kind of thing you would see if you activated a computer in some old adventure game.

Me: Oh no, I hope the video doesn't end here. LGR: We're getting somewhere! Me: 16 mins left! Oh yea!!!

Maybe if you dig deep enough at Computer Reset you can find the Leisure Suit Larry 4 floppies.

"Ken Williams modified Super-Junior at your service", omg, that MOTD. I lost my mind. THANK YOU LGR!!!!

5:40 - That's a classic 'crank no start' sound on a car. It's either the fuel injectors or the spark plugs.

"I could make, like, a museum piece out of these." Dude! You have custom framing skills!

Ken Williams' super PCjr! What a find! I'm restoring an Amiga 500 right now for the sole purpose of playing early Sierra games. I miss Sierra!

WHOA! seeing ken's login message pop up made my heart drop. fixing up cool old computers is one thing, but this is on another level. great find. we all need to pitch in and buy Computer Reset as is and let Clint be the curator.

What a find! Love that it boots up with a note from Ken :)

As an old fan of Sierra I have to say this really made my day. I about lost it when I saw the name Ken Williams appear on the screen!

16:16 "Welcome to the beautiful island of Tahiti" Dutch: *heavy breathing*

Yeah, those class X caps are known for failing in a short circuit. As such, they probably blow the fuse (if there is any). I've had one blow on my oscilloscope.

4:48 _The green spacecraft below is another known source of 1701 errors:_ Q'apla!

This is like the coolest find ever. I'm legit happy you found this.

5:45 You know something's wrong when your hard drive sounds like a 2-stroke engine...

So the 512k version never got released? Bruh, sounds like you DID get the test model. Jackpot!

This was very cool. I remember the days of hand written letters from Ken in South Africa in the 80's. He is proper stand up guy!

7:53 I literally caught myself with my hands over my mouth, then Clint goes "my heart is still racing" AND being up till 4:22 in the morning working on computers. Haha...ahhh geeking out is really the best.

If you contact Ken Williams I bet he'd do an interview with you.

When I saw "Ken Williams modified Super-Junior at your service" pop onto the screen... wow. This Computer Reset adventure was so worth it, this truly is PC archaeology. It gave me nostalgia goosebumps guys. Well done Clint, this is why we love this channel so much.

"He's dead, Jim" -Bones on the NCC-1701

that could actually be a beta version of codename iceman. the dates are a few months earlier.

Binini lady is my favourite character in Sierra adventure games! Right next to Shirt, and Wave!

Ken Williams must be relieved there was no browser history on his PCJr

Wow, I knew there was some juicy bits from the Computer Reset mini haul Clint got, but this is absolute gold and absolutely historical in its way. And, this was rotting away to be forgotten and bulldozed before it was thankfully saved! *edit* Welp, Ken Williams confirms, this is definitely gold and definitely historical in more than its own way. Phenomenal save, Clint!

8:30 Computer: literally explodes, smoking. LGR: We're getting somewhere! XD

Very cool! My husband and I may have actually seen that Jr. way back when. We ran the No Name RBBS, and Ken wanted to start up a bulletin board for SOL, so he invited our family up to their house in Corsegold. This was on New Year's Day either 1986/87. The Jr. had been out for a few years by then as our kids had been playing King's Quest on it. We had a great time visiting with Ken and Roberta and the two boys, and worked hard getting the bulletin board up. Before we left to come home, Ken took us on a tour of the offices, and sent us on our way with a copy of every program that they had published. Later, Ken would call and have my husband help him Alpha test an interactive helicopter flying program. If you hear from Ken again, tell him that the Taylor's from No Name RBBS say "hi".

Can you imagine the shock and horror if Clint made a typo and formatted C drive?

I've worked with Adventure Game Studio. That "control map" mode brought back some memories. The tool where you paint the various zones (walkable area, parts of the background that overlap the characters, triggers to transition to other screens) creates solid-colored areas of different colors similar to that. It also uses "ego" as the default name of the player character.

Dude, I'm so glad you're the one that ended up with this. I couldn't think of a better choice for someone to document this machine.

Very well done! Loved how you persisted into getting it to work to show us an amazing piece of history, and I definitely look forward to more of these awesome tech videos; keep up the good work!!!

This was an absolute joy to behold. I couldn't help but giggle as you slowly made progress or simply experimented with the software. This captured computer magic like other content rarely gets to do. Thank you for your time and effort.

Well done Clint , thanks for preserving and giving us access to such old and fascinating things !

That trepidation when you got the directory listing is awesome to watch!

I have never been so excited about a KZfaq video before. I’m a huge Sierra fan and this is amazing. Great find. Congrats, Sir!

Hello there, sent you an email last week… Always enjoy your content. I just purchased a huge storage unit full of vintage computers from the mid-70s up to the mid-80s, maybe some early 90s stuff. I hope I can get with you and figure out what to do with some of the stuff. Dozens and dozens and dozens of beautiful vintage computers, a lot of early Apple stuff, and all kinds of crazy beautiful unopened new things. Thanks for the great channel and content!

As the MOTD says - remember to park the hard-drive, before turning the computer off.

It’s funny, this computer was used in the place that I now live! And it went from Nebraska to Dallas! So cool! Keep up the good work Clint!

I really appreciate all these videos, talk about some trips down memory lane. Keep up the quality content LGR!

I can't believe you got your hands on THE Ken Williams' old PC Jr. That's an AMAZING find. I loved all the old SIerra adventure games. It's even more amazing that you were able to get the data off the hard drive. Congratulations!

Clint, you BLEW MY MIND with this one! Nice video! Good eye too, what a purchase!

This video is insanely cool, thanks for all your hard work

I love that it has the full EGA palette right on the startup screen. Like, 'YEAH, look at all these colors!'.

wow, this is amazing, great work getting it up and running, you have unearthed a great piece of sierra history there. That deserves its own special glass case in a computer museum somewhere.

A Sierra Online QA PCjr, that is awesome!

Never heard about rifa capacitors until my friend with a reel to reel needed assistance recapping his 2 weeks ago. Supposedly they're famous for catching stuff on fire.

So glad something like this history piece has been picked up by you of all people!! You rock and its rollin thanks for that very interesting and entertaining video (and channel)!

Thank you so much for sharing this experience, Clint! It's brought back memories of the good ol days in ways that even the hunt through the warehouse itself didn't quite evoke. :)

watching older PCs getting revived is so satisfying to watch , especially when it used to belong to a company

I was really worried you'd get it to work for 5 minutes, and then it'd die right as it started copying the interesting stuff. i've had sporadic luck with these old hard drive.

That was awesome Clint. Thanks for sharing! Brought back memories from my childhood playing Sierra games on the 386

I could not believe it when i saw this in the OG computer reset video, but that Ken Williams personalized message blew me away! What a fantastic find.

Our man LGR making videos for us at midnight

Really cool that Ken himself could confirm this!

Ken and Roberta Williams and all of Sierra On-Line set the core passion I had for computers at such a young age. I am still in the IT field working and building cool technology but I still can't help but think of all the memories with King's Quest, Police Quest, our own IBM AT and PS/2 computers in pieces in our basement because my dad got them as non working units. You having the actual Ken Williams computer is pretty friggen cool man. I'd flip out if I got that thing from a back of a warehouse. That's like finding a Picasso at a garage sale.

Your videos helped me through my depression last year. Thank you for that. Keep up the great content!

Don't forget to park that hard drive!

Sometimes I'm just curious, who are those people, who dislike actually interesting stuff ?

Happy with a video YT recommended to me, such an awesome find and great to watch you get it going!

It is amazing that you get hold of Ken Williams and got a response of what it possibly was. Cheers.

Awww, that Cancan MIDI is so CUTE! I could just squeeze its little cheeks (all 4)!

hm would be a nice touch if you can send the stuff you managed to save to Ken Williams, on stylish floppies :D for keepsakes i think he would appreciate it since he loved that comp

Old PC of Ken Williams! That's amazing! So happy you managed to get it up and running!

Your videos bring me so much joy.

RIFA MADNESS!!! someone call Dave at the EEVBLOG

IMAGE THAT FREAKIN DISK. THAT'S HISTORY.

I remember this...I. Really wanted one when they came out. Thank you for the memories! It looks like you had a great night or two (more?). Grats VGR!

Thank you for the awesome video. I've been looking forward to seeing this in a video, from the moment I saw this system found at Computer Reset. What a fortunate and fascinating find.

You are the only guy I upvote as soon as the video starts.

"Sorry sorry sorry sorry" -Super Junior

That was super awesome, great Ken Williams reaction too. And I think its just in the right place with you Clint. Enjoy this piece of Sierra History. Awesome.

Duuuude I was waiting ALL DAY to watch this. Did not disappoint. I can't believe you got your hands on some old school SOL gear! Really cool

David (The 8-bit guy)'s Osborne 1 blew up beacuse of that capacitor

I'm a big fan of ScummVM. I now use that for all my Sierra games.

Oh god I can relate to the sheer panic of playing beat the clock with a rickety old harddrive turned on for the first time in decades. I once got an LC2 mac on ebay. Because I knew that the drive if it even turned on would likely crok due to the rubber rings in it bursting into tar, I removed and tested the floppy drive, it was dead, and so swapped it with a working one before I even tried turning on the computer. With a stack of 50 mac formatted 1.44 floppies, I turned it on and to my amazement it worked flawlessly, for precisely 22 minutes, all of which was a frantic chaos of transferring 40 megs of hardrive files onto floppies at a rate of one floppy per minute. After the last file was transferred the computer drive lasted another 4 minutes long enough for me to erase all the non system files on the drive and then I heard the whining grind as the computer froze signalling the rubber bumpers had ruptured spewing tar all over the heads destroying the drive completely.

this is once more so damn retro and i freaking love it! love your effort,clint!

I was waiting for this, since I saw it on the warehouse video. Thanks! :D

YES! My first computer love it! lol... way to go Clint.... you make the legacy world come alive for everyone... now get the cartridge Scuba Hunt for the cartridge bay : )

I always enjoy your videos about this old computer stuff .

Ken and Roberta Williams were ahead of their time. I played so many wonderful Sierra games. watching this brought back memories.

When it breathed to life did anyone else start screaming "DUMP! DUMP THE DATA! ITS DYING! HURRY! DISKS! NOW!"

I'm screaming like a teenage girl at an 'nsync concert!

This is awesome man. Also I love what you do. I've been such a huge fan of your channel since the beginning and it keeps my love for DOS games alive. I hope to have an old 486 to pentium 1 era setup at some point and get away from solely just using dosbox but honestly can't afford it. People on ebay know what they have and there isn't really anywhere good locally to find parts or complete systems for cheap.

Really cool to have a glimpse into the QA process for older games, especially since Sierra has a special place in my heart. Was kinda hoping for a QA version of one of the Space Quest games!