Laser 386 desktop PC + VTech history (part 1)

Hello,

In this video I'm going to go over this cool 386 Laser desktop PC that I received and I'm also going to be talking a little bit about the history of the brand, including its parent company VTech that most people know from the kids toys. I never realised there was a connection between the 2 until I started researching for this video.

It's a fascinating story and something that I can relate to living in Belgium close to the Netherlands where Laser was a big deal.

I hope you enjoy this little video and I'm looking forward to seeing you in part 2 where I will go over the machine itself in much more detail.

Thx for watching..... and here are some interesting links

[JimLeonard]

You went well above and beyond the level of historical background I was expecting for the Laser -- very nice work.

[jerronranimo]

Nice to see again, I sold a few of these when I had my pc business in NL in the 90's.

[stephenappiah]

The soundcard is a Zoltrix Audio Pulse 3200 V.2 (AV305). That sound card is not an Analog Devices chipset, the AD1848 is merely the codec, the real chipset is under the sticker and a C-Media CMI8328A. It also has a 100% OPL3 clone chip on it, the DXP44Q. It also seems to have a wavetable header and the MPU-401 on that card is not bugged. It's a solid ISA sound card. Keep it.

[wittonleung]

RARE complete Vtech Laser PC with branded monitor, keyboard and speakers! Nice meet the LASER maniac! I have collected many Vtech Laser computer too in Beijing, China. LASER310 is most famous Vtech computer in China back in 1980s. As we know now, all Vtech LASER computer are from Z80, 6502 to X86, with evolutive brand logos, they are made in HongKong ( Video Technology), USA(Vtech Computer) and EU(Vtech computer Europe) from 1983 to 1997. Just because my first touching with computer is in 1985 with LASER310.

[osgrov]

Ah, I'm jealous. Lovely machine, although it looked like a mess inside. Someone didn't have a good day when fitting those drives and cards, hehe.
Reminds me of the good old Dells and Compaqs of the time. I've always enjoyed these "office machines" as well, and some of them have some really clever engineering in them to fit it all together.
Love that Tseng card by the way - had the same one in my 486 for years. It's flawless for DOS gaming, it just works with everything.

[petervanpuijvelde]

Supervet! Bought a Laser 386SXE 16mhz myself of marktplaats a few year ago, which i restored and fully loaded with everything awesome i could do, sound blaster pro 2, Western Digital 90C30 1MB videocard, new PC Midi card MPU401 card + Roland MT-32 and XT-IDE +sd card because i couldn't get any harddrive to work without one. I also found a matching Laser Monitor however the you have is the exact same model we used to have when i was a kid so very jealous about that one!! We used to have a 286 12Mhz, but this 386sxe almost is and looked the same :)

[trs-fanclub]

Mine was purchased from Circuit City, it was a 386SX25 with 2MB ram and it was an actual Vtech 386. I made almost 600 a month back then and this PC set me back 995.00. It came with 3 1/2 drive, and a 5 1/4 drive which I still have the complete Vtech DOS and windows 3.11 disks for. I wished I had my old pizza box back nowadays. I also remember it came with Wolfenstein 3d.

[Voyager_]

In 1996 this song was everywhere, we even got promo cd's in the mail with the song and the video clip on it. After a year we could not stand the song any more, So thank you for getting that song back into my head :-) I am going to sing it now and annoy the neighbors with it

[mmadmic]

I had the 286 version of this PC, nice PC for it's time, easily upgradable

[wishusknight]

My mom bought the Laser XT/3 brand new, and I later bought this exact 386 brand new which I still have! I must say mine cost a small fortune as I had it optioned out with full scsi subsystem and scsi cdrom. 8mb ram, 387DX fpu, 340mb maxtor scsi HD and sound blaster pro. I also was sponsored a Matrox video system which basically took up nearly the entire one side of expansion slots. (Full length frame grabber, full size TIGA accelerator with Matrox VGA host chipset). And the 3rd card was a rather large Sound blaster pro. In the other side was my Adaptec card, Network card and at the time my brand new fancy supra 14.4 modem.

When business caught on, It didn't take long until I had upgraded it to 16 mb ram and added a pair of 540mb IDE drives and a 300 watt psu. I had to remove the 5.25 inch floppy for that batch of upgrades. I don't think there was ever so much stuffed into one little desktop case. As one will imagine, Cabling was a small nightmare.

[lactobacillusprime]

Very interesting history lesson. And yes I remember those ads well.

[brandonbrooks]

Takes me back to high school, great video!

[dLLund]

is part 2 available yet ? looking forward to it. thank you

[bchristian]

I had one of these that I threw away in 2001. Wish I would have kept it. At the time, nobody was thinking they might someday want a vintage PC.

[drpc]

That was the first PC compatible computer i had. i learned dos on that thing, It came with Geoworks 1.2 as a GUI. fun little unit. only had it for 6 months though, I got it from a Rent a Center back in 1993.

[azmedz]

My very first PC I was 12 years old. My dad took me to the BX and said so you have to learn computers is the future it was a laser for 86SX 25 MHz. 4 MB of ram 102 MB hard drive.

[boneske]

My family's first computer was a Laser 128. This video makes me wish I knew what happened to it.

[ikweetvannixx]

I remember Laser having some great deals with schools back in the day, they showed up everywhere, including my highschool (around 1997) in Eindhoven.

[texmex]

I had a computer in France in 1985, the Laser 500 but it was an 8-bit computer, and I knew the Vtech range as well as the Laser 128 clone of the Apple II, but I didn't know that Vtech had sold a PC 386 compatible.

[trs-fanclub]

I purchased my first PC from Circuit City in Savannah Georgia, It was a Vtech 386 SX/25 with windows 3.11 for 899.00