I just wanted to start a topic about discontinued brands of computers, mainly Quantex and CyberMax, but also other, even smaller companies which you've probably not even heard of before (such as Total Peripherals, ProGen, Microworkz, etc...). And we all know what eventually became of Packard Bell in the United States...

Quantex and CyberMax:
For Quantex and CyberMax, you can find a great deal of information online about those systems, as well as in magazines from around the 1990s up to the very early 2000s. They were highly popular back in the day, and as for Quantex, even after they went bankrupt following the bankruptcy of their supplier, Fountain Technologies, awards were still being given out.

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I know that this topic is rather unusual, but since it doesn't have a subforum of its own, I just thought that I would post it here anyway, in case anyone is interested.

I'll provide any further information about any of the brands that I come across, including the ones that I've already mentioned here.

EDIT: Edited first paragraph to make the actual topic clearer.

K-Mart BluLight computers.

Mitsuba

I remember those also, and from what I've heard about them, they were supposed to be low-cost systems, mainly intended for Internet access and email.

Also, since it was around the same time period, could you order one "free" by signing up for the Internet access and paying it off that way? A lot of low-cost system manufacturers did that to further lower the price (systems sold that way were called "free PCs", on the premise that the system itself was free but the service was paid), which is why I ask.

Brøderbund Software, Inc. (KidPix)

Now that's nostalgia.

NEC, Not sure if that can be considered a "Discontinued brand", because by 2011, Their PC manufacturing got acquired by Lenovo, They still sell computer monitors, But AFAIK I don't think they sell laptops anymore, At least not here in the US

This topic is actually about discontinued computer brands, though, so I'll try to make that clearer. Sorry for any confusion that it might have caused.

AST Research computers. Eventually merged with Samsung (Samsung being the larger company, took *them* over.)

Tandy, Olivetti, Mactell, Radius, Power Computing, Umax, Xerox*, Timex*, MITS, Univac (\Remington), DEC, Burroughs, Commodore (Including Amiga), Atari*, Texas Instruments*, Canon*, Micron, NeXT, Be, Control Data Corporation, Data General, Leading Edge, Zenith*, Osborne, Outbound, and the list goes on and on.

Really, this is will turn out to be a VERY long list.

*Around, but no longer make computers, nor have they for years.

No, they were about $799 for the top-grade 433MHz Celeron one with Windows 98. The internet access was an extra subscription price (not that I had it, I was on AOL 56k at the time)

For one thing there is Tekgraf... Anybody know this brand?

Epson.. I think they are only in the printer's business these days and left aside the pc manufacturing...

Indeed, I've got an Epson printer myself. Never knew they were in the PC business though. They apparently even made the first "portable" computer, huh.

One more I remember that disapperared is Apricot Computers... I think theay are also quite rare to find nowdays

Acorn is one of them.

In the brazilian market: Microdigital, Prológica, Five Star, Microtec, VTE, Metron, Kennex, Lince, Dynacom, Sharp, Gradiente, Milmar, Dismac, UiS, Unitron, Scopus, Compudata, Micronix, Splice, Spectrum, Polymax, Logus, Jamper, Byte-on, Forma, Fenix, Sysdata, Sayfi, Facit, DIGITUS, RACIMEC, Link, Ômega, Micropic, Kemitron, Nova Eletrônica, Ritas do Brasil, Computec, Varix... Most of them disappeared from the computer market after 1992, when the IBM PC system became de facto standard and the worldwide computer giants installed their factories over here.

Gateway 2000.

Yes, I know that they are still a subsidiary of Acer, but the true Gateway 2000 company made a lasting legacy for good computers before the company went south.

The company truly "went south" after having purchased eMachines, since their systems after that were essentially rebranded eMachines systems, at least if I remember correctly. They even looked very much the same after that occurred, suggesting to me that they switched over to the same supplier for eMachines itself, TriGem.

And considering the constant problems that I've had with eMachines systems in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if the so-called "Gateway" systems suffered from the same problems after this point.

Oh I know of some that are the horrors of cheap computers, I actually had the pleasure of working on one. Patriot Computers in Canada sold these back in 1999 they were junk. They essentially were Hot Wheels and Barbie computers due to some licensing agreement by Matell.

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/628

I remember Highscreen. They used to be alright but as far as I know they aren't really around anymore. From what I've heard they were really brave, they tried to sell computers with OS/2 instead of Windows 95 and, apparently, they even had an Alpha for sale once.

Also, Siemens. First they were called Siemens Nixdorf, then Fujitsu Siemens. These days Siemens does nothing with computers anymore. Nixdorf makes ATMs nowadays and I think Fujitsu continues making computers on their own.

I remember my AST Advantage! Adventure! workstation.



Remember when product releases sounded like that?

I know about these systems also. Unfortunately, they suffered from many design flaws as you pointed out, and I even heard about one story of someone who purchased a HotWheels PC for his son, only to find that the monitor cable didn't have proper screws, meaning that the connection wasn't secure as a result, and the connector itself kept coming disconnected from the video port.

That wasn't the only complaint - I've also heard numerous stories about the component failures that those systems suffered, as well as delays in shipments that occurred a couple of times.

Finally, though, the company itself went bankrupt in 2000, so that was the end of them. All in all, there were loads of unhappy customers at their "funeral".

You can add :

Amstrad Ltd Co
SMT Goupil (SMT stands for Société de micro-informatique et télécommunication), a french computer maker from 1979 up to 1991.

I have an old Amstrad in the next town over that I got from a friend at a barbecue, I haven't turned it on yet, but something like that might be a bit vintage