Remember Gateway 2000? How a mouse pad triggered a wave of nostalgia for the big-box home PC company

Before we all carried computers in our pockets, there was a "computer room" — a space we set aside for the home's lone PC. Family members would queue up for time with the system, and at night, it might be the hub for all your illicit AIM conversations.

With boxy systems, cabled keyboards and mice, and insanely heavy CRT monitors, these Windows PCs were formidable in size and — compared to today's smartphones — almost quaint in their sub-GHz capabilities.

If I close my eyes, I can still see my Gateway 2000 486 DX2 50MHz computer sitting in the corner of my apartment on a heavy, brown, pressboard rolling computer desk that I put together myself. Now, almost 35 years later, the only reminder I have of that system is this mousepad that my wife inexplicably still uses for her All-In-One Acer PC. There's some irony in that, but I'll get to that later.

On a whim, I took a couple of photos of the aging pad and posted them on social media with these words: "If you know the company on this vintage mouse pad, we could be friends."

What followed was a massive wave of nostalgia for the systems of that era, but primarily for Gateway 2000, a company that exists in name only on a series of nondescript, budget-level laptops at Walmart.

You'd be forgiven if you never heard of Gateway or Gateway 2000 PCs, especially if you were born after 2000. The company's glory days were in the late 1980s and, especially, the mid-1990s. It was one of many so-called white-box manufacturers who made IBM-style, Intel-powered Windows PCs but with their own branding and design flair.

Still, no stood out like Gateway. The Iowa (yes, Iowa)-based tech company delivered PCs in cow-print boxes (white with large blotches of black). When I worked at PC Magazine in the early 1990s, Gateway 2000 regularly ran 8-to-12-page ad inserts, often featuring cows, cornball jokes, or both.

Its computers arrived in huge boxes adorned with stark cow patches; everyone knew when someone in the neighborhood was getting a Gateway PC. "The boxes they came in were great marketing. Firing up Prodigy on the 28k modem," wrote X user RelativelySmart.

A moo-ving product

Even though I've long since moved on from massive computer consoles, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Gateway. The DX2 50MHz was my second PC (after an 8088-powered Epson Apex), and I used it for everything from writing and tax prep (with TaxCut) to early attempts at Pixar Typestry 3D text creation (I created the below art on my old Gateway PC in 1994) and even ray tracing.

Those last two operations would usually take hours to render. I'd set up the process, go to bed, and awake to find 3D text or a shiny, rendered metal ball on my screen. I soon discovered, though, that I was not the only one who remembered the Iowa-based company.

Below my tweet was an outpouring of memories. For many commenters, Gateway 2000 was their first PC (or their parents' PC). Some reminded me that Gateway opened hundreds of "Gateway Country Stores" around the US, all of which amply featured the company's cow and farm iconography (company founder and then CEO Ted Waitt's family apparently did herd cows).

Some claimed that these stores were the inspiration for Apple Stores, and while I can't confirm that, one poster, BizarroPlanet on X, recalled, "I remember thinking when Apple opened the Apple Store, 'oh they’re copying Gateway.'”

"Bought one of my first machines there. The store felt like a magic place for nerds. Cow print was everything, even on the boxes," wrote Gabriel Martinez on X (formerly Twitter)

A few people revealed they'd even worked at Gateway's stores.

While some shared fond memories, others posted photos of Gateway tower PCs and keyboards that were inexplicably still in operation. One person claimed they were still running a Gateway 2000 server.

Gateway's heyday coincided with the CD-ROM era. Before the Internet and World Wide Web, most people accessed a world of information through a wide and varied collection of CD-ROMs that covered virtually every topic under the sun. I remember a disc for anatomy (A.D.A.M.) and a collection of discs whose sole purpose was to help you quickly find phone numbers for anyone in the US (yes, like digital Whitepages — ask your parents).

BT on X recalled using the Encyclopædia Britannica CD on his 486 Gateway 2000: "First computer was a Gateway2000! well the first computer I remember was the IBM 386, then 486 my dad had. I remember Britannica Encyclopedia was the only way to get information for school if someone was on the phone."

Cows gone mild

Not every memory was positive. A few called Gateway a terrible PC company, a reputation it earned for its awful customer service, and an issue that I think could be attributed to its meteoric rise and the inability of its support to keep up. The company famously kept adding customer service staff, but to no avail. It's no accident that the company's tech support number is on the mousepad.

"Worked their customer service as a side weekend gig while I was stationed in the Air Force at Minot ND... Didn't last long — I knew too much," wrote Bill Stout on X.

Even as millions bought their PC builds, Gateway struggled and attempted to shore itself up through acquisitions of iconic brands like Amiga and even competitor eMachines.

Gateway was soon eclipsed by PC companies like HP, Dell, and Compaq (which almost bought Gateway), and it limped into the new millennium a shadow of its former self.

In 2007, Acer bought Gateway for $710 million. At the time, I asked then-Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci if Acer would keep both the eMachines and Gateway brands. He was noncommittal. In the end, eMachines disappeared, and Gateway survives (albeit barely) at Walmart.

The irony of my wife's Gateway mousepad and Acer computer is not lost on me. As a tableau, it's an almost touching reminder of a bygone computer era and the journey from the iconic cowpatch and big-box PCs to the sleek systems we use today.

Our 'computer rooms' are gone. The AIM chats are over, and the CD-ROMs are in a landfill, but this mousepad survives and has the power to spark endless memories of a company and the early days of the home PC revolution.

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