The Monorail Computer Owner's Kit! – Unboxing and System Restore



As mentioned in my full video on the Monorail computer, I was able to track down a complete Owner’s Kit for the computer. It includes the original restore CD, along with all sorts of manuals and documentation. Let’s check it out!

Archived Media: https://archive.org/details/MonorailRecoveryCD
Full Monorail Retrospective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-lVSPdd7kY

● Chapters
The Owner’s Kit – 00:00
The Restore – 09:46
The Software – 14:31

● Gear I use to make these videos: https://www.kit.co/mjd
Camera: https://amzn.to/3ipyKc5
Tripod: https://amzn.to/3pqxycn
Microphone: https://amzn.to/35UbkXb
Editing Software (Premiere): https://amzn.to/39kawfS
Thumbnail Editor (Photoshop): https://amzn.to/3lVqVN6

● Affiliate Links (these links will earn me a commission if you purchase something through them at no additional cost to you):
Get a FREE 30-DAY TRIAL of Amazon Prime: https://amzn.to/2xVmMB3
Get 2 FREE Audiobooks with Audible: https://amzn.to/2Ovylse
Try Twitch Prime for FREE: https://amzn.to/33g6vaa
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/?tag=teammjd-20

● Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjdtweets
Instagram: http://instagram.com/mjdmichael

● Music/Credits:
Background Music: http://www.incompetech.com & YouTube Audio Library

Outro Music: Silent Partner – Bet On It
Source: YouTube Audio Library

Amazon Affiliate Notice: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All Amazon links that I provide will use my affiliate code with Amazon.

Some materials in this video are used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and research.

#MichaelMJD #Monorail #WIndows95

source

49 thoughts on “The Monorail Computer Owner's Kit! – Unboxing and System Restore”

  1. Eudora was the mail client we used in school back in the day, so that brings back memories. I also remember many mindspring web sites, one of many alternatives to geocities back then. Great nostalgia!

    Reply
  2. The custom Monorail software (bot the installer and their launcher) looks like it is using Borland's custom controls. Microsoft didn't introduce standard progress bars until Windows 95 so they must have thought the slider was a good enough alternative.

    Reply
  3. MindSpring was an ISP based in Atlanta and was actually a major player at one point before merging with EarthLink. My parents had MindSpring as our first ISP.

    Reply
  4. its crazy to think that the irc program would probably still work if you somehow connected this thing to the internet. there are multiple IRC networks out there such as Libera Chat.

    Reply
  5. The reason for the encoder/decoder software was that back then sending binary file attachments by e-mail or usenet newsgroups was a complicated mess. You'd often have to encode the file from binary into text and paste into the e-mail/news post, or copy paste text from an e-mail/news post and decode it into a file again yourself. So nice of them to include that.

    Reply
  6. When I was a kid, MindSpring and then EarthLink was our first ISP until we finally got cable internet “for school”. I can remember it taking hours to download a game patch or mod and it taking hours even longer if someone picked up the phone and tried to make a call.

    Reply
  7. I've been a power user of Forté Agent back when Usenet was popular – a nice reminder of those times 🙂 The company and software are actually still around.

    Reply
  8. Things I learned from this video:
    New things are added to the internet every day!
    New things are added to the internet every day!
    New things are added to the internet every day!
    New things are added to the internet every day!

    Reply
  9. MJD not knowing what Eudora is/was, that gave my believe in him a big hit. Eudora is internet history. Not knowing about it and being an internet enthousiast is blasphemous.

    Reply
  10. I called the Mindspring phone number as seen in the booklet in the vid, and a recording said “Hi! Welcome to EarthLink. To set up a new Internet connection…” I haven’t done any research as of yet, but it looks like they may have just been re-branded.

    Edit: Yep, looks like on Wikipedia the two companies merged in February of 2000.

    Reply
  11. If you like the Monorail, see if you can get your hands on the iOpener internet appliance. Was another all-in-one SFF machine JUST for web browsing for … shall we say.. the less technically minded. I had a buddy who got one for free and we hacked the heck out of it. I can remember the specs, but I do recall we both cheered when we got doom95 running on it ;p

    Reply

Leave a Comment