Epic! 8-bitguy uses 1 weird trick to detroy rare prototypes!

[fartsnstuf]

lol imagine being angey because a guy failed to repair a computer that was quite possibly beyond repair to begin with. Oh no, he damaged a screw. How will he ever find a replacement screw.

Don't you assholes have more important things and dangerous people to be angry about?

it isn't the 1st time he destroyed shit, purposefully or not; and it won't be the last

purposefully:

accident:

 

[Pissmaster]

lol imagine being angey because a guy failed to repair a computer that was quite possibly beyond repair to begin with. Oh no, he damaged a screw. How will he ever find a replacement screw.

Don't you assholes have more important things and dangerous people to be angry about?

I’m still a fan, but it’s fun to riff on people when they fuck up. Honestly, I’m glad he shows his fuckups, they’re great for learning. I’d expect anyone else to riff on me if I did the same.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Yep, because what we really need right now is a hot take from Vice (archive). Maybe I'm just being a boomer, but I've never heard of a "milkshake duck".

--

YouTuber Milkshake Ducked After Incorrectly Disassembling Vintage Computer

"The 8-Bit Guy" came under fire for his teardown of a seemingly rare old computer, but followers started unearthing much older, more controversial content of his in the backlash.

by Samantha Cole
02 October 2020, 2:01am

David Murray, known as "the 8-Bit Guy" on his popular YouTube channel where he restores and explores retro technology, usually makes lighthearted, non-controversial videos about things like old-school chiptune music and MS-DOS games.

But Murray—in the view of vintage computer enthusiasts—rushed a recent repair and damaged a rare computer. In part because of this “computer abuse,” some of Murray’s viewers have delved deep into political beliefs he espoused in the early days of his YouTube career and essentially milkshake ducked him for it.

The response to that video has started a conversation about his past videos touting open carry in Texas, antagonizing the anti-gun Moms Demand Action nonprofit, and statements about gun control that have made many fans question whether they can keep watching his computer content.

For 13 years, Murray has posted educational videos to his 8-Bit Guy channel (which used to be called iBook Guy) where he takes vintage computers and devices apart step-by-step, sometimes to restore them, and sometimes just to see where the process leads. His work has gained him some fame in the vintage computing world. He has nearly 1.2 million subscribers on the 8-Bit YouTube channel, and his own subreddit has more than a thousand members.

In his recent teardown video, he acquired a rare, vintage IBM 7496 Executive Workstation on loan from a renowned vintage computing store called Computer Reset in Dallas, Texas as a favor. The tactics Murray used to tear down the computer were regarded by many in the tech restoration scene as rushed and careless treatment of a rare machine. The biggest sins in that video, based on various forum conversations other enthusiasts are having, seem to be the use of a Dremel saw to hack out a set of security screws, and bending a paperclip and shoving it into the power supply (which shorted out the whole machine).

“If you think about it, this system is potentially rarer than an Apple I,” one forum post reads. “With this in mind, would he have stuck a paper clip inside the power supply? It's obvious he's too busy right now, working on all sorts of things, and maybe it's time for him to take things slower and dedicate time into restoration projects like he used to.”

"The paperclip thing was one of the things people seemed to be really upset about, and I'll tell you what I've told everybody else: I've worked on so many computers I can't even count, tens of thousands," Murray told me. "And usually—I've done that paperclip trick 100 times—it always worked. The 101st time I do it, it blows up." He said he'd talked to other retro computer enthusiasts after that, who were also surprised it didn't work. "I don't know what else to say about that other than, 'oops, lesson learned.'" As for using the Dremel saw to cut out a security screw, he said he was working with a limited-time loan, and although he has hundreds of security screw bits, he didn't have that specific one.

Murray posted a video response to the controversy on Wednesday, where he explains how he was in a rush due to other projects, and reiterated much of what we spoke about on Wednesday afternoon:

But all of this isn't just backlash for burning one IBM—if it were, one sloppy teardown probably would have blown over on its own. He's made mistakes on camera before, and even when it goes right, Murray's teardown and restoration methods are sometimes unconventional. While restoring a Macintosh LC II last year, he put the motherboard in the dishwasher to clean corrosion from leaking capacitors. In 2017, he got out the Dremel saw to pry open a Fisher Price "I Can Play" keyboard when he couldn't locate all the screws.

The relative messiness of these videos has led to more than just angry viewers. Some of those viewers have delved into Murray’s archive to resurface old videos where Murray praises open carry gun laws in his home state of Texas—including one where he walks around in a store with a rifle on his back, addressing gun control Moms Demand Action, an anti-gun violence organization, which he said was running a "smear campaign" against a gun rights group he left years ago.

Before 8-Bit Guy, Murray experimented with running several different YouTube hobbyist channels, most of which have been inactive for six years or more. 8-Bit Keys is one of his channels devoted to retro keyboards. The Bullion Channel is all about coin collection. Another one, Awesome Airguns, launched in 2012 and featured "BB guns, Pellet guns, Paintball guns, homemade guns, tactics, and other fun stuff," according to the channel's description.

There are still hints about his gun-collection hobby in the 8-Bit Guy channel, like the time he shot up an old Apple laptop with a BB gun. His gun hobbyist side isn't a secret, and he doesn't hide his affiliation with the old channels. Videos from the Airguns channels—like this one from February 2013, where he addresses the Sandy Hook shooting, which occurred two months prior, by comparing banning guns to banning cars—are resurfacing alongside the criticism of his teardowns recently.

Murray told me he doesn't use 8-Bit Guy as a "soapbox" for political views, ever. "I never do, and that is a fundamental thing: I do not talk about things like that on my channel," he said. Which is why many of the subscribers to his retro computing content are now surprised to learn that he's advocated for open-carry rights in the past.

"If I could go back I just wouldn't have done the video at all," Murray said. "I just had no idea that this was something people would be upset about."

In our conversation, Murray didn't seem concerned that his career in the computing world was suddenly over based on this controversy. The backlash of the last week also isn't an unheard-of phenomenon with YouTube celebrities at large: fans become accustomed to having a one-dimensional look at a person's hobbies or life, and forget that there is a complex person with opinions and beliefs behind the content—and they might not like what they see when more of the picture is revealed.

"There are some people that would love me to just take it all back, but the reality is those people are never gonna like me anyway," Murray said. "It's one of those things I've learned as it's the last three years of kind of being a little bit of a celebrity... there's always going to be a group of people that hate you, sometimes for no good reason whatsoever. And nothing you can ever do will make everyone like, and I've kind of come to realize that."

I know Vice don't have any sense of humor and that it wasn't tongue in cheek so this line is something they actually believe to be true:
"In our conversation, Murray didn't seem concerned that his career in the computing world was suddenly over based on this controversy."


I counter their lame Milkshake Duck with the over used Surprised Pikachu.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

Destroying perfectly good tech?! HERESY!

 

[Pissmaster]

Comments are now disabled on the video where he nukes the prototype

 

[YourUnclesDad]

i bet 8-bit guy has a bigger dick than your dad

 

[Least Concern]

Near the end of the latest ep of the Texas Tech History videos, where Mr. Bitguy travels to various sites in Texas where companies like De Lorean, 3D Realms and Dell had their operations and occasionally interviews people who used to work there, says the next one will be the last because the videos haven't been very popular and the ad revenue isn't making up for the costs he's incurring to make them, which clearly involves a bit of travel. That's too bad because they were pretty entertaining and well-researched, and you'd think the topic would be a hit with his audience, but I guess enough of them are seeing "Texas" in the title and peaceing out. However, I watched this video and all the others while my ad blocker was on so I guess I'm part of the problem too.

 

[Jean Lafitte 1812]

Part 2 of Murray's new workshop, featuring duct taping electrical boxes to keep out insulation and his preference for cold white lighting discussed in this thread. As much as we're clowning on his repair skills, I like that he shows his failures and experiments. Make it more approachable and his videos are part of what inspired me to clean up and restore some of my old stuff. That said, his programming and historical knowledge goes much better in his videos. Stuff like how old school graphics worked, him documenting the development of his games, and his talk on phone phreaking.

He's right in that no matter what he does in a video some retro autist is going to freak out. This has been happening over his preference for retrobriting for a while anyway and we've discussed him restoring some of his own game labels. Don't really blame him for disabling comments on the IBM video, the attention on it has spiraled out of control and probably became annoying to deal with.

Spoiler: Other Retro YouTuber opinions

LGR - Super chill reviews, high-quality content. The old VHS-era videos are comfy, but him getting big has led to people lending him some cool shit to show off in the past 2 years. Plus snarky Sims reviews.

Techmoan - Good videos about weird audio stuff and dash cams oddly enough. I like the puppets, but understand why people don't. Easily skippable at the end of the video.

Anders Enger Jensen - Makes music featured on 8-Bit Guy and Techmoan. Good synth music if you're into that.

 

[Least Concern]

LGR - Super chill reviews, high-quality content. The old VHS-era videos are comfy, but him getting big has led to people lending him some cool shit to show off in the past 2 years. Plus snarky Sims reviews.

Techmoan - Good videos about weird audio stuff and dash cams oddly enough. I like the puppets, but understand why people don't. Easily skippable at the end of the video.

Anders Enger Jensen - Makes music featured on 8-Bit Guy and Techmoan. Good synth music if you're into that.

LGR's voice grates on me a bit. Just doesn't sound natural at all - very performative. Definitely some great content, though.

Techmoan is great. Very smart. And the puppets are hilarious and everyone who says otherwise can eat puppet dick.

 

[ditto]

Other Retro YouTuber opinions

Shout out to Pixelmusement who does super detailed reviews of DOS games and gives into 90s shareware collections. If you're a certain age they're the comfiest videos on YouTube.

LGR's voice grates on me a bit.

I think his content is top-notch and Sims reviews are very entertaining.

But faux breakfast DJ voice gets hard to listen to. Also he can be maddeningly superficial and samey sometimes, finding a cool old computer only to play Command Keen or Duke3D on it.

 

[Pissmaster]

LGR's voice grates on me a bit. Just doesn't sound natural at all - very performative.

Thank God someone finally agrees with me on that.

Part 2 of Murray's new workshop, featuring duct taping electrical boxes to keep out insulation and his preference for cold white lighting discussed in this thread.

Imagine being such a colossal terachad that you dox your fucking security camera POVs in your video

 

[Least Concern]

Imagine being such a colossal terachad that you dox your fucking security camera POVs in your video

He's already shown footage of the outside of his house and neighborhood in other videos, like when he's shown doing Retrobrite dips in his driveway or showing off his Chevy Volt in the driveway. He's talked about the city he lives in too. I don't know if he's doxed his address per se but I'm sure if someone cared enough to find it, they could have already well before this video.

 

[awoo]

fuck i thought he was some spineless cuck but nooooo he's gonna shoot me with his 1800s /k/ colt revolverino for dissing his macintosh 128k (because it sucks)!!! nooooo!!!

it's a glock and he should shoot you for typing like this
8 bit guy is based for making twitter woketards angry at owning a gun and open carrying it (!) and he doesn't give a shit about whiny /g/tards who are insufferable and bitch about everything

 

[Pissmaster]

He's already shown footage of the outside of his house and neighborhood in other videos, like when he's shown doing Retrobrite dips in his driveway or showing off his Chevy Volt in the driveway. He's talked about the city he lives in too. I don't know if he's doxed his address per se but I'm sure if someone cared enough to find it, they could have already well before this video.

Yeah, that's all true. If someone were looking to rob him, a guy with a house full of expensive electronics new and old, they can just check out his YouTube channel and find out more info about the guy's home and security than someone casing his place in person could get.

LGR's home address didn't even show up on some big list of leaked addresses of YouTubers from some convention a year or two ago, and nobody even knows Techmoan's last name.

 

[muh_moobs]

Wow at around the 20 minute mark he compares his blocked sinuses with a severe disability like an amputated arm and how you're awful when you remind him of his "disability".

Something, something console wars something personal Vietnam . . .

 

[tehpope]

So the person David hired to write the music for Planet X3 is also doing the music for his new game. And they Trooned out inbetween games. And they're literally autstic. Like just listening to them talk you can tell.

I just thought it was funny.

 

[Coolio55]

So the person David hired to write the music for Planet X3 is also doing the music for his new game. And they Trooned out inbetween games. And they're literally autstic. Like just listening to them talk you can tell.

I just thought it was funny.

The funniest part was the anime figurines in the background.

Also LOL he looks older than my ancient mother. Great life choice ahaha.

 

[Least Concern]

So Noelle Aman is Anders Enger Jensen? There doesn't seem to be a great effort to ditch the deadname, since there are still Soundcould, Bandcamp, and YouTube accounts with the deadname, and pretty much nothing with the new one. I mean, even on that video, this is the top comment that I can see currently…



Transitioning is a process, I suppose, but I would think changing the names of your Internet accounts would be one of the easier steps.

As for being autistic, well, we are talking about someone who makes chip tunes for early '80s home computers in 2020, so that was a given.

 

[ditto]

So Noelle Aman is Anders Enger Jensen?

The macho Duke Nukem avatar makes it funnier.

Is this is the same person who did the robot clean video? That's when I noped out of his content entirely.

 

[Least Concern]

The macho Duke Nukem avatar makes it funnier.

That's B.J. Blaskowicz from the Wolfenstein games, you fake gamer girl.