It’s true that computing was much different over 20 years ago, but one family had a special PC that’s still turning heads today. Clint Basinger of the LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) YouTube channel has discovered what he dubs the Bear-A-Byte PC—a Pentium III-powered computer sporting a big fluffy teddy bear for a case. His fans found the PC for sale on Craigslist, and before long, it was on his doorstep awaiting restoration.
There’s a lot to be said about this fascinating piece of history, and it all starts with a man named Peter Isaacson. This is the only bear PC of its kind, and Isaacson made it for his wife in the late 90s/early 2000s, who loved teddy bears. The computer is housed inside a baby AT case and fits snugly inside a big teddy bear found at Ikea.
When Basinger got ahold of the build, the first thing he needed to do was obvious: remove 20 years of grime from the inside and outside of the bear PC. The case slid gently out of the bear’s stomach and proved easy to disassemble. The motherboard was easy to access, and much of the original hardware remained. The only major component missing was a hard drive, but replacing that wouldn’t be too difficult for Basinger. He also gave the bear a good dusting and fluffing with compressed air.
As we’ve already mentioned, the bear runs on a Pentium III processor. It’s supported by 320MB of RAM on two mismatched sticks. A PCI expansion slot and a selection of ports on the back panel were available. It has two USB ports, a PS2 mouse port, a PS2 IR port, audio output, VGA for video output, an Ethernet port, and serial and parallel ports.
Basinger installed a 120GB Maxtor IDE hard drive to get the bear up and running. It fits nicely with the hardware, even if it was a few years off, era-wise. Since this was a beast of a PC, he decided to install a beast of an operating system—Windows Millenium Edition. It still has a working CD drive that could support the Windows ME install disk. Once everything was up and running, Basinger gave it a test run using a series of bear-themed games.
We’ve never seen a computer quite like this and probably never will again. If you want to get a closer look at this impressive, niche old-school PC, check out the original video and delve into the rich history behind this one-off Ikea teddy bear desktop.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
