Compy 386

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Revision as of 08:13, 14 February 2006

Side view seen in fingers (with "fingers" edited out)

Strong Bad checks his email.

The Compy 386 was Strong Bad's second computer, and in his words, "a spectacle of graphics and sound." He used this machine to answer his emails after the Tandy 400 was thrown out at the beginning of invisibility. This machine was built by Compy, Inc and seemed to have something against The Cheat. Strong Bad did 78 emails on the Compy, more than double the number of emails he checked on the Tandy (38). If you look at it from the side or from the far front, you can see that the keyboard is wireless, even though all other features of the computer are of less technology. Also of note is that every Compy 386 email had Easter eggs. Although lures & jigs didn't have any Easter Eggs when it was first released, they were added later.

Quick Facts

The Compy 386 logo.

Debut: invisibility

Interactive Feature: You can click on the little wheels repeatedly to change the screen contrast from black to blue and then back to black again.

Slightly Shotgunned!

Death: Destroyed by Bubs' shotgun after being infected by 423,827 viruses in the email "virus." Bubs later sold it to Homestar Runner as seen in the Broken Compy Menu.

Font: Commodore 64

That's not a good prize!

Error Screen: The Compy had a blue Flagrant System Error screen that appeared when it encountered a major problem. Resembling the Windows 9x famous Blue Screen Of Death, it gave Strong Bad some vague information as to what went wrong. This screen appeared in "50 emails," when Homestar's many failed attempts to delete an email crashed the system. It later appeared in "virus," after Strong Bad learned that the Compy was infected with 423,827 viruses. It also was mentioned in Biz Cas Fri 3, but not seen.

The Real Computer

The Compy appearing in Powered by The Cheat form in mile, under the name "Compa"

The Compy (or at least an Apple II monitor and a Dell keyboard) appearing in Puppet Time

Like the Tandy 400, this was an almost-reference to a real computer. There was a 386 processor, which was very popular in its day, but there was no company called "Compy" that made a 386 version of their computer. The "386" logo in "invisibility" is most likely a reference to the real-life logo of IBM, though the Compy 386 is running DOS (programs are .exe), the blue startup screen is a reference to the IBM PC-XT.

The design of the computer itself seems to be a take on the old Compaq Deskpro 386, which has a similar monitor and keyboard. However, the monitor in the Puppet Time movie is an old Apple II monitor. The keyboard is a recent model of the Dell QuietKey keyboard that came with earlier Dell computers.

Interestingly, both the exploded Compy 386 and Tandy 400 contain identical gears and fans, despite being built by different manufacturers and being different generations of computer.