Multitasking is something modern computer users expect. Today, we think literally nothing of scanning our computers for viruses while sending an e-mail, or listening to music while surfing the web. Back when I first got into them, computers only did one thing at a time. This was painfully evident to those of us who ran BBSes. While your BBS was up and running and waiting for people to call into it, you couldn’t do anything else on it. As PC prices slowly began to drop (meaning you could build a PC for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands), it became more common for “power users” (and especially sysops!) to own two (or more) machines. By 1998, my computer desk looked like this:

What a mess. The machine on the far right (the monitor with the Emperor shooting lightning on it) was my main workstation. Just to the left of that was, I think, the one for my BBS. The one in the corner was my NT server. I think one of the other two monitors was connected to a DOS machine for playing games. I can’t remember what the fifth one was for.

In an attempt to organize things I sat down with a piece of paper, drew up a bunch of shelves, and gave my new desk a name: MAMMOTH DESK 2000.

The “desk” of Mammoth Desk 2000 was a slightly irregular 12′ bathroom counter top that I got from Lowe’s for about a hundred bucks. I built a small black shelf to support the weight in the middle, and mounted the counter top to 2x4s that I drilled into the wall studs. By this time I had purchased a cheap KVM that allowed me to connect multiple computers to a single keyboard, mouse and monitor. At some point I cleaned up the cables and even added a second workstation area to the right for Susan. After this picture was taken I added another shelv all the way across for even more storage.

Mammoth Desk 2000 was gigantic and horrible to look at. It made the room seem tiny and it was ugly. I loved it. For a dedicated computer room, it was perfect. Eventually we moved and I tore down Mammoth Desk 2000 and threw the pieces it in the trash.

Years later in our new house, work began on Mammoth Desk 2005.

The idea of Mammoth Desk 2005 was to have all my video game consoles on the left, with three computer or console gaming stations along the bottom, and three shelves of storage. As you can see in the picture above, the end result was pretty massive.

In this photo you can see how I had all my consoles hooked up. Each of them were wired to power and to a system of switch boxes, so I could play any of them at any time. In the bottom right you can see one of my monitors, which was eventually connected to my Commodore 64.

Once I had all my games on display, Mammoth Desk 2005 looked pretty impressive. The biggest problem with Mammoth Desk 2005 was that I made the shelves so tall, which meant I had to stack games. That really makes them a pain in the ass to pull out.

Here’s a final shot of Mammoth Desk 2005.

I put my chairs right next to the consoles so I wouldn’t have problems with cords reaching, although I now have wireless controllers for most of my consoles. All the consoles were wired into a switch box that allowed me to switch between the television and my projector (which I never use anymore).

As with many of my setups, I grew bored of Mammoth Desk 2005 and eventually dismantled it. All that’s left of it is the main, bottom shelf that runs the length of the room. It now holds my television. Most of the games have been put back into storage for the time being. Who knows — maybe Mammoth Desk 2011 is just around the corner!