Gateway 2000 was the cow‑spotted PC brand that basically every 90s household either owned or wanted. Founded in 1985 in a South Dakota barn, Gateway blew up by the early 90s thanks to selling custom PCs direct‑to‑consumer—cutting out the retail middleman before that was a thing. Their boxes showed up with those iconic black‑and‑white cow spots, and machines like the 486, Pentium, and later the Gateway 2000 Destination (yep, the giant “PC as a TV” concept in 1996) made them stand out. They hit their peak around 1999, dropped the “2000” from the name in 1998, and tried to keep up with the Compaqs and Dells, but by the early 2000s the magic faded. Still, if you remember unpacking one of those cow‑print boxes, you can practically hear the Windows 95 startup chime right now.