| GEM Computer Products/Micro Equipment Corp./C.MORE My attempt to document a Norcross Georgia Computer Company's History |
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When people think of computing companies of years gone by, they think of IBM, Commodore, NEC, Acer, Packard Bell, Tandy, or Compaq - just to name a few - but outside of those, we had a lot of "smaller" names all over the united states. Small, Regional makers who built machines locally. A small few of these companies managed to make a mark just a little bigger than Local, but not at the Compaq/Packard Bell level. These are the names remembered on various cases that were shared from manufacturer to manufacturer. Micro Equipment Corporation, and GEM Computer Products + C.MORE stores by extention, are one of these companies - sharing a tier just below other, more celebrated "White Box" PC makers such as Austin, Northgate Systems, or ZEOS, but above tiny, regional makers such as Data Experts of Alabama or Cactus of Blackfoot Idaho, or Holt Office Systems or CAT Computers of Kirkland Washington. I would put them sort of where Bellevue Washington firm "Hard Drives Northwest" resides currently. Just more than regional enough to be a regional firm, but just regional enough to still be considered "regional".
So this is going to be a bit like LGR's Tech Tales, except way more obscure. Maybe if this does well, or I find enough to close the case on thsi one, we can continue to look up more strange, old, obscure, regional Whitebox PC Manufacturers and document their systems and whatnot. I must declare, and point out that I am just a fan of these old systems they made. I never worked for any of the companies mentioned, and all of the work here is my own research and digging I've done at various internet archives and various search engines over the course of over 20 years. How factual things may actually be is anyone's guess. I'm just trying to post up what I know. Admittedly, this page was inspired a bit by a blog from about 15 yyears ago where another guy started to write about smaller PC manufacturers (not me) and their histories. I will likely open up more pages as time goes on and more information comes out on these old companies.The Company's History I have attempted this endeavor many times, and still I'm putting pieces together out of micro-sized shards I dig up on the internet. So Speculatory bits will be put in italiacs like this while stuff I have substantiated with Evidence will be in regular text. Micro Equipment Corporation (MEC) and GEM Computer Products were both trademarked in March 1983 per Trademarkia.com - a trademark website (where all these logos came from). Though I have possibly found other sites stating 1982 or earlier as a starting point. It appears that despite this early startup, they never quite took off until 1985 or so. (1985) PEPPER XT MOTHERBOARD - In 1985, GEM started offering a motherboard known as the "Pepper XT". This was an 8088 based, XT-Clone motherboard boasting "Zero Wait State" operation, and intended as an upgrade. Itt was also, apparently used as a motherboard in various other brands "whitebox" PC builds, as well as probably MEC & GEM's computers themselves. I speculate, originally, when the company was formed, MEC was likely already functioning in some fashion, and then GEM was opened up either as a Government branch, or was initially used as the store brand for their PCs. Speculations on Military Ties - I believe I may have read somewhere that they had some U.S. military contracts providing technologies to various branches of the Military. This would seem right on as out of the 4 GEM complete systems below I have found/owned, only ONE did not have a location near/at/around a Military base. It seems the majority of these may have gone to the USAF branches, which may explain the rarity abit. The two systems I acquired were decommed to civilian use after their active duty, and were also quite modified from their stock form and obviously wiped and reloaded with personal effects (which I then wiped and reloaded with my own). This makes me wonder a bit if GEM stood for "Government Electronics Manufacturing" or "Government Engineering Machines" or something like that. C.MORE (Late 80's) - Sometime between 1985 and 1990 MEC/GEM started a series of stores in the southeastern United States known as "C.MORE" with the Tagline "The New Vision". I found this logo on Trademarkia. What I surmise is this was a series of regional computer stores, possibly opened up in malls, such as the then famous Peachtree Mall in west Georgia, or the Montgomery Mall in Montgomery Alabama. I vaguely even recall possibly seeing one at the Auburn Mall in Auburn around 1988-1990 or so. What I'm guessing is this would be a place you could buy accessories, software, diskettes, and full computer systems under the GEM or MEC, or possibly even C.MORE Brand. I even recall being in a large computer store in the Peachtree Mall at age 8 that had a TON of computer stuff in it so it could have been this very store.
Jan 25, 1989 - Deseret News - GEM Announces Salt Lake City Presence - Remember what I said about GEM/MEC/C.MORE Sitting somewhere between a Compaq and a Cactus? Well, this is proof of that. By 1989, GEM computer Products division was already making plans to open up operations in Salt Lake City Utah, a whole heck and away from Norcross Georgia. The Article mentions this arm being run by Larry Edwards, previously of Novell, and employing 7 people in their opffices while a factory had not been picked yet at this point.
Micro Equipment Corp. and its affiliate, Gem Computer Products, both headquartered in Atlanta, will open a regional sales and distribution office and a manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City this year.
In a written announcement released Wednesday, officials said the Utah office will cover distribution in the western United States. The company said Salt Lake City was chosen because of its regional shipping location and abundant work force.Larry C. Edwards, a former executive with Novell Data Services and founder of Icon International, has been named vice president and general manager of Micro Equipment's Western Operations..
Edwards said the company has opened a small office in Sandy, 9176 S. 300 West, but a site for the computer manufacturing and assembly plant has not been chosen. The facility will employ about 20 workers.
Micro Equipment is a 7-year-old computer products distributor, while Gem manufactures IBM compatible computers and accessories. The companies have facilities in Atlanta and Taiwan.
Post 1997 - By 1997, GEM/MEC/C.MORE were now being run by CEO Alexander Mark Remington, who was also a director of NewCom (now known as NCom). Around that time, NewCom was having fifnancial issues, and who was their #1 supplier? Micro Equip Corp. of course. Between 1999 and 2003, the US Department of Justice had an ongoing trial involving members of NewCom, Aura, and MEC. Here's some links to this because I'm not all that well versed in legal. What I understand is this was a fraud case involving Remington, his girlfriend, 2 guys of some ethnicity going under the names "Gino" and "Tony", and NewCom failing as a business. (Apnews) Defunct Tech Firm Execs Charged (DailyBreeze) Three Arrest in Corporate Fraud Case (9/12/2002) EMM CREDIT LLC v. ALEXANDER REMINGTON Property For Sale 2020 Onward - While looking up addresses for GEM Computer Products, MEC, and C.MORE, I found GEM's 1989 building that was being built in Atlanta, apparently this was MEC's headquarters throughout the 1990's until they folded around 2005 or so. I also was able to locate the original building that looks more "spanish" in architecture as well. This seems to be all that is left, though a Facebook Page for "MEC" still exists claiming some ind of startup or something. It's unclear exactly what that business is for anymore. Products by GEM/MEC/C.MORE Full Systems
INFORMATION I'M STILL LOOKING FOR I'm really trying hard here to make these pages on more obscure "brands" fun, interesting, and informative. As I find out more, I will post more pictures/information, and as I clear more speculations, those will be re-written, and taken out of itailiacs. Feel free to throw me an e-mail from the link above to let me know anything you know or anything generally cool. It took me awhile to think about bringing this page back but the dig is just so much fun of a read.
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