YouTuber LGR felt 'numbness at how powerless I was' as his one-of-a-kind retro PC collection took a direct hit from hurricane Helene, but seeing most of the trove survive now has him eager to share it with others

YouTuber Clint Basinger (LGR) looking into camera with hurricane-damaged home visible in background.
(Image credit: LGR)

Like many in Asheville, North Carolina, retro PC enthusiast Clint Basinger⁠—better known by his handle on YouTube, LGR⁠—was not expecting the catastrophic extent of Hurricane Helene's damage to the town and western North Carolina at large: "I thought I was decently prepared for what was to come!" Basinger told me via email. "We've had several tropical storm remnants pass through before, so it felt rather routine."

Through his channels, LGR and LGR Blerbs, Basinger has chronicled his extensive collection of retro PC games, hardware, and other paraphernalia to an audience of nearly two million subscribers. I previously wrote about his beige Pentium 3 tower stuffed inside a giant Ikea Teddy bear, while some of my other favorites include a PC built inside an evil glass pyramid, a 2003 PC with a faux fish tank viewing panel, and his long running series on goofy computer mice. The thing I've always appreciated is Basinger's infectious enthusiasm for the material: Rather than Wata ratings or NRFB value, he's always most interested in this stuff's history, context, and cool factor.

I also did not expect them to fully cleave my roof and home right down the middle, front to back.

Given Asheville's previous resilience to storms⁠—the town had been called a "climate haven"—and Basinger's archival care with his collection⁠—humidity control and storage "on steel shelves elevated on casters or mounted on walls"—there didn't seem much cause for concern. Basinger even had the trees on his property inspected for structural integrity ahead of the storm.

But then Asheville weathered record rainfall before Helene even arrived, priming the area for the flooding to come. With no evacuation order, Basinger stayed put. "What I did not expect," Basinger said, "were two of the healthiest, largest, heaviest oak trees right in front of my house falling at the same time. I also did not expect them to fully cleave my roof and home right down the middle, front to back." In the face of such damage, and fearing for his own safety, Basinger made the call to leave his home and shelter with a neighbor.

"The room with the majority of my vintage hardware was right below where the trees fell through, and it started filling with rainwater in no time," said Basinger. "After briefly peeking into the collection room and seeing all of the water flowing down from the ceiling onto my 80s and 90s computers and peripherals, I simply sighed and closed the door right behind me. Seeing that absolutely made my heart sink, rapidly followed by numbness at how powerless I was to do much about it."

Collector's value

LGR is postponed a while. But I’m safe! - YouTube LGR is postponed a while. But I’m safe! - YouTube
Watch On

Miraculously, though, Basinger estimated that "95%" of the collection survived in his most recent video, and he's doing his best to keep things in perspective: "It could have been so much worse, but thankfully it was not," he said the new vlog. "Just looking at my actual neighbors down the road or on the other side of the mountain, unfortunately they don't have a home to even restore. Some people lost their lives⁠—a lot of people did.

"Just extremely grateful for what I've got here: The community, the support, all of it. I'm gonna be fine."

Basinger is running a fundraiser through YouTube for Operation Airdrop, a charity that delivers supplies by air to victims of natural disasters. He also directed viewers toward Blue Ridge Public Radio's page documenting local charities to assist flood victims.

As for assessing his own life and the state of his collection after the disaster, Basinger took it piece by piece once he could safely return. The upper floor of Basinger's home did not collapse, and while the room where he stored most of his collection sustained significant water damage, he was relieved to find that most of his treasures could be salvaged.

I'd rather see a good chunk of it spread among other enthusiasts and collectors, hopefully being enjoyed and used more often than I'm able to do myself.

"The experience of taking each piece out of there and finding that nearly all of it was intact enough to simply need a wipedown and some drying off in the sun? Yeah, that brought on an unexpected and revitalizing sense of relief," Basinger told me. "I'd spent days wondering if I'd even be able to salvage that room of stuff at all due to how much rain had soaked through, so to find the majority of those cardboard retail packages and computer game boxes intact seriously caught me by surprise."

A great deal of old hardware still took the hit⁠—in his vlog, Basinger stopped to inspect the remains of an absurd Ferrari branded laptop that cost $2,000 in 2005⁠—but he expressed optimism that even some of these pieces can be saved: "There are many retro items in far worse condition that I've brought back to life before."

Basinger also described a newfound perspective on the retro computing hobby. In addition to rethinking having so many valuable items condensed in one place from a practical perspective, Basinger is considering how to ensure this history is best preserved and bringing joy to as many people as possible: "I also think more than ever that there's a need to redistribute a lotta this stuff."

"I'd rather see a good chunk of it spread among other enthusiasts and collectors, hopefully being enjoyed and used more often than I'm able to do myself. I also found myself thinking that if the worst case scenario happened and all of that stuff was irreparably ruined, that there'd be very little of it I'd want to reacquire. I'm not sure what to make of that last part yet, other than some part of me was ready to accept the loss and felt ready to move onto whatever's next. And I'm still ready for that, but I'm also glad that not much of historical significance was lost either."

TOPICS
Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.

Read more
A man in a gas mask and hood
While I'm trapped indoors by one of the UK's worst storms, I'm enjoying one of my favourite pastimes: trudging through gnarly weather in videogames
Geralt thumbs up
2024 was the year gamers really started pushing back on the erosion of game ownership
PC Gamer new products box illustration
PC Gamer's biggest hardware stories of 2024: Elon Musk, the rise and rise of AI, brilliant builds, the humbling of big tech giants, orb pondering aplenty, and much more
Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition
After fabled RTX 4090 Ti was allegedly dug out of a bin last year, tech testing YouTuber puts Nvidia's prototype GPU through its paces
Retro 1990s style beige desktop PC computer and monitor screen and keyboard. 3D illustration.
I played at least one retro game every week in 2024: Here are 10 I'd still recommend to everyone
Dying Light
Shockingly, nobody bought the $386,000 special edition of Dying Light that came with parkour lessons and a full-size custom zombie survival shelter
Latest in Gaming Industry
Yoda Luke and R2 in Lego form.
Lego is going to make its videogames in-house from now on, says it would 'almost rather overinvest'
A masked man with an axe in the woods
Rebellion CEO seems kind of awed by major studios making massive videogames: 'How do you organize a game that has 2,000 people working on it?'
A computer screen with program code warning of a detected malware script program. 3d illustration
Coder faces 10 years' jailtime for creating a 'kill switch' that screwed-up his employers' systems when he was laid off
Atomfall screenshot
Rebellion CEO puts the studio's recent avoidance of layoffs down to control of scope and cost: 'Sometimes we say, guys, this game's too big'
Judge Dredd promotional image in Warzone
Half-a-dozen 2000AD games were in the works before fizzling out: 'The games you get to see are a tiny representative of the number that get started—sadly'
sniper elite 5 cover
Sniper Elite CEO reckons Swen Vincke is right to snarl at short-sighted publishers: 'You could argue that their business at senior level isn't making games… their business is managing their shareholders' perceptions'
Latest in Features
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
One of the biggest victories of Monster Hunter Wilds' streamlining is I don't have to deal with those awful gimmick fights anymore
A vampire with a dark castle and swarms of bats in the background.
We need to decide on a genre name for Vampire Survivors-like games before a really terrible one sticks
Olivia, Alma and a palico
I wish Monster Hunter Wilds wasn't so afraid of letting me play Monster Hunter
SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads overlapping on a desk
The SteelSeries QcK Performance series has reignited my excitement over the simple pleasure of a quality mouse pad… and trying to click skulls with pinpoint accuracy
OneXPlayer 2 pro on a table
I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly