8 Vintage Computers | Ashens

[@timg2727]

I love how you present the sponsored portion of the video as actual, watchable, entertaining content. Basically every other KZbinr could learn from you.

[@andymadden8183]

Like the ones that spend one minute or more talking about the sponsor.

[@Timeward76]

The only other one I've seen make the sponsor segment so entertaining is michael reeves, although that is for... Entirely different reasons.

[@kribz4576]

Agreed

[@PopeCromwell]

App is now abandoned, unfortunately.

[@JaredConnell]

​@@PopeCromwellHopefully he got his payment up front and it wasn't predicated on him signing up a certain amount of users after a certain amount of time

[@sublimed5155]

He must be drowning nostalgia, having all the systems he probably wanted to have as a kid. That’s awesome.. keep living your dreams, man!

[@samholdsworth420]

All you needed as kid is the NES!!!

[@samholdsworth420]

And SNES!!!

[@samholdsworth420]

Preach

[@FourDozenEggs]

As an American, the ZX Spectrum is the only thing where I feel obligated to say "zed" for the Z. It just sounds off to call it the Zee X Spectrum.

[@sambomacho1]

Loved this video. But you said Megabytes when you meant KiloBytes several times lol

[@Anex952]

Sam Kadoche that would be like if you had 1 terrabyte of ram today

[@Nighterlev]

+ANEX 1 terabyte of ram? that's old school We're in the 1 Petabyte ram standard.

[@csgas0]

Nighterlev thats more than overkill

[@Anex952]

Raton it's the minimum requirement for The Witcher 7.

[@PostApocolyptica]

That MSX keyboard is gorgeous.

[@Ralphfish4]

I don't know why anyone would be angry at the ad at the start. I'm happy he makes money doing what he loves. In my opinion, the ad was as entertaining as the rest of it. The ad consisted of him giving commentary on a product, just like the rest of the video. BUT ALSO, you feel the joy of knowing that he made more money on that bit of the video. That is, assuming you wish him well. I get the vibe that many in several comments sections would like to know that off camera, their favorite creators are living in cardboard boxes.

[@PostApocolyptica]

Ralphfish4 I mean, at least he disclosed it clearly and before he got into the meat of the video. Works for me.

[@drwhoscumrag]

I'm generally skint so can't do patreon or anything. I feel that the least I can do is watch an advert, especially considering the amount of videos I've enjoyed.

[@MrJoeyWheeler]

People whose content consists of their opinions about things (i.e reviews) shouldn't be so easily swayed into promoting things by money. It creates a clear conflict of interest and renders their opinion on all things questionable. There's also the fact that people don't like being advertised to. And the fact that "in-video" ads such as this are not "skippable" unless you know where it ends. Plus, it's at the beginning of the video, meaning the content you came to see is after the ad. If sponsorships are at the end of a video you can click away without losing anything.

[@BoomNoBastic]

bami2 You don't HAVE to watch it. No one is putting a gun to your head. You can easily just move on to a different video or do something productive instead of whining about someone's job (KZbin is where Ashens makes a living) How dare Stuart make money on KZbin.

[@jaomang]

He should get a job

[@philipcorner574]

8:36 The screw-adjustment there is probably for changing the channel of the RF output. Do you remember that VCR's used to have them, too? When Channel 5 started, they had to send people round to everyone's house to adjust them because it broadcast on this previously reserved area of the spectrum (around channel 37, if I recall)

[@MarcZERO1980]

Skip to 21:47 to see Ashens spit in to his hand.

[@ReverendTed]

I hope that was spit. I was worried there was a Xenomorph on his ceiling.

[@v0xxhub647]

good eye, noticed then skimmed the comments for the time stamp XD

[@csgas0]

*UNWATCHABLE*

[@mistie710]

I thought that it was some sort of commentary on the Dragon he was manhandling at the time.

[@TaxEvasionUS]

I misread this as split his hand open for some reason

[@jakublulek3261]

MSX was actually educational standard in Eastern Bloc for some time. I remember rows of MSXs from my elementary school in mid to late '80s, there were clones of ZX Spectrum used also but MSX was standard and even bussiness and educational software was created for them in big numbers. After that, Apple II clones and Atari ST shortly replaced them (Atari ST was pretty common as bussiness and office machine in early '90s) but DOS machines replaced them around 1994-1995, but even in early 2000s you still can see 16-bit machines in classrooms as back-up or as first introduction for first graders. Hell, I have vague memory of my teacher in kindergarden, using I think CBM's VIC-20 for playing funny sounds and showing simple matching games.

[@8mu-]

21:49 I saw the blob of snot hit your hand 😊 but i won't tell anyone.

[@Ralphfish4]

😢

[@Baconkiin]

Looks more like saliva

[@csgas0]

its saliva.

[@8mu-]

Too thick to be saliva. Only he known for sure.

[@epsilon5808]

It's not too thick to be saliva. Unless you have some weirdly watered down saliva, or weirdly white snot.

[@caldera11]

that's actually a pretty sweet app

[@TackyFlamingo]

The only paid promotion that I actually paid attention to. I got the app, followed ashens and joined the group. I quite like it

[@DarkArterialGore]

I had the first three computers shown here back in the day. I used to love copying my friends games when I first got a dual tape deck recorder...it was super exciting being a pirate child.

[@Asterra2]

In before the annotations correcting the several instances of "megabytes". Not that I blame him. I remember trying to find an old 40GB hard drive I'd misplaced, only to ultimately discover that it was actually 40MB.

[@darktetsuya]

MSX was hands down my favorite of this lot! Konami hopped on board early on and came out with a good selection of classic arcade ports and some new original titles (Metal Gear, Snatcher) wish I owned one!

[@TheLarryburns84]

it also has possibly *the* worst Super Mario ripoff I've ever seen... as Vinny from Vinesauce said about it- "Super Boy!.. from Korea!.."

[@darktetsuya]

@@TheLarryburns84 I think I've heard of that one, I would believe it that it was awful lol

[@eddief32]

If I remember correctly, the rheostat next to the tv connection socket was for adjusting the clarity of the picture or changing the channel the unit sent the UHF signal out on.

[@baileyshaw1335]

I’m 20 and have no affinity for any of these old computers but listening to Ashens talk about it makes me incredibly intrigued

[@Denhalen79]

Oh the Commodore 64. This brings back memories. First you had the tape deck. Later came the floppy disk drive. The tapes took ages to load, while the floppy loaded quickly. It was a console that you also could program your own games, using code books. But more then often you made a mistake somewhere or the book had a mistake. Making your game wonky. The Commodore also had a mouse and a pre-runner of a Windows 3.11 like program. It was called Geos.

[@MattMcIrvin]

As someone who was into Atari 8-bit computers from the early 80s, the XEGS kind of fascinates me: it was basically the game-console version of the 400/800 that they *should* have shipped back in 1982 instead of the 5200, or maybe in 1979 (since the 400/800 had originally been conceived as a game console). As it is, it's odd seeing a game machine based on state-of-the-art 1979 tech coming out in 1987, *after* the 7800, after the NES was well established. Sort of a strange last gasp for the 8-bit series. But at least it had a huge game library.

[@bwc1976]

Shows how far ahead of their time the 400/800 were.

[@Ramza042]

I actually had an Atari 65xe back in 1987 at the wee age of 12. To me it was amazing. I managed to bung together a drawing program in basic that used a joystick when I was about 13. the good ol' days.

[@franscartoons]

A video on the BBC Micro would be lovely!

[@slashloveruk]

That MSX brings back so many memories for me. I had Maze of Galious which had exactly the same music as Zelda. A lot of the games were made by Konami.

[@VinceR3000]

I had a C64 but always envied Yie Ar Kung Fu, I think it was exclusive to MSX for a while?

[@GameHammerCG]

The round port by the joystick port on the CPC is a stereo output mini jack. You can plug headphones or a speaker system into it.

[@gabrielloko30000]

Man it's more better than see a long documentary about each system. This video was more quick and with good pace!

[@97channel]

8:34 It adjusts the output frequency to a TV. When they sent someone round to retune everyone's videos and whatnot so that they didn't clash with the new Channel 5 signal in 1997, that's what they adjusted.

[@Macho_Fantastico]

Have fond memories playing on Acorn Computers in primary school early 90's.

[@benclarke9922]

I think Ashens would only include a paid promotion in his video if he liked the product himself. He provides us with free entertainment and really good content. Always. With the state of KZbin at the moment this is probably necessary for him. It really doesn't matter what you're reviewing Stewart you always seem to interest me. Thank you for your integrity.

[@IanC14]

Ben Clarke yeah the way he got distracted by at the end of his spiel makes me think he generally likes it, hence why he promoted it.

[@SirBruceX]

He liked the Dragon32 so much he began salivating at the very thought of it.

[@bwc1976]

The MSX standard was an awesome idea (other than the lack of smooth scrolling capability for games), I wish it had caught on better outside of Japan.

[@trevgauntletneu_gaming]

Hold on, I thought he was eating them. Goddammit...

[@wisteela]

Excellent video. I've owned or still have a selection of these. ZX Spectrum: 16 and 48K model were available at the same time, then 16K was discontinued Commodore 64: Next to TV is an adjustment for TV channel, then you have monitor, and serial port most often used for floppy drive and printer, then tape deck, then user port Acorn Electron: The floppy driver unit was called the Plus 3. I have one, and it uses 3.5" disks. Toshiba MSX: It was indeed the most popular MSX computer here in the UK Dragon 32: The little expansion connector is the parallel printer port. Also, there were compatibility issues with the TRS-80, which was actually the TRS-80 Colour(Color) Computer. Easier to look this up for info. Also of course, that's 32K rather than MB.

[@arvizturotukorfurogep6235]

The Atari 8-bit computer line went from the most badass looking machines to the XEGS that looks like an easter egg candy joke on april's fools day.

[@nervesconcord]

This app is brilliant, now if you know where a person lives you can determine whether it's worth robbing them or not.

[@crapgaz]

The advert bit was dealt with very expertly, a very rare thing on here.

[@locutus155]

I had an Atari 65xe. God the amount of aftermarket periferals you could get for it. We had 3 different types of printer, numerical keypad and someone even made a hardware over ride switch for the floppy drive that allowed you to use both sides of the disk without having to cut a notch in the disk casing.

[@epiendless1128]

I remember going into Coventry city centre library around 1990 and finding that their computer section consisted of little more that an obsolete Oric manual..

[@tombates9122]

Ahhh, the ol' Bumtronics 6000. I still play with mine every chance I get.

[@SSofIreland]

To everyone who's moaning about the paid promotion and "nyehhh, he sold out," I think Jontron put it best: "Jontron is free to watch, but here's a list of things that aren't free: food!"

[@OdaSwifteye]

The Apocalypse has basically screwed everyone who isn't corporate. His videos aren't making money like they used to. Paid promotions is fair but moving to a different website to start getting ad revenue again would be smart.

[@senseikensei7470]

SSofIreland 5 minutes is a bit long if I do say so myself.

[@wendyokoopa7048]

SSofIreland got that right. Ashens needs to eat and wear clothes. To add petrol in his tank. Pay his cell phone. We get mad when our favorite content creators advertise apps they use but then we forget they'd be back working normal jobs or begging

[@brisingerfaelorn]

Yes but Jontron is a massive twat.

[@senseikensei7470]

Brisinger Tudders JonTron is fucking hilarious and a nice guy. What are you talking about?

[@aeronzero]

This video proved to me that it doesn't really matter the subject of the video, I'm here to listen to Stuart talk :D

[@SisterToSleepx]

17:32 "let this be the epitaph for my heart..." (sorry; couldn't resist! You got it stuck in my head!)

[@gregorysturge4917]

64 Megabytes huh?😉

[@Topy44]

Oh wow. As much as I usually hate paid advertisement in KZbin videos like this, this appears to be basically what I have been looking for forever. And as it happens I just started sorting out my collection of stuff and _today_ was thinking "Wouldn't it be cool to have a simple way to make an inventory of all this crap?". This is perfect. For once I must say: Thanks for recommending this. This looks awesome.

[@MsBananasmel]

I had an Acorn Electron in about 1991 and a Toshiba MSX exactly like the one in this video in the same year, also had a Spectrum 48k and a Plus 3 with disk drive .

[@jedisalamander2457]

This is the first time I ever actually downloaded an app from a promotion.

[@doktawhawee9870]

Fun fact about Last Ninja 2: The music used in the level you showed was used in a doom wad that is often considered to be the hardest of all time.

[@midierror]

there are few things in life as enjoyable as an ashens video. all hail the godfather of electronic tomfoolery!

[@Richie5903]

The little adjuster on the back the the C64 next to the aerial connector was used to fine tune the channel adjuster if you had slight interference when you tuned in the channel on the TV and then the 2 circular ports , the 1st is a composite video connector and the other is the serial for printer and disk drives

[@spiney199]

Man these CPU speeds. 1MHz? It's certainly a testament of how far we've gone when my CPU these days is a 3GHz 8 core CPU.

[@vincentmuyo]

Or how little, in some regards, considering 3GHz processors have been a "fast" standard for like 20 years. (Which is a bit of a dishonest argument) ;)

[@AstralPhnx]

Technology moves hella fast. The 68K architecture was king back then, x86 and PowerPC later took over, PowerPC fell off and ARM came to take its place and really those are the two main combatants in the CPU market nowadays, ARM and x86. Granted it's way more complex than that since there's many other architectures out there and things like PowerPC and the 68K still live on in niche applications like embedded systems and servers. Computers truly are amazing

[@Santor-]

@@AstralPhnx 6502 for life!

[@Raina713]

I'm catching up on old videos and got excited about Snupps. Looked it up and they didn't update it, so I can't get it. Now I'm sad because I was going to load my old Atari games and can't do it now.

[@karmascamera5275]

Fun Fact: An emulator for the ZX Spectrum had been tucked away in the files of Goldeneye 007 that was discovered only a few years ago

[@wiredjoker]

I had quite a few of those but the Dragon 32 was by far my favourite. Loved playing Chuckie Egg Thanks for the memories

[@L2Nuku]

Ah good old Toshiba HX10 64K MSX, the fun times had with thee.

[@23Scadu]

Snupps seems like a good way for burglars to scout out lucrative targets.

[@kasper-3099]

I cannot tell you, just how much I enjoy these videos - keep up the good work.

[@fuzzyargy]

im sure its a slip of the tongue to be calling the commodore 64 with 64kb of RAM and the Dragon 32 with 32GB of RAM. The Commodore Amiga had an upgrade slot to boost the Amiga to 1000kb of RAM with a 512kb brick slotted underneath that beastie. Love your work btw Ashens.

[@zoolio]

Commodore 64. My childhood baby. Not gonna lie. I miss the screeching from the tape when loading a game

[@machosker]

T Mad nope, no scream on the C64, they had games that played music when loading

[@zoolio]

+machosker While some games were silent whilst the epileptic fit inducing colours flashed on the screen and then music played while a picture loaded line by line a lot of other games just screeched. Just search youtube for C64 loading noise for examples.

[@valley_robot]

Nope no data loading noise on the c64 mate , sure you don’t remember the spectrum?

[@meetoo594]

@@zoolio C64 never screeched, it was either silent or had music playing. Spectrum and the BBC (i think) among others screeched, maybe you are remembering one of those.

[@iana6713]

Dear me - was that a BBC Master at the end? I remember they had a few of these still going at my secondary school long after they bought in a load of PCs. Was fun to play around with.

[@Lunakitz]

I loved my Commodore 64 so much... Ah memories :)

[@DeuteriumtheSentientMattress]

At the very least, Ashens doesn't read from a piece of paper for his promotions...

[@jeffreyphipps1507]

C-64 back: cart port, tv vid adj (channel adjust), tv out, serial out (floppy drives and printers), composite (later also s-video) out, cassette card edge, parallel card edge.

[@fastbreak333]

It's really fun seeing you talk about these old computers. I wonder how my life would've been if I was born in the 80s instead.

[@ImperatorGrausam]

I actually own an HX-10. A Japanese model though, I got it about a year ago. Here in Arabia MSX machines were popular as hell. We didn't have the HX-10 but we did have a lot of Sanyo and Yamaha ones.

[@hughmungus1235]

I'd love to hear a swear word.

[@senseikensei7470]

Jon Doe Piss.

[@Onio_]

Fuck.

[@jamesgrimwood1285]

Popstation

[@simontay4851]

Shit Semprini

[@Horzuhammer]

Blimey.

[@michaelsegal3558]

5:33 I like the rainbow stripes on the bottom right of that computer

[@dlarge6502]

The electron had several attachments that were able to stack together. One of them was the "+3" which provides a 3.5" DD drive. I think it is possible to connect an electron to a 5.25" drive used by a BBC but natively it was using 3.5" drives.

[@cbayer5012]

Fun fact: the Zilog Z80 was used in Texas Instruments calculators from the TI-81 to the TI-84.

[@nullwii]

Installed the App, because this is what I needed

[@TheGlitched64Reads2]

Well damn, this is the first paid promotion in a video I actually went and got. I have been trying to catalogue my games with pictures on a harddrive and this makes it much easier, like Ashens mentioned, for insurance purposes and just for a bit of fun on top of that.

[@adamwright9517]

Glad to see the Dragon - my first Micro. BBC B was my next one.

[@solaceinrage]

When you look at games like Repton and Get Dexter that were 3 or four years newer, and realize that Super Mario Bros. on the NES blows them away in every conceivable way, it's no wonder that computer gaming was so niche in many markets by comparison for a long time.

[@markberry3496]

Many fond memories playing Zaxxon on my C64.

[@Fynal666]

I have the same Toshiba MSX (i think it's still working), as a kid i had loads of fun with it :)

[@JETJOOBOY]

Crazy remembrance.. The TV port on the Amiga was a Wazz Off Modulator Ad On Gadget!

[@ActionHeinz]

Stuart, the inventor of the famous index finger-thumb typing style ;D

[@eggaweb]

Who just discovered this channel after subbing to the 8-Bit Guy, LGR, Retro Man Cave for years? Bizzarr!

[@derheat9054]

You also called it "Bread bin?" I thought that was a German thing since we also called our C64s "Brotkasten" ^^ THought I was more of an Amiga 500 kid then back in the day

[@arjovenzia]

On the Dragon, a mate whose dad was an electrical engineer. Had a brilliant cad suite for it, nfi what it was, but when we pulled it out, had a really good cad system, n some great layouts from his old boys archives. Was pretty easy to use, we fekked around with it a bit. No manuals, just poking, figured it easy enough. Then we went in from the shed n played CS 1.6 for a bit. Then back to the dragon, pacman. Literally hours later... a bit of cs, bit of bf1945. MOAR DRAGON PACMAN. Definitely one of the weirder lan party's. But the dragon smashed it. No idea why. It was the high res monochrome version, CAD mode. But good gaming. Not deathmatch, collaborative. Nono, go up, they always go down... no wait, waait gogogo. Get the cherry! No, You *cant* get the cherry! *fuck, dammit* I told you you cant get the cherry, wait for the strawberry. My turn, arse over.

[@TheMajikelOne]

I had a Dragon 32, I loved it, all of my oldest gaming memories come from it :)

[@sahhull]

I still have in working order: BBC B + lot of extra kit. Atari ST + extra kit Amiga 500 + extra kit Amiga 1200 ... extra kit was the Amiga 500 stuff that still worked on the 1200. I learnt to program all of the above. Then I went on to PC's

[@peepeestorm2178]

“NO , ENOUGH!” - ashens to his phone

[@summbuddie9120]

God bless the Zx spectrum. It is truly a beautiful machine.

[@elspuddy]

the acorn electron did have a floppy drive, and yes it used them amstrad 3" disk's

[@JRSanchez93]

"Very click clacky but for a budget machine you can't complain". Weird hearing that after watching lgr videos where Clint loves the noise.

[@jadelowe8050]

‘An excellent collection of vintage computers’

[@SammyRenard]

I'll take ashens talking about some app over any professionaly-produced ad anytime. Shit, youtube could replace every ads with ashens talking about stuff and I'd turn off my adblocker for it.

[@SSofIreland]

There should be a set of audio books of Ashens reading bedtime stories. Any kid who listened to his soothing voice would fall asleep in no time.

[@SammyRenard]

@@SSofIreland But he's so fascinating to listen to, it might just keep kids up!

[@spidermonkeynr1]

Msx was my first computer loved it

[@pykeselslayer]

Ngl was so glad when the video contains sponsored content notifction popped up

[@Poki3]

That C64 really needs the 8-bit guy treatment.

[@DijaVlogsGames]

Not gonna lie, that app looks cool. Like instagram, but with structure.

[@hal-rekabi6724]

The MSX Knightmare by Konami has a funny feature when you press Pause. The character changes into sleeping in a bed mode with a snotty bubble coming out of his nose.

[@aligallaton3978]

I am 14 an completely agreed with him when he said "like those photo apps the kids use, but with a point."

[@honoredshadow1975]

What happened to his sofa? Big gash in it I don't remember seeing before. Had a bad vindaloo?

[@vjpearce]

I just wondered if you had a BBC Micro, Stuart because I remember, quite fondly playing Geordie Racer and Through the Dragon's Eye on it.

[@NickGoblin2]

Watching a British man take a picture of a Game Child was way more amusing than it should be.

[@wilf81]

Ashens and RetroManCave should do a vintage games computer collaboration.

[@poisonknees]

Pliobond is the glue you want for those jobs -- I use it during camera repairs to reattach leatherette.

[@d0gZpAw]

@ashens you got your bytes mixed up on Acorn Electron and Dragon32.. 32 MEGAbytes of RAM would've been insane! I can tell you were excited though!

[@colinshard8665]

the first connector on the rear, to the right side of the din connectors was for the tape drive, one of the din connectors was for a 5.25inch floppy disk drive, i still have my commodore 64 with tapedrive AND 2 floppy drives, the other din connector was for the display, i also still have an 8-bit nintendo game console and a commodore 128, with 2 cartridges, the red "power cartridge" which gave you some extra functions and i also have "the final cartridge" this was the more powerful version of the power cartridge, and they both still work hahahaha

[@ReplayRetro]

Great video, really enjoy seeing you do stuff like this, and i like that unlike many collectors you aren't a condition snob either, my knowledge on the old computer systems is pitiful generally but my collection does feature a lot of them, one incredibly under rated system i'd suggest if you haven't got one already of course would be the Tatung Einstein, the machine i grew up with :) Thanks for the great video

[@1337Shockwav3]

I'm amazed at the length of the advertisement ... and the sponsorship certainly did not go into researching the C64, you got half of the ports wrong :)