The Advantech I.Q. Unlimited with BASIC and a Z80 CPU.

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In this episode, I take a look at the Advantech I.Q. unlimited, which was produced by V-Tech (Video Technology Corporation) in 1991.

[@rossdtool]

"The computer your family will never outgrow". I'm glad that my parents decided to buy me a computer before this was on sale. I got a Commodore 64. It had more than 12 games.

[@raven4k998]

oh common man it was so true forget that you out grew the commodore 64 this thing you would never out grow because it was beneath you to begin with so you were to old for it to begin with so you couldn't out grow it cause you already had before it even came out lol

[@Thiesi]

13?

[@sorrenblitz805]

@@Thiesi there are sooooooooo many commodore 64 games. That thing was on the market for like 15 years.

[@michaeldonoghue9015]

There’s some family out there that never outgrew it and still use it to this day.

[@Lachlant1984]

I love my IQ Unlimited, but even I think that claim is very unrealistic and quite bogus.

[@alexcolucci4490]

I love this episode because I bought 1 at a goodwill for 99 cents

[@timmydirtyrat6015]

Lucky!!!

[@ky-gp4sz]

Lucky!!!

[@U014B]

Dang, all my Goodwills are out of 8-Bit Guy episodes. They have some iBook Guy ones in there, but they're way overpriced.

[@carlaparker4482]

Interesting price for a find like that

[@johnkotis9410]

I remember telling my parents I wanted a computer after watching Goldeneye back in 95. I wanted to hack and do cool computer stuff like Boris. They bought this from Kmarts going out of business sale for like $40 back in 1995. This was my first computer. Second one was a hand me down 1996 Packard Bell my uncle gave me around 1998.

[@marccaselle8108]

At least the Packard bell could do more stuff. I had a Packard bell computer in 1995 and it was awesome

[@batfish]

Thank you for this video. I had this computer as a child and it got me started in programming. I’ve been looking for a video on this computer for ages and you delivered (day after my birthday, no less). Thanks, David!

[@strongholds12]

Michael Lee you deserve it gurl! 😢😄

[@derekchristenson5711]

That is a genuinely awesome story. I love hearing the really random ways some of us got into programming.

[@realkrzaku]

It says it's a 200 year calendar but it only accepts 2 digits as a year when booting?

[@The8BitGuy]

Good point.

[@MDPToaster]

Krzaku Technically that would make it an infinite calendar since it can only display two year digits, it would just loop every 100 years.

[@frsiebenc]

In this case, for me, February 29th makes the difference, think about (example) the date 29.02.89, the next day will be 1.3.89. Besides, if you think 28.02.89 and the next day is 1.3.89, now you can notice that it is really a 200 year calendar. It is may sound silly as long as I used only one date occurrence and the aforesaid example also applies for a 100 yr calendar but if you find this February pattern n times in certain a century, i assume that next century will show this pattern =/n times.

[@RamLaska]

Calendar isn't necessary the same thing as the real time clock, nor is the real time clock's limitations necessarily the same as the input field of the time prompt when booting

[@evknucklehead]

Jose Antonio - Except there's a special case with leap years where if the year is divisible by 100 but not by 400, it's not a leap year. 1900 was not a leap year, even though it is divisible by 4. 2000 was a leap year because it is divisible by 400, but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not be (not that anyone alive is likely to see the year 2200 or 2300, or anyone old enough to understand this video on the day it was released to see 2100). Also, your example year was not a leap year, so there was no "29.02.89". '88 was a leap year, so that would have been a better example.

[@comonena]

Born in 83 🙋🏼‍♀️ After years of trying to remember which computer I had as a small child, today I got some papers from my dad’s house and hold and behold there was the Quick Set-Up Guide for the Vtech IQ Unlimited Computer. And here I am!! Thank you for showing it, great memories!! Hi from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷

[@denimadept]

There are MANY MANY old 8-bit computers which are forgotten, and for good reason. Some are forgotten for bad reason, too.

[@maybebabyny]

Which ones in your opinion are forgotten for bad reasons?

[@denimadept]

@@maybebabyny I liked the TRS-80 model 1. It was limited, but fun to use. I liked the Apple ][+, though that's not forgotten. I haven't heard much about the Amiga series recently.

[@domramsey]

3:38 That Brother not only plays Tetris, it reads backwards disks judging by the photo!

[@C4103]

Came here to say this...

[@sadmac356]

well technically upside down but that's definitely amusing as heck

[@meemee1357]

i was just about to comment on the disk being backwards too lol

[@bbdare7874]

I actually have one of these WP-2400s, without Tetris unfortunately, but it supposedly came with other disks as well for similar utilities, and while it is able to use seemingly any 3.5" floppy disk (i used a 1.44mb IBM format disk in it and it initializes it to its own proprietary format), it uses a custom 240k format that can't be read by any other system that i've seen so far.

[@araigumakiruno]

Wtf i dont see that 😁

[@trancerobot]

I had one. It was my first "real" computer. I've been waiting for you to review this model and I'm glad you did! The weak basic was an issue for me even then, as I was becoming familiar with Apple II basic, Commodore basic, and Qbasic on other computers at the time. As for it's fate, it was left in a storage shed when I had outgrown it. It likely succumbed to water damage before being thrown out.

[@buddyroach]

this looks so familiar. i think this is what we had in the house when i was a kid in the 90s. picked it up and taught myself a little bit of basic right out of the box. the language was so approachable.

[@buddyroach]

i even had an apple IIe with everything including mockingboard, bunch of games and apps, mockingboard card too. speakers, joystick, disk drives. neighbors were having a garage sale. i asked them about it and they just gave it to me. was dope

[@teh_supar_hackr]

@@buddyroach Lucky, I've only ever seen an Apple IIe at school

[@tohopes]

16:20 "Not sure what speed it's clocked" Time for you to get an oscilloscope, sir!

[@Ziplock9000]

Frequency counter

[@markpenrice6253]

You can probably find a crystal somewhere on the board ... if there's nothing other than the NTSC colourburst one, then it's using that, and likely running 3.58, or for later Z80As, 7.16MHz. If even that can't be uncovered, just try and figure the pixel resolution and how wide a sweep of the screen they cover, and compare that width against a machine of known frequency and resolution. The TV's beam will scan at a fixed screen, so active width is equal to active period; pixels divided by period will give you video clock frequency ... which in a machine like this will almost always be locked either directly to the CPU speed, or in a fairly simple ratio (2:1, 3:2 etc) to it. Which gives you a most likely speed, plus a limited number of alternatives. The CPU markings themselves should also reveal what its maximum speed is, and usually the host machine will be designed to run at or close to that (EG one with a chip marked with an 8MHz maximum speed probably runs faster than whatever the next speed grade down is, likely 5 or 6MHz...), and in concert with the other information should help narrow down the realistic options.

[@markpenrice6253]

Update: Looking into / refreshing my memory over how the Apple ][ video modes created colour, as this machine sure does seem to use at least a variant of the same method if not completely copying it, you are pretty much locked in to using a 14.318MHz master clock, as that's what creates the pixel clock in double-hi-rez graphics (560x192 1-bit on a mono screen, 16-colour with 140x192 effective rez on a colour screen, possibly you could shoehorn in a 4 or 6 colour 280x192 mode but that doesn't seem common/official) and 80-column text modes on the ][c and ][e, as well as the colour waveforms in original low-rez (40x48, 16 colour) mode, and is subdivided by 2 to make the pixels in original hi-rez graphics (280x192 mono or 140x192 6-colour) and 40-column text. All the other frequencies in the system are also divided out of that master, including the CPU at 1.023MHz ((315M/22)/14). As the system smacks quite a lot of a ][c reference design (including the under-used 128KB RAM), with the 6502 CPU replaced by a Z80 for some reason, and almost all the original logic squashed into a single LSI chip plus a couple others which weren't convenient to fit into that, plus the floppy controller virtual "card" replaced with the bundled software ROM, I'd be surprised if it does anything different. The CPU in this case is therefore probably running at 4.77MHz, the same as the original IBM PC, and arrived at by the same method - 14.318MHz divided by 3. If you've got a 6MHz Z80 available, that's the best you can do without adding extra oscillators and clock generator hardware, because /2 is 7.16MHz (too fast) and /4 is 3.58MHz (slow enough that you could have used a regular 4MHz Z80 instead). It's also about the slowest you can run the chip whilst still getting a reasonable speed boost vs the original processor (a 3.5MHz Z80 is arguably on a level with a 1MHz 6502, but a 4MHz has a better fighting chance; 4.77MHz is definitely quicker), in order to compensate somewhat for any suboptimal coding (VTech probably doesn't attract the world's best coders), inefficiencies from simple source porting, any need to swap endian-ness of 16-bit data, etc. It may look like it runs a little sluggish here and there, but without that extra 50%, it'd be noticeably worse (like... a third worse. Of course.) It might also be something to do with the memory, which looks like it's rated for 100ns? 10MHz? (Same difference?) Either way it may well be running at a good 7.16 if not 14.32MHz, taking advantage of the higher speed rating to allow the video system some extra slots besides the CPU access (in the original Apple, this was taken care of by the memory being good for 2MHz, whilst the CPU ran at 1MHz). Maybe there's even some kind of fancy /1.5 divider, x2 synthesizer, or just a 28.63MHz master clock involved to make a 9.55MHz memory clock possible. It only really needs a fairly minimal amount of extra bandwidth (1-bit video at 14.32MHz means shifting bytes at a mere 1.79MHz; as memory usually needs at least two clocks for a single transfer, that comes out at 3.58... 4.77 + 3.58 = 8.35, so 9.55 leaves a little bit spare). Alternatively the video accesses could just fit into gaps in the Z80 machine cycle where it doesn't touch the memory bus at all, and the memory is merely overspecced (it was just whatever was cheapest in order to provide at least 64KB, or maybe the full 128 so that working memory and document / image storage could be kept separate and bank-switched, at a minimum of 4.77MHz operating speed), though I'm not convinced that would allow enough bandwidth without some degree of contention and processor waitstating... which may itself be a reason for the higher clocking, so that it has some chance of executing any instructions during the active video portion of a line, even if it's at a reduced rate. (Memory running a 7.16MHz could work though, with a bit of glue logic to interpose between it, the CPU and the video, maybe with a bit of buffering for the former; if the chip only does one access per four clocks, a reasonably common thing for anything other than the 6502 at the time, that would demand an equivalent memory speed of about 2.39MHz; that + 3.58 is clearly less than 7.16) The final alternative is that everything runs at 7.16MHz and they're simply overclocking the CPU (Z80s were quite resilient against the practice AFAIK), whilst underclocking the memory. With an even sharing of bandwidth between the two, there's just enough for the video to run 80-col 1bpp (with that very Apple ][-looking, thus probably 7-pixel-grid, and 560 total pixels), and the CPU to operate at full speed, without any contention or shortfall. Each gets the equivalent of an uncontested 3.58MHz memory chip, with the Glue logic doing some simple round-robin buffering to guard against both systems making a memory IO request at the same time... a pretty common thing in almost every computer system of the era other than the (non-Jr / Tandy) PC compatibles themselves. One oddity seems to be that, in colour / 40 column mode as seen on the monochrome display, it isn't actually using super thin on/off stripes, but wider ones in a few shades of grey. This is an entirely valid alternative to the Apple ][ method, produces the same effective colour resolution, and if it's 4-level uses the same amount of memory and bandwith for a given display (and therefore, the frequencies etc are the same), it's just a touch more complicated on the electronics side (have to provide a 2-bit resistor ladder DAC rather than a simple single TTL), and results in a different, and likely more restricted set of colours, with probably only about twelve unique ones in the full palette. This would seem to match what's observed though, as I wasn't able to count more than that many, and the palette is a bit weird even vs the Apple. Plus there are multiple greyscales, which this scheme would allow, but ][c/e DHR didn't. Similarly it looks like it gives a somewhat wider image - the ][ had a bit of a horizontally compressed image even on a regular TV, a bit like that of an ST or C64, to ensure it fit within the underscan limits on even a curved tube (similarly, the choice of 192 instead of 200 lines), which also gelled nicely with Woz's idea of using the 8th bit of each byte as a colour palette indicator. This machine looks like it might be showing a full 320 (or 640) pixels instead, which again is an entirely valid thing to do within the calculated operating bounds. The Amiga (running a 7.16MHz pixel clock) shows that it's a neat fit for a typical TV, you can make the colour encoding a little more logical and less prone to fringe artefacting (thus easier to program, and much nicer looking) by running 4 x 2-bit subpixels within each 1-byte block (with a resulting effective 2-pixel colour graphic or 4-pixel B/W text resolution, ie 160 colour or 320 B/W on a line) and happily sacrificing the 8th-bit mode switch because you're already getting twice the palette range of the original system anyway, and use a slightly more refined looking - or at least, slightly more loosely spaced, either way is more readable - 8-pixel-grid font. 80-col mode just splits each of those 2-bit subpixels into two 1-bit ones... and would have worked fine on a regular TV if only they'd thought to run a line to the modulator to switch it into B/W mode / turn off the per-line colourburst when it was activated. (Without that signal, a colour set will treat the incoming signal as pure monochrome and not attempt to decipher the hi-rez patterning, ie the text, into lower rez colour smears)

[@tabajaralabs]

or just look at the crystal...

[@gregclare]

A 74HC244 is not a shift register! It is an octal tri-state buffer IC. Commonly used for driving higher loads / greater fanout, or perhaps for reading real-time input values onto the data bus (eg. if it’s output enable was activated by an address decoder).

[@geekfeather6461]

Looking at the circuit, it appears to have a diode/Capacitor circuit commonly used for debouncing on the backside of the 74HC244. My guess is the 74HC244 is used as a true buffer to read input values from the expansion port and the diode/Capacitor circuit is used as a hardware debounce which ultimately goes to a uC ... IMO

[@gregclare]

Hi @geekfeather. Taking a closer look, I can see that 'ENABLE A’ (pin 1) input is tied to GND (10), possibly also ENABLE B (but pin 19 trace is obscured by under chip trace). This identifies the 74HC244 is a permanently enabled buffer. Some of the visible input pin traces as well as some output pin traces route directly to the 25pin printer port. The other side of the buffers appear to go back to the micro-controller (must be GPIO pins). On this basis the HC244 appears to be buffering all of the parallel printer port's input & output control lines. The diodes are likely over voltage / spike protection. Cheers.

[@customsongmaker]

​@@gregclareOne of my pet peeves is when people think the 74HC244 is a shift register instead of an octal tri-state buffer IC.

[@gregclare]

@@customsongmaker Yes, as I’m old school and grew up when we were designing our own 8-bit microprocessor systems in the 80’s, I immediately recognise 244 octal buffers. We commonly used these for address and control bus buffers, and the associated 245 bidirectional buffer for driving the data bus. Although, I’m not sure why anybody would confuse the 244 with a shift register, especially when data sheets are just a google search away these days.

[@AmyraCarter]

That port in the back is an expansion port, and yes, the other is a ROM cartridge port, for which there were a total of SIX ROM cartridges available, mainly for expanding the database of the already installed programs, including the BASIC commands. That expansion port I do believe was intended to serve as a way to connect a disk drive or some other data device, but never got implemented. I've seen many of those types of chips like the one you first ran into after removing the RF shield, and usually, that is one of those 'all-in-one' things, similar to poxie blobs...lame. I knew someone years back that had one of these, and everything that it could of come with. It certainly wasn't worth it's weight but...still a neat niche of a collector's item...

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I bet. At least there was cartridges for this.

[@jakenned91]

Amy Carter, do you have any further information on these ROM carts? I haven't found any proof of them from my own internet sleuthing.

[@customsongmaker]

​@@jakenned91another comment says this computer could play Socrates game cartridges

[@harshbarj]

I had one of these as a kid and there was an external ram pack that you could store your files on. It had a standard cr2032 battery. I believe there was also an external floppy drive option. At least I recall seeing one offered in the included literature, and I did want one. Oddly it also partly worked with the Socrates game carts. Though you could not really play the games if I recall. I used this as my main computer for about 3-4 years. I still have it, though doubt it works after sitting for 20+ years.

[@jonathan_herr]

harshbarj pull it out and mess about with it!

[@TheTurnipKing]

Both this and Socrates are z80 based and from the same company, so it makes sense they'd be sort of compatible. But something as simple as changing the memory map between machines could render the software basically unusable. As long as you didn't leave batteries in it, I'd be quite surprised if it didn't work after a mere 20 years. The Sinclair Spectrum had to reach about 30 before the membranes started to have to be replaced as a simple matter of course. Kinda want one of these now :)

[@markpenrice6253]

Interesting. That makes it into a rather more practical and better-value prospect than just the base unit we see here.

[@Lachlant1984]

I just bought one of these IQ Unlimited computers online and I find it rather fascinating, it arrived today and it works. If you still have the RAM expansion pack and no longer want it, I'm willing to buy it off you if you're willing to part with it.

[@ArkadiaRetrocade]

Currently binging Halt & Catch Fire. This channel = the perfect after-show. ✌🏼

[@markvickroy6725]

So I just learned today that you have to go back approximately 4 years to hear the 8-Bit guy not sound like a smarmy jerk half the time. Good to know, he has cool stuff

[@Danjovic]

Cool episode! Thanks for sharing. Btw the 74HC244 is indeed an 8 bit buffer instead of a shift register and I believe it is related to the reading of the keyboard matrix pretty much like the speccies did it assuming that the diodes close to him (te HC244) go to z80 upper address lines.

[@tehaxor69]

The Ti 83/84s are still using 6 MHz Z80 CPUs and sold for $120~$150. At least the Ti-Nspire versions use 350 MHz 32bit ARMs, and also go for $120~$150.

[@derekchristenson5711]

I had to Google that immediately. I knew 8-bit processors were still useful, but you just blew my mind! 🤯

[@Treppiede]

3:39 - Stay tuned for seventeen Brother WP-2400s coming to a Feb 2018 unboxing video near you.

[@TheWolfkit]

Wal Ter that was my first thought too, lmao

[@bbdare7874]

Shit, i have one and my first thought was to send in mine since i don't have any use for it anymore, since i don't have the tetris disk, unfortunately.

[@vittosphonecollection57289]

FORZA ROMAAAAA!!!!!

[@vittosphonecollection57289]

Why did i post that lol I don't even remember

[@vittosphonecollection57289]

August 2020: No WP-2400

[@tungus-]

Great video as usual, and that is a really interesting piece of entertaining tech. Still looking forward to seeing David messing around with ZX Spectrum, though :D

[@UselessDuckCompany]

I have been looking for that tiger math and spelling explorer computer forever. I had it as a kid and loved it, I just could not remember the name to look it up. Then BAM it's there at 3:28 in the bottom right. Crazy nostalgia overload.

[@flavorice11]

Hey! Cool seeing you over here on this page. Love your videos!

[@UselessDuckCompany]

Thanks :) 8-Bit Guy is probably my favorite channel.

[@weirdwillie5353]

Useless Duck Company

[@UselessDuckCompany]

I can't find any videos of that tiger computer :(

[@anderstermansen130]

computer

[@GothicDude-mu5qf]

Thank you for answering questions I've had about that computer for years, you're my new best friend.

[@musashigundoh]

The little microcontroller at 16:10 has 512 *bytes* of ROM and 16 *bytes* of RAM, not kilobytes.

[@5mf1nc]

also the x244 is a buffer/line driver and not a shift register

[@jackkraken3888]

Wow 512 bytes, that seems tiny to me.

[@jackkraken3888]

@ Booze & Metal : I actually had no idea, thanks, seriously those machines had such limited resources yet were pretty decent when it came to capability.

[@TheTurnipKing]

512 bytes is about right for a vintage microcontroller though. I'd be curious to know where the screen memory is though because 16 bytes isn't going to be enough for that.

[@musashigundoh]

There are modern MCUs with similar amounts of memory, e.g. there are ATtiny variants with just 1K ROM and 32 bytes of RAM - some simple tasks just don't need more. The screen memory is most likely included in the main 64K - that would partially explain why the word processor shows so little free memory.

[@nano_dank]

I do not know what happened to myself, but when I began watching David's videos (+ 8-Bit Keys) some days ago, I started being interested in soldering and keyboards while in the past I did not even want to try those! (LOL!!) Great job, David! Thanks for making me interested in more things except computers!

[@danielbak7427]

V-TEC KICKED IN YO!!!

[@lavenderfox2430]

Shingo? What are you doing here?

[@danielbak7427]

Sorry if I'm missing something, but who's Shingo?

[@cravendale9021]

Vault-Tec Rep I knew somebody would comment this 😂

[@lapapitacanaria2588]

Vault-Tec Rep (9000rpm INTENSIFIES)

[@refraggedbean]

shingo is a character in the anime "initial D" that drives a red 90s hatchback civic

[@NevsTechBits]

Great video 8 bit dude. You always make it feel like the warm 80s when I watch your stuff.

[@klaxoncow]

3:39 Not only does that Brother model feature Tetris, but it also seems to feature a disk drive where, apparently, the disks go in backwards!!

[@sketchesofpayne]

Man, 1991 I was seven years old playing the shareware of Duke Nukem 1 on a 386 PC.

[@robintst]

Me thinks these machines were a cheap effort to scam the average consumers who weren't very tech savvy in those days... which were a great many people. The BASIC is less than bare bones, the LED is one line, the keyboard is rubbish, there's no additional software outside the boring built in programs; for 200 bucks in 1991 you're only ripping yourself off. If you really still wanted a good 8-bit micro by that point, the redesigned C64 for $150 would have been the best choice. Great video, by the way. :)

[@markpenrice6253]

I'unno, the hardware basically seems to be an Apple ][c just with a ~5MHz Z80 in place of a 1MHz 6502 (and so operating just slightly faster, realworld). One of those plus a basic software bundle might have cost you about the same at the time, maybe quite a bit more because of the built in floppy (the mechanisms were still fairly costly), without the nominal portable capabilities. A "real" laptop or indeed any other kind of useful portable computer would have been much more expensive and not at all kid friendly, or able to connect to a TV. The real failing of it is the lack of additional software. Like perhaps VTech made some carts for it, but they evidently weren't very widespread and would have been limited in number, as well as carrying a heavy bias towards edutainment games. Thing could have really done with a floppy add-on, and allowing third party devs to make stuff for it... probably wouldn't have taken much more than recompiling Apple ][ source for the Z80.

[@zetaconvex1987]

I was kinda thinking the same thing myself. A Z80 processor in 1991? Were they insane? It's a bizarre machine, and it doesn't seem like the manufacturers really thought through what it was they were trying to achieve with this thing.

[@mgjk]

I think Dave's right, those awful wordprocessors would be the best bet, $200 cheaper than a c=64, ($150+$50(software)+$200(1541)+$200(printer)), vs $400. You got a better display, spellcheck, grammar check and it was a lot more capable for writing than a C=64. Your kid will hate you and will never go into computer science, but they won't be playing games, pirating disks and they'll be able to do their assignments... ugh. That said, some of those wordprocessors had DOS disks or could be used *as* a printer, and I bet that external monochrome monitor is a generic composite one. You might find a junk XT or something to upgrade to... having flashbacks to my horrible childhood.

[@ncl3rdy2]

I started following your channel because while I am only 30 my first computer was a C64. I loved that thing. I haven’t touched one since I was about 6. But man all of your videos on 8 bit computers and retro tech make me want to pick up another C64 one day. Keep up the good work!

[@Fratm]

Well, in 1991 they did have gameboys. So there's that.

[@ninjamaster3453]

Fratm Atari lynx too yo

[@schtive81]

I had a Game Gear in 1991. It was rad, besides the horrible battery life of 5 seconds. I could not imagine bringing a word processor on a car trip. This is still a great video though, I had no idea that VTech made stuff like this.

[@Horzuhammer]

You can't do BASIC w/ those pieces of crap. :)

[@ethanlac9068]

I mean, considering that the Game Boy is a) a handheld, b) came out earlier, and c) was a dedicated game machine and not a home computer, chiding it because it can't do basic is a little unfair.

[@Horzuhammer]

:D I was joking.

[@williamkelley7654]

And the Commodore 64 has come full circle, they are averaging $150US with shipping/etc on Ebay. I know because I just bought one, lol. I grew up on the C64, your channel is the main inspiration for me finally taking the plunge! Thank you for all your hard work David!

[@Phos9]

3:40 is that disk in backwards?

[@evilotis01]

lol yes it totally is

[@tiikoni8742]

Haha, yes, I paid attention to same :-) Maybe just for advertisement, so people understand it is a disk there. But made we wonder is there ever been any floppy drives that would accept disk that way around. I mean it should be technically possible, though kinda stupid :-)

[@Zack-xz1ph]

It's in a holder slot

[@Lachlant1984]

I love how slowly the pictures representing the question categories in Mind Challenge are drawn.

[@mrjsv4935]

Interesting machine, great video :) My first computer in the 80's was a version of Vtech Laser 2001, namely the Finnish version, Salora Manager. The Basic screen looks a bit familiar to me. I wonder if Salora Manager / Vtech Laser 2001 Basic commands for graphics work in your Vtech computer? How about trying this, "Your first computer program" from Salora Manager manual :) 10 GR 20 COLOR=1,3 30 CIRCLE (75, 50), 20 40 CIRCLE (175, 50), 20 50 PLOT 70, 145 TO 75, 150 60 PLOT 180, 145 TO 175, 150 70 FOR X=75 TO 175 STEP 1 80 PLOT X, 150 90 NEXT X 100 CIRCLE (85, 60), 5 110 CIRCLE (165, 60), 5 120 END If it goes to graphics mode, you should get back to text mode by typing: TEXT and pressing enter.

[@grybranix]

vtech just did the mfg, advantech is an AWESOME company that makes motherboards and chipsets and accessories for embedded devices. I used to use their 386 3.5-inch single board computers for building medical equipment in the late 90s, awesome company and awesome people

[@donnawasher5627]

8-bit guy and 8-bit keys are my two favorite KZbin channels

[@amisner2k]

Forgotten piece of computer history for sure...forgotten in various trash bins after the kids got tired of all the 12 programs on it. I remember wanting something like this when I was a kid and my mom told me that I'd get bored of it, and that I'd be happier with a regular computer.

[@kevtris]

I remember the infomercial for that computer. Tom Bosley was the spokesperson for it. In fact, I managed to record about 3-4 minutes of it onto VHS back in the day. It was soo hokey. The computer was being marketed to people who wanted to learn but didn't know anything about computers, and for the kids to do homework on.

[@LMacNeill]

I wonder if the extra RAM on that 128K RAM chip is used for file-storage? It’d be difficult to store *all* your files *and* program data in only 64K, would it not? Maybe it did some kind of page-swapping thing where the program could access the higher parts of the RAM chip for “permanent” data storage somehow? Although that word-processor program *did* say it only had 24K when you were typing in it... Oh well... I’m sure some well-intentioned parents and grandparents who knew literally nothing about computers bought a bunch of these for their kids/grandkids back in the day. Bunch of kids who wished they’d gotten C64s. ;-)

[@The8BitGuy]

Yeah.. I pity the poor kid who got one of these for Christmas instead of a C64.

[@AmigaRob]

I am sure that is why there is 128k and the extra circuitry is on there. I suspect that they would not need to bank swap either. I suspect the area is mapped in hardware as a drive, probably handled by one of the mysterious chips on there. 128k chips would still have been considerably more expensive than 64k even then, and the storage ram has to be somewhere.

[@RamLaska]

LMacNeill I can't imagine the paltry storage capacity would last if the poor kid who got one really liked to draw

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

It sounds like something I would've gotten too easily if I kept begging my mom for an Amiga and got this instead. That happened to me a few times where I ended up with an Atari 8-bit computer instead of the Amiga 500.

[@RamLaska]

Yeah, with gifts like this, the realization of the suckage comes slowly and painfully. haha

[@Geforcefly]

Coming home to see a new 8-Bit Guy video after a long hard day is always awesome.

[@Marius-vw9hp]

Great episode! :) Wishlist: A whole video dedicated to the SID chip in C64.. There isn't any video on it anywhere.

[@goeuldi]

+Marius VanDamme I bet it will be covered in the upcoming Commodore History episode. Surely David won't miss one of the best features the C64 has.

[@Marius-vw9hp]

Yes fingers crossed. But I would love to know more about the technical aspects in particular, its insides, the connections, etc. :) Would be worthy of its own episode for sure.

[@garycox3209]

I've been close to doing this video myself since I spend/t a huge amount of time programming the beast. So I think I will. G.

[@nsvmmwhy]

5:52 "It's good for using in the car" Gameboy: am i a joke to you

[@ChaunceyGardener]

Is there a port of DOOM for it?

[@1xWertzui]

VTech shoveled/shovels out a dozen of propietary computer platforms that have zero support of any kind. ...So there is still a lot of virgin grounds to break for Doom :D

[@blackflagqwerty]

Me too! In the shitter at work!!!

[@mspenrice]

It'd take quite a bit of reverse engineering just to get to a point of running arbitrary code on it... but it should still be possible.

[@spartanforce7]

No, but there is a heavily modded port for Wolfenstein 3D, called Wolfenstein 1D. IDK how it would work for something with an LCD display, though.

[@mkonji8522]

I want doom on this. I need another piece of obsolete hardware to run doom.

[@EStarstruck]

I hope to see more restorations from you soon, they're my favorite of your videos!

[@Trgkai]

This is eerie. I just pulled this exact some computer out of my garage the other day after doing some cleaning! I never used most of the features of this thing (I wasn't that interested in computers until the mid-late 90s), but I remember using the typing tutor program on this thing in the back seat of the car once in a while, and also hooked up to the TV for that missile-command style typing game.

[@billybob9247]

Apparently, at 3m38s the Brother not only features Tetris but also a FLOPPY DRIVE THAT READS DISKS BACKWARDS !!! WOW !!!

[@fszabika123]

3:38

[@garyclouse4164]

The extra ram was used as a ram disk. The Vtech labeled dip next to the cpu is system rom. The edge connector on the back was intended for use with planned floppy drive that was never made available. The cartridge port on the side was compatible with the VTech Socrates game ROMs 4-bit micro controller appears to be handling the keyboard and may be involved in the memory management; The custom chip on the other side is probably th video chip.

[@MrProfesorek15]

Great episode!

[@E-virtuosEu]

Ktoś z Polski :-)

[@QunMang]

I owned a Laser 3000 computer back in the mid 80s and was unaware until today that it was a VTech product- all I cared about back then was what it cloned rather than who made it- an affordable Apple computer. According to what I read, it preceded the Laser 128 which makes sense- it was an Apple ][+ clone (minus lo-res mode, which had me a bit miffed back then) which apparently came out in 1983 whereas the Laser 128 was in line with the //c and came to the US in 1986 (according to Wikipedia). It would be interesting to see this bit of history included in the upcoming Laser 128/XT documentary if it hasn't been finished yet.

[@R33Racer]

Even the Commodore Plus4 would have been an infinitely better computer for the time and that thing was what, like $100? I think it went for even less in the early 90's!

[@srfrg9707]

R33Racer But it's for people in need of IQ!

[@dbranconnier1977]

I agree. The Commodore Plus/4 had a very good version of BASIC, better graphics and sound than this educational toy. Still, I think this IQ computer was geared towards children aged 7 to 13. For learning and for typing a few pages of homework, it was adequate. The Plus/4 was a home personal computer and not as user friendly as the IQ.

[@bikkiikun]

According to someone called Andrew68K the chios in question are: - Zilog Z80 CPU (Z84C0006PEC) - ROM containing 12 built-in programs (VTech LH534HY9) - (custom?) A/V controller (VTech 27-5063-01 1111F0249) - I/O controller (TMP 42C50N) - Printer buffer (PC 74HC244P) - 128KB SRAM (Toshiba TC518128APL-10) A disk drive was planned to connect to the expansion port, but never realised. Instead a memory cartridge was supposed to be plugged in there.

[@androskris]

Wow, my first PC was a Laser 8088 clone from Sears. Never knew it was made by vtech. It was built like a tank in a heavy gauge steel case with a huge (lol) 40mb MFM hard drive.

[@thedovercc5339]

I got this in 1991 for Christmas when I was 12. You couldn’t tell me I didn’t have the best gift ever. I had a 13” tv I used with it and an Epson 9 pin dot matrix printer from Radio Shack. I ended up using this thing all through HS and college until about 1998 when I bought a Compaq computer. LOL.

[@monster_king]

This is the best in 11pm!

[@joshuaguffey]

OMG 😲This is how I got started with spreadsheets, databases, and programming! What a flashback!

[@mystica-subs]

I'm pretty sure that screenshot on the C64C was NOT an actual application that could run on it; but the question remains: what IS that CAD application? and what DID it run on?

[@markpenrice6253]

I've used 2D and indeed 3D CAD software on an ST, including in its low-rez mode, so 320x200 with limited colours need not be a barrier to the concept... just might have a slow redraw rate and be limited in how complex a design you could construct. There's all kinds of surprising software available for the 8-bits when you start looking beyond the games. Also I wonder if the 64C could still have 80-column and other such expansions added to it which might have made it more of a practical prospect?

[@loughkb]

Right around the time that I was fully in the thick of personal computers back then, and I never had heard of this one. Nicely done video, very informative.

[@Dukefazon]

That BASIC is pretty... basic :)

[@dangerousmythbuster]

It's not very "All purpose" though.

[@evknucklehead]

+o c e a n m a n - Seriously, this Tide Pods meme has to die, now.

[@EVRLYNMedia]

T H E I R O N Y

[@ProDigit80]

Depends on what tide it is, because you know, low tide is more basic... ..Just because I decided that it is...

[@ProDigit80]

Eat vegetables! Seemingly much harder than tide!

[@AnTi90d]

Holy crap.. I distinctly remember those 1991 catalogues. Ahh.. memories..

[@forgottenprophet0]

I used to have this as a kid. This plus my old Atari 2600 is what got me interested in electronics and computers in the first place.

[@bengineer8]

Perhaps they were buying known defective ram modules where only half of it worked and thus saved money, that is something that companies do

[@mixdupjoe]

Wow, I just randomly got suggested this video and I can't believe it. I got one of these as a kid, exactly how you said--grandparents bought it for me from the Sears Wishbook because I wanted a computer. Unfortunately I wanted a Mac, but they really did think it was the same thing. This was great!

[@mrjakeisnumber1]

1991!? They had 386 computers by then! They sold an early 80's basic machine for $200 in 1991, what a ripoff!

[@ethanpoole3443]

mrjakeisnumber1 They had 486 (1989) computers by then and the Pentium (1993) just two years after this 1991 8-bit computer. I bought my first 386DX in 1986 with a 150MB ESDI hard drive (there is an interface type few have heard of!) and 2MB RAM ($1000/MB at the time), that is how far behind the times this VTECH computer was on its release day!

[@Rainmotorsports]

A 386 in 1991 especially a portable one would have been $4000.

[@deserted3434]

You know being forced to go to school in bad weather while bus students can stay home sucks this video makes it not suck

[@BehemothFan123]

8:58 "Not to hard." Gets annihilated, lol.

[@dennishagans6339]

Never disappointed with your videos, thank you.

[@Hans5958]

0:37 first apple watch

[@groupexman]

Your organized cords on the wall are inspiring

[@minivanmegafun]

This looks an awful lot like a VTech Pre-Computer 1000 with a video module glued to the top of it; all the way down to the keyboard design, legends, and design of the internal display's contrast switch. The PC1000 was also a z80.

[@00Skyfox]

Where did you find the vintage Sears catalog? Is there a website where they can be browsed?

[@lotrbuilders5041]

I’m not certain, but bitsavers does have some catalogs

[@EltonVinson]

I'm a little late, but thanks for this video! I got one of these Christmas of '91 when I was 10, and still have it today! Learned BASIC and think it may of influenced my IT career. If you lost power and the batteries were dead, you lost all your work! My backups were hard copy print outs on my Epson dot matrix printer. My first experience calling tech support, was calling vtech because I wanted to buy cartridges for that expansion port and was disappointed to find there were none! My 10 year old self should of asked for a Commadore 64, but the Advantech served my needs.

[@Lachlant1984]

I've seen another video about this machine on KZbin, and I thought the other video said that VTech made a RAM expansion cartridge, I also understand that the cartridge slot is capable of playing games for the Socrates video game system, also made by VTech.

[@EltonVinson]

@@Lachlant1984 yeah I found that too. Looks like you can use cartridges from Socrates game system. Wish I had of known back then

[@Lachlant1984]

@@EltonVinson Do you know if you still have the user's guide for your IQ Unlimited? Do you know if the user's guide mentions anything about using Socrates cartridges in the IQU? I ordered an IQ Unlimited off eBay about 3 weeks ago and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival, I don't know if mine comes with booklets or anything, what I do know is that it doesn't come with the AC Adaptor. The seller didn't post much information about it on the product page.

[@EltonVinson]

Lachlant1984 I have the manual. It doesn’t actually mention Socrates. It mentions a 64K RAM cartridge that will be available soon (from the publishing of the manual) for extra storage or backup. It also mentions I.Q. Unlimited Cartridges which are extra software cartridges to enhance the existing 12 software programs. A lot of coming soon wording. I’ve been tempted to buy some Socrates cartridges on eBay to test it out, but they’re kind of pricey for what they are.

[@Lachlant1984]

@@EltonVinson Hmm. I think VTech did release the RAM cartridge for the unit, as I said, I think I saw it in another video on KZbin. I'm looking forward to getting my IQ Unlimited once it arrives, I wonder how easy the RAM cartridge is to find. Considering that VTech are still in business, I wonder if they have any records of cartridges released for the IQ Unlimited. Speaking of using Socrates cartridges, I only know they work because VWestlife demonstrated that they work, also, not all Socrates cartridges will be compatible because I understand some Socrates games use alternative controllers which the IQ Unlimited does not support as far as I know. The Socrates uses an infrared wireless keyboard controller and I think the alternative controllers are wireless too, so they won't work with the IQU because it doesn't support infrared.

[@landspide]

The laser 200 and 300 were also very popular in Australia distributed by Dick Smith as VZ200 and VZ300 respectively. I cut my coding teeth on the 200 at age 7, it took years to undo the damage of the location of the space bar ;) from there C64, and then IBM XT the rest is history.

[@megamanx180]

Thank u for doing this video because this was my first computer

[@elijahvincent985]

9:04 There's two words you'll NEVER see in today's kids' computers.

[@The8BitGuy]

yeah... But hey, I guess you need to learn to spell those words too!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I didn't mind seeing them!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Besides, it's not like you're spelling the actual word of those 'parts'.

[@Lively_1185]

Elijah Vincent Let me guess, is it the words Bach and Naked?

[@elijahvincent985]

Ronaldo Rodriguez You got the second word. The first word is "Hades".

[@AleLGB]

When you are a geek but also a car guy, and every time 8-Bit Guy says "Vtech" you cannot think to Honda engines...

[@whiffles]

"Hey this Brother model apparently even features Tetris, that makes me want to get one!" ... Next month's mail time ... "I had about 5 offers for the Brother WP-2400 and this one seemed to be in the best condition" :)

[@wilycoyote2520]

Love this unearthing of obscure PCs when the market was still figuring things out. Imagine coming out with a new computer standard today...

[@PeterVC]

Is it me or are many of the inserted floppy disks in those catalogs inserted backwards? They have the clip to outside instead of the inside. I guess some photography genius thought it looked better that way...

[@marcusdamberger]

Probably a photography and graphics design team that had up to that point still used Polaroids for proofs and lighting tables to look at slides and did all their compositing on a camera stand of some sort. Never having ever touched a computer, and even when Photoshop came on the scene probably refused to move to it for another ten years. That's probably who took the pictures and setup the "word processor" in this catalog shot..

[@TravisTev]

It wouldn't surprise me. I once saw a photo of graphing calculators in a catalog, pictured with an equation screen on which someone had typed a bunch of meaningless gibberish that resembled nothing anyone actually using the calculator for its intended purpose would enter.

[@VintageTechFan]

I saw that immidiately, too. It was painful. I only can think that they wanted you to see that disks go in there and not .. slices of very white cheese or something.

[@Crocsx058]

Just discovered your channel, it is AMAZING ! so well explained and so full of stuff ! Thanks !!

[@code_red7744]

I got one of these for Christmas as a kid and also got the dot matrix printer. It died when I spilled a glass of sweet tea on the keyboard...my mom was so pissed off 😂. I learned at a early age never have liquids around computers.

[@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece]

So it came out 1991 and is just barely more capable* then the GameBoy that came out 1989. More build in memory but less software and general support, rather bad tradeoff i'd say.

[@darkcoeficient]

fgregerfeaxcwfeffece it had color. And BASIC. Amd a word processor. Jokes on you.

[@BilisNegra]

Color with awful artifacts and a version of BASIC so limited it's nearly useless. And no software other than what's built in it. Awful sound chip with no polyphony. More than twice the price... Shall I go on?

[@Chaos89P]

BillsNegra It apparently had very limited compatibility with Socrates carts, and there is some sort of floppy disk drive, but it's still just to little compared to the Game Boy.

[@jasejj]

Pretty much any of the second generation home micros of the early 1980s were orders of magnitude more useful than this pile of crap. This came out around the same time as the SAM Coupe and Amstrad CPC+. Both 8-bit micros, both bombed, but I know which of the three I wouldn't be interested in.

[@mspenrice]

Hell, the regular CPC would have beat hell out of this, particularly the 6128 ... 128k, only a slightly slower CPU, better screen modes (with green-screen monochrome and analogue-RGB monitor options) and sound, better OS and programs, about as good a keyboard, and a built in disk drive. Plus if you just wanted to do word processing and spreadsheets and weren't really bothered about colour, the PCW would have done you just fine... higher resolution (on a built in screen no less), more memory, again with a disc drive, and a bundled printer too, for a lower price. Shame Amstrad didn't make that concerted an effort to break the US, really, against things like this they could have made serious gains. The Coupé wouldn't have come close on anything except colour palette and maybe maximum memory capacity...

[@iknowaguy1564]

I really did enjoy learning from you. All your videos are fantastic.

[@pinakinkale]

Never left Minecraft so fast for a 8-bit guy episode

[@Dzeroed]

In 1991 a kid could have had a Game Boy, Game Gear or Atari Lynx. $89.99, $149.99 and $179.99 respectively- 3 cheaper and _infinately_ more desirable systems for kid on a trip to Grandma's house! This is the kind of thing that when you asked Grandma for a computer game machine for Christmas, the store clerk would tell her this was the one that *_all_* the boys and girls played and her Grandchild would be "the coolest kid around" for having one, and once it was explained that "cool" was an expression and she found out that it wouldn't make her grandchild actually catch the flu, cold or pnumonia, she would fork over the cash and the kid would have a wad of tear soaked wrapping paper to remember that Christmas by as all his mates played Super Mario and Tetris until Mum took it back for a refund 😂😂😂

[@tohopes]

"not too hard" *loses

[@psammiad]

I assumed this was an early 80s computer - it's very primitive for 1991! The word processor looks a lot like old Wordstar.

[@Kennephone]

I like how it had a big, bulky, expensive printer port but no 3.5mm cassette or headphone port.

[@akwardturtleee]

Sorry 8 Bit Guy but its now 23 23 in Austria so..

[@E-virtuosEu]

In Poland the same :-)

[@tomas100lar]

Same here in Slovakia... the freaking time zones maaan :) Still, even though its midnite here; there is simply no excuse to not to watch Davids new video. ;)

[@monitor265]

its 6:11 for me in Florida,now 6:12

[@monitor265]

6:12 pm

[@Nikku4211]

It's really interesting to see someone who is somewhat popular covering something that is very obscure.

[@hyzenthlay7151]

I am a simple woman... I see an 8-Bit Guy link, I click on the link!!

[@EVRLYNMedia]

good job

[@EVRLYNMedia]

but don't replay his videos too many times

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

Code never lies, comments sometimes do.

[@nowonmetube]

Andrea Woodvine a... Woman? That must be a lie! A women that likes this kind of stuff just simply does not exist 😂

[@nowonmetube]

Andrea Woodvine also I have a feeling that you should give Spawn Wave a chance.

[@standardnerd2046]

We were a few years behind in Ireland, I remember getting a C64 for ~£200 in 1992 with just the datasette and a T2 cartridge and it was pretty cutting edge at the time

[@uopercival]

Think that mystery chip might be a driver for the LCD?

[@Okurka.]

Nope, the "blob" is the LCD driver.

[@blakegriplingph]

Vtech also acquired LeapFrog Enterprises in 2016 afaik. Most of the latter company's devices run on Linux which made it an attractive homebrew platform.

[@shelby3822]

but can it play Planet X2

[@ilexgarodan]

With no Poke and Peek commands in BASIC, no.

[@fardnia9434]

It was a joke, and either way, Planet X2 wasn’t even written in BASIC

[@miguel0n338]

This is interesting stuff! When I think V-Tech, I think of this massive CCTV I used to use in school, so I could read my textbooks. I didn't know they even made computers! But yeah, that definitely is a strange one. :)

[@Interference22]

That Brother / Tetris word processor in the Sears catalogue had one particularly weird thing in the photo: the 3.5" floppy disk in the drive was.. backwards? Was that actually a thing, or technical incompetence?

[@ferky123]

Interference22 most likely technical incompetence by their marketing department.

[@CanuckGod]

Those bastards, now they've gotten me wishing I had a backwards floppy drive.... On a side note, the ad got me curious, are the 240KB disks proprietary, or are they just 720KB DSDD formatted in a funky Brother format?

[@marcusdamberger]

I have the same question, I thought 720KB was the minimum on 3.5" floppy, the Amiga started with that as double-density.

[@IanC14]

@@marcusdamberger Amiga formatted disks were 880k, not 720k.

[@whattheheck1000]

Here's how I see this computer going with someone: It's December 6, 1991, and two moms are talking about what they should get their son for Christmas, we'll call them Suzy and Mary. Suzy's kid is named Steven, and Mary's is named Mike. Both kids are 12 years old and good friends at school. Suzy decides to get Steven a second-hand Commodore 64 for $75 and spends $125 getting Steven some used games and a basic word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Mary gets the Advantech for $200, thinking "it's already got 12 programs on it, I won't have to set it up" Christmas morning, 8 am. Steven unwraps his C64, as well as the gift box that comes with all his games and software. Mike unwraps the Advantech. Both are excited to try it out. Mike notices a production date of "April 1984" on the C64. Is a little disappointed his parents would get him a 7 year old computer. Christmas morning, 8:20 am. Mike is playing Word Zappers on his Advantech, while Steven's dad Sven is setting up the C64 as Steven waits. Christmas morning, 9:00 am. Mike got bored of Word Zappers. He's playing Mind Challenge. Steven fires up IK+ on his C64. Christmas morning, 10:00 am. Mike is typing out a word document consisting primarily of the word "booger". Steven is still playing IK+. Christmas morning, 11:00 am. Mike shuts off the Advantech. He's played through the games and notice they have little replay value. The word processor is fun in brief bursts but that's about it. Steven is playing Maniac Mansion on his C64. December 29: Mike tells his dad, Murphy, he's bored with his computer and wants to return it. He fires it up. "I tried all the programs." he says. "Word processor?" "Yup." "Spell review?" "It was boring." "Calculator?" "Can't do anything my 5 dollar one can't do." "Mind Challenge?" "Four times all the way through." "Word Zappers?" "I can beat it with my eyes closed." "200 Year Calendar?" "Yeah, April 28, 1979 was a Saturday. November 6, 1951 was a Tuesday. March 14, 1947 was a Friday, as well. January 8, 1975 was a Wednesday." "Spreadsheet?" "Yeah, calculated how much money I could sell this thing for." "Graphs?" "Graphed it too." "Database?" "Yeah, put all of my November grades in a database." "Art Studio?" "Drew this house with some flowers." "Basic?" "Typed Hello World, wouldn't let me do much more." "Basic Tutor?" "..." Mike looks away, nervously. "Basic Tutor?" Mike mumbles something unintelligible. "Basic Tutor. Have you used Basic Tutor or not?" "I want a Commodore 64! People with Commodore 64's get a lot more than 11 programs!" "You did too. This computer has 12 programs." "No it doesn't, Basic Tutor doesn't count!" "You're not getting a Commodore 64 until your birthday. Until April 28, I suggest you find some way to enjoy this computer or don't use it." Mike's big sister, Maddie, walks into the room and asks "What's all the ruckus about?" Mike says "I've played everything on this computer, and it gets old after like a day." Murphy says "He hasn't tried Basic Tutor!" Maddie chimes in "I tried it. It's not very good. I want a Commodore 64 for my birthday." Murphy says "But you've never liked computers! You're turning 17 and all of a sudden want a computer?" Maddie says "Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Murphy says "Okay, but that's your whole birthday." Later on, Maddie tells Mike "I know how much you envy Steven's computer. I think our parents made the wrong decision getting this thing. Besides, you've got me kind of curious about computing." January 8 comes. Maddie gets the C64. Her and Mike play IK+ all day. President Bush vomits in the Japanese Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa's lap. It comes on the news on the TV in their room. They don't notice. Maddie whispers to Mike "I didn't really try Basic Tutor." December 30, 2019 2:42 am

[@philipchania]

Finally an non-Commodore episode !!

[@atariandre5014]

Filippos Papadakis but of course he still only compares to the C64.....

[@srfrg9707]

Atari Andre And the Amiga 500... To be honest, it?s mindblowing to realise that this crappy thing was released after the Amiga. "Better that nothing"???? Sometimes nothing is preferable.

[@fnersch3367]

Love that era. Tons of weird stuff. The computer industry was sorting itself out. It was a fun time.