I happen to have a LU005 drive and controller in my basement from back then. Also several soundcards with Mitsumi interface. FYI, Commodore's CDTV computer (An Amiga 500 with CDROM and Hifi look from 1990/91) had a 1x CDROM with caddy, and the first CDROM drives date back to around 1988. And yes, CD-Rs are usually readable in most CD players and drives. Even my Laserdisc player and my CDTV play my dirt cheapest audio CDRs that I burned for testing back in the day. That's basically the entire purpose of CDRs, to be compatible with all drives and players.
@@RetroGamingBase As I said above, CDRs are not a problem. The problems usually came up when faster drives spun up and tried to go to something like 40x read speed, maybe even on a cheap green CDR that was burned too fast on top. THAT is a recipe for desaster. I remember those dirt cheap silver-green Platinum and Intenso media in german stores. YIKES...
@@amurtigress_mobile365 It's been ages since I've last seen a silver-green CD-R indeed, guess for good reason. I remember a friend of mine had a game CD explode inside his CD drive once, but weirdly enough, it was a proper pressed CD (Age of Empires 3 if I recall). Edit: the 40x also reminds me how my old Windows 98 Pentium III machine (Slot 1 550 MHz if memory serves right, not _mine_ but family's PC that is) had a 56x CD ROM drive (read only indeed) but my current BD-XL RE drive here can rewrite 100 GB discs (128 GB write once) but will do at max 48x on CDs (read, write at most 24x) and I've never seen it hit that much (granted I know the 56x claims back then were also overblown and they never reached all that).
That looks exactly like my first CD-ROM. It came with a group of games by Software Toolworks, plus Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. The controller was onboard a Beethoven Soundcard a Wearnes. They said it was a 2x CD-ROM, but it routinely tested as a 1x. I also started having CD-ROM recognition errors just before I got a new PC, had to reinsert it a few times for it to start reading.
Cool find! I had a 1x speed SCSI CD-ROM drive that used caddies to load the CD's. I think that read CD-R's as well. I forgot the brand. It was used in some unix vendor's hardware like DEC (I'm leaning towards this one) or maybe SGI/Sun.
This is pretty cool. The only earlier CD-ROM drive I know of is for the Commodore CDTV that used a Matsushita-Kotobuki drive with a custom controller. It used a caddy to house a CD instead of the moving tray the most drives use. I am glad you made this one work.
Thanks 😊 and great info about the Amiga CDTV! I heard about these but never had one back in the day. I think they were only a thing for a short while or?
I know of an earlier one, Philips CDD-462. External, with a weird proprietary (?) interface that I don't have, and probably unobtanium drivers just for good measure. At least it works as a somewhat crude standalone audio CD player
Hehe I got one of these as well! I did not have the opportunity to test it so far, got it like last year or something, alongside its controller card and ribbon. Quite an unusual drive that's for sure! Glad yours work perfectly fine!
Oh nice! Yeah those are very cool and they were only available for a short time I think! Mine will go intonation early 386 or 286 or so! Perfect authentic setup then 😀
Sold those drives brand new back in the day. :) Loved Mitsumi hardware back in the day. Keyboards, mice, floppy drives, cd-rom drives. A little reason I liked the keyboard / mouse had 2 year warranty on them. Sold tons of those. Only sent I think one mouse back for warranty. No issue. I still have a few keyboards that work great. Just simple rubber dome keyboards. Oh and the floppy drive was tons of 3.1/2" drives.
Great find. The slider mechanism should be cleaned from old grease and re-greased. Back when this thing was new ( yes, I remember them ) the slider opened buttery smooth.
It's funny while just about all home music CD players by the 90's had a motorized drawer, somehow early optical drives missed the boat and had quirky loading systems. My first drive, a single speed used a cassette. You put the CD into a "caddy", then shove it into the big slot. Also, I believe that even during the rollout of the single speed drives, the sneaky basterds in the industry already had 3x, 4x, 8x, 16x drives on the drawing board and slowly released in succession as the market sales started to slow down with the current speed. Max profits!
Wow! I have one of these in my 486 (I bought it with the case), and it is so slow that I have accidentally turned the computer off thinking that it froze...
The opening mechanism was not understandable for some people, so I was able to buy such a drive for half the price (it should still be here). At first I also thought it was defective, but you have to push the whole drive inwards and then let it go, then it pops out (you can also see it in the video). Let's be honest, who else wants to use a single speed drive... it has a data rate of 150k. It only started to be fun at quad speed.
Very nice vid!! :) But i don't think, its 'the very first'... The 'first' were some kind of proprietary SCSI based, not IDE, mostly with Cadridges, weren't they? But super awesome, that it just worked out of the box! :D Nice!!!
Oh yeah, you are right of course! I think this one was among the first internal ones and someone else also mentioned the ones with cartridges… 😊 But there is only so much you can write on a thumbnail before it gets crowded 😅
My first experience of using CDROM was with the original Multimedia Upgrade kit from Creative labs, it came with the Sound Blaster Pro 1 and a Matsushita/Panasonic drive (used a caddy) and was for Windows 3.0 with MME (Multimedia extensions) so dates back to 1991/1992.
Oh wow! Yeah I know about this kit! It was the only way to get sound in Windows 3.0! I think those were the absolute first internal CD Rom drives. Could it be that they were SCSI?
@@RetroGamingBase You wouldn't believe the stuff that was thrown out! Wish I'd taken it all home now. When CD ROMs started to have drawers like we are used to now, we had one guy call up to say his coffee holder had broken in his PC!!!!
i just spotted one of these drives last week at a local one in NC. they are sadly not open on weekends and have plans as-is should nothing happen to drop by monday IF the guys open.
Not sure if any other 1x drives existed I believe it is not even MPC compliant - hmm, MPC level 1 only required 1x, but < 1 sec seek tine and < 40% CPU. It may be capable of reading CD-R, but that drive is definitely not capable of multisession. Also, you didn't use DMA
They built things to last back then - and CD-R's should be no problem for any drive as long as they are burnt slowly. high speed burning means the lands and pits arent as pronounced. Modern drive can cope with this, oldies can't.
@@RetroGamingBase Denon and Sony demonstrated CD-ROM back in 1982 and Philips was the first company to ship a CD-ROM drive in 1984- this was the CM-100.
I wish I had contacts in a recycling facility. The stuff that gets destroyed will make your heart sink.
Amen to that my friend! Yeah so much awesome stuff is lost there because people don’t even bother to check what it is they throw away sometimes!
I've got some rare stuff even a rare walkman
All from ewaste bins i uploaded a clip of a fan that was intact but got crushed by 2 Photocopiers and turned into a dancing fan
Agreed. Laws regarding access to facilities should be way looser than it is currently.
I happen to have a LU005 drive and controller in my basement from back then. Also several soundcards with Mitsumi interface.
FYI, Commodore's CDTV computer (An Amiga 500 with CDROM and Hifi look from 1990/91) had a 1x CDROM with caddy, and the first CDROM drives date back to around 1988.
And yes, CD-Rs are usually readable in most CD players and drives. Even my Laserdisc player and my CDTV play my dirt cheapest audio CDRs that I burned for testing back in the day. That's basically the entire purpose of CDRs, to be compatible with all drives and players.
Nice info! 👍 thanks for sharing 🍻
Fascinating. Never thought it would read a cd-r.
Yeah! Same here actually, I just wanted to make the video a tiny bit longer 🤣
@@RetroGamingBase As I said above, CDRs are not a problem. The problems usually came up when faster drives spun up and tried to go to something like 40x read speed, maybe even on a cheap green CDR that was burned too fast on top. THAT is a recipe for desaster.
I remember those dirt cheap silver-green Platinum and Intenso media in german stores. YIKES...
@@amurtigress_mobile365 It's been ages since I've last seen a silver-green CD-R indeed, guess for good reason.
I remember a friend of mine had a game CD explode inside his CD drive once, but weirdly enough, it was a proper pressed CD (Age of Empires 3 if I recall).
Edit: the 40x also reminds me how my old Windows 98 Pentium III machine (Slot 1 550 MHz if memory serves right, not _mine_ but family's PC that is) had a 56x CD ROM drive (read only indeed) but my current BD-XL RE drive here can rewrite 100 GB discs (128 GB write once) but will do at max 48x on CDs (read, write at most 24x) and I've never seen it hit that much (granted I know the 56x claims back then were also overblown and they never reached all that).
That sliding mechanism needs some loving. I flinched every time you popped that thing out.
Oh yeah! It’s already greased again now 😀
That looks exactly like my first CD-ROM. It came with a group of games by Software Toolworks, plus Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. The controller was onboard a Beethoven Soundcard a Wearnes. They said it was a 2x CD-ROM, but it routinely tested as a 1x. I also started having CD-ROM recognition errors just before I got a new PC, had to reinsert it a few times for it to start reading.
Oh good info! Thanks for sharing 😀
one of the few CD drives that linux didn't have a problem with back in the day
Oh ok! Did not know that 😀 thanks
Cool find! I had a 1x speed SCSI CD-ROM drive that used caddies to load the CD's. I think that read CD-R's as well. I forgot the brand. It was used in some unix vendor's hardware like DEC (I'm leaning towards this one) or maybe SGI/Sun.
Nice! Yeah I think those drives with Caddys were the absolute first ones
This is pretty cool. The only earlier CD-ROM drive I know of is for the Commodore CDTV that used a Matsushita-Kotobuki drive with a custom controller. It used a caddy to house a CD instead of the moving tray the most drives use. I am glad you made this one work.
Thanks 😊 and great info about the Amiga CDTV! I heard about these but never had one back in the day. I think they were only a thing for a short while or?
I know of an earlier one, Philips CDD-462. External, with a weird proprietary (?) interface that I don't have, and probably unobtanium drivers just for good measure. At least it works as a somewhat crude standalone audio CD player
Hehe I got one of these as well! I did not have the opportunity to test it so far, got it like last year or something, alongside its controller card and ribbon. Quite an unusual drive that's for sure! Glad yours work perfectly fine!
Oh nice! Yeah those are very cool and they were only available for a short time I think! Mine will go intonation early 386 or 286 or so! Perfect authentic setup then 😀
I had one of those! Windows 95 has built in drivers for the i/f card . Great memories
Oh cool! Makes sense but I did not know that! 😀
Sold those drives brand new back in the day. :) Loved Mitsumi hardware back in the day. Keyboards, mice, floppy drives, cd-rom drives. A little reason I liked the keyboard / mouse had 2 year warranty on them. Sold tons of those. Only sent I think one mouse back for warranty. No issue. I still have a few keyboards that work great. Just simple rubber dome keyboards. Oh and the floppy drive was tons of 3.1/2" drives.
Haha yeah things were build to last back then! Especially in Japan 😀
Great find. The slider mechanism should be cleaned from old grease and re-greased. Back when this thing was new ( yes, I remember them ) the slider opened buttery smooth.
Oh really?! Haha that’s cool! Yeah I will do that. Although the sound is also so nostalgic right now 😂
It's funny while just about all home music CD players by the 90's had a motorized drawer, somehow early optical drives missed the boat and had quirky loading systems. My first drive, a single speed used a cassette. You put the CD into a "caddy", then shove it into the big slot. Also, I believe that even during the rollout of the single speed drives, the sneaky basterds in the industry already had 3x, 4x, 8x, 16x drives on the drawing board and slowly released in succession as the market sales started to slow down with the current speed. Max profits!
Wow! I have one of these in my 486 (I bought it with the case), and it is so slow that I have accidentally turned the computer off thinking that it froze...
Haha yeah you can get a huge amount of coffee when it needs to read a full CD ROM 😂
Very cute iPod you have there.
Haha thanks ❤️
This was my first CD-ROM drive. It quit working close to 30 years ago,
Haha nice! My first one was already a 6x Teac and it still works today in one of my retro PCs 😅
The opening mechanism was not understandable for some people, so I was able to buy such a drive for half the price (it should still be here). At first I also thought it was defective, but you have to push the whole drive inwards and then let it go, then it pops out (you can also see it in the video).
Let's be honest, who else wants to use a single speed drive... it has a data rate of 150k. It only started to be fun at quad speed.
Yeah you are absolutely right! My first CD ROM back in the 90s was a 6x Teac that I still have today in one of my retro PCs 😀
Very nice vid!! :)
But i don't think, its 'the very first'...
The 'first' were some kind of proprietary SCSI based, not IDE, mostly with Cadridges, weren't they?
But super awesome, that it just worked out of the box! :D Nice!!!
Oh yeah, you are right of course! I think this one was among the first internal ones and someone else also mentioned the ones with cartridges… 😊 But there is only so much you can write on a thumbnail before it gets crowded 😅
My first experience of using CDROM was with the original Multimedia Upgrade kit from Creative labs, it came with the Sound Blaster Pro 1 and a Matsushita/Panasonic drive (used a caddy) and was for Windows 3.0 with MME (Multimedia extensions) so dates back to 1991/1992.
Oh wow! Yeah I know about this kit! It was the only way to get sound in Windows 3.0! I think those were the absolute first internal CD Rom drives. Could it be that they were SCSI?
used to fix & sell everything I've seen in this video! Even both PC cases look familiar!
Haha awesome! Glad to have you here then! Lately I was able to buy a complete stock that a old computer store had left near me! So much great stuff 🥰
@@RetroGamingBase You wouldn't believe the stuff that was thrown out! Wish I'd taken it all home now. When CD ROMs started to have drawers like we are used to now, we had one guy call up to say his coffee holder had broken in his PC!!!!
Is the background music from mechwarrior?
Haha yeah! Mechwarrior 2 actually 👍
This guy is playing MechWarrior music in the background also that would be an amazing lunix phone machine it would be perfect 386
i just spotted one of these drives last week at a local one in NC. they are sadly not open on weekends and have plans as-is should nothing happen to drop by monday IF the guys open.
Oh lol! Please post here how that went and how much they want for it! Would be pretty interesting 😀
Not sure if any other 1x drives existed
I believe it is not even MPC compliant - hmm, MPC level 1 only required 1x, but < 1 sec seek tine and < 40% CPU.
It may be capable of reading CD-R, but that drive is definitely not capable of multisession.
Also, you didn't use DMA
Mitsumi FX001 is also single speed. Not to be confused with the well-known FX001D, that´s the double-speed variant.
My first CD-ROM drive. Cost me $250.
Was this a bit later? When faster ones were already available? I heard that these were very expensive when they came out or so… 😀
They built things to last back then - and CD-R's should be no problem for any drive as long as they are burnt slowly. high speed burning means the lands and pits arent as pronounced. Modern drive can cope with this, oldies can't.
Oh thanks! Good reminder about the speed there! Yeah I usually burn at 8x max so maybe that’s why it worked!
Brilliant find, but you're quite rough with your hardware.
Nice
Thanks 😊
I had this Mitsumi! Was it really the first? I was the King of the computer club, playing 7th Guest on it.
I think it was among the very first internal drives. But there were earlier external ones or so I heard 😀
@@RetroGamingBase Denon and Sony demonstrated CD-ROM back in 1982 and Philips was the first company to ship a CD-ROM drive in 1984- this was the CM-100.
@@douro20 thanks for the info! 👍
@@RetroGamingBase the CM-100 was an external drive , on of the first internal was the CM 201 from Laser Magnetic Storage International