In 6th grade, i had to make a presentation and the teacher claimed "the smaller your notes, the better your grade!" I typed everything into my vtech and printed to a tiny cashier-like receipt printer. Teacher's mind: Blown.
parents bought me a pre-computer 1000 back in like grade 3... it blew my mind that i could write code on it, didn't even realise it was basic at the time i was that young now i'm a software engineer... thanks to my parents and v-tech
I developed a proof-of-concept CP/M for the PreComputer 2000/4000 last year, which got featured on hackaday :-) Got ZORK to run on it! I just love those VTechs! :-D
I know when I was younger I certainly liked being able to listen with headphones to things and wished everything had a headphone jack. and it also had the wonderful benefit of being able to be connected to other things like PA systems. No I wasn't that devious that I'm wishing I thought of it when I was younger to connect some arbitrarily annoying device. although I did come close by connecting my non headset capeable modified with a headset Jack weather radio to a sound system..... I had a mini keyboard that I always wanted to put headphone jack on too but never got around to it instead I ended up using a induction Loop. Sadly I'm going to have to buy that thing off eBay because it didn't make one of the moves apparently.
And everyone wonders why nobody has an attention span these days. "Do the next thing Jimmy! Jimmy, why haven't you started the next thing yet? Jimmy, it's been two seconds since you last started doing something new, I'm starting to worry."
My first computer was a VTech Laser 310. And it was a proper one. Dual disk drives and a fully blown green monochrome monitor. With that thing I learned to code in basic at the age of 10 back then in 1988. Two years later I knew it's capabilities by heart, poking in machine commands and even writing my own little textadventures and small "graphical" games (although those still consisted of text characters flying around and interacting with each another). What a time to have been alive in. Truly UNDERSTANDING what a computer does. With a manual that really teaches you. I was pretty annoyed by Windows 95 at first - never ever knowing why that HDD-LED was flickering. Never ever again having the full control of what my own machine is doing. Right now that RAM-stuffed massive multicore machine beneath the desk is computing thousands of things I don't want it to do - and of course despite its giganteous amount of RAM it is still working hard to degrade the ssd drives in it, without me actually saving anything to them. What happened ?!
Hey man I appreciate your comment! I just wrote some thing sort of similar on here. Well, about an iMac but, still! I saw urbEx in your name and thought I’d see if I was correct in assuming it was what I thought it was… 😎 I’m gonna check out a couple of your videos!
As a kid, I swear everyone I knew had one of these shoved in a closet. Impressive as they may have been, I don't believe any of the ones I ever saw had more than a use or two. Most kids would rather pest their parents until they could play on the family's actual computer.
@@VincentGroenewold They were, page 456 of the 1999 Argos catalogue, most models were £80-£120 with the top-end model nearly £200, by comparison a N64 & PS1 were £100: issuu.com/retromash/docs/argossuperstore-1999-springsummer I remember the odd kid had them but even back then I thought they were expensive and crap, and we still had an Amiga 500 so were hardly on the cutting edge of technology.
@@mcrecordings I thought they were a scam, no kid wanted this, everybody wanted a console or a real computer. only clueless parents could think this was a good idea. for the same money you could get something more useful and that would make the kids a million times more happy. I'm lucky it didn't happen to me, but I can imagine the disappointment of kids that got this.
OMFG. I had one of these, they were called "Pitagorín", here in Spain. Fun fact, they included an external cartridge that allowed to change the language from spanish to english :D
When he first showed it's box I paused and sat here for 10 minutes taking it all in thinking "nah it can't be.." 8:49 I saw that face and knew but when "choose an activity" was said holy crap the feels.
No what's bloody relevant is that this was at the beginning of 2020 and it's still relevant it's still bloody relevant. I was thinking after I heard him say that this video must have been put out a few months ago.... NO. Hopefully that was the correct use of the word bloody?
My parents got me one when I was like 4, they couldn't get it out of demo mode. I ended up with their old Pentium system soon after. Real computers are far more entertaining anyway.
I'm 40. So I just used my family's real computers. I basically taught my dad [who would be 74 by now] how to use the computer and then how to send emails. Haha
@@mattnova18 I'm 39, and while I had the Vtech 1000 Pre Computer as a kid given to my by an aunt, It rarely got used, as I had a Commodore 64(later 128) with dual disk drives, and an Apple II IE also with dual disk drives both sharing an Epson Printer lol! Speaking of VTech cordless phones I still have them at home with a dect 6 3 unit digital answering machine setup using it as a backup to my family's cell phones with a MagicJack, and at work with a dect 6 2 unit digital answering machine setup connected to our ISP's VOIP service as cell phone backup, and business line. Both units have been very reliable for well over a decade now, and when the batteries do eventually go bad, they are cheap as dirt to replace, so as long as Vtech keeps making them, they will be the only brand I'll buy.
@North American TH-camr It'd be interesting for sure, they could target the budget market with decent hardware, and make Chromebooks, or some systems that came with Linux(anything but Ubuntu would be great) preinstalled.
@North American TH-camr They could have, They DO make good phones, SO they do "get" electronics. But I guess they: 1,Saw a crowded PC market and 2, They virtually OWNED the whole "kiddie" sorta-computer market, I imagine it was a profitable enough market for them.
@@CommodoreFan64 I started out with a TRS-80 Model III in the early 80's (learned Z80 assembly language on it) I also had other Z80 based machines (Including the US market Sinclairs!) If I had known that the early VTech toys had Z80 CPUs, I might have bought one just to hack the hardware for ?!? IDK, Just for fun.😊
This video is such a nostalgia trip that before it even ended i already had 74 pages in my browser history about personal memories with Vtech products.
@@rickyrigatoni lol. Well, that does actually work in VR... Also if you have a head tracker, though the non-linear response of those will probably mess you up until you get used to it...
6:02 So many jumper wires! It's really interesting to see that doing that much extra soldering, which would have been done by hand, must still have worked out cheaper than just making a double-sided PCB.
something I've never understood is, what's the reluctance to just squirt onto your tummy or chest ?????? seems like far less of a hassle. or is the thing about tissues and socks and stuff just elaborate in jokes? like I've always just taken it at face value but. now I think about it. maybe it's like "haha yeah as if" idk man. please enlighten a poor girl who has been baffled by this ever since teenage boys in school
Asus released the original Transformer tablet a year earlier than the surface, in 2011, with the same design but running Android. That was the first I knew of the format.
Despite the limited functionality, we considered getting one of these for me in the 90’s because my handwriting was so abysmal I practically needed something that I could type on in class for basic schoolwork.
I had the IT Unlimited (though it was called PreComputer Unlimited) and I found out something extremely odd about it. The two bundled "expansion" cartridges (1 and 2) are almost completely empty, and each bridges the exact same pins on the connector slot. The machine somehow knew which one was inserted, so there must have been a resistor hidden inside somewhere. The documentation told of cartridges 3 and 4 available seperately, which I never had. I wonder was the content for those also burned into ROM, and accessible with some experimentation?
i currently have a PreComputer1000 Junior (or OrdiYeno from it's distribution name) that i paid 10€ at emmaus recently and it was complete with all of the 9 carts and the manuals, and i use this as a decoration because i'm cool
I'm feeling very nostalgic now. Back in the day we had a Precomputer 2000 (or Genius Leader 2000 in Germany).I played with it a lot but never understood what "Basic" was about. Learned something new today. I'm determined now to find me a Precomputer 2000, just for the sake of nostalgia (and maybe giving "Basic" another shot). Great video!
The captions are delightful. [Jazz sustains us.] Yes, yes it does. "WHAT THE CRAP, VTECH?!" Dear god, I lost it. [Jazz. It feeds your soul like a million wet pickles.] Mmmm.... pickles.
Thanks for the introduction to Cillit Bang commercials, I looked the one up and laughed out loud. It's always interesting to me to check out past tech I wanted, but never got my hands on. Thanks for this walk down the tech toy isles of my childhood.
I swear cillit bang has become some kind of meme without me. I used to recite it as I thought it was funny but apparently it caught on with other people too and they probably understood what I was on about and thought I was referencing a meme.
Being very old I sure do remember VTech having this kind of stuff, but I never realized how deep this Well of Plop went. Thank you for stinking up my day with this very good vid. I must now go unto the water closet and have an enormous VTech.
I had the PowerPad... in my house, I recall just missing around it when I was young and not understanding what I was going on with it. Since, I was like... 3 or 4 when we had it in the house.
Great to see the video on this subject finally coming to fruition! Seems like ages ago since we spoke about it :). Why did they evolve so much but the screen never get much bigger than a couple of credit cards in size!
I had a VTech Pre-Computer Prestige circa 1995, when I was in kindergarten. I begged my parents for a laptop and this was an affordable compromise for the time, and aimed at kids. It came with BASIC and a full word processor, even a serial port you could hook up to any generic printer of the time. I so vividly remember checking out BASIC programming books from the public or school libraries, and I'd type in the programs from the books line by line. It was what opened my world to computing and programming, and what would become my future career.
aw man. i had the vtech style pad in green & i thought that was the coolest thing ever. i took it everywhere we went (along w/ my dandelion yellow gbc) be it family functions, vacations, & even to the babysitters over summers. the games were the best & i really felt like an adult w/ it. good times. i wish i still had (wish is still had the gbc too)
key word: "look". They actually are very much on the level of Speak n' Spell. Still are. The form factor is more PC-like, not any better or more sophisticated in any other way.
They've made so many different laptops that i can't find my one anymore. It had so few quiz questions that i could memorize all of them. Oh, and the computer voice was SO IRRITATING! "Uijtsteeeejkeend" ("uitstekend" or "excellent" in Dutch). Sometime in 1999 or 2000 i unscrewed the thing because i needed resistors for a (not even blinking) led project.
@@ncot_tech Just to picture how glad you must have been back then getting so much more of a real thing makes me get emotional, like you were an '80s kiddie character in a retro movie.
I had a similar experience, in that it was in one of my local charity shops. It was 20 quid, and I initially didn't think much of it until I checked it to make sure there were no batteries in the compartment, just to make sure they weren't leaking, and then I discovered it had BASIC on it! I also ended up getting it for 12 quid instead, partly because it was on the shelf for weeks and I was probably one of the few people that would have bought it! I ended up buying a printer for it eventually too, but both are now in storage, as I need to organise my flat for space purposes!
I learn to program in BASIC on the Pre Computer Thinkbook back in the day. When my brother, who was going to university for his computer science degree, saw me making my own games, he politely then plopped the real BASIC manual in front of me. So, i learned it back then and we made a couple games together. Thanks for stirring up the good memories!
Man, I (22) remember my little V-tech toy laptop with the pets. One of them went "hungry, hungry" and my mom and I still reference that all these years later
The Precomputer 1000 is where I discovered my love of programming. I didn’t know it then, but it had set me upon a wonderful path that would carry me into the universe of software development. I owe a great deal to that little PC.
I had a sesame street branded VTech in 1994. I remember that was fun. It had plastic disks for the programs that were just plastic with holes punched in them.
only stupid parents would get this for their kids. I can imagine the disappointment of those kids that wanted either a real computer or a console and got this useless crap instead.
This was turn on and use, back in the early/mid90s parents were unlikely to even have a PC themselves so there was no chance they'd buy/scavenge an old one for their kids, even if just because they would have no idea how it works and how to help then set it up. Also no internet to get software, so way too much hassle. Nowadays yes, they're kinda pointless.
Your better off getting your kids a Commodore 64 and some educational software and some games they would have made far more use of it than anything V-tech made
I have fond memories - mine offered math and English learning games -- but I never used those. all I ever used was the BASIC mode and the included basic manual. those set me on a course for life - all from a kid's cheap toy in a time when computers were prohibitively expensive for normal families.. yes i had the 4 line version and it was cheap as chips in the 90s
My cool uncle who was really my introduction to a lot of things (like model kits and retro consoles) gave me his old the Precomputer 2000 as a kid, I was obsessed with it and seeing it there gave me a flush of memories of a device that I could ever vaguely remember, especially in the sea of VTECH products that exist. I very vaguely remember doing BASIC on it I think but I had no idea what that actually was and thought it was just another part of the games on there.
@@Benzona : Yeah...and we haven't gone away... Remember; the World is round: A Globe. Ignore the Flat earth lunatics. They don't count. Europe is some 6-8 hours ahead of you as far as scientific reckoning of Time goes; yet a lot of tech and gaming stuff happens later for us in the UK/ Europe by a few months.... I guess it's down to logistics, or some sort of twaddle..... ;-)
My grandma had a PreComputer 1000 at her house for the grandkids to play with. We all loved it, didn't have the manual so we didn't know anything about what the BASIC function was. None of us had computers at home at that time, I was the only one who was school aged at that time with access to computers, but we were already in GUI territory with macs. Had no idea that little thing was so capable though!
I must say, when I was around 8 years old I had my first computer, a windows 98 machine, obviously without internet, and for me the charm at those times was with for example the windows audio recorder, slowing down, speeding up and reversing recordings, drawing in MS Paint, playing games bundled with windows and playing the few other games I had. But I do remember when a friend of mine invited me to her place and she said she had a computer, so I brought my little cd organizer of games to then find out it was one of these vtech computers that she had, that day was my only experience with one of these things, it was one of the ones with a pixel matrix.
2:05 Smart Start - my aunt got one of those for her kids in the late 80. Was a lot of fun to play on. They lived on a farm and a traveling salesman came by selling those.
This video inspired me to start collecting VTECH computers. I now currently have 8 (one is in transit as of writing this) and the collecting shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
I learned a lot about computers and started programming on a Apple IIgs in the mid to late 90's when I was learning to read at around 4 and 5 (learning faster than others because I wanted to learn basic and assembly not long after). Sure I built IBM PC compatibles with my Dad's spare parts at his office but I always had a soft spot for the IIgs Woz Edition I got from my Uncle as a gift. I still use that computer a lot to program fun projects to take up time with. It kind of follows what you said about learning the limitations of your system and learning to work around and even with them at times.
1:35 Oh wow, the Socrates. I forgot that that was even a thing. One of my friends had one. He was that obnoxious friend who would always call you over while he's watching a movie with about 15 minutes left, or call you over to basically watch him play a video game and never give you a play.
Having been a long time graphing calculator nerd I'd say having a 8 line display should be the minimum in a kids "pre"computer toy. The TI-82, TI-83, TI-83+, TI-83+SE and the TI-89 were my introduction to programming. I would spend an incredible amount of time programming the intro to a game. Like 8hrs of using the challenging keypad and navigating all the sub menus just to make a 3-5sec intro with pieces falling into place to make up the word Tetris. To this day I still have fun writing code for my TI-83 only I ditched TI-BASIC years ago and now do everything in assembly. I was always curious about the HP series of graphing calculators. I heard they were more capable but used a different programming language than BASIC. I never knew anyone who had one though because of the stranglehold Texas Instruments has on the educational market.
i had one that im sure was from a thrift shop when i was a kid. didn't have a family computer so this and an old typewriter was all i had. that little horn noise near the end of the video brought back a lot of memories.
Man I wasn't expecting a Cillit Bang reference amidst a review of Vtech machines, but I'm bloody glad its there. I never realised that Grandstand was the same as VTech for the UK. I used to have a WhizKid and part of me wants to get one again for nostalgia's sake.
Hi All - at 1:31 the Laser 310 was also released in Australia as the Laser 300 by local Dick Smith stores , the had sold the prior chicklet keyboard Laser 200 and the Wizard features at 1:00 complete with tricky dicky logo Regards George
Seeing that Pre-Computer 2000 dredged up a forgotten memory as soon as you turned it on... That start-up melody reminded me that my parents bought me one of those things!
2:03 - We had a vTech Leader2000 for Christmas '94. When I saw the box in the video I remembered the clicking sound of the keyboard myself. I typed so much on that as a kid..EDIT: 6:20 - the Bootup sound. My childhood. OMG, yes, that is the keyboard indeed.
I had the PreComputer 2000. Two of them in fact. The first one met its demise within a week of arriving at Christmas, as I was using it on the dining room table and forgot the thing had a power cord coming from it and fell over said cord, which sent the PreComputer plummeting. My friendly local retailer gladily exchanged that one for the second one (being unaware of the full circumstances that led to it becoming non-functioning). The second one also met it's demise sooner than I would have liked, when untidyness on my part led to the screen finding it's way under something heavy, and thus getting wrecked. A really amazing machine though, that I absolutely loved using. I could have sworn you could save multiple Basic programmes though, as I used to use the Basic function to save text about things I needed to remember for whatever reason, and I don't think I'd've done that if doing so had wiped my previous programming. Anyway years later (about 7 to be precise) I began Computing A-Level and we were all asked to inform the programming lecturer what our previous programming experience was, so I wrote that I could program in Basic on the PreComputer 2000 (and didn't see any kind of irony or shame in telling him that).
I'm on a nostalgia trip. I can't find the one I had when I was kid. The narrator was male, it was silver and blue, and the shape was rectangular with hexagonal corners. When I turned it off, the narrator would say "See ya soon!" And the closing animation was a person getting inside a tent and turning off the light. I remember it being camping/outdoor themed. 2003 ish.
When I was around 10 or 12, I had a Laser 128, an Apple IIe compatible computer by VTech (it was sold at Sears.) It was my first computer. Many years later, I got my young daughter one of those little toy computers with different programs on it.
My youngest two LOVED their V-Tech "computers", even after we bought them actual desktops and laptops as they got older.... They were totally hooked on these things for some reason.
My little sister had the PC notebook, 1993, and a couple of cartridges- It's still at my Mum's somewhere. It was a great little machine when we were on holiday in the car!
Back in the early 90s vtech also made "electronic dictionaries" for the Asian market, those were like tiny palm size laptops for adults / older students without any toy-like design. Great replacement for paper dictionaries, but I used it mostly to play games. Some also integrated functions such as organizer, calendar, book reader, unit converter, calculator etc. Google search vtech cv6880 you can find photo of one of the models.
OMG I had a V-Tech laptop as a kid, and hearing these sounds/voices is bringing me back so many memories! The sound that always comes to mind for me is the “boing” one from that word activity (the one that asked you to identify the past or present tense, past or present participle, etc) for when the word appeared before the dragon breathed fire on it. Also, I remember having one of those Little Smart Alphabet Desk toys too that has the exact same voice/music synthesis as the laptop I then later had.
I got an Alphabet desk as a christmas present in 1994 when I was about 6 but back then even an Alphabet desk was exciting and something to be grateful for. To be honest by 2001 most homes had a computer and by then toy computers had their day. I never saw the point in V Smile when you could have educational games on the PS2, DS or Wii. My mum also found me a Grandstand "My first computer" in a charity shop in 1998 and I liked it's touch pad buttons, I think the Grandstand came out in the late 80s.
I remember having a vtech printer, it used a parallel port on my vtech laptop. It was the vt 35 - I recognised it on the leaflet. I also had cartridge for spreadsheets
I had a Vtech laptop as a kid and it was fucking awesome. Brain busting puzzles, educational quizzes, extremely fun games. Really wish I could get ahold of one of those things again. It was great. Even the sound effects and little tunes they had were amazing.
In 6th grade, i had to make a presentation and the teacher claimed "the smaller your notes, the better your grade!"
I typed everything into my vtech and printed to a tiny cashier-like receipt printer.
Teacher's mind: Blown.
I’m confused what this teacher’s logic was, why would small notes equate a better grade?
@@AbbieOates you would have to have more memorized if you had smaller notes
@@kwirro that was the idea
With thinking like that you should be a company director, or a tax avoidance constant
@MomoTheBellyDancer I think he mistyped "consultant"
"Little Dwayne wanted a computer that looked the same as his Mum's at work"
I'm feeling personally attacked right now
Heck, they even put VTech in Honda engines.
BWWWWWWWWAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
MO POWAH BABEH.
Shingo moment
@@aniketsahu9316
【ｃｏｏｌ ｖｉｂｒａｔｉｏｎｓ】
Vtec yo
Fuck you lmaoo this is a golden comment
parents bought me a pre-computer 1000 back in like grade 3... it blew my mind that i could write code on it, didn't even realise it was basic at the time i was that young
now i'm a software engineer... thanks to my parents and v-tech
What kind of code could you write? I’m very curious
Ok wait he is explaining on the video. Lol I asked the question at the beginning of the video
I developed a proof-of-concept CP/M for the PreComputer 2000/4000 last year, which got featured on hackaday :-)
Got ZORK to run on it!
I just love those VTechs! :-D
There is not enough beer in the world to give me the patience to do this.
@@Alakazzam09 I'm from Bavaria, near Munich, so there is PLENTY! :-D
Link to article? Actually interested to see that.
I remember trying to write games like zork in high-school in programming class.. in turbo pascal. LOL.
That sounds interesting. Could you put that up on your channel please?
Daleks:
"SELECT AN ACTIVITY SELECT AN ACTIVITY"
My exact thoughts!!
*SELECT AN ACTIVITY*
*SELECT AN ACTIVITY*
*SELECT AN ACTIVITY*
*SELECT AN ACTIVITY*
Eeeeduucate! EDUCATE!
Where did you learn to fly?
@@Arbiter099 Where did YOU learn to fly?
"Why would you want to listen to this through headphones?"
That's probably exactly why it exists, so parents didn't have to 🤣.
I thought the exact same thing after he literally said this in the video
Yep, my father at the time hacked a headphones on the apple itt 2 and had bleeps in stereo 😉
I know when I was younger I certainly liked being able to listen with headphones to things and wished everything had a headphone jack. and it also had the wonderful benefit of being able to be connected to other things like PA systems. No I wasn't that devious that I'm wishing I thought of it when I was younger to connect some arbitrarily annoying device. although I did come close by connecting my non headset capeable modified with a headset Jack weather radio to a sound system.....
I had a mini keyboard that I always wanted to put headphone jack on too but never got around to it instead I ended up using a induction Loop. Sadly I'm going to have to buy that thing off eBay because it didn't make one of the moves apparently.
16:12
"Jimmy!"
"Select an activity already!"
"I swear to God if I have to come up these stairs..."
And everyone wonders why nobody has an attention span these days. "Do the next thing Jimmy! Jimmy, why haven't you started the next thing yet? Jimmy, it's been two seconds since you last started doing something new, I'm starting to worry."
SELECT AN ACTIVITY
LOL that made me laugh
4:35
"What does Popeye eat to gain extra strength?"
Yo mama
I lost it at shit.pic . But, nice catch 😂
My first computer was a VTech Laser 310. And it was a proper one. Dual disk drives and a fully blown green monochrome monitor. With that thing I learned to code in basic at the age of 10 back then in 1988. Two years later I knew it's capabilities by heart, poking in machine commands and even writing my own little textadventures and small "graphical" games (although those still consisted of text characters flying around and interacting with each another). What a time to have been alive in. Truly UNDERSTANDING what a computer does. With a manual that really teaches you. I was pretty annoyed by Windows 95 at first - never ever knowing why that HDD-LED was flickering. Never ever again having the full control of what my own machine is doing. Right now that RAM-stuffed massive multicore machine beneath the desk is computing thousands of things I don't want it to do - and of course despite its giganteous amount of RAM it is still working hard to degrade the ssd drives in it, without me actually saving anything to them. What happened ?!
Hey man I appreciate your comment! I just wrote some thing sort of similar on here. Well, about an iMac but, still! I saw urbEx in your name and thought I’d see if I was correct in assuming it was what I thought it was… 😎 I’m gonna check out a couple of your videos!
Capitalism happened.
*When Vtech Kicks in*
Yo
The comment I was looking for 😆
Expected VTEC jokes. Not disappointed.
♥️❤️️
*_Y O_*
As a kid, I swear everyone I knew had one of these shoved in a closet. Impressive as they may have been, I don't believe any of the ones I ever saw had more than a use or two. Most kids would rather pest their parents until they could play on the family's actual computer.
Pat Meyer Nah. I had a 1000 and I wore that thing out.
@@VincentGroenewold They were, page 456 of the 1999 Argos catalogue, most models were £80-£120 with the top-end model nearly £200, by comparison a N64 & PS1 were £100: issuu.com/retromash/docs/argossuperstore-1999-springsummer I remember the odd kid had them but even back then I thought they were expensive and crap, and we still had an Amiga 500 so were hardly on the cutting edge of technology.
we didn't have a family computer so I used mine quite a bit actually
@@mcrecordings I thought they were a scam, no kid wanted this, everybody wanted a console or a real computer. only clueless parents could think this was a good idea. for the same money you could get something more useful and that would make the kids a million times more happy.
I'm lucky it didn't happen to me, but I can imagine the disappointment of kids that got this.
I remember taking mine on family trips more than anything.
8:59 That computerized "CHOOSE AN ACTIVITY" brought a wave of flashbacks for me - thank you.
Same. My first years of life were filled with that sound.
OMFG. I had one of these, they were called "Pitagorín", here in Spain. Fun fact, they included an external cartridge that allowed to change the language from spanish to english :D
When he first showed it's box I paused and sat here for 10 minutes taking it all in thinking "nah it can't be.." 8:49 I saw that face and knew but when "choose an activity" was said holy crap the feels.
"Slowed to that of the British Government taking action in a pandemic"
Holy shit that got a belly laugh outta me
United States - "hold my beer!" 🤣😭
@Dank Kimmy Don't you mean Nigel Farage
British rail would be slower though.
No what's bloody relevant is that this was at the beginning of 2020 and it's still relevant it's still bloody relevant.
I was thinking after I heard him say that this video must have been put out a few months ago.... NO.
Hopefully that was the correct use of the word bloody?
What pandemic ?
I had the Pre Computer 1000 back in the day and learned typing and BASIC on it. Today I'm a professional C++ Software engineer. Thanks VTech! :)
That Platinum thing gives me an idea to make my workstation shout at me "SELECT AN ACTIVITY!" in order to prevent me from procrastination.
Nostalgia Nerd edited and uploaded this entire video on his "new" VTech laptop. He is a martyr to the cause!
Since I am on Concast internet, A VTech would be much too powerful for the upload speeds I get. -- --Sent from my TI-81 -
I would open it up and link it up to a Alaska and see
My parents got me one when I was like 4, they couldn't get it out of demo mode.
I ended up with their old Pentium system soon after. Real computers are far more entertaining anyway.
You played Doom soon after didn't you?
@@RockstheSquirrelMobian I know I'd have.
Being damned near 60, I obviously didn't grow up with these. To me, VTech is a cordless phone brand.
I'm 40. So I just used my family's real computers. I basically taught my dad [who would be 74 by now] how to use the computer and then how to send emails. Haha
@@mattnova18 I'm 39, and while I had the Vtech 1000 Pre Computer as a kid given to my by an aunt, It rarely got used, as I had a Commodore 64(later 128) with dual disk drives, and an Apple II IE also with dual disk drives both sharing an Epson Printer lol!
Speaking of VTech cordless phones I still have them at home with a dect 6 3 unit digital answering machine setup using it as a backup to my family's cell phones with a MagicJack, and at work with a dect 6 2 unit digital answering machine setup connected to our ISP's VOIP service as cell phone backup, and business line. Both units have been very reliable for well over a decade now, and when the batteries do eventually go bad, they are cheap as dirt to replace, so as long as Vtech keeps making them, they will be the only brand I'll buy.
@North American TH-camr It'd be interesting for sure, they could target the budget market with decent hardware, and make Chromebooks, or some systems that came with Linux(anything but Ubuntu would be great) preinstalled.
@North American TH-camr They could have, They DO make good phones, SO they do "get" electronics. But I guess they: 1,Saw a crowded PC market and 2, They virtually OWNED the whole "kiddie" sorta-computer market, I imagine it was a profitable enough market for them.
@@CommodoreFan64 I started out with a TRS-80 Model III in the early 80's (learned Z80 assembly language on it) I also had other Z80 based machines (Including the US market Sinclairs!) If I had known that the early VTech toys had Z80 CPUs, I might have bought one just to hack the hardware for ?!? IDK, Just for fun.😊
This video is such a nostalgia trip that before it even ended i already had 74 pages in my browser history about personal memories with Vtech products.
Am I the only one to automatically try re-angling my head so I can better read the display? Although I know it doesn't help on video?
when i make a wide turn in a racing game i move with the curve to see better even though it does nothing. can't block natural reflexes.
I was moving my iPad about...
@@rickyrigatoni lol.
Well, that does actually work in VR...
Also if you have a head tracker, though the non-linear response of those will probably mess you up until you get used to it...
The backlit ones are the best ones, hard to find these days, and lots faulty on the 2nd hand market.
Xtra Pro Laptop pink only
blue has no backlight.
6:02 So many jumper wires! It's really interesting to see that doing that much extra soldering, which would have been done by hand, must still have worked out cheaper than just making a double-sided PCB.
We all keep a "cleaning rag" next to our computers. ;)
something I've never understood is, what's the reluctance to just squirt onto your tummy or chest ?????? seems like far less of a hassle.
or is the thing about tissues and socks and stuff just elaborate in jokes? like I've always just taken it at face value but. now I think about it. maybe it's like "haha yeah as if"
idk man. please enlighten a poor girl who has been baffled by this ever since teenage boys in school
It's too early for this conversation
Tbh I'm in the stomache squirt camp
@@kaitlyn__L 😳
Kaitlyn L ahhh... so you're offering?
17:33 "I'm Barry Scott, and this is the new, kitchen gun."
😂😂😂😂😂
22:01 that's not a bad design, I'm pretty sure that's where Microsoft got the idea for the best laptop ever, the surface book.
Ah I see you're a person of culture. I too believe that the surface book is a masterpiece
Well they pinched the original Surface design from the Compaq Concerto so why not VTech?
Asus released the original Transformer tablet a year earlier than the surface, in 2011, with the same design but running Android. That was the first I knew of the format.
But but but, the surface book uses SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY and is thus superior! Right?
Despite the limited functionality, we considered getting one of these for me in the 90’s because my handwriting was so abysmal I practically needed something that I could type on in class for basic schoolwork.
I had the IT Unlimited (though it was called PreComputer Unlimited) and I found out something extremely odd about it.
The two bundled "expansion" cartridges (1 and 2) are almost completely empty, and each bridges the exact same pins on the connector slot. The machine somehow knew which one was inserted, so there must have been a resistor hidden inside somewhere.
The documentation told of cartridges 3 and 4 available seperately, which I never had. I wonder was the content for those also burned into ROM, and accessible with some experimentation?
lol on-disk DLC before it was fashionable...
Truly ahead of their time.
Robert Ray well now we know who to blame.
Someone needs to investigate!!
Nowadays bootleg game systems do that to hide the copyrighted ROM files. But I wonder why do it back then?
"Vtec Vapor", so they intended it to be "vaporware" at first, but then it got released ;)
"resemble the real deal"? In 1988, my PC didn't have even a FAKE 3.5" floppy drive! LOL. Only a 5.25".(not fake though).
I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be a representation of a 5.25" drive, but scaled down because it's a toy.
@@djcsdy2 My comment wasn't supposed to be serious. It was scaled down to be a joke. In 1988 I had an IBM PS/2. They, of course had 3.5" FDDs.
@@jamesslick4790 My mistake, it sounded like you were being serious 🤷
@@djcsdy2 My bad🤦♂️. My odd humor doesn't work well in text. 😊
i currently have a PreComputer1000 Junior (or OrdiYeno from it's distribution name) that i paid 10€ at emmaus recently and it was complete with all of the 9 carts and the manuals, and i use this as a decoration because i'm cool
I would've enjoyed some of these as a child. Disappointing they didn't include BASIC in their later models.
I'm feeling very nostalgic now. Back in the day we had a Precomputer 2000 (or Genius Leader 2000 in Germany).I played with it a lot but never understood what "Basic" was about. Learned something new today. I'm determined now to find me a Precomputer 2000, just for the sake of nostalgia (and maybe giving "Basic" another shot). Great video!
The captions are delightful.
[Jazz sustains us.] Yes, yes it does.
"WHAT THE CRAP, VTECH?!" Dear god, I lost it.
[Jazz. It feeds your soul like a million wet pickles.] Mmmm.... pickles.
17:30 .. "Hi!!" .."i'm barry scott".. i couldn't stop laughing for minutes.. hahaha brilliant 😆
It would've been even better if he chose "I'm Derek Bum!"
18:55 who was the artist that decided to illustrate camel toe on the astronaut?
Thanks for the introduction to Cillit Bang commercials, I looked the one up and laughed out loud.
It's always interesting to me to check out past tech I wanted, but never got my hands on. Thanks for this walk down the tech toy isles of my childhood.
I swear cillit bang has become some kind of meme without me. I used to recite it as I thought it was funny but apparently it caught on with other people too and they probably understood what I was on about and thought I was referencing a meme.
I'd love to see someone bring one of these to their college or high school classroom! Oh that would tickle
I've though before it would be cool to bring a spectrum in if I got a TV80 to use with it.
😂
Being very old I sure do remember VTech having this kind of stuff, but I never realized how deep this Well of Plop went. Thank you for stinking up my day with this very good vid. I must now go unto the water closet and have an enormous VTech.
I had the PowerPad... in my house, I recall just missing around it when I was young and not understanding what I was going on with it. Since, I was like... 3 or 4 when we had it in the house.
Great to see the video on this subject finally coming to fruition! Seems like ages ago since we spoke about it :). Why did they evolve so much but the screen never get much bigger than a couple of credit cards in size!
I remember adults always acting like these things were real laptops and then giving them side eye.
I had a VTech Pre-Computer Prestige circa 1995, when I was in kindergarten. I begged my parents for a laptop and this was an affordable compromise for the time, and aimed at kids. It came with BASIC and a full word processor, even a serial port you could hook up to any generic printer of the time. I so vividly remember checking out BASIC programming books from the public or school libraries, and I'd type in the programs from the books line by line. It was what opened my world to computing and programming, and what would become my future career.
The Barry Scott thing really caught me off guard, hahaha, amazing.
aw man. i had the vtech style pad in green & i thought that was the coolest thing ever. i took it everywhere we went (along w/ my dandelion yellow gbc) be it family functions, vacations, & even to the babysitters over summers. the games were the best & i really felt like an adult w/ it. good times. i wish i still had (wish is still had the gbc too)
These look like vastly more modern versions of a Speak 'N Spell from my youth.
key word: "look". They actually are very much on the level of Speak n' Spell. Still are. The form factor is more PC-like, not any better or more sophisticated in any other way.
The Barry Scott bit caught me so off guard 😂😂
They've made so many different laptops that i can't find my one anymore.
It had so few quiz questions that i could memorize all of them. Oh, and the computer voice was SO IRRITATING! "Uijtsteeeejkeend" ("uitstekend" or "excellent" in Dutch).
Sometime in 1999 or 2000 i unscrewed the thing because i needed resistors for a (not even blinking) led project.
@6:40 that screen refresh soft key typing is satisfying. I missed that alot from my old one.
That “My First Computer” literally was my first computer.
More like a pre-computer, as they more suitably labelled these things later on.
BilisNegra I think I played around with it for maybe a month or two before an Acorn Electron magically appeared one Christmas.
@@ncot_tech Just to picture how glad you must have been back then getting so much more of a real thing makes me get emotional, like you were an '80s kiddie character in a retro movie.
I think I had the endeavor.
Edit: I definitely did, those sound effects are bringing some memories back from the deep recesses of my mind.
I found one at a thrift store for $5, it had basic on it!
I had a similar experience, in that it was in one of my local charity shops. It was 20 quid, and I initially didn't think much of it until I checked it to make sure there were no batteries in the compartment, just to make sure they weren't leaking, and then I discovered it had BASIC on it! I also ended up getting it for 12 quid instead, partly because it was on the shelf for weeks and I was probably one of the few people that would have bought it! I ended up buying a printer for it eventually too, but both are now in storage, as I need to organise my flat for space purposes!
2:48 this was *huge* in Brazil, produced by the same TecToy still producing Master Systems today
My favorite thing about the "Desk Station" is how the back is shaped as if it had a CRT monitor!
I learn to program in BASIC on the Pre Computer Thinkbook back in the day. When my brother, who was going to university for his computer science degree, saw me making my own games, he politely then plopped the real BASIC manual in front of me. So, i learned it back then and we made a couple games together. Thanks for stirring up the good memories!
Man, I (22) remember my little V-tech toy laptop with the pets. One of them went "hungry, hungry" and my mom and I still reference that all these years later
who ever made the closed captions... thank you. had a very good laugh!
I had no idea vtech made computers like this. I would have loved one of these in the 90's.
No. You wouldn't have. Most were pretty bad. TI-84 Scientific Calculators were more fun and interesting.
The Precomputer 1000 is where I discovered my love of programming. I didn’t know it then, but it had set me upon a wonderful path that would carry me into the universe of software development. I owe a great deal to that little PC.
I had a sesame street branded VTech in 1994. I remember that was fun. It had plastic disks for the programs that were just plastic with holes punched in them.
I had a little vtech laptop as a kid & trying to find more info on it led me here :) love old tech like this, and your commentary is top notch!
The title is misleading. They are exactly as crappy as i thought. Those things were expensive. A far superior used PC was always far cheaper.
only stupid parents would get this for their kids. I can imagine the disappointment of those kids that wanted either a real computer or a console and got this useless crap instead.
I think it is fitting, they are not just crappy, they are hilariously bad.
This was turn on and use, back in the early/mid90s parents were unlikely to even have a PC themselves so there was no chance they'd buy/scavenge an old one for their kids, even if just because they would have no idea how it works and how to help then set it up. Also no internet to get software, so way too much hassle. Nowadays yes, they're kinda pointless.
Your better off getting your kids a Commodore 64 and some educational software and some games they would have made far more use of it than anything V-tech made
I have fond memories - mine offered math and English learning games -- but I never used those. all I ever used was the BASIC mode and the included basic manual.
those set me on a course for life - all from a kid's cheap toy in a time when computers were prohibitively expensive for normal families..
yes i had the 4 line version and it was cheap as chips in the 90s
i LOVE how you sarcastically say "whopping" and "kilobytes" in the same sentence.
Every christmas as a wee lad I would ask for a laptop. Every year v tech would strike again :(
My cool uncle who was really my introduction to a lot of things (like model kits and retro consoles) gave me his old the Precomputer 2000 as a kid, I was obsessed with it and seeing it there gave me a flush of memories of a device that I could ever vaguely remember, especially in the sea of VTECH products that exist. I very vaguely remember doing BASIC on it I think but I had no idea what that actually was and thought it was just another part of the games on there.
_"Like playing a Gameboy in the car, in the 80s"_
You mean the 90s.
It dropped in 1989, so for eight glorious months you could play Gameboy in the car in the 80s lol.
@@Benzona dropped in 89 in the US. We silly Europeans had to wait until 1990.
Oh right, I forgot Europe existed for a minute there lol
@@Benzona : Yeah...and we haven't gone away... Remember; the World is round: A Globe. Ignore the Flat earth lunatics. They don't count.
Europe is some 6-8 hours ahead of you as far as scientific reckoning of Time goes; yet a lot of tech and gaming stuff happens later for us in the UK/ Europe by a few months.... I guess it's down to logistics, or some sort of twaddle..... ;-)
My grandma had a PreComputer 1000 at her house for the grandkids to play with. We all loved it, didn't have the manual so we didn't know anything about what the BASIC function was. None of us had computers at home at that time, I was the only one who was school aged at that time with access to computers, but we were already in GUI territory with macs.
Had no idea that little thing was so capable though!
I wonder: did anyone ever make custom ROMs for the older VTechs?
One of the commenters here opened up a cartridge and didn't find a ROM inside it. Might be the same for many of the VTechs.
i want to. bought a 1000 and rom cart for this.
There's a guy above in the comments who seems to have done that, with a whole CP/M OS nonetheless
Perhaps they have it both ways. The carts can either provide additional memory or just tell the internal memory to do a special mode.
Your videos make me cry ... with laughter ! Keep up the good work.
'Your interaction is slowed as to like the government taking action during the pandemic' that got me. Stay safe Nostalgia Nerd ❤️
I must say, when I was around 8 years old I had my first computer, a windows 98 machine, obviously without internet, and for me the charm at those times was with for example the windows audio recorder, slowing down, speeding up and reversing recordings, drawing in MS Paint, playing games bundled with windows and playing the few other games I had. But I do remember when a friend of mine invited me to her place and she said she had a computer, so I brought my little cd organizer of games to then find out it was one of these vtech computers that she had, that day was my only experience with one of these things, it was one of the ones with a pixel matrix.
When your childhood friend says they have a computer too... :)
2:05 Smart Start - my aunt got one of those for her kids in the late 80. Was a lot of fun to play on. They lived on a farm and a traveling salesman came by selling those.
Kid: mom I want a Nintendo Switch
Mom: you have a Nintendo switch at home
20:53 the Nintendo switch at home.
I used to have the pre computer 1000. I had completely forgotten about it until seeing your video. I remember loving that thing.
I still remember my first one of these: It was a Commodore 64.
Mine was a Vic20.
Same here, at around 10 years, I first had a C16 and after two weeks, I got a C64 :) Never had that VTech s...tuff^^
This video inspired me to start collecting VTECH computers. I now currently have 8 (one is in transit as of writing this) and the collecting shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
Me: Why did he spell color wrong?
Me 10 seconds later: I'm an idiot 🤦
I learned a lot about computers and started programming on a Apple IIgs in the mid to late 90's when I was learning to read at around 4 and 5 (learning faster than others because I wanted to learn basic and assembly not long after). Sure I built IBM PC compatibles with my Dad's spare parts at his office but I always had a soft spot for the IIgs Woz Edition I got from my Uncle as a gift. I still use that computer a lot to program fun projects to take up time with. It kind of follows what you said about learning the limitations of your system and learning to work around and even with them at times.
1:35 Oh wow, the Socrates. I forgot that that was even a thing. One of my friends had one. He was that obnoxious friend who would always call you over while he's watching a movie with about 15 minutes left, or call you over to basically watch him play a video game and never give you a play.
I used to have a PreComputer 1000! So many hours spent with that thing. Thanks for the nostalgia hit!
Having been a long time graphing calculator nerd I'd say having a 8 line display should be the minimum in a kids "pre"computer toy. The TI-82, TI-83, TI-83+, TI-83+SE and the TI-89 were my introduction to programming. I would spend an incredible amount of time programming the intro to a game. Like 8hrs of using the challenging keypad and navigating all the sub menus just to make a 3-5sec intro with pieces falling into place to make up the word Tetris. To this day I still have fun writing code for my TI-83 only I ditched TI-BASIC years ago and now do everything in assembly. I was always curious about the HP series of graphing calculators. I heard they were more capable but used a different programming language than BASIC. I never knew anyone who had one though because of the stranglehold Texas Instruments has on the educational market.
I remember the "Rumbling Ranks" card game, and now I feel like playing it again thanks to this video. Thanks for the nostalgia!
i had one that im sure was from a thrift shop when i was a kid. didn't have a family computer so this and an old typewriter was all i had. that little horn noise near the end of the video brought back a lot of memories.
Man I wasn't expecting a Cillit Bang reference amidst a review of Vtech machines, but I'm bloody glad its there.
I never realised that Grandstand was the same as VTech for the UK. I used to have a WhizKid and part of me wants to get one again for nostalgia's sake.
Hi All - at 1:31 the Laser 310 was also released in Australia as the Laser 300 by local Dick Smith stores , the had sold the prior chicklet keyboard Laser 200 and the Wizard features at 1:00 complete with tricky dicky logo
Regards
George
Seeing that Pre-Computer 2000 dredged up a forgotten memory as soon as you turned it on... That start-up melody reminded me that my parents bought me one of those things!
2:03 - We had a vTech Leader2000 for Christmas '94. When I saw the box in the video I remembered the clicking sound of the keyboard myself. I typed so much on that as a kid..EDIT: 6:20 - the Bootup sound. My childhood. OMG, yes, that is the keyboard indeed.
I had the PreComputer 2000. Two of them in fact. The first one met its demise within a week of arriving at Christmas, as I was using it on the dining room table and forgot the thing had a power cord coming from it and fell over said cord, which sent the PreComputer plummeting. My friendly local retailer gladily exchanged that one for the second one (being unaware of the full circumstances that led to it becoming non-functioning). The second one also met it's demise sooner than I would have liked, when untidyness on my part led to the screen finding it's way under something heavy, and thus getting wrecked.
A really amazing machine though, that I absolutely loved using. I could have sworn you could save multiple Basic programmes though, as I used to use the Basic function to save text about things I needed to remember for whatever reason, and I don't think I'd've done that if doing so had wiped my previous programming. Anyway years later (about 7 to be precise) I began Computing A-Level and we were all asked to inform the programming lecturer what our previous programming experience was, so I wrote that I could program in Basic on the PreComputer 2000 (and didn't see any kind of irony or shame in telling him that).
I'm on a nostalgia trip. I can't find the one I had when I was kid.
The narrator was male, it was silver and blue, and the shape was rectangular with hexagonal corners. When I turned it off, the narrator would say "See ya soon!" And the closing animation was a person getting inside a tent and turning off the light. I remember it being camping/outdoor themed. 2003 ish.
I had the PowerPad as a kid and it was my first introduction to the world of BASIC. Great video!
When I was around 10 or 12, I had a Laser 128, an Apple IIe compatible computer by VTech (it was sold at Sears.) It was my first computer. Many years later, I got my young daughter one of those little toy computers with different programs on it.
My youngest two LOVED their V-Tech "computers", even after we bought them actual desktops and laptops as they got older.... They were totally hooked on these things for some reason.
My little sister had the PC notebook, 1993, and a couple of cartridges- It's still at my Mum's somewhere. It was a great little machine when we were on holiday in the car!
Back in the early 90s vtech also made "electronic dictionaries" for the Asian market, those were like tiny palm size laptops for adults / older students without any toy-like design. Great replacement for paper dictionaries, but I used it mostly to play games. Some also integrated functions such as organizer, calendar, book reader, unit converter, calculator etc. Google search vtech cv6880 you can find photo of one of the models.
OMG I had a V-Tech laptop as a kid, and hearing these sounds/voices is bringing me back so many memories! The sound that always comes to mind for me is the “boing” one from that word activity (the one that asked you to identify the past or present tense, past or present participle, etc) for when the word appeared before the dragon breathed fire on it. Also, I remember having one of those Little Smart Alphabet Desk toys too that has the exact same voice/music synthesis as the laptop I then later had.
The tiny screensaver-car cracked me up, tho! :D
I got an Alphabet desk as a christmas present in 1994 when I was about 6 but back then even an Alphabet desk
was exciting and something to be grateful for. To be honest by 2001 most homes had a computer and by then
toy computers had their day. I never saw the point in V Smile when you could have educational games on the
PS2, DS or Wii. My mum also found me a Grandstand "My first computer" in a charity shop in 1998 and I liked
it's touch pad buttons, I think the Grandstand came out in the late 80s.
I remember having a vtech printer, it used a parallel port on my vtech laptop. It was the vt 35 - I recognised it on the leaflet. I also had cartridge for spreadsheets
I had a Vtech laptop as a kid and it was fucking awesome. Brain busting puzzles, educational quizzes, extremely fun games. Really wish I could get ahold of one of those things again. It was great. Even the sound effects and little tunes they had were amazing.
The captions are amazing!