David, you really shouldn’t be embarrassed about using Planet X3 to demo a computer. At least you can be sure the game’s author’s not going to copyright strike you for it.
lol. You'd hope not. But I've seen some truly bizarre horror stories of youtubers being copyright striked for their own content because some large organisation used it (without permission - yeah. THEY use it without permission, and YOU get in trouble for it. Great huh. XD) I swear TH-cam is pretty far into corporate dystopia territory with it's whole copyright system...
@@KuraIthys People joke about [Music Company] breaking into your home and charging you money just because you yell the lyrics in shower. Well, it's not *that* far away, is it?
Thanks Matt for lending it out to David and all your effort! Got all of us a great video. Maybe call David quickly and ask him to retrobite the computer :)
"Program too big to fit in memory" appears on very old DOS versions because they treat EXE files as COM files and COM files have 64KB execution limit and I see this game has a 70+ KB EXE file.
@@grasstails9737 FreeDOS. I'm feeling a little frustrated, like with Linux in '99, but eventually retro-computing fans will say "Why wasn't I using FreeDOS?"
I had one of these back in the early 1990s! One of the things that will improve the compatibility quite a bit is replacing the buggy Sanyo BIOS with a generic Phoenix XT BIOS. My brother and I tried it, and it fixed a lot of problems with both DOS and CGA compatibility. The odd floppy drives were Chinon, and I seem to remember them working pretty well.
That was a long shot, you could brick the computer if something goes wrong. At least on those days, now you can copy the original rom with a EEPROM recorder.
@@buenasnoches2 the BIOS ROM on this machine is a removable DIP EPROM, so we physically swapped with a BIOS from a no-name XT board we had lying around. It's really hard to brick something this old.
That reminds be of growing up with the Nintendo GameCube. It had a handle on the rear, but I never used it. I always put it in a special bag that held the system, cords, some game discs, and the GBA as well. I also seem to remember the bag being an actual Nintendo product, but I'm not sure. If so, even they realized that if you're already taking everything else in a bag, why not just put the GameCube in there too.
Dear 8-Bit Guy, thanks for your channel, I have been introduced to it by my 7-yrs. old son. He can spend hours mesmerised at what you do, and this brought me back memories of when I started to learn BASIC in a ZX spectrum, Apple IIc and much later bought a 386 with my first salary, and eternally exploring how to complicate things such as installing Windows 3.1 with DRDOS 6 as the base! My son says thanks to you and that he uses your videos to actually fix computers. Cheers from London and keep up the good 8-bit job!
"The term 'IBM Compatible ' means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For example, [we] had visited Sanyo, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, early in 1983 and were shown a microcomputer that used the 8088 microprocessor, which is also used by the IBM PC. That was the only similarity between the IBM and Sanyo products. Not a single IBM program would have run on the Sanyo microcomputer without first making program changes. My Japanese hosts wanted to know what I thought of their soon-to-be-introduced product. 'To sell in America, it must be IBM compatible', I replied." - Adam Osborne, inventor of the Osborne 1
@@barthonhoff5547 The MBC-555 was marketed an MS-DOS compatible, which it is, not as an IBM PC compatible. The bios on an MBC-555 was loaded from floppy, so you couldn't boot from a disk for an IBM PC.
There were quite a few early '80s computers that were MS-DOS compatible but not IBM PC compatible, including not only Sanyos but also the Tandy 2000, DEC Rainbow, TI Professional, NEC APC, etc. The Sanyo MBC-550 series had graphics better than CGA, being able to display 640x200 graphics in 8 colors, but ran at only 3.58 MHz and was even less compatible with IBM PC software than this MBC-775. (There was an optional video card that gave it standard CGA graphics which did improve its compatibility somewhat.)
@tone167 I have an advertising flyer for Sanyo Beta video recorders, I'll have to dig it out, it might have been a UK slogan. They used to do some really good kit in the 1980s, excellent build quality and easy to service.
the "motherboard" intel chip is dated 1983...the one below it is dated 30th week 1984..so it was definatly released after that (or atleast this one built)
WacKEDmaN But that only dates this specimen or it's latest repair. There could have been thousands of identical machines rolling off the assembly line in the previous years.
I bought two of these two months ago, and they both have problems: 1. The first one has problems with the motherboard (probably shorted capacitors), and the CRT control PCB is completely gone, because it has a large crack running through it. (Which I'm working on remaking) 2. The second one has a bad power supply. The glue used to secure the large components is NOT friendly to their leads! So I'm having to find replacements. Also, I am SO glad that I saw this, because I was worried about several things that I wanted to do to bolster the capabilities of this computer.
It's weird seeing a restaurant I grew up going to in a small country city in a TH-cam video. Montana was one of the highlights of visits with my dad. Hope y'all enjoyed lunch there.
I always got impressed by how many companies introduced (or, at least, tried to introduce) their own computer, back in the 1980s, always testing different specs, keyboard layouts, key features... I'd totally go nuts working with IT in that era :P
Nothing different with modern Smartphone companies introducing their models with different elements, applications, platforms or their own App market, and all those things.
0mongo0 you mean the part that is irrelevant? Regardless of the architecture or OS, the series was launched in 1982, which is likely where the computer museum got their date.
In Rod Canion's memoir he actually mentions this incompatibility problem. He was convinced it would keep customers from buying these PC clones and made sure the Compaq Portable would run everything the PC did. I think the obscurity of devices like this Sanyo MBC-775 proved him right.
Absolutely. To anyone but a programmer, a computer is nothing without software. And them IBMs were everywhere in offices, having a cheaper or better-featured competitor that could still do everything your office machine did was a much easier sell. Who cares what software Sanyo has, does it run 1-2-3? WordPerfect?
@@watchm4ker Agreed, I can't recall how many clones I'd worked with back then that would come close to being 100% IBM-compatible but then have some weird quirk. I forget the model number, but there was a Tandy with an 80186 CPU that I almost bought on clearance before finding out its limitations on compatibility. That may have been the first PC I'd seen with 12 function keys instead of 10.
@@bobblum5973 The Tandy 2000. It was compatible to a degree, but it used an entirely different display driver. Not even text mode was truly compatible.
@@watchm4ker Okay, so I did remember the right model number! Thanks! Didn't it use non-standard cards as well? Not ISA bus card edge, I seem to recall connectors on both the card and main board, more like DIN 41612 Eurocard connectors (my experience with hardware back then is showing!).
My Dad a very similar one but it was an IBM. He was an accountant so used it at work and then brought it home. It had a 20mb hdd which we eventually doubled to 40mb. The first game we got for it was frogger. I do remember having from about 1985-6 onwards. I mean it looked nearly identical to this. It felt like it weighed a tonne to a 10 year old.
My best friend went to college in Stephenville, I've been to Montana a few times and I've been up those same rural highways very many times. Neat to see them here.
Much like many Americans think there's one "British" accent, many Northerners seem to think there is one "Southern" accent. They think this even when they know there are many different "Northern" accents. Having lived and visited a few places in the South, I can definitely say that's not true. It's not even true within a state. A northern Alabama accent is as different from a southern Alabama accent as a Boston accent is from a Chicago one. Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, etc. (including various parts) all have very different accents. Just listen to (leave politics aside) Lindsey Graham (South Carolinas) talk, then listen to George Wallace (south Alabama). I wasn't able to find good examples for famous people from other areas (so many people move around - myself included!), but you get the picture. And even in a specific area, you get some people whose accent is thicker than others for whatever reason. My son has grown up in Minnesota, but he's picked up from me and probably sounds like the most "southern" person in his school.
Whow! This was my first PC and it is still in the basement. It has an 8bit ISA slot (yes...ONE free slot :-) ) and I changed the cards all the time...8bit VGA, EGA, Hercules, MFM HDD controller, joystick controller for two joysticks with Atari/Amiga/C64 style connectors. I still also have a NEC Multisync 3D Monitor that I used for Hercules, EGA and VGA. Oh, that was a great time! I think I´ll get it out of the basement and replace the capacitors inside the power supply
Thank you very much for sharing this with us. I remember seeing one of these in a shop, in my neighborhood, back in the mid 80s. I wanted it so bad, but a friend had one, and warned me off it, due to the software limitations. Too bad the plastics of the day don't hold up as well, over time. Glad you mentioned the plastic restoration product.
Great review! Reminded me of my first desktop computer I bought in 1987, Sanyo MBC550, I was very excited when I first bought it but my bubble soon burst when I tried running anything on it! Still it taught me a lot about pc’s and salesmen 😅
Man, the nostalgia I feel when I’m watching all these videos. Most of these PC’s and technology was available to me only in 2nd hand or in elementary school. I used to take these things apart and put them back together again. It’d be awesome to hear the old whirr and buzz of an old hard drive or floppy drive.... oh man... the degaussing of the monitors tooo..... man I’m getting old!
Great adventure to explore the early days of PC. I was happy to own a c64 in 1983 and 4 years later I got my first laptop ... and I should be now around 100 of them.
The reason why the newer versions of DOS didn’t work on the machine had nothing to do with the proprietary version of DOS for the machine. The reason was the version you tried to boot from the XTIDE was of DOS 6.xx which requires a minimum of 512k of RAM. You only had 256k. if you don’t have enough memory it will say “Starting MS-DOS...” and then the whole computer locks up because it ran out of memory
Wow! I had never even heard of that computer! Great video. Also, show X3 on everything! Its a fantastic game and you should be proud to show it on every video!
The yellowing of the keyboard is due to sunlight; I recall seeing an article a few years ago about this. I've also witnessed it myself in offices where equipment was partially exposed to sunlight. That's why the underside, which is in shade, is still pristine.
Back in the 80's one of the first PC's I used was a Sanyo MBC 550/555, the training centre was annoyed that they weren't as compatble as expected. Great video which reminded me of my long forgotten past 'PC' history.
I’d be terrified at the thought of what would happen if it was accidentally dropped. 😬 Thank you for the videos! Very informative yet easy to understand 💗
Funny how back than portable tech was huge boxes with a handle but today if it does not fit in your pocket people does not consider it portable. When the OG Nintendo Switch came out I read comments like that, how it was to huge for a pocket so they dont consider it as a portable device
It was portable compared with what constituted a computer only twenty years earlier. Try fixing a handle to the whole building floor / room and lifting that! :-D
it was obviously called portable because it was 'movable' from place to place, unlike most computers of the time, not because it was easy to carry around like a modern laptop.
More like bolting a handle to a Coca-Cola vending machine. An ITX can be considered"portable " if for example a Gamecube can, which did have a handle - you might go visit someone or move it from work to home, but have the separate TV/monitor and maybe keyboard and mouse on both locations
Me and my dad had the MBC-555 when I was a kid! A stationary machine that came with a green screen and a simple buzzer instead of a speaker. It was just as incompatible, but a good-looking design! I am sure it’s still in my parents’ attic.
panchamkauns Same. Originally we had MS-DOS 1.25 and the green screen. My dad acquired another with the colour monitor and MS-DOS 2.11. I was still using the green screen one for Wordstar in 1992. Worked well and so well built.
@@aussieguy1012 not quite. A: is the boot floppy, B: is where all of your programs/the game you want to run is. you can't boot from B on these. This is why Hard disks in windows start at C:, as these machines came before a hard drive was necessary (nor did everyone always choose to use up 2mb of precious hard drive space for DOS).
I had one of those at university back in the 80s. Cost my mum about £700 at the time. Loved that luggable. Had a logitech mouse too which plugged into an expansion bus board.
I'd guess the poor compatibility has to do with its ROM BIOS implementation being insufficiently IBM compatible. It would explain why both "unbranded" MS-DOS and so many games fail to work, if they depend on BIOS functions that are poorly written or incomplete, while other games work perfectly if they rely very little/not at all on BIOS.
It also explains why Planet X3 would work perfectly, since I doubt that such a programmed-for-fun, specialist game would rely on much BIOS code at all.
Niels M H I seem to recall the following relevant factoids: 1. PC-DOS accesses some obscure machine details during startup, such as retuning the floppy controller to fit 360K on a 320K floppy. 2. DOS 2.11 had an unfortunate way to layer the DOS 1.x CP/M style and XENIX style file APIs. This may have wasted too much RAM before loading some applications, at least by default. 3. PC-DOS 2.x may not know how to get the hard drive size from the BIOS and will most certainly fail to recognize larger FAT16 disk layouts. Hard drive partition tables actually have dedicated partition type numbers for DOS 2.x compatible partitions.
The 80's was a fascinating time for computers. Some computers were specifically built for business usage because the business market was perceived as more lucrative.
Yeah, David's point at the end about Sanyo missing out on the gaming market seemed a little odd to me. Back in the 80's you'd have to be a trust fund kiddie to afford one of these. These were squarely aimed at high end business users.
Businesses were willing to pay out the money to gain a strategic advantage over other companies. That was the difference between now and today, where computers operate more as appliances.
My dad had a really old portable computer called the Kaypro. It had a similar design to this one. I remember playing games on it; there were no graphics whatsoever, but they utilized actual characters to build scenes and or text based games. It was pretty neat and at the time seemed highly advanced because of the portability!
Your game works because you are an incredible and very considerate programmer. ...And also it might help that you have access to a slew of different types of machines for testing. I imagine most off the shelf games back in the day never got near as much testing (on different machines) as Planet X3. Anyways, great video as usual!
Ant that is my biggest beef with EVs... 150mi trip should not be something to consider, not alone worry. I did almost 400mi yesterday (and I am driving such amounts every other week), big part of it off highways... I really hope there will be 700mi batteries soon.
IMHO the fact that Planet X3 works on this computer is a testament to your programming skills! No platform-specific hacks, nothing fancy, just good old code that works and somehow runs FAST even on very old machines! :-)
Ahem. (puts on best nerdy voice) I think you'll find that the keys have stayed white because they are not ABS. They are probably made of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). 😁
Not really. The reason is the keycaps are considered too small to require flame retardant in the plastic. Flame retardants are generally required in plastic pieces over a certain weight, 2 g IIRC, regardless if they were ABS or PBT. The yellowing is predominantly due to the highly reactive bromine coming out of the brominated flame retardants. By the way, BFRs are toxic and bioaccumulative. I would wear gloves when retrobriting as long term exposure can't be good for you.
OH MY GO YOU AREEEEEEEEEEEEEE, im in arlington! iv watchd like prolly half of all your videos on 8-bit keys so far. slowly coming to this realization was like an added layer of lore to this series.
What a shame that thing wasn't 100% compatible -- they would've sold a ton of them if it had been, I'd bet. But as it is, that computer is just a footnote in the history of computing -- one which virtually no one remembers... Excellent video -- thanks for showing us this piece of PC history. And thanks to Matt for letting you borrow it so we could all see it.
I really don't understand why people expect instant results with the progression of technology like this. Release an electric car, and expect it to function like a gas car on day one is just unreasonable. You know what you're buying into when you buy an electric car, and you do so knowing the current limitations. There will be a day when charging stations outnumber gas pumps.
@@Damien.D when youve been driving for hours on end sont you want to get out, go to the bathroom, and get some food and drink anyways? In that time you'll have another few hours worth of power anyways
I had one of these...NEW! :) I picked it up in the late '80s at a surplus store, marked way down. Put a "6-pack" card in it and had a blast. Games, including MS Flight simulator... and even ran an early version of AutoCAD on it. (had to swap floppys back and forth to run FS and AutoCAD. At the time I ran it on DOS 3.31 that I'd lifted from my Compaq work machine. Really ran in to very few compatibility issues. Loved the "pinch" floppy drives. I replaced one with a 40m harddrive and controller.... there was room for an additional ISA slot on the bottom bussboard... I had to solder in another ISA socket, canted at a bit of an angle, to get the drive controller board in there and still have my other cards. I got a lot of use out of that machine. I gave it to a friend years later after upgrading... I wish I'd held onto it now of course!
@@wv9mm I still find great deals through recyclers and thrift stores, but if you want something specific, then it's too expensive. I just picked up a working Compaq Portable 286 for $20 and EGA card for it for $35. Just gotta pound the ground. Although If I lived near Computer Reset, I'd have spent all my money there!
You know the videos aren't broadcast live, right? You can watch it at a time that's convenient and appropriate - you don't have to interrupt what you're doing.
Quite an accomplishment to write such an advanced game that works so well on an old computer that won't even run games created at that time. Well done!
Liked and shared. My first machine was a discarded Telecheck machine with an 80/86 processor and no O.S., just a slot for a 5.25" Floppy. A buddy (I.T. with border patrol for 30 years) with a lot more expertise than I brought me a floppy with Q-Edit, D&D, and Empire; the Wargame of the Century on it. B&W all the way. Now my machine is an 8 core with 12GigaRAM and I use it to write novels, import hand drawn illustrations, play games, and more. About Ultima 3. One of my friends was so excited by Ultima (from the earliest days) that he invested in Lord British's new effort . . . can't remember the name. That game never really took off, so he's a firm fan of Fallout 76 now.
David, you really shouldn’t be embarrassed about using Planet X3 to demo a computer. At least you can be sure the game’s author’s not going to copyright strike you for it.
@@KillThad that's the point.
lol. You'd hope not. But I've seen some truly bizarre horror stories of youtubers being copyright striked for their own content because some large organisation used it (without permission - yeah. THEY use it without permission, and YOU get in trouble for it. Great huh. XD)
I swear TH-cam is pretty far into corporate dystopia territory with it's whole copyright system...
@@KuraIthys People joke about [Music Company] breaking into your home and charging you money just because you yell the lyrics in shower. Well, it's not *that* far away, is it?
but david will sue himself
ErtasVideos LOL! 😄
This was a great opportunity and I had a great time. Thanks again David!
Thanks Matt for lending it out to David and all your effort! Got all of us a great video. Maybe call David quickly and ask him to retrobite the computer :)
@@helge000 No problem I was more than happy to get it to him. I may at some point attempt to retrobrite the PC, or have it done.
Why didn't you let him retrobright it? Cheers.
Thanks Matt. You got some really interesting tech here.
hey :) thank YOU for making this happen by reaching out to him and also letting him use, review it
"Program too big to fit in memory" appears on very old DOS versions because they treat EXE files as COM files and COM files have 64KB execution limit and I see this game has a 70+ KB EXE file.
I forgot about that. Very good explanation.
MSDOS 6.22!!! MSDOS 6.22!!and 7.00
@@grasstails9737 FreeDOS. I'm feeling a little frustrated, like with Linux in '99, but eventually retro-computing fans will say "Why wasn't I using FreeDOS?"
@@squirlmy i dont even remember the purpose/meaning/point of my comment anymore
I had one of these back in the early 1990s! One of the things that will improve the compatibility quite a bit is replacing the buggy Sanyo BIOS with a generic Phoenix XT BIOS. My brother and I tried it, and it fixed a lot of problems with both DOS and CGA compatibility.
The odd floppy drives were Chinon, and I seem to remember them working pretty well.
I NEED TO TRY THIS.
@@Kazuo1G lol i just read ur original comment and i thought that i should tell you about this
I thought that too, maybe even a BIOS from Quadtel would suffice as that has all the setup options integrated into the ROM.
That was a long shot, you could brick the computer if something goes wrong. At least on those days, now you can copy the original rom with a EEPROM recorder.
@@buenasnoches2 the BIOS ROM on this machine is a removable DIP EPROM, so we physically swapped with a BIOS from a no-name XT board we had lying around. It's really hard to brick something this old.
A cartoon from the period has the caption: "Sure it's portable! See the handle?"
That reminds be of growing up with the Nintendo GameCube. It had a handle on the rear, but I never used it. I always put it in a special bag that held the system, cords, some game discs, and the GBA as well. I also seem to remember the bag being an actual Nintendo product, but I'm not sure. If so, even they realized that if you're already taking everything else in a bag, why not just put the GameCube in there too.
Hence the term used at the time, "luggable". 😮💪
AVGN: Portable. Yeah, my ass is portable.
It's all relative.
The fact that you can get Planet X3 to play on that thing when most other titles wouldn't is a testament to your programming skills! Pretty cool.
Dear 8-Bit Guy, thanks for your channel, I have been introduced to it by my 7-yrs. old son. He can spend hours mesmerised at what you do, and this brought me back memories of when I started to learn BASIC in a ZX spectrum, Apple IIc and much later bought a 386 with my first salary, and eternally exploring how to complicate things such as installing Windows 3.1 with DRDOS 6 as the base! My son says thanks to you and that he uses your videos to actually fix computers. Cheers from London and keep up the good 8-bit job!
That has to be the most satisfying disk mechanism ever. The toaster-like shot of the disk when ejecting is perfect.
It still doesn't beat the Sharp X68000 drives which have an Apple-like motorized eject on a slot loading 5,25" floppy drive.
The NEC APC had 8" floppies with a similar door mechanism. You don't want to get in the way of one of those when it came flying out
VWestlife would find the ejection satisfying.
"The term 'IBM Compatible ' means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For example, [we] had visited Sanyo, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, early in 1983 and were shown a microcomputer that used the 8088 microprocessor, which is also used by the IBM PC. That was the only similarity between the IBM and Sanyo products. Not a single IBM program would have run on the Sanyo microcomputer without first making program changes. My Japanese hosts wanted to know what I thought of their soon-to-be-introduced product.
'To sell in America, it must be IBM compatible', I replied." - Adam Osborne, inventor of the Osborne 1
As soon as I saw “Sanyo”, I knew it was maybe 80% compatible. That was a dark time in DOS-land!
CandyGramForMongo absolutely! I had the Sanyo MBC-555 with 128kb, incompatible with almost everything. Memory expansion was nearly impossible.
Sanyo went on to make some weirdly cool MSX computers in the 80s though...
@@barthonhoff5547 The MBC-555 was marketed an MS-DOS compatible, which it is, not as an IBM PC compatible. The bios on an MBC-555 was loaded from floppy, so you couldn't boot from a disk for an IBM PC.
There were quite a few early '80s computers that were MS-DOS compatible but not IBM PC compatible, including not only Sanyos but also the Tandy 2000, DEC Rainbow, TI Professional, NEC APC, etc. The Sanyo MBC-550 series had graphics better than CGA, being able to display 640x200 graphics in 8 colors, but ran at only 3.58 MHz and was even less compatible with IBM PC software than this MBC-775. (There was an optional video card that gave it standard CGA graphics which did improve its compatibility somewhat.)
@@0mongo0 I still have mine in working condition. Is it worth anything?
"See Sanyo Then Decide" they used to say. In this case though, I would probably have decided on something else.
@tone167 I have an advertising flyer for Sanyo Beta video recorders, I'll have to dig it out, it might have been a UK slogan. They used to do some really good kit in the 1980s, excellent build quality and easy to service.
@tone167
Wang Cares!
His shirt should say "Size DOS Matter"
the "motherboard" intel chip is dated 1983...the one below it is dated 30th week 1984..so it was definatly released after that (or atleast this one built)
I was waiting for David to look at various dates after he opened it up.
It seems he rushed a little to finish the video, but still it was quite good.
WacKEDmaN But that only dates this specimen or it's latest repair. There could have been thousands of identical machines rolling off the assembly line in the previous years.
The only video that the compact doesn’t get restored
I bought two of these two months ago, and they both have problems:
1. The first one has problems with the motherboard (probably shorted capacitors), and the CRT control PCB is completely gone, because it has a large crack running through it. (Which I'm working on remaking)
2. The second one has a bad power supply. The glue used to secure the large components is NOT friendly to their leads! So I'm having to find replacements.
Also, I am SO glad that I saw this, because I was worried about several things that I wanted to do to bolster the capabilities of this computer.
As a Mobile Suit Gundam fan, i can safely say: if two machines don't work, patch them together in something that works! (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b
@T-Squared Since you have two computers with different problems, why don't you build a working one from both?
@@enzoperruccio Because I'm interested in giving one to a particular collector who is looking for one.
Like put and led panel and a pi in it? 😜 j/k!
@@Kazuo1G give em the leftovers and a link to a "how to repair" channel. Lol
Nice collaboration! Thanks guys!
It's weird seeing a restaurant I grew up going to in a small country city in a TH-cam video. Montana was one of the highlights of visits with my dad. Hope y'all enjoyed lunch there.
I’ve eaten at that Montana in Stephenville. Been in that town several times. My son attended Tarleton State last year. Neat little Texas town.
I just had a bad day, and seeing this vide give me a huge smile. Thanks, david!
I love how beautifully sharp this computer’s built in sexy CRT is, which seems crazy since it’s an old colour shadow mask.
I always got impressed by how many companies introduced (or, at least, tried to introduce) their own computer, back in the 1980s, always testing different specs, keyboard layouts, key features... I'd totally go nuts working with IT in that era :P
well, Android scene looks similar
Nothing different with modern Smartphone companies introducing their models with different elements, applications, platforms or their own App market, and all those things.
Looks like the Sanyo MBC **series** was launched in 1982, with the 775 model coming out a couple years later.
The Sanyo MBC series started with a bunch of CP/M computers.
0mongo0 and?
@@TravelingSolo And the Sanyo MBC series started with a bunch of CP/M computers. What part didn't you understand?
0mongo0 you mean the part that is irrelevant? Regardless of the architecture or OS, the series was launched in 1982, which is likely where the computer museum got their date.
0mongo0 there were also DOS compatible machines launched the same year.
Knowing that you game works on non standard DOS system says a lot about your programming skills. Well done 👍 Great video as always.
Loved seeing the whole story with this, another great video!
In Rod Canion's memoir he actually mentions this incompatibility problem. He was convinced it would keep customers from buying these PC clones and made sure the Compaq Portable would run everything the PC did. I think the obscurity of devices like this Sanyo MBC-775 proved him right.
Absolutely. To anyone but a programmer, a computer is nothing without software. And them IBMs were everywhere in offices, having a cheaper or better-featured competitor that could still do everything your office machine did was a much easier sell. Who cares what software Sanyo has, does it run 1-2-3? WordPerfect?
@@watchm4ker Yes, the 775 runs Lotus 1-2-3. And likely WP.
@@watchm4ker Agreed, I can't recall how many clones I'd worked with back then that would come close to being 100% IBM-compatible but then have some weird quirk. I forget the model number, but there was a Tandy with an 80186 CPU that I almost bought on clearance before finding out its limitations on compatibility. That may have been the first PC I'd seen with 12 function keys instead of 10.
@@bobblum5973 The Tandy 2000. It was compatible to a degree, but it used an entirely different display driver. Not even text mode was truly compatible.
@@watchm4ker Okay, so I did remember the right model number! Thanks!
Didn't it use non-standard cards as well? Not ISA bus card edge, I seem to recall connectors on both the card and main board, more like DIN 41612 Eurocard connectors (my experience with hardware back then is showing!).
That intro song gets me every time. So distinct and positive. It reminds you that some great content is on the way.
This video is freaking excellent, such great production and writing. Subbed!
I can always bet on an 8 Bit Guy video being entertaining and informative. Thanks for your hard work on all your content.
My Dad a very similar one but it was an IBM. He was an accountant so used it at work and then brought it home.
It had a 20mb hdd which we eventually doubled to 40mb.
The first game we got for it was frogger.
I do remember having from about 1985-6 onwards.
I mean it looked nearly identical to this.
It felt like it weighed a tonne to a 10 year old.
You mean the IBM PC Portable?
God, I miss luggables with full-sized motherboards
My best friend went to college in Stephenville, I've been to Montana a few times and I've been up those same rural highways very many times. Neat to see them here.
His accent pops out when he's driving.
Southern accent?
"Seventy-fawve" 😎
Am I the only one thinking, So he finally bought the Tesla...!
He bought a Tesla
Much like many Americans think there's one "British" accent, many Northerners seem to think there is one "Southern" accent. They think this even when they know there are many different "Northern" accents. Having lived and visited a few places in the South, I can definitely say that's not true. It's not even true within a state. A northern Alabama accent is as different from a southern Alabama accent as a Boston accent is from a Chicago one. Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, etc. (including various parts) all have very different accents. Just listen to (leave politics aside) Lindsey Graham (South Carolinas) talk, then listen to George Wallace
(south Alabama). I wasn't able to find good examples for famous people from other areas (so many people move around - myself included!), but you get the picture. And even in a specific area, you get some people whose accent is thicker than others for whatever reason. My son has grown up in Minnesota, but he's picked up from me and probably sounds like the most "southern" person in his school.
Whow! This was my first PC and it is still in the basement. It has an 8bit ISA slot (yes...ONE free slot :-) ) and I changed the cards all the time...8bit VGA, EGA, Hercules, MFM HDD controller, joystick controller for two joysticks with Atari/Amiga/C64 style connectors. I still also have a NEC Multisync 3D Monitor that I used for Hercules, EGA and VGA. Oh, that was a great time! I think I´ll get it out of the basement and replace the capacitors inside the power supply
Oh dear, EDLIN... Never thought I'd see that again.
SA.COM: Sanyo Assembler?
Thank you very much for sharing this with us. I remember seeing one of these in a shop, in my neighborhood, back in the mid 80s. I wanted it so bad, but a friend had one, and warned me off it, due to the software limitations. Too bad the plastics of the day don't hold up as well, over time. Glad you mentioned the plastic restoration product.
Next video: Running Planet X3 on a literal toaster.
And makes it run... Warning that the game may not have compatibility with poptarts and cannot be placed to maximum toast.
Is planet X3 new doom?
Great review! Reminded me of my first desktop computer I bought in 1987, Sanyo MBC550, I was very excited when I first bought it but my bubble soon burst when I tried running anything on it! Still it taught me a lot about pc’s and salesmen 😅
I literally screamed "OH YES!" when I saw your new video! On my recommendation!!!! Love your videos!
David, I had a sanyo mbc-550. It too ran dos 2.11. Your review is spot on and actually explains quite a bit. Thank you.
"It has quite a few jumper wires on the back!"
Yeah, as Dave the EEV Blogger would say, "bodge wires"!
Everyone in electronics called them bodge wires long before Dave did.
The Sanyo has nothing compared to an Olivetti motherboard.
Yay another portable!
I love seeing all of these different porables, they are probably my favorites to see from that time period.
I know it's going to be a good day, when the first thing I see after I wake up is a notification of a new 8-bit Guy video!
Man, the nostalgia I feel when I’m watching all these videos. Most of these PC’s and technology was available to me only in 2nd hand or in elementary school. I used to take these things apart and put them back together again. It’d be awesome to hear the old whirr and buzz of an old hard drive or floppy drive.... oh man... the degaussing of the monitors tooo..... man I’m getting old!
*LGR wants to know your location*
I bet he knows it already though
Clint has visited before, I think multiple times.
I think LGR and this guy work together
Correct. A lot of youtubers in this community are friends, 8-BG and LGR included.
Great adventure to explore the early days of PC. I was happy to own a c64 in 1983 and 4 years later I got my first laptop ... and I should be now around 100 of them.
Since this is a Japanese computer, it is not unlikely, that the North America / International release came months or years after the release in Japan.
It's always a pleasure to visit your channel and learn every time a little more of computer history.
Greetings from Chile.
"We'll see why when I take it apart"
Greg: "WHATTT???"
I grew up with a Sanyo MBC 1000 and it's good to see this brand being talked about.
The reason why the newer versions of DOS didn’t work on the machine had nothing to do with the proprietary version of DOS for the machine. The reason was the version you tried to boot from the XTIDE was of DOS 6.xx which requires a minimum of 512k of RAM. You only had 256k. if you don’t have enough memory it will say “Starting MS-DOS...” and then the whole computer locks up because it ran out of memory
Wow! I had never even heard of that computer! Great video. Also, show X3 on everything! Its a fantastic game and you should be proud to show it on every video!
All this time and I never knew you were a Tesla owner! 👀
Great presentation. Gets the old computer juices going. Thanks.
The 8-Bit guy NOT retro brighting something?!
UNHEARD OF!
jk love you
Inconceivable!
@@halcyonoutlander2105 that actually made me laugh, good job.
The yellowing of the keyboard is due to sunlight; I recall seeing an article a few years ago about this. I've also witnessed it myself in offices where equipment was partially exposed to sunlight. That's why the underside, which is in shade, is still pristine.
I'd like to see someone bring that to starbucks to do some work.
Hell, you could build a Starbucks INSIDE that thing.
@tone167 Vegan body builders use soy protein, so they could lift that just fine.
Back in the 80's one of the first PC's I used was a Sanyo MBC 550/555, the training centre was annoyed that they weren't as compatble as expected. Great video which reminded me of my long forgotten past 'PC' history.
That's awesome! I live in Stephenville!
I’d be terrified at the thought of what would happen if it was accidentally dropped. 😬 Thank you for the videos! Very informative yet easy to understand 💗
It’s amazing what they called portable back in the day. It’s like bolting on a hand strap to an ITX tower and calling it portable
Funny how back than portable tech was huge boxes with a handle but today if it does not fit in your pocket people does not consider it portable.
When the OG Nintendo Switch came out I read comments like that, how it was to huge for a pocket so they dont consider it as a portable device
It was portable compared with what constituted a computer only twenty years earlier. Try fixing a handle to the whole building floor / room and lifting that! :-D
People in the know called them "luggable" instead.
it was obviously called portable because it was 'movable' from place to place, unlike most computers of the time, not because it was easy to carry around like a modern laptop.
More like bolting a handle to a Coca-Cola vending machine. An ITX can be considered"portable " if for example a Gamecube can, which did have a handle - you might go visit someone or move it from work to home, but have the separate TV/monitor and maybe keyboard and mouse on both locations
Me and my dad had the MBC-555 when I was a kid! A stationary machine that came with a green screen and a simple buzzer instead of a speaker. It was just as incompatible, but a good-looking design! I am sure it’s still in my parents’ attic.
Keep hold of it... whilst the Sanyo MBC range are noted for not being very compatible, there aren't many of them left in circulation.
panchamkauns Same. Originally we had MS-DOS 1.25 and the green screen. My dad acquired another with the colour monitor and MS-DOS 2.11. I was still using the green screen one for Wordstar in 1992. Worked well and so well built.
I can't help but think "Manx Beard Club" seeing that model name... :P
Terrific, David. Thank you for reviewing this interesting machine. Your findings go far to explain the machine’s obscurity. Roger in Wisconsin
Ahhhh the first thing you do on those old computers:
A:\
A:\ b:
B:\
My crystal ball is telling me you were intoduced to computers by your community. 😂
Does that change the bootable drive?
@@aussieguy1012 not quite. A: is the boot floppy, B: is where all of your programs/the game you want to run is. you can't boot from B on these. This is why Hard disks in windows start at C:, as these machines came before a hard drive was necessary (nor did everyone always choose to use up 2mb of precious hard drive space for DOS).
@Timmity3 That's only because people don't have 2nd floppy drive these days. Usually not even 1.
@Timmity3
Well stick more than one bootable USB-sticks in your PC at same time, and see what happens.
I had one of those at university back in the 80s. Cost my mum about £700 at the time. Loved that luggable. Had a logitech mouse too which plugged into an expansion bus board.
You took US 377 to Stephenville and back. (I am from Great State of Texas)
I picked up one one a few months ago. Love it, mine works great.
I'd guess the poor compatibility has to do with its ROM BIOS implementation being insufficiently IBM compatible. It would explain why both "unbranded" MS-DOS and so many games fail to work, if they depend on BIOS functions that are poorly written or incomplete, while other games work perfectly if they rely very little/not at all on BIOS.
It also explains why Planet X3 would work perfectly, since I doubt that such a programmed-for-fun, specialist game would rely on much BIOS code at all.
maybe if you do a BIOS chip mod, for a regular compatible one, it would had work with most software.
Replacing the BIOS might work if the system is otherwise fully standard ISA architecture, yeah.
Niels M H I seem to recall the following relevant factoids:
1. PC-DOS accesses some obscure machine details during startup, such as retuning the floppy controller to fit 360K on a 320K floppy.
2. DOS 2.11 had an unfortunate way to layer the DOS 1.x CP/M style and XENIX style file APIs. This may have wasted too much RAM before loading some applications, at least by default.
3. PC-DOS 2.x may not know how to get the hard drive size from the BIOS and will most certainly fail to recognize larger FAT16 disk layouts. Hard drive partition tables actually have dedicated partition type numbers for DOS 2.x compatible partitions.
I have one of these and mine runs msdos 6.20 just fine.
So close to 1 million subscribers. I've enjoyed watching this channel for years since about 250K. Great job reaching this milestone 😁
The 80's was a fascinating time for computers. Some computers were specifically built for business usage because the business market was perceived as more lucrative.
that still holds partially true today. consider workstations vs gaming PCs
@@vinesthemonkey Yeah, fair point.
Yeah, David's point at the end about Sanyo missing out on the gaming market seemed a little odd to me. Back in the 80's you'd have to be a trust fund kiddie to afford one of these. These were squarely aimed at high end business users.
Businesses were willing to pay out the money to gain a strategic advantage over other companies. That was the difference between now and today, where computers operate more as appliances.
That's because in those days the PC WAS more lucrative in the business market.
The PC only became a genuine gaming machine until half a decade later.
My dad had a really old portable computer called the Kaypro. It had a similar design to this one. I remember playing games on it; there were no graphics whatsoever, but they utilized actual characters to build scenes and or text based games. It was pretty neat and at the time seemed highly advanced because of the portability!
Your game works because you are an incredible and very considerate programmer. ...And also it might help that you have access to a slew of different types of machines for testing. I imagine most off the shelf games back in the day never got near as much testing (on different machines) as Planet X3.
Anyways, great video as usual!
Honestly, I like 8bitguy because of that. Demoing with X3, which allows you to sort of compare the machines if you want to.
Ant that is my biggest beef with EVs... 150mi trip should not be something to consider, not alone worry. I did almost 400mi yesterday (and I am driving such amounts every other week), big part of it off highways... I really hope there will be 700mi batteries soon.
Thank you for the retrobrite techniques, i learned a lot and my NES looks like new now.
So that computer is interesting in my opinion.
IMHO the fact that Planet X3 works on this computer is a testament to your programming skills! No platform-specific hacks, nothing fancy, just good old code that works and somehow runs FAST even on very old machines! :-)
Ahem. (puts on best nerdy voice) I think you'll find that the keys have stayed white because they are not ABS. They are probably made of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). 😁
thanks nerd!
Not really. The reason is the keycaps are considered too small to require flame retardant in the plastic. Flame retardants are generally required in plastic pieces over a certain weight, 2 g IIRC, regardless if they were ABS or PBT. The yellowing is predominantly due to the highly reactive bromine coming out of the brominated flame retardants. By the way, BFRs are toxic and bioaccumulative. I would wear gloves when retrobriting as long term exposure can't be good for you.
OH MY GO YOU AREEEEEEEEEEEEEE, im in arlington! iv watchd like prolly half of all your videos on 8-bit keys so far. slowly coming to this realization was like an added layer of lore to this series.
I'll bet that they put the color screen in here as a "Oooh! Shiiiiiny!" feature.
What a shame that thing wasn't 100% compatible -- they would've sold a ton of them if it had been, I'd bet. But as it is, that computer is just a footnote in the history of computing -- one which virtually no one remembers... Excellent video -- thanks for showing us this piece of PC history. And thanks to Matt for letting you borrow it so we could all see it.
Sounds like somebody's excited about their new car. Lol
Congrats man, those Teslas are nice.
Except you need to split your roadtrip in half and let the other guy do the rest for you, but, hey, sure, it's the future...
@@Damien.D There was a time when gas stations weren't available either, and people said all they had to do was let their horse feed on grass :P
Next video: David yanks out the infotainment system and replaces it with a Commodore 64.
I really don't understand why people expect instant results with the progression of technology like this. Release an electric car, and expect it to function like a gas car on day one is just unreasonable. You know what you're buying into when you buy an electric car, and you do so knowing the current limitations. There will be a day when charging stations outnumber gas pumps.
@@Damien.D when youve been driving for hours on end sont you want to get out, go to the bathroom, and get some food and drink anyways? In that time you'll have another few hours worth of power anyways
I had one of these...NEW! :) I picked it up in the late '80s at a surplus store, marked way down. Put a "6-pack" card in it and had a blast. Games, including MS Flight simulator... and even ran an early version of AutoCAD on it. (had to swap floppys back and forth to run FS and AutoCAD. At the time I ran it on DOS 3.31 that I'd lifted from my Compaq work machine. Really ran in to very few compatibility issues.
Loved the "pinch" floppy drives. I replaced one with a 40m harddrive and controller.... there was room for an additional ISA slot on the bottom bussboard... I had to solder in another ISA socket, canted at a bit of an angle, to get the drive controller board in there and still have my other cards.
I got a lot of use out of that machine. I gave it to a friend years later after upgrading... I wish I'd held onto it now of course!
At this point, I think you can put a handle on any vintage tech and call it "portable".
Although it may not be very practical, it is very cool to see an old machine still functioning at all.
Great, now I'll NEVER be able to get one of these! 😭
@@wv9mm I still find great deals through recyclers and thrift stores, but if you want something specific, then it's too expensive. I just picked up a working Compaq Portable 286 for $20 and EGA card for it for $35. Just gotta pound the ground. Although If I lived near Computer Reset, I'd have spent all my money there!
@@wv9mm Unless you acquire your stuff from people clearing out their homes and not using Ebay etc.
I hope to be picking up a kaypro 2 and a Compaq portable for $90 each this week...I'm pretty sure one can find such things for even less.
Glad to see a new video! thank you David!
When I saw the notifications I stopped to do all I was doing at *IMMEDIATLY* putted the video
You know the videos aren't broadcast live, right?
You can watch it at a time that's convenient and appropriate - you don't have to interrupt what you're doing.
Well, I care more about his videos than the thing I was doing:
I was only watching an Intro of a game
@@gwishart I think a video about a computer is more important than a video of an intro of a game...
Quite an accomplishment to write such an advanced game that works so well on an old computer that won't even run games created at that time. Well done!
When did you get a Tesla? And where's that video? :-p
I think as his previous car videos suggested he wanted to get a Tesla likely asap.
I saw that logo and was like "tesla?"
It's probably a 1982 Tesla.
If it's a Tesla then he probably got it cheap because it needed Retrobrighting!
The 8-bit guy drives a Tesla and asks for the financial support on Patreon. Well good luck with the free money.
@David, congratulations in your new Tesla! 🏎 Well deserved purchase sir.
Planet X3 to Commander X16, like if you want this
Almost to 1 million subs! Congrats David! You deserve it!
At first, I brushed the notification off, then I looked at the notification, never tapped so fast
Just read it as "fapped", and thought, boy, that's what I call a fan!
@@kpanic23 wtf is wrong with you
You’re at the road to 1,000,000! Good Job! Keep On Making Great Videos!
Who else got the "Cake" commercial?
:(
You think cake runs on this sanyo?? Lmao
@@JaredConnell
Hahahah!
TimothyTim PSP no ads here
@@Khloya69
TH-cam red?
TimothyTim PSP The cake is a lie
Liked and shared.
My first machine was a discarded Telecheck machine with an 80/86 processor and no O.S., just a slot for a 5.25" Floppy. A buddy (I.T. with border patrol for 30 years) with a lot more expertise than I brought me a floppy with Q-Edit, D&D, and Empire; the Wargame of the Century on it. B&W all the way. Now my machine is an 8 core with 12GigaRAM and I use it to write novels, import hand drawn illustrations, play games, and more.
About Ultima 3. One of my friends was so excited by Ultima (from the earliest days) that he invested in Lord British's new effort . . . can't remember the name. That game never really took off, so he's a firm fan of Fallout 76 now.
somebody got a tesla
1million soon 😋👌🏼 cool computer retro
"There's no charging stations for my electric car" Such a 1st world problem...
Your videos are so informative. Thanks. I'm sure you will get to 1 Million subscribers soon.