Exactly. Interesting, that they do not start with year zero (in this case 1926 is year one, the start of Showa). See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_era_name
This was my first computer. My grandmother found it on clearance for $25 for my Christmas gift in 1983 when I was in the second grade. The book that came with it was amazing and taught me a lot. Eventually to a Commodore 64 in the fourth grade and then IBM compatible (Amstrad 1512) in sixth grade. By junior high I was taking on paid programming jobs and had a real part-time job at age 14 doing dBase. All thanks to my grandmother and the Tomy Tutor!
Look at the pictures of the kids on the marketing material. 95% of home computers were used by one demographic of kids, white boys. Utter fantasy that these were going to be widespread used as computers, even in the white boys demographic.
The date you see is of the old Japanese "Showa Era" format. They used to go by the year of the current dynasty, so in this case it is year 58 of the Showa dynasty, which started in 1926. The year in western terms is 1983, so the date listed is July 18, 1983.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere Emperor Hirohito started his reign on Dec. 25, 1926, so the first year (Showa 1), was very short, and the second year started Jan. 1, 1927. In practice, a certain Japanese symbol unique to the era preceded the year number to avoid confusion, but I guess it was unnecessary or the symbol was not supported by the date code printing machine.
@@haweater1555 That's strange that the Emperor's reign goes by the calendar year rather than by the actual start of his reign. Thanks for the explanation, though.
The noise on cassette playback is probably from a dirty record/play switch. Open it up and spray some contact cleaner in the switch (it's on the circuit board and mechanically linked to the Record button). Or a quick fix is to put in a blank tape and repeatedly press Record, then Stop, then Record, then Stop, etc. a bunch of times to try to scrape off the oxidation just by mechanically operating the switch.
He did a terrible job! The cassette doesn't match the computer. That's the problem with retrobrite. It's just bleaching. Worse, it is a temporary fix at best. Only now it will never match because the computer has been bleached too white.
@@bonzainews It looked 1000 times better when it was only cleaned and not bleached. There was virtually no yellowing. It should not have been retrobrited. Basically retrobriting should never be done except under limited circumstances and especially NOT something so rare.
@@clemensgraetz Not really true today. Back then you had to know about HARWARE and SOFTWARE. Today everyone 8 to 80 really only needs to know about the apps they use. Outside of PC gamers (of all ages) whow build (or at leat customize) their own PCs, I think Generation X and early Millennials on average held the edge on knowing both the applications AND the "innards". Boomers had to learn it as adults, Xers (and early Millennials) learned it as kids and teens, in real time when this shit was all new and in great flux, and for the most part you HAD to code if you wanted software. I'm am in no way "dissing" younger folk, It's just that they were born and grew up in a time where thanks to advanced OSs and software, Shit just WORKS. An analogy: I am a late Boomer, I of course grew up with radio ALWAYS being around. My GRANDFATHER knew more ABOUT radio as he was there when it was born and you had to basically "roll your own". Sure, I knew more of the newer music and stations, but he knew how it ACTUALLY worked! My 20 something nieces and nephews still get me to do any hardware upgrades beyond anything plugged in via USB as they wouldn't "dare" open their PC! I go to THEM when I need advice on the latest app i'm trying to figure out.
I was a heavy TI-99 4A user back in the day and found one of these Tomy Tutors on close-out at a local mall somewhere around 1986-87. I paid under $30 for the computer and a handful of carts. I was fascinated by its similarity to the TI-99 and hoped I could make it perform a few tricks for the user group but lack of storage put the kibosh on anything more than just a demo. I sold it to a lucky new owner a few years later. Thanks for sharing this VERY niche machine with your audience.
It's so satisfying to watch 8-Bit Guy clean, I can only imagine how satisfying it must be for him to actually put in the work and get the results he does.
What surprises me most is that I owned a Tomy Tutor, an apparently rare computer that even the 8-bit guy has never heard of! Sadly it was now stashed somewhere, or already chucked away.
I had one too. It went to the local Auction house with other junk during spring cleaning in the early 90s. I never had any carts for it or tape drive so I couldn't save anything.
We have a section on the Atariage forum dedicated to the Tomy Tutor and comparable systems. If you are interested in technical details and homebrew multicarts then checkout: atariage.com/forums/forum/345-tomy-tutor-cc40-992-998-cortex-990-mini/
This was probably the 80's computer equivalent of Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. I can imagine how many kids got disappointed on the Christmas morning, 83.
I've been waiting for you to do this video. The Tomy Tutor was my very first computer. I got it for Christmas as a kid. All I had was the computer. No tape deck, no games. But it is how I learned to program, because that's all I could do with it, and then lose it all when powered off.
I worked at Leons in Rochester NY a HUGE computer and typewriter store. Leon sold everything, Apple, Atari, commodore, Sinclair, Kaypro, TI. He bought a dozen of these and we never sold one. Sent them back to the distributor.
When I first looked at this I actually thought it was a toy rather than a full-fledged computer. Having "tutor" in the name and it appearing to have a very education-oriented type of advertising didn't exactly help matters in that. In fact, the set as a whole makes me think of a worn out 1st grade classroom set piece, the kind that the teacher's been using for a few years and looks completely ravaged (the cartridge being marked on in crayon especially). That said, with how dirty it looked it came out great once it was all restored. This was an interesting thing to learn about considering I hadn't heard of it before you made the video. Good stuff!
I felt the same. I was really wondering why he would even bother restoring this but it turns out its not a bad little machine at all. Little kid me back when this came out would have hated it. I was such a computer snob from the earliest 8bits believing only Commodore and Sinclair could make something worth owning.
When I first saw the thumbnail for this video, I thought this "educational computer-thing" was something that V-TECH typically made. The high retail price surprised me, thought it would be some cheap thing sold at Sears.
@@ClayMann Just don't watch the 8 Bit Guys Sinclair review. Of course the best things about the two computers you mention were the affordable price and the huge Games Catalogue. @Haweater Somehow I doubt if they sold many of these at full price. Back around 1983 every toy company thought they had to produce a computer. Mattel and Mettoy I'm looking at you.
It is the highlight of my day to watch a new episode from the 8 Bit Guy! He's got a wonderful personality, always curious and adventurous. The videos are professionally produced and I appreciate his beautiful commentary during the sections where he handles the equipment. To call him a "TH-camr" is a disservice to his content. These are documentaries. Brilliant!
I actually had this thing for a while. I didn't have any cartridges for it, and when I showed my mom that all it could do was the built in graphics program she took it back.
I lived in Japan for 15 years so I took a look at the name "Tomy". In Japanese it is "トミー" or in Roman letters Tomii. My guess is that that would look too weird so they "Westernized" the name to Tomy (same as with the pronunciation and spelling of Sony rather than Sonii).
I had one of these in college and wish I had kept it, but at the time it was near impossible to find peripherals for it so i sold it. It was being sold at a Radio Shack in one of the malls in the Tampa Bay area. I ended up getting a C64 and then an Amiga later on. The Amiga was years ahead of its time and served me well.
Watching your videos is like resetting my nervous system and my mind just focuses 100% of its attention to the video. Not only are your videos educational and entertaining, they're also therapeutic and relaxing. Thank you for what you do! I have been watching you for years now and I just wanted you to know how much you have helped me.
The 5-pin DIN connector was not that unpopular for tape devices. It was the standard for reel-to-reel and cassette decks in East Germany and our own KC85 computer line used that connector for the tape drive as well.
Early microcomputers often used a DIN-5 for cassette I/O (e.g. most TRS-80s, original IBM PC), but its pinout was not compatible with the DIN-5 on European audio equipment. With no need for stereo, some pins were used to control the cassette motor (remote pause), and the computer supplied microphone-level rather than line-level audio, intended to connect via a breakout cable to Ear/Mic/Remote jacks on a typical shoebox cassette deck.
My '70s era Sansui stereo amplifier has a 5-pin DIN jack for connecting to a tape deck, one cable for left and right line-level inputs and outputs. Obviously the Tomy Tutor wouldn't use that pinout, but I'm curious what it is set up to use. As others have said, other computers used it in some fashion.
Thank you for the repair and review! My mom bought me one of those on one of those late night home shopping shows. I am almost positive it was sold for a lot cheaper than $300. Now I know one of the reasons! Good memories though. It was my first experience with programming. Thanks 👍
@Derek he didn’t destroy any computer. This is destroying a computer: th-cam.com/video/ptFTEQZBXr8/w-d-xo.html What he did was just a attempt to restore it but accidentally broke it (from the inside, from the outside it still looks perfectly fine.) and that also doesn’t change the fact that it was already broken so it really didn’t matter that he made it even worse. It’s just like breaking a already broken glass and then getting a lot of people mad about it.
5:17 ... i know that as standart din 5 connector , it was used mostly(and not only) in audio equipment in Eastern Europe in the 70s 80s eaven in the early 90s
@@user-xnopyt Standard DIN tape/aux ports are in/out with the middle pin being ground, one side in, the other out. So it allows both recording from the radio and playback through the radio speakers. 5-pin uses the two extra pins for the other stereo channel. Everything is line level, except microphone and record player connections, which are straight from the physical sensor.
That tape connector is a 5 pin DIN connector and quite common on old reel to reel, cassette decks and receivers here in Europe later ones just had RCA connectors.
I love the dramatic background music that started playing when he started taking it apart and kinda reminds me of a documentary type TV show you might see on the history channel
On the off chance you haven't gotten this comment and weren't aware, the methanol in denatured alcohol can be absorbed through skin and will cause vision deterioration over time. Might be a concern since you are exposed more than average it seems. Might want to wear gloves. Apologies for the probable repeated comment.
But is he using _denatured_ alcohol? Ethanol (grain alcohol) and Isopropyl alcohol are perfectly safe to use for cleaning in any concentration. Of course, methanol is terribly bad for you.
@@TechBench He is. You can see the label briefly, and he uses it on other videos as well. It could also be that he has a brand that uses something other than methanol for the denaturing which doesn't soak through skin.
@@alexmcd378 it has always bugged me. Like, everyone else uses isopropyl alcohol (including myself). I don't know why he uses denatured alcohol, IPA works much better for his needs
@@luansm Well, I'm using denatured as well right now, because IPA is hard to find during the pandemic, and when you do find it you can usually only buy one bottle. But it's temporary for me.
I love how when you speed up the video while you're scrubbing components with the brush that it immediately sounds like you're using a power tool instead of doing it by hand. lol
If the intro music ever changes ... I will break down and cry! 😞 Then I'll start on online petition to have it put back to its rightful place at the start of these videos. 😁
TH-cam for some reason recommended your channel to me despite me not knowing anything about computers or anything discussed here but I still enjoyed watching the restoration!
The 80s were such a weird time. I guess so many companies were caught up in the microcomputer boom that even toy companies like Tomy just assumed any new computer they made would snap up a chunk of the market. Anyway, nice job restoring it. Can't wait to see what comes next after all those sneak peeks of everything you've been working on!
Great video! nice to see this rare and underrated computer here. There are now good multi cards, including adapters for the expansion port. A small scene too. I am currently developing some games
@@johndododoe1411 Yes, still 8-bit. But the better cpu the tms9995 has build in ram useful for the WP, also the onchip timer are cool. Not forget the new instructions
@@SonOfFurzehatt In Sarah's case it's definitely pur-SELL...I'm old enough to have watched Real People back in the late 1970s (don't judge, we only had 4 channels back then, lol)
THEY HAVE MR.DO! ON THIS THING?! Crap now I need one. I'm a Mr.Do! collector. I thought I knew about all the versions of that game. No one ever said "Oh yeah there's also a Tomy Tutor version"!
When you're retrobrighting some piece of plastic that starts floating like the case for the tape recorder, I believe a shot glass or something equally heavy and transparent would work better.
I thought of this too, however it likely wouldn't make much of a difference because glass is fairly opaque to UV light. A better solution would be to hot glue or tie a heavy nut to the part with a length of thin fishing line.
Note that the carbon contact restorer he _didn't_ end up using is also a CAIG product, like DeoxIT. Back in the early 80s at work we used their Cramolin product, which contained TF solvents, now banned. DeoxIT is actually multiple products, they have one that is safe for conductive plastic controls.
The 5-pin din style tape connector was very standard at that time in Europe. It was used on stereo cassette recorders and carried both playback and record in stereo. So it was equivalent to four RCA connectors at a time.
"99 percent sure it will short something out" I love how David is taking that one in stride while most dudes on youtube would be crying about the comments on the net. WE LOVE YOU DAVID!
@@ryballs4569 Do you really want the comments flooded with idiots that didn't even watch the video ranting about how he destroyed an already broken computer that they didn't even know existed until some crazy person on twitter told them to be mad about it?
He didn't take it well, initially. Like, at all. But he's taking the right approach now. And it's addressing one of the more reasonable things he did in that video. Honestly, there are going to be dremel jokes for the rest of his TH-cam career. It's unavoidable. And those are even partly tongue in cheek, as it's directed toward his audience, not him. Might as well try to take it stride.
i gotta admit..love how good you clean stuff up... easy look 30 years younger! that tomy had really seen some sticky fingers over the years! them carts need a retro-bright... use them to experiment with some sort of gel you can paint on and put under uv light!
Regarding the polarity of an adapter: If you cannot find an adapter with the correct polarity, then pick the best possible match for an adapter.. And.. Cut the cord on the output side of the adapter. Splice the output cord in reverse of how it was originally; i.e. positive to negative and vice versa. Some solder, shrink tubing, & skill will result in a cable looking really good an most importantly, a perfectly functional adapter.
Or better yet, if you can find a power brick that isn't welded closed, open it, desolder the cable, flip it, resolder it, and snap the case back together, and have something that looks pretty much stock without shrink wrap on the cable 👍
Thanks for this "Back To The Roots" Episode. It is sometimes good to know, that looking back to the beginning brings warm memories. Now I am looking forward to your new studio! Greetings from Northern Germany.
and not only soviet, i've seen quite a bit of west german hifi stuff equipped only with DIN and no RCA. The standart lived a bit longer in europe, seems like it. But damn right, it stuck around in post-soviet space for way too long. We still keep a 1993 boombox my granma recieved as payment (she worked at resistor factory and in the early 90s it didn't have money for wages but stocked goods had to go somewhere) and it has nothing but those DIN connectors. I ended up soldering a DIN to 3,5 mm cable for transfering stuff and boy, those connectors are such a pain to solder.
In 8-Bit Unboxing from September 2017, you got a strange cartridge that was actually for an educational kids' computer from 1984 called the Teach-a-tron. You should get ahold of that computer and do an episode about it. As I write this, there actually is one on eBay.
@referral madness You would need to ask nvidia for that. But it does save a lot of time on the CPU side, as you need to update a tilemap instead of individual pixels, and give you sprites (albeit only 4 per scanline) for essentially free.
@referral madness It doesn't execute any code, so it would be best to just call it a screen buffer with sprites. There were similar circuits back then like the VIC II or the NES PPU. But it isn't always easy to tell the difference - the Atari 800 chips handled fancy display lists that almost felt like code while the Amiga chips they evolved into actually could execute limited code.
The "58" in the date of manufacture on the sticker is the Japanese era number. It is not the (Christian Era)AD. The "58" is the year Showa 58. In other words, it refers to the year 1983. Even Japanese people sometimes get confused between the Japanese era number and the(Christian Era) AD.
Love the Homebrew Computer Club shirt. Videos like yours are like a home cooked meal for us nerds that remember the 1980s computers. I thought I knew a lot of computer history, but never heard of the Tomy Tutor. Everyone in any technical field hates those type of ribbon cables. HP is notorious for using them in their laptops.
I also pronounce it Tommy. I’m a child of the 80s I’m sure we all pronounced it like that. Another excellent video, I love the look at these unique machines.
CRAZY. I had this computer as a kid. Don't even remember asking for it. Like you said. It was something my parents wanted us to have. Glad we got a Commodore 64 shortly after.
Awesome reference... but fortunately, these machines _can_ be disassembled for cleaning and repair. Given Johnny 5's limited hardware, I suspect his sentience could possibly be attributed to tin whiskers acting as neurons (see _Whisker (metallurgy)_ on Wikipedia), but that's just a hypothesis.
Too bad we couldn't hear the music. I love that album! I remember when it came out in the mid '90s. I still have my CD, and the album is still to listen to. You made those cartridges shine!
Your Retro brightening is a lot more successful now than back in the days when you were spreading cream and wrapping them up in plastic hahaha, the thing looks new! I am sure he will proudly display it.
@@paco3523 He misprounounced the last name of the advertising spokeswoman. (I was about to make the same comment since I remember seeing her on TV back in the 80's also.) It seems that it's going to be a thing that he accidentally mispronounces names that he's only ever seen in print before. :D
Several people holding a grudge from the semi-recent rare (potentially) computer video judging by the downvotes. At least, I don't see what's in this particular video that would generate downvotes {shrug}. Anyway, I've never actually encountered this computer before though I am well aware of the Tomy brand (and did know how to pronounce it- I guess unlike David I must have heard the name spoken in my youth).
Since this thing is Japanese, I'm going to guess that 58.7.18 means July 18th, Shōwa 58, which corresponds to 1983.
Email him about this if you haven't.
Exactly. Interesting, that they do not start with year zero (in this case 1926 is year one, the start of Showa). See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_era_name
Whoa, you made me realize how long the Showa Era (i.e. the reigning period of said Emperor) really is
Correct as I was born in Showa 49 (1974)
That's my guess as well.
This was my first computer. My grandmother found it on clearance for $25 for my Christmas gift in 1983 when I was in the second grade. The book that came with it was amazing and taught me a lot. Eventually to a Commodore 64 in the fourth grade and then IBM compatible (Amstrad 1512) in sixth grade. By junior high I was taking on paid programming jobs and had a real part-time job at age 14 doing dBase. All thanks to my grandmother and the Tomy Tutor!
New computer every 2 years?
@@paco3523 lol he rich rich
I think $25 would have been a good deal depending on your BASIC skills
That's awesome! Never underestimate the power of any technology to motivate and inspire.
Look at the pictures of the kids on the marketing material. 95% of home computers were used by one demographic of kids, white boys. Utter fantasy that these were going to be widespread used as computers, even in the white boys demographic.
The date you see is of the old Japanese "Showa Era" format. They used to go by the year of the current dynasty, so in this case it is year 58 of the Showa dynasty, which started in 1926. The year in western terms is 1983, so the date listed is July 18, 1983.
Wouldn't that make it 1984 (1926 + 58)?
@@JustWasted3HoursHere Emperor Hirohito started his reign on Dec. 25, 1926, so the first year (Showa 1), was very short, and the second year started Jan. 1, 1927. In practice, a certain Japanese symbol unique to the era preceded the year number to avoid confusion, but I guess it was unnecessary or the symbol was not supported by the date code printing machine.
@@haweater1555 That's strange that the Emperor's reign goes by the calendar year rather than by the actual start of his reign. Thanks for the explanation, though.
Really glad someone else caught that it was Showa dating.
It's simultaneously disappointing and a relief when someone else has already explained what I though I could explain for everyone. 😜
The noise on cassette playback is probably from a dirty record/play switch. Open it up and spray some contact cleaner in the switch (it's on the circuit board and mechanically linked to the Record button). Or a quick fix is to put in a blank tape and repeatedly press Record, then Stop, then Record, then Stop, etc. a bunch of times to try to scrape off the oxidation just by mechanically operating the switch.
@Karl Jansen don't worry, I ask him
@Karl Jansen Indeed don't worry, I also ask him.
@Karl Jansen I asked
@Karl Jansen I don't remember anyone asking for your opinion on his opinion 😁
@Karl Jansen I also ask him.
Seeing the transition of cleaning and retro-brighting are almost as satisfying as seeing this almost 40yr old computer in action. Great vid as always!
I guess I'm not the only audio head to watch the 8 bit guy. 👍
He did a terrible job! The cassette doesn't match the computer. That's the problem with retrobrite. It's just bleaching. Worse, it is a temporary fix at best. Only now it will never match because the computer has been bleached too white.
@@christo930 cry me a river... it look 100x better than before...
@@bonzainews It looked 1000 times better when it was only cleaned and not bleached. There was virtually no yellowing. It should not have been retrobrited. Basically retrobriting should never be done except under limited circumstances and especially NOT something so rare.
This brings back memories. I remembered this as if it was yesterday.
"no parental guidance necessary" the kids were probably the ones explaining the computer to the adults.
lmao true
*are still
kids learn faster than adults
So true! 😂
@@clemensgraetz Not really true today. Back then you had to know about HARWARE and SOFTWARE. Today everyone 8 to 80 really only needs to know about the apps they use. Outside of PC gamers (of all ages) whow build (or at leat customize) their own PCs, I think Generation X and early Millennials on average held the edge on knowing both the applications AND the "innards". Boomers had to learn it as adults, Xers (and early Millennials) learned it as kids and teens, in real time when this shit was all new and in great flux, and for the most part you HAD to code if you wanted software. I'm am in no way "dissing" younger folk, It's just that they were born and grew up in a time where thanks to advanced OSs and software, Shit just WORKS. An analogy: I am a late Boomer, I of course grew up with radio ALWAYS being around. My GRANDFATHER knew more ABOUT radio as he was there when it was born and you had to basically "roll your own". Sure, I knew more of the newer music and stations, but he knew how it ACTUALLY worked! My 20 something nieces and nephews still get me to do any hardware upgrades beyond anything plugged in via USB as they wouldn't "dare" open their PC! I go to THEM when I need advice on the latest app i'm trying to figure out.
Pretty sure the date is YY-M-DD with 58 meaning year 58 of the Showa era. That would make it 18th July 1983.
The 𝙡𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙤𝙥 of 1983
Was going to say the same thing!
So, it's a Showa, not a Growa.
This is correct
Lol showa era.
I was a heavy TI-99 4A user back in the day and found one of these Tomy Tutors on close-out at a local mall somewhere around 1986-87. I paid under $30 for the computer and a handful of carts. I was fascinated by its similarity to the TI-99 and hoped I could make it perform a few tricks for the user group but lack of storage put the kibosh on anything more than just a demo. I sold it to a lucky new owner a few years later. Thanks for sharing this VERY niche machine with your audience.
It's so satisfying to watch 8-Bit Guy clean, I can only imagine how satisfying it must be for him to actually put in the work and get the results he does.
In the 1980's some kids were playing with some toy guns that shoot plastic pellets. 35 years later some random guy finds one of the pellets.
When is Planet X4 coming out for the Tomy Tutor?
On 99 tapes.
Are you mad?!
Wait,what?!?!?!?!
@Tazer-Works c h u n g u s
I'm waiting for the 8 Bit Guy branded (or at least endorsed) range of brushes, wipes, cleaning tools and of course, solvents
What surprises me most is that I owned a Tomy Tutor, an apparently rare computer that even the 8-bit guy has never heard of! Sadly it was now stashed somewhere, or already chucked away.
I still have mine, with all 10 North American games (plus seven of the Japan-only games)
I had one too. It went to the local Auction house with other junk during spring cleaning in the early 90s. I never had any carts for it or tape drive so I couldn't save anything.
We have a section on the Atariage forum dedicated to the Tomy Tutor and comparable systems. If you are interested in technical details and homebrew multicarts then checkout: atariage.com/forums/forum/345-tomy-tutor-cc40-992-998-cortex-990-mini/
This was probably the 80's computer equivalent of Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. I can imagine how many kids got disappointed on the Christmas morning, 83.
I've been waiting for you to do this video. The Tomy Tutor was my very first computer. I got it for Christmas as a kid. All I had was the computer. No tape deck, no games. But it is how I learned to program, because that's all I could do with it, and then lose it all when powered off.
I worked at Leons in Rochester NY a HUGE computer and typewriter store. Leon sold everything, Apple, Atari, commodore, Sinclair, Kaypro, TI. He bought a dozen of these and we never sold one. Sent them back to the distributor.
When I first looked at this I actually thought it was a toy rather than a full-fledged computer. Having "tutor" in the name and it appearing to have a very education-oriented type of advertising didn't exactly help matters in that. In fact, the set as a whole makes me think of a worn out 1st grade classroom set piece, the kind that the teacher's been using for a few years and looks completely ravaged (the cartridge being marked on in crayon especially). That said, with how dirty it looked it came out great once it was all restored. This was an interesting thing to learn about considering I hadn't heard of it before you made the video. Good stuff!
@TutorialsByKevin Patreon early release. They get to watch the video a few hours before everybody else.
I felt the same. I was really wondering why he would even bother restoring this but it turns out its not a bad little machine at all. Little kid me back when this came out would have hated it. I was such a computer snob from the earliest 8bits believing only Commodore and Sinclair could make something worth owning.
When I first saw the thumbnail for this video, I thought this "educational computer-thing" was something that V-TECH typically made. The high retail price surprised me, thought it would be some cheap thing sold at Sears.
@@ClayMann Just don't watch the 8 Bit Guys Sinclair review. Of course the best things about the two computers you mention were the affordable price and the huge Games Catalogue. @Haweater Somehow I doubt if they sold many of these at full price. Back around 1983 every toy company thought they had to produce a computer. Mattel and Mettoy I'm looking at you.
It is the highlight of my day to watch a new episode from the 8 Bit Guy! He's got a wonderful personality, always curious and adventurous. The videos are professionally produced and I appreciate his beautiful commentary during the sections where he handles the equipment. To call him a "TH-camr" is a disservice to his content. These are documentaries. Brilliant!
I love this zoom-in timelapses of cleaning. Weirdly satisfying...
Wish I could clean that fast! Guess this is The 8-Bit Guy’s first To-my! :D. Interesting video as always. Looking forward to My Second Studio.
The retro brighting process is my fave bit lol. So satisfying!
I actually had this thing for a while. I didn't have any cartridges for it, and when I showed my mom that all it could do was the built in graphics program she took it back.
How disappointing.
I lived in Japan for 15 years so I took a look at the name "Tomy". In Japanese it is "トミー" or in Roman letters Tomii. My guess is that that would look too weird so they "Westernized" the name to Tomy (same as with the pronunciation and spelling of Sony rather than Sonii).
@TutorialsByKevin Maybe patreon supporters can get the link earlier
Yes, I know the Romanji names are sometimes different from the actual Western-languages Latin-alphabet names.
Can someone tell me what are the 2 pronunciations? I heard the same word
@@OrloxPhoenix Toe Mee
In the modern TakaraTomy ad's (there was a merger) they say it like Tommy.
I had one of these in college and wish I had kept it, but at the time it was near impossible to find peripherals for it so i sold it. It was being sold at a Radio Shack in one of the malls in the Tampa Bay area. I ended up getting a C64 and then an Amiga later on. The Amiga was years ahead of its time and served me well.
"Maybe I just haven't found the any key yet"
[Execute uncontrollable laughter]
Seinfeld laugh track ENGAGED
Maybe ctrl, or pig up?
[click]
>PowerOS.init.EXE.Drive8
>PowerOS.initEXE2.2.execute.mode
>PowerOS.execute.d8.uncontrollable_laughter
>OUTPUT = >console<
>console
The Simpsons reference?
Watching your videos is like resetting my nervous system and my mind just focuses 100% of its attention to the video. Not only are your videos educational and entertaining, they're also therapeutic and relaxing. Thank you for what you do! I have been watching you for years now and I just wanted you to know how much you have helped me.
8:00 "Now time for alcohol" I thought for a second this video was about to get crazy.
Me when my first zoom call of the day starts
😂
Maybe if it was Big Clive 😉
That fast forward cleaning was the absolute coolest part
"I have been sent some Huggies!"
-The 8-Bit Guy
YTP fodder right here
Hmm
There are grown men that wear them and act as a baby! true story lol
Proceeds to open the box from the bottom...
@@NathanChisholm041 Well this channel is about a grown man playing with toys so...
The time lapse of the case cleaning might be the most satisfying thing I've seen on you tube
The 5-pin DIN connector was not that unpopular for tape devices. It was the standard for reel-to-reel and cassette decks in East Germany and our own KC85 computer line used that connector for the tape drive as well.
Early microcomputers often used a DIN-5 for cassette I/O (e.g. most TRS-80s, original IBM PC), but its pinout was not compatible with the DIN-5 on European audio equipment. With no need for stereo, some pins were used to control the cassette motor (remote pause), and the computer supplied microphone-level rather than line-level audio, intended to connect via a breakout cable to Ear/Mic/Remote jacks on a typical shoebox cassette deck.
@@jordanhazen7761 Haha, beat me to the TRS-80. My model 3 has one. Still works. It would probably survive a nuclear EMP.
My '70s era Sansui stereo amplifier has a 5-pin DIN jack for connecting to a tape deck, one cable for left and right line-level inputs and outputs. Obviously the Tomy Tutor wouldn't use that pinout, but I'm curious what it is set up to use. As others have said, other computers used it in some fashion.
my Sony reel to reel and most cassette deck got it. is realy superior to RCA one cable for do alls. super handy.
Thank you for the repair and review! My mom bought me one of those on one of those late night home shopping shows. I am almost positive it was sold for a lot cheaper than $300. Now I know one of the reasons! Good memories though. It was my first experience with programming. Thanks 👍
I love your videos, man!
Me too
+ that means me 2
@Derek can't agree more
@Derek he didn’t destroy any computer. This is destroying a computer: th-cam.com/video/ptFTEQZBXr8/w-d-xo.html
What he did was just a attempt to restore it but accidentally broke it (from the inside, from the outside it still looks perfectly fine.) and that also doesn’t change the fact that it was already broken so it really didn’t matter that he made it even worse. It’s just like breaking a already broken glass and then getting a lot of people mad about it.
@Derek th-cam.com/video/SYopBjwhF1M/w-d-xo.html comments open on this one. Quite a bullish response from him in here.
7:59... "now time for alcohol" - oh, you meant for the case... oh well...
It's the only way to deal with Techmoan stalking you
5:17 ... i know that as standart din 5 connector , it was used mostly(and not only) in audio equipment in Eastern Europe in the 70s 80s eaven in the early 90s
Also normal audio connection in western europe
Yup pretty standard cassette port for MSX computers and the TRS80 if I recall.
All of my TRS-80 stuff used that connector. Also the early IBM PC.
That DIN-5 is even used in my 1968 USSR radio as AUX port
@@user-xnopyt Standard DIN tape/aux ports are in/out with the middle pin being ground, one side in, the other out. So it allows both recording from the radio and playback through the radio speakers. 5-pin uses the two extra pins for the other stereo channel. Everything is line level, except microphone and record player connections, which are straight from the physical sensor.
I have no idea why but when I'm anxious or down, just watching this channel really helps.
The connector for the tape recorder was actually pretty standard for connecting tape machines! Also often used in hifi equipment
That windex swipe on the keyboard was the single most satisfying thing I’ve seen today.
I always love a good retro-brighting episode.
That tape connector is a 5 pin DIN connector and quite common on old reel to reel, cassette decks and receivers here in Europe later ones just had RCA connectors.
"Now time for alcohol"
Me too, thanks
that's me at friday afternoon
I think he meant isopropyl alcohol.
When I get home from work
When it's that dirty you definitely need some alcohols
I don't trink alcoholololoa shhdhsa
I love the dramatic background music that started playing when he started taking it apart and kinda reminds me of a documentary type TV show you might see on the history channel
On the off chance you haven't gotten this comment and weren't aware, the methanol in denatured alcohol can be absorbed through skin and will cause vision deterioration over time. Might be a concern since you are exposed more than average it seems. Might want to wear gloves. Apologies for the probable repeated comment.
wow, I didn't know this
But is he using _denatured_ alcohol? Ethanol (grain alcohol) and Isopropyl alcohol are perfectly safe to use for cleaning in any concentration. Of course, methanol is terribly bad for you.
@@TechBench He is. You can see the label briefly, and he uses it on other videos as well. It could also be that he has a brand that uses something other than methanol for the denaturing which doesn't soak through skin.
@@alexmcd378 it has always bugged me. Like, everyone else uses isopropyl alcohol (including myself). I don't know why he uses denatured alcohol, IPA works much better for his needs
@@luansm Well, I'm using denatured as well right now, because IPA is hard to find during the pandemic, and when you do find it you can usually only buy one bottle. But it's temporary for me.
Whenever an 8-Bit Guy video pops up in my subscription box I immediately open it and like before watching.
I love how when you speed up the video while you're scrubbing components with the brush that it immediately sounds like you're using a power tool instead of doing it by hand. lol
5:13 Here in Europe this type of connector was very common for audio, so no big surprise to see it here...
Honestly, the sound of the intro alone brings so much joy to me. I love this show.
If the intro music ever changes ... I will break down and cry! 😞
Then I'll start on online petition to have it put back to its rightful place at the start of these videos. 😁
Sometimes I go back and play the intro again because it just makes me so happy.
I like the old into more. Almost nostalgic.
TH-cam for some reason recommended your channel to me despite me not knowing anything about computers or anything discussed here but I still enjoyed watching the restoration!
I had one of these back in the day. TOMY now has all of Ertls diecast toys and all made in China versus Iowa :(
The 80s were such a weird time. I guess so many companies were caught up in the microcomputer boom that even toy companies like Tomy just assumed any new computer they made would snap up a chunk of the market. Anyway, nice job restoring it. Can't wait to see what comes next after all those sneak peeks of everything you've been working on!
Great video! nice to see this rare and underrated computer here. There are now good multi cards, including adapters for the expansion port. A small scene too. I am currently developing some games
How much does it internally differ from the 99/4 ? Does it still treat the address lines of the 8-bit memories as a memory mapped I/O port?
@@johndododoe1411 Yes, still 8-bit. But the better cpu the tms9995 has build in ram useful for the WP, also the onchip timer are cool. Not forget the new instructions
Good video! I do remember this system! It is so much like the TI-99 4/A. I don't remember seeing them in the stores, back in the 80's!
Sarah Purcell, rhymes with Duracell. pur SELL not 'pursle.'
In Japan, the company is known as Takara Tomy.
I can't speak for Sarah Purcell, but the correct pronunciation of the English classical composer is 'Pursle'.
It’s only been Takara-Tomy since the two companies merged in 2006 😉
@@SonOfFurzehatt In Sarah's case it's definitely pur-SELL...I'm old enough to have watched Real People back in the late 1970s (don't judge, we only had 4 channels back then, lol)
@@chrisfreemesser5707 Real People was the TH-cam of the 1970s.
Give David a break. Like me, he only speaks Texan.
weird I know but I love when you speed up the recoding to show the dirt being removed with the brush, lol. Great job
There is hope, TH-cam has you on my homepage
This was a respectful restoration done well. I enjoyed this video. Never heard David mention Atari so much. Lol.
0:11 the rarest computer of all time,
the huggies diapers
Lol
The Tomy Tutor looks like such a cool computer and this is one of if not the best video on it on TH-cam.
It is a cool little system.
THEY HAVE MR.DO! ON THIS THING?! Crap now I need one. I'm a Mr.Do! collector. I thought I knew about all the versions of that game. No one ever said "Oh yeah there's also a Tomy Tutor version"!
The Cleaning is my favorite part in those videos! its so cool to see those mystical old machines come back to life and shine brightly!
Yes, but the system being new to you means you're the best to review it, since you don't have nostalgia for it. :P
Your restoration videos brings me calmness in difficult times. Thank you!
When you're retrobrighting some piece of plastic that starts floating like the case for the tape recorder, I believe a shot glass or something equally heavy and transparent would work better.
I thought of this too, however it likely wouldn't make much of a difference because glass is fairly opaque to UV light. A better solution would be to hot glue or tie a heavy nut to the part with a length of thin fishing line.
@@h2o2go141 Yeah, that sounds like a good option.
I don't know why, but these videos are so satisfying to watch.
Adrian Black from Adrian's Digital Basement would be proud of your use of deoxit
Note that the carbon contact restorer he _didn't_ end up using is also a CAIG product, like DeoxIT. Back in the early 80s at work we used their Cramolin product, which contained TF solvents, now banned. DeoxIT is actually multiple products, they have one that is safe for conductive plastic controls.
@@bobblum5973 TIL
Thanks, David. I had to go watch the music video for ‘Another Night’ before I could finish the video. I haven’t heard that in years. What a banger!
0:20 damn I was getting ready for a diaper review
The 5-pin din style tape connector was very standard at that time in Europe. It was used on stereo cassette recorders and carried both playback and record in stereo. So it was equivalent to four RCA connectors at a time.
"99 percent sure it will short something out" I love how David is taking that one in stride while most dudes on youtube would be crying about the comments on the net. WE LOVE YOU DAVID!
Disabling comments was not exactly taking it in his stride..
@@ryballs4569 Also true.
@@ryballs4569 Do you really want the comments flooded with idiots that didn't even watch the video ranting about how he destroyed an already broken computer that they didn't even know existed until some crazy person on twitter told them to be mad about it?
I love David , Am I the only one brainstorming cartridge adapter with fusible traces for each pin to test other carts
He didn't take it well, initially. Like, at all. But he's taking the right approach now.
And it's addressing one of the more reasonable things he did in that video.
Honestly, there are going to be dremel jokes for the rest of his TH-cam career. It's unavoidable. And those are even partly tongue in cheek, as it's directed toward his audience, not him. Might as well try to take it stride.
i gotta admit..love how good you clean stuff up... easy look 30 years younger!
that tomy had really seen some sticky fingers over the years!
them carts need a retro-bright... use them to experiment with some sort of gel you can paint on and put under uv light!
17:32 "I will not even think of powering it on because I´m 99% sure something will short out" Nice :)
Really enjoyed this. Looking forward to seeing more about your new studio and field trips! Thanks for sharing your entertaining videos.
Regarding the polarity of an adapter:
If you cannot find an adapter with the correct polarity, then pick the best possible match for an adapter..
And..
Cut the cord on the output side of the adapter.
Splice the output cord in reverse of how it was originally; i.e. positive to negative and vice versa.
Some solder, shrink tubing, & skill will result in a cable looking really good an most importantly, a perfectly functional adapter.
I did that for my mother's casio keyboard.
Or better yet, if you can find a power brick that isn't welded closed, open it, desolder the cable, flip it, resolder it, and snap the case back together, and have something that looks pretty much stock without shrink wrap on the cable 👍
A lot of eighties stuff (if not all) uses centre negative DC plugs. Surprised that 8 bit guy doesn't have a stack of compatible adapters.
Thanks for this "Back To The Roots" Episode. It is sometimes good to know, that looking back to the beginning brings warm memories. Now I am looking forward to your new studio! Greetings from Northern Germany.
"Strange use o that connector"
All of the soviet audio equipment: Am I a joke to you?
(to David) "you have bee accused of anti Soviet behavior"
and not only soviet, i've seen quite a bit of west german hifi stuff equipped only with DIN and no RCA. The standart lived a bit longer in europe, seems like it. But damn right, it stuck around in post-soviet space for way too long. We still keep a 1993 boombox my granma recieved as payment (she worked at resistor factory and in the early 90s it didn't have money for wages but stocked goods had to go somewhere) and it has nothing but those DIN connectors. I ended up soldering a DIN to 3,5 mm cable for transfering stuff and boy, those connectors are such a pain to solder.
Well, what a machine.
So much out there. Always interesting to dive into the history of these things.
17:25 As someone in my early 20s I can tell you that you forgot to cut out the high pitched noise in pretty much every shot with CRT in it :D
I love this channel, cant wait to see how the new studio turns out. Keep up the great work.
In 8-Bit Unboxing from September 2017, you got a strange cartridge that was actually for an educational kids' computer from 1984 called the Teach-a-tron. You should get ahold of that computer and do an episode about it. As I write this, there actually is one on eBay.
Great video Dave! We missed you!
Don't forget that the Intellivision had a 16-bit CPU- the General Instrument CP-1600. It was probably the only consumer product to use that CPU.
I love the sound effects for the cleaning segments. Such dedication!
Ah the 9918, can do many, many things. hardware sprites, tiles, refresh DRAM so you don't need extra circuitry... but the color red aint one.
@referral madness You would need to ask nvidia for that. But it does save a lot of time on the CPU side, as you need to update a tilemap instead of individual pixels, and give you sprites (albeit only 4 per scanline) for essentially free.
@referral madness It doesn't execute any code, so it would be best to just call it a screen buffer with sprites. There were similar circuits back then like the VIC II or the NES PPU. But it isn't always easy to tell the difference - the Atari 800 chips handled fancy display lists that almost felt like code while the Amiga chips they evolved into actually could execute limited code.
Great video, I liked how you mentioned what cleaning products you used.
The "58" in the date of manufacture on the sticker is the Japanese era number.
It is not the (Christian Era)AD.
The "58" is the year Showa 58.
In other words, it refers to the year 1983.
Even Japanese people sometimes get confused between the Japanese era number and the(Christian Era) AD.
estern calendar year→ AD
Love the Homebrew Computer Club shirt. Videos like yours are like a home cooked meal for us nerds that remember the 1980s computers. I thought I knew a lot of computer history, but never heard of the Tomy Tutor. Everyone in any technical field hates those type of ribbon cables. HP is notorious for using them in their laptops.
11:46 I'd love to hear the backstory behind this
I also pronounce it Tommy. I’m a child of the 80s I’m sure we all pronounced it like that. Another excellent video, I love the look at these unique machines.
Never knew Tomy Tutor was an actual computer. I had, and still have, a little kid's toy, Tomy Tutor Play Computer.
CRAZY. I had this computer as a kid. Don't even remember asking for it. Like you said. It was something my parents wanted us to have. Glad we got a Commodore 64 shortly after.
"I have been sent some huggies."
-David Murrey "The 8-Bit Guy" 2020
"Murray
Thank you for highlighting the circuitry-related cleaning products (the oxide remover and the membrane switch restoration goo)
8 bit guy:"lets go ahead and start disassembling"
Johnny 5:"NO DISSASSEMBLE!!"
Awesome reference... but fortunately, these machines _can_ be disassembled for cleaning and repair. Given Johnny 5's limited hardware, I suspect his sentience could possibly be attributed to tin whiskers acting as neurons (see _Whisker (metallurgy)_ on Wikipedia), but that's just a hypothesis.
Disassemble??!? Dead!!
or... like the French pantomime guy:
"Ohhh noo! I am ehh dammajjjjj" 😂
Johnny would be really happy to have an qualified friend refurbish after a few decades!
After the hack job from the last video? You bet.
Too bad we couldn't hear the music. I love that album! I remember when it came out in the mid '90s. I still have my CD, and the album is still to listen to. You made those cartridges shine!
3:00 I can’t believe the plague of reality TV has been around since the early 80s.
It's been around much longer than that. _Candid Camera_ started airing in the '40s.
Your Retro brightening is a lot more successful now than back in the days when you were spreading cream and wrapping them up in plastic hahaha, the thing looks new! I am sure he will proudly display it.
"pur-SELL"
That's just going to keep happening.
What does that mean?
@@paco3523 He misprounounced the last name of the advertising spokeswoman. (I was about to make the same comment since I remember seeing her on TV back in the 80's also.)
It seems that it's going to be a thing that he accidentally mispronounces names that he's only ever seen in print before. :D
Same. I used to love that show when i was a kid. :/
I really enjoyed my Tony Tutor Play Computer as a little kid. Never realized they made this. The boot screen is so similar to the TI-99!
Several people holding a grudge from the semi-recent rare (potentially) computer video judging by the downvotes. At least, I don't see what's in this particular video that would generate downvotes {shrug}.
Anyway, I've never actually encountered this computer before though I am well aware of the Tomy brand (and did know how to pronounce it- I guess unlike David I must have heard the name spoken in my youth).
Those ceiling lights in your new studio look pretty cool.
6:07
That’s what she said....
oof
lol
Much better restoration work in this one, you were very careful with everything. Props.