It's really no more odd than putting a cassette drive on an old computer, and several '80s toys worked by similar methods. The tough part is making it actually fun since anything with a linear audio track is going to be very repetitive.
Nostalgia Nerd when you relize technology has become more simple, btw some companies still use tapes to back up data, cuz its cheaper than drives (mechanical, hhd, and ssd)
It fascinates me how the game boxes look modern in terms of art,but that’s really because of how modern designers look back on art like this. I like it.
@@pineappleroad T9 FTW! There were always those hold outs that refused to use it for whatever reason, and they spent so long typing though, their texts. With T9, I was just as fast as a person using tap-entry on a modern smartphone, plus I didn't have to look at the screen to type! (A benefit I still miss.)
Dude I just found one for ten bucks too but it has someone’s old weed storage in it!😂 I about died finding tightly hidden weed and zig zag wrappers in a bag inside the game😂😂😂
You should send this back to the guy that was trying to get it repaired, he played it for years, I'm sure you would blow his mind if you sent it back to him all fixed up!
This was absolute cutting edge technology back then. When I saw that 2xL robot, I almost cried. I used to own one!!! I miss my old friend who I spent so much of my childhood with and it's nice to know that he's journeyed across the pond and has a nice, safe home.
ramairgto72 reminded me of the famous one with Alan Alda. The secret password was Deer. Alan Alda: Doe. Contestant: Knob! Alan Alda: (hysterical laughter)
Yeah it took me a few seconds, then I realized what it means, and asked my self, "this was a question for a kid?!" "Mommy, Mommy, what does assault and battery mean?!"
The best part of older electronics is that they are usually pretty much assembled by hand and possible (with some mucking about) to re-open, unlike a lot of toys and tools alike that arent made to ever be repaired, only replaced.
Your videos are of such high quality that they should be broadcast on TV. Great content, great editing, great audio, as well as visuals. Entertaining all around and top notch productions ! Thanks for these. BTW, I happen to have that Fidelity Electronics Sensory Chess game in that Sears catalog(I collect old chess computers), which was the very first model to offer a sensitive board, instead of having to type in coordinates to register a move and, aside from replacing all 65 LEDs on it (some of them were dying out), it still works perfectly.
I am absolutely blown away the lengths you go to fix the devices. You could just order a new one, but no, you open that sucka up and are just brilliant about it. Thanks for all you do.
As he mentioned, he couldn't just order another one. Plus, these (or really anything) older machines are rarer and rarer by the day, so repairing them is priceless compared to the loss of the technology to time.
Hello, I am new to your TH-cam channel and think it is brilliant. I love old technology. When I was in my late teens (53 now) I used to work at Radio Shack and so was exposed to a lot of early tech that has long since disappeared. At the time, I think one of Radio Shack's best toys was the Armatron robot arm toy. I actually still have a working one that sits on the shelf in my office. Anyway, great to see some of that early tech brought back to life and explained. You do a wonderful job and put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into your video's. Thank you, it very much appreciated. Cheers.
I would love an in-depth 2XL video covering all the models from over the years. I had the cassette tape version when I was a kid and absolutely loved it!
I am thoroughly enamored by this machine, especially by the fact that it loads programs from the tape, so that the games can be different from each other. Simply awesome.
Matt I’m actually picking one these up off marketplace complete in box with several of the game carts all in minty shape. Only $55 what a steal and it works!!!
Techmoan would make a great teacher I think. Friendly/engaging/knowledgable, explains things simply while being passionate for the subject. Good stuff that man !!!
The track explanation and visual made me think of how cool it would be to see a TechMoan episode about all the iterations of multichannel sound over the years. It’d be a little bit involved with getting a quad receiver but you’re already equipped for SACD and DVD-A I’d imagine. Anyway, it’s a thought and I love how you tackle really obscure stuff and make it fascinating. Thank you for this channel.
let me just mention that that is probably the cleanest looking circuit board i've ever seen. its so well organized. all components in lines, the copper circuits on the back all straight and arranged in big busses. its a single layer board and its just so clean looking.
Another interesting device that you might want to look for is an Optigan. It was a cheap organ which played its tones off of a waveform stored on a clear optical disk. The Optigan was made just before synth chips started to get cheaper than creating the sound some other way. The device itself was seriously cost cut, and it's one of those final analog solutions before someone figured out how to make it digital. It seems right up your alley.
We had one when I was a kid. Some recent Googling revealed that there are still apparently a number of people who like them, though keeping them working is a nightmare.
Wow I'm right in the age demo for this and know everything else you showed in the Sears catalog at the beginning but I have no memory of this. Good find!
This is really neat. It reminds me of the 2XL robot that came out in the early 70s. It used eight track tapes originally. It was later released in the early 90s using cartridge cassettes. That was the one that I owned and loved very much. The thing went everywhere with me even into my heart surgery recovery room.
Immediately thought of the old 2XL once I started watching - and was delighted when you pulled the brown little dude out! I only learned of the original 2XL when I found my *second* 2nd gen (cassette based) 2XL at a thrift.. which went to my kids as I still had the one from my childhood. Best part is the second one I got cost me a net gain of $5, as it happened to be in the original beat up box with a birthday card containing a $10 bill!
"I'm not an expert in electronics, in fact I'm not an expert in any field whatsoever..." --- this gave me a start and you deserve a pat on the back for saying it. I realized that is true for me as well. My Dad says something like this, referring to himself as a "jack off all trades". He's as somewhat skilled in engines as I am in electronics, but since I know bugger-all about engines to me he's a demigod. But in point of fact there are practical engineering skills that come with experience, particularly in getting things to work properly. There is also a cumulative degree's worth of knowledge in being able to grasp the fundamentals of many decades of electronics design at a glance. Modern kids would come up short... they're used to spotting some custom chip in something and it's instantly like, "woe is me! This either works today or won't work forever." And it's no wonder kids toss out old tech, they don't realize it IS repairable and sadder still, they don't realize how precious that could become in the future. They open up some old 70s receiver and see many discrete parts and it looks more foreboding to them, when you and I would think, these circuits are traceable and potentially repairable. So... don't sell yourself short. We are 'renaissance folk'.
You are making some ridiculous assertions. "Modern kids" are just as diverse as when you were a kid. There are huge and thriving communities of very capable enthusiasts of both electronics and engines, as well as any number of other technical disciplines. As for how valuable it will be in the future: You're absolutely right, which is why it's a serious problem that YOUR generation is not making laws to support our right to repair things. Unlike electronics of yore that often even came with schematics, modern companies refuse to make replacement parts and manuals available, and they sue anyone who tries to do so! For a generation allegedly so adept at fixing your own things, you sure aren't helping the younger generation continue the practice.
Travis Terrell I think the elephant in the room about repairs are they don’t want you to fix them, but NOT because they want to make the money at an authorized service repair shop, but rather, they WANT it to break so you’ll buy the next thing they are trying to sell you. The reason the 42 smart flat screen I just bought my son a few months back is so cheap ($130 bucks) is they want me to buy him a new one in 2 years.
My grandparents had a 2-XL when I was a kid! IT was old at the time, but it had several tapes and I freaking loved it when I was growing up!! I have been keeping an eye out for one of those for years to no avail. :/
I loved every second of this. I feel when I watch your video's my brain actually improves a little. I am old enough to have seen this brilliant machine,but I never have until now. I loved the 8 track tutorial,the guy doing it looked awfully familiar. I can't quite put my finger on where I have seen him before though.
One thing I remember about eight track tapes is the big KERCHUNK sound you often got in the middle of a song when it switches tracks. :) The movie trivia, TV trivia, and the music quiz might be fun to play.
The Teddy Ruxpin works similarly, but uses normal cassette tapes instead of 8-track. Left channel is the audio, while right channel is the programming data (sounds like a hum when played as audio). Had to re-align the tape head on mine as well. Would like to see a review of one of those sometime.
I love old tech like this. If you have a problem to solve nowadays you just throw more resources at it but back then you had to be creative and come up with simple yet elegant solutions. I love projects that use things in ways they weren't intended.
I noticed the Phil Collins cartridge, No Jacket Required from 1985. That must have been a record club edition as the major record companies put an end of the 8-track commercially in 1982 in the States, although certain record clubs such as Columbia House continued to make 8-tracks available as late as 1988, including new releases. So if you own an 8-track released after 1982 it's likely a record club edition and not likely bought at Sears, Walmart or a local record dealer.
Sadly, today's youth will never know what it's like to buy six of their favorite music releases for a penny. Of course, there probably aren't 6 artists worth buying anymore, so...
@@maximusmax4557 The vast majority of music has always been garbage, but it’s so much easier to access music today that if you can’t find six good modern artists regardless of your taste then you’re just too lazy to look.
@@theladycata9648 Nothing but the facts. There is some fantastic music coming out today, some of my favorites I've ever found have been new artists of the last 5 years or so, but you just won't find them by staring at the Top 20 Billboards page hoping something good will come up.
That part was why I voted the video up!! (Also, does it have anything to do with why I'm getting videos about hair replacement suggested to me now? :-D)
I'd suspect it's just giving a few numbers. Like the correct answer input number, what to add to the score, and maybe how many cueing points to advance the tape for correct or wrong answer. Part of the burst might also be a code to let you know if it's data or just a cue point to play whatever is scripted on the tape. Burst is so short, so it has to be something stupid simple. My guess is there's more going on to get the scoring to display than the logic for the game itself. Compared to what you get for that price vs. a C-64 or Atari 800 (a real freakin' computer), I could see why it didn't sell all that well. Machine also looks in great condition other than that broken plastic bit, no spider nests, and everything so clean inside.
Would agree, a data rate of around 300 bauds. The signals look like Frequency Shift Keying, simply toggling between 1.0 kHz and 3.0 kHz, burst length approx. 3.3 ms. Decoding the raw bitstream shouldn't be that hard. But to actually make sense of it a little more context (bursts of different question / answer pairs, types of questions, ...) would help.
A few people have found the Wikipedia entry for the Omni wikipedia.org/wiki/OMNI_Entertainment_System and are informing me I was wrong when I said it didn't have an entry. Well I *was* right at the time I made the video as that Wikipedia Omni page has been created directly as a result of people watching this video...it didn't exist before, but it does now. If you search for 'Techmoan' on Wikipedia you'll also find a few other articles that refer back to some of my videos.
Another case of "Someone Is Wrong On The Internet!" All they had to do was click Wikipedia's Edit link and compare the dates of the page's creation to the publish date of this video and look at the References section to see the entry was obviously inspired by you! Congratulations you inspirational bastard! Love your videos.
I saw this Omni thing featured in the old JS&A catalog "Products That Think" (now a collector's item) by Joe Sugarman... the greatest pitch-man of the era. Reading his copy one could never clearly discern how the 'computer' part worked in the days of no storage and volatile memory but hearing those chirps it's obvious, a digital audio format (perhaps even the 'Kansas City Standard') like cassette program storage used by of '70s computers. I was fascinated by the product but I wisely saved my money to get a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I instead.
Outstanding video and explanation of this old system. And excellent troubleshooting to get it going again. Also love the "old video explaining 8 tracks". Still grinning on that one. Great stuff. Keep it up.
Brilliant engineering on this. I suspect cost, size and then a very quick explosion of early video game consoles and then the 8-bit computer march probably conspired to condemn it to being a very niche product. But I still marvel at the ingenuity engineers and designers came up with to create stuff way beyond the anticipated use of any given technology.
After all these years , this is the first video from Techmoan that has closed captions in it. Hoping that it will continues on further videos (and possibly previously uploaded videos)
I vaguely remember these. They were insanely expensive, as I recall. I was little, and apparently my dad also thought it too advanced for me. But I do remember seeing the things at KayBee.
That moment when you realize there's a new 36min Techmoan video and you forget about everything you're doing until it finishes playing. Another amazing episode from the King of TH-cam!
I am so glad I was born in 1979. I have memories of all the cool stuff, but never spent any of my money on it only to find out it was totally half arsed. I did learn what MB stood for, so thats cool.
On a lark, I decided to call that 800 number. It now belongs to a company called School Specialty, a vendor of school supplies, teaching aids, textbooks and the like. There's a voice message you get if you call it that indicates that it's a disused number owned by School Specialty and gives an 888 series toll free number to talk to someone there. A quick Google search shows no connection between Milton Bradley and School Specialty that I can see. While it didn't pan out this time, you'd be surprised at how many of these old 800 numbers still somehow connect to the same company they did when the number was published.
I was selling electronic games in London in 1980. I didn't see this so you are probably right about it not coming to the UK. There was a similar device shaped like a robot and it used cassette tapes. I didn't sell many but Ken Campbell, who was putting on Hitchikers Guide at the ICA, played with it for about an hour.
Techmoan, now I am puzzled. The cassette 2XL apparently came out in '92 so it wasn't that. I think that it may have been something that didn't catch on and isn't remembered. One of the games consoles we sold is also missing from lists in Wikipedia, so maybe our buyer was adventurous and bought in some things that didn't catch on.
That was very comprehensive. Very interesting. Nice repair. I think there was a date code of 1981 week 18 "WE 8118" on those Texas Instruments chips. That MPxxxx-N1indicates that these are ASICs made especially for MB, while the "N1" only depicts the case style DIL (dual inline). They still use that numbering today, like "SN74HCT00N"
I was wondering if this device only made it's way to the market in 1981. It was really hard to come by any information about this one...so I just had to go off the copyright dates on the box and instructions...which are often a bit earlier than the date the product hit the shelves.
I absolutely love your videos! Kind of addictive... Anyhow, in 2010 South Africa (where I'm from), we had a game machine designed and produced here for South Africans exclusively, called the Noot vir Noot Speletjie (or something like that). It was based on this machine I presume, where on each side (I think it was 4), you had a player. Short snippets of music was played, and you had to press a buzzer every time you guessed it right, and other types of games could have been played using this. Noot vir Noot is a legendary (very old) music game show program still running on the SABC (South African Broadcasting Commission).
Reseating chips, cleaning the contacts, and cleaning the board can definitely help get an antiquated retro device working again. So yes I think what you did worked!
This is reminiscent of those VHS games or what we had here in Quebec as "Videoway" which used 4 TV Chanels cleverly switched by the set top box as you played along various scheduled game shows.
OMG I had a 2XL as a child in Brazil in the '90s! It looked much different, it was white, more polished, I didn't know it had previous versions. I had lots of fun and learned a lot with it, good times!
Y'know... with access to those data bursts and timing and close to proper layout of the tracks, coupled with a vague memory of you owning an 8-track recording device, we could make new games for this machine. And, with you opening your new Omni repair shop, we could really hit it rich!
18:03 I called the number. It gave me a message saying "Thank you for calling School Specialty. This number is no longer in service", then gave me an 888 number to call
I guess you called the 1-800 number? The 413 number for people in Massachusetts seems to still be in use today by Hasbro/Milton Bradley, though it seems to be the number for their offices in East Longmeadow and is not the main phone number for consumers.
Is there a way to decode the data on the tapes? It would be interesting to try to reverse-engineer it! Maybe record your own Technmoan trivia tape once it's figured out? :)
I suspect it's not just data on the tapes, due to the way the games play and score differently to each other. I reckon there is program code it's loading and executing too.
I imagine it's just machine code for the TI processor. That should be well documented, but working out how the code was modulated into an analogue signal is something else entirely.
This was very interesting. I never heard of the Omni, but I would of loved it back then, when I was about 10 years old. I was also amazed to see that Phil Colins' on 8 track, because I did not realize they were still recording current albums to this format back then. Thank you for this, it brought a smile to my face.
That is really pretty cool!!! I was born in the mid 70s and I know my parents would have LOVED playing on something like this back then!! My dad had all the gadgets... we had Pong when it first came out, and the commodore Vic-20 but I never remember seeing anything like the Omni!!! *PRETTY COOL!*
That 8-track explanation sketch genuinly was creepy as all hell. EDIT: Man this video was thorough, the sophistication of this device is mindblowing, especially for the time. I've never seen this device in my life, not even on flea markets so I assume it wasn't released here in the Netherlands either. We do have a lot of games and puzzles and what not from MB so it's not like they didn't release products here. 32:15 that cushion on the right, got that from Amsterdam?
Belgium once was part of the Netherlands (same kingdom) so there's quite a lot of similarities, even in architecture. Albeit more of a mix of French and dutch.
Wow, hearing that 2XL recording gave me a powerful flashback. I never owned one but I had a friend who did (and who had a Vectrex to boot!). If you got the wrong answer, you could quickly push another button and get the right answer message. Good times.
The UK doesn't have Jeopardy now but there were three separate attempts at a UK adaptation over the 80s and 90s, none of them lasting more than a few years. Also, I almost Hail Sataned at 4:49 🤘
I knew there was at least one and I was going to post it but thought to go through the comments first. Also, for those outside of the US who might be interested, there was a gap between the last version of Jeopardy with Art Fleming and the version we have now; the former ended in 1979 and the latter started in 1984.
Thanks to Techmoan, someone created a Wikipedia page dedicated to OMNI. Great job showing off this fascinating game. I would’ve loved one if I was a kid in the 80s.
And then, MB folded into Hasbro by 2009, and continues the line of classic board games under the Hasbro name like “Monopoly”, “Sorry”, “Battleship”, “Operation”, “Scrabble”, and many more of their classic from two of their former iconic companies like MB and Parker Brothers. Unfortunately, Hasbro never re-releases the Omni Entertainment System. There was also another MB Electronics game that no longer exists, it was “Comp IV”, a simple game, but Hasbro never re-releases “Comp IV” again.
What I wonder is why they didn't simply include a cheap music synthesis chip in the Omni. That way, it would have been possible to store a quiz programme on a single track each with it simply muting the audio for the appropriate answer response, and the jingle being generated. This would have allowed them to get at least double the quiz content onto the 8-track cartridge and also avoid the "Please wait 10 seconds" message in the example.
When I was 10 years old I took an old 8 track deck and added a couple relays to it to make it into a "radio station cart machine". Also made a cartridge with just 65 seconds of tape. The foil would stop the machine to cue it, and I'd press a big rectangular green START button which lit up (just like the real thing!). Four programs per tape. The only difference between 8 track and radio carts (besides the cart machine making full use of the tape for better quality) is that in carts the rubber pinch roller was part of the machine not the cartridge, and would swing up through a hole in the cartridge as it was inserted, for better tape movement. Another difference was most kept the weighted capstan turning all the time, so the tape would start moving instantly at proper speed when a solenoid pinched it. What plagued consumer 8 tracks was that spring that tried to hold the whole cartridge+roller against the capstan. Too little pressure and the tape would slip, too much and the capstan bearing would wear out and seize.
> " qwertyFUBAR damn, seems like the subscribers of this channel are all freaking tech geniuses " We are not different. The world has changed. It may seem that way if you are young (under ~35) but no! We were just curious, and we were fortunate to grow up in the days of discrete electronic components. When you crack open any consumer device today you will see some tiny custom chips and tiny things on a tiny board. When we opened the stuff in the 60s-70s, we saw BIG components, big PC board traces and wires to follow, discrete logic chips like little swiss army knives whose map you could read out of a parts book, even relays. You could touch things and modify them without breaking everything. No micro-processors and blank chips that whisper to you, "You'll never figure this thing out." People love miniaturization and handheld convenience but myself and quite a few others who were hobbyists in the 70s, we are sad to see that the succeeding generations have grown up surrounded by electronics that are mysterious tiny 'black boxes'. If YOU were transported back there you would surely open stuff up and figure out some stuff too, just as I did.
@@qwertyFUBAR Can confirm the curiosity, I grew up in the late 90s into the 2000s, I took apart fucking everything. The most headway I made understanding half the crap I took apart was the older stuff like cassette players, VHS players and Record players. That of course didnt stop me from taking apart my toys and other things to understand them. CD players and video game consoles frustrated me since I couldn't open them up and watch the mechanical pieces operate.
This is fascinating. Mixing older 8 track technology with digital and creating something this complex which works, truly boggles my mind.
Nostalgia Nerd funny seeing you here :)
It's really no more odd than putting a cassette drive on an old computer, and several '80s toys worked by similar methods. The tough part is making it actually fun since anything with a linear audio track is going to be very repetitive.
Someone please open one of these. Fascinating tek.
Nostalgia Nerd when you relize technology has become more simple, btw some companies still use tapes to back up data, cuz its cheaper than drives (mechanical, hhd, and ssd)
Bill A 64MB? I think you mean 64KB.
Vincent Price...even after all these years. It's hard to mistake that voice.
Rouverius Also his wife Coral Browne. Major voice star !
"You must B sharp to win"? We'll C about that.
That joke falls ♭
That's Bach to square one.
I could make a joke, but mine aren't punny.
Go ahead and duet.
Techmoan It took me a minuet to get the joke.
It fascinates me how the game boxes look modern in terms of art,but that’s really because of how modern designers look back on art like this.
I like it.
"Please wait 20 seconds" Sheesh, even an 8-track system from 1980 has loading times.
Best line, "Or you can play with just one person if you haven't got any friends."
Serious early morning laugh out loud moment. Thanks!
Modern version: ask Siri "what's zero divided by zero".
Or if you're in lockdown. 😆
that was quite hilarious 🤣
he was definately talking to me.
😢
The Vincent Price game is haunted by the man himself. That code bleep is his soul trying to escape to other systems.
I hope he finds a copy of Vincent Price's Egg Magic that's not missing the feet.
@@eliju420 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield-- Oh hiya Maude, come on in!
His voice is just so unsettling
@@ModMokkaMatti vvviiiccccttttoooorrriiiiaaaaaa
The Skynet origin story
Jeopardy cartridge:
"I'm sorry, you must press the button in the form of a question."
You have to question whether you really pressed the button
@@whaduzitmatr At least you don't have to press each button 3 times like you do on flip phones.
@@pineappleroad T9 FTW! There were always those hold outs that refused to use it for whatever reason, and they spent so long typing though, their texts. With T9, I was just as fast as a person using tap-entry on a modern smartphone, plus I didn't have to look at the screen to type! (A benefit I still miss.)
@@pineappleroad There are newer flip phones?
Tentatively.
I recently got one in the box with 12 games in box for just $10!
It needed a head adjustment and a new speaker, but it's fully working now!
would be great for a chiptune / circuit bending project.
dfpguitar can’t wait to connect it to my car!
Dude I just found one for ten bucks too but it has someone’s old weed storage in it!😂 I about died finding tightly hidden weed and zig zag wrappers in a bag inside the game😂😂😂
@@EggGorlComics ahahaha
Sounds like you got a nice RPi case
You should send this back to the guy that was trying to get it repaired, he played it for years, I'm sure you would blow his mind if you sent it back to him all fixed up!
This was absolute cutting edge technology back then. When I saw that 2xL robot, I almost cried. I used to own one!!! I miss my old friend who I spent so much of my childhood with and it's nice to know that he's journeyed across the pond and has a nice, safe home.
Excellent James May impression.
Sounds like James May, and just reassembled + repaired this device.Are they related?
I had to stop and go back.
"Assault & Pepper"
I laughed way too much at that.
ramairgto72 reminded me of the famous one with Alan Alda. The secret password was Deer.
Alan Alda: Doe.
Contestant: Knob!
Alan Alda: (hysterical laughter)
Yeah it took me a few seconds, then I realized what it means, and asked my self, "this was a question for a kid?!" "Mommy, Mommy, what does assault and battery mean?!"
The best part of older electronics is that they are usually pretty much assembled by hand and possible (with some mucking about) to re-open, unlike a lot of toys and tools alike that arent made to ever be repaired, only replaced.
That circuit board is pure 1980. Beautiful.
Your videos are of such high quality that they should be broadcast on TV. Great content, great editing, great audio, as well as visuals. Entertaining all around and top notch productions ! Thanks for these.
BTW, I happen to have that Fidelity Electronics Sensory Chess game in that Sears catalog(I collect old chess computers), which was the very first model to offer a sensitive board, instead of having to type in coordinates to register a move and, aside from replacing all 65 LEDs on it (some of them were dying out), it still works perfectly.
It is broadcasted, on TH-cam TV ;)
As you know, this is the future of TV.
I am absolutely blown away the lengths you go to fix the devices. You could just order a new one, but no, you open that sucka up and are just brilliant about it. Thanks for all you do.
As he mentioned, he couldn't just order another one. Plus, these (or really anything) older machines are rarer and rarer by the day, so repairing them is priceless compared to the loss of the technology to time.
OMG! It's James May's brother explaining how 8 track machines work!
Hello, I am new to your TH-cam channel and think it is brilliant. I love old technology. When I was in my late teens (53 now) I used to work at Radio Shack and so was exposed to a lot of early tech that has long since disappeared. At the time, I think one of Radio Shack's best toys was the Armatron robot arm toy. I actually still have a working one that sits on the shelf in my office. Anyway, great to see some of that early tech brought back to life and explained. You do a wonderful job and put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into your video's. Thank you, it very much appreciated. Cheers.
"A game where Vincent Price asks you questions."
Ohh! I want that!
I would love an in-depth 2XL video covering all the models from over the years. I had the cassette tape version when I was a kid and absolutely loved it!
I am thoroughly enamored by this machine, especially by the fact that it loads programs from the tape, so that the games can be different from each other. Simply awesome.
Matt I’m actually picking one these up off marketplace complete in box with several of the game carts all in minty shape.
Only $55 what a steal and it works!!!
I'm VERY impressed with how well this worked considering the tech of the day. The ingenuity it took to design this is incredible...
Well, early gaming was full of ingenuity borne out of having to work around serious limitations.
Techmoan would make a great teacher I think. Friendly/engaging/knowledgable, explains things simply while being passionate for the subject. Good stuff that man !!!
I love the way that he takes care of all the equipment with passion and bring them to life again... :)
The track explanation and visual made me think of how cool it would be to see a TechMoan episode about all the iterations of multichannel sound over the years. It’d be a little bit involved with getting a quad receiver but you’re already equipped for SACD and DVD-A I’d imagine.
Anyway, it’s a thought and I love how you tackle really obscure stuff and make it fascinating. Thank you for this channel.
This actually looks like a lot of fun. I can imagine having a good time with this of it was 1981 or something
let me just mention that that is probably the cleanest looking circuit board i've ever seen. its so well organized. all components in lines, the copper circuits on the back all straight and arranged in big busses. its a single layer board and its just so clean looking.
"I'm just going to use the 8-track replacement sponge I normally use."
Techmoan's 'drawer by the back door' opens up like the batcave...
Another interesting device that you might want to look for is an Optigan. It was a cheap organ which played its tones off of a waveform stored on a clear optical disk. The Optigan was made just before synth chips started to get cheaper than creating the sound some other way. The device itself was seriously cost cut, and it's one of those final analog solutions before someone figured out how to make it digital. It seems right up your alley.
We had one when I was a kid. Some recent Googling revealed that there are still apparently a number of people who like them, though keeping them working is a nightmare.
Wow I'm right in the age demo for this and know everything else you showed in the Sears catalog at the beginning but I have no memory of this. Good find!
Rod Munch Almost the same. I'd have drooled on the keypads on launch, tho. Still might.
Same here. I was certainly old enough, but never heard of it.
me too i was 14 in 1980 and a naturally fascinated with electronic devices at the time but i have no recollection of this one..
i was 13 in 1980, and i know for sure my father would never have paid for this toy while raising two kids.
Not in those days. My bike was a huge burden for my dad back then.
This thing cost as much as a used car back then.
*OMG*, you mixed _"how much"_ epoxy????
Enough to fix plastic
Well he needed to fill ~3 microliters inbetween the plastic and plastic, so he mixed a liter of epoxy
Enough to create a while new plastic molding in place of the original
All the epoxy
This is really neat. It reminds me of the 2XL robot that came out in the early 70s. It used eight track tapes originally. It was later released in the early 90s using cartridge cassettes. That was the one that I owned and loved very much. The thing went everywhere with me even into my heart surgery recovery room.
Immediately thought of the old 2XL once I started watching - and was delighted when you pulled the brown little dude out! I only learned of the original 2XL when I found my *second* 2nd gen (cassette based) 2XL at a thrift.. which went to my kids as I still had the one from my childhood. Best part is the second one I got cost me a net gain of $5, as it happened to be in the original beat up box with a birthday card containing a $10 bill!
"I'm not an expert in electronics, in fact I'm not an expert in any field whatsoever..." --- this gave me a start and you deserve a pat on the back for saying it. I realized that is true for me as well. My Dad says something like this, referring to himself as a "jack off all trades". He's as somewhat skilled in engines as I am in electronics, but since I know bugger-all about engines to me he's a demigod. But in point of fact there are practical engineering skills that come with experience, particularly in getting things to work properly. There is also a cumulative degree's worth of knowledge in being able to grasp the fundamentals of many decades of electronics design at a glance. Modern kids would come up short... they're used to spotting some custom chip in something and it's instantly like, "woe is me! This either works today or won't work forever." And it's no wonder kids toss out old tech, they don't realize it IS repairable and sadder still, they don't realize how precious that could become in the future. They open up some old 70s receiver and see many discrete parts and it looks more foreboding to them, when you and I would think, these circuits are traceable and potentially repairable. So... don't sell yourself short. We are 'renaissance folk'.
qwertyFUBAR Lol at "jack off all trades."
How did you learn these skills in the first place?
@@SwampCeeMcGee60 R/Boneappletea
You are making some ridiculous assertions. "Modern kids" are just as diverse as when you were a kid. There are huge and thriving communities of very capable enthusiasts of both electronics and engines, as well as any number of other technical disciplines.
As for how valuable it will be in the future: You're absolutely right, which is why it's a serious problem that YOUR generation is not making laws to support our right to repair things. Unlike electronics of yore that often even came with schematics, modern companies refuse to make replacement parts and manuals available, and they sue anyone who tries to do so! For a generation allegedly so adept at fixing your own things, you sure aren't helping the younger generation continue the practice.
Travis Terrell I think the elephant in the room about repairs are they don’t want you to fix them, but NOT because they want to make the money at an authorized service repair shop, but rather, they WANT it to break so you’ll buy the next thing they are trying to sell you. The reason the 42 smart flat screen I just bought my son a few months back is so cheap ($130 bucks) is they want me to buy him a new one in 2 years.
You explaining how the Password+ game works on the whiteboard gives me flashbacks to Back to the Future part 2.
My grandparents had a 2-XL when I was a kid! IT was old at the time, but it had several tapes and I freaking loved it when I was growing up!! I have been keeping an eye out for one of those for years to no avail. :/
I loved every second of this. I feel when I watch your video's my brain actually improves a little. I am old enough to have seen this brilliant machine,but I never have until now. I loved the 8 track tutorial,the guy doing it looked awfully familiar. I can't quite put my finger on where I have seen him before though.
One thing I remember about eight track tapes is the big KERCHUNK sound you often got in the middle of a song when it switches tracks. :) The movie trivia, TV trivia, and the music quiz might be fun to play.
The Teddy Ruxpin works similarly, but uses normal cassette tapes instead of 8-track. Left channel is the audio, while right channel is the programming data (sounds like a hum when played as audio). Had to re-align the tape head on mine as well. Would like to see a review of one of those sometime.
I'm pleasantly surprised there are other TR fans who are interested in this channel! I've always wondered how the Answer Box works, personally.
It's so nice to see you bring an almost dead machine back to life...!
And the design is very star trekish.
I love old tech like this. If you have a problem to solve nowadays you just throw more resources at it but back then you had to be creative and come up with simple yet elegant solutions. I love projects that use things in ways they weren't intended.
I noticed the Phil Collins cartridge, No Jacket Required from 1985. That must have been a record club edition as the major record companies put an end of the 8-track commercially in 1982 in the States, although certain record clubs such as Columbia House continued to make 8-tracks available as late as 1988, including new releases. So if you own an 8-track released after 1982 it's likely a record club edition and not likely bought at Sears, Walmart or a local record dealer.
Sadly, today's youth will never know what it's like to buy six of their favorite music releases for a penny. Of course, there probably aren't 6 artists worth buying anymore, so...
@@maximusmax4557 The vast majority of music has always been garbage, but it’s so much easier to access music today that if you can’t find six good modern artists regardless of your taste then you’re just too lazy to look.
@@theladycata9648 Nothing but the facts. There is some fantastic music coming out today, some of my favorites I've ever found have been new artists of the last 5 years or so, but you just won't find them by staring at the Top 20 Billboards page hoping something good will come up.
That 8 track explanation was nightmare inducing
FrootFlyVids sure he wore that shirt last month on a 'normal' produced video 😬
It's bloody horrific.
It puts the lotion on its drive belt..
It recalls the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) in Ridley Scott's Legend (1985)
That part was why I voted the video up!! (Also, does it have anything to do with why I'm getting videos about hair replacement suggested to me now? :-D)
That's really neat! It might be fun to try making custom games for it, but I doubt it would be too easy reverse engineering that data burst.
fsphil That gave me an idea!
We should try and ask Ben from "The Ben Heck Show" if he is willing to take that challenge!
I'd suspect it's just giving a few numbers. Like the correct answer input number, what to add to the score, and maybe how many cueing points to advance the tape for correct or wrong answer. Part of the burst might also be a code to let you know if it's data or just a cue point to play whatever is scripted on the tape.
Burst is so short, so it has to be something stupid simple. My guess is there's more going on to get the scoring to display than the logic for the game itself. Compared to what you get for that price vs. a C-64 or Atari 800 (a real freakin' computer), I could see why it didn't sell all that well.
Machine also looks in great condition other than that broken plastic bit, no spider nests, and everything so clean inside.
Would agree, a data rate of around 300 bauds. The signals look like Frequency Shift Keying, simply toggling between 1.0 kHz and 3.0 kHz, burst length approx. 3.3 ms. Decoding the raw bitstream shouldn't be that hard. But to actually make sense of it a little more context (bursts of different question / answer pairs, types of questions, ...) would help.
It actually wouldn't be out of place to see a lower baud rate than that. I would suspect something in the 50-150 bps being most likely.
The "blips" reminded me of my old TI-994A and my brother's TRS-80 cassettes.
mmm, vincent price really is the perfect choice for something like this. I could listen to him ask questions all day
I can't get over the effort and level of complexity involved in this device. The way it works around the linear aspect of tape is fascinating.
this is exactly the obscure old tech review that i come to this channel for. Brilliant.
A few people have found the Wikipedia entry for the Omni wikipedia.org/wiki/OMNI_Entertainment_System
and are informing me I was wrong when I said it didn't have an entry. Well I *was* right at the time I made the video as that Wikipedia Omni page has been created directly as a result of people watching this video...it didn't exist before, but it does now. If you search for 'Techmoan' on Wikipedia you'll also find a few other articles that refer back to some of my videos.
Hi techmoan
Techmoan 6:09 quick question. How did you obtain a copy of this album. Can't find one
I really do mean this. Your videos should be in a time capsule for future reference.
Another case of "Someone Is Wrong On The Internet!" All they had to do was click Wikipedia's Edit link and compare the dates of the page's creation to the publish date of this video and look at the References section to see the entry was obviously inspired by you! Congratulations you inspirational bastard! Love your videos.
I saw this Omni thing featured in the old JS&A catalog "Products That Think" (now a collector's item) by Joe Sugarman... the greatest pitch-man of the era. Reading his copy one could never clearly discern how the 'computer' part worked in the days of no storage and volatile memory but hearing those chirps it's obvious, a digital audio format (perhaps even the 'Kansas City Standard') like cassette program storage used by of '70s computers. I was fascinated by the product but I wisely saved my money to get a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I instead.
Outstanding video and explanation of this old system. And excellent troubleshooting to get it going again. Also love the "old video explaining 8 tracks". Still grinning on that one. Great stuff. Keep it up.
4:50 - I can't believe you got James May in a guest appearance
Halfpipesaur He's straightened his hair I guess
But has the voice of Jeremy Clarkson.
@@Claro1993 Young Jeremy Clarkson maybe?
What a voice!
I was literally going to comment the same thing but you beat me to it haha!
Brilliant engineering on this. I suspect cost, size and then a very quick explosion of early video game consoles and then the 8-bit computer march probably conspired to condemn it to being a very niche product.
But I still marvel at the ingenuity engineers and designers came up with to create stuff way beyond the anticipated use of any given technology.
There were a lot of nice electronic games through most of the 80s. I suspect you're right about the cost though, and maybe size.
its hard to explain why, but I sure love this stuff
After all these years , this is the first video from Techmoan that has closed captions in it.
Hoping that it will continues on further videos (and possibly previously uploaded videos)
A classic Techmoan video: Drama, tragedy, hilarity.
I wonder how many letters Jean had to answer about suicide, assault 'n' battery etc.
Wow. I thought Vincent Price branded games were just something The Simpsons invented.
INFERNAL CLUTCH
I vaguely remember these. They were insanely expensive, as I recall. I was little, and apparently my dad also thought it too advanced for me. But I do remember seeing the things at KayBee.
they were stupid back then too.
That moment when you realize there's a new 36min Techmoan video and you forget about everything you're doing until it finishes playing. Another amazing episode from the King of TH-cam!
I am so glad I was born in 1979. I have memories of all the cool stuff, but never spent any of my money on it only to find out it was totally half arsed. I did learn what MB stood for, so thats cool.
On a lark, I decided to call that 800 number. It now belongs to a company called School Specialty, a vendor of school supplies, teaching aids, textbooks and the like. There's a voice message you get if you call it that indicates that it's a disused number owned by School Specialty and gives an 888 series toll free number to talk to someone there. A quick Google search shows no connection between Milton Bradley and School Specialty that I can see.
While it didn't pan out this time, you'd be surprised at how many of these old 800 numbers still somehow connect to the same company they did when the number was published.
I was selling electronic games in London in 1980. I didn't see this so you are probably right about it not coming to the UK. There was a similar device shaped like a robot and it used cassette tapes. I didn't sell many but Ken Campbell, who was putting on Hitchikers Guide at the ICA, played with it for about an hour.
You'll see 2-XL mentioned in this video. The early version used 8-tracks and the later re-release used cassettes.
Techmoan, now I am puzzled. The cassette 2XL apparently came out in '92 so it wasn't that. I think that it may have been something that didn't catch on and isn't remembered. One of the games consoles we sold is also missing from lists in Wikipedia, so maybe our buyer was adventurous and bought in some things that didn't catch on.
That was very comprehensive. Very interesting. Nice repair. I think there was a date code of 1981 week 18 "WE 8118" on those Texas Instruments chips. That MPxxxx-N1indicates that these are ASICs made especially for MB, while the "N1" only depicts the case style DIL (dual inline). They still use that numbering today, like "SN74HCT00N"
I was wondering if this device only made it's way to the market in 1981. It was really hard to come by any information about this one...so I just had to go off the copyright dates on the box and instructions...which are often a bit earlier than the date the product hit the shelves.
nice repair indeed! You're like me in that you mix up enough epoxy to repair 50 tape head mounts...
Yeah i noticed it was a generous helping of epoxy, too lol
yeah lol that was like a quarter tube epoxy... should cover it
I always tell myself that it's easier get a good 50:50 mix with 'massively too much' rather than 'only the amount needed'
I absolutely love your videos! Kind of addictive...
Anyhow, in 2010 South Africa (where I'm from), we had a game machine designed and produced here for South Africans exclusively, called the Noot vir Noot Speletjie (or something like that). It was based on this machine I presume, where on each side (I think it was 4), you had a player. Short snippets of music was played, and you had to press a buzzer every time you guessed it right, and other types of games could have been played using this. Noot vir Noot is a legendary (very old) music game show program still running on the SABC (South African Broadcasting Commission).
Reseating chips, cleaning the contacts, and cleaning the board can definitely help get an antiquated retro device working again. So yes I think what you did worked!
"The profession with the highest suicide rate??" - Haha, nice christmas question :D
Huge fan of your work btw! :)
I thought for sure it would have been accountants. Physicians?! WTH?
It made me laugh out loud in the middle of the night, I just woke up my bf!!
THANK YOU FOR TURNING ME ON
Smithers: Uh.... you should probably just ignore that.
That reminds me of the Q*Bert arcade machine which says "Hello, I'm turned on!" when you... well... turn it on. :P
I demand Ashens see this.
He reviews shit.
This is reminiscent of those VHS games or what we had here in Quebec as "Videoway" which used 4 TV Chanels cleverly switched by the set top box as you played along various scheduled game shows.
It's amazing how some engineers are able to build simple equipment, but with an extremely complex algorithm. The human being is really amazing! :D
19:37 Of course! Its Vincent Price. I recognized the voice but couldn't quite place it up until you said that.
I heard Vincent Price the moment he started talking. heh.
7:38 gave it away…
This wasn't Vincent Price's only association with Milton Bradley. He also did an advertisement for the board game Stay Alive.
@@BigAL68xyz Vincent Price also appeared on the box of MB's "Hangman"
Vincent Price's voice was too cool for the machine to handle. :-/
Crazy_Borg right his tape wouldn't play well. In the omni
5:04 Techmoan and James May... seperated at birth?
Psyq Watts for sure. the resemblance is remarkable lol
Looks like James May, sounds like Jeremy Clarkson !
+m4xwellmurd3r the shirt was the most scare resemblance
Psyq Watts alternate persona
Psyq Watts I said that years ago!
OMG I had a 2XL as a child in Brazil in the '90s! It looked much different, it was white, more polished, I didn't know it had previous versions. I had lots of fun and learned a lot with it, good times!
Y'know... with access to those data bursts and timing and close to proper layout of the tracks, coupled with a vague memory of you owning an 8-track recording device, we could make new games for this machine. And, with you opening your new Omni repair shop, we could really hit it rich!
I'd say you're defiantly an expert in pretty much every type of analog audio recording method out there!
18:03 I called the number. It gave me a message saying "Thank you for calling School Specialty. This number is no longer in service", then gave me an 888 number to call
SnakeHugz Official hah. Maybe I'll have to go down the street to school specialty n ask them why they have that number
I guess you called the 1-800 number? The 413 number for people in Massachusetts seems to still be in use today by Hasbro/Milton Bradley, though it seems to be the number for their offices in East Longmeadow and is not the main phone number for consumers.
Haha I was looking specifically for this comment!
Is there a way to decode the data on the tapes? It would be interesting to try to reverse-engineer it! Maybe record your own Technmoan trivia tape once it's figured out? :)
I was thinking the same thing.
Dan Schlegel they're encoded in BASIC. Itd be very simple to make your own but not worth typing on a ZX Spectrum for days...
Looking at the audio in Audacity in spectrum view would allow you to decode it.
I suspect it's not just data on the tapes, due to the way the games play and score differently to each other. I reckon there is program code it's loading and executing too.
I imagine it's just machine code for the TI processor. That should be well documented, but working out how the code was modulated into an analogue signal is something else entirely.
This was very interesting. I never heard of the Omni, but I would of loved it back then, when I was about 10 years old. I was also amazed to see that Phil Colins' on 8 track, because I did not realize they were still recording current albums to this format back then. Thank you for this, it brought a smile to my face.
That is really pretty cool!!! I was born in the mid 70s and I know my parents would have LOVED playing on something like this back then!! My dad had all the gadgets... we had Pong when it first came out, and the commodore Vic-20 but I never remember seeing anything like the Omni!!! *PRETTY COOL!*
This channel is solid gold.
That 8-track explanation sketch genuinly was creepy as all hell.
EDIT:
Man this video was thorough, the sophistication of this device is mindblowing, especially for the time. I've never seen this device in my life, not even on flea markets so I assume it wasn't released here in the Netherlands either. We do have a lot of games and puzzles and what not from MB so it's not like they didn't release products here.
32:15 that cushion on the right, got that from Amsterdam?
The cushion cover is from Bruges...but I can see why you'd think that.
Belgium once was part of the Netherlands (same kingdom) so there's quite a lot of similarities, even in architecture. Albeit more of a mix of French and dutch.
Techmoan
You explaining the 8 tracks was the most amusing thing I have ever seen you do
:)
Wow, hearing that 2XL recording gave me a powerful flashback. I never owned one but I had a friend who did (and who had a Vectrex to boot!). If you got the wrong answer, you could quickly push another button and get the right answer message. Good times.
Really a History channel, these videos will be priceless 100 years from now! Someone please back his whole channel up lol
Great find as always! Thanks for keeping this up :) I really enjoyed the videos and how you do them
trust me people much younger than you know the simon. they are still in day-cares in the us.
Vincent Price is one of my favorite actors.
one of very few who could do ads and still retain some integrity
Great video once again. Glad to have lived through an era where we had physical hardware to play with and so nice to revisit these machines again.
As an analog-head and collector, just wanted to say, fantastic content and well-done. Brilliant channel. :-)
Wow, "Superfly" would have been a different movie with Paul Williams or Anthony Newley writing the soundtrack, wouldn't it?
In the late 70's early 80's Omni was a trendy catch phrase for all things high tech or futuristic.
I remember Omni Magazine, I had a few issues from the 70's and 80's. I believe it lasted into the early 90's.
Like the Omnichord.....that was one cool electronic music making device.
Like the (disastrous) Dodge Omni and its sibling Plymouth Horizon
The UK doesn't have Jeopardy now but there were three separate attempts at a UK adaptation over the 80s and 90s, none of them lasting more than a few years.
Also, I almost Hail Sataned at 4:49 🤘
I knew there was at least one and I was going to post it but thought to go through the comments first.
Also, for those outside of the US who might be interested, there was a gap between the last version of Jeopardy with Art Fleming and the version we have now; the former ended in 1979 and the latter started in 1984.
Thanks to Techmoan, someone created a Wikipedia page dedicated to OMNI.
Great job showing off this fascinating game.
I would’ve loved one if I was a kid in the 80s.
With the collection you have by now, you could easily start a museum of electronic oddities.
Milton Bradley also brought us the awesomeness that was Dark Tower
Also, there's nothing quite like Vincent Price hosting a movie trivia game show.
And then, MB folded into Hasbro by 2009, and continues the line of classic board games under the Hasbro name like “Monopoly”, “Sorry”, “Battleship”, “Operation”, “Scrabble”, and many more of their classic from two of their former iconic companies like MB and Parker Brothers.
Unfortunately, Hasbro never re-releases the Omni Entertainment System. There was also another MB Electronics game that no longer exists, it was “Comp IV”, a simple game, but Hasbro never re-releases “Comp IV” again.
What I wonder is why they didn't simply include a cheap music synthesis chip in the Omni. That way, it would have been possible to store a quiz programme on a single track each with it simply muting the audio for the appropriate answer response, and the jingle being generated. This would have allowed them to get at least double the quiz content onto the 8-track cartridge and also avoid the "Please wait 10 seconds" message in the example.
When I was 10 years old I took an old 8 track deck and added a couple relays to it to make it into a "radio station cart machine". Also made a cartridge with just 65 seconds of tape. The foil would stop the machine to cue it, and I'd press a big rectangular green START button which lit up (just like the real thing!). Four programs per tape. The only difference between 8 track and radio carts (besides the cart machine making full use of the tape for better quality) is that in carts the rubber pinch roller was part of the machine not the cartridge, and would swing up through a hole in the cartridge as it was inserted, for better tape movement. Another difference was most kept the weighted capstan turning all the time, so the tape would start moving instantly at proper speed when a solenoid pinched it. What plagued consumer 8 tracks was that spring that tried to hold the whole cartridge+roller against the capstan. Too little pressure and the tape would slip, too much and the capstan bearing would wear out and seize.
qwertyFUBAR damn, seems like the subscribers of this channel are all freaking tech geniuses
> " qwertyFUBAR damn, seems like the subscribers of this channel are all freaking tech geniuses "
We are not different. The world has changed. It may seem that way if you are young (under ~35) but no! We were just curious, and we were fortunate to grow up in the days of discrete electronic components. When you crack open any consumer device today you will see some tiny custom chips and tiny things on a tiny board. When we opened the stuff in the 60s-70s, we saw BIG components, big PC board traces and wires to follow, discrete logic chips like little swiss army knives whose map you could read out of a parts book, even relays. You could touch things and modify them without breaking everything. No micro-processors and blank chips that whisper to you, "You'll never figure this thing out."
People love miniaturization and handheld convenience but myself and quite a few others who were hobbyists in the 70s, we are sad to see that the succeeding generations have grown up surrounded by electronics that are mysterious tiny 'black boxes'. If YOU were transported back there you would surely open stuff up and figure out some stuff too, just as I did.
@@qwertyFUBAR Can confirm the curiosity, I grew up in the late 90s into the 2000s, I took apart fucking everything.
The most headway I made understanding half the crap I took apart was the older stuff like cassette players, VHS players and Record players.
That of course didnt stop me from taking apart my toys and other things to understand them.
CD players and video game consoles frustrated me since I couldn't open them up and watch the mechanical pieces operate.
The vintage 8 track advert was hilarious. Your time machine works!
You mentioned in this vid that your not an expert at this but you know more than folks that used to do this for a living well done very enjoyable!