"Step off, Ninja Mom. It's not a cellphone!" This line has haunted me since my youth. Almost disturbing hearing it again and not just repeating in my head.
My cousin and I had these monster high knock off texting things and they only really worked if we were in the same room. But we still used them but only to send each other ASDFMovie quotes which is like the most mid2000s thing I think I’ve ever done
CJ Daly I wanted those so badly bc they were just not phone enough to get taken at school (at least the ones I saw were) and I coulda easily used to chat in class
As a kid I loved these kind of "social" toys, but I never got any because I didn't have friends and that was kinda of a requirement to be able to play lmao
The Cybiko had an amazing homebrew community because of the sweet spot on pricing and the manufacturer actually supported it. I loved seeing all the new software (mostly games) that came out for it.
Regarding the 'over' thing: You *always* say 'over' when using an SSB modulation, because you can't hear when the other side stops transmitting. There's no carrier to drop, so you are constantly hearing the background noise and just hear the transmission on top of it. When you are talking on FM, you generally don't need to over because the other side hears the end of transmission - either in the return of static, or in the distinctive sound of VOX or squelch flipping. You may still over in the case of really bad noise conditions.
concept: post apocalyptic society that has figured out how to extend the range of pda toys out of necessity because most cellphone screens have become too broken to use or fix
"it has a VGA cable to connect to the internet" mate, thats a serial port, you would of used those back in the 90's since USB was still new and had yet to be adopted by the market. it would of been funny to see you try and get it working on a modern desktop with VGA! ha!
Isaiah Munns I remember in 2004, when 13 seemed young to get a cell phone. My brother was 5 years older than me and didn't get a cell phone until a little after I did. Now, my mom drives school bus and says the things are everywhere with kids as young as mid-elementary or younger in some cases. It's nuts! I only got a phone at 13 because I was away at school during the week and there was no phone accessible!
You didn’t mention the IM-ME wireless messenger toys by Mattel! Someone figured out they can open any garage door with it since they both operate on the same frequency
I remember a friend and I each got Cybikos when I was in 8th grade, I actually did send in for the MP3 player as well. The MP3 player worked okay, the main limitation was that it used SmartMedia cards which were expensive at the time, I believe I settled for getting an 8MB card for about $30 on ebay and then I had to downconvert songs to horrible bitrates to fit more than 2 of them lol But the texting was kinda fun for me and my friend at the time when we would have separate classes on opposite ends of a wall, felt futuristic
Gotta love nostalgia over merch that is so much more awful than all the modern conveniences. I still love old LCD games like the Dino Dex, Tomagachi, and Bio Bytes.
New Tamagotchis have so much more features than any smartphone pet apps, I can say it as a collector myself, those vpets apps are so fucking basic despite having better graphics than a color display toy, with the exception of Pakka Pets which is heavily inspired by Tamagotchi, a much better Tamagotchi app than the actual official app I can say
I STILL lie to myself from time to time, say I'll keep my tamagotchis alive this time, and put new batteries in before letting them die a day later. :X
8:20 with the VGA cable? You mean the serial cable? I got a cybiko. I think I was an adult at the time. I used it as an ereader for a long time, and it had a surprisingly good speed reader program built into it.
Had a Cybiko as a kid! The only use I ever got out of it was the Christmas when I got it because my cousin also got one, so we chatted at my grandma's house. Otherwise, I never encountered another cybiko owner ever again. And yet, I'm still nostalgic whenever I see it get brought up.
@@FlintG Oh yeah that thing was a nightmare. My mom bought it and I had it for a few weeks, and then my dad felt so bad for me he bought me a flip phone. She was pissed but god it was a shitty move for her to buy that thing in the first place 😂
2000s electronic gadgets were decent for play but not for messaging Cybiko it was a bad Game Boy meets PDA until Nintendo DS and PSP defeated the kids handheld electronics
I feel like I'm one of the few people who actually really liked having a FireFly phone as a kid... 😂😅 I was still in elementary school when my family got my sister and I each one and I used to put it in my pocket on field trips in case I got lost or had an emergency. It was really useful during a time when most kids didn't have mobile phones at all, tbh! The only thing I didn't like about it was that I was constantly afraid I was going to bump the 911 button on accident! 😂
I had this odd purple thing that was exactly like that Hello Kitty one. I have no idea where I found the patience to type out words with that awful layout, and my confusion is worsened by the fact that I owned both of the communicators and only ever sent messages to myself.
When I was kid, around the time spy toys were getting big, me and my cousin convinced our parents to buy us these watches that had a little keyboard, and could transmit messages remotely. In theory.. In practice we pretty much had to have them touching for anything to transmit. Had a quick google, but can't find them at all.
I remember finding a Firefly on sale at target during a road trip with my mom. She bought it for me but when we got home my dad refused to pay to set up the line bc he was so cheap so I could never use it as an actual phone and I have no idea what happened to it ;^;
I was born in '92 and this is all new to me, everyone I knew had a mobile by year 4 or 5, so around 9 or 10 years old. And after school we would text each other, or use the landline to talk, or use MSN messenger. If we ever saw a kid with one of these toy phones I'm sure we would have picked on them mercilessly.
I remember begging my mom for a ChatNow, and both I and my best friend got one. I think we messaged eachother all of a small handful of times. I've since lost it to time and relocation but it'll always be tucked into my memory as something neat and fun to me.
First off, love the nostalgia trips seeing as how I grew up with damn near all of this, second is be VERY careful when letting Audible sponsor anything. In case you didn't read the disclaimer all the way through, for a company that sells audio books, you cannot show a book in a video, ANY BOOK, say the word book, basically if you describe the product or mention a certain series like Harry Potter, they'll terminate the deal. A friend of mine accidentally said the word book twice during their promotion of it and the next day they got a termination notice as well as a massive bill for their "trial" and book they got. Just letting you know so you can keep your head above water and keep making this amazing trips down memory lane.
Oh the Cybiko. I had 1, or 3. Two regulars, one I still have to this day. Same color as yours. The other I got in 1999. Then I got the extreme too. You could go truly wireless and get email and browse the web. Albeit required another Cybiko, a Serial link cable and a PC. It’s range was abysmal. But I recall on my trips to Nashville TN as a kid trying to discover other Cybiko users. There were never any. But I loved the open games and apps. Yes, those gum stick batteries die, and corrode. Mine did. Mine didn’t work when it was new that well. Also the charging port would break off. Young me didn’t know how to solder, so I used tape to pad the connector back to the board. It looked awesome for its time though.
My dad discovered the Cybiko when I was a kid and bought loads of them on eBay to tinker with, because they could be had dirt cheap back then. This would’ve been within a few years of their commercial failure, so there were a ton of them in circulation new in the box. I think we’ve still got a bin full of them back home somewhere. I had one, my brother had one, we gave them out to friends since we had so many. They were great. I remember some truly wild and profane text chat shenanigans on the school bus. We had a CD-R (also from eBay, I think) filled with hundreds of programs and games for them. You could fit that many on a CD-R because everything to do with these things was minuscule in size - the internal memory was less than 1MB, but I think Lost in Labyrinth, the FPS featured briefly in the video, was one of the heftier programs at about 50KB. There were some great games too - plenty were nothing special, but some of them (like Labyrinth) had some great pseudo-3D graphics, and even many of the others looked pretty good, and that was on a 160x100 monochrome display with 2-bit “color.” They got a lot out of the limited sound capabilities too - some of these games had great sound design and even music; I remember Lost in Labyrinth featuring a real banger. They seem to have treated that one as a AAA title, which makes sense since it came preinstalled on the Cybiko - if I remember correctly, there’s a dedicated button along the top that runs it. That’s a lot of ranting to say that I remember these weird little things really fondly, and it’s always great to see them popping up places.
Oh my God, I remember we had two of those Chat Nows and we legit got them for when my sister and I accompanied Mum with grocery shopping, in case we got lost I loved them
8:18 "...the only way you could connect is by plugging in with a VGA cable." so.... we're gonna just speed past that like it isn't important, then. a **serial cable**, maybe?
I was OBSESSED with my cousins handheld IM thing that reminded me of a sidekick. It was only for IM though and I think you had to be logged in on her computer still to use it around her house LOL
The cybiko could relay through more than 200 units using an early form of mesh networking. Also, a Cybiko connected to a computer could act as an access point between the host computer's internet connection and other cybiko's in the network.. The software part of the business continued to make cellphone games long after the actual communicators ceased production. The Cybiko Xtreme was also usable as a digital walky-talky.
Me and my friend got matching winx themed text things? I honestly think it’s super cute but it literally never worked right. I still have it in my room as a cute decoration.
Hey Billiam, I love your videos and especially the ones on monster collectors! I was wondering if you could do an episode on Dinosaur King? It doesn’t get much coverage but it was definitely part of a ton of childhoods, including mine! All I remember was the card game, but apparently the anime is on Netflix! Keep up the good work, can’t wait to see what you do ^^
CrAzYgIrL Yeah exactly! That’s what I remember. It was everywhere where I live. We always traded cards during soccer practice, and I thought I was the coolest with the T-Rex, but looking back I have a feeling it wasn’t the best card
I had the video camera that you showed at the beginning. I made a recreation of lost with that movie when I was like 10. My little sister had the hello kitty tester things and it took FOREVER for us to figure them out. Technology has changed
I got the first firefly for my 10th birthday. It was pretty convenient considering that I took the schoolbus that year but couldn’t actually go home. So if someone was late picking me up from the bus stop, I’d call to see how far they were. Then there were free minutes after 7, so I’d get to call my friends. Got a real flip phone the next year.
I choose to interpret the lyrics as “Call me- BEEP ME- if you want to reach me” as if she was correcting herself. That’s the great thing about art. I’ll interpret it how I want just to make a joke in a RUclips video work
Does anyone else remember the device that allowed you to text a message and save it to a little charms? The gimmick was you could pass the charms to your friends so they could read them between classes. The charms could be worn as jewelry even? I think? I feel like it was by the same people that made that voice-activated diary.
I had a purple version of the hello kitty contraption. And I would have never remembered if I hadn’t had watched this video. I completely forgot my sister and I ever had them
For complicated reasons, the license-free frequencies in the UK and in Europe are not the same. Not compatible. Supposed to be anyway. In practice lots of tourists going one way or the other bring radios with them (Don't bring the family to a major theme park without a way to keep in contact if the kids wander off!), so unintentional infringement is commonplace.
I LOVED sms text messengers and only recently got rid of the ones I had. I loved them, I had the hello kitty ones, and I only got rid of them because none of my friends ever used them with me. The fun thing though was that in addition to the hello kitty ones I also had another set that also used infrared transmission so you could cross over the different messenger devices no problem. The other set I had looked more like the smartphones we see today, they were still making them into the early 2000s when I was a kid. man I hope I can get some one day and find a use for them, I loved the idea I just never had anyone who wanted to use them with me.
The chat now advertisements had them taking pictures in color, but they took pics in black and white, witch as a kid I had felt lied to when I found this out after my brother got them.
I kinda still wish there was stuff like this targeted to kids under 13. Parents these days expect technology to raise their kids. You also sometimes see children who don’t know any better posting borderline sexual content on social media free for grown adult strangers to see. I feel like if there were social toys for kids (with much better technology) that could teach them how to use smart devices while also having restrictions that don’t give them full access to the internet, they might be a better alternative than letting young kids do whatever they want on social media or sheltering them from it entirely. But alas, I think the smart device craze is too huge for these toys to ever make a comeback. I just hope parents can start being smarter about how much time they let their little kids spend on the internet and what apps/sites they use, while also not being too sheltering.
I had the Green Cybiko! Another geeky gadget toy I had and spent ages playing with, It was only when the most unlikely guy at school noticed me playing with it and came over and geeked out saying he had one and didn’t think anyone else did! I would kill to have it back tbh 😂
Along with that maybe he could talk about the leapster and other kids learning/game/whatever devices since i dont think he's done a video on those before.
OMG I HAD THE CHAT NOW! I had the black slide one. I thought it just a fever dream! I used to try to hack into other person’s conversations like like how people did the party lines back in the day.
THE CYBIKO! I remember my uncle got my brother and I one from a yard sale many years back. It came with a stylus and I tried using it on the screen which put nice deep scratches in it..
I had the pink VideoNow. I got it a market and would stay up late at night watching Spongebob and That's so Raven under my blankets. It was magical to me. 😂
Abby Collins I watched the old dub as a kid. The voice acting wasn’t terrible but they westernised all the girls names (Strawberry Mew was named ZOE for some reason) etc.
It is not a vga cable but a serial cable the same stuff that is on the data pins of a usb cable, so you can get an adapter and connect it to a modern pc.
i remember in fourth gtade wjen we got to take charter busses to the state capital, and on the form aboit the trip, it saod that pictochat wasn't allowed. Those were the days...
This reminds me of when I was little and would stand at my window with my DS, with either pictochat or mario multiplayer open to the "searching" status, thinking that maybe someone else would play with me. I live on a 200 acre ranch, no one ever came for reasons that are obvious now lmao.
I remember Bratz Electronics had an Instant Messenger with a stylus. It barely worked except for saving contacts, playing a simple version of tennis, taking notes, but NEVER messages unless someone else had the same thing.
I had a firefly. My mother was a paramedic and was at work a lot, so she gave us a firefly for emergencies. I was in charge of the firefly and my sister was in charge of the pepper spray. We wore both around our necks the entire time she was out lol
I know this was 4y ago, but the cybiko connected via a serial cable for one, and the cybiko did have a sort of short-range wireless internet software, but it was separate from the device's and may not have been preserved. It turned one unit into a dedicated modem like access point, for others that had client applications made to support it.
"Step off, Ninja Mom. It's not a cellphone!"
This line has haunted me since my youth. Almost disturbing hearing it again and not just repeating in my head.
i swear to god that clip unleashed some kind of lovecraftian horror in the back of my mind...
kamenkewl elderich abominations in the form of men in black/agents of the matrix?
My friend saw the video playing and could hear it even though I had headphones on
You, uh... You good?
My cousin and I had these monster high knock off texting things and they only really worked if we were in the same room. But we still used them but only to send each other ASDFMovie quotes which is like the most mid2000s thing I think I’ve ever done
Desmond the moon bear
CJ Daly I wanted those so badly bc they were just not phone enough to get taken at school (at least the ones I saw were) and I coulda easily used to chat in class
DIE POTATOES!
look out! he’s got a nose!
a e s t h e t i c. Lol being a 2000s kid was fun.
you missed the classic two tin cans attached by a string
𝖜𝖊 𝖘𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖚𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖒 𝖆𝖘 𝖆𝖉𝖚𝖑𝖙𝖘 𝖑𝖔𝖑
@@LunarEclypse That is legit awesome. I am not trying to sass, I'm being honest. That is cool.
...I wish I had friends...and tin cans...
When I saw that in cartoons I always thought it was just cartoon physics. Didn't find out until later that it was actually a real thing that worked.
I'm watching this in one of those 😂
So when I was younger I always wanted to do that but I never did so, does it actually work?
As a kid I loved these kind of "social" toys, but I never got any because I didn't have friends and that was kinda of a requirement to be able to play lmao
Oof
Same
Ditto
I had a Cybiko but never found anyone else with one.
Ohhh, ouch. I'm in this photo and I don't like it.
You forgot the bootleg plastic phones that played a very compressed and short version of smile butterfly
I can still hear that jingle in my brain to this day. I worked in a game room with prizes. I saw a LOT of thise.
shit someone else made the joke, dammit
@Chippy lmao
AIAIAI IM YOUR LITTLE BUTTERFLY
Never forget.
I remember having a lot of fun at lunch with my friends on pictochat
Pictochat was ahead of its time.
I loved pictochat. It was so much fun
Pictochat was great. So many pitch black blobs sent to random people
Same, my cousins and siblings used to play hide and seek but after a while give hints to where we were hiding through pictochat. So much fun!
So many hand drawn dicks sent to friends in study hall!
Beeping wasn't the ONLY way to reach Kim Possible.
You could also call her.
Or post on her own website.
WorldsWorstBoy but ONLY when we wanted to reach her.
IF you wanna reach her.
Dumb kids. Kim retired back in 2007, so neither calling or beeping her will work.
@@SpyderT22 Calm down lol
The Cybiko had an amazing homebrew community because of the sweet spot on pricing and the manufacturer actually supported it. I loved seeing all the new software (mostly games) that came out for it.
Men’s room 2 was da bomb
Regarding the 'over' thing:
You *always* say 'over' when using an SSB modulation, because you can't hear when the other side stops transmitting. There's no carrier to drop, so you are constantly hearing the background noise and just hear the transmission on top of it.
When you are talking on FM, you generally don't need to over because the other side hears the end of transmission - either in the return of static, or in the distinctive sound of VOX or squelch flipping. You may still over in the case of really bad noise conditions.
You forgot to say over, over.
I turned on the roger beep on my baofeng UV-5R. no need for me top say over when done.
But saying over is fun, over
Oh man, some friends and I all got Cybikos in like 5th grade, I totally forgot about that thing
Jiru Candy Thank you 😊
just throwing this out there: ipod touch killed them all.
The Ipod touch will be going to trial on Monday for it's crime.
touchscreen gadgets killed 2000s mini pdas
iPod Touch? Oh, you mean iPhone before the phone feature.
Lewa, Toa of Air IPhone for broke people. I know because I was one.
why did the iPod touch even get popular? You could get an actual phone for a quarter of the price
concept: post apocalyptic society that has figured out how to extend the range of pda toys out of necessity because most cellphone screens have become too broken to use or fix
Can I borrow that idea please? If not,I don't mind.
@@sharonspears-mandeville2369 im sure what ever you were going to do with it would be different from anyone else's direction, so go for it!
farley pants sweet,thanks.
I was about to comment the same thing
@@delilahl5934 honestly a Cybiko redesign for 2020 lol
OMFG I HAD THAT HELLO KITTY THING AND I WOULD SNEAK IT INTO CLASS AND GIVE ONE TO MY BFF WHO SAT LIKE 2 SEATS OVER AND WE THOUGHT WE WERE SO BADASS
Nothing says bad ass rebel like Hello Kitty
I had a cybiko
I remember using the TIGER electronics Pokedex as a calculator in elementary.
This would have been back in '05 to '07.
Ah kindergarten
I had strict parents but I couldn't even convince them to get me a Firefly. Their paranoia was on a weird level.
But russians!
I'm late but could you explain their reasoning
Just use the home phone bruh 🤦♀️
Paranoia will destroy ya
@@LegitMan335 jamiroquai?
Cybiko sounds like a Russian word trying to disguise itself as a Japanese word.
"it has a VGA cable to connect to the internet"
mate, thats a serial port, you would of used those back in the 90's since USB was still new and had yet to be adopted by the market.
it would of been funny to see you try and get it working on a modern desktop with VGA! ha!
m8*
samiscool51 Yeah I was thinking that cant be vga had to be serial.
Have. Would have.
Btw there is a serial to usb adapter on ebay or amazon i think
Obviously he got it to work somehow seeing as he was able to download games
Moms in the 2000's: NO PHONES!YOU'RE TOO YOUNG
Moms now: HOW DARE PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET POST NOT CHILD FRIENDLY CONTENT?YOU HAVE TO BABYSIT MY KIDS!
Lol moms in 2000s’ could afford actual baby sitters.
Well...lets be real 2000’s moms weren’t idiots
My little sister has been watching adult RUclips not RUclips kids since she was three
Dude, said moms just put their kids in front of a tv. Mom now are just realizing what a stupid decision it is that let the Internet baby sit.
Isaiah Munns I remember in 2004, when 13 seemed young to get a cell phone. My brother was 5 years older than me and didn't get a cell phone until a little after I did. Now, my mom drives school bus and says the things are everywhere with kids as young as mid-elementary or younger in some cases. It's nuts! I only got a phone at 13 because I was away at school during the week and there was no phone accessible!
You didn’t mention the IM-ME wireless messenger toys by Mattel! Someone figured out they can open any garage door with it since they both operate on the same frequency
You're wrong about Kim. She takes calls. It's in her theme song.
jigglypuff52 so... she’s a CALL girl? Eh? Eh?
@@Aniimefaan go home
And if you want to page her, it's okay.
When I was little, I thought walkie-talkies were freakin' cool.
. . .Over.
I'm an adult a I know walkie-talkies are freaking cool
@@ricardopagan7143 Forgot to say over. Over.
𝖞𝖊𝖆 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖞 𝖆𝖗𝖊
𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗
They still are. Just the high-power Baofeng ones
When i was little i thought walkie talkies are cool af. I ended up as a ham radio operator as a teen
Zoomer: "Oh sick, just like Assasin's Creed."
Millennial: "Oh sweet, just like the Matrix."
Boomer: "Oh neat, just like a switchblade."
What about Gen X?
OtakuUnitedStudio we don’t talk about them
@@accidentalmadness1708 :(
@@accidentalmadness1708 why
Because gen x birthed millennials. That’s why.
I remember a friend and I each got Cybikos when I was in 8th grade, I actually did send in for the MP3 player as well. The MP3 player worked okay, the main limitation was that it used SmartMedia cards which were expensive at the time, I believe I settled for getting an 8MB card for about $30 on ebay and then I had to downconvert songs to horrible bitrates to fit more than 2 of them lol
But the texting was kinda fun for me and my friend at the time when we would have separate classes on opposite ends of a wall, felt futuristic
Gotta love nostalgia over merch that is so much more awful than all the modern conveniences. I still love old LCD games like the Dino Dex, Tomagachi, and Bio Bytes.
New Tamagotchis have so much more features than any smartphone pet apps, I can say it as a collector myself, those vpets apps are so fucking basic despite having better graphics than a color display toy, with the exception of Pakka Pets which is heavily inspired by Tamagotchi, a much better Tamagotchi app than the actual official app I can say
Tamagotchi is still sold. In fact, they just made a new one. The Tamagotchi ON.
I STILL lie to myself from time to time, say I'll keep my tamagotchis alive this time, and put new batteries in before letting them die a day later. :X
8:20 with the VGA cable? You mean the serial cable?
I got a cybiko. I think I was an adult at the time. I used it as an ereader for a long time, and it had a surprisingly good speed reader program built into it.
I remember seeing the Cybiko in "Big Fat Liar". Maybe I'm mistaken on that.
Plus the "Video Now" in Agent Cody Bankes II. Was Frankie Munez sponsored?
damn i remember as a kid thinking the cybiko was some nasa level shit
OMG! I remember that Chat Now commercial from back in the day! Use to watch it in between commercial breaks on KidsWB while I tuned in for Pokemon.
Had a Cybiko as a kid! The only use I ever got out of it was the Christmas when I got it because my cousin also got one, so we chatted at my grandma's house. Otherwise, I never encountered another cybiko owner ever again. And yet, I'm still nostalgic whenever I see it get brought up.
Oof I had a Firefly and this video gave me anti-nostalgia for my childhood
10/10 would recommend (the video not the damn phone)
matthew Riding I was so glad I did not have that and was glad my first phone was a flip phone.
@@FlintG Oh yeah that thing was a nightmare. My mom bought it and I had it for a few weeks, and then my dad felt so bad for me he bought me a flip phone. She was pissed but god it was a shitty move for her to buy that thing in the first place 😂
2000s electronic gadgets were decent for play but not for messaging
Cybiko it was a bad Game Boy meets PDA until Nintendo DS and PSP defeated the kids handheld electronics
I feel like I'm one of the few people who actually really liked having a FireFly phone as a kid... 😂😅
I was still in elementary school when my family got my sister and I each one and I used to put it in my pocket on field trips in case I got lost or had an emergency. It was really useful during a time when most kids didn't have mobile phones at all, tbh!
The only thing I didn't like about it was that I was constantly afraid I was going to bump the 911 button on accident! 😂
For april fools (or not) just cover the TI 84, 84 CE, and NSpire and talk about their games
The 84CE and NSpire are way too new
People have done crazy things on the 84. I've seen ballistics simulators, and even black hole sims
the Nspire is a beast of a computer
I had this odd purple thing that was exactly like that Hello Kitty one. I have no idea where I found the patience to type out words with that awful layout, and my confusion is worsened by the fact that I owned both of the communicators and only ever sent messages to myself.
I remember that one! I wanted one so bad when I was a kid
I had that too OMG it was literally so confusing to use LOLOL
When I was kid, around the time spy toys were getting big, me and my cousin convinced our parents to buy us these watches that had a little keyboard, and could transmit messages remotely. In theory.. In practice we pretty much had to have them touching for anything to transmit. Had a quick google, but can't find them at all.
I remember finding a Firefly on sale at target during a road trip with my mom. She bought it for me but when we got home my dad refused to pay to set up the line bc he was so cheap so I could never use it as an actual phone and I have no idea what happened to it ;^;
I was born in '92 and this is all new to me, everyone I knew had a mobile by year 4 or 5, so around 9 or 10 years old. And after school we would text each other, or use the landline to talk, or use MSN messenger. If we ever saw a kid with one of these toy phones I'm sure we would have picked on them mercilessly.
I ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THESE, THEY LOOKED SO COOL!
I remember begging my mom for a ChatNow, and both I and my best friend got one. I think we messaged eachother all of a small handful of times.
I've since lost it to time and relocation but it'll always be tucked into my memory as something neat and fun to me.
First off, love the nostalgia trips seeing as how I grew up with damn near all of this, second is be VERY careful when letting Audible sponsor anything. In case you didn't read the disclaimer all the way through, for a company that sells audio books, you cannot show a book in a video, ANY BOOK, say the word book, basically if you describe the product or mention a certain series like Harry Potter, they'll terminate the deal. A friend of mine accidentally said the word book twice during their promotion of it and the next day they got a termination notice as well as a massive bill for their "trial" and book they got. Just letting you know so you can keep your head above water and keep making this amazing trips down memory lane.
Oh the Cybiko. I had 1, or 3. Two regulars, one I still have to this day. Same color as yours. The other I got in 1999. Then I got the extreme too. You could go truly wireless and get email and browse the web. Albeit required another Cybiko, a Serial link cable and a PC. It’s range was abysmal. But I recall on my trips to Nashville TN as a kid trying to discover other Cybiko users. There were never any. But I loved the open games and apps. Yes, those gum stick batteries die, and corrode. Mine did. Mine didn’t work when it was new that well. Also the charging port would break off. Young me didn’t know how to solder, so I used tape to pad the connector back to the board. It looked awesome for its time though.
i love this channel its just all about all the shit i saw on tv back in the day that my parents were never cool enough to buy me
Me: Mom can we get Giogio theme?
Mom: We'me have Giogio theme at hœm
Giogio theme at home: 11:12
Hœ
8:17
It's not a VGA cable. VGA is only used for video signals. It's a DB9 or rs232 serial cable. It's missing a row of pins for VGA.
My dad discovered the Cybiko when I was a kid and bought loads of them on eBay to tinker with, because they could be had dirt cheap back then. This would’ve been within a few years of their commercial failure, so there were a ton of them in circulation new in the box. I think we’ve still got a bin full of them back home somewhere.
I had one, my brother had one, we gave them out to friends since we had so many. They were great. I remember some truly wild and profane text chat shenanigans on the school bus.
We had a CD-R (also from eBay, I think) filled with hundreds of programs and games for them. You could fit that many on a CD-R because everything to do with these things was minuscule in size - the internal memory was less than 1MB, but I think Lost in Labyrinth, the FPS featured briefly in the video, was one of the heftier programs at about 50KB.
There were some great games too - plenty were nothing special, but some of them (like Labyrinth) had some great pseudo-3D graphics, and even many of the others looked pretty good, and that was on a 160x100 monochrome display with 2-bit “color.” They got a lot out of the limited sound capabilities too - some of these games had great sound design and even music; I remember Lost in Labyrinth featuring a real banger. They seem to have treated that one as a AAA title, which makes sense since it came preinstalled on the Cybiko - if I remember correctly, there’s a dedicated button along the top that runs it.
That’s a lot of ranting to say that I remember these weird little things really fondly, and it’s always great to see them popping up places.
for some reason youtube is literally refusing to let me watch this past a certain point near the end of the video lmao
Same
NASA shut em down
Me too!
Weird, same here
bless you billi man for covering every aspect of my childhood and making me forget my awful life decisions instead
"Step off, ninja mom" awoke memories deep inside me. Damn.
Oh my God, I remember we had two of those Chat Nows and we legit got them for when my sister and I accompanied Mum with grocery shopping, in case we got lost
I loved them
Vintage computer nerds: “it’s a serial cable dude”.
Keep these types of vids coming. it's so nostalgic, and educational to see what it was like in the early and mid 2000s. Awesome work :D
8:18 "...the only way you could connect is by plugging in with a VGA cable."
so.... we're gonna just speed past that like it isn't important, then.
a **serial cable**, maybe?
It looks like a vga lol
I was OBSESSED with my cousins handheld IM thing that reminded me of a sidekick. It was only for IM though and I think you had to be logged in on her computer still to use it around her house LOL
11:29 wtf lmao
The cybiko could relay through more than 200 units using an early form of mesh networking. Also, a Cybiko connected to a computer could act as an access point between the host computer's internet connection and other cybiko's in the network.. The software part of the business continued to make cellphone games long after the actual communicators ceased production.
The Cybiko Xtreme was also usable as a digital walky-talky.
If I cant play Giorno’s theme on the Music Composer of my PDA I don’t want it 😠✨ PERIODT
Lol I wanted like half of these as a kid!!
Ended up living with the pictochat from the DS
With the recent news of the Tiger handhelds making a "comeback" - I wonder if any of these things will see a resurgence. Everything old is new again!
Looks like you had slot of fun Billiam and that's what I enjoy about your videos. Keep having fun for us!
The affordable smartphone killed all the other portable gadgets off.
Me and my friend got matching winx themed text things? I honestly think it’s super cute but it literally never worked right. I still have it in my room as a cute decoration.
Hey Billiam, I love your videos and especially the ones on monster collectors! I was wondering if you could do an episode on Dinosaur King? It doesn’t get much coverage but it was definitely part of a ton of childhoods, including mine! All I remember was the card game, but apparently the anime is on Netflix!
Keep up the good work, can’t wait to see what you do ^^
Yeah that show was cool, it even had an arcade machine that I once saw in the wild. I think it was a weird rock paper scissors deal.
CrAzYgIrL Yeah exactly! That’s what I remember. It was everywhere where I live. We always traded cards during soccer practice, and I thought I was the coolest with the T-Rex, but looking back I have a feeling it wasn’t the best card
I had the video camera that you showed at the beginning. I made a recreation of lost with that movie when I was like 10. My little sister had the hello kitty tester things and it took FOREVER for us to figure them out. Technology has changed
omg i never had one of these but it would be fun to take it apart!
and by one of these i mean the cybiko
I got the first firefly for my 10th birthday. It was pretty convenient considering that I took the schoolbus that year but couldn’t actually go home. So if someone was late picking me up from the bus stop, I’d call to see how far they were. Then there were free minutes after 7, so I’d get to call my friends. Got a real flip phone the next year.
I just want to say in the Kim Possible theme is says "Call me, beep me if you want to reach me" so beepers were not the only way to reach her 0:25
I choose to interpret the lyrics as “Call me- BEEP ME- if you want to reach me” as if she was correcting herself. That’s the great thing about art. I’ll interpret it how I want just to make a joke in a RUclips video work
1:42 this awakened a deep slumbering memory within my brain that I didn't even know was there
The early 2000’s were a very strange but amazing time (except for 9/11, that sucked) Over.
Does anyone else remember the device that allowed you to text a message and save it to a little charms? The gimmick was you could pass the charms to your friends so they could read them between classes. The charms could be worn as jewelry even? I think? I feel like it was by the same people that made that voice-activated diary.
yep
"Jeralt of Riviera"
XD
Toss a coin to your knock-off
It was a dark time for Byleth's dad
I had a purple version of the hello kitty contraption. And I would have never remembered if I hadn’t had watched this video. I completely forgot my sister and I ever had them
SAME
I need to see you and Ashens find a way to message each other with the Cybikosince you 2 are probably the only ones on the planet with one.
For complicated reasons, the license-free frequencies in the UK and in Europe are not the same. Not compatible.
Supposed to be anyway. In practice lots of tourists going one way or the other bring radios with them (Don't bring the family to a major theme park without a way to keep in contact if the kids wander off!), so unintentional infringement is commonplace.
I LOVED sms text messengers and only recently got rid of the ones I had. I loved them, I had the hello kitty ones, and I only got rid of them because none of my friends ever used them with me. The fun thing though was that in addition to the hello kitty ones I also had another set that also used infrared transmission so you could cross over the different messenger devices no problem. The other set I had looked more like the smartphones we see today, they were still making them into the early 2000s when I was a kid. man I hope I can get some one day and find a use for them, I loved the idea I just never had anyone who wanted to use them with me.
Cybiko was meant for tweens but advertised " Make Sexy Chat" on the box, above a picture of a young Asian girl. No words.
The chat now advertisements had them taking pictures in color, but they took pics in black and white, witch as a kid I had felt lied to when I found this out after my brother got them.
I kinda still wish there was stuff like this targeted to kids under 13. Parents these days expect technology to raise their kids. You also sometimes see children who don’t know any better posting borderline sexual content on social media free for grown adult strangers to see.
I feel like if there were social toys for kids (with much better technology) that could teach them how to use smart devices while also having restrictions that don’t give them full access to the internet, they might be a better alternative than letting young kids do whatever they want on social media or sheltering them from it entirely.
But alas, I think the smart device craze is too huge for these toys to ever make a comeback. I just hope parents can start being smarter about how much time they let their little kids spend on the internet and what apps/sites they use, while also not being too sheltering.
I had the Green Cybiko! Another geeky gadget toy I had and spent ages playing with, It was only when the most unlikely guy at school noticed me playing with it and came over and geeked out saying he had one and didn’t think anyone else did! I would kill to have it back tbh 😂
I already know this is gonna be good
I never would hi old have remembered having a cybiko without this video
Can you talk about the vtech mobigo, it’s a early 2010’s toy for learning and I used to play this when I was younger (I’m now 10 and still have it)
Along with that maybe he could talk about the leapster and other kids learning/game/whatever devices since i dont think he's done a video on those before.
OMG I HAD THE CHAT NOW! I had the black slide one. I thought it just a fever dream! I used to try to hack into other person’s conversations like like how people did the party lines back in the day.
Time for the semi annual power rangers reminder at this point it’s more of an in joke between me and my friends but still ps good vid
THE CYBIKO! I remember my uncle got my brother and I one from a yard sale many years back. It came with a stylus and I tried using it on the screen which put nice deep scratches in it..
Most of toy media devices have more buttons than most apps on a smart devices.
I used to beg my mum for the hello kitty messenger thing all the time as a kid damn the nostalgia rush
Hey Billiam can you please cover the Megaman series of games and shows of the early 2000's.
Megaman Battle Network is a lit series.
@@haruhirogrimgar6047 fun fact there could have been a Megaman ZX series if they didn't decide on Starforce.
@@barrybend7189 Cool. But tbh the only Megaman games I have enjoyed are the Battle Network ones, but I haven't tried Star Force.
@@haruhirogrimgar6047 ok lets hope after the Legends Collection we get a Battle Network/Starforce collection next.
@@barrybend7189 That would definitely be nice. I have had to emulate the Battle Network series on PC since it feels impossible to play on a phone.
I had the pink VideoNow. I got it a market and would stay up late at night watching Spongebob and That's so Raven under my blankets. It was magical to me. 😂
Please cover Mew Mew Power. With the Tokyo mew mew "return" (reboot), I'd like to learn how trash the old dub was.
UNDERTALE
Abby Collins I watched the old dub as a kid. The voice acting wasn’t terrible but they westernised all the girls names (Strawberry Mew was named ZOE for some reason) etc.
Didn't they call it Hollywood Mew mew? Probably fucking ADV films. Shit company
@@CaptainMotocycle Where I'm from, they called it Mew Mew Power.
@@CaptainMotocycle 4kids made a dub called Mew Mew Power.
I love this 2000s toy analysis, it truly was a unique time for kids stuff!
It is not a vga cable but a serial cable the same stuff that is on the data pins of a usb cable, so you can get an adapter and connect it to a modern pc.
I was getting serious Red vs Blue Griff and Simmons vibes while you guys were talking with the walkie talkie things!!
i remember in fourth gtade wjen we got to take charter busses to the state capital, and on the form aboit the trip, it saod that pictochat wasn't allowed. Those were the days...
I forgot all about these! I remember having one that as far as I remember only worked for aim. I felt like the coolest kid on the block with it
"Go to audible dot com slash (sponsor)"
Okay that makes sense.
"or text this to (random ass phone number)"
Wow, that's still a thing?
This reminds me of when I was little and would stand at my window with my DS, with either pictochat or mario multiplayer open to the "searching" status, thinking that maybe someone else would play with me. I live on a 200 acre ranch, no one ever came for reasons that are obvious now lmao.
11:12 you look so tired with everything in life
I still have my Cybiko! When I was in 6th grade, you were top dog if you had one of those!
I remember Bratz Electronics had an Instant Messenger with a stylus. It barely worked except for saving contacts, playing a simple version of tennis, taking notes, but NEVER messages unless someone else had the same thing.
I had a firefly. My mother was a paramedic and was at work a lot, so she gave us a firefly for emergencies. I was in charge of the firefly and my sister was in charge of the pepper spray. We wore both around our necks the entire time she was out lol
That FPS at 10:16 is something else considering the tech
I know this was 4y ago, but the cybiko connected via a serial cable for one, and the cybiko did have a sort of short-range wireless internet software, but it was separate from the device's and may not have been preserved. It turned one unit into a dedicated modem like access point, for others that had client applications made to support it.