This was the computer I got my start on. It was such a great machine and my teacher had it hooked up to the a lovely amber monitor. A couple years later when I was in middle school, my teacher had one connected to a giant color TV. Writing BASIC code was really nice and the keyboard felt very nice (for my pre-teen fingers).
Oh man, Aaron, this takes me back. As a kid I had one of these and did a similar unboxing to yours. My family couldn't afford an Apple //e or //c, so when the Laser 128 came along it was the perfect replacement for our aging TI-99/4A (which I also saw your video on). I got a few really good years out of that machine, even doing most of my schoolwork in AppleWorks and printing it on an old Citizen 120D dot matrix printer (that is, when I wasn't copying games from friends -- seriously, they packaged pirating software in the box with the computer!). Sadly, the machine eventually developed a fault in the drive controller and would erase any floppy you inserted. I lost most of my favorite games, not to mention my homework, and the machine was donated to a tinkerer. Despite that, I still think the machine was far superior to any Apple II on the market except for the IIgs. So many capabilities out of the box meant you really didn't need to expand it to do almost anything you might want an Apple II to do. Oh, and as a side note on the strange ergonomics, you could use the carrying handle as a prop handle by flipping it over. This would raise the back of the machine enough that it was a better angle for your wrists. I never trusted that, though. It always felt like it might accidentally slip and drop the machine. Really loving your channel and what you're doing with building a museum. Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Aah Yes... the Laser 128. A better Apple and Apple, for Less! We had a few of these in Jr. High School and they were better than the IIc's most of the time although the keyboard doesn't hold a candle to the mechanical switches of the IIc, its an overall great machine, would love to get one myself some day.
Loved playing Prince of Persia on my Laser 128 as a kid. I used the composite output and didn't experience any of the artifacts in your video. That thing was a workhorse that kept me entertained for years.
Great video and an awesome system. It's a bummer that the drive had cable burn marks on it. This is from the plastic in the cable interacting with the plastic in the case plastics. The cable sitting on top of the drive and in storage for years actually melts the plastic. It happened to a couple of my things that were in storage and it was a bummer. I found out later what it was caused by and now if I put something in storage I always make sure the cable is bagged and not touching the case if possible. Hope it helps.
Greetings from Alabama! I have recently found your channel and have been enjoying your content. I think we have very similar backgrounds. Though technically my first computer was a Timex Sinclair, I really cut my teeth on a CoCo2 I received on my fifth birthday in 1986. I do have vague memories of that glorious unboxing! That was the first computer that got me into dialing BBSes, as painful an experience it was on that machine with a 300 baud modem LOL. Keep up the good work, man!
I believe it also had a side expansion module that could accept 2 slots of standard apple cards, slot 4 & 7? This possibly made it better than the Apple. Also the extra ram probably could be used as a fast ram drive. I had one in my Apple II so that when we developed software, compile times where extremely fast using the ram disk vs floppy. I would have loved to have a Laser.
I have a 128EX sitting in the box right now. Not new, used it a good bit back in the 80's. Haven't tried it since bringing it back to my house from my mother's. Can't remember the difference that the "EX" designation meant. The box wasn't even different, just an extra sticker on it. We even had the expansion box but unfortunately that seems to have been lost over the years. I think it, along with a bunch of other retro computer equipment, was lost when a tornado destroyed the storage building some of that was stored in. Also my mother was cleaning out her attic a few years ago and I know she tossed some things then too. :-( That expansion is really rare and expensive if you can find one today.
The EX model had a 3.6Mhz clock speed, as opposed to the standard 1Mhz. It came in handy if you had applications that used a lot of CPU cycles, like Visicalc. It also sped up BASIC programs quite a bit. You could hold the 1 key down while booting the machine to slow it to the standard 1Mhz if needed. And this was necessary sometimes because almost all games were unplayable at the faster speed. Otherwise there were no real differences between the 128 and the EX. There was also an EX/2 model that was the same as the EX but added a MIDI port and used a 3.5" floppy drive (like the Apple //c Plus) instead of the 5.25" floppy.
Curious to see a Sony Vaio All-in -one in boxed in the background, what model would it be? I have the 1st generation from Japan W500 still up and running but the HDD died and cannot find restore disc nor SONY will sell them.
This was the computer I got my start on. It was such a great machine and my teacher had it hooked up to the a lovely amber monitor. A couple years later when I was in middle school, my teacher had one connected to a giant color TV. Writing BASIC code was really nice and the keyboard felt very nice (for my pre-teen fingers).
VTech definitely liked their toy computers... this one even looks like a real one.
It's impressive that a 30+ year old computer looks practically brand new and works straight out of the box too!
How fun to be able to live vicariously through you! Thanks for these videos!
Oh man, Aaron, this takes me back. As a kid I had one of these and did a similar unboxing to yours. My family couldn't afford an Apple //e or //c, so when the Laser 128 came along it was the perfect replacement for our aging TI-99/4A (which I also saw your video on). I got a few really good years out of that machine, even doing most of my schoolwork in AppleWorks and printing it on an old Citizen 120D dot matrix printer (that is, when I wasn't copying games from friends -- seriously, they packaged pirating software in the box with the computer!). Sadly, the machine eventually developed a fault in the drive controller and would erase any floppy you inserted. I lost most of my favorite games, not to mention my homework, and the machine was donated to a tinkerer. Despite that, I still think the machine was far superior to any Apple II on the market except for the IIgs. So many capabilities out of the box meant you really didn't need to expand it to do almost anything you might want an Apple II to do. Oh, and as a side note on the strange ergonomics, you could use the carrying handle as a prop handle by flipping it over. This would raise the back of the machine enough that it was a better angle for your wrists. I never trusted that, though. It always felt like it might accidentally slip and drop the machine.
Really loving your channel and what you're doing with building a museum. Thanks, and keep up the good work!
I had one of these. I did a lot with it and it was a good machine for me. I learned BASIC on this and wrote a lot of programs in the laguage.
Aah Yes... the Laser 128. A better Apple and Apple, for Less! We had a few of these in Jr. High School and they were better than the IIc's most of the time although the keyboard doesn't hold a candle to the mechanical switches of the IIc, its an overall great machine, would love to get one myself some day.
This looks like a great system. A lot of features/connectivity right of of the box.
Loved playing Prince of Persia on my Laser 128 as a kid. I used the composite output and didn't experience any of the artifacts in your video. That thing was a workhorse that kept me entertained for years.
Great video and an awesome system. It's a bummer that the drive had cable burn marks on it. This is from the plastic in the cable interacting with the plastic in the case plastics. The cable sitting on top of the drive and in storage for years actually melts the plastic. It happened to a couple of my things that were in storage and it was a bummer. I found out later what it was caused by and now if I put something in storage I always make sure the cable is bagged and not touching the case if possible. Hope it helps.
Great video as always!
well presented and narrated. nice machine.
Greetings from Alabama! I have recently found your channel and have been enjoying your content. I think we have very similar backgrounds. Though technically my first computer was a Timex Sinclair, I really cut my teeth on a CoCo2 I received on my fifth birthday in 1986. I do have vague memories of that glorious unboxing! That was the first computer that got me into dialing BBSes, as painful an experience it was on that machine with a 300 baud modem LOL. Keep up the good work, man!
I believe it also had a side expansion module that could accept 2 slots of standard apple cards, slot 4 & 7? This possibly made it better than the Apple. Also the extra ram probably could be used as a fast ram drive. I had one in my Apple II so that when we developed software, compile times where extremely fast using the ram disk vs floppy. I would have loved to have a Laser.
IMHO, the Laser 128 was better than the Apple IIc computers
I have a 128EX sitting in the box right now. Not new, used it a good bit back in the 80's. Haven't tried it since bringing it back to my house from my mother's. Can't remember the difference that the "EX" designation meant. The box wasn't even different, just an extra sticker on it. We even had the expansion box but unfortunately that seems to have been lost over the years. I think it, along with a bunch of other retro computer equipment, was lost when a tornado destroyed the storage building some of that was stored in. Also my mother was cleaning out her attic a few years ago and I know she tossed some things then too. :-( That expansion is really rare and expensive if you can find one today.
Could EX mean expansion included?
The EX model had a 3.6Mhz clock speed, as opposed to the standard 1Mhz. It came in handy if you had applications that used a lot of CPU cycles, like Visicalc. It also sped up BASIC programs quite a bit. You could hold the 1 key down while booting the machine to slow it to the standard 1Mhz if needed. And this was necessary sometimes because almost all games were unplayable at the faster speed. Otherwise there were no real differences between the 128 and the EX. There was also an EX/2 model that was the same as the EX but added a MIDI port and used a 3.5" floppy drive (like the Apple //c Plus) instead of the 5.25" floppy.
Comment for algo very cool stuff!
Curious to see a Sony Vaio All-in -one in boxed in the background, what model would it be? I have the 1st generation from Japan W500 still up and running but the HDD died and cannot find restore disc nor SONY will sell them.