As a kid, I got the compact cassette version released by Tiger in the mid 90's. I loved it. My mom hated it. The cassette was labeled 'right' in one side, and 'wrong' in the other'. If you played the 'wrong' side, everything sounded backward. I quickly realized they were using the two stereo tracks from the 'right' side and the other two tracks from the 'wrong' side, but recorded backward. This provided for the 4 audio channels. The mechanism used the playing head from an auto-reverse cassette player to pull that off. When I figured out how it worked, I wanted to make a custom program for it, so a friend of mine and I started planning the questions and different responses. Since we had no means to independently record the 4 tracks of a cassette in different takes we limited it to two options. The fun part is that since we also didn't know how to record the two tracks from the 'wrong' cassette side, we started talking backward, which resulted in lots of fun, with very weird-sounding results 😁. But all in all.. It kind of worked!! Fond memories ❤ ....
i kept seeing references to the tape cassette version in other comments and couldn’t immediately figure out how that might work-thank you for your explanation.
Sounds like it used a 4-track head, which isn't quite the same as normal auto-reverse where it flips the playhead. 4-track heads are more reliable but they have the downside that you can't record the whole tape in one go with them.
@@KevinArcade87 Wow that was unexpected :). I guess you won't be surprised to learn that I ended up in the engineering field, specifically as a Software Engineer. I worked in many different industries from videogame development, web development, embedded, drones, .... and even made a smart toy for kids!. Thanks for your interest!
This was one of my favorite toys as a child. And as a teenager, I stole my dad's old Led Zeppelin 8 tracks to play on it... and the eyes would light up to the music!
I had one about 5 years ago and found one at a flea market for about $25. with the original box and a few tapes. I sold it to a friend about a year ago and he loves it. I never tried to play around with it and wondered if it played regular 8 track tapes. I have to ask my friend if his can secure tracks like your second unit.
The "choose your own adventure / pathway" is what they used the different tracks for, but the most clever thing of all was making the tracks absolutely identical and in sync when they needed to be. This made it very convincing for the user, because it didn't matter what button was left pressed in from the last answer. I never had one, but friends of the family did, I believe they had it around 1979.
@@LakeNipissing 1979 is correct. A buddy had the 2XL tapes in or around that year. We played them on a stereo with the track buttons marked as to what they are on the toy.
That is cool. The thing I'm trying to visualize now is how he'd keep score of correct/incorrect answers. I wish I could remember how high the count could go. I guess only 4 combinations would be possible?
The beginning of a 40+ year friendship was over one of these; we laughed our butts off as kids with the 2XL interviews Dracula - and every time we saw each other we would exclaim "Ow, my tooth!" RIP Mark - you're missed.
Had this happen a couple of years ago. I picked up a 200 cd changer at goodwill but it would not play. There was a disc stuck in the player, and required snapping a piece back into place, but it works perfectly now. Sad to see people tossing stuff that still works.
@@djdrew11 but it didn't work ... a CD player has to play CDs in order to work. It was thrown out because it couldn't do what it was designed for. Good that you fixed it though. Just stupid to think that way.
Millions of these went to landfills after mom had to listen to it more than 15 minutes. Mom would then rip it out of children's hands and throw it against the wall and teach the child how to use a broom and dustpan
When 2-XL says "Thank you for turning me on", it reminds me of Smither's computer in The Simpsons. I completely forgot I had one of the later Tomy ones of these when I was little. You definitely unlocked a memory of mine, Mat.
I played with one in a shop, I would have been 12 in 1978. I remember being pleased it asked questions about Star Trek and I knew what Quadro Triticale was. I asked for one for Christmas but didn't get it. I found out later that my parents weren't keen on it running out of questions and me pestering for more cartridges. We got an Atari 2600 instead, which changed my life, and of course we were soon pestering for more cartridges.
And yet, it could easily have been even more complex. Even though the device has a proper stereo head, it is now wasting two tracks for each mono signal. By adding a bit of electronics to let the user choose not only the main track between 1 and 4, but also between the left and right head, there could be 8 instead of 4 different selections and the amount of possible paths would be greatly increased.
@@henrikherranen2610 One of the stated selling points at the time was that it could play regular 8-tracks. And to split it up into 8 programs would've required additional custom-designed electronics, and it was a pretty expensive toy already. Don't dis my 2-XL!
@@henrikherranen2610 I came to the comments to say something very similar: why not have a switch that allows you to choose between two question sets? Flicking it left would play only the left channel, and right would play only the right channel; perhaps a middle position that plays both channels for the playback of music, too?
As 8-track tapes fell out of style, the inventor of the 2-XL licensed his technology to the owners of Sesame Street, which resulted in the Talk 'n Play cassette player. Each tape also came with a book that would tell stories, and ask the user to answer questions about what was happening in the story. The fundamental principle is the same, in that it used a 4-track mono system, and there were 4 colored buttons to change tracks (likely very similar to the 90's re-release of the 2-XL)
I still have my original 2-XL type 1 from childhood. The model you have is the type 2 with the red eyes with covers. The type 1 has silver eye balls with red leds. Not a huge deal because the inners are the same, so it's great you have two units, one to use and the other for parts when you need them. Fun video!
I'm guessing you guys are just kidding around. Ray told me this led technology was really just being tinkered on by the Canadian military back then. Ps. Question 22.
2-XL's voice and pronunciation sound odd, but oddly charming at the same time. I have to wonder how long it took just to write, edit and fine tune the recordings to get the intended result. Even today, such a task will take a good amount of time, but for the time these were made, there certainly had to have been a substantial time commitment.
There's a guest that the Drunken Peasants podcast used to have on who seemed to mimic that voice. In fact I used to think to myself where did he get the idea for that bizarre way of talking, now I know!!!
You finally reviewed him!!! This was my FAVORITE childhood toy in the early 1980's. Several years ago I went on an eBay buying spree until I managed to collect every single tape, button card, and accessory - including the rare demo tape and an even rarer demo display stand. The online emulator wasn't a thing at the time but it's fantastic that exists, I'll have to check it out in more detail because I never got around to redoing all of the pressure pads in all of the tapes I collected!
Was this a 80’s toy in the US. I bought one about 4 years ago and never played around with it. I sold it to a friend and he loves it and we both don’t remember this toy in the USA.
Well, I will say it didn't fake AI. It wasn't even AI. It was a real, sentient robot. How do I know? My brother and I were playing with it. This is probably 1981 or so. It asked a question, my brother and I discussed it, and we pushed the button. 2XL goes, "That is correct! You two are very smart!" My brother and I looked at each other in amazement. And to this day I still have no other explanation except that it was alive.
My parents got me one of these as a child, and my five-year-old self was utterly blown away by the apparent complexity and responsiveness of it. Years later I decided to take it apart to see what was actually going on in there, and I was quite disillusioned when I realized it was just an 8 track tape player in a fancy shell.
My 5yo is amazed how i talked with tv to turn on her favorite cartoon! But there is a catch - my tv doesn’t understand me - i just wirelessly select the right show on the ipad’s app and stream it to the tv - so nothing to be surprised to) same deal here nothing amazing)
Oh God, the nostalgia. I had one of these, with three cartridges: General Knowledge (which seemed to be missing from yours despite being the pack-in title), Science Fiction and an astronomy one about the Solar System. It blew my mind when my dad told me it was just an 8-track tape player. I wound up picking up a Best of Chicago 8-track that I found on the side of the road that I played on it. The only music 8-track I played on it, mainly because it was the only one I owned (at the time, 8-tracks were being phased out in favor of cassettes).
@@PauIieWalnuts I remember really liking "25 or 6 to 4," I don't think my 9-10 year old ears had heard anything quite like it. I had probably heard some of the hits on the radio, but at the time I mainly associated them with the yucky ballad "If You Leave Me Now," which was a hit a few years before. Fortunately, the tape pre-dated that so it wasn't included.
Aww, this little toy is adorable. It's before my time, but I think if I was around when it came out I would probably be obsessed. I really think it's cool how they made the best of pre-existing tech to make something cool. I put this video on to use as background sound while I do other stuff, but I kept alt-tabbing out so I could watch the video instead lol. Super interesting!
I got one of these for Xmas in 1978 when I was ten. I still have it today and ran through the science fiction tape last week in a fit of nostalgia. Was pleasantly surprised to see you work your magic on one.
I had the Tiger Electronics version as a kid, so hearing "it's" voice come out of a different machine is super trippy. Though, the way they made the cassette work -- to emulate the functionality of an 8-track -- is super cool and probably worth a follow-up video.
Very simple. One stereo track per side of a tape, so four tracks altogether, all running in the same direction instead of each pair in opposite directions.
My mate had one of these. I didn't, but my grandad had a lovely old Triumph estate car with a built in 8-track. It blew my mind when I realised I could borrow the cassettes and play the games on the go in the Triumph.
I had one of these as a kid and recently found it at my Mom's house with about 10 tapes. Sorta fun to go through them. I always thought it was a bit funny that his voice sounded like he was from Brooklyn, NY or some such place.
I got an original 2-XL in 1978 for my 7th birthday. In the 80s as a teenager my dad sold it at a garage sale for just a few bucks, along with so many other vintage toys of mine that as an adult I have spent years and lots of money re-buying for nostalgia purposes. I only had 3 or 4 cartridges for my original 2-XL, so it's been fun to buy lots that I never had and play them.
Reminds me of the first days of interactive cable tv when you had a terminal that gave you access to games, amongst other things. It just gave you multiple choices and when you typed a number you had to wait about 1 minute before entering the game and once you were in you had to answer the questions by typing in the right number on the remote control. Everything seemed to work in some sort of a loop and that's why you had to wait for that part of the loop that corresponded to the answer you provided to the terminal.
Bamboozle was more like that, a quiz that was based around the coloured Fastext buttons on the remote that were programmed to go to hexadecimal numbered pages that couldn't be dialld in from the remote (no buttons for A-F) Because there was only one right answer, one button would take you to the "you're right" page and the other three would take you to the "wrong" page. It meant you could cheat by looking in the top corner and seeing which page number the buttons would take you to!
This reminds me a lot of early DVDs and quizzes on them. Technically they behaved the same way, with the question screen being just a chapter selector in disguise and then it played wrong or right answer reaction clip afterwards.
I remember when these were new and being advertised on television. Hard to believe it was around the time Smokey and the Bandit came out! It’s funny how fast technology progressed since this toy,and how fiction becomes reality. In 1982 K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider was unbelievably futuristic and a work of fantasy. A talking car with digital dash that could drive itself,and plot courses on a computer screen? Now this is reality,although no where near as cool looking as it was then.
@@garethbaus5471 Depends on your definition of sentient. There was a Google engineer put on leave recently because they were utterly convinced that their AI had become sentient.
@@elllieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee that person was probably suffering mental illness, we are not even remotely close to that becoming a possibility with todays technology. It is purely science fiction. We have no idea how AI could even become sentient let alone achieve it. Maybe in the future with quantum computing. Google are not even anywhere near the forefront in AI lol, what they do is not really even AI in the sense you are thinking.
@@elllieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Lamda just said what someone trying to prove thier intelligence is statistically likely to say. It is very good at that, but it can not think, because it is a static model, which only ever runs based on some input.
As a 2000’s kid i find this use of tracks utterly amazing! I would have never thought of that and i think this is so cool given the limitations they were working with. What a cool toy :)
I'm 51 and I loved my 2-XL! Seemed like magic at the time. I had quite a few carts but they were all American and I remember being pretty puzzled about some of the US-centric questions on them - stuff about the Superbowl and so on. Seeing some of those labels on the carts takes me right back.
This demonstrated cleverness in the production and design, but also shows how detailed and informative 'Techmoan' has been in demonstrating how it works. I never owned an 8 track device, but you have demystified the usage of this fascinating entertainment :)
Outstanding show! I wanted a 2XL so badly after seeing one at my local Hills Department Store here in West Virginia. I played with it every time we visited...I was 7 at the time and it blew me away. Add about 40 years to it, and finally picked up one up with some games...just having it sitting on my shelf gives me great pleasure.
Ughhhh... That way it says "Qwestshon" irks me so much... Unfortunately it's the most common word it uses... I could see it bothering me as a child too 🤣 Great vid on it 2xl by the way, vaguely remember the original. Definitely remember the remake.
Thanks for bringing us back to our childhood! My wife had a 2XL as a little girl and I used to come and play with it thinking it was so cool! It kinda was our first date!!
When i was a kid i had one of these, but not this type, instead a modernized version with different "robotish" design made by Tomy with a classic tape cassette like the ones used in a regular walkman, and it was named 2-XL too. I have spent houndred hours with it and didn't know it was a revamped version of a '70 toy. What a beautiful find!
Same here my parents weren't impressed by any toy that made hours of 'noise' so I never had one. But my neighbor had the newer cassette version, as I recall it was mostly white with Ice blue trim and they had added a handle across the top 😁.... the one my friend had was in between the two shown, overall more like the 2nd one but chunkier like the 1st I think he would have gotten it in the mid 80's..
I also had the cassette tape version of 2XL, and this video has been quite a trip of nostalgia! It's cool to learn how our childhood toys mechanically functioned. Cheers, Techmoan!
This multitrack idea was also used for PS1 games such as Parappa the Rapper and Unjammy Lammy, etc, to change the mood of the music as the player got better or worse in their responses. The player responses are sfx played by the game logic, but the music is hardcoded into a multitrack format commonly used in many PS1 games for music on the CDROM.
I had the 90s 2XL robot when I was a kid! I remember I bought it unboxed with no tapes at a yard sale. Because of this I had no idea what it did, I just thought it was a robot shaped cassette player. Super cool knowing now the real purpose of it!!
By far the most sophisticated program cartridge on 2-XL was the game *TRI-LEX*. It added a tray on the front that you could put checkers into, similar to Connect-4, but smaller and triangular. The 8-track cartridge was sophisticated enough to play a decent game against you. Eventually, I discovered that it was possible to win Tri-Lex every time so long as I went first. Even when I played it as a 2-person game against someone else, there was a pretty easy strategy that was *provably* unbeatable. I can see why Tri-Lex didn't catch on outside of the 2-XL world.
There were 4 different games. Whoever went first could always win if played correctly. I seem to remember there were 2 where you got to start first and 2 where 2-XL started first. I believe it was possible to win 3 of the 4 games due to the fact that 2-XL made a mistake on one of the games where he played first. The fourth game was played perfectly by 2-XL and the player would always lose that one.
I remember 2XL vividly. It said that its purpose was helping its users "to excel." After an hour of going through tapes, we all lost interest and it is probably in some landfill or thrift store. I guess we just couldn't excel enough for that machine.
I totally had one of these in the 80's. I think it was one of my older siblings toys that was handed down to me. I remember taking it apart to see how it worked, and of course it never worked again after that. I haven't though about that thing in years.
Huh. So there was an older 8-track version. I had the compact cassette version, which looked quite different. It took advantage of the stereo tracks of both sides of a cassette tape to get the four tracks. And it used the same voice. Though the casettes were longer. They didn't use cards for the choices: it just listed multiple options on each button.
I'm surprised they didn't use an extra switch on the 8-track version to make either the recording twice as long, or the tapes half the physical length since they already have a stereo head.
@@krzysztofczarnecki8238 Thing is, doubling the capacity of the tapes would mean twice as much production time. It might have been worth it if they'd had more ambitious content, choose your own adventures etc. Buuuut, choose-your-own-adventure hadn't been invented yet. One year early!
Ah, 2-XL! I had the original 8-track version when I was a child, and loved it immensely. Also liked keeping it in my bed and playing one of my dad's 8-track tapes (though we were never cool enough to have "Back In Black" on 8-track - mad respect to you for that!). Eventually, it stopped working, and an uncle of mine offered to take a look at it... never saw it again after that. (sob) Great episode, Mat! Thanks for the flashback!
I had one of the more futuristic looking ones that used cassettes. My favorite tape, of which I cannot seem to find any information about today but vividly remember, was retelling of The Battle of Fort McHenry, with some multiple choice questions and a few branching paths, if I remember right.
I had the Tiger version, and I was smart enough to figure out how it worked. It seems on the wiki for these toys, the Tiger version used a play head that could read all four tracks at once. Which means the buttons were basically the same as the solo buttons in Audacity.
As a kid, I as absolutely BRUTAL with these kinds of toys. This one in particular, my brother and I would intentionally pick the wrong answers for the LOLS, but you could also flick the buttons in just the right way, to get the head movement mechanism to stop half-way between tracks. Which was hilarious.
I had that little brown monster as a kid. I was probably around 5 when I got it. I played with it for hours. It remains the only 8 track device anyone in my family ever had.
"you clearly used the bat computer" - the 1978 equivalent of "you googled the answer". This thing is really clever made. I assume the tapes don't all follow the same structure, so you can't just leave it on B to always have the correct answer - at least I would've made it so you can't do that. There have been some modern games on DVD that used a similar approach, where the answer you pick makes it jump to specific point in a certain video file. Of course DVD scripting is slow and less elegant, but it's the same pattern of jumping between different tracks within limitations of the media. Scene It on DVD (the board game) partially uses this principle although it relies more on self discipline than scripting.
Man this is so interesting - the questions appear on different tracks AND the answer was cognizant that you had picked a wrong answer off a wrong answer. The amount of work that went into producing and timing that tape seems incredible to me. Even seeing how it was done, it's still incredibly well thought out
Fun fact about the first question on the "Science Fiction 1" tape. _Space: 1999_ and _UFO_ were both live-action sci-fi shows produced by the same group that produced the original _Thunderbirds_ series.
Your ability to make crappy toys interesting is pretty remarkable. One of the best channels on RUclips... and I can't explain why! Thanks, Mat. Another one that I totally enjoyed watching.
I vaguely remember this from my childhood, though I never had one I saw it on TV commercials. As a kid we could always sniff out the "educational" toys from the real toys and instinctively knew to avoid anything "educational". Never understood how toy companies thought kids were too dumb to figure that out. We got lots of lecturing in school; toys are for playing.
I LOVED this toy as a kid. Turning off the lights once and those red glowing eyes scared the crap out of me! Lol I remember owning an attachment where you could play checkers with 2xl. Thanks for this video!
I was glad to see that Star Wars 8-track you were testing with. Back in the day my parents gave me that on LP and it was one of my all-time favorites! The LP cover had the same graphic.
Same!! As a kid I thought I had imagined it was a thing (bc later on my bro took the LP with him when he moved), so when I encountered it again I was so excited! I now own the one-sided single, such a jam
I am right there with you. My brother had the vinyl single of the Star Wars Theme by Meco and we were disappointed that it was a disco version, not the soundtrack version. We still played it a lot, though.
8 tracks-tape has been the bane of my early engineering years. Even when - in the late '70s - early '80s the Philips musicassette was prevailing, there were a bunch of grown-up who refused to give up their 8 tracks-tape players. These players were terrible with their neverending tape mechanism, they kept jamming - especially when people used them in a car during the summer. People were strangely attached to the system. Ah, the AC188-AC188 germanium transistor complementary couple shorted when you looked fancy at them. 1 full RMS watt per audio channel! The mechanism in the 2XL toy you have there is one of the late ones, they became incredibly cheap by using stamped metal parts. Thank you for the trip down the memory lane...
My sister had one with an adapter on the front that allowed it to play something like connect 4 or maybe tic-tac-toe. The pieces were dropped in slots that would cause button presses. Very impressive for a tape player!
I never knew 2XL was out in the 70s and used 8--Tracks instead of cassettes, I had the early 90s version and thinking about it brings back so many memories, i should try to track one down for the nostalgia.
Always loved the70's disco version of the Star Wars theme, very suitable test cartridge! I was more of the Omnibot generation, but I'm quite impressed with the way this works. The voice reminds me a bit of Dr Frink! Thanks for the emulator link.
I was born in 2001, I’ve never even heard of this machine before and the only time I’ve seen an 8-track cassette in person has been for exorbitant prices in vintage store display cases. This toy looks like absolutely magic. I’m watching you go through it and I’m just enamoured. There is no computer doing any work, it’s all mechanical! It’s so cool.
I was born in 1990 so have seen a couple of 8 track players, obviously they were a thing a lot closer to my birth date than yours, but I’ve only ever seen them at car boot sales, car shows and vintage electronics sales.
Oh my god. The way the robot says, "thank you for turning me on" has the exact same cadence and delivery as Smithers' PC startup noise where it uses Mr. Burns' voice to say "Smithers, you are quite good at turning me on."
This is EXACTLY what came to mind when I heard it to the point that I wonder if it was the inspiration for the writers of that line in Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy.
The branching and different questions according to the previous answer is great, it IS more complicated than I thought. The designer (I should say writer) knew that this is a simple toy, but he still wanted to give the most playability (and replayability). It could have been really complicated it they used all 8 tracks and even more if they found a way to switch heads automatically with some control signal on the current track (even if only could just jump "up" to the first).
Wow. I missed these devices by only a few years..but I agree... the clever multitrack production is the genius. I suspect that the process would have happened on an 8 track 1/4 inch multitrack master.... recording in pairs (1+5...2+6 etc or even on mono singles). Our host then records the master questions (on all tracks) with gaps for answers....then "punches in" the answers on the required tracks with padding sfx as required. You can even hear him "speeding through" the script to finish in time! Then I suppose it's a case of duplicating the whole 8 track master onto the carts. Very cleverly done to give such a great illusion. Great video!
I was just looking at his Wikipedia, he's a talented man who was still producing hit toys as late as 2004. There was also a TV spinoff of 2-XL he was executive producer of! I'm guessing he's retired now, 75 at this point, what an interesting life he must have led!
@@dRevnik Not really. The recording was sped up a bit to raise the pitch. This is a very common technique. It was also used on Mel Blanc's voice when he voiced Tweety Bird and Daffy Duck. Daffy's voice was just Sylvester the cat's voice, sped-up.
@@OofusTwillip Wow, that's incredible! Thank you! You know, maybe you can explain to me another thing I am wondering about for a long time: How does Techmoan fit inside my computer screen? He looks like a fully grown man, yet he's somehow able to squeeze inside the display. And is he in there all the time? What does he eat? Shoud I put him some food inside from time to time or something? Idk, thank you in advance!
This was my first music player! I never knew anybody else who had one, I lots of carts but usually just played captain and Tenille and Statler brothers. Ahh memories...I still smell the Christmas I got it.....
Sorry Techmoan I’d love to stay and watch your content but your little robot friend just mentioned “Mr Wizard” resulting in a flood of 30+ year old nostalgia. I can’t believe I had forgotten the endless hours I watched that show! Must go now and watch all of the Mr Wizard byyyyyeeeeeeee
I honestly almost snagged one at my local goodwill a few months ago for next to nothing, but had turned it down due to the power cord. Wish I had know it was so simple to make a cord then.
"...you might be a similar age to myself. Seventy-eight." At first I was like "NO WAY HE'S SEVENTY EIGHT!" I was ten when I first saw a 2XL, and when I immediately realized how it worked, it was still pretty easy to suspend belief when playing with one. There was one on display at a department store we'd frequent and my brother and I would play with it all the time.
The youtube algo sent me here. I look up to see the blue panasonic. Just so happens I have a yellow one sitting here playing kiss alive II. It was my grandfathers and has been in service since before 1980. The drive belt was replaced sometime in the 90's
I love how the eyes flash in sync with what he's saying Thank you for going into such great detail about what's on each track What happens if you let it play to the end of the 8-track How does 2 sided cassette tape work
16:55 A missed opportunity - using the same stereo head have a "robot\music" button to switch between special mono and stereo modes. This way robot "program" might've had either 4 more options or doubled running time by switching from mono-right 4 channels to mono-left 4 channels as needed.
@@Vladimir_Kv Splitting the audio head output and ensuring the correct output is in operation at any given moment. Having a reliable mechanism to switch from the left channel output to the right channel output at the appropriate time, and automatically return back to the correct starting channel at the beginning of playback. None of these things would be excessively difficult to make reliably in an 8 track player (as commercial long play systems demonstrate), but making them cheap, robust and reliable enough for a child's toy is a different matter. There may be a system that could have been robust enough to be used that is impractical because of cost, particularly if there are royalties due on a patent at the time. There may have be a cheap enough method that wouldn't put up with the abuse a child's toy receives. And for what benefit? You double the capacity of the toy's tapes... Does that being in extra custom? No, because it is a toy for young children. 20 minute tapes were plenty. There would be no benefit to the added complexity and cost. If this were not a child's toy, it may have been worth it. But children's toy production has two basic rules... Be cheap and be quick to manufacture.
@@damionlee7658 doubling run time can be as simple as having question pack A and B one one tape, literally all you'd need to add is one switch with 3 positions: A, music (A+B), B Of course this just switches whether the left or right channel (or both for playing music) of the tape head gets connected to the amplifier board
@@xureality but what benefit will it actually bring? It will not increase sales, all it does is add cost, and add extra parts that could fail, which is my entire point.
The brown robot toy with an 8-track player, playing a Star Wars themed disco cartridge, has got to be the most 1970's thing that I didn't expect to see.
Thanks for sharing and exploring 2-XL. Like said below, showing us how the tracks work was fascinating. I'm 53 and had one when I was a kid... I purchased one on eBay around 10 years ago and he sits proudly on my shelf. For those who didn't know what it was, I always explained it as the robot with the Long Island accent. (Also as mentioned below I too had the Meco Star Wars album you played the 8-track of. Great memories!) Thanks again!
2XL was also re-released in the 90s, it looked completely different and used cassette tapes. I had no idea this 70s one existed because I had the 90s one. Crazy!
I was 11 in 1978, but I have no recollection of the 2-XL at all, and I loved those kinds of things! However, I do have a copy of that Meco Star Wars LP. 😊
Ever play the Meco Star Wars LP at a different speed (like 78 RPM or 16-2/3 RPM)? You'll hear some revealing things if you do. (Like how they did the Cantina Band, and how they did the exploding Death Star sound.)
@@rogermwilcox I’m guessing the band was larger deeper woodwinds played slowly to give it that timbre when sped up, and the explosion was something dropping/smashing/etc slowed down?
Superb stuff! Thanks. I love late 70s ‘computer’ toys and their ingenious workarounds to seem high tech. Also appreciate how you go really deep into the workings of another forgotten contraption. Techmoan at it’s finest :)
How ingeniously the audio programming was mixed together! Must have been a fun device, provided a large catalog of tapes. Thank you for this excellent video!!!
I wanted to say hello from America and also thank you so much for your films these are some of the most entertaining and educational films that are available on RUclips. I love every single film that you do and very thankful that I found your channel. I'm right there with you as you're working on everything and I even hold my breath at times going yes we're going to fix this yes we're going to fix this. Anyway, thank you again and much love and respect from America
The 90's version of the 2-XL (From Tiger Electronics) that used compact cassettes used the fact that the two tracks/sides on a cassette can include left and right stereo channels so they simply recorded the fours tracks of audio that the 8-Track version used on the Side 1, Left Channel, then Side 1, Right Channel, then side 2, left channel, and side 2, right channel. They avoided the need for an autoreverse head on this device by recording all four tracks of audio going in the same direction and just using a special four channel playback head. Pressing one of the three answer buttons simply switched which channel plays out of the mono speaker and you press the Question button to return to the Question Channel. Of course if you play "Side 2" of these 2-XL tapes on a regular cassette deck, it would play all the channel at once and backwards. I assume the same would be true playing the wrong side in the 2-XL device but with one one channel playing at time. Thus this version cannot play regular audio cassettes unlike the 8-Track version which can play 8-track music cartridges nor will the tape properly play in a standard cassette deck. To archive one of these special tapes, you need to record the left and right channels of side one then the L/R of side 2, then reverse the L/R of side 2. The Lost Media Wiki has some good info on the Tiger Electronics Compact Cassette Version of the 2-XL for anyone interested.
Four track heads probably first appeared in devices aimed at musicians like the Tascam Portastudio. Later on most Auto-Reverse personal stereos used them as there is no need for an erase head in one of those.
I had the cassette version of 2-XL as a kid. I knew it used some form of track switching, but was too young to figure it out how it worked at the time. The way that the audio tracks are structured is really clever and I wonder how long it took to write all the dialogue.
I’ve still got the one I was given for Christmas (I’ve even got video of my meeting 2XL for the first time under the tree which was recorded on Sanyo V-Cord II tape). And it still works! Was absolutely my most favorite toy throughout all of my childhood.
im 35, an American, and i managed to have one of these in the 90's. my neighbor who was an electrical engineer gave it to me. i remember this thing! cheers mate.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
There's something so funny and sweet about the thought of a retro-futuristic quiz robot having a thick new york accent
I wonder if he is still kicking about
@@ApothecaryGrant He's 76, and I believe he's still alive. Michael J. Freeman was his name, and his voice was synthesized for the 2-XL.
@@lil4lien Great post . Better taste in profile pic Luv your style ....wink
imagine if it had the now modern new york accent once going "AYE IM WALKIN' HERE"
This is the ugliest voice in history. It's so funny how people in the 80s thought AI or robots or whatever would speak.
The voicing is gold. Seriously, I can't believe it was the inventor who voiced the cassettes.
As a kid, I got the compact cassette version released by Tiger in the mid 90's. I loved it. My mom hated it.
The cassette was labeled 'right' in one side, and 'wrong' in the other'. If you played the 'wrong' side, everything sounded backward. I quickly realized they were using the two stereo tracks from the 'right' side and the other two tracks from the 'wrong' side, but recorded backward. This provided for the 4 audio channels. The mechanism used the playing head from an auto-reverse cassette player to pull that off.
When I figured out how it worked, I wanted to make a custom program for it, so a friend of mine and I started planning the questions and different responses. Since we had no means to independently record the 4 tracks of a cassette in different takes we limited it to two options. The fun part is that since we also didn't know how to record the two tracks from the 'wrong' cassette side, we started talking backward, which resulted in lots of fun, with very weird-sounding results 😁. But all in all.. It kind of worked!!
Fond memories ❤ ....
i kept seeing references to the tape cassette version in other comments and couldn’t immediately figure out how that might work-thank you for your explanation.
Awesome!
And what field of work you ended up in?
Sounds like it used a 4-track head, which isn't quite the same as normal auto-reverse where it flips the playhead. 4-track heads are more reliable but they have the downside that you can't record the whole tape in one go with them.
@@KevinArcade87 Wow that was unexpected :). I guess you won't be surprised to learn that I ended up in the engineering field, specifically as a Software Engineer. I worked in many different industries from videogame development, web development, embedded, drones, .... and even made a smart toy for kids!. Thanks for your interest!
This was one of my favorite toys as a child. And as a teenager, I stole my dad's old Led Zeppelin 8 tracks to play on it... and the eyes would light up to the music!
Did that with the Star Wars 8 Track and D.E.V.O... LOVED the blinking eyes...GOOD TIMES!
I had one about 5 years ago and found one at a flea market for about $25. with the original box and a few tapes.
I sold it to a friend about a year ago and he loves it. I never tried to play around with it and wondered if it played regular 8 track tapes. I have to ask my friend if his can secure tracks like your second unit.
"It would probably take your brain 1 hour to cook Minute Rice."
HOLY CRAP! That's a sick burn coming from a robot made in the 70's!
XD imagine being some kid in the 1970s and hearing this! "WAAAAH! DADDY THE COMPUTER CALLED ME DUMB!"
The one my sister had as a kid would tell you "you should consider donating your brain to a meat factory".
@@Rutherford_Inchworm_III LOOOL! Oh thats brutal! Did she ever smack it for saying that?
@@JCarey1988 Nah, it was the 70s. Everybody thought it was hilarious.
@@JCarey1988NO but she smacked her mother for buying it!!!
The Audacity breakdown of all four tracks really helps to demonstrate what’s going on. Thanks Mat
The "choose your own adventure / pathway" is what they used the different tracks for, but the most clever thing of all was making the tracks absolutely identical and in sync when they needed to be. This made it very convincing for the user, because it didn't matter what button was left pressed in from the last answer.
I never had one, but friends of the family did, I believe they had it around 1979.
@@cactusjackNV True to your handle you are. Rather pathetic :p
@@LakeNipissing they lined up the sound affects so when you switch tracks you could not tell
@@LakeNipissing 1979 is correct. A buddy had the 2XL tapes in or around that year. We played them on a stereo with the track buttons marked as to what they are on the toy.
That is cool. The thing I'm trying to visualize now is how he'd keep score of correct/incorrect answers. I wish I could remember how high the count could go. I guess only 4 combinations would be possible?
The beginning of a 40+ year friendship was over one of these; we laughed our butts off as kids with the 2XL interviews Dracula - and every time we saw each other we would exclaim "Ow, my tooth!" RIP Mark - you're missed.
I remember that one!
I remember that! He tries to bite his metal, lol
😂 that was my favorite tape.
“Why don’t Vampires like garlic?”
The 90's version that I had as a kid also did a similar thing with Dracula.
“Let’s clean this tape off and see it sounds any better.” Then BOOM, it plays perfectly. I love the simple fixes.
Very sc-fi
Had this happen a couple of years ago. I picked up a 200 cd changer at goodwill but it would not play. There was a disc stuck in the player, and required snapping a piece back into place, but it works perfectly now.
Sad to see people tossing stuff that still works.
@@djdrew11 i could perfectly toss away something today that we'd say is useless only for people in the future to be absolutely amazed by it
@@djdrew11 but it didn't work ... a CD player has to play CDs in order to work. It was thrown out because it couldn't do what it was designed for.
Good that you fixed it though. Just stupid to think that way.
Millions of these went to landfills after mom had to listen to it more than 15 minutes. Mom would then rip it out of children's hands and throw it against the wall and teach the child how to use a broom and dustpan
I'm impressed that the vocal performances weren't even by a full-time voice actor. They're good.
Can he do anything BUT robot is the question XD
@tsm688 Ya he can 23:20
"Quest-Yone"
NY-Jewish accent, like Woody Allen's.
I understand how it works, but the idea of how to structure the audio so it would work "seamlessly" like this is rather amazing
When 2-XL says "Thank you for turning me on", it reminds me of Smither's computer in The Simpsons. I completely forgot I had one of the later Tomy ones of these when I was little. You definitely unlocked a memory of mine, Mat.
This is hilarious, I used to think the exact same thing with my Tiger version of 2XL
You should ignore that.
That's where Groening got the idea.
🤣
You probably should ignore that.
I played with one in a shop, I would have been 12 in 1978. I remember being pleased it asked questions about Star Trek and I knew what Quadro Triticale was. I asked for one for Christmas but didn't get it. I found out later that my parents weren't keen on it running out of questions and me pestering for more cartridges. We got an Atari 2600 instead, which changed my life, and of course we were soon pestering for more cartridges.
Yes Quadro Triticale, a Russian invention.
I'll play video games when there is free online play
Changed your life eh
@@BHARGAV_GAJJAR free in the future will mean paying in time to watch ads
They should have given you the robot
I was surprised how complex the paths became, would have seemed magical to anyone using it in the 1970s.
It was.. - this Gen Xer
And yet, it could easily have been even more complex. Even though the device has a proper stereo head, it is now wasting two tracks for each mono signal. By adding a bit of electronics to let the user choose not only the main track between 1 and 4, but also between the left and right head, there could be 8 instead of 4 different selections and the amount of possible paths would be greatly increased.
@@henrikherranen2610 One of the stated selling points at the time was that it could play regular 8-tracks. And to split it up into 8 programs would've required additional custom-designed electronics, and it was a pretty expensive toy already. Don't dis my 2-XL!
@@narkspud691 All valid points. Not dissing; just thinking of the possibilities.
@@henrikherranen2610 I came to the comments to say something very similar: why not have a switch that allows you to choose between two question sets? Flicking it left would play only the left channel, and right would play only the right channel; perhaps a middle position that plays both channels for the playback of music, too?
As 8-track tapes fell out of style, the inventor of the 2-XL licensed his technology to the owners of Sesame Street, which resulted in the Talk 'n Play cassette player. Each tape also came with a book that would tell stories, and ask the user to answer questions about what was happening in the story. The fundamental principle is the same, in that it used a 4-track mono system, and there were 4 colored buttons to change tracks (likely very similar to the 90's re-release of the 2-XL)
I still have my original 2-XL type 1 from childhood. The model you have is the type 2 with the red eyes with covers. The type 1 has silver eye balls with red leds. Not a huge deal because the inners are the same, so it's great you have two units, one to use and the other for parts when you need them. Fun video!
I wonder how much that cost in “today’s dollars” - LEDs were expensive back then!
I'm guessing you guys are just kidding around. Ray told me this led technology was really just being tinkered on by the Canadian military back then.
Ps. Question 22.
That’s actually a cool system, forcing you back on track (no pun intended) to continue the tape correctly is a sneaky but clever setup.
Whoever made the emulator for this is a saint.
2-XL's voice and pronunciation sound odd, but oddly charming at the same time. I have to wonder how long it took just to write, edit and fine tune the recordings to get the intended result. Even today, such a task will take a good amount of time, but for the time these were made, there certainly had to have been a substantial time commitment.
There's a guest that the Drunken Peasants podcast used to have on who seemed to mimic that voice. In fact I used to think to myself where did he get the idea for that bizarre way of talking, now I know!!!
Sounds kind of Maccy on Macintosh Librarian
Sounds like the love child of H.E.R.B.I.E. and Bubsy. Very grating. But maybe that's just me being old.
It always reminded me Roger Rabbit.
Yeah, the way he pronounces "question" as "quest-ee-own" (among other affectations) is certainly memorable...
You finally reviewed him!!! This was my FAVORITE childhood toy in the early 1980's. Several years ago I went on an eBay buying spree until I managed to collect every single tape, button card, and accessory - including the rare demo tape and an even rarer demo display stand. The online emulator wasn't a thing at the time but it's fantastic that exists, I'll have to check it out in more detail because I never got around to redoing all of the pressure pads in all of the tapes I collected!
Sounds like you could have more media than the emulator does...
...that's cool!
Was this a 80’s toy in the US. I bought one about 4 years ago and never played around with it. I sold it to a friend and he loves it and we both don’t remember this toy in the USA.
Well, I will say it didn't fake AI. It wasn't even AI. It was a real, sentient robot. How do I know? My brother and I were playing with it. This is probably 1981 or so. It asked a question, my brother and I discussed it, and we pushed the button. 2XL goes, "That is correct! You two are very smart!" My brother and I looked at each other in amazement. And to this day I still have no other explanation except that it was alive.
Damn
Every copy of 2-XL is personalized
@@_lunartemis lmao
I think it was saying "You too are very smart" as in "You are also very smart".
@@REFfigy That's one theory we have discussed recently.
Imagine you have to speak with that voice and style in a studio all day recording these. I would go insane, at least get a severe headache.
I get the feeling he's having the time of his life tbh
My parents got me one of these as a child, and my five-year-old self was utterly blown away by the apparent complexity and responsiveness of it. Years later I decided to take it apart to see what was actually going on in there, and I was quite disillusioned when I realized it was just an 8 track tape player in a fancy shell.
My 5yo is amazed how i talked with tv to turn on her favorite cartoon! But there is a catch - my tv doesn’t understand me - i just wirelessly select the right show on the ipad’s app and stream it to the tv - so nothing to be surprised to) same deal here nothing amazing)
Oh God, the nostalgia. I had one of these, with three cartridges: General Knowledge (which seemed to be missing from yours despite being the pack-in title), Science Fiction and an astronomy one about the Solar System. It blew my mind when my dad told me it was just an 8-track tape player. I wound up picking up a Best of Chicago 8-track that I found on the side of the road that I played on it. The only music 8-track I played on it, mainly because it was the only one I owned (at the time, 8-tracks were being phased out in favor of cassettes).
Damn, best of Chicago? Did you enjoy it? I feel like it could have been one of those "wow" moments.
@@PauIieWalnuts I remember really liking "25 or 6 to 4," I don't think my 9-10 year old ears had heard anything quite like it. I had probably heard some of the hits on the radio, but at the time I mainly associated them with the yucky ballad "If You Leave Me Now," which was a hit a few years before. Fortunately, the tape pre-dated that so it wasn't included.
Aww, this little toy is adorable. It's before my time, but I think if I was around when it came out I would probably be obsessed. I really think it's cool how they made the best of pre-existing tech to make something cool. I put this video on to use as background sound while I do other stuff, but I kept alt-tabbing out so I could watch the video instead lol. Super interesting!
"Test it out with a _normal_ tape," he says, whipping out his disco rendition of Star Wars music. Techmoan, never change.
loved it
I got one of these for Xmas in 1978 when I was ten. I still have it today and ran through the science fiction tape last week in a fit of nostalgia. Was pleasantly surprised to see you work your magic on one.
I had the Tiger Electronics version as a kid, so hearing "it's" voice come out of a different machine is super trippy.
Though, the way they made the cassette work -- to emulate the functionality of an 8-track -- is super cool and probably worth a follow-up video.
Very simple. One stereo track per side of a tape, so four tracks altogether, all running in the same direction instead of each pair in opposite directions.
@@donaloflynn For the cassette version of the 2-XL, side 2 plays backwards if you play it on a normal cassette deck.
@@Musicradio77Network As I suspected. Thanks for the confirmation.
I'd want to know how the inside looked. Would it need 2 tape heads and we're would they be placed? Would they be mono? Etc.
@@bland9876 You’re overcomplicating it. Just a four track head. Obviously the tracks would be mono, how else could there be four on one cassette?
My mate had one of these. I didn't, but my grandad had a lovely old Triumph estate car with a built in 8-track. It blew my mind when I realised I could borrow the cassettes and play the games on the go in the Triumph.
The first occurrence of a “smart car”
WOW!!! The voice on that 8 track brought back a LOT of memories!!!
I had one of these as a kid and recently found it at my Mom's house with about 10 tapes. Sorta fun to go through them. I always thought it was a bit funny that his voice sounded like he was from Brooklyn, NY or some such place.
,,New York could use a Batman"
That sounded like it was based on some first hand experience of New York life to me.
I got an original 2-XL in 1978 for my 7th birthday. In the 80s as a teenager my dad sold it at a garage sale for just a few bucks, along with so many other vintage toys of mine that as an adult I have spent years and lots of money re-buying for nostalgia purposes. I only had 3 or 4 cartridges for my original 2-XL, so it's been fun to buy lots that I never had and play them.
Reminds me of the first days of interactive cable tv when you had a terminal that gave you access to games, amongst other things. It just gave you multiple choices and when you typed a number you had to wait about 1 minute before entering the game and once you were in you had to answer the questions by typing in the right number on the remote control. Everything seemed to work in some sort of a loop and that's why you had to wait for that part of the loop that corresponded to the answer you provided to the terminal.
Bamboozle was more like that, a quiz that was based around the coloured Fastext buttons on the remote that were programmed to go to hexadecimal numbered pages that couldn't be dialld in from the remote (no buttons for A-F)
Because there was only one right answer, one button would take you to the "you're right" page and the other three would take you to the "wrong" page. It meant you could cheat by looking in the top corner and seeing which page number the buttons would take you to!
This reminds me a lot of early DVDs and quizzes on them. Technically they behaved the same way, with the question screen being just a chapter selector in disguise and then it played wrong or right answer reaction clip afterwards.
@@electrictroy2010 Yeah, it must have been harder to design quizzes for the 2-XL.
I remember when these were new and being advertised on television. Hard to believe it was around the time Smokey and the Bandit came out! It’s funny how fast technology progressed since this toy,and how fiction becomes reality. In 1982 K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider was unbelievably futuristic and a work of fantasy. A talking car with digital dash that could drive itself,and plot courses on a computer screen? Now this is reality,although no where near as cool looking as it was then.
We still don't seem to have reached sentient AI like K.I.T.T. yet, so Knight Rider is still pretty futuristic even by today's standards.
@@garethbaus5471 Depends on your definition of sentient. There was a Google engineer put on leave recently because they were utterly convinced that their AI had become sentient.
@@elllieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee that does necessarily indicate sentience on it's own.
@@elllieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee that person was probably suffering mental illness, we are not even remotely close to that becoming a possibility with todays technology. It is purely science fiction. We have no idea how AI could even become sentient let alone achieve it. Maybe in the future with quantum computing. Google are not even anywhere near the forefront in AI lol, what they do is not really even AI in the sense you are thinking.
@@elllieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Lamda just said what someone trying to prove thier intelligence is statistically likely to say. It is very good at that, but it can not think, because it is a static model, which only ever runs based on some input.
As a 2000’s kid i find this use of tracks utterly amazing! I would have never thought of that and i think this is so cool given the limitations they were working with. What a cool toy :)
I'm 51 and I loved my 2-XL! Seemed like magic at the time. I had quite a few carts but they were all American and I remember being pretty puzzled about some of the US-centric questions on them - stuff about the Superbowl and so on. Seeing some of those labels on the carts takes me right back.
This demonstrated cleverness in the production and design, but also shows how detailed and informative 'Techmoan' has been in demonstrating how it works. I never owned an 8 track device, but you have demystified the usage of this fascinating entertainment :)
"Techmoan". It's right there in the channel name.
@@wbfaulk You will be glad it has been corrected.
What a wonderful old device. Love the production quality of the cartridges.
Liked the way you repaired them.
Outstanding show! I wanted a 2XL so badly after seeing one at my local Hills Department Store here in West Virginia. I played with it every time we visited...I was 7 at the time and it blew me away. Add about 40 years to it, and finally picked up one up with some games...just having it sitting on my shelf gives me great pleasure.
Ughhhh... That way it says "Qwestshon" irks me so much... Unfortunately it's the most common word it uses... I could see it bothering me as a child too 🤣 Great vid on it 2xl by the way, vaguely remember the original. Definitely remember the remake.
Thanks for bringing us back to our childhood! My wife had a 2XL as a little girl and I used to come and play with it thinking it was so cool! It kinda was our first date!!
I would definitely like to see the 90s 2XL in action and any repairs if needed. I find these things absolutely fascinating.
When i was a kid i had one of these, but not this type, instead a modernized version with different "robotish" design made by Tomy with a classic tape cassette like the ones used in a regular walkman, and it was named 2-XL too. I have spent houndred hours with it and didn't know it was a revamped version of a '70 toy. What a beautiful find!
When I was a kid I saw ads on TV for the cassette version of 2XL. But I never owned one.
Same here my parents weren't impressed by any toy that made hours of 'noise' so I never had one. But my neighbor had the newer cassette version, as I recall it was mostly white with Ice blue trim and they had added a handle across the top 😁.... the one my friend had was in between the two shown, overall more like the 2nd one but chunkier like the 1st I think he would have gotten it in the mid 80's..
Even the 70s version is a revamped version of the one made in 1909 that used Edison Wax Cylinders.
I also had the cassette tape version of 2XL, and this video has been quite a trip of nostalgia! It's cool to learn how our childhood toys mechanically functioned. Cheers, Techmoan!
I was going to say that I remember a cassette version from the 80s when I was a kid
This multitrack idea was also used for PS1 games such as Parappa the Rapper and Unjammy Lammy, etc, to change the mood of the music as the player got better or worse in their responses. The player responses are sfx played by the game logic, but the music is hardcoded into a multitrack format commonly used in many PS1 games for music on the CDROM.
2:30 You missed a chance for a Technology Connections reference: "But throught the Magic of buying two of them.." :D
I had the 90s 2XL robot when I was a kid! I remember I bought it unboxed with no tapes at a yard sale. Because of this I had no idea what it did, I just thought it was a robot shaped cassette player. Super cool knowing now the real purpose of it!!
Did you never wonder about the Yes/No/True/False buttons at the bottom?
By far the most sophisticated program cartridge on 2-XL was the game *TRI-LEX*.
It added a tray on the front that you could put checkers into, similar to Connect-4, but smaller and triangular.
The 8-track cartridge was sophisticated enough to play a decent game against you.
Eventually, I discovered that it was possible to win Tri-Lex every time so long as I went first. Even when I played it as a 2-person game against someone else, there was a pretty easy strategy that was *provably* unbeatable. I can see why Tri-Lex didn't catch on outside of the 2-XL world.
There were 4 different games. Whoever went first could always win if played correctly. I seem to remember there were 2 where you got to start first and 2 where 2-XL started first. I believe it was possible to win 3 of the 4 games due to the fact that 2-XL made a mistake on one of the games where he played first. The fourth game was played perfectly by 2-XL and the player would always lose that one.
I remember 2XL vividly. It said that its purpose was helping its users "to excel." After an hour of going through tapes, we all lost interest and it is probably in some landfill or thrift store. I guess we just couldn't excel enough for that machine.
I totally had one of these in the 80's. I think it was one of my older siblings toys that was handed down to me. I remember taking it apart to see how it worked, and of course it never worked again after that. I haven't though about that thing in years.
you killed him.
The art on the 8 track cartridge was gorgeous, I love that aesthetic!
Huh. So there was an older 8-track version. I had the compact cassette version, which looked quite different. It took advantage of the stereo tracks of both sides of a cassette tape to get the four tracks. And it used the same voice. Though the casettes were longer.
They didn't use cards for the choices: it just listed multiple options on each button.
I'm surprised they didn't use an extra switch on the 8-track version to make either the recording twice as long, or the tapes half the physical length since they already have a stereo head.
@@krzysztofczarnecki8238 Thing is, doubling the capacity of the tapes would mean twice as much production time. It might have been worth it if they'd had more ambitious content, choose your own adventures etc.
Buuuut, choose-your-own-adventure hadn't been invented yet. One year early!
Ah, 2-XL! I had the original 8-track version when I was a child, and loved it immensely. Also liked keeping it in my bed and playing one of my dad's 8-track tapes (though we were never cool enough to have "Back In Black" on 8-track - mad respect to you for that!). Eventually, it stopped working, and an uncle of mine offered to take a look at it... never saw it again after that. (sob)
Great episode, Mat! Thanks for the flashback!
I had one of the more futuristic looking ones that used cassettes. My favorite tape, of which I cannot seem to find any information about today but vividly remember, was retelling of The Battle of Fort McHenry, with some multiple choice questions and a few branching paths, if I remember right.
I had the Tiger version, and I was smart enough to figure out how it worked. It seems on the wiki for these toys, the Tiger version used a play head that could read all four tracks at once. Which means the buttons were basically the same as the solo buttons in Audacity.
As a kid, I as absolutely BRUTAL with these kinds of toys. This one in particular, my brother and I would intentionally pick the wrong answers for the LOLS, but you could also flick the buttons in just the right way, to get the head movement mechanism to stop half-way between tracks. Which was hilarious.
I had that little brown monster as a kid. I was probably around 5 when I got it. I played with it for hours. It remains the only 8 track device anyone in my family ever had.
"you clearly used the bat computer" - the 1978 equivalent of "you googled the answer". This thing is really clever made. I assume the tapes don't all follow the same structure, so you can't just leave it on B to always have the correct answer - at least I would've made it so you can't do that. There have been some modern games on DVD that used a similar approach, where the answer you pick makes it jump to specific point in a certain video file. Of course DVD scripting is slow and less elegant, but it's the same pattern of jumping between different tracks within limitations of the media. Scene It on DVD (the board game) partially uses this principle although it relies more on self discipline than scripting.
it's funny how tech has gotten slower in some ways... Why should a randomly-seeking disc be so much slower than an 8-track, LOL.
Man this is so interesting - the questions appear on different tracks AND the answer was cognizant that you had picked a wrong answer off a wrong answer.
The amount of work that went into producing and timing that tape seems incredible to me. Even seeing how it was done, it's still incredibly well thought out
Fun fact about the first question on the "Science Fiction 1" tape.
_Space: 1999_ and _UFO_ were both live-action sci-fi shows produced by the same group that produced the original _Thunderbirds_ series.
Your ability to make crappy toys interesting is pretty remarkable. One of the best channels on RUclips... and I can't explain why! Thanks, Mat. Another one that I totally enjoyed watching.
I vaguely remember this from my childhood, though I never had one I saw it on TV commercials. As a kid we could always sniff out the "educational" toys from the real toys and instinctively knew to avoid anything "educational". Never understood how toy companies thought kids were too dumb to figure that out. We got lots of lecturing in school; toys are for playing.
I LOVED this toy as a kid. Turning off the lights once and those red glowing eyes scared the crap out of me! Lol I remember owning an attachment where you could play checkers with 2xl. Thanks for this video!
I was glad to see that Star Wars 8-track you were testing with. Back in the day my parents gave me that on LP and it was one of my all-time favorites! The LP cover had the same graphic.
I had the LP too! Cool Stuff!
Same!! As a kid I thought I had imagined it was a thing (bc later on my bro took the LP with him when he moved), so when I encountered it again I was so excited! I now own the one-sided single, such a jam
Was that something like "Hooked on Star Wars"?
I found it in other comments... "Music Inspired By Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk" by Meco.
I am right there with you. My brother had the vinyl single of the Star Wars Theme by Meco and we were disappointed that it was a disco version, not the soundtrack version. We still played it a lot, though.
8 tracks-tape has been the bane of my early engineering years. Even when - in the late '70s - early '80s the Philips musicassette was prevailing, there were a bunch of grown-up who refused to give up their 8 tracks-tape players. These players were terrible with their neverending tape mechanism, they kept jamming - especially when people used them in a car during the summer. People were strangely attached to the system.
Ah, the AC188-AC188 germanium transistor complementary couple shorted when you looked fancy at them. 1 full RMS watt per audio channel!
The mechanism in the 2XL toy you have there is one of the late ones, they became incredibly cheap by using stamped metal parts.
Thank you for the trip down the memory lane...
I loved this video but was totally waiting for you to make your own tape with questions and answers somehow xD I'd love a techmoan 2xl tape
My sister had one with an adapter on the front that allowed it to play something like connect 4 or maybe tic-tac-toe. The pieces were dropped in slots that would cause button presses. Very impressive for a tape player!
Huh, I suppose it could! Just chart out all possible decisions and play replies. Some games would need a lot more buttons than others!
I never knew 2XL was out in the 70s and used 8--Tracks instead of cassettes, I had the early 90s version and thinking about it brings back so many memories, i should try to track one down for the nostalgia.
Cassettes came later and I think was made by tiger the original factory I went out of business.
Always loved the70's disco version of the Star Wars theme, very suitable test cartridge! I was more of the Omnibot generation, but I'm quite impressed with the way this works. The voice reminds me a bit of Dr Frink! Thanks for the emulator link.
I was born in 2001, I’ve never even heard of this machine before and the only time I’ve seen an 8-track cassette in person has been for exorbitant prices in vintage store display cases.
This toy looks like absolutely magic. I’m watching you go through it and I’m just enamoured. There is no computer doing any work, it’s all mechanical! It’s so cool.
I was born in 1990 so have seen a couple of 8 track players, obviously they were a thing a lot closer to my birth date than yours, but I’ve only ever seen them at car boot sales, car shows and vintage electronics sales.
Born in '67 in the UK. Only ever saw an 8 track tape player in a car once, I think.
I love the machine's voice. I think it sounds like how an AI from the 50s would sound, and fits the aesthetic.
Jesus all the lord almighty, I wonder how you sound like.
1:26 oh man, you just gave me flashbacks to working at Guitar Center. do they have those in the uk?? because I always assumed it was store-brand
Oh my god. The way the robot says, "thank you for turning me on" has the exact same cadence and delivery as Smithers' PC startup noise where it uses Mr. Burns' voice to say "Smithers, you are quite good at turning me on."
This is EXACTLY what came to mind when I heard it to the point that I wonder if it was the inspiration for the writers of that line in Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy.
@@Muonium1 I know, right? It's absurd just how similar they are!
You probably should ignore that.
The '78 joke at the beginning killed me
The branching and different questions according to the previous answer is great, it IS more complicated than I thought. The designer (I should say writer) knew that this is a simple toy, but he still wanted to give the most playability (and replayability).
It could have been really complicated it they used all 8 tracks and even more if they found a way to switch heads automatically with some control signal on the current track (even if only could just jump "up" to the first).
Very cool explanation, teardown, and repair. The way the voice actor says "Question" makes me unhappy.
Wow. I missed these devices by only a few years..but I agree... the clever multitrack production is the genius. I suspect that the process would have happened on an 8 track 1/4 inch multitrack master.... recording in pairs (1+5...2+6 etc or even on mono singles). Our host then records the master questions (on all tracks) with gaps for answers....then "punches in" the answers on the required tracks with padding sfx as required. You can even hear him "speeding through" the script to finish in time! Then I suppose it's a case of duplicating the whole 8 track master onto the carts. Very cleverly done to give such a great illusion. Great video!
The inventor provided the voice as well? Holy moly that's a talented fellow.
also quite high pitched and fast talking fellow!
I was just looking at his Wikipedia, he's a talented man who was still producing hit toys as late as 2004. There was also a TV spinoff of 2-XL he was executive producer of! I'm guessing he's retired now, 75 at this point, what an interesting life he must have led!
I must congratulate him on his "cartoon" voice, very 60's/70's
@@dRevnik Not really. The recording was sped up a bit to raise the pitch. This is a very common technique. It was also used on Mel Blanc's voice when he voiced Tweety Bird and Daffy Duck. Daffy's voice was just Sylvester the cat's voice, sped-up.
@@OofusTwillip Wow, that's incredible! Thank you! You know, maybe you can explain to me another thing I am wondering about for a long time: How does Techmoan fit inside my computer screen? He looks like a fully grown man, yet he's somehow able to squeeze inside the display. And is he in there all the time? What does he eat? Shoud I put him some food inside from time to time or something? Idk, thank you in advance!
This was my first music player! I never knew anybody else who had one, I lots of carts but usually just played captain and Tenille and Statler brothers. Ahh memories...I still smell the Christmas I got it.....
The added Audacity explaination of the tracks is a really good addition to the Patreon version, could not have been done better.
I still have my 70’s style 2-XL in a box in my garage, along with a few 8-tracks and the button overlays. Wow, hearing that voice brings me back.
Sorry Techmoan I’d love to stay and watch your content but your little robot friend just mentioned “Mr Wizard” resulting in a flood of 30+ year old nostalgia. I can’t believe I had forgotten the endless hours I watched that show! Must go now and watch all of the Mr Wizard byyyyyeeeeeeee
I honestly almost snagged one at my local goodwill a few months ago for next to nothing, but had turned it down due to the power cord. Wish I had know it was so simple to make a cord then.
7:00 "The mechanism reminds me of a mechanical telephone exchange" - That was my first thought, too. It's like one element of a "step-by-step" switch.
"...you might be a similar age to myself. Seventy-eight." At first I was like "NO WAY HE'S SEVENTY EIGHT!"
I was ten when I first saw a 2XL, and when I immediately realized how it worked, it was still pretty easy to suspend belief when playing with one. There was one on display at a department store we'd frequent and my brother and I would play with it all the time.
The youtube algo sent me here. I look up to see the blue panasonic. Just so happens I have a yellow one sitting here playing kiss alive II. It was my grandfathers and has been in service since before 1980. The drive belt was replaced sometime in the 90's
I love how the eyes flash in sync with what he's saying
Thank you for going into such great detail about what's on each track
What happens if you let it play to the end of the 8-track
How does 2 sided cassette tape work
You made my day! I still have my original 2-XL that I brought with me to Japan!
You’re very good at knowing just how much brute force to use in these repairs. Even more astounding is that there is a 2XL fan site!
it was an incredibly popular in the day and I can see why.
16:55
A missed opportunity - using the same stereo head have a "robot\music" button to switch between special mono and stereo modes. This way robot "program" might've had either 4 more options or doubled running time by switching from mono-right 4 channels to mono-left 4 channels as needed.
Added complexity would have only really succeeded in increasing cost and reducing up-take and reliability.
@@damionlee7658 What complexity? They've already made a custom track switcher.
@@Vladimir_Kv Splitting the audio head output and ensuring the correct output is in operation at any given moment. Having a reliable mechanism to switch from the left channel output to the right channel output at the appropriate time, and automatically return back to the correct starting channel at the beginning of playback.
None of these things would be excessively difficult to make reliably in an 8 track player (as commercial long play systems demonstrate), but making them cheap, robust and reliable enough for a child's toy is a different matter. There may be a system that could have been robust enough to be used that is impractical because of cost, particularly if there are royalties due on a patent at the time. There may have be a cheap enough method that wouldn't put up with the abuse a child's toy receives.
And for what benefit? You double the capacity of the toy's tapes... Does that being in extra custom? No, because it is a toy for young children. 20 minute tapes were plenty. There would be no benefit to the added complexity and cost. If this were not a child's toy, it may have been worth it. But children's toy production has two basic rules... Be cheap and be quick to manufacture.
@@damionlee7658 doubling run time can be as simple as having question pack A and B one one tape, literally all you'd need to add is one switch with 3 positions: A, music (A+B), B
Of course this just switches whether the left or right channel (or both for playing music) of the tape head gets connected to the amplifier board
@@xureality but what benefit will it actually bring? It will not increase sales, all it does is add cost, and add extra parts that could fail, which is my entire point.
The brown robot toy with an 8-track player, playing a Star Wars themed disco cartridge, has got to be the most 1970's thing that I didn't expect to see.
Thanks for sharing and exploring 2-XL. Like said below, showing us how the tracks work was fascinating. I'm 53 and had one when I was a kid... I purchased one on eBay around 10 years ago and he sits proudly on my shelf. For those who didn't know what it was, I always explained it as the robot with the Long Island accent. (Also as mentioned below I too had the Meco Star Wars album you played the 8-track of. Great memories!) Thanks again!
2XL was also re-released in the 90s, it looked completely different and used cassette tapes. I had no idea this 70s one existed because I had the 90s one. Crazy!
@@electrictroy2010 they may have commented before watching that part.
I was 11 in 1978, but I have no recollection of the 2-XL at all, and I loved those kinds of things! However, I do have a copy of that Meco Star Wars LP. 😊
Ever play the Meco Star Wars LP at a different speed (like 78 RPM or 16-2/3 RPM)? You'll hear some revealing things if you do. (Like how they did the Cantina Band, and how they did the exploding Death Star sound.)
@@rogermwilcox I'll give it a go! 😄
@@rogermwilcox I’m guessing the band was larger deeper woodwinds played slowly to give it that timbre when sped up, and the explosion was something dropping/smashing/etc slowed down?
Superb stuff! Thanks. I love late 70s ‘computer’ toys and their ingenious workarounds to seem high tech. Also appreciate how you go really deep into the workings of another forgotten contraption. Techmoan at it’s finest :)
I agree. I still have my Palitoy Blip in it’s box. ‘No TV set needed!’ It proudly proclaims.
@@AtheistOrphan The blip is amazing. Have a look inside that thing - it’s ridiculously complicated clockwork.
@@NonsenseInBASIC - Thanks. You’ve piqued my curiosity so I will do just that.
How ingeniously the audio programming was mixed together! Must have been a fun device, provided a large catalog of tapes.
Thank you for this excellent video!!!
I wanted to say hello from America and also thank you so much for your films these are some of the most entertaining and educational films that are available on RUclips. I love every single film that you do and very thankful that I found your channel. I'm right there with you as you're working on everything and I even hold my breath at times going yes we're going to fix this yes we're going to fix this. Anyway, thank you again and much love and respect from America
I love the art work on the carts!! What a cool little piece of history!!
Reminds me of the artwork on the Atari 2600 cartridges, which was fantastic.
The 90's version of the 2-XL (From Tiger Electronics) that used compact cassettes used the fact that the two tracks/sides on a cassette can include left and right stereo channels so they simply recorded the fours tracks of audio that the 8-Track version used on the Side 1, Left Channel, then Side 1, Right Channel, then side 2, left channel, and side 2, right channel. They avoided the need for an autoreverse head on this device by recording all four tracks of audio going in the same direction and just using a special four channel playback head. Pressing one of the three answer buttons simply switched which channel plays out of the mono speaker and you press the Question button to return to the Question Channel. Of course if you play "Side 2" of these 2-XL tapes on a regular cassette deck, it would play all the channel at once and backwards. I assume the same would be true playing the wrong side in the 2-XL device but with one one channel playing at time. Thus this version cannot play regular audio cassettes unlike the 8-Track version which can play 8-track music cartridges nor will the tape properly play in a standard cassette deck. To archive one of these special tapes, you need to record the left and right channels of side one then the L/R of side 2, then reverse the L/R of side 2. The Lost Media Wiki has some good info on the Tiger Electronics Compact Cassette Version of the 2-XL for anyone interested.
Thanks for the info🙂
Four track heads probably first appeared in devices aimed at musicians like the Tascam Portastudio. Later on most Auto-Reverse personal stereos used them as there is no need for an erase head in one of those.
I had the cassette version of 2-XL as a kid. I knew it used some form of track switching, but was too young to figure it out how it worked at the time. The way that the audio tracks are structured is really clever and I wonder how long it took to write all the dialogue.
I’ve still got the one I was given for Christmas (I’ve even got video of my meeting 2XL for the first time under the tree which was recorded on Sanyo V-Cord II tape). And it still works! Was absolutely my most favorite toy throughout all of my childhood.
im 35, an American, and i managed to have one of these in the 90's. my neighbor who was an electrical engineer gave it to me. i remember this thing! cheers mate.