Fun fact: carbon transfer printing was used as a plotpoint in one of the Columbo episodes. The killer destroyed incriminating letter, but forgot about ink ribbon...
@@IRMacGuyver knowing Columbo and having watched the episode he got permission to search off camera, he didn't coerce but merely irritated the suspect intermittently and stated exactly what happened by reverse engineering it, he gets a conviction on the circumstantial evidence....... plus the bonus that it's just a TV show and like so many aren't portraying reality.
You can still buy Brother typewriter ribbon from most Staples stores- a LOT of places still use typewriters and even machines like this for things like report filing, so the demand is still there. The cartridges are sealed up really well, so even if the exposed piece of ribbon dries out, the rest of it will be fine by and large. Another good show- thanks for posting!
"A lot" is a bit of an exaggeration. The main customers for typewriters now are prisons, since many prisoners are not allowed to have computers. Some intelligence agencies use them for the same reason. Some funeral parlors use them too, in part due to obsolete laws. Whenever a computer is allowed as an option, it is nearly always used instead of a typewriter. Maybe the biggest exception is banks that use them to print checks if they simply never upgraded, but even that is becoming rare.
@@EebstertheGreat I had asked at Staples at that time who was buying all the typewriter ribbon, he said it was title companies, funeral homes, and churches- citing that most have at least one still in use. For a technology that is incredibly obsolete, that constitutes "a lot" of users to me.
@@performa9523 Yep, Staples employee here. We do sell a surprisingly large selection of them. Most are bought by funeral homes and small local loan offices. There are also a few elderly business owners in my area who also come in often to buy them as they still use typewriters/word processors for keeping track of business expenses. I actually sold a brand new Smith-Corona electric typewriter (yes-- they still make them and Staples still carries one in some stores) the other day. Although obsolete, there's still a market for them. Who would've thought? Also, Staples carries or can order ribbons for old IBM printers too. I have a PC/XT Model 286 with the printer and order ribbons for it at work all the time. So if anyone has an old IBM printer, you can find the ribbons there.
I don't get it. Theoretically, maybe. But unless someone knew exactly what they were looking for, at the exact time they were used... You think anyone was going to unwind these, reading word by word with no reference marks? You're thinking like a marketer for IT security. An actual "black hat" would never waste time, or literally get his hands dirty, with ribbons. One would get more info by listening to water-cooler gossip.
@@squirlmy This wasn't a risk, it was a reality. lots of historic instances where authors had their preprinted books leaked because they threw out the ribbons in the trash and someone just took their trash to read the ribbons.
@@squirlmy Going through a few hundred feet of very legible tape is a way easier method of espionage than many of the ways you'd have to do back in the day.
I have a word processor with a daisywheel, I actually had to write an essay on it once when my parents took away my computer privileges! I love this stuff, I have several typewriters too. My word processor also had a typewriter mode but in addition to the ink ribbon it had an eraser ribbon, so you could erase mistakes
I remember these. I was fond of the Panasonic one. The original MSRP for both machines was in the area of $300. I remember the one I used in the classroom being old, and not well maintained; it caught fire whilst I was typing a report. As I had no other access to word processing units at the time and the assignment was due the next day, I was given a pass due to the circumstances. One of the fair and reasonable teachers I had, one of three.
Interestingly, I had the earlier model (nearly identical, just grey in color) of the Panasonic. My folks bought it for me when I was in the 8th grade. That ran us $600 and change almost $700, I recall. I believe we purchased it from Circuit City. The amount of writing I did on that thing between the 8th and 10th grades (after which I had a Mac plus), is actually astounding. Sadly, I sold it for pennies when I was in college... only to get into a bidding war on eBay for an exact replacement because I was working on a personal "museum" of computers from my past.SMH I WISH kids of today could have experienced what we (in my age group) did. They know nothing of modems, BBSes, 8-bit video games nor catalog cards in libraries!!!LOL
I was in the US Army in the mid 80's and we used these Word Processors in the office. As I recall the reason for the reduced capacity on the floppy was due to formatting that reserved space for document metadata resulting in lower capacity for your documents.
True, but if you were that intent on making sure that what you had typed wouldnt end up in the wrong hands, you could just use a persuasion stick to persuade the cartridge open and dispose of the tape, then dispose of it with fire. Keep in mind that today you have something in your computer that does essentially the same thing, the spinning disc hard drive doesnt ever fully delete the files unless you 0 format, its happened a few times where ive gotten a hold of old computer for the use of fixing them up and selling them on for cheap, and found some interesting items on the drive even after the person has said they "erased" the drive freeware programs abound that can find old files windows says have been erased, mostly cause windows never actually erases them, it simply marks them for overwrite.
Having grown up through the evolution of early computers, I could watch stuff like this all day, especially like seeing the pcbs and chips - thanks for all that you do, your channel is great.
Yo tenía 35 años de edad cuando comencé a vender este tipo de aparatos, máquinas de escribir que parecían computadores. Luego, entre algunos de mis clientes, pronto comenzaron a solicitarme computadores tipo 386 y, por supuesto, el negocio propio se me creció, pues hasta podía ensamblarlos y programarlos yo mismo. De modo que volver a ver estas máquinas imprimiendo con sus ruedas margaritas, su ruido, su velocidad, me permitió volver completamente al pasado....!!! Qué maravilla de videos como este! Saludos, muchas, muchas gracias por hacer posible semejante experiencia!! (desde Bogotá, Colombia)
Yeah, I remember typing texts for school on my dad's typewriter that used this kind of ribbon. I actually reversed it to see what happened when typing with a previously used part of the ribbon, of course the result was characters with missing parts…
Brian O'Connell Bonus con: You have to securely destroy used ribbons, as dumpster divers can easily read all the secret stuff you wrote (like patient records at a doctors office).
The "pro" side can be seen in two ways. Because what you said is true, it worked like a charm when David tried it out. But that's only an anecdote. In its day and age, I believe fabric based cartridges were clearly superior.
Bonus Pro: the correction ribbon used for this type is actually more of an adhesive tape that lifts the carbon right off the paper rather than applying white paint over it. This makes the correction a lot cleaner and universal for all paper colors.
I had the Brother in high school and college. I loved to hear that printing sound again. Always a triumph to hear that sound as that meant my paper was finished! Thanks for the fond memories today
I've got a Corona Typewriter that was my Grandmother's. The ribbon is probably from the 60s at the latest, and it still has a bit of life in it. Those things last a surprisingly long time!
Nice find, was it in fully working condition when you found it? I love to hit the local recycle drop off every so often, and see what people throw away in the electronics bin, and have gotten a few useful computers, monitors, and keyboards.
@@markinnes4264 :( That's too bad. I wrote my self-published poetry "journal" booklet on mine in HS. Used a photocopy machine, scissors, and stapler in the library to "publish" it. Fond memories of the amber screen.
Not really. An electronic word processor like the brother would have been around $400 in 1992. That would be about the same as you would have spent on WordStar, Word Perfect, or whatever software you used back in '92. And then you would need a general purpose computer to run that software on.
acoow daisy wheel is way older, 25 years was all color only, inc jet. Who needed this weird machine?????????? print people??????? changing the wheels, needing good fonts? carbon copy weirdo people?
As a late 90s baby this is amazing to see. I love seeing old tech and I know we have “word processing” programs but to see a physical word processor makes me appreciate how quickly technology has advanced. Thanks for making this really cool content.
David, your content is very well done but most of all, super interesting! I have learned a lot with your videos and I am sure I am not the only one. So, from all of us, thank you.
Just on a side note my friend had a dot matrix printer that used the same type of printer ribbon, and used WD-40 to get more ink out of the ribbon and got 3 times the life from the ribbon, one way to stretch the life of your printer ribbon.
I never used the WD-40 trick, but I can remember back late 90's - early 00's when I had a few different Canon BJC printers that had ink tanks filled with foam pads soaked with ink, and a trick to get more life out of them when they started to dry out from was to take a Q-Tip with a very slight amount of water on it, and rub the pads, and you could do it 2 or 3 times depending on how much you where printing each time, and if it was just almost out, or you had let it sit for a decent amount of time. God I miss those printers, I could get both color, and black for $7 USD, or a giant black tank for $12- $15 USD.
wow that might be the most beautiful thing I've seen in a while. the sound it makes when typing, that specific color of black on the paper and just everything about it beautiful.
My older sister had one at around that time. I remember thinking it seemed such a waste to buy what was essentially a computer that was limited to typing. I can't remember if it was more expensive or not much cheaper than our recently bought Amiga, but it certainly wasn't very cheap in comparison.
2:51 So, I'm going to take this opportunity to try typing something interesting on here and see what happens. One thing I often do is talk about some of the TV shows and movies I have been watching recently. I really like the second season of The Orville so far. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch Star Trek Discovery just yet. I didn't care all that much for the first season, but I'll eventually get around to watching it. I have also started watching a show from 1980 called "The Greatest American Hero," which I somehow missed when I was younger. It's actually not bad.
To comment on his letter: it wasn't that bad in the 80s, it's pretty bad trying to watch it now. As well, unless they fixed it recently, the DVD copies removed all the original commercial music in the show (such as 'eve of destruction' which was used throughout the show) for new cheaper alternative songs.
Holy crap my dad still has the WP25. I used to have SO much fun with ASCII and word art back in the early 90s on that thing. Wow, thank you so much for this 8-byte dude!
"To see what kind of secrets these things have inside of them" is the main reason I'd be interested in them too. :D But I also get a hankering for monochrome CRT whenever I see one. Hahaha! I was disappointed by _so many_ machines I knew had a little computer inside. I totally know the feeling! Nostalgia moment there, although I'm trying not to remember the feeling of disappointment itself!
Still happens these days. Heck heres an example of a modern product with a backwards component www.amazon.com/Longstrike-Nerf-Extension-Six-Dart-Exclusive/dp/B07B3KS1B8/ First couple of pics has the mag in backwards LOL. Ontop of that the Scope is in an odd spot as well. AKA should be farther back instead of up on the barrel like that
The Panasonic W1525 got me through college. I did get the multi-paper feeder tray attachment as well. It also was significantly cheaper than a full computer at the time. I still have my original around for nostalgia.
PC GUY 1241 "... carry around...". Carry around? Could you picture a student taking notes in class on this? "Oops... hit the print button... sorry prof the printer is drowning out your lecture". I imagine it got wheeled into the dorm room at the beginning of the term and stayed there until a degree was in a picture frame.
@@CarFreeSegnitz The Brother model actually has a handle on it, so it's made to be carried around, like a suitcase. Not so with the Panasonic. Of course, the Brother one weighs about 30 pounds, so it would be a good workout lugging it around.
I always dreamt of having a machine like this when growing up (never having heard of word processors before this; I always envisionned a cheaper, more limited laptop). Wish these were still common place - an organizational tool with integrated printer sounds AMAZING
Yeah, surprised he didn't pick up on the obvious RAM at the bottom as well. Anything with a -20 or -10 at the end is always memory, that number is the access time maximum in nanoseconds.
I have my dad's Brother AX-26 Word Processing typewriter. It's great and it still works! I've even used it on college assignments. I bought replacement ink ribbons for like, a dollar each. Though the one he had inside still worked until a few weeks ago where I finally replaced it with one of mine. One of my favorite features is the correct/erase ribbon. Crazy technology.
Really glad you kept in the bit at 0:47, can't help but keep watching it! 😂 The brother machine clearly has the same mechanism as the electric typewriter I had as a kid in the 90s, however that had the erase feature similar to the Panasonic machine, it still baffles me to this day as it actually lifts the character off the page.
For the Brother there are/where 3 types of ribbon: the nylon inked one that is in the machine, a one time carbon like the one in the Panasonic and then a multi strike carbon one where the ribbon only advances a little bit with each strike so the characters overlap. It's not strange to see a correction tape in the Panasonic (the Brother also has one if you look closely) because this was used in the typewriter mode. It looks like the Brother has the wrong kind of correction tape, there are 2 different ones: one is the 'cover up' kind that deposits white over the (nylon ink) typed character and the other one is the 'lift-off' kind that is a sticky tape that lifts off the carbon printed characters. It looks like the Brother has the lift-off type which will not work with the nylon printing ribbon. Security wise the multi strike carbon is better because you can't read the printed text but the print quality is better than the nylon one. That's all folks! :)
Great video! I remember machines like these in my college. I actually learned to touch-type on a WP unit and always enjoyed the banging of the daisy wheel when printing my document. Happy memories :-D
I love that amber monochrome screen on the Brother machine. I also like the sound of that daisywheel typewriter sound that comes from those printers, I never got to use one of those printers, I grew up in the dot-matrix screech age.
Even if it's maybe not well known in America, I kind of trust you have to know the Amstrad PCW machines. I'd really would like to watch a video on those! Amazing pieces of hardware to compare with, mainly because in many aspects those were full-blown CP/M computers, even if mainly aimed at word processing (and, to a lesser degree, some other productivity tasks like spreadsheets). Actually, they had a library of games ported to the system, or written for it!
I have a brother similar to that which is brand new! I love how the rectangular screen gives us full screen coverage! It seems to be compatible with the file format that the brother portable word processors called "super power note". They looked like laptops, had an optional huge lasting battery and an ASCII version of tetris too! I absolutely love the super power note word processors!!. I'm glad you were looking at them. Cheers!
Your video reminds me of the Panasonic electronic typewriter I had in 1992. I used it to write papers for a university correspondence course I took to get the last credit I needed to obtain my degree. It accepted a floppy disk, also used a daisy wheel print system and took the same ribbon as shown in the Brother unit in your video. The sound of the typewriter in this video really brought back some memories, because my Panasonic typewriter sounded exactly the same way when it printed out text. Electronic typewriters like the Panasonic I had weren't a new thing, as I remember using a similar kind of electronic typewriter (it took floppy diskettes as well) in the spring of 1987 when I was still in university. Unfortunately, the Panasonic typewriter had a LCD that displayed only one line of text, so you more or less had to type out one line of text and then print it out. Although you could type multiple lines of text and then save them to diskette and then print after retrieving the document from the diskette. Editing your work could be a pain as it was so slow and cumbersome. I remember seeing a Brother WP85 up close and personal back in 1992 and wanting it very badly. Alas, it was well beyond my financial reach. Hard to believe this technology is starting to verge on being 30 years old. Where did all that time go?
I've got a WP-75. It's essentially the same unit as that one. What's curious to me is the CRT. It IS very crisp which is common among the monocrome CRT of the era. But what's really odd, is the aspect ratio! It's super wide. Almost 2:1 wide. And mine isn't a true amber display in that it doesn't use an amber phosphor. It just has an amber filter over the front of it. The printer unit on mine was *mostly* broken, so I'm trying to cannibalize it for the CRT to make a mini arcade cabinet out of it (with my own game of course, I can't imagine emulation going over well on it). Imagine a scrolling vertical shooter on that thing! I just need to figure out how to feed it video and I'm off to the races! Edit: Just got to the section where you talked about hacking and programming the Z80. That would be neat. My current idea is to use a modern device (raz pi or something similar) to poke at the video memory so I can display whatever patterns I fancy.
I owned one of those Panasonic word processors back in the day. It was a great little unit. It was marketed as a "smart typewriter" for those that didn't need (or want) a full-blown computer and it worked great at what it did. I used to enjoy typing documents into memory and then sitting back and watching the daisy-wheel printer print them out. You could even do mail-merge with them. I remember printing out a bunch of resumes with customized cover letters -- it was pretty slick.
I really enjoy your videos. Your intro and music you use are just so 80s. And you're so laid-back and passionate about what you're talking about. You're a nice escape from all the crappy stuff that's going on in the world nowadays. It's like I'm back in the wonderful 80s. I was only 2 when they ended though.
I really like these one purpose machine, you feel high when you use them because they don't allow the dissipation of your mind with other unrelated features.
I used to sell the Brother at Best Products in the 90s. The floppy was backwards on the box too to show the dust cover. I thought it was silly because you'd someone buying it who's never used a floppy using the picture as an example. Thanks for featuring these!
First "computer" I ever used was a word processor in 1992 to write a paragraph for first grade. It felt like magic. Still the sounds fill me with nostalgia. It wouldn't be for another seven years until I send an email. So that first word processor from this generation was amazing! Great video.
WordPerfect for DOS was the best WP, long after multiple versions of Word for Windows came out. Macros; read many different file formats, and it practically had its own menu-driven Text User Interface on top of DOS. Microsoft used their monopoly power to kill them, as WordPerfect for Windows came out late. It made me appreciate the command line, and eventually switch to linux.
@@squirlmy I bet. I just remember having to learn those codes to get the text to appear a certain way but you couldn't see it until it was finally printed.
I bought a typewriter once! I loved it, did not write as much as I thought I would but the technical aspect and the analogue way of doing it was great! Then I bought my first computer (C-64) and my qwerty skills was pretty good! :-) Word processor for me was Wordperfect on MS-DOS (can not remember which version, but Windows 3.0 was available then I think so about that time). With a good teacher it was bearable at least, soo many combinations and you had to be artist to envision what is actually coming out of the printer. Not much later WYSIWYG was a thing (with Windows and AmigaOS) and it was just great! But the driver and printer languages was (back then) a hit and a miss sort of... I did study a bit of Postscript and thought this is a game changer, but all the postscript printers was soo expensive. Then came PCL which put more on the computer then on the printer and they could output almost the same but with cheaper printers but with more "caveats". Specially the early HP PCL printers. Anyway! love the video! as usual!
"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air, never thought I could feel so free... Flying away on a wing and a prayer. Who could it be? Believe it or not, it's just me." Loved that show!
both of these units are so cute and neat! i like the general look of the panasonic more. plus the fact that it has the “white out” feature is really cool! i think it’d be more for typerwriter mode than it would be for WP mode
This brings back memories, my family had a Brother word processor before we had a PC, I used it to label all my VHS tapes and it ever ran Tetris. I still went back to it for typing after we got our first PC because it was just easier to use for that purpose than a windows 95 PC and printer.
@@ct92404 - Luckily there's this little thing called sarcasm. Generally speaking you wouldn't actually be "lugging" this thing around all day. You might take it home if you had a deadline. You may decide to take a 'working' vacation, and transport it to your hotel or cabin. Most cases, unless the boss was particularly mean, you would only carry it home, twice a month or once a week. So the lugging is going to be between the place of work and the car and/or the home.
I bet you can load software on the brother one without messing with the ROM chips, given it is capable of loading the spreadsheet program from the disk.
I had a Brother typewriter in the late 80s to early 90s. It was a real workhorse. It was similar to this machine but it just had a small LCD screen and you could only see one line so it was more like type a line, make sure it is correct, then send it to the paper and just type to the paper which is what I normally did. It had a correction tape. I used it for shorter papers along with my Apple II and ImageWriter printer. It is amazing how reliable that stuff was compared to my modern InkJet printer which I regularly have to smack around.
The RAM on the Panasonic is part of the HD6303XP, its a microcontroller - that means it contains RAM, in this case 64k. It is also Motorola 6800 compatible - so a relative of the Altair 8800, Tandy CoCo etc
If memory serves, the Hitachi 6303 is a clone of the MC6803, which while a derivative of the 6800 series, doesn’t really have that much in common with the Color Computer’s 6809 microprocessor- the 6809 took a very different architectural path from the 6800 than the 6803 did. They’re cousins at best.
I had two of those same Brother word processors. I bought one for $50 at a garage sale in 1992 and I found the other one sitting next to the trash in my apartment building about 5 years later. The word processing program is similar to Word Perfect. I enjoyed the typing part. As a speed typist it has a nice comfortable keyboard but I usually went somewhere else to print my documents because it's really loud.
thats the keyboard port, if you look in the brother model the wire for the keyboard wasn't detachable, but on the keyboard itself the wire terminated with an RJ11 port I think if you watch very closely as he first exposes the top of the mainboard you can see its connected, and when you look at all the other cables none of them have the same look as the keyboard, using Rj11 was pretty common on keyboard wiring, another one that used it was the first macintosh
I love these all in one word processors. The Brother ones are my favorite. They even have some that look like regular typewriters but have a floppy disk and a vga port so you can connect it to any monitor.
Good to see you're getting caught up on The Greatest American Hero. One of my favorite shows as a kid and my mom made me a pretty accurate costume that I wore for Halloween and proceeded to wear out well after.
Fun fact: carbon transfer printing was used as a plotpoint in one of the Columbo episodes. The killer destroyed incriminating letter, but forgot about ink ribbon...
That sounds interesting, do you know the name of the Episode?
@@FTfilm Now you see him - s05e05
Knowing Columbo he probably got the ink ribbon without a warrant, coerced a confession, and the case would have been thrown out of court.
Yes
@@IRMacGuyver knowing Columbo and having watched the episode he got permission to search off camera, he didn't coerce but merely irritated the suspect intermittently and stated exactly what happened by reverse engineering it, he gets a conviction on the circumstantial evidence....... plus the bonus that it's just a TV show and like so many aren't portraying reality.
8:08 No no, thats not the motherboard, thats the Brotherboard.
Brother computer with a brotherboard? Lol
Broboard
i like your pun!
Hulk Hogan approved, BROTHER
@@SonicBoone56 Macho Man Approved it, then heard Hogan Approved it, then disapproved it.
You can still buy Brother typewriter ribbon from most Staples stores- a LOT of places still use typewriters and even machines like this for things like report filing, so the demand is still there. The cartridges are sealed up really well, so even if the exposed piece of ribbon dries out, the rest of it will be fine by and large. Another good show- thanks for posting!
I’ve definitely bought typewriter ribbons (Smith-Corona) from Staples in the not-too-distant past.
"A lot" is a bit of an exaggeration. The main customers for typewriters now are prisons, since many prisoners are not allowed to have computers. Some intelligence agencies use them for the same reason. Some funeral parlors use them too, in part due to obsolete laws. Whenever a computer is allowed as an option, it is nearly always used instead of a typewriter. Maybe the biggest exception is banks that use them to print checks if they simply never upgraded, but even that is becoming rare.
@@EebstertheGreat I had asked at Staples at that time who was buying all the typewriter ribbon, he said it was title companies, funeral homes, and churches- citing that most have at least one still in use. For a technology that is incredibly obsolete, that constitutes "a lot" of users to me.
@@performa9523 Police also still use typewriters. My brother is a cop and they still have them in the office.
@@performa9523 Yep, Staples employee here. We do sell a surprisingly large selection of them. Most are bought by funeral homes and small local loan offices. There are also a few elderly business owners in my area who also come in often to buy them as they still use typewriters/word processors for keeping track of business expenses. I actually sold a brand new Smith-Corona electric typewriter (yes-- they still make them and Staples still carries one in some stores) the other day. Although obsolete, there's still a market for them. Who would've thought?
Also, Staples carries or can order ribbons for old IBM printers too. I have a PC/XT Model 286 with the printer and order ribbons for it at work all the time. So if anyone has an old IBM printer, you can find the ribbons there.
5:55 I love the emphasis on the "H" "White out" when the product itself doesn't even contain a "H" (Wite Out) :P
Brian, you're acting hweird!
Hes from Texas, of course there us an h in hwhat
Cool Hwhip
Hank Hill likes it
Still the best intro music for any show on YT. Makes me feel like a kid watching his favourite 80s TV show every time.
Have you seen CaptainDisillusion?
@@aval1998 Both are excellent!
Really?
I hate the intro music it's cringey and gay the old intro is much better
@@stretcharmstrong1218 Cringey and "80s" are roughly equivalent. It's the aesthetic.
Also, "gay" as an insult? What are you, 12?
I know! It totally is taken from his 8-bit keys channel collection of keyboard and synth sounds its great
Those carbon-film ribbons were a HUGE security risk if disposed of improperly.
I don't get it. Theoretically, maybe. But unless someone knew exactly what they were looking for, at the exact time they were used... You think anyone was going to unwind these, reading word by word with no reference marks? You're thinking like a marketer for IT security. An actual "black hat" would never waste time, or literally get his hands dirty, with ribbons. One would get more info by listening to water-cooler gossip.
@@squirlmy This wasn't a risk, it was a reality. lots of historic instances where authors had their preprinted books leaked because they threw out the ribbons in the trash and someone just took their trash to read the ribbons.
@@squirlmy yeah but any dipshit who read the Jolly Rodger cookbook would know that you can find credit card info in the ones thrown out by stores
@@squirlmy i always do that with new carbon tape typewriters i get
@@squirlmy Going through a few hundred feet of very legible tape is a way easier method of espionage than many of the ways you'd have to do back in the day.
I have a word processor with a daisywheel, I actually had to write an essay on it once when my parents took away my computer privileges! I love this stuff, I have several typewriters too. My word processor also had a typewriter mode but in addition to the ink ribbon it had an eraser ribbon, so you could erase mistakes
I remember these. I was fond of the Panasonic one.
The original MSRP for both machines was in the area of $300.
I remember the one I used in the classroom being old, and not well maintained; it caught fire whilst I was typing a report. As I had no other access to word processing units at the time and the assignment was due the next day, I was given a pass due to the circumstances. One of the fair and reasonable teachers I had, one of three.
That's an interesting story!
Interestingly, I had the earlier model (nearly identical, just grey in color) of the Panasonic. My folks bought it for me when I was in the 8th grade. That ran us $600 and change almost $700, I recall. I believe we purchased it from Circuit City. The amount of writing I did on that thing between the 8th and 10th grades (after which I had a Mac plus), is actually astounding. Sadly, I sold it for pennies when I was in college... only to get into a bidding war on eBay for an exact replacement because I was working on a personal "museum" of computers from my past.SMH I WISH kids of today could have experienced what we (in my age group) did. They know nothing of modems, BBSes, 8-bit video games nor catalog cards in libraries!!!LOL
I was in the US Army in the mid 80's and we used these Word Processors in the office. As I recall the reason for the reduced capacity on the floppy was due to formatting that reserved space for document metadata resulting in lower capacity for your documents.
You missed the security issue with that carbon tape- EVERYTHING printed ends up on the tape.....
that was back in the day when privacy was not an issue and everybody trusted each other...
Nowadays, Windows 10 automatically saves your keystrokes and sends it straight to Seattle. Oh, how efficient they've become.
Oh god yea xD
Edwin van den Akker “Uh huh. Industrial espionage TOTALLY wasn’t a thing back then. No sir-y...”
True, but if you were that intent on making sure that what you had typed wouldnt end up in the wrong hands, you could just use a persuasion stick to persuade the cartridge open and dispose of the tape, then dispose of it with fire. Keep in mind that today you have something in your computer that does essentially the same thing, the spinning disc hard drive doesnt ever fully delete the files unless you 0 format, its happened a few times where ive gotten a hold of old computer for the use of fixing them up and selling them on for cheap, and found some interesting items on the drive even after the person has said they "erased" the drive freeware programs abound that can find old files windows says have been erased, mostly cause windows never actually erases them, it simply marks them for overwrite.
Having grown up through the evolution of early computers, I could watch stuff like this all day, especially like seeing the pcbs and chips - thanks for all that you do, your channel is great.
Yo tenía 35 años de edad cuando comencé a vender este tipo de aparatos, máquinas de escribir que parecían computadores. Luego, entre algunos de mis clientes, pronto comenzaron a solicitarme computadores tipo 386 y, por supuesto, el negocio propio se me creció, pues hasta podía ensamblarlos y programarlos yo mismo. De modo que volver a ver estas máquinas imprimiendo con sus ruedas margaritas, su ruido, su velocidad, me permitió volver completamente al pasado....!!! Qué maravilla de videos como este! Saludos, muchas, muchas gracias por hacer posible semejante experiencia!! (desde Bogotá, Colombia)
The ribbon on the Panasonic is a carbon/mylar. Pro side, doesn't ever dry out. Con side, you can't replenish the ribbon with ink.
Yeah, I remember typing texts for school on my dad's typewriter that used this kind of ribbon. I actually reversed it to see what happened when typing with a previously used part of the ribbon, of course the result was characters with missing parts…
Brian O'Connell Bonus con: You have to securely destroy used ribbons, as dumpster divers can easily read all the secret stuff you wrote (like patient records at a doctors office).
The "pro" side can be seen in two ways. Because what you said is true, it worked like a charm when David tried it out. But that's only an anecdote. In its day and age, I believe fabric based cartridges were clearly superior.
Bonus Pro: the correction ribbon used for this type is actually more of an adhesive tape that lifts the carbon right off the paper rather than applying white paint over it. This makes the correction a lot cleaner and universal for all paper colors.
Sound like a wasteful option. Imagine the heaps of cartridges dumped every week at IRS
I had the Brother in high school and college. I loved to hear that printing sound again. Always a triumph to hear that sound as that meant my paper was finished! Thanks for the fond memories today
I just love the theme music so much. Especially the bit at the beginning where a reverse-cymbal anticipates an explosion of sparkly synths.
I've got a Corona Typewriter that was my Grandmother's. The ribbon is probably from the 60s at the latest, and it still has a bit of life in it. Those things last a surprisingly long time!
I had a Brother WP, because it was free on the side of the road :)
Nice find, was it in fully working condition when you found it? I love to hit the local recycle drop off every so often, and see what people throw away in the electronics bin, and have gotten a few useful computers, monitors, and keyboards.
@@CommodoreFan64 It was in the mid to late 90s. It's what I used for school work since I couldn't afford a computer
@@CommodoreFan64 my local recycling faculty has a electronics bin, I have found an Ibook clamshell and a macintosh LCiii in there
In 1991, I got a free Brother WP as well... after just a month of using it I had a power surge and out came the magic smoke.
@@markinnes4264 :( That's too bad. I wrote my self-published poetry "journal" booklet on mine in HS. Used a photocopy machine, scissors, and stapler in the library to "publish" it. Fond memories of the amber screen.
It's amazing that these machines were still being made only 25 years ago.
Not really. An electronic word processor like the brother would have been around $400 in 1992. That would be about the same as you would have spent on WordStar, Word Perfect, or whatever software you used back in '92. And then you would need a general purpose computer to run that software on.
thanks for reminding me how old I am, jerk
@@anidnmeno You're welcome!
Anidn Menoscwicz Better now than in 20 more years, then you’ll feel like a REAL ̷G̷r̷a̷m̷p̷ Champ.
acoow
daisy wheel is way older, 25 years was all color only, inc jet.
Who needed this weird machine?????????? print people??????? changing the wheels, needing good fonts? carbon copy weirdo people?
I always love to pause and watch the messages you leave on screens, love it
As a late 90s baby this is amazing to see. I love seeing old tech and I know we have “word processing” programs but to see a physical word processor makes me appreciate how quickly technology has advanced.
Thanks for making this really cool content.
David, your content is very well done but most of all, super interesting! I have learned a lot with your videos and I am sure I am not the only one. So, from all of us, thank you.
Legit this is the only channel I am happy to see in my youtube suggestion video box....Thank you for making these videos!!!
I had that panasonic in High School. Brings back all kinds of memories to see it again. Thanks for the video.
I love the way the printing works: the first line from left to right, the next line starting with the last character, so from right to left!
Just on a side note my friend had a dot matrix printer that used the same type of printer ribbon, and used WD-40 to get more ink out of the ribbon and got 3 times the life from the ribbon, one way to stretch the life of your printer ribbon.
Yes.. Was just going to suggest the WD-40 trick for dry ribbons myself.
I guess printer companies have always been scamming their customers, resulting in all these diy hacks.
I never used the WD-40 trick, but I can remember back late 90's - early 00's when I had a few different Canon BJC printers that had ink tanks filled with foam pads soaked with ink, and a trick to get more life out of them when they started to dry out from was to take a Q-Tip with a very slight amount of water on it, and rub the pads, and you could do it 2 or 3 times depending on how much you where printing each time, and if it was just almost out, or you had let it sit for a decent amount of time. God I miss those printers, I could get both color, and black for $7 USD, or a giant black tank for $12- $15 USD.
Almost any oil is fine, also one can add some ink to oil and soak the whole ribbon in this solution.
for lack of a better term, let's call that process "retrodark" :)
0:50 I have something similar like that Panasonic unit... _it's called a microwave..._
Edwin van den Akker lol
Xbox Series X doesn't look too far off either.
wow that might be the most beautiful thing I've seen in a while. the sound it makes when typing, that specific color of black on the paper and just everything about it beautiful.
The smaller, LCD based versions of these were absolutely everywhere when I went to college in 1992.
My older sister had one at around that time. I remember thinking it seemed such a waste to buy what was essentially a computer that was limited to typing. I can't remember if it was more expensive or not much cheaper than our recently bought Amiga, but it certainly wasn't very cheap in comparison.
2:51
So, I'm going to take this opportunity to try typing something interesting on here and see what happens. One thing I often do is talk about some of the TV shows and movies I have been watching recently. I really like the second season of The Orville so far. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch Star Trek Discovery just yet. I didn't care all that much for the first season, but I'll eventually get around to watching it.
I have also started watching a show from 1980 called "The Greatest American Hero," which I somehow missed when I was younger. It's actually not bad.
To comment on his letter: it wasn't that bad in the 80s, it's pretty bad trying to watch it now. As well, unless they fixed it recently, the DVD copies removed all the original commercial music in the show (such as 'eve of destruction' which was used throughout the show) for new cheaper alternative songs.
Holy crap my dad still has the WP25. I used to have SO much fun with ASCII and word art back in the early 90s on that thing. Wow, thank you so much for this 8-byte dude!
I just have to say, the music in your videos is phenomenal, and this episode has some of the best. Thanks
"To see what kind of secrets these things have inside of them" is the main reason I'd be interested in them too. :D But I also get a hankering for monochrome CRT whenever I see one.
Hahaha! I was disappointed by _so many_ machines I knew had a little computer inside. I totally know the feeling! Nostalgia moment there, although I'm trying not to remember the feeling of disappointment itself!
You gotta love old catalog photos. Like when the transformers weren't quite all the way in robot mode in the Sears catalog.
Still happens these days. Heck heres an example of a modern product with a backwards component www.amazon.com/Longstrike-Nerf-Extension-Six-Dart-Exclusive/dp/B07B3KS1B8/ First couple of pics has the mag in backwards LOL. Ontop of that the Scope is in an odd spot as well. AKA should be farther back instead of up on the barrel like that
Darryl Giors
Sears catalog?
It's unbwelivable that the ribbon was still good! thanks for the vid.
That thing is AMAZING. It is a really interesting piece of equipment. I really like about how it can spin the letters and print them so fast.
Thank you! Good to see that you are enjoying The Orval. (says on the print out)
The Panasonic W1525 got me through college. I did get the multi-paper feeder tray attachment as well. It also was significantly cheaper than a full computer at the time. I still have my original around for nostalgia.
Jason Hunt probably made your arm muscles stronger as Well while carrying around!
PC GUY 1241 "... carry around...". Carry around? Could you picture a student taking notes in class on this? "Oops... hit the print button... sorry prof the printer is drowning out your lecture". I imagine it got wheeled into the dorm room at the beginning of the term and stayed there until a degree was in a picture frame.
@@CarFreeSegnitz Hence why you had to hit Return *AFTER* hitting the print button.
@@CarFreeSegnitz The Brother model actually has a handle on it, so it's made to be carried around, like a suitcase. Not so with the Panasonic. Of course, the Brother one weighs about 30 pounds, so it would be a good workout lugging it around.
I always dreamt of having a machine like this when growing up (never having heard of word processors before this; I always envisionned a cheaper, more limited laptop). Wish these were still common place - an organizational tool with integrated printer sounds AMAZING
Love the music in the end, as well as the content! Keep up the good work!!!
im not sure what it is but i love your videos, they are retro, nerdy and just awesome, thank you !
on the hitachi machine the two single line pin chips should be the memory. marked IC13 and IC14
and google say the two chips between the cpu and crt controller is ROM
They're ZIP chips, presumably DRAM. Wikipedia says used in some Acorn and Amiga machines. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig-zag_in-line_package
Yeah, surprised he didn't pick up on the obvious RAM at the bottom as well. Anything with a -20 or -10 at the end is always memory, that number is the access time maximum in nanoseconds.
old tech is fascinatingly practical, and no room for facebook tabs while working on an essay
Until you pull out your phone.
@@TheCandoRailfan or back in the day, a more interesting program or book.
Until u bought a 2nd floppy disk drive
I definitely see the lack of Facebook as a plus!
I have my dad's Brother AX-26 Word Processing typewriter.
It's great and it still works!
I've even used it on college assignments.
I bought replacement ink ribbons for like, a dollar each. Though the one he had inside still worked until a few weeks ago where I finally replaced it with one of mine.
One of my favorite features is the correct/erase ribbon. Crazy technology.
Making everything super interesting as always. You are the best, really keep up!
My father had a Brother word processor back in 1995. If he wasn't writing papers on it, we were usually playing Tetris on it.
David, I love your The Orville t-shirt!
Really glad you kept in the bit at 0:47, can't help but keep watching it! 😂 The brother machine clearly has the same mechanism as the electric typewriter I had as a kid in the 90s, however that had the erase feature similar to the Panasonic machine, it still baffles me to this day as it actually lifts the character off the page.
What a beautiful amber screen! Thanks for posting this.
For the Brother there are/where 3 types of ribbon: the nylon inked one that is in the machine, a one time carbon like the one in the Panasonic and then a multi strike carbon one where the ribbon only advances a little bit with each strike so the characters overlap. It's not strange to see a correction tape in the Panasonic (the Brother also has one if you look closely) because this was used in the typewriter mode. It looks like the Brother has the wrong kind of correction tape, there are 2 different ones: one is the 'cover up' kind that deposits white over the (nylon ink) typed character and the other one is the 'lift-off' kind that is a sticky tape that lifts off the carbon printed characters. It looks like the Brother has the lift-off type which will not work with the nylon printing ribbon. Security wise the multi strike carbon is better because you can't read the printed text but the print quality is better than the nylon one. That's all folks! :)
RUclipsr akbkuku (great retro tech channel) has done a 2-parter on typewriter correction methods recently :D
I know well, I'm subbed and of course have watched those!
Great video! I remember machines like these in my college. I actually learned to touch-type on a WP unit and always enjoyed the banging of the daisy wheel when printing my document. Happy memories :-D
I love that amber monochrome screen on the Brother machine. I also like the sound of that daisywheel typewriter sound that comes from those printers, I never got to use one of those printers, I grew up in the dot-matrix screech age.
Hi David, can you please do more restoration videos? They are my favourite. Keep up the great content
Thanks 😃👍
Can you replace the belt between episodes? I kinda feel let down to see a computer let in that state
Bengineer8 me too
Or... make a video on replacing the belt. I like that kind of content.
Edit:they are borrowed...
I was waiting for the replacement part of video. Think this video was too short...
They are not his to tinker with. Both of them were borrowed for the episode.
@@davidkaminski615 aaaaaahhhhhhh
I am learning so much about old tech and all of this is just so interesting! This dude knows his tech!
As time goes by, thanks for the casual stroll down 8 bit lane! For what they were. They were still great.
Even if it's maybe not well known in America, I kind of trust you have to know the Amstrad PCW machines. I'd really would like to watch a video on those! Amazing pieces of hardware to compare with, mainly because in many aspects those were full-blown CP/M computers, even if mainly aimed at word processing (and, to a lesser degree, some other productivity tasks like spreadsheets). Actually, they had a library of games ported to the system, or written for it!
The backspace and return look very similar to a UK Qwerty layout, with the shift slightly different.
But on a UK keyboard, the backspace key is next to the equals sign.
I have a brother similar to that which is brand new! I love how the rectangular screen gives us full screen coverage! It seems to be compatible with the file format that the brother portable word processors called "super power note". They looked like laptops, had an optional huge lasting battery and an ASCII version of tetris too! I absolutely love the super power note word processors!!. I'm glad you were looking at them. Cheers!
keep up the good work love your videos brings me back to my childhood
Hours needed to sleep: *exists*
8-Bit Guy: it's free real estate
Be N S O N truth.
yeah i put it on my watch later list:)
@@pandapolygon people use the watch later list?! Man, I need more will power...
So gay
@@N3tech i have over 3000 videos in mine
11:58 I'd actually be really interested in seeing a project like that!
Your video reminds me of the Panasonic electronic typewriter I had in 1992. I used it to write papers for a university correspondence course I took to get the last credit I needed to obtain my degree.
It accepted a floppy disk, also used a daisy wheel print system and took the same ribbon as shown in the Brother unit in your video.
The sound of the typewriter in this video really brought back some memories, because my Panasonic typewriter sounded exactly the same way when it printed out text. Electronic typewriters like the Panasonic I had weren't a new thing, as I remember using a similar kind of electronic typewriter (it took floppy diskettes as well) in the spring of 1987 when I was still in university.
Unfortunately, the Panasonic typewriter had a LCD that displayed only one line of text, so you more or less had to type out one line of text and then print it out. Although you could type multiple lines of text and then save them to diskette and then print after retrieving the document from the diskette. Editing your work could be a pain as it was so slow and cumbersome.
I remember seeing a Brother WP85 up close and personal back in 1992 and wanting it very badly. Alas, it was well beyond my financial reach.
Hard to believe this technology is starting to verge on being 30 years old. Where did all that time go?
Wow the first machine was really cool. They built things to last back in those days. No updates to mess things up. Great video. Thanks dude.
I've got a WP-75. It's essentially the same unit as that one. What's curious to me is the CRT. It IS very crisp which is common among the monocrome CRT of the era. But what's really odd, is the aspect ratio! It's super wide. Almost 2:1 wide. And mine isn't a true amber display in that it doesn't use an amber phosphor. It just has an amber filter over the front of it.
The printer unit on mine was *mostly* broken, so I'm trying to cannibalize it for the CRT to make a mini arcade cabinet out of it (with my own game of course, I can't imagine emulation going over well on it). Imagine a scrolling vertical shooter on that thing! I just need to figure out how to feed it video and I'm off to the races!
Edit: Just got to the section where you talked about hacking and programming the Z80. That would be neat. My current idea is to use a modern device (raz pi or something similar) to poke at the video memory so I can display whatever patterns I fancy.
that wide screen crt is beautiful
I owned one of those Panasonic word processors back in the day. It was a great little unit. It was marketed as a "smart typewriter" for those that didn't need (or want) a full-blown computer and it worked great at what it did. I used to enjoy typing documents into memory and then sitting back and watching the daisy-wheel printer print them out. You could even do mail-merge with them. I remember printing out a bunch of resumes with customized cover letters -- it was pretty slick.
I really enjoy your videos. Your intro and music you use are just so 80s. And you're so laid-back and passionate about what you're talking about. You're a nice escape from all the crappy stuff that's going on in the world nowadays. It's like I'm back in the wonderful 80s. I was only 2 when they ended though.
I really like these one purpose machine, you feel high when you use them because they don't allow the dissipation of your mind with other unrelated features.
Wow! I actually own one of those 😊 I actually made a video on one as well 😂
Just checked out your channel, you've earned a sub!
Subbed
I used to sell the Brother at Best Products in the 90s. The floppy was backwards on the box too to show the dust cover. I thought it was silly because you'd someone buying it who's never used a floppy using the picture as an example. Thanks for featuring these!
First "computer" I ever used was a word processor in 1992 to write a paragraph for first grade. It felt like magic. Still the sounds fill me with nostalgia. It wouldn't be for another seven years until I send an email. So that first word processor from this generation was amazing! Great video.
I still use Word Perfect on windows 10, from the Windows XP era. It has editing features I've never found on anything else.
I used Wordperfect for DOS when I took a class on school in word processing.
Have you ever tried Open Office?
WordPerfect for DOS was the best WP, long after multiple versions of Word for Windows came out. Macros; read many different file formats, and it practically had its own menu-driven Text User Interface on top of DOS. Microsoft used their monopoly power to kill them, as WordPerfect for Windows came out late. It made me appreciate the command line, and eventually switch to linux.
@@squirlmy I bet. I just remember having to learn those codes to get the text to appear a certain way but you couldn't see it until it was finally printed.
The view formatting codes is super useful.
wow, the term of portable has evolved many times.
I bought a typewriter once! I loved it, did not write as much as I thought I would but the technical aspect and the analogue way of doing it was great!
Then I bought my first computer (C-64) and my qwerty skills was pretty good! :-)
Word processor for me was Wordperfect on MS-DOS (can not remember which version, but Windows 3.0 was available then I think so about that time).
With a good teacher it was bearable at least, soo many combinations and you had to be artist to envision what is actually coming out of the printer. Not much later WYSIWYG was a thing (with Windows and AmigaOS) and it was just great! But the driver and printer languages was (back then) a hit and a miss sort of...
I did study a bit of Postscript and thought this is a game changer, but all the postscript printers was soo expensive. Then came PCL which put more on the computer then on the printer and they could output almost the same but with cheaper printers but with more "caveats". Specially the early HP PCL printers.
Anyway! love the video! as usual!
I love this channel so much, it's so flipping wholesome ✨
I always liked the theme music to Greatest American Hero
"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air, never thought I could feel so free... Flying away on a wing and a prayer. Who could it be? Believe it or not, it's just me." Loved that show!
I have a Brother WP-1. It currently lives under my desk at work. Insainly heavy
both of these units are so cute and neat! i like the general look of the panasonic more. plus the fact that it has the “white out” feature is really cool! i think it’d be more for typerwriter mode than it would be for WP mode
Love your videos! Keep em' coming!
I am still waiting for the AMIGA part of Commodore story series :)
Refer to Ahoy for that. He's basically The 16-Bit Guy.
I hear the demo scenes for these are spectacular.
Brings back memories of school work, In a good way, I love these things.
I just love the way the first machine prints. Both seem like very practical usable devices for their time.
No disrespect meant, but the front of the Brother says WP85
So when are we going to see The 8-Bit Hacker :) sounds like an awesome project! Great video! as always!
I mean, he has a gun channel, a coin collecting channel and a fake science debunking channel.
@@abhimaanmayadam5713 All of those have been dead, though...
@@abhimaanmayadam5713 wait wut
@@abhimaanmayadam5713 Gun channel? Link plz :)
The channel name is awesomeairguns.
Very interesting episode, about old and forgotten hardware. Go on like this
This brings back memories, my family had a Brother word processor before we had a PC, I used it to label all my VHS tapes and it ever ran Tetris. I still went back to it for typing after we got our first PC because it was just easier to use for that purpose than a windows 95 PC and printer.
0:23 _"What they really are... ...portable"_
Drag-able is a much better description 😜
Or "back-breakingly luggable"
you can crush a cat with that stuff
This was back before soy lattes when men were men and Arnie was still the "terminator".
@@Uhfgood I hate Millennials as much as anyone else, but *nobody* would want to carry that thing around all day.
@@ct92404 - Luckily there's this little thing called sarcasm.
Generally speaking you wouldn't actually be "lugging" this thing around all day.
You might take it home if you had a deadline. You may decide to take a 'working' vacation, and transport it to your hotel or cabin.
Most cases, unless the boss was particularly mean, you would only carry it home, twice a month or once a week.
So the lugging is going to be between the place of work and the car and/or the home.
I bet you can load software on the brother one without messing with the ROM chips, given it is capable of loading the spreadsheet program from the disk.
I was waiting for this video since you got the brother in one of your older 8-bit unboxing videos
I had a Brother typewriter in the late 80s to early 90s. It was a real workhorse. It was similar to this machine but it just had a small LCD screen and you could only see one line so it was more like type a line, make sure it is correct, then send it to the paper and just type to the paper which is what I normally did. It had a correction tape. I used it for shorter papers along with my Apple II and ImageWriter printer. It is amazing how reliable that stuff was compared to my modern InkJet printer which I regularly have to smack around.
6:00 correction ribbon was probably used when in typewriter mode.
The RAM on the Panasonic is part of the HD6303XP, its a microcontroller - that means it contains RAM, in this case 64k. It is also Motorola 6800 compatible - so a relative of the Altair 8800, Tandy CoCo etc
If memory serves, the Hitachi 6303 is a clone of the MC6803, which while a derivative of the 6800 series, doesn’t really have that much in common with the Color Computer’s 6809 microprocessor- the 6809 took a very different architectural path from the 6800 than the 6803 did. They’re cousins at best.
(But I should note that the TRS-80 Micro Color Computer MC-10 has a 6803 in it.)
@@jasondowns2778 apart from the virtually complete assembler level compatibility
With the 6800, sure. Not with the 6809.
This video is an example of why i subscribed to The 8-Bit Guy. Kudos.
I had two of those same Brother word processors. I bought one for $50 at a garage sale in 1992 and I found the other one sitting next to the trash in my apartment building about 5 years later. The word processing program is similar to Word Perfect. I enjoyed the typing part. As a speed typist it has a nice comfortable keyboard but I usually went somewhere else to print my documents because it's really loud.
It would be nice to use it as UNIX/Linux terminal via serial port :)
I wonder what the RJ45 (I think) socket is for to the left of the piezo speaker @ 8:45 ?
Diagnostic port?
@@dunebasher1971 maybe for a RAM dump on custom ROMs
thats the keyboard port, if you look in the brother model the wire for the keyboard wasn't detachable, but on the keyboard itself the wire terminated with an RJ11 port I think if you watch very closely as he first exposes the top of the mainboard you can see its connected, and when you look at all the other cables none of them have the same look as the keyboard, using Rj11 was pretty common on keyboard wiring, another one that used it was the first macintosh
I love these all in one word processors. The Brother ones are my favorite. They even have some that look like regular typewriters but have a floppy disk and a vga port so you can connect it to any monitor.
Good to see you're getting caught up on The Greatest American Hero. One of my favorite shows as a kid and my mom made me a pretty accurate costume that I wore for Halloween and proceeded to wear out well after.