Thanks AIO we do our best to put out good content and feedback like yours means a lot! :-) We weren't able to get in touch with David, and with everything going on I'll be honest it slipped my mind. Thanks for subscribing!
Good. I thought you were on about the intro as in the beginning while you were talking. The ident came on and RIP speakers while lying in bed turned up listening to you
As an olde tyme Commodore fan, I'm always surprised to hear about the "Video Game Crash of 1983". That's roughly when I *started* my home gaming, and found myself quite awash in things to play back then. The C64 had its greatest sales years in 1983/84. Are we sure it shouldn't be called the "Game Console Crash of 1983?" -- or better yet "The Home Computer Explosion of 1983?"
The crash definitely resulted in a shift to home computers. Atari under Warner was in a bad spot as their exposure to the console crash was immense and their home computers had been quickly losing ground to the newer and cheaper C64.
It was the diabolical C64 and its nefarious progenitor the VIC-20 that helped *cause* the video game crash, and you were part of the problem! Just kidding (the C64 was my first computer back in the day, too), but seriously, yes, this was probably one factor among several major ones that led to the crash of 1983. It wasn't just game consoles, but to a lesser extent coin-op video arcades experienced a bit of a recession, at least for a couple of years until the public's interest returned. Filling the gap were the 8-bit (and later 16-bit) home/personal computers that Commodore had effectively convinced the North American public a few years earlier were preferable to consoles, because you could play games and do actual work on them, too. The main barrier to entry was price, with computers being far more expensive than game consoles, but then Commodore released the VIC-20, which was priced like a console, and started a price war with the rather capable (for an 8-bit computer) C64 that knocked a number of competitors in the computer field out of the business or marginalized them. Commodore weren't necessarily wrong, as the Atari VCS/2600 would be the last console that I, for one, would ever buy (not counting the vintage collection I've built). And at the time, the games on computers were getting better, while the games on consoles, especially the VCS, had been getting worse, which was another major factor in the crash. By the way, this wasn't the first console crash. There was another that the VCS itself started in 1977 by acting like a black hole that gobbled up the whole business, causing just about every competitor from the first generation of consoles to close up shop and liquidate their excess inventory at fire-sale prices. It just wasn't an overall crash because the VCS was the whole market at the time. The 1983 crash was of a different kind, it was really only a thing in North America, and it was computers that took over gaming for a couple of years, at least.
I remember from my Acorn days 8K EPROMs were 1/4 the price of 16K so we regularly had one on top of the other with a 74 series logic chip to create a simulated 16K one for about half the cost.
In 1984 I was hired to write some games for the Milmar clone of the Compumate. The Atari 2600 had only been officially launched in Brazil in 1983 so it was still a novelty. I only wrote one program (a simple version of Nim) before I gave up on the extremely limited Basic. I had tried to port an adventure game I had written on the HP41C calculator and ran out of memory before I was halfway through. A few years ago in a forum a guy mentioned that he had bought my game and I was very shocked.
Keep up the good work. Well done video ! Nice to see coverage of this lesser known area of add-ons to the Atari VCS. By the way... I believe the Z80a in the prototype Entex Piggyback was made by Zilog, not "Zylon" (if I heard you correctly at 5:25 .)
You probably heard me correctly, but as Spaky points out every so often in his comments... I do drink alot when were shooting these videos so I probably flubbed the line. 😀
I distinctly remember seeing the advertisement in the atari magazine for the Atari Graduate Keyboard add-on for the 2600. I wanted that SOOOOO badly!!! Ended up getting a C64 a few years later as my first computer.
I knew there were add ons like these, although I've never seen any in person. It seems all my friends had Atari 2600s, but my parents bought my brother and I a Bally Astrocade which was really a cool machine. It had a small keypad built in, but also had a full size keyboard add on similar to these. I've never seen one of those in person either, only in advertisements.
I had a Compumate as a kid. I got mine for Christmas in (I think) 1983, so I would have been almost 10 years old. It was pretty basic compared to the ZX Spectrum I had here in the UK, but it was kind of fun to use. I had a cassette recorder connected to it, so at least I could save and load my programs. It was never going to compete with actual computers but it was a nice introduction to the computer world for the uninitiated.
Got a 1980 4-Switch revision 2600 that I purchased at a thrift store for $30 back in 2012. Still runs fantastic all these years later! Had to get an RF-to-RCA adaptor to work on my new TV about 3 years ago, but otherwise, nothing else has changed with the ole woody console other than becoming more and more fun with the newly-collected cartridges that I would find and buy in the wild!
The PAL Compumate was also released in Australia in small quantities that were available at a big electronics retailer at the time. I purchased one in 1984 and a boxed one again last year. It was my first introduction to computers.
Yep mine too ... Never got it to work with a tape deck. The Funct key then searching for the operation. The option of one low res multi colour image Or 7 frames of 1 colour animation. Parents bought to see if we would use a real computer (got a cpc 664 a year or so later) So another Australian compumate user!
I was always fascinated by these expansion systems. I have VCS BASIC which was a noble attempt at allowing programming on the VCS via 2 keypads. Thanks for the video.
I think that actually trying to program with the thing is just as noble and heroic. It can take all day to fill up the 128 bytes of memory. ;) Just kidding, but yeah, it even has an IDE and debugger, which is going above and beyond. Clearly the developer was focused on actually teaching how computers and computer languages worked, as opposed to just enabling one to program. That was definitely the right thing to focus on in this case.
I'm fascinated by it, too, and was back in the day, but note that while in theory it could be done, in practice it never worked out well, for one reason or another.
I will point out the position of your "snide" bubbles coincide directly with close-captioning. May I suggest you place those up at the top out of the way of any subtitles or CC.
The CPU in the Atari 2600 was a crippled 6502, the 6507. It was the same chip, just had fewer address lines so it couldn't "see" more than 8K RAM, among other pinouts. So instead of 16BIT address bus, it had a 13BIT address bus. So instead of Atari paying $25 per CPU, Atari payed MOS $12 for the 6507 PLUS the RIOT chips. Quite a deal. This limitation alone makes the 2600 console unsuitable for modding into a full fledged computer system. NOTE: If you ever open your 810 or 1050 disk drives, you will find the 6507 CPU. Its a 28 pin chip, not the 40 pin chip we are used to, due to the fewer pinouts including A13-A15. Same chip, same number of transistors. Now, could a person desolder the 6507 and install a board with a 6502 with increased RAM and a ROM chip onboard with BASiC installed, turning the 2600 into a powerful 8bit computer worth playing with? Perhaps
Intro video/music was really cool. However, the levels really need to be adjusted. It's far too loud compared to the narration (very good narration at that). Please remix with normalized volume levels. :D
Yeah, when the intro music started playing, it nearly deafened me. My ears aren't so young, either. Especially because I'd turned up the volume due to the soft spoken narration in the intro sequence.
The Atari 400, which shares the same hardware architecture as the 800 and 5200, was originally intended as a game console with a membrane keyboard (like the Odyssey 2) for more complex games and beginning programmers to learn BASIC, while the 800 with its full-stroke mechanical keyboard was intended as a full computer for getting real work done (plus games). But since the 400 was already a computer, regardless of the intention, it ended up being sold as a cheaper alternative to the 800, and Atari's rival console division ended up without a console to sell, except for the aging 2600, of course. They would eventually come out with the 5200 (a 400 with less RAM, no keyboard, a different case, and different controllers) when the 2600, the popularity of which lasted much longer than Atari had expected, began to show signs of weakness and strong competitors such as ColecoVision had appeared (the 2600 had been holding its own against the Intellivision and expectations), but by then it was a bit late and for some crazy reason they decided to make the 5200 software-incompatible with the Atari computers. Obviously, given the history, and what it really is, it would have made no sense to turn the 5200 into a computer. We can say that it would have made a great computer, though, because it was a great computer first! By the way, looking back, it seems that no one was able to successfully make a console into a computer or vice versa--they all either failed technically or on the market or both. The 2600 was supposed to become a computer, but that never really happened. The 400 computer wasn't really considered successful as the 5200 console. Mattel failed badly in their promise that the Intellivision would become a computer. Coleco mostly succeeded in making the ColecoVision into the Adam computer, but the Adam had a lot of problems and failed on the market. And in Europe, the C64GS, which was the C64 turned into a console, failed badly because it wasn't much cheaper than the computer and, being compatible with C64 software, didn't have a the keyboard that the software needed! Theoretically, it seemed that consoles could be computers and vice versa, but in practice, this concept failed miserably, especially for Coleco, which went out of business entirely, largely because of the Adam's failure--for whatever reasons, computers were computers and consoles were consoles, period, and this paradigm has yet to change. The only exception to this rule that I can think of is the Commodore MAX/Ultimax game console (which like the 400 has a membrane keyboard), which was a dismal failure in Japan (got destroyed by Commodore's own VIC-20), being turned into the C64. So this transformation can work, but it only did work exactly once, and only the full computer was successful, so I guess there are no examples in which both the computer and console versions were successful.
6:07: In some of those pictures in that July 1983 issue of Electronic Fun magazine, the Atari Graduate/My First Computer looks uncannily like the keyboard from a Mattel Aquarius -- which incidentally is also reviewed in the same issue. The differences are the inclusion of a real space bar, the removal of the reset button from they keyboard, the addition of an escape key, and then Ctrl and Shift have been, err, shifted around.
I remember seeing this at that time and thinking it was awesome. I had an Intellivision at the time and was jealous (needlessly). If they had bundled a machine code editor as well they could have marketed it as an Atari 2600 Gamemaker, especially if you could incorporate content from the graphics and sound editor software that came with it. What a missed opportunity. I went on to buy a C64, but was too young to program anything approaching professional.
*THIS* was my first computer! I learned Basic on it. I had the German variant marketed under the name "Universum Heimcomputer". It set me on the path of becoming a comuter scientist. Today I have aced my M.Sc. and a rather high salary. Thank you CompuMate and all that came after you in my life (C128, Amiga 500, PC, ...)
You really need to open the software tape and dump a digital copy of the audio saved as a WAV file before the tape rots. Then burn a CD to check it as a working load.
I had the Spectravideo one and I would have been around 14 years old. I didn't own it for very long due to the limitations and this video brought back memories of how limited it was. I think that my next computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and I actually still own a couple.
This is facinating. What doomed these was the price war between CBM and TI. Both the vic20 and ti99/4a ended up selling for $99 in 1983 which they could do since both companies made their own chips. Eventually leaving just CBM as the only viable 8bit maker
It's interesting to me how differently things went here in the UK compared to the US. As I remember it, the moment the home computer boom started with the Sinclair ZX81, the Atari and other video game systems were dead in the water. If you did have an Atari, it went in the loft and was forgotten.
$500 ($2000 in today's money) for a computer: Well, today we spend $1300 for our phones, and this is "normal". And each family member needs one, and they need a few tablets as well.
I know that the Atari VCS/2600 was originally promoted as an actual computer system in the late 1970s. They published their Basic Programming cartridge that taught a few simplified computer programming commands, but no one could store those games so that they could be played again later. I had sought out for the Spectravideo Computermate, but I had no success at all.
Please, change the static in the intro or lower the volume, it obliterated my ears, i wonder what would happen if i used headphones. Other than that great video!
Interesting video about this obscure SpectraVideo product. Thanks. You may want to consider normalizing your audio track to avoid the "Rick-roll" effect. Usual practice for broadcast (by radio or TV) is to normalize the signal to -3db. This saves a little dynamic range for high transients, and yields an easily controllable signal. Here's wishing you all the best in future. I'll be watching.
Wow, such a nice Atari 2600 add-on! Just as well it never saw the light of day in my part of the world, or I'd never have acquired my Commodore 64 (which was a Godsend for me ... teaching me how to program).
Great video structure and presentation! 👍 informative, detailed and without that constant "wallpaper music" that only detracts (what's there is placed nicely in) . Don't change a thing! Thank you!
I never experienced the 1978 to 1984 days of home computers. However I have been into computers and seen all sorts of wierd stuff, and followed the progression of computer technology, ever since around 1985. And that second wave, just never stopped. It is as if the video crash were a mile stone for computers as well, and not only consoles. From what I understand, it marked a change in the direction that general computing went.
Awesome content, I was completely unware of this Atari 2600 "accessories", they are amazing, unfortunately just one went through until the end consumer. It would be great to have some modern versions that would work with the Retron 77. Just subscribed to the channel.
Actually, I think your pronunciation of "Universum Heimcomputer" was pretty decent. I owned one of those myself, and had got it at a discount even because my great-grandfather used to work for a sub-division the Sears-like mailorder company that distributed it over here. (I did remove the cheap "UNIVERSUM" stickers to reveal the original "Spectravideo", though...)
Thanks Joerg, glad to hear that I didn’t completely butcher the pronunciation! Question for you: How old were you when you got the Heicomputer and at the time did you feel that it was a decent home computer or did it just make you want a Commodore or ZX-81 even more?
@@Operation8Bit Must've been about nine years old. I couldn't afford a VIC-20 (two friends had one) or even a Commodore 64 (that one was brand new), but I did have an Atari 2600 jr., so I was kinda hoping I would at least be able do some of the fun programming stuff (text based, mostly - you've probably seen how much of an adventure game could be squeezed into a measly 1.5K of RAM) my friends were doing. Sadly, the tape with the programs hasn't survived, but it did teach my quite a few things about programming, like bubble sort. It also made it more than clear that I would need a more powerful machine eventually, so I started saving up for the 64 right there and then ;)
In theory, yes. But you'd probably want to replace basically every component on the way. IIRC, the 6502 variant that serves as a CPU has a reduced number of address pins, and TIA doesn't have any alphanumerics, so you'd have to generate them in software. If you were lucky, when you were done I think you might have something in the same ballpark as an unexpanded ZX80 or 4K TRS-80
9:50 I'm from Venezuela and I can confirm that. The story behind that is insane, you should check it out. BTW I got one back in 2004 I think, is an amazing device. Mine is Q.C. PASSED N.
Back in the day, I wanted the keyboard add on so badly. I was fortunate to get a 600xl with a cassette drive in 1984, but did want the keyboard add on in 1983. It was the Spectravideo model I wanted.
》After all, joining all this stuff together would increase the total price to something close to some full (8-bit) computer system, like those ones you've mentioned.
Thanks for a great video. Very enjoyable :-). I own a MiSTer FPGA and use original Atari 2600 joysticks to play on a more modern take of the same Atari system. I had a 2600 as a kid - it was the first real video game system I owned. They were great times.
OK, I did a Google search and got some info... but what pray tell (for the rest) is the BIT60, and how did you get your hands on one? Enquiring minds need to know.
@@Operation8Bit In the 2600 Connection Newsletter (Issue #30 - Sep / Oct 1995) you can find my review. You should be able to find online or order a copy of the individual issue or a Compendium copy of Vol.2 (#20 - 50) from eBay in physical form or PDF to download.
Excellent video! At least one more company announced a computer expansion for the Atari 2600 -- I want to say Bell & Howell, but my notes are on a different computer -- but there was only a very brief mention in the business press. No photos were ever shown, and I doubt that any work was completed. The photo of the Expander (4:27) is interesting. That screen is clearly a Motorola 6847 video chip (used in the Coco, and some more obscure systems); it is much more obvious in the original magazine photo. Oddly, the border is blue, which that video chip could not do. Something is odd. If the hardware replaced the 2600's original video chip, and added a cassette deck, keyboard, ROM, and RAM, how very much cheaper would it have been than a Vic 20 or an Atari 400? The graphics capabilities would also have been much more limited than the 2600. I wonder if there was any actual prototype hardware developed, or just an empty shell mock-up for the photos.
I remember reading about the Piggyback in a US magazine in 83. As a 11 year old I desperately wanted my parents to get a computer system, any system would have been great at the time. Happily my dad waited 18 months and got a C64 family pack in Christmas 85. As for the so called "Video game crash"? Here in Australia we were totally unaware of any game crash. In fact I didn't hear of the term until about twenty years ago on a retro game forum. Perhaps it was just a buzz term invented by the then US video game journalists. I mean I know Atari released a couple of dud games (E.T. and Pacman) but there were still a huge amount of games in the mid 80s especially on 8 bit computers such as the c64.
Same thing, I don't remember a "crash" but I do remember Atari going down the tubes on some of their titles. Like you I moved on from my Atari to a C64 and then just started playing games on that. A few years later when the NES came out, I switched to that console. But if you read the magazines from the time, they said the US market had "virtually disappeared". Which is ironic considering one of the magazines that said that was Electronic Games, a periodical dedicated to Video Games and filled with ads for them. archive.org/details/Electronic_Games_Volume_03_Number_03_1985-03_Reese_Communications_US/page/n7/mode/2up
@@Operation8Bit I had a quick glance of the link and yes it's full of games. I guess many game journalists of the era were focused primarily on consoles and tended to ignore home computers. Which is strange as the c64 was such a dominant system here in Australia and other regions. Another part of the "narrative" that I find questionable is that the NES came along and saved the industry.
@@fordprefect80 definitely the C64 was dominate in Australia. It was Apple ][‘s at school and C64 at home. I personally had a TRS-80. After much programming and many games, the BBS revolution hit and that became the next big thing.
A lot of 1980's micro computers and game consoles had ports or slots "For Future Use". For most of them it was a future that never arrived. One of the LASER apple ][ clones had a slot on the side for an expansion system they never made. Dunno if it was an exact copy of an apple ][ slot. The NES had that covered port on its bottom that there never was a Nintendo made device for.
I can't think of any computer peripheral add-on that is mean to convert a console into a full-fledged computer for any console that was successful. They either never made it to market or had virtually no impact when released.
I remember when I was 10 years old, going into a store in the mall and seeing a demo of a system that loaded games from cassette on the 2600. Must've been this guy 😉 Don't remember the keyboard...
I had a cartridge called a Super Charger that you plugged into a cassette player to load games from tape. I never saw one for sale in a store and I never seen another one. I got mine in a trade.
Amazing, just i a thought i have seen every mod for Atari 2600 (Walkman tapes with games, games over CD-Audio, Super cartridge games, Homebrew Atari software) this one is the most spectacular i guess🙂
Ohh wow, well, I guess it is a step up from the Atari Basic Cartridge, but considering how limited the ZX-81 was, I think I would have enjoyed that more.
Perhaps off track, I had the Sinclair 1000 at 1 & 1/2 k. I was quite amazed what it could do for its time. And strange to say it was light-years ahead of this Atari operating system. Surely I thought Atari would meet, supersede, and succeed in its place.
I've always seen pics of these, and wandered how they could work with the VCS processors limited capabilities. That was really cool to see. It honestly did about what I thought without adding another processor, still amazing a company did it. By the time these came out the C64 was pushing prices down to VCS levels so it had a really limited time to have a market.
Well, the c64 got released a year earlier for ~600 usd. This addon did cost 80 bucks, so there surely was some headroom there. For the same money you could have gotten an atari 400 probably though. Its a shame it came out so late. On principle this would have been a viable way to learn programming on a tight budget.
@@haraldhimmel5687 The price of the C64 rapidly dropped, though. Introductory prices were always an attempt to recoup as much development money as possible from the wealthy and impatient, but the need for sales volume always drove the price down sharply before long. The Atari 400 for $80?! I don't think it ever got that low. Even the cost-reduced XL series that followed on were never that cheap. That was Timex Sinclair 1000 territory.
Woah that is absolutely horrible, you see that the VCS’s lack of a dedicated video processor makes it close to impossible to scroll text. I had a VideoPac (you called them different in the US) and I see one behind you, with the cartridge with a handle. That has a basic too, as well as a glorious membrane keyboard :) I bought that for games and Basic. I never bought the basic cartridge for it. As it was impossible to get. And then I got a VIC20 and defeated the purpose. Maybe I should hunt down a VideoPac and do a retro video on that too. See what I can hack in that.
If it works on a Retron 77, I wonder if it will run on the Atari 2600+ ?, I really wanted one of these back in the day,along with the Starpath Supercharger. A short time later I got a Commodore 64. so, getting any addons for the VCS quickly faded into the background.
Good video, but I'd recommend losing the popup comments as they were a little obnoxious and not very funny. Also, some of the cuts were a little awkward since you would cut to the same setting (ie you'd cut from a segment of you talking to another segment of you talking in the same position). You should shoot some b-roll (ie silent video of whatever you are talking about) and use that to cover those awkward cuts it makes it feel much more natural when you cut between different takes. edit: also, the audio is kind of muffled, maybe look into getting a desk mic. It's not too bad, just something to think about going forward.
Hi Kay... thank you very much for taking the time to provide such a well thought out constructive comment! 🙂 As you can tell we are just starting out and we're still learning, so this type of feedback is super helpful as we look to improve our content.
When you say you want to get fresh images of the Graduate, do you mean both kinds of images? You did ask who the original owner is, right? Would be a waste not to at least try and make contact.
As stated in the video, we did contact with the National Video Game Museum in Frisco TX where the Graduate was last on public display. We spoke with the curator directly and he informed us that the owner had retaken possession and also wished to remain anonymous. Given the rarity of this particular system, we respect the right to privacy that the owner has conveyed, and we decided not to peruse the matter any further.
Note that the box refers to the Atari VCS, not the 2600 and the picture of the Atari has three levers on each side of the cartridge. So this was made in the _early_ days. RAM was super expensive. BTW, the CPU package was missing a few pins compared to the normal 6502, so it could only address 16K. Those other products you mention at the beginning must use some kind of bank swapping. Why the stacked ROM chips? Maybe it was spec'ed for the 16K chip and they were too expensive or unreliable come time for manufacture.
Actually the 6507 can address 8K. Atari used the top address line to differentiate between the cartridge and internal hardware, so the biggest cartridge possible without bank switching is 4K with the other 4K being repeating copies of the hardware registers and RAM.
Sound is impossible to level out. When you speak it is inaudible without turning the volume up, but then the cut away to vintage commercials and modern ads is deafening on headphones. In addition, putting captions on covers up the sarcastic comments.
I've worn out most of those computers behind you. I hacked the crap out of all the old computer hardware that I had. I don't see a TI 994/A..well that was a 16 bit cpu, working in 8 bit mode. It makes me sad that I didn't take a job with Atari when they were in business. We would have worked and partied like it was 1999...Atari computers suffered from poor design issues except for maybe the 800xl....well mostly...Some the old computers had versions of basic that were conducive to writing games. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
9:15 Interesting! I just came across Universum products when researching the 1st gen video consoles that used the AY-3-8500, this almost exact duplicate of the 4-game model of the Radio Shack Electronic TV Scoreboard: pongmuseum.com/collection/universum-multispiel-handheld.php
Essentially all consoles are computers and as time has progressed the line between them has been blurred. What started out as proprietary built has become off the shelf parts. This has kept the cost of console gaming relatively cheap in comparison to something like a smartphone which continues to increase in price exponentially...I believe that bubble is going to burst and soon as the returns for incremental power are going to hit a wall.
Shades of the ZX81 indeed, down to the crappy keyboard and lack of RAM - even the cassette cables are identical. The only difference is ZX81's BASIC was actually pretty decent.
I have the exact same combo boxed compumate and sealed tape. I think i got them 10 yrs ago from a guy in venezuela or something... The rom was off but i managed to rewrite it in an eprom programmer :) these things are hard to get :( tip: if it stops working, rewrite the 8k roms :D
Underrated channel, higher production quality than about 95% of RUclips!
Did you ever get around to contacting David Murray about the music program?
Thanks AIO we do our best to put out good content and feedback like yours means a lot! :-)
We weren't able to get in touch with David, and with everything going on I'll be honest it slipped my mind.
Thanks for subscribing!
@@Operation8Bit Ahh, I talked to David myself about a PC speaker program he had earlier but he never got back to me about it
Just got here.Its really good.
Our apologies on the bad audio level mix in the intro sequence. We'll make sure to fix this in all of our upcoming videos.
Please reduce the sound of the static in your intro as well. Thanks in advance.
So glad the loud startup sound should be fixed in later vids. Excellent video and informative!
Good. I thought you were on about the intro as in the beginning while you were talking. The ident came on and RIP speakers while lying in bed turned up listening to you
As an olde tyme Commodore fan, I'm always surprised to hear about the "Video Game Crash of 1983". That's roughly when I *started* my home gaming, and found myself quite awash in things to play back then. The C64 had its greatest sales years in 1983/84. Are we sure it shouldn't be called the "Game Console Crash of 1983?" -- or better yet "The Home Computer Explosion of 1983?"
The crash definitely resulted in a shift to home computers. Atari under Warner was in a bad spot as their exposure to the console crash was immense and their home computers had been quickly losing ground to the newer and cheaper C64.
It was the diabolical C64 and its nefarious progenitor the VIC-20 that helped *cause* the video game crash, and you were part of the problem! Just kidding (the C64 was my first computer back in the day, too), but seriously, yes, this was probably one factor among several major ones that led to the crash of 1983. It wasn't just game consoles, but to a lesser extent coin-op video arcades experienced a bit of a recession, at least for a couple of years until the public's interest returned. Filling the gap were the 8-bit (and later 16-bit) home/personal computers that Commodore had effectively convinced the North American public a few years earlier were preferable to consoles, because you could play games and do actual work on them, too. The main barrier to entry was price, with computers being far more expensive than game consoles, but then Commodore released the VIC-20, which was priced like a console, and started a price war with the rather capable (for an 8-bit computer) C64 that knocked a number of competitors in the computer field out of the business or marginalized them. Commodore weren't necessarily wrong, as the Atari VCS/2600 would be the last console that I, for one, would ever buy (not counting the vintage collection I've built). And at the time, the games on computers were getting better, while the games on consoles, especially the VCS, had been getting worse, which was another major factor in the crash.
By the way, this wasn't the first console crash. There was another that the VCS itself started in 1977 by acting like a black hole that gobbled up the whole business, causing just about every competitor from the first generation of consoles to close up shop and liquidate their excess inventory at fire-sale prices. It just wasn't an overall crash because the VCS was the whole market at the time. The 1983 crash was of a different kind, it was really only a thing in North America, and it was computers that took over gaming for a couple of years, at least.
I remember from my Acorn days 8K EPROMs were 1/4 the price of 16K so we regularly had one on top of the other with a 74 series logic chip to create a simulated 16K one for about half the cost.
Kid:Mum I want a computer
Mum: We have a computer at home
Computer at home: Compumate...
In 1984 I was hired to write some games for the Milmar clone of the Compumate. The Atari 2600 had only been officially launched in Brazil in 1983 so it was still a novelty. I only wrote one program (a simple version of Nim) before I gave up on the extremely limited Basic. I had tried to port an adventure game I had written on the HP41C calculator and ran out of memory before I was halfway through. A few years ago in a forum a guy mentioned that he had bought my game and I was very shocked.
Keep up the good work. Well done video ! Nice to see coverage of this lesser known area of add-ons to the Atari VCS. By the way... I believe the Z80a in the prototype Entex Piggyback was made by Zilog, not "Zylon" (if I heard you correctly at 5:25 .)
You probably heard me correctly, but as Spaky points out every so often in his comments... I do drink alot when were shooting these videos so I probably flubbed the line. 😀
I distinctly remember seeing the advertisement in the atari magazine for the Atari Graduate Keyboard add-on for the 2600. I wanted that SOOOOO badly!!! Ended up getting a C64 a few years later as my first computer.
I knew there were add ons like these, although I've never seen any in person. It seems all my friends had Atari 2600s, but my parents bought my brother and I a Bally Astrocade which was really a cool machine. It had a small keypad built in, but also had a full size keyboard add on similar to these. I've never seen one of those in person either, only in advertisements.
I had a Compumate as a kid. I got mine for Christmas in (I think) 1983, so I would have been almost 10 years old.
It was pretty basic compared to the ZX Spectrum I had here in the UK, but it was kind of fun to use. I had a cassette recorder connected to it, so at least I could save and load my programs.
It was never going to compete with actual computers but it was a nice introduction to the computer world for the uninitiated.
Got a 1980 4-Switch revision 2600 that I purchased at a thrift store for $30 back in 2012. Still runs fantastic all these years later! Had to get an RF-to-RCA adaptor to work on my new TV about 3 years ago, but otherwise, nothing else has changed with the ole woody console other than becoming more and more fun with the newly-collected cartridges that I would find and buy in the wild!
The PAL Compumate was also released in Australia in small quantities that were available at a big electronics retailer at the time. I purchased one in 1984 and a boxed one again last year. It was my first introduction to computers.
Oh.... I am so jealous. I saw them too.
Yep mine too ... Never got it to work with a tape deck. The Funct key then searching for the operation. The option of one low res multi colour image Or 7 frames of 1 colour animation. Parents bought to see if we would use a real computer (got a cpc 664 a year or so later) So another Australian compumate user!
I was always fascinated by these expansion systems. I have VCS BASIC which was a noble attempt at allowing programming on the VCS via 2 keypads. Thanks for the video.
I think that actually trying to program with the thing is just as noble and heroic. It can take all day to fill up the 128 bytes of memory. ;) Just kidding, but yeah, it even has an IDE and debugger, which is going above and beyond. Clearly the developer was focused on actually teaching how computers and computer languages worked, as opposed to just enabling one to program. That was definitely the right thing to focus on in this case.
I'm fascinated by it, too, and was back in the day, but note that while in theory it could be done, in practice it never worked out well, for one reason or another.
I will point out the position of your "snide" bubbles coincide directly with close-captioning. May I suggest you place those up at the top out of the way of any subtitles or CC.
The CPU in the Atari 2600 was a crippled 6502, the 6507. It was the same chip, just had fewer address lines so it couldn't "see" more than 8K RAM, among other pinouts. So instead of 16BIT address bus, it had a 13BIT address bus. So instead of Atari paying $25 per CPU, Atari payed MOS $12 for the 6507 PLUS the RIOT chips. Quite a deal. This limitation alone makes the 2600 console unsuitable for modding into a full fledged computer system.
NOTE: If you ever open your 810 or 1050 disk drives, you will find the 6507 CPU. Its a 28 pin chip, not the 40 pin chip we are used to, due to the fewer pinouts including A13-A15. Same chip, same number of transistors.
Now, could a person desolder the 6507 and install a board with a 6502 with increased RAM and a ROM chip onboard with BASiC installed, turning the 2600 into a powerful 8bit computer worth playing with? Perhaps
Oh, I had the magazine issue. I remember that article. I'm so very old ...
You and me both...
My PAL version has the "QC PASSED P" sticker on the front - so I'd say you're on to something there for sure.
Glad to get some confirmation on this. Pretty cryptic way to identify the different models, but I couldn't find anything else.
Intro video/music was really cool. However, the levels really need to be adjusted. It's far too loud compared to the narration (very good narration at that). Please remix with normalized volume levels. :D
Thanks RPB,,, we're working hard to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Yeah, when the intro music started playing, it nearly deafened me. My ears aren't so young, either. Especially because I'd turned up the volume due to the soft spoken narration in the intro sequence.
you manged quite well on the "Universum Heimcomputer", I immediately understood.
Nowadays, just about every electronic device more complex than a flashlight or a fan is technically a computer.
Yea, a light bulb as more CPU power and jaw-dropping amounts of RAM compared to the machines of 1980.
They really should have focused on turning the Atari 5200 into a computer.
They did. It was called the Atari 800. Same hardware. It was used to develop the 5200 games 😉
The Atari 400, which shares the same hardware architecture as the 800 and 5200, was originally intended as a game console with a membrane keyboard (like the Odyssey 2) for more complex games and beginning programmers to learn BASIC, while the 800 with its full-stroke mechanical keyboard was intended as a full computer for getting real work done (plus games). But since the 400 was already a computer, regardless of the intention, it ended up being sold as a cheaper alternative to the 800, and Atari's rival console division ended up without a console to sell, except for the aging 2600, of course. They would eventually come out with the 5200 (a 400 with less RAM, no keyboard, a different case, and different controllers) when the 2600, the popularity of which lasted much longer than Atari had expected, began to show signs of weakness and strong competitors such as ColecoVision had appeared (the 2600 had been holding its own against the Intellivision and expectations), but by then it was a bit late and for some crazy reason they decided to make the 5200 software-incompatible with the Atari computers.
Obviously, given the history, and what it really is, it would have made no sense to turn the 5200 into a computer. We can say that it would have made a great computer, though, because it was a great computer first!
By the way, looking back, it seems that no one was able to successfully make a console into a computer or vice versa--they all either failed technically or on the market or both. The 2600 was supposed to become a computer, but that never really happened. The 400 computer wasn't really considered successful as the 5200 console. Mattel failed badly in their promise that the Intellivision would become a computer. Coleco mostly succeeded in making the ColecoVision into the Adam computer, but the Adam had a lot of problems and failed on the market. And in Europe, the C64GS, which was the C64 turned into a console, failed badly because it wasn't much cheaper than the computer and, being compatible with C64 software, didn't have a the keyboard that the software needed! Theoretically, it seemed that consoles could be computers and vice versa, but in practice, this concept failed miserably, especially for Coleco, which went out of business entirely, largely because of the Adam's failure--for whatever reasons, computers were computers and consoles were consoles, period, and this paradigm has yet to change. The only exception to this rule that I can think of is the Commodore MAX/Ultimax game console (which like the 400 has a membrane keyboard), which was a dismal failure in Japan (got destroyed by Commodore's own VIC-20), being turned into the C64. So this transformation can work, but it only did work exactly once, and only the full computer was successful, so I guess there are no examples in which both the computer and console versions were successful.
6:07: In some of those pictures in that July 1983 issue of Electronic Fun magazine, the Atari Graduate/My First Computer looks uncannily like the keyboard from a Mattel Aquarius -- which incidentally is also reviewed in the same issue. The differences are the inclusion of a real space bar, the removal of the reset button from they keyboard, the addition of an escape key, and then Ctrl and Shift have been, err, shifted around.
5:11 - 'Those Little Buggers' ?? I missed that classic 🤣
I remember seeing this at that time and thinking it was awesome. I had an Intellivision at the time and was jealous (needlessly). If they had bundled a machine code editor as well they could have marketed it as an Atari 2600 Gamemaker, especially if you could incorporate content from the graphics and sound editor software that came with it. What a missed opportunity. I went on to buy a C64, but was too young to program anything approaching professional.
*THIS* was my first computer! I learned Basic on it. I had the German variant marketed under the name "Universum Heimcomputer". It set me on the path of becoming a comuter scientist. Today I have aced my M.Sc. and a rather high salary. Thank you CompuMate and all that came after you in my life (C128, Amiga 500, PC, ...)
You really need to open the software tape and dump a digital copy of the audio saved as a WAV file before the tape rots. Then burn a CD to check it as a working load.
Surely someone has done that already.
In an alternate dimension, the US recieved the ZX Spectrum in 1982...
I had the Spectravideo one and I would have been around 14 years old. I didn't own it for very long due to the limitations and this video brought back memories of how limited it was. I think that my next computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and I actually still own a couple.
There are PCB photos of the Atari Graduate from the auction sale of it.
Great in depth look at the keyboards. Impressived lineup. Thanks for making this video
This is facinating. What doomed these was the price war between CBM and TI. Both the vic20 and ti99/4a ended up selling for $99 in 1983 which they could do since both companies made their own chips. Eventually leaving just CBM as the only viable 8bit maker
In Brazil, this same accessory was sold under the name "CompuGame". I have one and it still works.
Neighbour complaint warning at 0:35 - 0:55
Thanks for the feedback Fabrico. We're working on leveling out the audio in our upcoming videos.🙂
@@Operation8Bit That will be awesome. Your content is very interesting and I will be looking for your upcoming videos.
It's interesting to me how differently things went here in the UK compared to the US. As I remember it, the moment the home computer boom started with the Sinclair ZX81, the Atari and other video game systems were dead in the water. If you did have an Atari, it went in the loft and was forgotten.
$500 ($2000 in today's money) for a computer:
Well, today we spend $1300 for our phones, and this is "normal". And each family member needs one, and they need a few tablets as well.
Alot of decent smart phones cost $100
I know that the Atari VCS/2600 was originally promoted as an actual computer system in the late 1970s. They published their Basic Programming cartridge that taught a few simplified computer programming commands, but no one could store those games so that they could be played again later. I had sought out for the Spectravideo Computermate, but I had no success at all.
Please, change the static in the intro or lower the volume, it obliterated my ears, i wonder what would happen if i used headphones. Other than that great video!
Really interesting stuff. Please keep up the good work! I hope you'll get more subscribers.
Thanks aropis, we try to come up with fun topics that we think everyone will enjoy. Glad you liked this video.
Interesting video about this obscure SpectraVideo product. Thanks. You may want to consider normalizing your audio track to avoid the "Rick-roll" effect. Usual practice for broadcast (by radio or TV) is to normalize the signal to -3db. This saves a little dynamic range for high transients, and yields an easily controllable signal. Here's wishing you all the best in future. I'll be watching.
Wow, such a nice Atari 2600 add-on! Just as well it never saw the light of day in my part of the world, or I'd never have acquired my Commodore 64 (which was a Godsend for me ... teaching me how to program).
Without the pop ups, this would be a much, much better watch.
Great video structure and presentation! 👍 informative, detailed and without that constant "wallpaper music" that only detracts (what's there is placed nicely in) . Don't change a thing! Thank you!
I never experienced the 1978 to 1984 days of home computers. However I have been into computers and seen all sorts of wierd stuff, and followed the progression of computer technology, ever since around 1985. And that second wave, just never stopped. It is as if the video crash were a mile stone for computers as well, and not only consoles. From what I understand, it marked a change in the direction that general computing went.
ok anyone else want to know where this guy got that keen looking table topper/mat of the micro controller traces?
We picked it up on Amazon, but I don't think the company that made it is around anymore. (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MGB3SAA)
Awesome content, I was completely unware of this Atari 2600 "accessories", they are amazing, unfortunately just one went through until the end consumer. It would be great to have some modern versions that would work with the Retron 77. Just subscribed to the channel.
Love your channel! I really appreciate the professional format.
Thank you Robert! We try very hard to keep the quality and it's great to hear back from our viewers that we're (apparently) succeeding! 😀
Actually, I think your pronunciation of "Universum Heimcomputer" was pretty decent. I owned one of those myself, and had got it at a discount even because my great-grandfather used to work for a sub-division the Sears-like mailorder company that distributed it over here. (I did remove the cheap "UNIVERSUM" stickers to reveal the original "Spectravideo", though...)
Thanks Joerg, glad to hear that I didn’t completely butcher the pronunciation! Question for you: How old were you when you got the Heicomputer and at the time did you feel that it was a decent home computer or did it just make you want a Commodore or ZX-81 even more?
@@Operation8Bit Must've been about nine years old. I couldn't afford a VIC-20 (two friends had one) or even a Commodore 64 (that one was brand new), but I did have an Atari 2600 jr., so I was kinda hoping I would at least be able do some of the fun programming stuff (text based, mostly - you've probably seen how much of an adventure game could be squeezed into a measly 1.5K of RAM) my friends were doing. Sadly, the tape with the programs hasn't survived, but it did teach my quite a few things about programming, like bubble sort. It also made it more than clear that I would need a more powerful machine eventually, so I started saving up for the 64 right there and then ;)
Exactly the feedback we were hoping to get it helps validate the conclusion that we came to. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Also, where'd you get that vinyl mat?
In theory, yes. But you'd probably want to replace basically every component on the way. IIRC, the 6502 variant that serves as a CPU has a reduced number of address pins, and TIA doesn't have any alphanumerics, so you'd have to generate them in software.
If you were lucky, when you were done I think you might have something in the same ballpark as an unexpanded ZX80 or 4K TRS-80
9:50 I'm from Venezuela and I can confirm that. The story behind that is insane, you should check it out. BTW I got one back in 2004 I think, is an amazing device. Mine is Q.C. PASSED N.
Wasn’t there an Assembly Language cart?
that is a sweet collection behind him...dudes flexing
It would be interesting for someone with the right knowledge set to make a modern version of this kind of product.
This was great!
Back in the day, I wanted the keyboard add on so badly. I was fortunate to get a 600xl with a cassette drive in 1984, but did want the keyboard add on in 1983. It was the Spectravideo model I wanted.
》After all, joining all this stuff together would increase the total price to something close to some full (8-bit) computer system, like those ones you've mentioned.
HEADPHONE WARNING at 0:30 seconds! Geee!
No kidding. I was wearing headphones...
Sorry about that... we're trying to do better and we will :-(
Thanks for a great video. Very enjoyable :-). I own a MiSTer FPGA and use original Atari 2600 joysticks to play on a more modern take of the same Atari system. I had a 2600 as a kid - it was the first real video game system I owned. They were great times.
You should submit this to as a world record for speed running Gram Percy's 1998 text adventure game. I bet it goes unchallenged for a long time. 16:16
really cool, great video!
Yes! The 2600 can become a computer! I got to mess with a BIT60 unit once. It could play Atari 2600 cartridges, too.
OK, I did a Google search and got some info... but what pray tell (for the rest) is the BIT60, and how did you get your hands on one? Enquiring minds need to know.
@@Operation8Bit In the 2600 Connection Newsletter (Issue #30 - Sep / Oct 1995) you can find my review. You should be able to find online or order a copy of the individual issue or a Compendium copy of Vol.2 (#20 - 50) from eBay in physical form or PDF to download.
Excellent video!
At least one more company announced a computer expansion for the Atari 2600 -- I want to say Bell & Howell, but my notes are on a different computer -- but there was only a very brief mention in the business press. No photos were ever shown, and I doubt that any work was completed.
The photo of the Expander (4:27) is interesting. That screen is clearly a Motorola 6847 video chip (used in the Coco, and some more obscure systems); it is much more obvious in the original magazine photo. Oddly, the border is blue, which that video chip could not do. Something is odd.
If the hardware replaced the 2600's original video chip, and added a cassette deck, keyboard, ROM, and RAM, how very much cheaper would it have been than a Vic 20 or an Atari 400? The graphics capabilities would also have been much more limited than the 2600.
I wonder if there was any actual prototype hardware developed, or just an empty shell mock-up for the photos.
Nice video! Liked, and subscribed.
Can this thing do graphics or not.
I remember reading about the Piggyback in a US magazine in 83. As a 11 year old I desperately wanted my parents to get a computer system, any system would have been great at the time. Happily my dad waited 18 months and got a C64 family pack in Christmas 85.
As for the so called "Video game crash"? Here in Australia we were totally unaware of any game crash. In fact I didn't hear of the term until about twenty years ago on a retro game forum. Perhaps it was just a buzz term invented by the then US video game journalists. I mean I know Atari released a couple of dud games (E.T. and Pacman) but there were still a huge amount of games in the mid 80s especially on 8 bit computers such as the c64.
Same thing, I don't remember a "crash" but I do remember Atari going down the tubes on some of their titles. Like you I moved on from my Atari to a C64 and then just started playing games on that. A few years later when the NES came out, I switched to that console.
But if you read the magazines from the time, they said the US market had "virtually disappeared". Which is ironic considering one of the magazines that said that was Electronic Games, a periodical dedicated to Video Games and filled with ads for them.
archive.org/details/Electronic_Games_Volume_03_Number_03_1985-03_Reese_Communications_US/page/n7/mode/2up
@@Operation8Bit I had a quick glance of the link and yes it's full of games. I guess many game journalists of the era were focused primarily on consoles and tended to ignore home computers. Which is strange as the c64 was such a dominant system here in Australia and other regions. Another part of the "narrative" that I find questionable is that the NES came along and saved the industry.
@@fordprefect80 definitely the C64 was dominate in Australia. It was Apple ][‘s at school and C64 at home. I personally had a TRS-80. After much programming and many games, the BBS revolution hit and that became the next big thing.
A lot of 1980's micro computers and game consoles had ports or slots "For Future Use". For most of them it was a future that never arrived. One of the LASER apple ][ clones had a slot on the side for an expansion system they never made. Dunno if it was an exact copy of an apple ][ slot. The NES had that covered port on its bottom that there never was a Nintendo made device for.
Very interesting video. Holy cow though the intro is so LOUD!
I can't think of any computer peripheral add-on that is mean to convert a console into a full-fledged computer for any console that was successful. They either never made it to market or had virtually no impact when released.
The CompuMate seems to be about on par with the ZX81.
I remember when I was 10 years old, going into a store in the mall and seeing a demo of a system that loaded games from cassette on the 2600. Must've been this guy 😉 Don't remember the keyboard...
I had a cartridge called a Super Charger that you plugged into a cassette player to load games from tape. I never saw one for sale in a store and I never seen another one. I got mine in a trade.
when i was a kid i had an atari 2600 game console
Amazing, just i a thought i have seen every mod for Atari 2600 (Walkman tapes with games, games over CD-Audio, Super cartridge games, Homebrew Atari software) this one is the most spectacular i guess🙂
Ohh wow, well, I guess it is a step up from the Atari Basic Cartridge, but considering how limited the ZX-81 was, I think I would have enjoyed that more.
Quality content. Thank you!
Perhaps off track, I had the Sinclair 1000 at 1 & 1/2 k. I was quite amazed what it could do for its time. And strange to say it was light-years ahead of this Atari operating system. Surely I thought Atari would meet, supersede, and succeed in its place.
Where did you get those old magazines?
We spent a ton of time researching this video and through that we found scans of the magazines on archive.org
@@Operation8Bit oh ok, you should but the sources on the description
I've always seen pics of these, and wandered how they could work with the VCS processors limited capabilities. That was really cool to see. It honestly did about what I thought without adding another processor, still amazing a company did it. By the time these came out the C64 was pushing prices down to VCS levels so it had a really limited time to have a market.
Well, the c64 got released a year earlier for ~600 usd. This addon did cost 80 bucks, so there surely was some headroom there. For the same money you could have gotten an atari 400 probably though. Its a shame it came out so late. On principle this would have been a viable way to learn programming on a tight budget.
@@haraldhimmel5687 The price of the C64 rapidly dropped, though. Introductory prices were always an attempt to recoup as much development money as possible from the wealthy and impatient, but the need for sales volume always drove the price down sharply before long.
The Atari 400 for $80?! I don't think it ever got that low. Even the cost-reduced XL series that followed on were never that cheap. That was Timex Sinclair 1000 territory.
I'd like to turn William Shatner into a full fledged computer. KirkOS would be awesome!
Woah that is absolutely horrible, you see that the VCS’s lack of a dedicated video processor makes it close to impossible to scroll text.
I had a VideoPac (you called them different in the US) and I see one behind you, with the cartridge with a handle. That has a basic too, as well as a glorious membrane keyboard :)
I bought that for games and Basic. I never bought the basic cartridge for it. As it was impossible to get. And then I got a VIC20 and defeated the purpose.
Maybe I should hunt down a VideoPac and do a retro video on that too. See what I can hack in that.
If it works on a Retron 77, I wonder if it will run on the Atari 2600+ ?, I really wanted one of these back in the day,along with the Starpath Supercharger. A short time later I got a Commodore 64. so, getting any addons for the VCS quickly faded into the background.
We tested on the Atari 2600+ and unfortunately it's not compatible.
Good video, but I'd recommend losing the popup comments as they were a little obnoxious and not very funny. Also, some of the cuts were a little awkward since you would cut to the same setting (ie you'd cut from a segment of you talking to another segment of you talking in the same position). You should shoot some b-roll (ie silent video of whatever you are talking about) and use that to cover those awkward cuts it makes it feel much more natural when you cut between different takes.
edit: also, the audio is kind of muffled, maybe look into getting a desk mic. It's not too bad, just something to think about going forward.
Hi Kay... thank you very much for taking the time to provide such a well thought out constructive comment! 🙂 As you can tell we are just starting out and we're still learning, so this type of feedback is super helpful as we look to improve our content.
When you say you want to get fresh images of the Graduate, do you mean both kinds of images?
You did ask who the original owner is, right? Would be a waste not to at least try and make contact.
As stated in the video, we did contact with the National Video Game Museum in Frisco TX where the Graduate was last on public display. We spoke with the curator directly and he informed us that the owner had retaken possession and also wished to remain anonymous.
Given the rarity of this particular system, we respect the right to privacy that the owner has conveyed, and we decided not to peruse the matter any further.
Note that the box refers to the Atari VCS, not the 2600 and the picture of the Atari has three levers on each side of the cartridge. So this was made in the _early_ days. RAM was super expensive.
BTW, the CPU package was missing a few pins compared to the normal 6502, so it could only address 16K. Those other products you mention at the beginning must use some kind of bank swapping.
Why the stacked ROM chips? Maybe it was spec'ed for the 16K chip and they were too expensive or unreliable come time for manufacture.
Actually the 6507 can address 8K. Atari used the top address line to differentiate between the cartridge and internal hardware, so the biggest cartridge possible without bank switching is 4K with the other 4K being repeating copies of the hardware registers and RAM.
Dude, maybe we should make this poor guy something of good quality to turn the 2600 into a computer!
Can you spell out the brazilian spectravideo compumate clones?
Or the venezuelan ones
What a cool story! Thank you.
Sound is impossible to level out. When you speak it is inaudible without turning the volume up, but then the cut away to vintage commercials and modern ads is deafening on headphones. In addition, putting captions on covers up the sarcastic comments.
Can it play crysis?
I've worn out most of those computers behind you. I hacked the crap out of all the old computer hardware that I had. I don't see a TI 994/A..well that was a 16 bit cpu, working in 8 bit mode. It makes me sad that I didn't take a job with Atari when they were in business. We would have worked and partied like it was 1999...Atari computers suffered from poor design issues except for maybe the 800xl....well mostly...Some the old computers had versions of basic that were conducive to writing games. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
9:15 Interesting! I just came across Universum products when researching the 1st gen video consoles that used the AY-3-8500, this almost exact duplicate of the 4-game model of the Radio Shack Electronic TV Scoreboard:
pongmuseum.com/collection/universum-multispiel-handheld.php
I noticed the reference to Universum in your video. I was watching and then it was... hey wait, those guys made a PONG clone as well?
@@Operation8Bit I wonder who the original manufacturer was. It looks *exactly* like the Radio Shack one, as opposed to the Hanimex.
Essentially all consoles are computers and as time has progressed the line between them has been blurred. What started out as proprietary built has become off the shelf parts. This has kept the cost of console gaming relatively cheap in comparison to something like a smartphone which continues to increase in price exponentially...I believe that bubble is going to burst and soon as the returns for incremental power are going to hit a wall.
I bet these are crazy rare.
Shades of the ZX81 indeed, down to the crappy keyboard and lack of RAM - even the cassette cables are identical. The only difference is ZX81's BASIC was actually pretty decent.
I have the exact same combo boxed compumate and sealed tape. I think i got them 10 yrs ago from a guy in venezuela or something... The rom was off but i managed to rewrite it in an eprom programmer :) these things are hard to get :(
tip: if it stops working, rewrite the 8k roms :D
What also often lets carts die are cold solder joints. Just reflowing everything often brings it back to life.
very informative and interesting but the pop ups were distracting, couldn't watch the whole way through because of them
Love the content! However, loud popups of corny comments not necessary.
Love the pop ups. Great banter from the set and feed into the comedy of the vids, IMO.
I love sparky!!
9:33 the pronunciation wasn't half bad, actually
Holy crap that theme song is jarring.
That was cool
Why is your intro twice the volume of your talking head shots ?
Ah, just read. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Because at the time we were still learning how to edit videos and we kinda sucked at it 😃