Cybiko & Cybiko Xtreme | Ashens 

I had one of these back in high school. There were about 2,500 students at that school, and to my knowledge, one other kid had one. We messaged each other a couple times when I first got it along the lines of "Hey you have a Cybiko too!" Then we never communicated again. I think that pretty well sums up the Cybiko experience.

Hearing "12 years ago" when talking about the year 2000 in 2021 is a trip.

Doesn't it give you a deep kind of sadness when you see "no one found, try again later"? It makes me a bit sad. Same as revisiting a chat room that was once bustling just to find it empty, knowing that those people you've encountered in there have grown up, moved on or have even died. You feel alone.

I wasn't expecting to see true 3D graphics from this kind of device.

Just think about the fact that somewhere in the world there is a married couple who accidentally met on Cybiko and kicked it off from there.

What the hell I just came here from the LGR Cybiko video to find Ashens covered it 8 years ago...

Who else came here, after LGR made a review and one bloke from the comments mentioned that Ashens made a video nearly ten years ago?

It'd be interesting if each Cybiko acted as a network node/rebroadcaster for messages. So if you had a dense enough population of Cybikos, you could have a sort of city-scale internet. Sometimes I feel bad that the Internet already exists, because it denies me the chance to invent it.

If I ever invent time travel, I will go back to when this video was filmed, and lurk outside Ashens' house with a Cybiko, just to freak him out when he scans the area for active Cybiko's and he finds "Hello Stuart."

Literally the instant Ashens hit enter to send his message, I got an SMS.

I remember when this was the shit, my whole neighbourhood had them... for about two months...

Men's Room 2, this time it's urinal.

I got a Cybiko when they were new. The best part about it was they had a contest with that skateboard game. I did well enough to win a PlayStation copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.

Saw LGR and suddenly realised Ashens did it like years ago

Toy r Us were selling the Extreme off cheap. I got one with the mp3 player add on. It was cheaper than paying for a mp3 player on its own. The Extreme was a solid little thing. Remember at the time people had personal organizers. It was just like one of those on steroids. I think the company had a dream that schools would be full of kids sending messages to each other.

I have a pair of Xtremes from back in the day and they are definitely cool little devices. Actually used one on the job to do what my smartphone does today. There used to be a big home-brew scene but that died off years ago. There are versions of Asteroids and Defender which are amazing. I keep hoping the hobby community will take notice of these little devices.

Came here from LGR review !

I had one of these Xtreme units, as did my sister at the time. One thing you could do with them was plug one in to the PC and have it act as an internet gateway for nearby devices. They were also capable of communicating much further than 300M, as long as there were active devices within range along the way (like a daisy chain) so you could talk to someone miles away in theory if everyone in town had one (which they didn't obviously), As usual, around this time was the arrival of Mobile phones and bluetooth (which took off in 2001), The poor thing never stood a chance.

I click this every time it's recommended to me. There's something so weirdly appealing about these devices, I just like looking at them.

The music from Cyrace 2 is worth the price of admission alone.

i'll take a game system disguised as a calculator

Got this recommended after watching the LGR video lol

What was I doing in the year 2000? Probably shitting my diapers.

I had a cybiko back then...I recall going to a Walmart close to my house and finding 7 other cybiko connections!Once I even asked some random guy a math question!

I was given 20 Cybikos in 2001. I gave 18 of the Cybikos to my friends. Although very few of my friends who received a free Cybiko ever used the system, I did have a few friends who played multiplayer wireless games on the Cybiko with me. Cybiko hit their stride after the release of the 1Mb Memory Add-on but they didn't last long after that. The end was near by the time the Cybiko Xtreme was released. I donated all of my Cybikos to Goodwill about 10 years ago but I picked up a few new ones on eBay a few years ago.

WTF?!? I don't think I've ever seen proper 3D graphics rendered on a dot matrix monochrome LCD screen before! That's actually crazy fucking impressive...almost reminds me of watching videos on those old piece of shit VideoNow things from a few years back with the built-in black and white LCD screens, except this is awesome and that was shit.

I like how everyone watching this in 2021 is just as surprised as me, at how old this video is, and how long ago 2000 was 😆

Is anyone else is seeing the head of Rayman in the up-right corner of the first Cybico ?

Honestly, one of the most legendary of Ashens' intros. I can't not laugh every time I hear it. "If you hadn't been born yet back in 2000, be sure to stop watching, because I'm going to be saying the word "cunt" later. Only kidding! I wouldn't say anything like that." Also, can't forget classics like: "I knew a man with a funny ball once. He didn't like to talk about it." Or "I'm gonna stick this thing up its bumhole" *electronic fanfare*

The sound from this thing is a miracle. I'm convinced it's from another universe where our laws of physics don't exist.

You have no idea how much this excites me, my Dad had one of these when I was a kid and my Brother and I used them as walkie-talkies, oh my God

I love it when I get my hands on an old piece of tat and it does something impressive. That gaming performance was surprisingly great.

Back in 2000, I was playing my Dreamcast a lot. I miss that.

This is so cool, I would have loved having a device like this when I was a kid.

Fun fact: The Urban Dictionary page for "bog roll" (a phrase used in this video) spiked in popularity in November 2012, the same month and year this video came out. Coincidence? The real question is, how and why do I know this, considering it's been nearly five years?

On Cyrace 2, you managed to fail getting in to the top ten when there was only 6 other people on the scoreboard. That, sir, is an achievement!

Ah, I remember watching this a while ago, and came back here thanks to LGR's new video.

This message was sent via cybiko Xtreme "eat up martha"

18:06 "Stop farting music in my general direction" I died.

Bloody hell it´s in proper 3D! I was actually quite amazed!

Random Note Jeff Presents "Songs That Are Un-listenable" Vol 3 - 7

That Cyrace 2 is pretty impressive O_O

I think this was the first video I watched from this channel, about 10 years ago. Today YT put it on my home feed again. What a blast!

...I want a emulated version of that feckin car game...

That "bloody hell" during the racing game was so genuine! Lol!!

imagine getting one of these today, and happening on someone else with one. fate brought you two together.

That was a pretty awesome moment when you had both those Cybiko messaging between each other, but a shame that it only seemed to work one-way D: The CyRace 2 game has to be one of the most impressive things I've ever seen running on a 'mobile' based device from back then, very unexpected and a pleasant surprise indeed! :o :)

"Men's Room 2" This time it's definitively personal ! xD

I made it my tradition to watch this video whale eating soup

Try playing "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" while communicating through Cybiko devices..

Hey that cybiko looks amazing

My god the late 90's would of been perfected with such a device... It's like a mobile ICQ!

The most advanced POPstation

In the year 2000 mobile phones were a rare thing? Can't imagine that, kinda.

Dude, I had one of these in middle school and it was freaking awesome. We convinced my spanish teacher that it was a translator and just chatted and played games every class period we could.

I just found three of these whilst digging round my attic, which took me way back to the good old days of translucent electronics and gaping at anything wireless. Splendid review and great humor.

Impressive quality for 2012!!!

The farty music is pretty much my favorite part of this review.

OMG I remember wanting one of these... Was hoping to look it up but I couldn't remember what the dang thing was called. Luckily I viewed your Cassiopeia video and it showed up on the recommended tabs right after! Awesome channel, subbed instantly.

I actually had an Cybiko Extreme once since about ten years ago too and suprisingly I haven´t seen the usual version unless it was thanks to this video!

“Back in 2000” Ah, twenty years ago “Twelve years ago” Oh fuck, this video is old now

I had one, I remember going to the chat app to see if I'd come across anyone. I never did.

Blue cybiko was on wrong channel, it sent to General, which could be picked up by silver with general -Plootool(whatever), but silver sends to General - Plootloot(or whatever it was). You could select right channel from top down menu which says "All". I know it's too late, but anyway =D

In a way, these were ahead of their time. We have all this now in smartphones.

On behalf of pedants everywhere, I'd like to thank you for your correct pronunciation of the word "xtreme".

Genuine slack-jawed shock at "CyRace 2" :O

Nearly 7 years later this gave me a good laugh, thanks

Lol I love the way you narrate your videos, ashens! :D x

Goodness gracious... Here in the United States, we had a couple of knick-knacky devices in the same vein as these. I myself had gotten my hands on a unit back in the early 2000's, and it was supposed to let you text via AOL Instant Messenger (as well as MIRC somehow), use wireless networks, etcetera. It was about $250, but I rarely made large purchases AND the Internet-provider service model in my area had changed from an HOURLY rate over to the "way of the future" MONTHLY rate -and like hell I wasn't going to be online 24/7 after that. So needless to say, I was totally stoked when I got the thing. I wasn't nearly as stoked after going over the manual for the sixth time trying to get the thing to work, and at about the twenty-fifth I was going for my car keys to return the damned thing before the Radio Shack closed. Good times.

Is it just me or does this look like a Squakpad from cyber chase?

i had one of these back in the day and i adored it. i don't really have any explanation as to why except that i was ten.

This brings back memories. I bought the regular and the extreme from TJ Hughes for £4.99 some time in the early 2000s. I remember spending hours trying to share my internet connection from a PC over the proprietary serial cable to a friend's identical device, I never could get it to work.

Only 6 of us had them in the whole school but by the end of the 2nd week, they had all figured out what we were doing :( You could set one or more up as access points/servers to widen the network (classrooms had thick walls)

Interesting I get this recommended after LGR talks about the Cybiko.

Love that Pulp Disco 2000 reference in the description

Say what you want about the Cybiko, but I loved this little thing. I was one of the very few who had one of these as a kid in middle school and they were fun as hell to mess around on during break between classes.

stop farting music in my general direction lol

8:37 Are we not going to talk about how it's called "Men's Room TWO"?? THIS IMPLIES THERE WAS A MEN'S ROOM ONE. Let that sink in.

I'm watching this in the future and I'm stunned by the racing game.

the music at 8:50 and Stuart's reaction to it always makes me laugh

Anyone else watch ashens videos while going asleep?

I had one of the original Cybikos (it had a vibration motor in it too btw,) I bought it for £15. It was pretty good to use to read books on, I think most of my Sherlock Holmes reading was done on that. You would just press enter and let it scroll for you. For what was available at the time it was definitely worth it.

I loved my Cybiko, played many games on it. Got a whole CD full of games still nowadays (and the Cybiko)

Saw this video a year ago, literally just got the Pulp reference in the description.

"They year 2000. 12 years ago" now 21 long years ago hahaha

All things considered, the contrast on the screen is absolutely amazing, especially if it showed up *this well* on camera without you needing to aim a dozen lights at it. Unless you actually were aiming a dozen lights at it, in which case I feel silly.

Because of this video, I'm buying one on eBay to relive my childhood. Thanks ashens!

I would've loved to have this in my childhood and not be the only one around with it.

Is it just me, or is there a _Rayman_ button on the top right of the first unit?

it would be amazing if the cybiko text thing bounced your signal off of other cybiko's, then it would be like a proper text service as long as you didnt live in a rural area

Man I miss things like this. I wish I could go back to the day I could walk down the street and chat with like three other people

it’s crazy how much better technology has come !

Men's Room 2 This time it's Public.

How far we have come technologically in such a short space of time...

Got my first mobile phone in 1999, lots of people were starting to get them then. The world seemed full of promise. Which didn't last long.

jesus i had one of these back in the day, totally forgot til now.

"Flatulent Music" made me laugh so hard, I cried.

Cykablyatko.

I REMEMBER THIS! I might even have it somewhere if I look through my storage for it. I understand why this might seem rudimentary and antiquated, but back when I got it I thought it was THE coolest thing. I think I was in elementary school when it came out. You have to remember the concept of a "cheap" PDA marketed to kids and teens was amazing. Too bad the thing barely worked. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a cool concept.

I bought my first mobile in late '01, and was by no means an early adopter. So, leaving aside schoolkids, I suspect that by 2000 most people who were interested in messaging already had a gsm phone. But you know, 300 meters is pretty much the whole school, even if in several buildings, so I bet that would have been fun.