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Exactly. Interesting, that they do not start with year zero (in this case 1926 is year one, the start of Showa). See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_era_name
This was my first computer. My grandmother found it on clearance for $25 for my Christmas gift in 1983 when I was in the second grade. The book that came with it was amazing and taught me a lot. Eventually to a Commodore 64 in the fourth grade and then IBM compatible (Amstrad 1512) in sixth grade. By junior high I was taking on paid programming jobs and had a real part-time job at age 14 doing dBase. All thanks to my grandmother and the Tomy Tutor!
Look at the pictures of the kids on the marketing material. 95% of home computers were used by one demographic of kids, white boys. Utter fantasy that these were going to be widespread used as computers, even in the white boys demographic.
@@clemensgraetz Not really true today. Back then you had to know about HARWARE and SOFTWARE. Today everyone 8 to 80 really only needs to know about the apps they use. Outside of PC gamers (of all ages) whow build (or at leat customize) their own PCs, I think Generation X and early Millennials on average held the edge on knowing both the applications AND the "innards". Boomers had to learn it as adults, Xers (and early Millennials) learned it as kids and teens, in real time when this shit was all new and in great flux, and for the most part you HAD to code if you wanted software. I'm am in no way "dissing" younger folk, It's just that they were born and grew up in a time where thanks to advanced OSs and software, Shit just WORKS. An analogy: I am a late Boomer, I of course grew up with radio ALWAYS being around. My GRANDFATHER knew more ABOUT radio as he was there when it was born and you had to basically "roll your own". Sure, I knew more of the newer music and stations, but he knew how it ACTUALLY worked! My 20 something nieces and nephews still get me to do any hardware upgrades beyond anything plugged in via USB as they wouldn't "dare" open their PC! I go to THEM when I need advice on the latest app i'm trying to figure out.
The date you see is of the old Japanese "Showa Era" format. They used to go by the year of the current dynasty, so in this case it is year 58 of the Showa dynasty, which started in 1926. The year in western terms is 1983, so the date listed is July 18, 1983.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere Emperor Hirohito started his reign on Dec. 25, 1926, so the first year (Showa 1), was very short, and the second year started Jan. 1, 1927. In practice, a certain Japanese symbol unique to the era preceded the year number to avoid confusion, but I guess it was unnecessary or the symbol was not supported by the date code printing machine.
@@haweater1555 That's strange that the Emperor's reign goes by the calendar year rather than by the actual start of his reign. Thanks for the explanation, though.
He did a terrible job! The cassette doesn't match the computer. That's the problem with retrobrite. It's just bleaching. Worse, it is a temporary fix at best. Only now it will never match because the computer has been bleached too white.
@@bonzainews It looked 1000 times better when it was only cleaned and not bleached. There was virtually no yellowing. It should not have been retrobrited. Basically retrobriting should never be done except under limited circumstances and especially NOT something so rare.
The noise on cassette playback is probably from a dirty record/play switch. Open it up and spray some contact cleaner in the switch (it's on the circuit board and mechanically linked to the Record button). Or a quick fix is to put in a blank tape and repeatedly press Record, then Stop, then Record, then Stop, etc. a bunch of times to try to scrape off the oxidation just by mechanically operating the switch.
This was probably the 80's computer equivalent of Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. I can imagine how many kids got disappointed on the Christmas morning, 83.
I was a heavy TI-99 4A user back in the day and found one of these Tomy Tutors on close-out at a local mall somewhere around 1986-87. I paid under $30 for the computer and a handful of carts. I was fascinated by its similarity to the TI-99 and hoped I could make it perform a few tricks for the user group but lack of storage put the kibosh on anything more than just a demo. I sold it to a lucky new owner a few years later. Thanks for sharing this VERY niche machine with your audience.
It's so satisfying to watch 8-Bit Guy clean, I can only imagine how satisfying it must be for him to actually put in the work and get the results he does.
What surprises me most is that I owned a Tomy Tutor, an apparently rare computer that even the 8-bit guy has never heard of! Sadly it was now stashed somewhere, or already chucked away.
I had one too. It went to the local Auction house with other junk during spring cleaning in the early 90s. I never had any carts for it or tape drive so I couldn't save anything.
We have a section on the Atariage forum dedicated to the Tomy Tutor and comparable systems. If you are interested in technical details and homebrew multicarts then checkout: atariage.com/forums/forum/345-tomy-tutor-cc40-992-998-cortex-990-mini/
and not only soviet, i've seen quite a bit of west german hifi stuff equipped only with DIN and no RCA. The standart lived a bit longer in europe, seems like it. But damn right, it stuck around in post-soviet space for way too long. We still keep a 1993 boombox my granma recieved as payment (she worked at resistor factory and in the early 90s it didn't have money for wages but stocked goods had to go somewhere) and it has nothing but those DIN connectors. I ended up soldering a DIN to 3,5 mm cable for transfering stuff and boy, those connectors are such a pain to solder.
I lived in Japan for 15 years so I took a look at the name "Tomy". In Japanese it is "トミー" or in Roman letters Tomii. My guess is that that would look too weird so they "Westernized" the name to Tomy (same as with the pronunciation and spelling of Sony rather than Sonii).
@Derek he didn’t destroy any computer. This is destroying a computer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ptFTEQZBXr8.html What he did was just a attempt to restore it but accidentally broke it (from the inside, from the outside it still looks perfectly fine.) and that also doesn’t change the fact that it was already broken so it really didn’t matter that he made it even worse. It’s just like breaking a already broken glass and then getting a lot of people mad about it.
When I first looked at this I actually thought it was a toy rather than a full-fledged computer. Having "tutor" in the name and it appearing to have a very education-oriented type of advertising didn't exactly help matters in that. In fact, the set as a whole makes me think of a worn out 1st grade classroom set piece, the kind that the teacher's been using for a few years and looks completely ravaged (the cartridge being marked on in crayon especially). That said, with how dirty it looked it came out great once it was all restored. This was an interesting thing to learn about considering I hadn't heard of it before you made the video. Good stuff!
I felt the same. I was really wondering why he would even bother restoring this but it turns out its not a bad little machine at all. Little kid me back when this came out would have hated it. I was such a computer snob from the earliest 8bits believing only Commodore and Sinclair could make something worth owning.
When I first saw the thumbnail for this video, I thought this "educational computer-thing" was something that V-TECH typically made. The high retail price surprised me, thought it would be some cheap thing sold at Sears.
@@ClayMann Just don't watch the 8 Bit Guys Sinclair review. Of course the best things about the two computers you mention were the affordable price and the huge Games Catalogue. @Haweater Somehow I doubt if they sold many of these at full price. Back around 1983 every toy company thought they had to produce a computer. Mattel and Mettoy I'm looking at you.
I've been waiting for you to do this video. The Tomy Tutor was my very first computer. I got it for Christmas as a kid. All I had was the computer. No tape deck, no games. But it is how I learned to program, because that's all I could do with it, and then lose it all when powered off.
Watching your videos is like resetting my nervous system and my mind just focuses 100% of its attention to the video. Not only are your videos educational and entertaining, they're also therapeutic and relaxing. Thank you for what you do! I have been watching you for years now and I just wanted you to know how much you have helped me.
It is the highlight of my day to watch a new episode from the 8 Bit Guy! He's got a wonderful personality, always curious and adventurous. The videos are professionally produced and I appreciate his beautiful commentary during the sections where he handles the equipment. To call him a "RU-vidr" is a disservice to his content. These are documentaries. Brilliant!
I actually had this thing for a while. I didn't have any cartridges for it, and when I showed my mom that all it could do was the built in graphics program she took it back.
The 5-pin DIN connector was not that unpopular for tape devices. It was the standard for reel-to-reel and cassette decks in East Germany and our own KC85 computer line used that connector for the tape drive as well.
Early microcomputers often used a DIN-5 for cassette I/O (e.g. most TRS-80s, original IBM PC), but its pinout was not compatible with the DIN-5 on European audio equipment. With no need for stereo, some pins were used to control the cassette motor (remote pause), and the computer supplied microphone-level rather than line-level audio, intended to connect via a breakout cable to Ear/Mic/Remote jacks on a typical shoebox cassette deck.
My '70s era Sansui stereo amplifier has a 5-pin DIN jack for connecting to a tape deck, one cable for left and right line-level inputs and outputs. Obviously the Tomy Tutor wouldn't use that pinout, but I'm curious what it is set up to use. As others have said, other computers used it in some fashion.
Thank you for the repair and review! My mom bought me one of those on one of those late night home shopping shows. I am almost positive it was sold for a lot cheaper than $300. Now I know one of the reasons! Good memories though. It was my first experience with programming. Thanks 👍
5:17 ... i know that as standart din 5 connector , it was used mostly(and not only) in audio equipment in Eastern Europe in the 70s 80s eaven in the early 90s
@@user-jw9hf3hw2f Standard DIN tape/aux ports are in/out with the middle pin being ground, one side in, the other out. So it allows both recording from the radio and playback through the radio speakers. 5-pin uses the two extra pins for the other stereo channel. Everything is line level, except microphone and record player connections, which are straight from the physical sensor.
I love how when you speed up the video while you're scrubbing components with the brush that it immediately sounds like you're using a power tool instead of doing it by hand. lol
Thanks for this "Back To The Roots" Episode. It is sometimes good to know, that looking back to the beginning brings warm memories. Now I am looking forward to your new studio! Greetings from Northern Germany.
If the intro music ever changes ... I will break down and cry! 😞 Then I'll start on online petition to have it put back to its rightful place at the start of these videos. 😁
On the off chance you haven't gotten this comment and weren't aware, the methanol in denatured alcohol can be absorbed through skin and will cause vision deterioration over time. Might be a concern since you are exposed more than average it seems. Might want to wear gloves. Apologies for the probable repeated comment.
But is he using _denatured_ alcohol? Ethanol (grain alcohol) and Isopropyl alcohol are perfectly safe to use for cleaning in any concentration. Of course, methanol is terribly bad for you.
@@TechBench He is. You can see the label briefly, and he uses it on other videos as well. It could also be that he has a brand that uses something other than methanol for the denaturing which doesn't soak through skin.
@@alexmcd378 it has always bugged me. Like, everyone else uses isopropyl alcohol (including myself). I don't know why he uses denatured alcohol, IPA works much better for his needs
@@luansm Well, I'm using denatured as well right now, because IPA is hard to find during the pandemic, and when you do find it you can usually only buy one bottle. But it's temporary for me.
I had one of these in college and wish I had kept it, but at the time it was near impossible to find peripherals for it so i sold it. It was being sold at a Radio Shack in one of the malls in the Tampa Bay area. I ended up getting a C64 and then an Amiga later on. The Amiga was years ahead of its time and served me well.
Great video! nice to see this rare and underrated computer here. There are now good multi cards, including adapters for the expansion port. A small scene too. I am currently developing some games
@@johndododoe1411 Yes, still 8-bit. But the better cpu the tms9995 has build in ram useful for the WP, also the onchip timer are cool. Not forget the new instructions
@@SonOfFurzehatt In Sarah's case it's definitely pur-SELL...I'm old enough to have watched Real People back in the late 1970s (don't judge, we only had 4 channels back then, lol)
"99 percent sure it will short something out" I love how David is taking that one in stride while most dudes on youtube would be crying about the comments on the net. WE LOVE YOU DAVID!
@@ryballs4569 Do you really want the comments flooded with idiots that didn't even watch the video ranting about how he destroyed an already broken computer that they didn't even know existed until some crazy person on twitter told them to be mad about it?
He didn't take it well, initially. Like, at all. But he's taking the right approach now. And it's addressing one of the more reasonable things he did in that video. Honestly, there are going to be dremel jokes for the rest of his RU-vid career. It's unavoidable. And those are even partly tongue in cheek, as it's directed toward his audience, not him. Might as well try to take it stride.
RU-vid for some reason recommended your channel to me despite me not knowing anything about computers or anything discussed here but I still enjoyed watching the restoration!
THEY HAVE MR.DO! ON THIS THING?! Crap now I need one. I'm a Mr.Do! collector. I thought I knew about all the versions of that game. No one ever said "Oh yeah there's also a Tomy Tutor version"!
Awesome reference... but fortunately, these machines _can_ be disassembled for cleaning and repair. Given Johnny 5's limited hardware, I suspect his sentience could possibly be attributed to tin whiskers acting as neurons (see _Whisker (metallurgy)_ on Wikipedia), but that's just a hypothesis.
In 8-Bit Unboxing from September 2017, you got a strange cartridge that was actually for an educational kids' computer from 1984 called the Teach-a-tron. You should get ahold of that computer and do an episode about it. As I write this, there actually is one on eBay.
Regarding the polarity of an adapter: If you cannot find an adapter with the correct polarity, then pick the best possible match for an adapter.. And.. Cut the cord on the output side of the adapter. Splice the output cord in reverse of how it was originally; i.e. positive to negative and vice versa. Some solder, shrink tubing, & skill will result in a cable looking really good an most importantly, a perfectly functional adapter.
Or better yet, if you can find a power brick that isn't welded closed, open it, desolder the cable, flip it, resolder it, and snap the case back together, and have something that looks pretty much stock without shrink wrap on the cable 👍
Note that the carbon contact restorer he _didn't_ end up using is also a CAIG product, like DeoxIT. Back in the early 80s at work we used their Cramolin product, which contained TF solvents, now banned. DeoxIT is actually multiple products, they have one that is safe for conductive plastic controls.
@@paco3523 He misprounounced the last name of the advertising spokeswoman. (I was about to make the same comment since I remember seeing her on TV back in the 80's also.) It seems that it's going to be a thing that he accidentally mispronounces names that he's only ever seen in print before. :D
@referral madness You would need to ask nvidia for that. But it does save a lot of time on the CPU side, as you need to update a tilemap instead of individual pixels, and give you sprites (albeit only 4 per scanline) for essentially free.
@referral madness It doesn't execute any code, so it would be best to just call it a screen buffer with sprites. There were similar circuits back then like the VIC II or the NES PPU. But it isn't always easy to tell the difference - the Atari 800 chips handled fancy display lists that almost felt like code while the Amiga chips they evolved into actually could execute limited code.
When you're retrobrighting some piece of plastic that starts floating like the case for the tape recorder, I believe a shot glass or something equally heavy and transparent would work better.
I thought of this too, however it likely wouldn't make much of a difference because glass is fairly opaque to UV light. A better solution would be to hot glue or tie a heavy nut to the part with a length of thin fishing line.
Since the topic of future videos was brought up, are there still plans to cover the Amiga in your Commodore History series? I hope this isn't asked too often.
Well, he is known as *8* - bit guy after all... kidding- I would be interested in this as well. I seem to remember mention of a Laser computer video as well once he got more Laser brand computers. I was interested to hear what he had to say about the Laser 3000, a cheap Apple ][ clone that wasn't 100% compatible I used to own.
It's fun that when you say "Tomy" in two different pronunciations I only listen one! In my language we don't care too much about two sounds so similar. So I listen you saying "I say Tomy but they told me I should say Tomy"...eh eh...so weird...I just ear the same sounds. Stupid comment I know but funny for me...
Not stupid at all, it's always interesting to learn about how other cultures do things especially when they have a different way of doing something we just take for granted.
@@yeet8957 Judging from Koutetsu Jeeg's uploaded videos, I would say Italian. This might be a tad insensitive, but try saying "It's a-me, Tomy" and "It's a-me, Tommy" with a Mario voice. Sounds pretty similar in my head. 😅
Japanese has that exact issue with some phonemes, such as English's "r" and "l" sounds. The initial consonant of らりるれろ(ra ri ru re ro) is somewhere between "r" and "l", and substitutes for both when bringing English words into Japanese.
@@Curt_Sampson Yeah, as a Swede I have to make a very conscious effort to not pronounce chip as ship, joke as yoke or booze as boos as most Swedish dialects consider the sounds in the beginning of those word pairs as variants of the same sound. On the other hand I have to remember that English doesn't make any difference between Tommy and Tommi/Tommie, while Swedish has a distinct y sound.
