Pocket Computers from the 1980s

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  • Опубліковано 26 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 4,5 тис.

  • @merkamatt
    @merkamatt 3 роки тому +1692

    Awesome video! It was great getting a chance to learn more about the context of these systems and some of their common uses. Super stoked to have been able to help out!

    • @emalphrus1
      @emalphrus1 3 роки тому +45

      Same here - so happy to contribute, and to see this old tech being reviewed and the info shared with others. And... that Seiko watch is very interesting!

    • @danielpierz
      @danielpierz 3 роки тому +6

      Yea same

    • @mikesilva3868
      @mikesilva3868 3 роки тому +2

      😊

    • @onedeadsaint
      @onedeadsaint 3 роки тому +7

      this is for you: ⭐

    • @mikesilva3868
      @mikesilva3868 3 роки тому +3

      @@onedeadsaint 😈

  • @lukeystuff
    @lukeystuff 3 роки тому +1627

    Bullies then: Haha you have a pocket computer
    Bullies now: Haha you don't have a pocket computer

    • @DigitalHandle
      @DigitalHandle 3 роки тому +38

      Well... its a laptop now

    • @tomf3150
      @tomf3150 3 роки тому +11

      Ha-ha !

    • @AsbestosMuffins
      @AsbestosMuffins 3 роки тому +40

      @@DigitalHandle shell phones

    • @GuyHayardeny
      @GuyHayardeny 3 роки тому +29

      @@AsbestosMuffins Cell phones, but yeah

    • @fyretnt
      @fyretnt 3 роки тому +17

      @@GuyHayardeny r/whoosh

  • @yasirfarooq1957
    @yasirfarooq1957 2 роки тому +108

    I am from Pakistan. I received PC-4 (CASIO PB-110) as gift from my uncle (who was doing a nice job of programmer in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) in 1985 when I was in school and since then I came into the world of computer & IT. I still have this model and its working properly. I leaned BASIC as my first language on this model. I am IT instructor & at the start of almost every training session I use to show this model to trainlines as my first inspiration to computer world. It was the life changer gift of my life (CASIO PB-110).

    • @Sain8music
      @Sain8music Рік тому +5

      Beautiful story brother.

    • @Amplitudeproblem
      @Amplitudeproblem 9 місяців тому +3

      Hi Yasir! Thank you for sharing your story; it's remarkably similar to my own. When I was 10, I was gifted a Casio PB-100 (practically the same as the 110) by a family member who couldn't afford to buy me a Commodore 64. I was so disappointed until I opened the BASIC book that came with the Casio, and it drew me into the world of programming and my subsequent engineering career. That tiny computer changed my outlook on life and I'm still coding 39 years later. Peace from a Swede in California.

  • @christiaandockers3755
    @christiaandockers3755 3 роки тому +27

    My dad seriously had every single one of these. He was a nerd.
    We had toy-Friday at school from time to time.
    Kids could bring their favorite toys.
    My friends had Turtle dolls, He-Man and Transformers toys.
    I took these pocket computers, because of a lack of transformers.
    If I asked my dad for a transformer, he would say; "Sure, to what voltage?"
    My dad gave me an olympic class racing boat when I was 8.
    I couldn't sail it... I was 8.
    Love the man.

  • @huntereddy4014
    @huntereddy4014 3 роки тому +132

    The math textbook showing a basic program actually solves a mystery that I had as a kid! I grew up and was in school in the early 2000s and I remember a few years when we had particularly old math books--the basics of algebra and arithmetic don't exactly change much after all so a book that was 10 or 20 years old was still very much useable. Anyway, a lot of us kids were only familiar with computers from maybe Windows 95 and onward so every once in a while we'd find a page like that which says to type out that program "on a computer" and we never understood what that could mean.
    I think we even once typed it out into notepad on an (actually very new at the time) Windows XP machine and all watched the screen expecting something to happen--and of course, nothing did. We knew the books were old so surely these new school computers were plenty fast and capable of doing whatever the program was meant to do and it was just a matter of finding the magical keyboard shortcut or icon on the screen to make it magically work
    I still vividly remember thinking those darn basic program pages were just there to tease us--taunting us to think there was some secret way to make a computer do all of our homework for us and the only reason we couldn't use it was because the teachers were all in some evil alliance and didn't want us to get out of doing our homework.

    • @danielbishop1863
      @danielbishop1863 3 роки тому +1

      In the 1980's, BASIC was *the* programming language for home computers. It was usually even built into ROM (or at least distributed on a cartridge or disk along with the operating system). This channel did a video about it: ua-cam.com/video/seM9SqTsRG4/v-deo.html
      BASIC wasn't a particularly *good* programming language, but its ubiquity and convenience introduced a generation of nerds to programming. The loss of BASIC was lamented in the 2006 article "Why Johnny can't code" (www.salon.com/2006/09/14/basic_2/).

    • @anthonynorton666
      @anthonynorton666 3 роки тому +8

      @@danielbishop1863 Actually BASIC was the operating system. If you wanted you commands to be stored as part of program you started with a number then printed the command, ergo the confusion. QBASIC wasn't that bad and resembled Pascal in some ways, but of course it didn't do dual duty as an OS.

    • @isthisnickvalid
      @isthisnickvalid 2 роки тому +7

      haha i remember finding out that one could use qbasic in windows 98. suddenly lots of old computer books were usable.

    • @andrina118
      @andrina118 2 роки тому +1

      @@anthonynorton666 It was an interpreted language so you were inside the BASIC program when you typed commands. I'm fairly sure there would have been an actual OS that the BASIC program ran on.
      What computer are you speaking of here?

    • @anthonynorton666
      @anthonynorton666 2 роки тому +1

      @@andrina118 Tandy line of TRS-80s including the Color Computers, and aren't all OS commands interpreted, since they aren't compiled?

  • @BenHeckHacks
    @BenHeckHacks 3 роки тому +1658

    I still have a PC-7 on my desk to this day! (still works 32 years later) (oh and DID take mine to school every day cuz I don't give no f's)

    • @ballyastrocade5672
      @ballyastrocade5672 3 роки тому +40

      I still have my PC-2 with the cassette/plotter docking station. :-)

    • @ayeeyee9634
      @ayeeyee9634 3 роки тому +50

      The biggest flex at school

    • @lillywho
      @lillywho 3 роки тому +16

      Oh hello good sir. Give my greetings to Bud! :D

    • @JohnDlugosz
      @JohnDlugosz 3 роки тому +18

      The PC-2 was my constant companion in high school.

    • @BronislavCeh
      @BronislavCeh 3 роки тому +14

      I like you Ben.

  • @danielt.8573
    @danielt.8573 3 роки тому +757

    The good thing about being a nerd in the 80's is that you actually knew all those bullies were dumb and history has proven you right.

    • @ez45
      @ez45 3 роки тому +110

      I once witnessed an exchange about how some dude's friends from the back row of the school bus were no longer around, and during the exchange he realized the 'cool kids' just didn't make it to college.

    • @TheCoolDave
      @TheCoolDave 3 роки тому +3

      Yep !

    • @carbonfibercarpet4655
      @carbonfibercarpet4655 3 роки тому +26

      @@shiftedphase keep telling yourself that. They’re enjoying having a great social life a million times more than you’re enjoying your job

    • @n9wox
      @n9wox 3 роки тому +8

      Yes, says Bill Gates.

    • @JG-nx3jg
      @JG-nx3jg 3 роки тому +30

      If as an adult you're still weighing yourself up against what children in the 80s said to you decades ago it isn't particularly healthy. Try and move on with your life.

  • @dingdongbells3314
    @dingdongbells3314 3 роки тому +714

    Sure, having a pocket computer wasn't the "cool thing" in the 1980s, but having a youtube channel in 2021 with over a million subs where you can review them is pretty darned cool in my books

    • @ojkolsrud1
      @ojkolsrud1 3 роки тому +37

      He also writes games and software that people pay for, which is also incredibly cool.

    • @DavidPaulMorgan
      @DavidPaulMorgan 3 роки тому +15

      in the mid to late 70's, me and my friends had our slim pocket calculators and 110 format slim cameras!

    • @thatocelot879
      @thatocelot879 3 роки тому +9

      Pocket computers in the 80s were much cooler than they are now. Now, they're just a fact of life.

    • @if66was99
      @if66was99 3 роки тому +8

      Absolutely cool! 8-Bit Guy seems to be doing pretty well on the knowledge he has accumulated and is his own boss.
      The guys who bullied him? They're probably cops with their knee pressed to some guy's neck... :-(

    • @memmoman
      @memmoman 3 роки тому +10

      @@if66was99 that went from 0 to 100 real fast

  • @FreakyPete
    @FreakyPete 3 роки тому +130

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane with this video. I was working in Indonesia in the early 80's mapping large areas of former tropical forest logging areas. For 2 years I spent nearly all of my working week sitting at a Sharp 1250 (Tandy PC 2) in a shack in the hutan (jungle). I had a dozen survey teams cutting lines through the forest. After they completed each traverse and I got their field books, I did thousands of survey calculations on the 1250 and plotted the traverses out on the 4 pen plotter in full colour. I wrote my own programs as there was none available and it was a fairly simple thing to do so. This little gadget was a true workhorse and saved me a lot of time and drudgery.

    • @themilkman9188
      @themilkman9188 3 роки тому +6

      Interesting today how pretty that same stuff can be done at the snap of a finger on these modern machines. Doesn't mean that old is bad but they were a workhorse for their time.

    • @strat5520
      @strat5520 2 роки тому +5

      That is awesome. Adjacent to the field I find myself in, LiDAR/Geospatial. My boss is a photogrammetrist and surveyor. When I first met him (before the LiDAR company) he used a software called BINGO to solve photogrametry projects that was ancient, but amazing at what it did. He made a killing haha.

    • @cikaldev
      @cikaldev 2 роки тому +3

      and i was born in that's era (end of 80's), in that's country too (indonesia)..

    • @Ovalbugmann
      @Ovalbugmann 2 роки тому +3

      and you boast that you were helping loggers destroy the rainforest with a dozen cutting teams?, lol, you monster, were part of the problem in cutting down the rainforests, future generations thank you for that loss i bet LUL

    • @FreakyPete
      @FreakyPete 2 роки тому +20

      @@Ovalbugmann Your grasp of English is not that strong, is it? I said I worked in FORMER forest logging areas. They were already degraded and trashed areas which contained little timber, just mainly thin, green and thorny regrowth. We were mapping the land to aid the planning for its future use. This was to resettle internal transmigrants from overpopulated Java to the sparsely populated outer islands. It was a massive World Bank funded aid programme. These are now successful agricultural areas, with thriving villages.
      I didn't boast of anything other than the usefulness of these little pocket computers. Get your targets lined up correctly before you tee off.

  • @TechDeals
    @TechDeals 3 роки тому +385

    21:00 - I know that feeling, all too well... Being 45 years old, it was not easy being a nerd in the 1980s, the bullies were brutal.

    • @ElNeroDiablo
      @ElNeroDiablo 3 роки тому +37

      Being a nerd and/or geek as a teen in the early 2000's was no cakewalk either. Some days I'd surprised I made it out of that hellhole without snapping under the pressure I had from school and broken homes (divorced parents was bad enough, add on top of that bad blood brewing in between parts of the family that I liked...).

    • @logtail
      @logtail 3 роки тому +24

      Every day on the bus I got my ass kicked in the 80s. Every day.

    • @tornadotj2059
      @tornadotj2059 3 роки тому +11

      I'm 54. You just had to be the nerd in school that was getting more "dates" than the bullies. :)

    • @groundzero_-lm4md
      @groundzero_-lm4md 3 роки тому +20

      Being born after 2001, being nerdy was easier, especially when half your school is also nerdy. Printing memes on every printer in the school is fun.

    • @stragulus
      @stragulus 3 роки тому +27

      I had a calculator watch. I don't know how I am still alive!

  • @piderman871
    @piderman871 3 роки тому +261

    Being able to correctly plot 3D graphs with a pocket computer back in the early '80s is very impressive, especially in multiple colours.

    • @peterg.8245
      @peterg.8245 3 роки тому +5

      But of limited usefulness... I took Calculus 3 in college and despite requiring a TI-89 and being multi variable we rarely used graphs except to learn patterns of exponents.
      What I really need a better understanding of is root locus... Bonus points if you’ve ever used anything besides a self tuning PID.

    • @Croz89
      @Croz89 3 роки тому +1

      @@peterg.8245 You mean you don't just put in a guess and then adjust from the response in the simulation?

    • @GlamStacheessnostalgialounge
      @GlamStacheessnostalgialounge 3 роки тому +1

      I mean I went to high school in the early 2000s and I wish I had something like this, no calculator I could reasonably afford could do anything near this impressive, and by then these things were probably being thrown out in the trash or given away.

  • @onedeadsaint
    @onedeadsaint 3 роки тому +310

    21:34 damn, dude! sorry you went through that!

    • @richardkelsch3640
      @richardkelsch3640 3 роки тому +67

      The last time I was severely bullied (in middle school), I snapped at the guy, shoving him into a metal barrier (thus making a loud noise), and proceeded to tell the guy off. Everyone left me alone after that. When I was in high school, I learned that if you could make the jocks and tough guys laugh, they'd scare off the other idiots in a bullying mood. I soon became a master at "stealth sit-down comedy" and would have them in stitches. The teachers never understood what was so funny.

    • @Akselmoi
      @Akselmoi 3 роки тому +18

      Very relatable, and I went to elementary school in 2000. Even back then being nerd was uncool, at least in my school. Had to listen allkinds of crap for next 9-10 years.

    • @jamescurrie01
      @jamescurrie01 3 роки тому +44

      David is now 100x more famous than all those losers that bullied him.

    • @The8BitGuy
      @The8BitGuy  3 роки тому +458

      Well, my bullying mostly came to an end in the 8th grade when I finally punched one of them in the face and we ended up in a drawn out fight before teachers broke it up. I got a few bruises too, but I think once word got around, especially seeing my primary bully walking around school with a black eye, the other bullies immediately left me alone. If I could go back in time, I would have done that in the 6th grade and saved myself 2 extra years of torment.

    • @doctirdaddy4876
      @doctirdaddy4876 3 роки тому +41

      ​@@The8BitGuy kick his ass, seabass

  • @gavinthecrafter
    @gavinthecrafter 3 роки тому +12

    That Seiko UC-2200 watch was way ahead of its time! It's basically the 80s equivalent of a smartwatch!

  • @RetroRecipes
    @RetroRecipes 3 роки тому +78

    Great non-pocket sized video! And may we all wish your old studio a happy retirement 🍾

    • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
      @JohnSmith-xq1pz 3 роки тому +3

      Any future plans for a Retro Recipes kitchen addition?

    • @RetroRecipes
      @RetroRecipes 3 роки тому +4

      @@JohnSmith-xq1pz Right now just hunkerng down and cooking up recipodes! 👍🕹

    • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
      @JohnSmith-xq1pz 3 роки тому +4

      @@RetroRecipes Sounds good. I look forward to sampling them when there served up

  • @biscuitsalive
    @biscuitsalive 3 роки тому +311

    Did anyone else’s heart really go out to him when he was describing about his times getting bullied?

    • @philbertchow5425
      @philbertchow5425 3 роки тому +8

      Oh yeah.

    • @danijelujcic8644
      @danijelujcic8644 3 роки тому +16

      More than "heart" ... My nerve system collapsed for a moment.

    • @Hagledesperado
      @Hagledesperado 3 роки тому +11

      Yeah, I could feel my latent PTSD twitching.

    • @melkiorwiseman5234
      @melkiorwiseman5234 3 роки тому +22

      I know his pain, far too well to be comfortable talking about it.

    • @pauligrossinoz
      @pauligrossinoz 3 роки тому +9

      Been there, suffered that ... got over it.
      In my first year of University I discovered that I was a "late bloomer", when I suddenly added 12 kg of weight and reached 182cm height(*). I had outgrown almost all the high school bullies, but by then I couldn't have care less about them. But it would have been nice to be that tall and heavy in high school. ;-)
      (* For US people: That's an extra 26 pounds and a height of 6 feet)

  • @DiggyDax92
    @DiggyDax92 3 роки тому +8

    I’m 29 so my experience with tech go back to using old computers, like macs and then PlayStation 1. But I have always had a fascination with older tech. You and Lazy Game Reviews are honestly my favorite channels for learning about retro hardware.

  • @evanfinn6454
    @evanfinn6454 3 роки тому +114

    From one nerdy kid in from the 80s to another, I know what it was like. Look where you've ended up now. I love your videos, dude! Very excited to see episodes out of the new studio. All the best

    • @skynetd-termination98
      @skynetd-termination98 3 роки тому +1

      Same here...was really nice to have the bullies pump my gas later in life.

    • @rastislavzima
      @rastislavzima 3 роки тому

      Yeah look at him where he ended up, walking on the street with the rifle...

  • @rachysnip
    @rachysnip 3 роки тому +177

    "Now, Matteo asked me not to open these since they were still factory sealed, but....." *i panic* "....at least you can get a look at them"

    • @shurmurray
      @shurmurray 3 роки тому +13

      yeah that was a very intense moment (:

    • @raggededge82
      @raggededge82 3 роки тому +20

      "Now, Matteo asked me not to open these since they were still factory sealed, but..... I went ahead and shorted the pens with a paper clip"

    • @joemontgomery6658
      @joemontgomery6658 3 роки тому +2

      Thought we were about to have a paper clip situation

    • @beforth
      @beforth 3 роки тому +1

      Perifractic would have made us think he had opened it and thrown away the packaging.

    • @catfish552
      @catfish552 3 роки тому +3

      @@raggededge82 Oof. Yeah, that was... something.

  • @anthonynorton666
    @anthonynorton666 3 роки тому +73

    I remember in the 80's, in physical science courses the instructors would allow calculators for exams, and then some them got frustrated when they found out some of their students were using pocket computers programmed to do the math for the problems. This caused calculators to be inspected prior to exams.

    • @kargaroc386
      @kargaroc386 3 роки тому +8

      What a great problem to have

    • @esquared5064
      @esquared5064 2 роки тому +3

      I was one of those students who used my pc-1 in physics class back in 1982. The teacher was clueless.

    • @gurgy3
      @gurgy3 2 роки тому +1

      My profs started requiring you to show all work, including explanation of derivatives etc. As a result, an hour long exam had like 4 problems on it.

  • @MichaelErb7
    @MichaelErb7 2 роки тому +33

    I'm sorry to hear you had a rough time in school. I hope you're doing better now. If it helps, I'm sure there's loads of us out here on the internet who love your videos!

    • @SaraMorgan-ym6ue
      @SaraMorgan-ym6ue Рік тому

      imagine if Casio had made a pocket computer with modern parts what would it be like would it use basic or visual basic what else would it have.🤔

  • @robintst
    @robintst 3 роки тому +173

    The aside about being a nerd, that shows how behind the times I was when I asked my brother once if he lets his kids take their smartphones to school because my first thought was some jackass is gonna steal them or break them. But all the kids carry their phones everywhere with next to no fear of something happening and it's still a weird thing to me. I was one of the artsy metalheads in high school but I still had an interest in this stuff so the nerds knew they were safe around the guy with long hair wearing ripped jeans and a leather jacket. :-)

    • @tfruba
      @tfruba 3 роки тому +25

      Same story here mate! My 7 y/o son is considered as wierdo, 'cause I'm not letting him taking his smartphone to school (here, in Poland, 7 y/o equals 1st grade)... And I'm being called "a dinosaur" (I'm 34 at the moment of writing this post ;) )

    • @jimtekkit
      @jimtekkit 3 роки тому +15

      That's just crazy if parents are giving their kids smartphones before they are even literate enough to write a coherent sentence. I guess they don't care these days about adult-content internet filtering or preventing their kids from dropping the phone in a toilet.

    • @thorable530
      @thorable530 3 роки тому +3

      i remember a world star video where the kid threw his cell phone to the ground before getting into it, no ****s given.

    • @tfruba
      @tfruba 3 роки тому +4

      @SteveEarl I've had my first phone when I was fourteen (It was Motorola Timeport if I remember correctly) - it was year 2000, when I was 1st year in middle school. Back then - I've been treated as a kid with cellphone and it was something wierd. Nowadays, kids are being born with all of this electronic stuff. I must admitt - it has some advantages (my son learned to read when he was three thank to youtube & peepa pig), but there are some disadvantages (he rather prefers playing on a phone or computer than going out and play with other kids on playground).
      On the other hand - there's noone to play with cause all of the kids are in homes playing on a computer or phone :(

    • @MrDuncl
      @MrDuncl 3 роки тому +6

      You are all making me feel old. It doesn't seem that long ago when it was a talking point that a relatives 15 year old wanted a mobile phone for Christmas. I didn't get one myself until 1999 and still don't have a Smartphone. There again when at secondary school there was a fellow "nerd" (a term that didn't exist back then) who I only remember as "The Kid with the Digital Watch". Say that to any other kid who went to the electronics club and they all knew who I meant.

  • @hblaub
    @hblaub 3 роки тому +165

    At the reunion:
    Adult nerd 1: "Where's your bully nowadays?"
    Adult nerd 2: "He's incarcerated for first degree murder... And yours?"
    Adult nerd 1: "Mine is the CEO of Oracle now. He didn't change."

    • @danieledwards3376
      @danieledwards3376 3 роки тому +3

      @Allan Reford I think you may have missed the joke...

    • @xxxXXXCH04XXXxxx
      @xxxXXXCH04XXXxxx 3 роки тому

      Who is the CEO of Oracle??!?!?!

    • @TheEgoify
      @TheEgoify 3 роки тому

      @Allan Reford good on you for owning up to it, even if everyone else already knew that it was true.
      :)
      I love you and I hope you are well.

  • @ArtByLukeW
    @ArtByLukeW 3 роки тому +27

    When you confided in us about the bullying you experienced, it was sincerely moving. Thank you for being so generous with us. You got the last laugh!

  • @martinCowie42
    @martinCowie42 2 роки тому +1

    A fascinating watch, and such a natural segue into the Psion Palmtop range from the 90s.

  • @ryanschenk2946
    @ryanschenk2946 3 роки тому +5

    My grandpa gave me a PC-3 pocket computer in 1st grade and I spent hours on my bedroom floor going through the owner's manual learning how to program in Basic. I loved that thing! So many fond memories! I remember I especially loved that I could sneak a computer to church in my pocket so I could sit in the back row and play with it instead of paying attention to the sermon lol Such a versatile little machine!

  • @TristanSamuel
    @TristanSamuel 3 роки тому +195

    Video: Almost finished
    Me: Ah, now I can eat some popco-
    David: This is the last video ever filmed in this room
    Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

    • @jeremydale4548
      @jeremydale4548 3 роки тому +11

      that just mean's he's moving studios.

    • @andreaspitsch9004
      @andreaspitsch9004 3 роки тому +13

      I am really happy for him. Finally the new studio.

    • @MCAlexisYT
      @MCAlexisYT 3 роки тому +4

      *brain BSoD*

    • @paco3523
      @paco3523 3 роки тому +8

      The end of an era

    • @baardbi
      @baardbi 3 роки тому +8

      It'll be fine. I'm sure we'll get used to the new studio pretty quick. And besides, this isn'h the first time he moves to another studio. The first few years he had his "studio" inside a closet.

  • @tech-xr5qb
    @tech-xr5qb 3 роки тому +92

    As you said, it's true that everyone now carries a computer in their pocket. But I'm saddened by the fact that few users care about how their modern pocket computer works or how to program it. Modern pocket computers are designed to actively discourage users from taking them apart and knowing how they work. We gained something in 40 years, but we also lost something.

    • @andreiandrosoff1327
      @andreiandrosoff1327 3 роки тому +12

      The reason you are discouraged from opening it up is that it's an incredibly dense piece of advanced technology and opening it would accomplish nothing and ruin it. You are, however, encouraged to write apps for it, and are given all the tools and tutorials to do so for free, which millions do.

    • @tech-xr5qb
      @tech-xr5qb 3 роки тому +17

      @@andreiandrosoff1327 I agree that app development is booming. But about ruining things -- somehow I've been taking apart dense, advanced devices for years without ruining any of them. But I'm just a random college kid, so I don't speak for everyone. I've definitely learned a lot about electronics by seeing how the newest phones and laptops are constructed, so I think there is something to be accomplished. Some friends think I have some sort of magical knowledge about how this stuff works, but I just tell them: the screws are there, all you have to do is not be scared to take them out. Dropping a small, light PCB on the ground usually does less physical damage than dropping a heavier glass-clad device, so your phone is probably farther from ruin while it's taken apart.

    • @thomdenholm
      @thomdenholm 3 роки тому +12

      It is also true that while some of those are still working 30+ years later, the computers in your pocket will probably not be. Besides the strongly encouraged network connections, the storage media just won't last that many read/write/erase cycles.

    • @trinidad17
      @trinidad17 3 роки тому +10

      Yeah the fact that many own a smart phone is no sign that people are using it for more than sending notes (just switched from paper to electronic) and other stuff "normal" people already did back then, it's not like most people are programming them. Nerds still do nerdy stuff.

    • @andreiandrosoff1327
      @andreiandrosoff1327 3 роки тому +4

      @SteveEarl I hate crappy apps too and the lower bar to entry makes those very common. It is a good thing, though, that our devices are orders of magnitude more capable and that more people can write apps that do useful work. And good apps rise to the top and are easy to find. The ideal is not so much intimate knowledge of the hardware, but well-designed layers of abstraction and skillful users of each layer. The fact that computers were the realm of true nerds in the 80s probably did increase average software quality, but the software and hardware were so rudimentary and in the hands of so few that it didn't really matter anyway.

  • @phillipdarlington
    @phillipdarlington 2 роки тому +3

    Great video! As someone from the UK I was introduced to the Casio computers with my uncle's FX-720P in 1987 where you could play a game that beeped that much you could really annoy everyone around you :) In Christmas 88, aged 13, I got the FX-730P and spent many happy years with it- I wouldn't be the developer I am now without it!

  • @kmitses
    @kmitses 3 роки тому +91

    Hearing Dave talk about being bullied resonated with me. Amazing how he built an amazing life for him self and his family dispite the bullying . Good job man. Inspiration to us all.

    • @Colt45hatchback
      @Colt45hatchback 3 роки тому +10

      In my experience, all the bullies from school ended up junkies... Most likely just like their parents, hence why they were bullies in the first place.

    • @JohnSmith-fq3rg
      @JohnSmith-fq3rg 3 роки тому +2

      If you can't get a job and build a family, it's not because someone pushed you in the hallway in school or called you a mean name or something. So him being a normal adult and a functioning member of society isn't a miracle because he got treated bad by some kids in school years ago, or ever tbh.

    • @ThePhonesandipods
      @ThePhonesandipods 3 роки тому

      @@Colt45hatchback puum

    • @mikem.9197
      @mikem.9197 2 роки тому

      @@Colt45hatchback Go to a place where it is easy to find a good paying job with no education (ie the oil patch in Alberta) and you'll find those same bullies continue to do all of the same things they always did --being needlessly disrespectful, insulting, and unprofessional with everyone outside their little group. People don't change unless life finds a way to humble them.

  • @guillaumegaudin694
    @guillaumegaudin694 3 роки тому +131

    "I'm the operator with my pocket calculator"
    - Kraftwerk

    • @craigluft7453
      @craigluft7453 3 роки тому +20

      When I press a special key it plays a little melody

    • @chucku00
      @chucku00 3 роки тому +3

      Je suis l'opérateur du mini calculateur
      ua-cam.com/video/N1k-Z-cg5ro/v-deo.html

    • @Seff2
      @Seff2 3 роки тому +8

      "Ich bin der Musikant mit Taschenrechner in der Hand."
      Know the original guys ;)

    • @MrDuncl
      @MrDuncl 3 роки тому +1

      and when Casio felt that one of their musical instruments (capable of a UK No.2 hit) had to incorporate a calculator ua-cam.com/video/xqTBlft8gQA/v-deo.html The Casio VL1 is heard from the beginning and seen in action after 80 seconds.

    • @seanfyodorovich5230
      @seanfyodorovich5230 3 роки тому +2

      Bokuwa ongakuka Dentaku katateni.

  • @chrismanson3211
    @chrismanson3211 3 роки тому +30

    The Seiko watch that does BASIC. O M G I am having a histogasm. That is the coolest thing I have seen in 2021.

    • @georgeyreynolds
      @georgeyreynolds 3 роки тому +3

      The wireless tech is very interesting considering how old it is lol

  • @RustyX2010
    @RustyX2010 3 роки тому +30

    Before eBay was big I remember seeing all these calculators in thrift stores and at swap meets selling for $1-$3!

  • @canaan92
    @canaan92 3 роки тому +75

    This brought to me heartfelt memories of when my grandfather used to teach me the basics of basic using one of these with its docking station programming a lotto (an Italian lottery) simulation. Thank you for the smile it brought to me :)
    Ps thanks God my grandfather is still doing great (and still a geek inside)

  • @lauscho
    @lauscho 3 роки тому +9

    As someone who was relentlessly bullied in school too, I'm sorry you had to go through all that, and can absolutely relate.
    Best of luck moving to the new studio :)

  • @psivewri
    @psivewri 3 роки тому +185

    Got my popcorn and am ready to watch! Love these videos :)

    • @bad-e-mations9100
      @bad-e-mations9100 3 роки тому +2

      I think I ate popcorn faster watching this

    • @jadedjaden8751
      @jadedjaden8751 3 роки тому +1

      @@Epimetheus-- p

    • @liveuntetheredmusepodcast4832
      @liveuntetheredmusepodcast4832 3 роки тому

      I hear you! I always make a snack right before I turn them on! I wish there was one every single day! lol It's like the History class of technology, I wish I had in school!

    • @mariosanchezolmedo6898
      @mariosanchezolmedo6898 3 роки тому +2

      My two favourite channels! Nice!!

    • @yaboiminecraff
      @yaboiminecraff 3 роки тому

      U know what I'll join you

  • @polydynamix7521
    @polydynamix7521 3 роки тому +9

    I appreciate these videos. As someone born in 1982 I remember a lot of this tech- but wasn't old enough to understand it in the context I can now. It's somewhat nostalgic to see them- but at the same time it allows me to fill in my memories with understanding I couldn't have realized them. Like fleshing out my own childhood memories with additional lore.

  • @FieroFats
    @FieroFats 3 роки тому +70

    My school, once they found out you were a "nerd", you got put into the advanced classes and helped with all the AV equipment in other classes. There was no hiding from the bullies.

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 3 роки тому +1

      should have gotten a mohawk!

  • @RoamingAdhocrat
    @RoamingAdhocrat 3 роки тому +10

    That room, and specifically the desk, inspired me to build my own furniture. Thank you for your service, room.

  • @SuperWaffle64
    @SuperWaffle64 3 роки тому +213

    I feel like Planet X3 is the Doom of DOS computers. It runs on everything,

    • @Slay1337pl
      @Slay1337pl 3 роки тому +103

      Isn't Doom the Doom of DOS computers though?

    • @JosephDavies
      @JosephDavies 3 роки тому +12

      @SuperWaffle64: Ummm...

    • @RickSFfan
      @RickSFfan 3 роки тому +8

      @@Slay1337pl okay, the modern DooM of DOS computers.

    • @Toonrick12
      @Toonrick12 3 роки тому +17

      @@Slay1337pl Doom of the pre-486 era

    • @jazzius
      @jazzius 3 роки тому +2

      Lol yeah

  • @LurkerSubmerged
    @LurkerSubmerged 2 роки тому +4

    As someone who was also bullied for their height (or rather, lack thereof), I'm glad to see you're doing alright these days. Absolutely loving the content, and I wish only the best for your channel!

  • @SebisRandomTech
    @SebisRandomTech 3 роки тому +59

    My experience with being a “nerd” in school was being put into gifted classes and then students and teachers alike being dumbfounded when I didn’t know the answer to something. “You’re in the smart kid class, why don’t you know this?!” and such. Lots of other bullying went on at my school but it usually didn’t have to do with someone being a “nerd” or not, at least that was how I perceived it.

    • @sebione3576
      @sebione3576 3 роки тому +1

      Nice name.

    • @Horny_Fruit_Flies
      @Horny_Fruit_Flies 3 роки тому +10

      This happened when I moved from an urban school to a rural one. Being an average kid in the city school, the rural kids thought I was some kind of super-genius because I knew what the word "feces" meant, lol

    • @fabronfretwell3257
      @fabronfretwell3257 3 роки тому +1

      I had the same experience too.

    • @emdxemdx
      @emdxemdx 3 роки тому +2

      In the 70's, having a programmable calculator meant that you were so geek that the bullies did not notice you at all. It was like being on a different plane of existence...
      But you were bullied by the other geeks.

    • @highpath4776
      @highpath4776 3 роки тому +2

      that looks like a usa experience. In the UK we have a mix of textbooks / testbooks that are pitched at different levels of learning acquistion (a term of mine that is better than nerd or gifted), mostly in maths, science and english / languages. Classes that grasped the basics quicky would be grouped (or tables in classes set) appropritate stuff, some was just tough to do and it was rare for anyone to correctly complete everything. ( I could do the number work but not when problems were phrased differently or expected a known solution method to be applied to a particular problem ). PS I still cannot use fx calculators I found them a pain to use. I suppose If I was working in an environment like electronics that used a set of equations to solve for a particular need consistently It could be useful for me.

  • @CCarlquist
    @CCarlquist 3 роки тому +7

    Wow!!!! I still have my CASIO PB-700 right here in my hands, in a pristine looking and still working since Engineering University, back in the 80s - and can still code in BASIC just as before!

  • @Hi-jv7ew
    @Hi-jv7ew 3 роки тому +118

    When the world needed him he uploaded
    edit: thanks for likes :)

  • @ekummel
    @ekummel 3 роки тому +2

    I used to have the PC1 and the PC2...and I had the printer and docking station for the PC2 as well! Unfortunately my car got broken into and it all got stolen! I still have the PC7 and found my data cassette recorder just the other day in a box in my basement! I use it in my garage as a calculator! But I put all that aside when I got my HP calculators...Speaking of calculators, I had an HP-67 in 1978 or there abouts. and portable computers? Epson had an HX20 back in the 80s. It was a competitor to the Tandy Model 100!

  • @guessundheit6494
    @guessundheit6494 3 роки тому +22

    20:00 - Similar story: In grade 10, I took a typing class and got harassed by bullies for "taking a girl's class", homophobic, insults, etc. But come grade 11 when the school got Apple II+ computers, I was typing in programs quickly. The bullies whined, "can you help us?" to which I said, "you should take a typing class."

    • @AmigaA-or2hj
      @AmigaA-or2hj 3 роки тому +4

      Same here. I’m not a sporty guy in school. While choosing my subjects, I had choose either sewing or football. Naturally, I choose sewing, and later became an expert. Even the teacher and the girls were impressed.
      I’ve told them that the sewing machine is just another tool.

    • @thorable530
      @thorable530 3 роки тому

      The hole in your story is that the girls never learned to code.

    • @guessundheit6494
      @guessundheit6494 3 роки тому +2

      @@thorable530 You're so proud of your ignorance that you're willing to display it.
      www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/03/meet-historys-most-brilliant-female-coders/

    • @Oceanwaves-d8l
      @Oceanwaves-d8l 2 місяці тому

      ​@@guessundheit6494 That's interesting! In the 2000s and 2010s, gaming and electronics in general were associated with guys. I was weird for being a girl who could type quickly and enjoyed games which weren't specifically "girls games". Wasn't bullied at all for it though, in fact it was the only thing that made me cool.

  • @Colin_Ames
    @Colin_Ames 3 роки тому +16

    Interesting video. I was at high school in England in the ‘60s. My “computers” were a slide rule and log tables. The bullies didn’t want those, they just wanted to bully me for bullying’s sake.

    • @Seven71987
      @Seven71987 3 роки тому

      Collect all eight Tandy Mini-Computers!

  • @therealchayd
    @therealchayd 3 роки тому +20

    That tiny plotter is so freakin' cool!

    • @jackkraken3888
      @jackkraken3888 3 роки тому +2

      Right! Now imagine them with color!!!!

    • @TheRainHarvester
      @TheRainHarvester 3 роки тому +2

      Yeah, very cool!

    • @VectrexForever
      @VectrexForever 3 роки тому +3

      It has the same Alps mechanism as a lot of the other small eighties plotters, like the Commodore 1520 (of which I have multiple and also sets of plotter pens) and the Atari 1020. The major problem with these is that the pinion gear splits. Luckily now that there are 3D printers, you can finally replace them. I saved my first plotter for a long time hoping for a solution to come up.
      It is really cool to watch them in action, it bangs the carousel against the left edge to rotate another pen color into place.

    • @chE3z1
      @chE3z1 3 роки тому +2

      ik!!! so satisfying to watch and listen to, i would kill for an attachment like that for a TI 84 or something

    • @therealchayd
      @therealchayd 3 роки тому +1

      @@VectrexForever Thanks for the info, I'm going to scour ebay for one now ;)

  • @kurt.leucht
    @kurt.leucht Рік тому +1

    Great episode! As a young professional, I loved my Palm Pilot! And in high school and college, I loved my Sharp EL-5500-III (PC-1403) pocket computer! It could do matrix math and I wrote a BASIC program to solve quadratic equations and to answer other tough math problems. I just kept adding routines and a main menu to choose between them. My teachers never knew that my calculator was doing all the hard work for me! I still have the pocket computer!

  • @Caspiankhw
    @Caspiankhw 3 роки тому +5

    You summed up my school experience perfectly. As a nerd in the 80's, it wasn't cool to be into computers or anything like that. These little devices always intrigued me, thanks for showing the docking stations, please do a video on the smart watch, THAT is super cool :D

  • @RustyX2010
    @RustyX2010 3 роки тому +41

    So true on the batteries being expensive in the 80's! I remember a 4 pack of AA's being almost $10!

  • @Crackrzz
    @Crackrzz 3 роки тому +46

    Partway into the video, you may have mentioned this, you may not have, but in the original Ghostbusters, Egon is crunching numbers and statistics on one of these pocket computers (y'know, it may have been a Casio...) after running out of the library, after the library ghost scared them. Harold Ramis, who played Egon, was reportedly fascinated with the thing, and loved playing with it between takes.
    Edit: Looked it up, it's a PC-4 apparently.
    ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/PC-4_Calculator#:~:text=A%20PC%2D4%20Calculator%20(also,the%20University's%20Paranormal%20Studies%20Laboratory.

    • @guyh3403
      @guyh3403 3 роки тому +5

      Nice find!

    • @yasirfarooq1957
      @yasirfarooq1957 2 роки тому

      Such model is CASIO PB-110 (ps-4) which i was usingin mid 80 during my school days gifted by my uncle from Saudi Arabia (i am from PAKISTAN). It is still working nice.

  • @josephsong7979
    @josephsong7979 3 роки тому +1

    Thank you. I really enjoyed your show from Seoul.

  • @Diegotheartist1
    @Diegotheartist1 3 роки тому +17

    Rest in Peace old Studio. you will be missed! August 20, 2013 - January 21, 2021

    • @Incommensurabilities
      @Incommensurabilities 3 роки тому

      @Jake P yet

    • @Incommensurabilities
      @Incommensurabilities 3 роки тому

      @Jake P I mean not yet - but the studio will be changing in the future, as he explained that was the last video to be filmed in this studio 22:46

  • @johnbroomer3285
    @johnbroomer3285 3 роки тому +4

    Loved my Palm Pilot. Had my contacts, calendar and kept track of my files/tasks in it. Also had a Zaurus but found the PP to be much more useful. They are both downstairs in their original boxes with all the peripherals, and still work.

  • @flexorico1532
    @flexorico1532 3 роки тому +5

    I had a Brother BP-30 "computer" typewriter that used those same exact pens. You could actually make "full color" pie and bar charts. Used that thing till it died. RIP

  • @dyscotopia
    @dyscotopia 3 роки тому +17

    I really appreciated the personal story at the end. I had a similar experience. I remember wearing the my Psygnosis shirts to junior high. I thought they were the sickest things ever, but to bullies I was either into computers or prog rock, either of which made it clear I was there to get bullied and chew bubble gum... And I was all out of bubble gum. 😕

    • @bmacpher
      @bmacpher Рік тому +1

      Man, America's seriously weird. That's just not something that happened in Australia - not when I was growing up, anyway; the whole nerds-and-jocks thing is demented. Not to say bullies aren't a thing, of course they are, but sporty kids are as likely to be bullied if they're thick as bookish kids are for being feeble. Generally bullies are considered to be the lowest of the low and wind up as targets for a kicking themselves...

    • @dyscotopia
      @dyscotopia Рік тому +2

      @@bmacpher I'm Canadian, but you're probably right that the nerds and jocks thing is more prevalent in the states. Tho now that the nerds go onto make most of the money, that may have changed. It sounds like the best way to get by down under is to be well rounded, which seems more sensible.
      And yes, bullies are typically the most insecure of the lot, and probably treated poorly at home, but that took time for me to understand

    • @dancooper6002
      @dancooper6002 Рік тому

      @@bmacpher Bullies can be tamed by numbers...

  • @Pixelmusement
    @Pixelmusement 3 роки тому +38

    Can Confirm: Being into computers or video games in the 80s made you the EXACT OPPOSITE of cool in grade school. I NEVER brought any of my electronic things to school for fear of what might happen to them.

    • @ironcito1101
      @ironcito1101 3 роки тому +3

      It was the same in the 90s. Perhaps a little less, as computers were becoming more common.

    • @highpath4776
      @highpath4776 3 роки тому

      Late 1970s we had one computer in the school - calculators were allowed and there was a certain class difference in what ones parents could afford to buy ! Anyway the computer was a Philips with a cassette input and a dot matrix or similar , as there were some folk that basically (sic) crowded round it I gave up as I could not see much point. By the 1980s schools were being encouraged by the BBC to get computers (either theres or the undelying Acorn computer). But I had left and was using VAX computers to churn out graphs.

    • @dlarge6502
      @dlarge6502 3 роки тому

      @@highpath4776 I'm very fond of my Acorns. By the time I was in school in the 90's it was all Acorns with the odd BBC tucked into a corner forgotten. I spent many lunctimes avoiding the playground and programming the BBC's that "surviced" (I had to convince the german language teacher I was actually running one of the german games ;)

    • @MrDuncl
      @MrDuncl 3 роки тому

      @@highpath4776 You sound to be about the same age as me (58). The advantage of our schools Busicom computer was that it used pre-perf punch cards so you could get on with programming using nothing more than a card and a ball point pen to push the chaffs out. I recall going to a kids house (whose parents certainly weren't rich) to see the top of the range Commodore calculator they had bought him as was so expensive they wouldn't let him take it to school. No such problem with my £10 Prinztronic Mini-Scientific.

    • @highpath4776
      @highpath4776 3 роки тому

      @@MrDuncl (aside from please remove that hideous number...!!) . Printz - was that the Dixons cheap own brand stuff. I have a couple of casios somewhere. I have used comptrollers for additons etc, but could not explain how they worked. Other computers for a while were specialist - Xerox print setters and word processors and I think Gestetner did an odd printer linked machine for high speed (relatively) replicated output and storage. I learned principles of punch card , and I could read a bit of punch tape on the Vax inputs and storage.

  • @shurmurray
    @shurmurray 3 роки тому +38

    That part about bulling in school brings up so many bad memories. I still wonder why adults does nothing with that. The whole school was about double standards: teachers told you something and everything was exactly opposite the moment you leave the classroom. Just like a real world, though :)

    • @dlarge6502
      @dlarge6502 3 роки тому +11

      Oh yes, the number of times I went to the teacher to report something and was told "stay away from them". This after being told to "report a bully" etc. How am I to stay away from them? They actually go looking FOR you.

    • @sambra1979
      @sambra1979 3 роки тому +4

      My school it happened in the classrooms and teachers ignored it.

  • @TheAMGReviewers
    @TheAMGReviewers 3 роки тому +64

    I am mega interested in that watch, its almost like the smart watches of today

    • @qwertykeyboard5901
      @qwertykeyboard5901 3 роки тому +1

      must of been a bitch to use tho

    • @philstrons
      @philstrons 3 роки тому +2

      Looks way cooler than the Casio calculator watch I had

    • @AgentM124
      @AgentM124 3 роки тому

      Imagine actually trying to check the time on that.

    • @TheAMGReviewers
      @TheAMGReviewers 3 роки тому

      @@AgentM124 imagine having access to a battery that works XD

  • @folive64
    @folive64 3 роки тому +2

    Great video! I had a Sharp PC-1211 in the eighties and kept it with me for about 20 years. Unfortunately, the LCD screen leaked and the pocket computer became useless. If I could have found a replacement LCD I would certainly get it. I loved that machine. Programming in BASIC was fun. I know these machines don't appeal to kids today, but they were part of our school or university days.

  • @RickSFfan
    @RickSFfan 3 роки тому +17

    I didn't have these as a kid, but I remember really wanting them. I thought they would be magical, but in reality, I think I would have gotten bored with them inside of a week.

    • @CommodoreFan64
      @CommodoreFan64 3 роки тому +2

      I think so too, glad i waited till high school with TI graphing calculators like the Ti-83, and learned you could download, and put games, and cheat programs onto them with the serial link cable kit, and I quickly became somewhat popular for also having the Calculator to Calculator link cable to share those programs with kids who did not have access to the internet at home yet, or the link cable software. Tetris, Mario, and Drug Wars where the most popular games around my high school for the TI-83.

  • @yetidynamics
    @yetidynamics 3 роки тому +69

    i have the Sharp version of the pc-1, it was very handy to be able to write small programs mostly iterative math

    • @casualweekday-ytshadowbang2469
      @casualweekday-ytshadowbang2469 3 роки тому +3

      Got a Sharp PC-1401 (IIRC).
      Nerd of the nerds, in high school I dug out a summary of the CPU machine language and after a lot of trials & errors, eventually POKE-d a procedure to save/load small BASIC programs into/from the unused memory.

    • @leavewe
      @leavewe 3 роки тому

      it's the famed yeti dynamics :o

    • @javabeanz8549
      @javabeanz8549 3 роки тому +1

      I had the Tandy/Radio Shack PC-1 rebrand of the Sharp. Later I got a Sharp "calculator" that out performed the PC-1 by many times.

  • @temporaryscars
    @temporaryscars 3 роки тому +127

    Can we all acknowledge the courage it took for that dude to loan this guy his beloved computers?

    • @emalphrus1
      @emalphrus1 3 роки тому +32

      To the contrary... David is an awesome friend and he's welcome to any of my gear in order to share it with his audience. 🤓

    • @adampleyz4688
      @adampleyz4688 3 роки тому

      he beeg and good boii

  • @John-ei4go
    @John-ei4go 3 роки тому +2

    I'm sorry you had such a rough time in school, Guy. I hope you're happy now. I love your channel man, and it looks like over a million other people do too.... I want to start working on commodores now. :)

  • @RetroTechChris
    @RetroTechChris 3 роки тому +21

    Love it! An MS-DOS computer that I can carry in my pocket? Sign me up!!

    • @KD5NJR
      @KD5NJR 3 роки тому +1

      It’s an oddly sized screen tho

    • @eDoc2020
      @eDoc2020 3 роки тому +1

      Coincidentally I just featured my HP 100LX on my channel for DOScember, and now David talks about pocket computers. What are the chances? I found mine only a few years ago but I could imagine how great it would have been back in the day!

  • @QLTD
    @QLTD 3 роки тому +6

    will look back to this video and the old room with nostalgia.

  • @travistaylor3186
    @travistaylor3186 3 роки тому +8

    I’m glad the Atari Portfolio at least got an honorable mention. Hopefully there’s more Atari computer videos in the future.

  • @chubbiMommi
    @chubbiMommi 3 роки тому +1

    I just found your channel its wonderful, bullies suck I'm sorry you went through that. I so much love your content. It's hard to find stuff like this.. I live tech history 💗

  • @joe.1049
    @joe.1049 3 роки тому +15

    I really like that thumbnail, the left greyed out makes the lettering stand out

    • @patrickcorrelliiii4063
      @patrickcorrelliiii4063 3 роки тому +1

      Just noticed it, it’s like a hint at the retirement of this studio

    • @joe.1049
      @joe.1049 3 роки тому

      Yeah, like it’s fading away

  • @NetworkXIII
    @NetworkXIII 3 роки тому +81

    I’m in my 50s now. It turns out that most of the bullies that I knew in childhood are living miserable lives now, and the rest are dead. Karma is real.

    • @3dlabs99
      @3dlabs99 3 роки тому +2

      Yeah ... who is making more money now? Hah take that bullies!

    • @eggcluck
      @eggcluck 3 роки тому +10

      @@3dlabs99 All my bullies now have a better life that what I can ever hope for actually. I have been stuck on minimum wage for over 20 years with emotional trauma and loneliness, none of them even started on that.

    • @CakePrincessCelestia
      @CakePrincessCelestia 3 роки тому +4

      @@eggcluck Same here lol. Got bullied in the 90s for being the only one having a computer (not even talking pocket computer, full desktop!) and I was the only one of my class who made it through all the 13 years and could have gone to the university (the pro side of being a nerd), but actually then I couldn't because neither my parents nor I myself could afford that. And AFAIK all the others have found jobs, got a better degree afterwards, have married and so on while le me only managed to have an apprenticeship and almost completely lose his eyesight afterwards, resulting in being stuck unemployed and alone... if there's something in life that does _not_ work - it's karma! :D

    • @cricetomannaro000
      @cricetomannaro000 3 роки тому +1

      @@CakePrincessCelestia yeah i feel you bro. Destiny is a bitch.

    • @3dlabs99
      @3dlabs99 3 роки тому +1

      @@eggcluck Damn.. I was hoping for some kind of justice.. Guess that doesnt really exist. I am probably totally wrong about the nerds getting paid more. I saw other comments about the bullies also get paid more because they are more aggressive when talking about the money... damn...

  • @zoltanboros8963
    @zoltanboros8963 3 роки тому +6

    I had a Psion 3 in the 90's, similar to the Compaq machine. I was amazed, it was like a little laptop.
    Happy New Studio!
    Update: I saw, many of us mentioned Psion. If you make an episode on 90's pocket computers, you shouldn't miss them.

  • @francosci4514
    @francosci4514 3 роки тому +1

    My dad had a pilot, he find it on a garbage can malfunctioning, he is an electronic engineer so he repaired and used to read a lot of books in the early 00s.

  • @frantaspacek
    @frantaspacek 3 роки тому +16

    My classmate uses the PC-3 as his main calculator. I had no idea it was this old and neither did he. We use it to pass messages during math.

    • @carso1500
      @carso1500 3 роки тому

      In what year exactly?
      Also it's curious that modern scientific computers are probably more powerful than this things (they are fucking expensive thou)

  • @ToasterWithFur
    @ToasterWithFur 3 роки тому +29

    That room has seen a lot of things. Didn't you build that table when you where still called the ibook guy?

  • @floodedbasement__
    @floodedbasement__ 3 роки тому +8

    I like this video.
    Having been born over two decades after the 80s, I obviously have no memory of pocket computers- other than smartphones and such. Learning about the past is interesting, and I wish I could experience life in that time.

  • @piduino
    @piduino 2 роки тому +2

    love these! growing up in the 90s during the window where basic died and nothing replaced it in our school discovering these and following examples from books in the library were my first steps. Also loving T2

  • @boblangill6209
    @boblangill6209 3 роки тому +9

    At the risk of getting into a battle over definitions, I'll point out that the Texas Instruments SR-52 was an earlier pocket computer (1975). It was programmable, handled branching logic, and could store and load programs from magnetic strips. Very limited memory and no graphics, but had the key functional elements of a computer and "pocket" form factor size.

    • @galier2
      @galier2 3 роки тому +3

      While technically you are right, what made the PC-1211/TRS-80 PC (that was its name, P was still pocket and not personal) seem more "computerish" than a calculator was its BASIC. Calculations were also made via an expression parser, not via AOS (TI) or RPN (HP).
      This said, when looking at the press of that time, the categories were: pocket computer/programmabkle calculators on one side and home and personnal computers on the other side. Magazines would talk about HP-41, TI-59, Sharp PC-1211 and Casio FX-702P as being in the same market.

    • @pault151
      @pault151 3 роки тому +1

      @@galier2 Yes, glad you mentioned HP's RPN. My college roomie had an HP-65 in 1975. It had an input language (pretty much just a buffer for HP-65 commands in RPN), storage registers, logic functions, most of the standard scientific calculator functions, and a built-in magnetic "card" reader that could store short programs to magnetic strips roughly the size of the stripe on the back of a credit card now. The only thing it really lacked compared to these items described above was that it only had the single row of red LED's for output. It did lack "affordability", costing about 4-1/2 times the cost of a month's room and board for a student! That would be just about US$4000 today. Per the Wikipedia article, an HP-65 was taken into orbit by the Apollo crew during the Apollo-Soyuz test project as a backup for the onboard computer.

    • @mgsp5871
      @mgsp5871 3 роки тому

      I had one and i would consider a device which only capabilities to calculate numbers without text an electronic 'slide rule', but not a computer.
      Sadly it got defect :(
      The TI-59 i have as successor has very limited text-capabilities (Text-prompts for Input when used with the printer device) so together with the HP-49 it marks the transition from calculator to computer

  • @HypherNet
    @HypherNet 3 роки тому +11

    Thanks for being vulnerable and sharing those personal bits about your experience in school in the 80s. I really do hope some of those bullies see now that you've got over a million subscribers and are making your living embracing the thing they literally bullied you for -- the height of 1980s nerdiness. Kudos.

  • @emzu690
    @emzu690 3 роки тому +15

    "Don't throw your X-Box or Play Station just yet" Quote from famous thinker/philosopher.

  • @karlm9584
    @karlm9584 Рік тому +1

    I was in the Tandy store with my dad back in 1987 and ready to buy a pocket TRS80 or whatever due to scoring all As on my report card, enthralled by computers and programming, but being so poor as to not have electricity connected, nor being able to afford a "proper" computer. As fate would have it my 5th grade teacher was in the store that afternoon and convinced my father to buy a Tandy 1400LT instead. A wise decision. I taught myself BASIC, Pascal (Turbo) and Assembly (TASM/MASM) on that thing, all during high school, until I was able to buy my own 486 in 1995 and enrol in uni. I am now a software engineer, and very grateful that my teacher was in the store that day. I still have the 1400LT, and it still works.

  • @matthewzepess5721
    @matthewzepess5721 3 роки тому +18

    I’d love to see the watch powered back on and shown off. Sort of motivates me to check some thrift stores for old tech. Plus this ain’t cheap online. I could buy a iPhone 8 for the price of some of these pocket computers.

  • @carlc.4714
    @carlc.4714 3 роки тому +8

    @15:20 "Matteo asked me not to open these, since they were still factory sealed, but..."
    Evil /me: "... I ignored him." 😂

  • @EpicTyphlosionTV
    @EpicTyphlosionTV 3 роки тому +37

    Nothing like a whopping 10 scanlines!

  • @Luscious3174
    @Luscious3174 2 роки тому +1

    I have that same Seiko watch. It was sold as the Data 2000 because it could store 2000 characters in it's memory. Mine came with the keyboard attachment which was smaller and slimmer than the one showed here. It would click into the dock on the keyboard and let you input data that way.
    The simple reason why I didn't wear mine to school was because it wasn't water resistant and could get damaged just from washing the hands. Even simple sweat from your wrist was an issue. Likewise the display being so large/fragile it was prone to scratching over time even worn under the cuff and screen protectors/hardness just weren't a thing back then. Never mind if you took a harder knock or tumble and the display actually broke/cracked. Not the sort of thing to wear if you had any semblance of an active lifestyle. From what I can recall it also wasn't a particularly easy display to read when you were outside in direct sunlight as well. This was a watch you really had to baby so mine spent most of it's days unworn.
    The battery inside didn't last for very long either, never mind being hard to find when you needed a replacement. Those BR batteries were the precursor to CR ones you find today - same size ones are in fact interchangeable. The keyboard also used a similar button cell that too didn't have a very long life if you used the keyboard often.
    Of course if you wanted to be really nerdy you would strap the watch on with the keyboard - yeah, I did it once 🤓

  • @c1ph3rpunk
    @c1ph3rpunk 3 роки тому +25

    Can’t remember the model but my dad got me this “smart watch” back in 1987 or so, might have been a Samsung or Tandy, wish I could remember. It got me through my last year of high school and not a single teacher knew what I had on it. ;-)

  • @mariekatherine5238
    @mariekatherine5238 3 роки тому +3

    I had a PDA that I loved because I could store text on it. It was great for a week’s worth of class notes. I’d delete portions after I’d committed them to memory. I remember wishing I could have, like, 300 pages of notes!

  • @tuanbe
    @tuanbe 3 роки тому +23

    You didn’t mention the Psion Organizer! Hope you can settle this in the 90’s episode with the Psion Series 3. I worked at Psion, if you need any info hit me up.

    • @dlarge6502
      @dlarge6502 3 роки тому +4

      I have several Psions, all 3's. I have 2 3a's and a 3c. Also have a couple of Acorn branded Psion 3's.
      I found my 3c's hinges have gotten very brittle and broke. Later on this year I'll look into repairing them.

    • @porovaara
      @porovaara 3 роки тому +1

      i did a lot of stuff on my commutes in 97/98 on my psion! loved it.
      ALSO: This guy lives in a weird texas bubble, he doesn't know about or mention things that didn't come to texas.

    • @themouse5666
      @themouse5666 3 роки тому

      @@dlarge6502 I repaired a lot of Psion 3 hinges in the '90s. I would drill out the broken off nub and replace it with a free floating pin, quick and easy.

    • @dlarge6502
      @dlarge6502 3 роки тому

      @@themouse5666 Thats not what has broken unfortunatley. What has broken is the plastic of the hinge itself, the screen is separated from the hinge entirely. I'm hoping a but of glue will sort it but as the plastic is so brittle I'm not sure if it can take it. What I need is a while new plastic shell.

    • @digiowl9599
      @digiowl9599 3 роки тому

      There was also the Nokia 9000. A mobile phone that ran DOS by way of a clamshell design from 1996.

  • @QosmiK
    @QosmiK 2 роки тому

    Hi 8BitGuy!
    Great overview of those wonderful little "pocket computers".
    I became fascinated by these little machines, bought them and learnt programming in Basic language which eventually led to a change in career in the oil refineries I worked for in Saudi Arabia.
    My first machine, well before the pocket computers was a Texas Instruments programmable calculator, with an astounding 59 programmable steps (!). But then in the 80s I was able to buy the real pocket computers starting with the Sharp 1411, then the Sharp 1500A and finally the amazing Casio PB-700 and the latest bigger version, the PB-770 which had 8 KB of RAM and additional key shortcuts.
    What made these latest machines, (especially the Casio PB series) even more incredible, for the time, was the possibility of connecting them to the 4 colors plotter and tape cassette FA-10 and FA-11. These little plotters made by Alps, are marvels of engineering and assembly. I still have a fully functional Casio PB-770 and the FA-11 plotter plus other PB-700 and FA plotters which are unfortunately dead.
    Unfortunate as well is the fact that the main and insurmountable problem in seeing these little plotters in operation, is the lack of the little pens which are almost impossible to find and/or are prohibitively expensive (up to 75 Euros for a set), and which despite being sealed may have actually run dry. I made many attempts to revive them by drilling tiny holes and filling with ink, and other ways but no success... Real pity!

  • @moshmosh26
    @moshmosh26 3 роки тому +15

    I want to go back in time and tell that kid that all his quirkiness and computers knowledge will someday make him the coolest dude there is.
    And I have 1.23M people to back that up

    • @heedmywarning2792
      @heedmywarning2792 3 роки тому +2

      Coolest? Is there global cooling in the future?

    • @Peter.Sky.Walker
      @Peter.Sky.Walker 3 роки тому +3

      "Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull in 1985?"

  • @thoughtful_criticiser
    @thoughtful_criticiser 3 роки тому +9

    I was the shortest throughout my schooling, bullied from 5 years old to the day I left as early as I could at 16. The bullies ensured that I couldn't do well and go to university. So I feel for you.

  • @alansmith4734
    @alansmith4734 3 роки тому +6

    I was a huge Sony Fan, and Sony had a PDA called Clie. It cost $400 when new. I bought a used one on eBay in 2004 for $40. I would say that the functions are comparable to a Pager, to todays Smart Phones.

    • @JGott0001
      @JGott0001 3 роки тому +1

      So, I googled the Sony Clie, saw the PEG-UX in the image results, and immediately felt old because I remember seeing that in catalogs as a child... what a blast from the past.

  • @jimmyolano929
    @jimmyolano929 3 роки тому +5

    4:57 PC-5 and PC-6 are Casio FX-795P, I had one of them, 1980 decade!

  • @TheKingAAndi
    @TheKingAAndi 3 роки тому +36

    Last video in the old studio! Can't wait to see the new one 😀
    p.s Bullies suck!

  • @miroslavzima8856
    @miroslavzima8856 3 роки тому +3

    I find older tech MUCH more interesting than modern. Thanks for awesome reviews:)

  • @gaius_marius
    @gaius_marius 2 роки тому +1

    I remember the good old days of pocket computing. I learned BASIC on a Tandy Pocket Computer PC-1 when I was around 11 years old. My dad got me the cassette adapter which was essential if you wanted to save any programs, because the built-in memory was only around 1k.

  • @gmofftarki
    @gmofftarki 3 роки тому +17

    I hadn't thought about this before, but it's amazing that TI only started releasing graphing calculators in 1991, considering how ubiquitous they were in math education by 96 or so. Obviously, not the point of the video, but interesting nonetheless.

    • @harrkev
      @harrkev 3 роки тому +3

      There are other videos about that. They dumped a bunch of money into getting their stuff required in schools. Now they have a near monopoly on the educational market. Even regular non-graphing scientific calculators are recommended to be a TI in schools. Not that there is a lot of difference between basic scientific calcs from other companies.

    • @mgsp5871
      @mgsp5871 3 роки тому

      @@harrkev The pity is, these calculators are so specialized for school, they are of no use for an engineer anymore.

  • @Dnosirrom
    @Dnosirrom 3 роки тому +5

    Old tech is so......amazing...the look, the smell, the feel.

  • @yafilmDOTcom
    @yafilmDOTcom 3 роки тому +4

    15:55 "It has no battery compartment because it uses an internal (non removable) NiCD battery".
    The potential world's first portable computing device with a user non-removable battery beating Apple on its non-removable battery idea for their phones, plus all of its accompanying epical failures (that all battery chemistries eventually goes bad, eventually rendering the device useless for most users who can't put up with cracking open their devices to replace its proprietary looking battery).

  • @swamihuman9395
    @swamihuman9395 4 місяці тому

    - WOW! Just noticed you have 1.44 MILLION viewers! Good on you :)
    - I guess you're no longer the unpopular nerd like in primary/secondary school.
    - You are getting all the credit you've always deserved. Keep up the great content; and, thx for all your hard effort

  • @lexington476
    @lexington476 3 роки тому +17

    2:58 OMG, I never knew that was a real computer. I thought it was just a prop for the movie.

    • @aa-au
      @aa-au 3 роки тому +3

      I remember seeing one of these in a store that sold Atari computers. My friend got me into buying an Atari ST in 1987 because I could not afford a real Mac. Then I bought a real Mac in 1991 and now I have hundreds of Macs. Should have bought one of those portable Atari's.

    • @waynefox897
      @waynefox897 3 роки тому +2

      I've still got mine kicking around in my pile of Nerd stuff along with my US Robotics Pilot. My Sharp PC-1247 and my HP 200LX.
      Brought back memories