Hello, and welcome back to this episode of 8-Bit unboxing, where I’m going to unbox
all the things that you guys have donated to me during the months of May and June of
2018.
So, I didn’t really get enough stuff in June to do a full episode, but during the
last two months I definitely received a lot of interesting things, so let’s take a look.
OK, so this is the first package.
And I have to admit being stumped as to who this was from or what it was because it just
says “an artist on redbubble.”
Later I realized it was from Clayton Hickman.
So they are a couple of T-Shirts.
And apparently Clayton likes to make obscure T-Shirts that reference things that are just
seen for a short time in single episode of TV shows.
And I think he wanted to send me these Doctor Who shirts to see if I could recognize what
they were.
Well, I certainly recognized this logo right away.
This was only seen in the episode Castrovalva, originally broadcast in 1982, and is one of
my favorite episodes.
So yeah, I got that one.
Let’s see what the other one is.
And this..
Ah yes.
I also immediately recognize this.
This is the dark tower from the death zone on Galifrey.
But more specifically, it is the computer representation shown on screen inside the
TARDIS.
Anyway, very nice.
I’ll definitely wear these!
Moving on, the next package is from Lain Mason.
And here’s a note.
Ok, looks like he sent me some replacement gears for my armatron.
Let’s have a look.
Well, I only needed one.
Now it looks like I have a stockpile of them.
Well, thank you Lain, I’ll probably put this to use soon.
These are 3D printed by the way.
And while I received a million emails telling me to do this, I already had a 3D printer
but mine was simply not capable of producing these.
Next up we have a box here, and it is from Charles Bozarth.
And what do we have here?
Oh cool.
I remember this discussion.
I don’t normally take printers for a variety of reasons.
But this was too good to turn down.
It’s an okimate 10 in the original box and it looks brand new!
The Okimate was a very unusual printer for the time.
See what your computer can do when it stops playing games.
This was a color thermal printer that came out in a time when all other printers were
either dot-matrix or daisy wheel, both of which were very loud and obnoxious.
These, on the other hand, were practically silent and could print in vibrant color.
Let’s take a closer look inside the box.
Hey look at this.
Charles even printed something on it for me.
Surprisingly it still appears to mostly work with the original cartridge.
And here it is.
I’ll draw your attention to this area here.
You see, this printer was brilliant because it could interface with various different
brands by changing the interface cartridge.
Right now it has a cartridge for Commodore machines.
And it looks like there is some software here too.
Thank you Charles!
OK, well, moving right along, we’ve got something here from Thomas.
I thought this might be a bill.
But I felt something inside of it.
And look at that!
Even more armatron gears.
I have enough to fix like 20 armatrons now, hahah.
OK, well thank you Thomas!
Next I got a little something here from Ollies.
Oh look.
There’s my logo!
OK, that’s interesting.
Here’s a note.
Looks like a custom 8-Bit Guy letterhead there.
Anyway, looks like he sent me a nightstand for my Apple Watch, which looks like an old
Macintosh.
Well, let’s try it out.
OK, so it plops in there like that.
I guess you have to mount the magnetic charger in the back before it really works properly,
though.
Still, you can see what it would look like.
Nice, thank you!
Next up we’ve got a big ole’ box here.
It’s apparently from David, tanning machine.
That probably has some meaning that has escaped me.
Here’s a note.
OK, apparently he’s sending me some sort of keyboard.
Ah.. and tanning machine is the name of his band.
OK, so what we have here is a Bontempi electronic computer organ.
Yeah, this kid isn’t posing at all here, right?
Well, let’s see if we can get it out.
This is definitely not the original packing material.
This design looks very 1970s.
Well, this should be something interesting to play with, so thank you Tanning Machine!
And next up we have a big box from The Home Depot.
Ok, not really, it’s from Antibishonen?
Is that a name or a company?
I’m not sure.
Well, let’s open it.
OK, wow, there are quite a few things in this box.
So first we have a digital sound lab here.
Never heard of this, but looks interesting.
And then a lite’n learn.
Never heard of this one.
And next we have a talking teacher.
Again, never heard of this, but looks interesting.
It’s made by Coleco.
What’s next.
Hit Stix 2.
These sticks look remarkably similar to the Casio sticks I reviewed a while back.
But instead of attaching to a keyboard they appear to be connected to a proprietary little
beat box.
I’m sure they are just as terrible and gimmicky to use.
But I’ll check it out!
Ahh..
The Etch-a-Sketch that plugs into your television.
I’ve always wanted to try one of these.
And it has a cartridge port.
I wonder what that’s for.
Anyway, very cool.
Moving along, we have a brain baffler.
Never heard of this one.
And look, and original magnetic etch-a-sketch.
I wonder if it still works.
And it does!
Drawing on these things was always such a challenge!
And the etch-a-sketch animator.
I think this is the original thing that we discussed in the email.
All of this other stuff has been a bonus, I guess.
Anyway, I’ve always wanted to try one of these out.
I’ve come across a few in thrift shops or estate sales, but they are always broken and
abused.
So yeah, I’ll be interested to try this out!
So yeah, here’s all the 8 things that were in that box.
So thank you!
OK, guys, you can definitely stop emailing me about this now.
I have received a Sous-Vide Cooker.
I hope I’m saying that right.
This was not mailed to me, but in fact it was hand delivered by Christopher Foskey.
So let’s take this thing out a look at it.
So the reason I’ve gotten like 800 emails about this product is because I mentioned
I wanted to try retrobriting something by placing it in a large tub of heated water,
and this is the product everyone suggested I should use.
And apparently it has controls for setting an exact temperature.
So this just might work.
I’ll definitely give it a try in a future video.
So, a big thanks to Chris, as these definitely aren’t cheap!
Next up is a box from Germany, apparently from Arne Schmitz.
The customs paper says it is a computer sound card.
And here’s a note.
It appears this is an Ad-Lib replica.
Wow, check that out!
This is really cool because genuine Ad-Lib cards are insanely expensive and rare these
days.
Very cool.
You’ll definitely see this again in future videos!
Thank Arne!
And the next box is from Chris Lozaga.
He has sent many quality donations in the past.
OK, this looks like some sort of laptop.
And a battery pack, no doubt long dead.
And how do you open this thing?
Ok, that’s just a carry handle.
Oh.. that’s not a screen, it’s actually a keyboard cover.
Ahh..
So there’s the screen.
What a fascinating little portable.
I’ve never seen one of these before.
Apparently it stores data on these little micro cassettes.
That’s so cute.
Look at that!
Apparently this is some sort of modem attachment.
So,yeah, I guess it connects to the bottom of the laptop like this, and that’s what
the giant ribbon cable is for.
Well, thank you Chris.
I’ll see what I can do to get this working!
Next box is from Dmitry K. Lets’s see what’s inside.
Ahh… yes!
So he saw where I mentioned that some jerk had taken my Osborne handle and never returned
it.
And so he found another one somewhere and here it is!
Obviously it needs retrobriting but I’ll have to figure out a way to retrobrite it
without damaging the leather this time.
So that should make a neat challenge!
Thank you Dmitry!
You’ll be seeing this again!
OK, so this is an interesting box.
It appears to be from Puckaway Motor Club.
“I expect to see some blue painter’s tape over these addresses.”
Well, you got your wish!
And it says here, “Do not cut with a knife, but he says Nah, go ahead.”
Over here it’s the same thing.
It says “no, seriously, it’s ok.”
Diatomacious earth, food grade.
Food grade?
Who would eat this?
I use it to kill ants.
Fascinating.
Over here it says, not really from this website.
If you are expecting some actual diatomaceous earth, prepare to be disappointed.
These guys are very proud of their website, and yet I bought this on amazon.
And on the underside, it says “do not open this end.
You are likely to be eaten by a grue?”
I don’t even know what that is.
OK, well, we know what it isn’t, so let’s see what is actually inside of this.
Here’s a note from the Puckaway Motor Club.
And it appears to be Atari cartridges.
Wow, so there’s a bunch of game manuals.
I don’t have most of these.
And here are two large bricks worth of games.
Let’s open these up.
So, it looks like the ones on the left here are Atari 2600 cartridges.
Adventure is kind of an interesting one I’ve been wanting to get my hands on because it
was recently used in the movie Ready Player One.
And these are all Coleco games.
And thats interesting as I didn’t even know that Gorf was available on the Coleco.
These actually say Coleco Vision and Adam, so they are for the computer as well as the
game console.
And Smurf.
I’ve never played this before.
That should be interesting.
Next up is a package from Landon Balk.
What the heck is this?
OK, I know what this is.
It’s a drum machine.
I remember the email conversation, but I actually had no idea it was this large.
And here’s a letter to 8-Bit Keys.
Let’s see what it says.
So long story short, the LCD doesn’t work on this thing and he thought maybe I could
fix it.
So yeah, it’s an RX-15.
I’ll just plug it in right quick and see what it does.
Apparently the unit actually works, but this is all the screen displays.
Well, I’ll have a crack at fixing it in a later episode.
Thank you Landon.
Next up we have a small little box here from James Labarre.
Here’s a little note.
Apparently these are Timex Sinclair cassettes.
Which is cool because I’m planning a documentary on that machine sometime this year.
And here they are.
I noticed some of them like Chess here requires 16K of RAM, where others just require the
standard 2K.
These are in great condition.
Thank you James!
Next we have a box from…
Interworld highway?
Actually, I later discovered this was a drop shipment from Pete Brown.
And what we have here is a desoldering tool.
Often people are suggesting I get these little $5 pumps and stuff, which I’ve tried all
of those and they are junk.
So I don’t use them.
This, on the other hand, will probably work really well.
Of course I can’t imagine what this costs.
Probably a few hundred dollars if I had to guess.
Let’s open it up.
Yeah, this thing will probably work great!
Well, I’ll undoubtedly be using this the next time I need to desolder a chip or something
in a repair video.
Thank you very much Pete!
Next up we have a fairly large box from Michael Latheberry.
Very interesting packing method.
Ah yes.
I remember this conversation.
This is a Yamaha VSS-30, which is a digital voice sampling keyboard sort of like the Casio
SK-1 or the SK-5 like this one.
I’ve never actually played with one of these.
So, after I get it cleaned up, I’ll be curious to see what it can do!
These stickers always baffle me.
I’ve seen these on so many keyboards.
They are usually placed there by the original owners, of course, probably 30 years ago.
But it always amazes me how randomly placed they always are.
Like they didn’t even try to line them up.
Anyway, thank you very much Michael!
Next up we have a box from Samuel.
Hmm..
What is this?
Just says Atari on it.
Ahh neat.
It’s a cartridge holder.
I’ve never actually seen one like this before.
And I do not believe I have any of these games.
I think I sent him a list of the ones I had, so he found some ones I was missing.
All right, well, thank you Samuel!
Next we have a box from 1097…
Actually, that’s just the address of the UPS store.
So this is actually from Peter Metzger.
Here’s a note!
And there’s a C64 cartridge in there called Dance Fantasy.
I am not even familiar with that one.
This is the color tone keyboard for the Commodore 64.
What’s interesting is this thing is completely flat.
When he sent me the photo I got the impression there were real keys on it.
Ooops.
Not that it matters.
I would have still taken it.
Apparently it plugs into the joystick port of the Commodore 64.
Now I’ll have to try to locate the software for it.
Anyway, thank you very much Peter!
Moving along, here’s a box from The Future was 8-Bit.
They are always sending me cool stuff.
This comes from overseas and the customs paperwork says computer parts kit.
Hmm.
OK, looks like they sent me several things.
And here’s a note.
OK, first thing we have here is a 264 diagnostic cartridge.
So this should work on the Commodore Plus/4 and probably the C16 as well.
And next we have a C64 dead test cartridge.
These are handy for troubleshooting the C64.
I already had one of these, but it didn’t have this fancy case on it.
So that’s cool.
OK, and this next one is a modern EPYX fast load cartridge.
I think this one has been modified to be more compatible with the SD-2-IEC.
So that’s cool!
Plus it gives you a reset button, which the C64 really needs.
Speaking of, this appears to be another SD-2-IEC device.
These are SD-card readers for basically any Commodore machine.
I already had one of these, but apparently this one is made from original VIC-20 cases
that were melted down, according to the note.
I can’t understate how handy these are for getting new software on your Commodore machines.
And this appears to be a cassette case for a game, but there is no cassette inside.
And the last, but definitely not the least, is a new Penultimate Plus cartridge for the
VIC-20.
I had the previous version of this and even did a video on it a while back.
This one, is supposed to be even better.
Yeah.
And there it is.
It’s in two colors now.
Very cool, well thank you for all of this great swag!
Next up is a box from Belgium.
And that is a lot of stamps!
This is from Serge, who always has these neat inventions that he creates.
Let’s see what he has made this time.
OK, so this is the new version of the parallel port adlib card.
The old one used an OPL2 chip and the new one uses a surface mount OPL3 chip.
Which is still fully backwards compatible with the Ad-lib.
But yeah, I definitely like the layout on this one better.
Especially the location of the volume knob.
And this here is a MIDI synthesizer for the parallel port.
I think it is based on his dream blaster product.
This should be interesting as another sound option for laptops and other old DOS machines.
I’ll have to play around with this!
And what do we have here.
Ok, apparently these are cases for the OPL3 cards.
So yeah, they just snap on like that.
And same thing for the MIDI synth cards.
And the last thing he sent me.
This is a prototype, apparently.
It will convert old RGBI signals, including Hercules, CGA, and EGA over to VGA.
This should be handy for using a modern monitor with my old Tandy 1000 machines.
This will be interesting to try.
So yeah, you connect the RGBI on one side, and then VGA connects to the other.
Next up is yet another package from The Future was 8-Bit.
OK, this is apparently a new ROM for the penultimate cartridge.
He said there was a bug in the version he sent me.
Although I haven’t noticed it.
Might as well install it now.
So we’ll just pull the old one out.
And then I’ll stick the new one down in there.
And let’s go ahead and try it out.
Yep, it seems to be working.
While we’re at it, I’ll show you a few things on this cartridge.
They redid the whole main menu, it looks so cool now.
It also includes a lot of new games.
For example, it now includes Cheese and Onion.
It also has a great version of Tetris on here.
And it even includes Pentagorat.
All some great games for the VIC-20.
Moving along, here’s a package from David Schirpke.
Let’s see what this is.
Here’s a note.
Ah hah!
These are Commodore Plus/4 cartridges.
These are super rare as there weren’t many cartridges made for the machine.
It’s a pity I couldn’t have gotten these a few weeks ago, I could have shown them in
the Plus/4 documentary I did.
Nevertheless, I’m still thrilled to have them.
Thank you David!
And this package sneaked it right at the last minute.
It’s pretty heavy.
I have no idea what it is in.
It’s from Genevieve Catalano.
OK, well let’s see what’s inside.
It appears to be several books.
It appears to be for some Kaypro software.
Hmmm.
MS-DOS?
That means it can’t be for the CP/M machines.
OK, here’s a note that explains it.
Yeah, this is from the same family that sent me the big trunk full of old Kaypro laptops.
Apparently, these books go with that.
OK, cool.
Thank you Genevieve.
All right guys, and a big thanks for everything that was donated.
And I did want to do a little bit of self promotion here right quick.
I mad kind of a big mistake recently, and I bought 155 Commodore VIC-20 motherboards
from this guy.
And, I probably should have, but I have managed to get about 80 of them working and I’m
literally like, the walls are closing in on me here.
So, I would absolutely love it if you guys would go take some of these off my hands.
Also, they are available on my website and I also got 55 of these Commodore 16 keyboards.
Then again, I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of these.
So again, please take these off my hands.
Anyway, I guess that wraps it up for this episode.
So, you’re going to be seeing a lot of that was donated in this episode in some follow-up
episodes really soon.
I’m actually working on an episode right now on some of those sound cards like the
ad-lib and the SSI, and some of those little parallel port cards, and stuff like that.
So you’ll be seeing that here in just a few days, hopefully.
So, anyway, thanks for watching!