The Advantech I.Q. Unlimited with BASIC and a Z80 CPU.

Hello, and welcome back to the 8-Bit Guy. In this episode, I want to show you this bizarre little computer known as the IQ Unlimited by Advantech. Now, you might be wondering “What is this company Advantech?”

Well, if you turn the computer over you’ll see it was actually produced by Video Technology Electronics, otherwise known as V-Tech.”

Yes, that’s the same V-Tech that has produced tons of cordless telephones, kids learning computers, baby monitors, and a variety of other things. They are also the ones that built the Laser 128, which was an Apple II clone, along with

the matching Laser XT which was a PC clone. They also produced the laser line of portable computers, and even a series of proprietary desktop computers that carried the laser brand name. So, needless to say V-Tech is no stranger to making computers.

But, I think this may be the strangest one they ever made. The front of the box claims it to be complete, powerful, simple, and affordable. They are also those that built the Laser 128, which was an Apple II clone, along side

The matching Laser XT which was a PC clone. They also produced the laser line of portable computers, and even a series of proprietary desktop computers that carried the laser name. So, needless to mention V-Tech is not any stranger to creating computers.

But, I feel this might be the strangest one they ever made. The front of the box claims it to be complete, powerful, simple, and affordable. It also says it is designed to overcome every worry a home computer buyer might have. That’s quite a claim. It also shows the 12 built-in programs, which seems to be a big part of their marketing strategy. The back of the box claims the IQ Unlimited is the computer families will never outgrow. That’s also quite a bold statement. And it does enter more detail about the 12 inbuilt programs. Let’s take a closer look at this thing. 

Over here is the ON/OFF switch. Around on the back you have a composite video output, a power input, and down here is an RF output for TVs, along with a channel selector switch. Then, we've what appears to be a typical parallel printer port. I have no idea what this port is for. You might think it is for ROM cartridges, but I’m not convinced of that because if you look over here to the side, you’ll find what looks much more like a ROM cartridge slot.

However, I cannot find any evidence that any ROM at all ever existed for this thing and being that it has no disk drive connection, that means the 12 programs that are built into this thing that’s pretty much all it ever has or every will have.

I should also mention there’s no audio output jack, but it does have an internal speaker right here for sound. On rock bottom, you'll find it interesting that it's two battery compartments. The primary one here takes four C cell batteries and this will actually operate the pc. After all, this is often alleged to be a quasi-portable computer. I' But down here you'll see yet one more battery compartment. This one runs on four AA batteries. This essentially keeps your programs and documents stored in battery backed RAM, and presumably keeps the clock running.

So, I feel what they were trying to try to was to supply a system almost like this old Laser50 that features a single-line display, which what a coincidence was also made by V-Tech, but I feel they wanted to supply a desktop experience also, beat an equivalent package. I did some digging around to ascertain where this thing was sold. And, I acknowledged it had been sold in Many department shops during the Christmas season of 1991.

For example, during this 1991 Christmas catalog for JCPenny you ’ll see this thing advertised alongside other kids computers of the age, including other V-tech branded computers. Although this is often certainly the foremost expensive of the bunch coming in at 200 dollars. It does also mention in the ad that it has 64K of memory. 

I also found it in this 1991 Sears catalog and it is advertised alongside a special IQ dot matrix printer. And the printer costs $200, the exact same price as the computer itself. So the combination would run you $400. Interestingly enough, I found that in this same catalog there were some dedicated word processors for around the same price. 

Although these word processors did have the advantage that they had floppy drives to store your work.

Hey, this Brother model apparently even features Tetris.

That makes me want to get one!

Now, in this same catalog they were also advertising a Packard Bell 386 PC for $1,000 and an XT for $700. So, the V-tech IQ does seem to be price competitive with those, especially being a monitor is required for those machines and that was an additional $329. The Vetch could use a TV or its built in display.

However, on the next page you can see an Amiga 500, also a costly proposition for $600 plus another $350 for the monitor.

However, down below is the good old Commodore 64c. Sure, this was one of the last years it was on the market, but you’ll notice its regular price was only $150 and you could use it with a TV as well. So now we’ll have to ask the question of how does the IQ Unlimited stack up against the Commodore 64?

Well, let’s try powering it on. We’ll try using the built-in LCD first. I’ll mess with setting the date later.

Ok, so next it appears I can scroll through a list of software, including a word processor, spell review, calculator, mind challenge, word zappers, basic tutor, BASIC itself, and a 200 year calendar!

I’m actually afraid to try any of these on a 1-line LCD because I know how bad they will probably be!

In my experience, I consider 4 lines to be sort of a minimum requirement for doing anything useful. So, I’ll try the obligatory scrolling BASIC routine. The trouble is, it will be sorely disappointing when you only have 1 line. 

At least it does pause between lines when listing the program. Let ’s exit out of BASIC and check out the word processing system. I’ll tell it to create a new file. I guess I can just start typing away. I’ll take this opportunity to mention I don’t care much for the keyboard, the keys are a bit stiff so I tend to make lots of mistakes.

So yeah, I guess you could write a document on this, but it would be an exercise in frustration. But, you know, being this was aimed at kids, you know, I guess it would have been ok for a road trip to Grandma’s house or something like that back in 1991. I mean, you’ve got to keep in mind that kids back then couldn’t just pull out their cell phone and play on that or iPad or something like that. So, you know, this might have been better than nothing. One thing I noticed right away was there was a lot of color artifacts. I suspected that this computer generates color much in the same way the Apple II does.

OK, so the first thing it wants to know when I turn it on, and it’s showing this on both screens, is if I want to use the TV or LCD. Which, I’m going to go ahead and pick the TV. And, yeah, I guess I better go ahead and put in the date. I guess we’ll find out of it is year-2000 compliant because this is year 2018 and this is the month of February and it is the 6th. 

So, all right, here’s all of the 12 applications that we have built in. The first thing I’m kind of curious about is I’m going to go over here and look at this calendar. I’m just going to go ahead, um, OK. So, here’s the actual calendar and it is correct. This is a Tuesday, the 6th. Yeah, looks like this calendar is actually year 2000 compliant. Well, we ’ll plow ahead and quit out of that. Let’s take a look at the word processor. All right, it’s going to ask if I want 40 or 80 columns. I’m going to pick 40 columns this time.

OK, so some of the things I want to draw your attention to is first of all, if you look up at the top right hand corner it shows there’s 24K available. Which is, to be honest, not that much for a word processor. If I press escape, I get a menu.

And I can go to, you know, several different things you’d expect that a word processor would have. But this is one of the interesting things about this computer is that if you’ll notice it has load and save options. So, if I exploit load, it wants to understand what file I would like to load. I can push the assistance button to urge an inventory. And these are a number of the small tests and stuff that I've done. And it won. 't actually let me select anything from this screen, but I can type within the name. So, yeah, this is often a test I saved earlier. 

And I actually have had the computer powered off and even carried it around some while this was saved. So, it does actually save this to internal RAM, but if you were to take those little 4 batteries out, that’d be the end of it. So, anyway, let’s exit out of the word processor. Let ’s have a glance at a number of these other programs. Spell review. No, let’s try word zappers. So, this is some kind of game, of course. So, it looks like I’ve got to type the letters in order to destroy them. If I don’t do anything, let’s see what happens.

OK, looks like it they just start destroying, I guess they’re like, I guess that’s like the city or something and they are destroying it. Well, let’s go back out of that. Let ’s try game level, I don’t know, let ’s up the extent to three. OK., Looks like you actually have to type words. Not too hard.

OK, maybe it’s a little harder than I thought. Mostly because the position I’m in trying to do this. All right, well we ’ve seen word zappers, I feel that’s enough of that. Let’s have a look at mind challenge.

OK, so we can do science, geography, trivia, or history. Well, let’s do science. Number of players, 1.

Level, I don’t know. 1, what the heck. Light. A blank is produced through the refraction and reflection of sunlight by airborne water droplets. I can consider tons of various things which may be. Like I can press help for multiple choice.

OK, I used to be getting to say rainbow, but it didn't appear as if there was enough characters there for that, so there we go. What's a glass wont to focus light called. I might say that's a lens. So, whoops. we will try typing that in without doing the multiple choice.

Hey, I got it right. Optical cables for luminary are made up of… glass, I think?

So, yeah, this is often a touch bit challenging because you'll either try typing within the word otherwise you can push the assistance button then it'll offer you three choices to select from. So, that’s interesting.

All right, well, let ’s exit out of here.

And, let ’s have a glance at BASIC.

All right, I ’m getting to pick 40 columns.

All right, so now, we ’re getting to do an equivalent test we did earlier.

All right, there we go.

Hey, I got it right. Optical cables for luminary are made up of… glass, I think?

So, yeah, this is often a touch bit challenging because you'll either try typing within the word otherwise you can push the assistance button then it'll offer you three choices to select from. So, that ’s interesting.

All right, well, let ’s exit out of here.

And, let ’s have a glance at BASIC.

All right, I ’m getting to pick 40 columns.

All right, so now, we ’re getting to do an equivalent test we did earlier.

All right, there we go.

One thing I notice different from other BASIC is that it tends to place a line in between. But, I  will be able to say that I've spent a while fooling around with this BASIC. And albeit I don't have the user's manual And, there's several different screens here of commands, and one among the large problems of this BASIC is, it doesn't have any graphics commands. , and sound commands, and it doesn't It does have a transparent screen command, so you recognize, you'll clear the screen and begin once again in your program, which is quite a pain and would be really slow. 

So, for instance, if I wanted to code something like Tetris, you know, that might be relatively impossible on here due to the limited command set of BASIC, plus even commands that we're wont to on other computers like POKE and PEEK simply don' So, yeah, unfortunately, the essential is just about getting to be limited to text. And, You know, I assume you'll create a text adventure on here or something, but unfortunately, that's getting to be about it. So, I'm not real impressed with the essential, I even have to mention. So, let's try the 80-column mode.

OK, so this seems to be totally unreadable, as you'll see.

However, I wondered what it might appear as if with an old monochrome monitor. You'll definitely see all of the vertical striping wont to create color.

However, once we attend the word processing system, it's alleged to just have a gray background with black text. And here it's actually pretty darned readable. Although, admittedly I've seen better. Next I attempted BASIC in 80 columns and it's on a black background. This is often also very readable. I used to be ready to achieve an equivalent thing on my video capture card by setting it to PAL mode, so it not recognizes the NTSC color signal. And it's also pretty clear like this. One Take this screenshot, for instance. If I exploit a paint program to convert this to gray scale, it's like this. And this is often essentially how something sort of a Commodore 64 would look on a gray scale display.

However, once I grab a gray scale image from the pc using this system, this is often what it actually seems like. Again, you'll see all of the vertical stripes wont to create artifact colors. Here's using the spreadsheet in 80 columns mode To be honest I found the entire system somewhat more pleasing to use in gray scale. I feel I prefer the sharp text over the blurry color this thing offers. But that's probably just me. I'd imagine kids of the first 1990s probably appreciated. 

It's quite hard to draw without a mouse, but you'll create basic shapes use the keyboard to draw things also as they need like little stamps of various little objects and stuff. But, I'm not getting to show you all of the 12 programs on here because that might take just about forever, so let's move along. Well, let's take this thing apart.

I ’m wanting to see what kind of architecture this thing is using. To be honest, since it came call at 1991 I ’m half afraid well just see some epoxy blobs. But we ’ll see.

OK, here's the within. So this board here clearly has something to try to with power since it's connected to the battery compartments. This here is that the RF modulator. This is often the small LCD screen. And in fact, this is often So yeah, I  want to get rid of that. I'll just unscrew this RF shield and hopefully which will be enough to ascertain what's there.

OK, well, rats. There’s only one chip here. And it’s a proprietary V-tech chip. But there appears to be another DIP style chips on the opposite side. So, let ’s see if we will move this around a touch.

OK, this provides us a way better view, and that I suspect I can identify many of those chips. I ’ll got to remove this sticker. And a few alcohol will clean that right up.

OK, so after doing a touch of research, here's what I came up with. This chip here may be a Z-80 clone. So that's an equivalent 8-bit CPU utilized in many early home computers of the 70s and 80s. Definitely nothing leading edge for 1991.

However, this one does run at 6 MHz Or a minimum of it's rated for six Mhz. I'm not really sure what clock speed it's running at. The opposite chip on top, I even have no idea. This next chip here was easy It also happens to be 128K in size. It's a pseudo-static ram. Now what meaning is that it's actually dynamic RAM, but they need included all of the refresh circuits inside the chip in order that it behaves essentially like static RAM. 

Which is weird being that the pc is merely advertised to possess 64K. It's possible maybe they only got an honest deal on these chips but the architecture isn't designed to use the last half of the RAM. Who knows. These two chips here are kind of interesting too. This one is simply an 8-bit register. And every one of these traces connecting thereto head over to the parallel printer port. So we will guess they're using this to drive the printer port.

This other chip is what I find more fascinating. It's actually a 4-bit microcontroller. Consistent with the info sheet, it contains 512K of ROM and 16K of RAM. My guess is that they are using this to drive the composite display screen. 16K should be plenty for video RAM. I suppose they might be storing a number of the opposite programs and stuff on the ROM inside this, who knows. That's tons of ROM. Unsure what speed it's clocked, but it's rated to run anywhere from 2 to five mhz.

Again, that's fast enough to supply a composite video signal. So, just an summary of the board here. This is often a Z80 CPU, 128K of RAM, a register, a microcontroller, which I think runs the display screen. This chip here, just by the method of elimination, may be a ROM chip of some kind. Probably why it's the Vetch branding microcontroller. Then this chip on the opposite side of the board. Yeah, not sure. It might be some kind of glue logic or even just a bunch of consolidated parts. Who knows.

So, I asked the question earlier within the episode if the IQ unlimited could compete with the Commodore 64. So, considering that the Commodore 64 was price competitive with this machine even once you included a disc drive on the Commodore, the Commodore had thousands of software titles available for it, and this had exactly 12. 

I  think most of those aroused within the trash after a couple of years, particularly after the youngsters got uninterested in playing on the 12 built-in programs. , I've seen some evidence on some forums that these may need been on just like the home shopping network or other discount type stores for much less, possibly even under 100 dollars towards the top of its lifespan. 

Needless to mention, I feel any fresh computing platform supported an 8-bit processor in 1991 was just about doomed to failure. Still, it's a stimulating little piece of forgotten computer history, so I hope you enjoyed learning about it. And, I assume that about wraps it up for this episode, so stick around for subsequent one and thanks for watching!

8-Bit Unboxing