Tomy Tutor - Restoration

Hello! And welcome back to the 8-Bit Guy. I even have been sent some Huggies. OK, no, not actually. This is often a reasonably rare machine. I haven’t unboxed it yet. So, let ’s have a glance.

OK, so what I even have here may be a Tomy Tutor. This may be a pretty interesting, albeit rare piece of equipment that has been loaned to me. haven't even powered this thing on, don't even know if it'll work. It's very dirty but I feel we will clean it up. I'll be returning this to the owner when I'm through with it. But , I always grew up pronouncing the name of this company as Tommy. 

I assume that really makes sense that it's Tomy. Once I did the video on the restoration of the Hearoid, and that I had mentioned the Tommy Omnibot, I got flooded with emails and comments telling me it's actually pronounced Tomy. But anyway, it's only one of these things that I've only ever seen the name in print before and I've never actually heard it pronounced. So, in my mind I had always pronounced it Tommy.

But, apparently it's pronounced Tomy, so now we all know. So anyway, let's start. So, just to be clear. This could not be confused with the Tomy Tutor toy computer, or Tomy's Tutor Typewriter. Both were made by the same company , but obviously not an equivalent product. No, the Tutor was an actual computer and most of the people will probably be surprised to seek out that it shares tons in common with the TI 99/4 series. I might say it's an equivalent CPU and Video chip because the TI99 / 4, but it doesn't. They're actually slightly improved versions of both, and would have actually ended up being within the TI99 / 8 product had TI not canceled it. But they are backwards compatible for the foremost part.

Unfortunately, the specs still aren't that impressive. They heavily advertise this as being a 16-bit machine, which it had been technically speaking. But it only had 16K of RAM, which is but most 8-bit computers were shipping with at the time.

It also had a video resolution of 256x192 pixels with 16 colors. Which, I assume was okay for the period of time, but considering it used color-cells just like the Commodore and Sinclair systems, it really didn't have a video chip that They promised a memory upgrade that might expand the system to 64K, but apparently nobody has ever seen one. So it probably never got made. The Tomy Tutor was sold mostly in Japan, but it had a really short lived time on the North American market in 1983, with a price of $ 380. 

Much like it's brother the TI-99 / 4, it just wasn't competitive with offerings from Commodore or Atari, nor did it have the name recognition. Unlike TI, who used Bill Cosby for his or her spokesman, Tomy used Sarah Purcell, who was the host of a reality television series called “Real People.” As you'll see within the advertisement here, they claim “Here's a true computer” that's very easy to use, there's no parental guidance necessary. ” 

So, enough history, let's have a check out the one we've here. It comes with this really cute little “Data order.” And it also comes with these two little controllers that kind of resemble Intellivision controllers. I even have several cartridges Here's They appear to enter the highest like so. Oh .. and please, don't put tape around cables. It makes them very sticky. Let's turn this thing around and connect the audio and video. 

Oddly, the colors are backwards, So I'm going to travel off of the words. OK, time to power it on. Well, good news. It appears to figure. That's actually a reasonably neat intro screen for 1983. I like it. Unfortunately, it says to press any key, but I even have tried every key on the keyboard and zip seems to figure. Maybe I just haven't found the any-key yet?

Anyway, i assume the keyboard is dead. OK, so I would like to point out you the user manual. I've never seen anything quite love it. Now, unfortunately the highest piece is broken off, but I think you'll still get the thought. So, this flops out like this. And ideally, the manual actually stands abreast of the table by itself. I'll just take that off for a flash. So, whenever you flip the page, so you've got this page here. the subsequent page that comes after it's right down here. 

So, you would possibly be wondering, “well, gee what's all of these things on the top?” Therefore the way this works is, you merely flip it around then So, that's pretty neat .So, you'll see by the ages of the youngsters on the manual exactly what demographic they were targeting. Although, I think that even at that age, I might are very postpone by the thought that this computer was for teenagers, and therefore the name itself “tutor” suggests it's educational in nature, which would are another postpone on behalf of me.

Of course, we all know the marketing was aimed toward the oldsters, not the youngsters. So, let's take a glance at a number of the ports. Obviously, you've got the cartridge port on the highest. But, it's like you've got some sort of IO port back here which might be for a few kind of expansion. The controller port, it's very very similar to an Atari or Commodore style joystick port. Whether it's really compatible or not, I will need to investigate. 

This looks more like a video port that you simply would see on a Commodore to Atari, or maybe a Texas Instruments machine. But, it's actually a tape machine. So, that's quite a weird use of that connector. connectors are your standard RCA, although the colors they're using are very backwards. Normally video should be yellow and audio should be white. But aside from that, which will be fine. But in fact it's like they need a daily RF modulated TV spot. So, let's just take a flash to seem how dirty and gr ungy this thing is.

Well, it's getting to need some work, but I think I can handle it. Let's plow ahead and start disassembly. Watch what happens with the keyboard ribbon cable. See that? It had been barely attached. I didn't even feel a tug When that happened. That would explain why the keyboard wasn't working. Of course, I absolutely hate these sorts of connectors. They're impossible to repair once they break. Well, here's the inside. It's smaller than I assumed it might be There's a date here, but I don't know what. On the brilliant side, none of the cables in the facility supply appear to be bulging or leaking. kind of numbering scheme they are using. Maybe somebody else can figure it out.

OK, I'm getting to take the RF shield off so we will get a glance at the board. It's a reasonably simple board, actually. And, as you'll see, it's running on the Texas Instruments CPU, and display screen unit I'll bend that back later I feel the keyboard will begin of the main case by releasing a. and searching at this keyboard connector, it's bent. I buy the sensation somebody opened this thing up before and therefore the ribbon was yanked pretty hard. 

Wow, it's actually heavier than I expected. Must be that metal plate on the rear. Well, I wanted to ascertain if the keyboard worked, so I just plugged it in with the case off. I even have excellent news and bad news. The great news is, now most of the keyboard is functioning. Except the arrow keys. I can get into the built-in drawing program. And as you'll see every key beeps and displays on the screen. But for whatever reason the highest row of arrow keys doesn't work. Well, we'll come to the present later.

For now, it's time to start out cleaning. I'll plow ahead and take away this piece along side the spring so there won't be any metal parts submerged in water. Now time for alcohol. This keyboard is pretty grungy. Let's see I'll start with some Windex. Holy cow. I was surprised one single wipe made such a noticeable difference. I mean, check out that. Wow. Well, that doesn't look too bad! Now to wash this RF shield. I'm unsure what proportion of this is often dirt and the way much is rust. It's nice and shiny on the within part, at least.

OK, well, it does look better. But yeah, a number of that's rust. I'll got to clean the within of the case too. I feel canned air will get obviate most of this. Now it's time for an inside retro rite . Just a couple of weeks ago I could have done it outdoors, but now it's turned cold and rainy. And, so there we go. I'll let that sit for each day or two. And here we are after almost 24 hours. I feel it's quite bit better. For comparison, here's that cassette drive that came with it. They started off an equivalent color.

OK, since the highest row of keys aren't working and since every other key on the keyboard works apart from this top row, my guess is that there's possibly something wrong with either the cable here or perhaps the connector on the computer side. sole way on behalf of me to figure it out is to work out which connector this row of keys uses. So, the simplest way on behalf of me to try to to that's to require this thing apart.

OK good. I can clearly see the traces and find out where these are going. Well, it wasn't hard to work out which wires I needed to check. So, I put my meter on the wires in question and had my wife press the keys. And as you'll see, Pressing the arrow keys definitely causes something to register. So, I feel the keyboard itself is okay. I put some Deoxit on the sting of the ribbon cable, just in case it had been oxidized. 

Then I went ahead and popped the keyboard back to the case. I noticed there was some dust and debris down within the connector, so I got most of that out with some canned air. Then I also sprayed some Deoxit down into the connector made a decision to travel ahead and reassemble the pc and hope for the simplest because I'm not really qualified to diagnose any motherboard problems on this thing, So it'll either work or it won't work. By the way And good news! The arrow keys appear to be working now! It definitely takes two hands to urge it inserted properly. And good news! The arrow keys appear to be working now!

But I'm almost done yet with the pc. All 4 rubber feet are missing. All that's left is a few black adhesive residues. My first line product for this is often WD-40. I'll let that sit for a couple of minutes and are available back and see if it worked. Then here we are 10 minutes later, and it does appear to have worked. These things is coming off easily. Of course, I even have to urge obviate the WD-40 otherwise the new feet will never stick correctly. And… W index works well to get rid of WD-40. And that i with great care happen to possess 4 of these left over from a previous project. These are an equivalent ones that fit Commodore machines. I feel And surely, they fit perfectly! The pc is done!

OK, so what about this Tomy Data Recorder? This thing is simply too cute to not plan to restore it also. Now, I've been trying to find an influence adapter for it, because it doesn't escape batteries, it does require 6 plans and it's to be negative center, which is basically irritating. And therefore the only thing I've been ready to find for that's unfortunately one among these multi-adapter things. But anyway, we're getting to plug it in and see if it works. Well, it does appear to figure. Including fast forward and rewind.

When you first power it on, it'll ask if you would like to travel into the inbuilt art program, or use BASIC. I assumed I'd give BASIC a try. It only features a 32 column screen, therefore the characters are a touch chunky. But it's still quite the VIC-20. Here's the obligatory scrolling message test. Now let's try sticking during a cartridge. After the intro screen you now have THREE options, the new one being cartridge. This is often actually somewhat almost like what the TI-99 / 4 systems do.

So, let ’s pick cartridge and see what happens. I ’m also getting to try out my newest video capture system, specifically designed for retro computers.

OK, so one thing I ’ve notice in common between all of the cartridges is that they begin by asking you to press 1 or 2 on the keyboard to pick the number of players. So, I ’ll do this.

OK, subsequent thing every cartridge asks is for is SLAMA or SRPRO. I used to be seriously confused by this, but eventually realized that it wants you to press SL for amateur or SR for Professional. But during this case, SL and SR are on The controllers here. 

So, after starting a game I discovered quickly that the controllers just weren't working. Or, really I should say not working very well. So, I took the controller apart to ascertain if I could clean it. The pad I attempted playing some games without the case on and it appeared to be working decently enough. Which is glued on within the center, but it might be moved only enough that I used to be able to wash all of the pads with alcohol. sweet, that saves me from having to use this carbon contact repair stuff.

OK, so with the controller back together I attempted playing some games. And honestly, the controller is simply absolutely terrible. It is certainly working better now than it had been, but the planning is one among the worst I've ever used. Again It's actually easier to use the controller as a bare PCB where you'll feel the buttons. It's actually easier to use the controller as a bare PCB where you'll feel the buttons. So, enough about the controller, what do I feel about the games? 

Well, keeping in mind this was 1983, the graphics and sound aren't regrettable. They're on par for tons of systems of that period of time. But, And for a product that advertises that it's a 16-bit system, i assume I feel underwhelmed. Granted, I'm sure the system could have done better with the proper programmers. After all, there are more impressive games on the TI-99, which as I ’ve mentioned has more or less an equivalent hardware.

However, aside from Mr. Do there aren't exactly any name-recognizable releases. I don't think there was much incentive for giant software companies like Activision or Namco to step in and make software for this computer. So, what you get are a bunch of B or C grade games and academic software. Curiously enough, cartridges from a TI-99 / 4 will actually slot in here. The slot and therefore the card edge appear compatible. 

But, I'm not even going to aim It's really no wonder that the Tomy Tutor wasn't a billboard success here within the United States. I mean, I don't recall ever. seeing a Tomy Tutor on the shelf in any of the shops next to mention the TI, Commodore, or Atari. And that I have a very hard time imagining any kids walking into the electronics department, seeing this, then going “hey Mommy! Mommy ! Daddy! Daddy! I need a Tomy Tutor for Christmas or my birthday! ”

Not when there have been Atari and Commodore systems sitting right next thereto for an equivalent price with a way bigger software library that had all of the well-known games. I do know there hasn't been much on the channel the last month, but I've been working hard on the new studio, which you'll see a neighborhood 2 similarly coming soon, also because the final episode of the Texas road trip series, and a follow up to Attack of the PETSCII Robots and you'll get to ascertain just how far the sport has advanced this month, and also a road trip to Oklahoma where I visit a recycling center and devour some very interesting VIC-20 products. So, as you'll see, I've been quite busy this month and you'll be seeing tons of that stuff within the coming weeks and that i hope you stick around for that and as always, thanks for watching!

Commodore History Part 3 - The Commodore 64