https://huguesjohnson.com/random/sony-ebook/ HuguesJohnson.com * 68k Demos Speedrun Tower Retail Clerk '89 Retail Clerk '90 Tutorials * Retro Gaming Features Scans Guides Hacking Game Hunter * Software NARPassword Debigulator Hapsby Programming Articles * Site Topics Sitemap Random Articles Archive * Connect Site RSS Subscribe LinkedIn profile LinkedIn GitHub GitHub Podcasts Podcasts Other Links Other Links Contact Contact About Me About Me Melonie Johnson Melonie Johnson Sony Data Discman 1. home 2. random 3. sony data discman Introduction Back in 1992 I worked at an Electronics Boutique that was an outlet location for the company. We sold regular merchandise but also had an outlet section for clearance stuff aggregated from other stores. This thoroughly confused customers who expected every item in the store to be discounted. The job involved a lot of explaining "no I'm sorry this game that literally launched today is not on clearance". Working retail is a great way to lose faith in the collective intelligence of our species. One day we received several Sony Data Discman Electronic Book Player DD-1EX players that we were supposed to clear out. The original sticker price was $500 but they were marked down to roughly 1% of that. Largely out of curiosity I picked one up along with whatever software we had for it (also at a massive discount). I can't say I've used it for more than an hour. It's a very nice device that serves no practical or entertainment function whatsoever. Using old catalogs as a reference, these were originally listed in the spring 1992 catalog. Here it is: Sony Data Discman in the spring 1992 catalog These did not appear in the summer 1992 catalog just a couple months later. Since I started working there during the 1992 holiday season the timeline works out. They must have hit the shelves in early 1992, not sold, then been marked down every month until they were rounded-up and shipped to our location. Let's take a peek at it.. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Gallery Disclaimer: I am terrible at taking pictures. Sony didn't nickel-and-dime consumers on accessories here. The package came with: the reader (duh), AC adapter, rechargeable battery, and another battery pack that holds AAs. Years later they refused to include an AC adapter in the PlayStation Classic. Discman with accessories The reader itself is fairly nice looking. It feels like a miniature laptop. It's a tad on the heavy side but also feels extremely durable. Looking at all the buttons and size of the screen makes me think this had a lot of potential beyond just electronic books. However, it lacks any mechanism to save data. In the early 90s it's not like SD-RAM cards were available. Miniature hard drive? Forget it. It has 90% of what it needs to be a PDA but the technology just wasn't there to get the last 10% in. Discman There's a QWERTY keyboard because all of the books are searchable. The directional pad is there to navigate through menus. Looking at it again just makes me irritated that I don't have any games for this (of course I doubt any were made). This would make a cool little text adventure player. The electronic books are mini CDs in a caddy. I guess that means we can rip them (more on this soon). Discman CD --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bad Screenshots I picked up every electronic book we had in stock. The player has an output jack than can be connected to anything with an A/V input (well, just the "V" part is needed). These screenshots are from the A /V out. The splash screen reminding you that this is for private use only. I guess I'm technically violating that, whatever. Splash screen Although I don't know the exact date this electronic book reader was produced, the bundled encyclopedia gives some hints. It still lists U.S.S.R. as a country so it had to be authored prior to Christmas day 1991. Encyclopedia Early 90s software developer salary in the career guide: Career encyclopedia Thinking of traveling the world? Well, this handy translator is all you need. Someone once told me that if you ever got lost in a strange foreign country you should claim to be a Swedish citizen. Something about Sweden having an embassy in every country and nobody holding a grudge against them. I couldn't find a translation for "I'm a Swedish citizen please don't turn me over to the secret police" in this guide. World translator The least useful book (to me at least) is the crossword dictionary. You can search for word endings or a list of complete words but that's it. Crossword dictionary The wellness encyclopedia is the perfect gift for a hypochondriac. Wellness encyclopedia Since I won't pay more than $3.99 for a bottle of wine I found this guide relatively useless. Wine guide --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ripping the CDs If you rip the CDs you'll find that some of them contain an emulator for the Discman. Here's the wine guide main screen: Wine guide title in DOSBox It seems like the books are fully functional in this emulator: Wine guide results in DOSBox The career guide also comes with an emulator. You can use it to look for jobs that didn't exist in 1990 I guess: Careers that didn't exist in 1990 Some CDs, like the encyclopedia, don't have the emulator bundled. However, if you copy the data files around it's trivial to launch it in the emulator bundled on the other CDs: Encyclopedia in DOSBox --------------------------------------------------------------------- iso Downloads Grab these before I receive a takedown notice.. I mean, these were completely obsolete before Wikipedia existed and are even worse after. I doubt that will stop anyone though. One of the reasons I deleted my YouTube videos was takedown notices from Sony over the intro to Dragon's Lair. Some rapper who sold <100 albums, but is apparently signed with Sony, sampled the intro of Dragon's Lair. In Sony's mind that means they own all rights to it. I don't know how you rap over the Dragon's Lair intro and I don't care to learn. EA also sent me a takedown notice over a Dragon's Lair video, a game they neither wrote nor own the rights to. As far as I can tell they at some point were the distributor for an early iOS version of Dragon's Lair that is no longer available. So to make a long story short, I'm sure these will be offline soon. When that happens I'll try moving them to archive.org since they are somehow able to get away with posting anything. Career encyclopedia (SROM30_VERSION1) Crossword dictionary (SROM13V1_07D) Encyclopedia (SROM11_V1_0) Wellness encyclopedia (SROM25_V1_0) Wine guide (SROM16_V1_0) World translator (SROM29_VERSION1) Usual disclaimer that you are downloading isos with executable files from a total rando's site. I am 100% not responsible for any awful thing that happens if you download these and run the files on them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Electronics Boutique Spring 1992 Catalog Electronics Boutique Spring 1992 Catalog Electronics Boutique Summer 1992 Catalog Electronics Boutique Summer 1992 Catalog My Loser Phase: Reflections on Video Game Retail from 1992-1997 My Loser Phase: Reflections on Video Game Retail from 1992-1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------- All source code and software on this site is distributed under The MIT License (copyright 2000-2026 Hugues Johnson) unless otherwise noted. 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