[HN Gopher] Childhood toys: 40 years on 2-XL works just fine
___________________________________________________________________
Childhood toys: 40 years on 2-XL works just fine
Author : jgrahamc
Score : 93 points
Date : 2022-10-30 12:22 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.jgc.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.jgc.org)
| heywire wrote:
| Techmoan somewhat recently did a video on the 2xl, including
| breaking down the various tracks on the 8-track.
|
| https://youtu.be/amuRIydCoJk
| jgrahamc wrote:
| That's cool. In the clip I posted I swear the initial sound
| effect is actually RTTY. Anyone ever try to decode it?
| lb1lf wrote:
| I was thinking the same thing. I am not sure it is 45.45 baud
| w/170Hz shift (taken from memory) ham RTTY, but I figured I'd
| run it through a decoder once I got back inside the shack
| just to see if it is an Easter egg or just random...
| jgrahamc wrote:
| I don't have much time to look deeper but around 3kHz there
| are two peaks 300Hz apart. Wouldn't surprise me if there is
| a signal there and could be ASCII.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Let's see which one of us gets there first!
| smcl wrote:
| One other thing I learned from Techmoan is that one of the few
| remaining companies making cassette playback mechanisms today
| is a company called "Tanashin" - and I only bring that up
| because that name is on a sticker in one of the photos inside
| this 2-XL in jgrahamc's post.
| mrob wrote:
| According to https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-
| last-cassette-pl... , Tanashin no longer makes tape
| mechanisms. The so-called "Tanashin" mechanisms found in
| modern products are actually Chinese mechanisms based on old
| Tanashin designs.
| Aeolun wrote:
| It looks like Tanashin is out of business now. At least
| their website returns a 401 and has for the past year or so
| (according to the internet archive).
|
| Last snapshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20210117133724/h
| ttps://www.tanas...
| smcl wrote:
| Ahhh very interesting! I had no idea
| jccalhoun wrote:
| Another youtuber, VWestlife, has more technical and has
| talked more about this. As another poster notes most of these
| are knockoffs and even the motors are knockoffs that go so
| far as to put the label of a more reputable company on them.
| askew wrote:
| I wonder if this acted as some inspiration for the 2-Bit
| character in Deathloop: the vocals in particular are similar.
| nahuel0x wrote:
| Today this will be an app, probably much better in many aspects.
| But some magic is lost by not being an specific object designed
| for a single purpose.
| m_t wrote:
| There are plenty of "Story box" that exist now. Mixed Ng the
| advantages of an app and the tangibility of a real object. One
| example I know of: https://lunii.com/en-gb/
| wglass wrote:
| I'm surprised the 8 track cassette was still good. I remember
| finding an old box of 8 tracks in the late 80s and they were
| disintegrating. Assumed they weren't built to last for decade
| plus. But maybe those were just stored poorly.
| leobg wrote:
| Pictures of this old, clunky circuit board bring up fond
| memories.
| madengr wrote:
| LOL I had one of these. They made them with both red and green
| LED for the eyes. I only got a Big Trak when I was 40 and they
| re-released it.
| jvanderbot wrote:
| > On opening 2-XL by removing 13 screws I was ready for an
| internal mess and had the air duster ready. But the insides were
| pretty clean for something 44 years old.
|
| If you don't have re-circulation / ventilation fans, it really
| shouldn't get that messy if the exterior case is moderately
| tight. My image of "old electronics" is mainly from old
| mainframes / desktops, and those have copious fans to really suck
| in all the dust and pet hair.
| ilyt wrote:
| It generally heavily depends on room it is in. My PC at home
| (no AC, middle of city) pretty much needs yearly dusting, one
| in office (AC) barely gets any dust, servers in datacenter even
| less even after near decade of use (we had some legacy stuff)
| [deleted]
| snickmy wrote:
| There was an Italian equivalent version of this. I don't remember
| the name but it was grey and blue, and it was sold circa early
| 90s. It had the exact shape and look of this:
| https://www.etsy.com/listing/694191660/vintage-1992-tiger-2x....
| but without the 2xl logo. Loved how Italy was rebranding
| everything
|
| I had almost worked out myself how it worked by playing those
| special tape in a normal recorder.
| Sephiroth87 wrote:
| Unless there were weird bootlegs going around, it was still
| called 2-XL with the same branding
| (https://youtu.be/aVXwo6raHoA)
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-10-30 23:00 UTC)