When I was growing up, the closest thing we had to artificial intelligence was something called 2-XL (if you're younger than 30, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about). We've always had trivia games--what made this one interesting, especially to a generation that's just seen Star Wars, was that these trivia questions were asked by a plastic robot.
In 1978, when I got my hands on 2-XL, I was ecstatic. It was the it toy back then. 2-XL was a trivia robot created by Michael J. Freeman, an inventor with an interest to educate as well as entertain, hence the name 2-XL (To Excel). He not only created 2-XL, but he was also the voice behind it. 2-XL used 8-tracks (also known as Stereo 8) tapes as cartridges.
For those too young to remember, it was a quarter inch tape that looped and had four tracks you could choose from to listen to. Each track was in stereo, thus, 4 tracks x 2 channels = 8 tracks. But the Mego 2-XL didn't take advantage of the stereo part; it assigned each track to a button (Q was track 1; A was track 2, etc.) This way a 2-XL tape would have the same program recorded on all four tracks, with the changes only made in the parts of the tape where 2-XL would give you an answer. As the years went on, Freeman got more and more ambitious with playing multiple tracks, to the point where 2-XL could have up to three programs on the same tape.
There were quite a few 8-tracks available for 2-XL including General Information, Wonders of the World, U.S. Presidents, and Science Fiction. It also played regular music 8-tracks.
The Mego version of 2-XL was produced for four years, 1978-1981. Then in 1992, Tiger Electronics reintroduced the new look 2-XL. However, Instead of 8-track tapes, the new version used cassette tapes that were twice the length of the 8-tracks and had better sound quality.
For those who are nostalgic for the old, simple, yet great fun times, there are 2-XLs out there on eBay that need a home. They, too, would make a great addition to your collection of classic technology.
Try 2-XL for yourself, thanks to the 2-XL simulator.
'77 throwback
(Credit: Matthew Fitzgerald)For all you PSP and Nintendo DS addicts, we're taking you back, way back in time. It's the year 1977, where disco rules and the interwebs is just a twinkle in Al Gore's eye--it may seem like a long time ago to some, and for others it may even supersede your existence. That year though, I can remember emptying my piggy bank and running down to Woolworths to make my first handheld game purchase: Mattel Football. A very simple game, and quite prehistoric when compared to the handheld games of today. It didn't have Wi-Fi, and you couldn't buy different game discs or cartridges. For this handheld game in particular it was football and football only. As for sound, it was just bleeps and blips and it ran on a single 9V battery--not a rechargeable one like the PSP and the DS--but I spent hours playing it. Like I said the game was simple; it was all about offense, all you could do is score and since the 70's was about scoring--although of a different type--this game fit in to that era nicely? Even better, it had two levels of game play: Pro 1 and Pro 2. As for graphics, if you wanted to call them that, they were all red lit dots and you were the brightest of the six. The object: Get across the screen without getting tackled by the five remaining dots--a simple concept, but not easily accomplished. It wasn't much to look at, but back then it was all we had and it more than fit the bill.
Stay tuned, for our next stroll down memory lane we'll look at the Mego Corp. 2-XL.
- prev
- 1
- next
