Hi Stuart, I'm the guy that lent you the Beeb for the film. It wasn't a Master, sadly - it was a BBC Model B (actually converted from an A in-house) and it was used by my Grandad at the BBC Research Lab at Kingswood. He was at the BBC for a long, long time (retired around 1987) and worked testing and implementing colour TV in the 60s, energy-efficient stage lighting, radio transmission and acoustics and early holograms. His research papers are online on the BBC archive - some of which were probably written on the Model B that was used in Gamechild. I did pick it up in the end! It took me a long time to get around to it. Was a difficult time! Thanks!

Back in the monochrome days, I opted for an amber monitor. It was really easy on my eyes, no matter what went on with the room lighting.

I like how the ad is pretty decent Ashens content itself.

3.5 years later Snupps deader than a doornail but Ashens is still going strong.

Fun fact: the ti-99/4A gets so hot under the plastic that leads to the cart slot, that you can keep your coffee/tea warm by placing the mug into the cart tray.

Cassette Man is the original Japanese product that was turned into Soundwave when consolidated into the Transformers line.

Fun Fact: Every single one of the computers shown in this video will be getting a Skyrim port in 2019.

Fun Fact: Cassette man actually ISN'T a knockoff Soundwave. It's actually the other way around. The original TRANSFORMERS toyline was sort of an unholy amalgamation of various unrelated transforming toys from Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change series, along with several from Takatoku toys. Micro Change was the source of not only Soundwave (A.K.A. "Cassette Man") but also Megatron (A.K.A. "Gun Robo Walther P-38 U.N.C.L.E.). The toys were later brought over to America, and re-branded as "The Transformers". The cartoon actually released before the toys, because of a law that a cartoon couldn't exist solely as a 22-minute commercial.

CPC 664's are also rare as all hell, Amstrad only sold them for six months before dropping them in favour of the CPC6128.

That portable Amstrad makes me want to write a cyberpunk story.

The "joystick port" on the back of the TI99/4A is actually for hooking up a cassette player to save/load data. You need a special cable for it. Also, the video cable is the same as the commodore 64 and model 1 mega drive.

I remember using a BBC master at school. We used it to program a little wheeled robot thing that drew on the ground. We were only 8 so I'm guessing the teacher did most of the programming.

Are you implying modern computers can run PUBG well?

The Ten Car Marty sounds like it only owns Daihatsu nuggets and Subaru wagons

"Incapable of playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" I'd see that as a positive boon, not a downside.

This kind of sponsorship, all about, it's relevant and the fact that most of the video isn't about it is brilliant.

That couch has seen some stuff

The first computer, when folded up, looks like a Star Trek TNG prop.

I remember the Domesday project. It 'toured' the schools in the area. Expanded BBC Master and a Laserdisc drive that looked so futuristic. There was a bit where you could walk around a virtual tour of a village or something, and it blew our minds. Then it was gone, and we were back to Granny's Garden and the RM Nimbus.

I had a speech synthesizer for my TI 99/4A growing up. It was great, especially in the game parsec.

Stuart could you do more videos on retro computers and gaming consoles that you own.

If you want to see just how terrible _Deep Fear_ for the Sega Saturn is, Retsupurae did a great video on it. Just look for _'Resident Seavil'._ Ashen's remarks do not do justice as to how hilariously awful it is. One of the characters was court-martialled for firing torpedoes on what was eventually revealed to be a passenger cruiser, and *he won't stop complaining about how unfair it was that he faced disciplinary action.* Like the fact that he lost his job dishonourably was worse than the massive and tragic collateral damage. It's a hoot. Please go and see a _Deep Fear_ LP when you finish watching this video.

That TI-99/4A is a thing of beauty.

Back in the late 80's I used to work at the Amstrad User Group. On the odd occasions we actually sold one of those portables we used to do a whole 24 hour "Soak test". Switch it on then check it was still on the next day.

I would like them to be shown working. Thanks for your review!

That Amstrad portable computer is so awesome!

I love these kinds of videos. I grew up using a Compaq running DOS and Windows 3.1 but I find these older computers absolutely fascinating.

This is the ashens i love. Just a man talking about old tech in a very knowledgeable way. These computer videos as well as your old one on joy sticks are by far my favourite. Thankyou for these lovely videos.

It is 2017, and there is time for Klax.

You need to check out The Oddity Archive. The chap is really learned and has loads of old tech you'd find interesting! Thought I'd share, mate. :)

Snupps is actually an app I'm interested in. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. 👍👍

My boyfriend managed to find his old TI-99/4A today, actually, and spent the better part of the afternoon repairing it. We dunno if it works, and we know that there's a damaged key in it, but it does turn on, so that's good. Hope he can get it up and running; he was literally making simple programs on it at 3 years old, and even has the voice synthesizer unit for it, so that's all funky.

Great job making a ad spot actually interesting.

Why is the sofa still here? Is it just to suffer!?

People throwing tantrums about sponsored content, I have to wonder if they remember "The Proxy". This is Ashen's job, he's entitled to make a living, particularly given he is pretty upfront with sponsorships.

It always felt good at school when you managed to bagsy the BBC Master in the computer room (well the corridor which had a few BBCs lined up so all the teachers could keep an eye on you). I still remember the peripherals and writing programs to control traffic lights for a model town.

Those sure are some computers. Maybe you should plug them in and show them in use.

"It can't play PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" neither can modern ones!

I recall the annoyance from users who bought the Amstrad CPC664, that it was only available for 6 months before being replaced by the CPC6128 with twice the RAM. Fondly remembered, the CPC6128 was the first computer I owned that _didn't_ have some glaring deficiency such as low resolution and rubbish BASIC (Dragon), or graphics that used up all the RAM (Acorn Electron).

Don't worry about those whinging about the sponsored content, they majority of us know that you have to make a living and appreciate what you do. It's great that you found something applicable to your job to advertise. That White couch however....

I cannot abide by this sacrilegious couch colour! I only can look at cool old stuff and shit tat on a brown sofa.

I really love this type of content from you more than the food and tat reviews. That joystick video you did might be your best one ever

Being 16-bit is not really about "running slower" or "running faster"; that will depend on clock speed. It's about how much memory it can address and how wide the CPU registers are. The memory bus width also influences speed (because a wider bus can transfer more data in the same number of cycles), but being "16-bit" was mainly about being able to use _more_ RAM.

Very nice, I've always wanted an MSX, looks like the Sony model is the one to get!

Ashens did sponsoring right, about 1 minute in i forgot i was still in the sponsor bit, i have seen some terrible videos lately where people whoring out their channel have done a terrible job integrating the sponsor bit into their video, "Alpha m" for example and its completely destroyed the video as every actual video is built around the sponsor.

Hey Ashens, it would be cool if you showed some games and/or programs like you did last vintage go-around. Thanks for the great vids.

The 'tube' was a light pen, BBC would send programs across the air on the TV, You'd stick the 'tube' over the area in the top corner and it would record the program. You could then run it. It was a flashing dot in a black circle I think.

"Portable Computers" at least looked real cool and techy back in the day. Nowadays they all look the same. lol

Look guys, life ain't free, but these videos are. So unless you want to start buying KZfaq RED I suggest you get used to content creators having some sponsored content. We need to keep in mind that content creators are people just like us who want to make money for their efforts. It's not 'selling out', it's survival. If listening to 4 minutes about an app is the only price I have to pay for more entertainment, then I consider that a bargain.

Great stuff,mate.Love to see more!

Thank you Stewart for this very video! I did always want to learn about those computer systems!

That side port on the TI99/4A is for the mighty VOICE SYNTHESIZER MODULE. Which you should get and play some of the games that used it because they're great and quite funny.

I think that’s probably the first advertisement on YT that made me look at the thing lol. Good idea that.

YES!!! A TI99-4A! That was my first computer, but I hardly see one today. I actually owned most of the games for it, and wrote a ton of games for it as well. It actually was one of the first computers I learned how to code on. That one seems to be in immaculate condition. Basically, your video out hooked up to your TV, just like an old Atari console. I had a cassette drive for mine and a speech synthesizer, so it could "talk" in a very odd digital voice. I remember that it did also have a modem available, but my parents wouldn't get it because they said "why would you want to connect to another computer?" Plus, nobody else I knew had one. Now, I run an IT company, build computers, and do coding all the time. I have even reprogrammed Windows 10... sans all the bugs and bloatware, plus many other features. But, it was all due to that machine right there. Still want to get one to add to my collection... mine died back in the 80s. Oh, one last thing, there was a magazine devoted to it, but I can't recall the name of it, and a catalog to buy all the games. Some where cartridges, but a lot also came on cassette. You should really check them out.

I had a Ti-99 4a when I was young. I have fond memories of Mash, Chisholm Trail, Hunt the Wumpus, Parsec, and Microsurgeon. If you can get your hands on the speech synthesizer, Mash and Parsec have actually some clear speech. Which was pretty crazy for the time. Also of note the expansions all sort of daisy chain off that port on the right hand side of the system.

3 and a quarter inch disks?!?!?! I think you'll find those are 3.5 inch disks. Good day sir!

Why the heck don't modern computers have built-in MIDI.

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would! I remember that virtual museum!! It was so cool it blew my mind!

I had an Amstrad PPC in the early Nineties, it was my first MS-DOS compatible PC - many happy hours playing Commander Keen and learning Assembly Language... thanks for covering it! :-)

6:11 "Three and a quarter inch floppy disks" You wot mate?

Love old and retro tech

Actually, Cassette Man ISN'T a knockoff of G1 Soundwave! That was the name given to the Microchange original from Japan. That's a pre-G1, pre-Transformers as a whole!

So the TI-99 is like a fancy calculator. Because that’s all Texas Instruments make nowadays

It's great to ashes get sponsorships where nearly all his videos get claimed I don't want to see his channel disappear maybe consider a patreon ashens.

I have that amstrad in my loft complete with horrible vinyl carry case lol

Had one of those TI computers in 82. I was about 9. We got I free for buying a house full of carpet. I really enjoyed it as we bought a few cartridge games for it and it came with an extensive manual that taught you to write very rudimentary programs for it. Àt the time at school we were already working on Apple II computers so I loved the fact I could come home and work on the computer for longer than the 45 minutes we had in computer lab. Plus, my buddy on the other side of the woods from me got a TI also so we swapped games periodically.

Didn't scroll through the comments to check, but surely I can't be alone in thinking 'Fujitsu Ten Car Marty' has very similar energy to 'Antonio Stella Bottom Tile'.

He was really annoyed he got MB and KB mixed up, then immediately says 3 1/4 inch floppy disk. Sorry Stuart, had to mention it. Nerds eh :)

That's not a pop station. ... Jesus Christ a lot of time has passed.

I have a Ti-99/4a right next to me that I still plug in and use, I freaking love it. Found some magazines online with programs I can type in, troubleshoot, then save to a cassette. Not sure if youtube flags imgur links but I have an album I can share.

In the 1980s I worked for an industrial control company using Texas 9900 microprocessors. Beautiful 16 bit instruction set and very nice to program.

Hooray! Vintage computer time!

If memory serves, the TI machines used TI’s own microprocessor that had almost no on-board registers but instead used blocks of memory as big, versatile, and rather slow sets of registers. More interesting than practical...

I love these videos. I'd love to see more like this.

On a BBC the "TUBE" port is a expansion bus. It gives complete access to the busses in the machine and was typically used to add a second co-processor allowing the master to run CP/M (with a Z80) or DOS with an x86 co-processor.

Who cares if it’s sponsored? He’s hardly ‘selling out’ in this video.

You know KZfaq is going down hill when ashens accepts a sponsorship

I think the Atari ST models with built in MIDI support stayed popular with electronic musicians right the way up until DAW’s for your “bog standard” Windows and Macs became a lot more readily accessible- I know at the very least Norman Cook, he of Fatboy Slim, Mighty Dub Katz and a great many more aliases/bands fame, was still using one to write tunes at least up until 1998 (most of You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby was written using one, according to interviews he’s done over the years). They were absolutely the backbone of the early rave scene, for folks who wanted some software integration to go along with their samplers, synths, and drum machines (it’s down to personal opinion on ravey music as to whether that was a good or a bad thing).

The fact that I share a birthday with this special youtube human makes me feel special (December 16)

LGR vibes from this

#CONEHYPE

My old school (in the 80's) was part of the BBC's computer literacy programme, we played story games on an Acorn computer and loved it, it was my first introduction to computers and remember it well! Great video Stuart👍👏

Lovely, thank you, Ashens!

Snupps. The Argos catalogue for burglars.

Apparently Deep Fear wasn't bad. Gamespot gave it an 8.1 and it had the composer from Ghost in the Shell doing the music.

We owned a TI-99 4A when I was a kid. It was a pretty great computer for games. We even had the voice modulator for that port on the side.

TI99/4A was my first computer! My granddad (a civil engineer) thought it would be a great idea to get me on computers when I was in preschool. Hunt the Wumpus was my favorite game on that one. That TI computer started me down the right path and I've had a great 20 year career in video game software development & smart toys. The stock joysticks were a bit rubbish on the TI/994A. Had a few great clone games on it too. Couple of home-brew devs had been recently trying to port Super Mario Bros to it with success.

3:53 edit: I'm not against sponsorship, I'm for better integration.

To all those complaining about the paid promotion. I doubt ashens gives a flying fig.

One thing for the very geeky it’s worth hunting out is the CP/M disk for the Amstrad 664. The extra power cable was for the built in monitor unit you could get with it. (My mate had a 664 - and he also had a tuner module too which turned the dodgy monitor into a TV).

I actually learned to do math on the Texas Instrument 99 before I was in school. Game was Number Magic. Neat little machine.

'Tube' on the BBC was like an intranet, well more like a remote desktop used for schools, the teacher could connect to any students computer to assist with learning (That's what i understand, i may be wrong)

But will it run Crysis?

"TUBE" on the BBC Micro was the second processor interface - yes, for even more expense, you could add a faster 6502 in another box, a Z80 for CP/M, the 32016 or an ARM development system. The Master could take an internal second processor board as an alternative to the external Tube bus

Man I love your channel

Obligatory "will it run crysis" comment.

Early

“Look at all these new computers!” - Strong Bad

Honestly, if I gotta watch an ad to see the content I love from this guy, I don't mind at all.

Wow, first view. Also, the paid promotion finishes at 03:54 for those who just don't care one bit about Snupps.