2-XL!

[yendi]

Kids today have their Playstations and their iPods and their crack cocaine, but when I was a kid, the cool toys were a lot simpler, although that didn't make them any less cool.

My favorite two when I was a first grader wasn't my Atari 2600 (although that came close, and had supplanted it by third grade). It was 2-XL.

2-XL, for those too lazy to click on the link, was an educational toy built around 8-track technology. For those not familiar with 8-track, it was the Beta or HD-DVD of its day, a cartridge-based tape format that lost out to the traditional audiocassette, and which became a running gag for years afterwards. I should note that my first (and only) component-based stereo system -- a gift for my eleventh birthday, back in ''83 -- included an 8-track instead of an audiocassette player (although we eventually got an adapter that allowed me to play cassettes in the 8-track component), so it's a format I do have some love for.

Back to 2-XL, it was essentially a trivia machine, which would ask questions (recorded on one track), and would let me pick one of three possible answers (recorded on the other three tracks -- the "8" is misleading, as there were four tracks recorded in stereo). It was a pretty nifty use of the technology, and the questions were often insanely hard. I'm not even sure why they thought that a '50s and '60s trivia program would make sense for a toy aimed at pre-teens in the late '70s, but it existed, and I owned it for some strange reason. I also had the Science Fiction games, of course, and lots of others. I eventually burnt out on it (eventually, you run out of questions on a tape, and there's a limit to how many times one is willing to listen to the same robot adventures, even when you're seven), but man this was fun for a couple of years. \

Next year, I might have to keep an eye out for one of these at the MIT Swapfest.

Comments

[ahf.livejournal.com]

I had one as well, though I think I got it at an older age than you did. I should ask, if I know my parents, they still have it around. (they had my brother's Mighty Moe in the basement still)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

I loved the 2-XL. I still remember figuring out that if it asked you to press a button out of nowhere for no good reason, it would make the beeping noises even if you didn't press anything.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

I had one of those, too!

I think about it frequently.

[calliopes_pen]

I had one of those--but I got mine at some point in the mid to late 80's, and it looked a bit different. I loved that thing.

Edit: A quick Google hunt found the one I had.

[phantom_wolfboy]

I inherited my sister's stereo with 8-track player when she went away to college. It had only one cassette: the Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack. I listened to it over and over.

I suspect this explains much.

Ah, memory lane...

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I used to record my own 8-track tapes from the radio, using my Dad's recorder.