2XL - The ‘70s toy that faked A.I. with an 8-Track

As a kid, I got the compact cassette version released by Tiger in the mid 90's. I loved it. My mom hated it. The cassette was labeled 'right' in one side, and 'wrong' in the other'. If you played the 'wrong' side, everything sounded backward. I quickly realized they were using the two stereo tracks from the 'right' side and the other two tracks from the 'wrong' side, but recorded backward. This provided for the 4 audio channels. The mechanism used the playing head from an auto-reverse cassette player to pull that off. When I figured out how it worked, I wanted to make a custom program for it, so a friend of mine and I started planning the questions and different responses. Since we had no means to independently record the 4 tracks of a cassette in different takes we limited it to two options. The fun part is that since we also didn't know how to record the two tracks from the 'wrong' cassette side, we started talking backward, which resulted in lots of fun, with very weird-sounding results 😁. But all in all.. It kind of worked!! Fond memories ❤ ....

There's something so funny and sweet about the thought of a retro-futuristic quiz robot having a thick new york accent

The voicing is gold. Seriously, I can't believe it was the inventor who voiced the cassettes.

This was one of my favorite toys as a child. And as a teenager, I stole my dad's old Led Zeppelin 8 tracks to play on it... and the eyes would light up to the music!

The Audacity breakdown of all four tracks really helps to demonstrate what’s going on. Thanks Mat

The beginning of a 40+ year friendship was over one of these; we laughed our butts off as kids with the 2XL interviews Dracula - and every time we saw each other we would exclaim "Ow, my tooth!" RIP Mark - you're missed.

"It would probably take your brain 1 hour to cook Minute Rice." HOLY CRAP! That's a sick burn coming from a robot made in the 70's!

As 8-track tapes fell out of style, the inventor of the 2-XL licensed his technology to the owners of Sesame Street, which resulted in the Talk 'n Play cassette player. Each tape also came with a book that would tell stories, and ask the user to answer questions about what was happening in the story. The fundamental principle is the same, in that it used a 4-track mono system, and there were 4 colored buttons to change tracks (likely very similar to the 90's re-release of the 2-XL)

“Let’s clean this tape off and see it sounds any better.” Then BOOM, it plays perfectly. I love the simple fixes.

I played with one in a shop, I would have been 12 in 1978. I remember being pleased it asked questions about Star Trek and I knew what Quadro Triticale was. I asked for one for Christmas but didn't get it. I found out later that my parents weren't keen on it running out of questions and me pestering for more cartridges. We got an Atari 2600 instead, which changed my life, and of course we were soon pestering for more cartridges.

I'm impressed that the vocal performances weren't even by a full-time voice actor. They're good.

I still have my original 2-XL type 1 from childhood. The model you have is the type 2 with the red eyes with covers. The type 1 has silver eye balls with red leds. Not a huge deal because the inners are the same, so it's great you have two units, one to use and the other for parts when you need them. Fun video!

When 2-XL says "Thank you for turning me on", it reminds me of Smither's computer in The Simpsons. I completely forgot I had one of the later Tomy ones of these when I was little. You definitely unlocked a memory of mine, Mat.

I was surprised how complex the paths became, would have seemed magical to anyone using it in the 1970s.

I understand how it works, but the idea of how to structure the audio so it would work "seamlessly" like this is rather amazing

You finally reviewed him!!! This was my FAVORITE childhood toy in the early 1980's. Several years ago I went on an eBay buying spree until I managed to collect every single tape, button card, and accessory - including the rare demo tape and an even rarer demo display stand. The online emulator wasn't a thing at the time but it's fantastic that exists, I'll have to check it out in more detail because I never got around to redoing all of the pressure pads in all of the tapes I collected!

That’s actually a cool system, forcing you back on track (no pun intended) to continue the tape correctly is a sneaky but clever setup.

I had the Tiger Electronics version as a kid, so hearing "it's" voice come out of a different machine is super trippy. Though, the way they made the cassette work -- to emulate the functionality of an 8-track -- is super cool and probably worth a follow-up video.

I remember when these were new and being advertised on television. Hard to believe it was around the time Smokey and the Bandit came out! It’s funny how fast technology progressed since this toy,and how fiction becomes reality. In 1982 K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider was unbelievably futuristic and a work of fantasy. A talking car with digital dash that could drive itself,and plot courses on a computer screen? Now this is reality,although no where near as cool looking as it was then.

I had one of these as a kid and recently found it at my Mom's house with about 10 tapes. Sorta fun to go through them. I always thought it was a bit funny that his voice sounded like he was from Brooklyn, NY or some such place.