I had this when I was a kid. It was basically my first game “console” and my brothers and I played the shit out of it. This video brings back so many memories.

@fjccommish

11 ай бұрын

You must have been sad kids.

I’m 35 and remember having this when I was a kid.

@1ndadome

Жыл бұрын

Let's goooooooooooooo, as kids we used to beg our mom to play this all the time. We thought we were playing video games lol

@foodgrowersunited

11 ай бұрын

Me too same age as well lol. Used to beg to play this thing

I remember when this was launched in Colombia. I remember this was advertised as an education device. Even the slogan said: “Socrates, it is presented once every two thousand years”

He's the Moderately Annoyed Educational Toy Nerd.

@VancesMediaTreasures

7 жыл бұрын

THIS GAME WOULD BE BETTER IF I TOOK A DUMP ON GRANDPA MUNSTER WHILE PLAYING THIS! "drinks out of rolling rock glass"

I had this as a kid before my NES and loved it. Probably because I didn't know any better. But my first digital "paint program" was on that system lol I do remember having the talking function.

The slot with the blue bit was an expansion port. You could get (and bundled in with the Socrates later on because that's how I got mine) a "Talking" cartage that let the robot say the instructions to you in glorious 80s robot speak. If it was used for anything else, I don't know.

@fabuloushomeautomation9900

7 жыл бұрын

Joel Getz that's right. When the talking cartridge was installed the blue circle changed to say TALKING.

@mgrsdgfsdafsdgrsdgfsdg6980

Жыл бұрын

Thats correct. I believe the talking cartridge was red and this turned the blue circle from blue to red.

@phrancox

Жыл бұрын

Yes, exactly! My Socrates, in Peru haha, had a red circle that said “talking”…it was amazing!

Socrates looks suspiciously like Johnny Five..

Bill and Ted would pronounce the name as "So-Crayts".

@SegaCDUniverse

7 жыл бұрын

I went to the comments to post something similar, ha!

@ThisGuyFrritz

7 жыл бұрын

EXCELLENT!

@elitheothercomputerguy5436

7 жыл бұрын

*Air guitar.

I had one of these as a kid. I barely remember it. I was born in '84, so I would have been around 4 when it came out. I vaguely remember a drawing game. This is a throwback

Love this system. The blue cartridge which swap out for a talking cartridge. There is also a touchpad and mouse for it.

Ben, is the mystery cartridge slot on the side for a voice cartridge.On the front of the hodge podge game it says something like, "can use the socrates voice cartridge."

@chrysanth.5700

7 жыл бұрын

Steph L Sounds like a good theory to me. Maybe the plastic light works as a microphone or something.

Oh my god, they actually put fake shutters on the cartridges to make them look like floppy disks... O_o

You need to get yourself a Glue Gun Ben, it'll be your best friend when it comes to half-assed repairs! :D

@pearofsalamanca

7 жыл бұрын

I thought everybody's best friend when it came to half-assed repairs was duct tape.

@OddityArchive

7 жыл бұрын

I have one. It was useless for this project (the post was only about half an inch tall and less than a quarter-inch thick).

@prismstudios001

4 жыл бұрын

2 years late, but....Plasti Zap. Great cyanacrolate glue made for plastics.

@jnharton

Жыл бұрын

@CrystalisKnight Ironically, it's actually a serious 8-bit computer on the inside. The guts would have been perfectly at home in a home computer a mere 10 years earlier. This thing has a straight up Zilog Z80 cpu capable of 4 MHz operation, a ROM chip, 64k of DRAM, a gate array chip (probably custom), and a bunch of passive components. It's even mostly DIP packages/through-hole construction/

Number 5 is alive.

Man. I had one of these as a kid. I was in 1st grade and having problems with math. This made it bearable for me, but I dont think it really was a substitute for me just studying. Awesome memories!

I had one of these when I was little. I looked up Socrates because the menu theme song was running around in my head. It was my first console, and had no idea how slow it was. I remember playing it a lot, but never remember having any fun. Also, I didn't know there were other games for it, I just had the preloaded ones.

I had one of these as a kid! We also had a Genesis and a NES and yet I still spent an untold number of hours with this thing. It had a lot of art and puzzle programs. I don't know, it was a lot of fun, the art programs especially. I think it was because of the way the programs made you think a different way than the regular video games we were all used to. Yea it was super slow but it also played some funny music whenever it was working through stuff. The suspense was part of the enjoyment, somehow. I seriously loved this thing as a kid, loved it as much as the other consoles.

@rupertmurdock3935

5 жыл бұрын

We also had the voice module and I think a part of the fun was also hearing a machine say "No, try again" and then we'd all laugh at the person who got it wrong because it was really a novelty hearing a machine insult somebody. Like, you just got insulted by a piece of plastic. Sometimes we'd put in really wrong answers just to hear it say we're wrong and then laugh hysterically, imagining that the machine was actually in there thinking "wow this kid must be absolutely retarded", like we were trolling the machine somehow.

The eternal dream of humanity realized, at last: Mario paint on Benzocaines!

An NES in 88 was still at $150. I had this when it first came out, my mom was big on it and I remember playing it a lot. Kinda wanna pick one up now for my kids lol

If Teletext branched out into video games...... this is what you'd get.

I was 4 years old and me and my brother who was 6 played this in the 90s

The other cartridge port is for a speech synthesizer.

I actually had one of these when I was a kid, and believe it or not, I loved the shit out of it.

@diotimamantinea

4 жыл бұрын

Nonya Bizz Same here!

They had a voice cartridge available for this system. There are some KZread videos that demonstrate that cartridge add on.

2 way communication? That's Antenna In and RF Out dude. You don't need two cables. It just allows you to keep the system and your external antenna or cable box hooked up to the TV at the same time.

The graphics look like a fake video game that you'd see in a movie or something.

I haven't watched this yet, but I had one of these and it was special to me so already a thumbs, whether you like it or not.

@yellows111

7 жыл бұрын

I'm surprised this comment is not "first"

@summerlaverdure

7 жыл бұрын

Some people have manners ^O^

@airthrow

7 жыл бұрын

Summer Laverdure a friend of mine had one, we had a lot of fun playing on it when we were 8 or 9

That blue thing is the place holder for the voice cart.

Socrates! I loved that thing!

man that thing is seriously horrifying

I had one of these when I was but a wee lad. It was the second video game system I ever had.

Greetings Ben from Birmingham England, takes me back to the days of the commodore 64 and one game in particular Football Manager which could take up to 20 minutes! to load. Could you imagine kids accepting that these days especiallly for an all text based game like that was.

Darn it, I thought Mystery State was going be like Mystery DATE. "Is your mystery state going to be a dream? (California) *AAHH*. Or a dud? (Mississippi) *UUGGHH*"

@5roundsrapid263

7 жыл бұрын

Steven Smyth Mississippi can cook and play guitar, though.

@WAQWBrentwood

7 жыл бұрын

Steven Smyth Being that I'm in my 50s, I thought I would be the only one who had that exact thought!🍻😁

@StevenSmyth

7 жыл бұрын

WAQWBrentwood 😁

Anyone else catch that the background music for the built-in games is a terrifying rendition of the Star Trek theme?

@fjccommish

6 жыл бұрын

Spock "That's it! I can't remain unemotional! This video game is like the video game they'd give you in Hell, Captain!"

I had one and played with it all the time

I had this as a kid. The Socrates robot thing always creeped me out a little bit. Never played it before bed, only before school in the mornings with my friends before walking to school.

This was the only thing I was allowed to play growing up lol

The blue spot is for the voice synth module.

I loved playing this when I was young!

Good episode...I remember the commercial jingle: "When you play with Socrates/He'll entertain your brain!" (Unfortunately, I can't find a copy of it among my countless video holdings...pity!). Also, good guesswork in the Famous Places game, especially in light of the graphical limitations!

I had one of these when o was a kid and have no idea what happened to it . I played that robot game ❤

You can access the main unit as well if you select the "Back to Main Unit" option on each cartridge's home screen.

I had this when i was a kid!

Just bought one of these today. Seating to clean it

I had this as a kid. I had a lot of fun with it at the time.

I think I might have one of these, picked up at a thrift store but never used. I don't have any software for it, though. The casing and keyboard would make an interesting modding project for a Raspberry Pi. Throw away the original guts, replace with a Raspberry Pi, wire up the keyboard for Bluetooth (have it recharge the battery when put back in the cradle) and redesign/rebuild the "controllers" - maybe make them swappable with D-pad and multiple button configurations for whatever emulation you might run on it, or replace one controller with a trackpad. I wish I had the electronic skills to do that kind of thing with mine.

I think the robot looks like a rejected body for Number 5 in “Short Circuit”.

I had this console as a kid. Believe it or not, I actually have fond memories of this thing, but Hodge Podge is EASILY the worst cartridge for this console. It's made for "younger" children. The cartridge came with a special pen pad controller that barely worked. The question would be "Draw a circle". And the pen would randomly not register on sections of the pad depending on your aim with the IR device, the pressure you apply, how fast you draw and how worn out the pad is. Even if you were lucky enough to get the pen pad working properly, it would judge you harshly for not drawing a perfect circle like some robotic freak. I still own almost every piece of video game technology I was given as a kid, but when it came time to pack this thing into the attic, I threw Hodge Podge and the pen pad controller into the trash! It's probably the only video game I've ever thrown away in my whole life.

I just hope that grinding lag and unresponsive control is due to the metric buttload of battery acid that flooded that thing.

as a guy who played this when I was 4... I had no idea what was going on.

@POVMagic

Жыл бұрын

lmao me too, i remember small vague things about it like the music maker thing

duuuuuuuuuuuuude i had one of these i loved it !!

archive.org/details/socrates_state Here's the link to State To State on the Archive. Nice to see a classic I grew up learning geography as a kid, even if the main menu screen is a bit slow. All eight cartridges released are featured if you simply keyword "Socrates" in the Console Living Room section, and five of those are games I never played at all, so it will be interesting to see what I "missed out on" even if I frequently played this as a kid. I'm not sure where I can play the main console games though. And just to make it easy, the Enter button on the ten-key section is your Fire (red circle) button, with the Home button the Menu button, with the arrow keys and keyboard being self-explanatory.

I had this thing when I was about 7yo…. 1988 ish

this was my all time favourite toy when I was a kid

You could probably do an entire episode on VTech, Leapfrog and the like. It's a shame you're not in the UK, I'd have loved to have seen a Ben's Junk on the Bush Internet TV! Or the BBC Micro! Or an entire episode on the Amstrad eMailer range! Or Oddity Archive for Schools and Colleges! Didn't VTech release an educonsole based on the Apple ][? I know this seems quite 8 bit. Or it could be repurposed ColecoVision hardware. Sydney Harbour Bridge looks more like the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle as drawn by me in First School! And Table Mountain looks more like Ayer's Rock! Also, Australia-Asia? As opposed to Australasia or Oceania? Or Asia-Pacific?

@RadioFreeCedarCity

7 жыл бұрын

Even better idea...find an Apple II and do an episode on MECC games.

@GeoNeilUK

7 жыл бұрын

MECC Games? Never heard of them. Where they the sort of educational software I would have seen on the BBC Micro (think of it as the British equivalent of the Apple II) when I was at school?

@flippyfan4444

7 жыл бұрын

Sort of. Perhaps you've heard of Number Munchers or The Oregon Trail? MECC made those.

@GeoNeilUK

7 жыл бұрын

I think I played a game on the BBC Micro that was like The Oregon Trail, can't remember the name of it, I doubt MECC would have ported their titles over to the Beeb. I'm guessing MECC did make those type of programs that I played at school on the BBC.

I remember having one of these as a kid but never once had it plugged in.

rubbing alcohol is your friend when it comes to removing battery acid, vinegar is great for rust and corrosion and windex is great for cleaning cartridge ports, at least that's the case for console cleaning videos i've watched

@captain_jerkass

7 жыл бұрын

beginning at 3:01 he mentioned that the batteries exploded, and that he's never seen so much dried battery acid, though it appears he was unable to remove the entirety of the dried acid with the various things he used

I vaguely remember that.

Wow I remember playing this ..... epic

I had this! I think I still have it in my crawlspace.

back in second grade one of my classmates had one of these, every Friday my teacher would let her bring it in and we all got to use it. I saw this picture on LGR's Thrifts videos did a google search and your video came up. That thing was bad ass at the time.

Yeah i was 6 when this came out. I used to want one of those, but my Mom made the better choice to get the NES back then.

@GeoNeilUK

7 жыл бұрын

Why didn't VTech just release edutainment titles for regular consoles? Oh wait, because Nintendo had that God-damn monopoly on game production and releasing which actually held back the American gaming industry. Fuck Nintendo.

@SmeddyTooBestChannel

7 жыл бұрын

The Sega Master System, Commodore 64 and Atari 7800 would like to have a word with you. Also, the Genesis was released like a year later too.

@Tornado1994

7 жыл бұрын

Your a bit older than I am! I was 5 and half in 1988.

@GeoNeilUK

7 жыл бұрын

"The Sega Master System, Commodore 64 and Atari 7800 would like to have a word with you. Also, the Genesis was released like a year later too." So would the ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, Oric 1, Dragon 32 and 64, Atari 8 bit, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST as well as the Apple II, Apple IIgs and Tandy 1000 range. And the SNES and the PC Engine if we're bringing consoles into it. The NES dominated the 3rd generation in the States like nothing else, it didn't dominate the market outside the States and I'd say its North American domination was entirely down to Nintendo's monopolistic policies. If the NES hadn't been released in the States, the 3rd generation would have been a battle between the Atari 8 bits and the Commodore 64 with the Commodore 64 winning and every computer based on the 6502 CPU (like the 8 bit Ataris, the BBC Micro, the Acorn Electron, the Apple II and several others) being incredibly expensive because Jack Tramiel.

@kristina80ification

7 жыл бұрын

VTech has always had a weird thing for making children's educational electronic toys, they had fake computer like things before that console, and they have had other more successful child oriented edutainment consoles since the one featured here, and still make them to this day, I don't think it had anything to do with Nintendo, it was just their thing.

i had one as a kid. right before i got a real thing i went through crap like these lol

I always saw this in the display case at my local Toys R Us when I was a kid, but this is the first time I've actually seen "gameplay" of it.

It wasn't pseudo educational. I credit Socrates for my strength in mathematics.

VTech one of the companies that is a rival to Leapfrog

Wow ! I actually had this when I was a kid . I called it soc ur rates lol . So crazy . When you played the part of the built in games omg man . Wow . I remember having to wait till the song was over n then the game would begin . I had fun with this . My sister n I would have a lot of fun lol . N yes we did have Nintendo of course . Flashback !

I had one of these and thoroughly enjoyed it. After our Adam Coleco computer died I got this. Then after a couple years I got to have a true 8086PC. Then I got a real computer. IT WAS SLOW... but the games were educational. I am a college professor now so it didn't hurt.

Every time I see the words "Ben's Junk", I hope my VidAngel add-on is enabled. ;P

My father had this when he was young

A John Cage reference. I love you.

The only vTech thing I owned was the PreComputer 1000, we were broke

Had this when I was a kid never got it to work though

I know you made this video years ago. I looked it up because I found a boxed new system and mouse. When I saw it I had no idea what it was and looked up and watched your video. I can take pictures of the system , box , manual and inserts if you are interested in updating a new video. Anyway thanks for sharing some info. I enjoyed your video😊

@SHUPIRATE1991

10 ай бұрын

Also I only paid 10.00 for it

I used to have one of these

You know, this console existe in France with the name of "Professeur sait-tout" and it traumatised me when I have 7yo. Thank to exorcise my nightmare

Glad to see that this is getting the full Oddity Archive treatment. This machine was the stuff of my nightmares for years as a kid. Here's a video I made about it years ago: kzread.info/dash/bejne/gaOczLRmodeTlpM.html

May the 4th be with you! Thanks Ben!

I had one of these! Still know where the console is, the controller, no. Kinda want to turn it into a retropi because why not?

Dude I had one of these as a kid, and I distinctly remember thinking, this cat (the robot) is a direct rip-off of Johnny 5!

I remember this game it was my sisters

I grew up with this!! Alongside the crap religious cartoon movie knock offs my dad and step-mom would get for me and my sis, was this. We both knew instinctively it was garbage, but we played it anyway. Usually annoying them to deal with hooking it up and then getting bored 10 minutes later. It was trash, but we liked that he looked like knock-off Johnny Five. I definitely had Big Recall seeing the pre-loaded games. The other two - no idea. I know we had at least a couple carts, but can't remember any details.

Damn you sure beat up Socrates

Looking back at it, this system is pretty pathetic, but as kids my brother and I loved playing it!

I played this as much as I played NES.

How the managed to run this thing that slow ? ... A calculator is way faster.

I was not allowed to have a Nintendo, thus that's what I could play..... in 1998. Wish I we could save the pictures in painting mode. I hated most of it. We did not have any expansions - just the bare basic console / game. 14:32 - YUP. That's the music. And loading times. OMG the loading times. .... Well made for what it is.

Jebus and I thought the loading times of the PS1 were awful.

Love the graphics but would be frustrated by the slow controller response

12:48. Creepy!

Thanks for making this video! You should really film the whole thing, Would be nice to see the battery problem rather than just be told about it. You've got to be there type of things.

What REALLY intrigues me is, how was software developed for this system?

I had the french version, and it started with a menu with the socrate bot face at the bottom of the screen with a giant green thought cloud, and on it, it had menus of like nine games i think, i shit you not, and i can't find it anywhere, do you know about that?

IT'S DECENT GAMES NO DELAYS MORE THAN EXPECTED YOU JUST HAD TO COMPARE WITH ATARI2600 NOT PLAYSTORE OR APPSTORE

Wowww dude I remember playing this shit in 91 🤢🤢🤢

My cousin had this. We played it quite a bit. Not sure how you as an adult? managed to break it. BTW. If you can't find info, don't make a video lol. The blue "button" is for a cartridge

Is $25 for a boxed one good?

Lo azul oculta un puerto de expansión

Is this a Z80 machine?

@garry12gg

7 жыл бұрын

Bernard Anderson Yup. Z80A, according to Wikipedia.

So Crapies