{"id":740,"date":"2011-02-07T10:39:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T15:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2011-02-07T11:26:30","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T16:26:30","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-the-cybiko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/740\/retro-scan-of-the-week-the-cybiko","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> Cybiko Sexy Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/cybiko_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/cybiko_small.jpg\" alt=\"Cybiko Ad - 2000\" class=\"centered\"\/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>A Cybiko ad spoofing stereotypical Japanese zaniness.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cybiko\" target=\"_blank\">Cybiko<\/a> was a bizarre handheld device of mixed lineage: I&#8217;d call it 1\/3 game console and 2\/3 handheld PC.  It sought to be a PDA for kids, so it incorporated both gaming and organizer software.  It also included a very novel feature at the time: wireless connectivity.  Cybiko units could send each other text-based messages, share software, and play games via a built-in radio transmitter.<\/p>\n<p>Owners could hook up the Cybiko to their PC to download new software from the Internet.  Cybiko, Inc. encouraged homebrew development for the machine in either C or CyBasic (a BASIC variant), which helped maintain popular interest in Cybiko for a few years longer than it would have otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Despite those efforts, Cybiko was never particularly successful.  The company tried again with the Cybiko Xtreme in 2001.  No such luck there either.<\/p>\n<h3>A Handful of Drawbacks<\/h3>\n<p>I picked up one of the original &#8220;Classic&#8221; models on clearance back in the day.  Its biggest drawbacks were the dreadfully sluggish speed of the software interface, the heavily-ghosting greyscale LCD screen, and the bizarre layout of the buttons and directional pad on the unit.  Oddly, the Cybiko included a pull-out stylus to help you press its tiny QWERTY keyboard buttons.  Also, I remember it being very tricky to hook the Cybiko to your PC to get new software.<\/p>\n<p>I later picked up a revision 2 Cybiko Classic with the MP3 Player add-on at a Hamfest.  I never did much with the gadgets, though.  Cybikos included a rechargable battery &#8212; I remember seeing one leaking already a few years ago.  So if you have one, take out the battery before it ruins your unit.<\/p>\n<p><center><em><small>[ From Electronic Gaming Monthly, November 2000, p.87 ]<\/small><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> Have you ever owned or used a Cybiko?  What did you think about it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Cybiko ad spoofing stereotypical Japanese zaniness. The Cybiko was a bizarre handheld device of mixed lineage: I&#8217;d call it 1\/3 game console and 2\/3 handheld PC. It sought to be a PDA for kids, so it incorporated both gaming and organizer software. It also included a very novel feature at the time: wireless connectivity. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,7,27,26,9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-games","category-computer-info-and-history","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-retrogaming","category-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}