Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
2-XL Educational Robot
By bohus
2-XL is Mego's 1970's entry into the educational toy category, invented by Dr. Michael J. Freeman - an honest to goodness educator. Pop in one of several special robo-cartridges, and the voice of 2-XL will ask you questions on the cart's topic. Each question has three choices, and you select your answer using one of the three buttons on the robot's front. 2-XL's voice will either sing your priases, or gently razz your defeat. Neat little bit of interactive media, eh?
Eagle-eyed Retrothingers may notice that the cartridges are in the much beleaguered 8 track tape format. It's actually a clever use of 8 track - the questions are on one track, and your keypresses change tracks on the tape. You get different responses based on your selection. 2-XL was a rather clever interactive toy - it was even reintroduced using audio cassettes in the 90's.
I never had a 2-XL as a kid, and in later years wondered why they never showed up in thrift stores; they were quite popular as I recall. I found my second one yesterday for $2, and not only is it a great way to play back regular 8 track music tapes, the 2-XL educational tapes are interesting and fun even for an adult. An adult like me, anyway...
