Tempest Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Anyone remember the Tomy Tutor? It was basically a computer that was marketed towards kids and touted as Easy To Use and No Parental Guidance Necessary. It came out about 83 and was quickly discontinued in early 84. The Tutor is basically a stripped down TI99/4a, it has the same graphics and sound but is missing the expansion capability (although there were some planned items). There were only a handful of games released, but most were Konami arcade ports. Generally the games look very good, but play terribly. The games seem to chug along, like they're too much for the processor to handle. The scrolling is also very jumpy making some games (like Scramble) a pain to play. Of course it doesn't help that the stock controllers are shaped like Intellivision controllers, but less responsive. There is a real joystick available, but I don't have it (not that it would help the games any). Supposedly the games themselves are somewhat compatible with the TI99. The biggest problem is that the OS is different. It would be neat to see the TI99 get some good arcade ports... I got my Tutor today complete in box with the tape deck and three boxed games (Jungler, Traffic Jam, and Scramble). It's a cute little computer, almost like a TI99 jr. The funny thing is that I don't remember this thing at all from when I was a kid. I guess I was too much into my Atari 400 at the time. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Needles Kane Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Sounds like Tommy Tutone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christianscott27 Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Yep. Thats one of my "kick myself" trades. I found a basement gunked tutor once and figured it was so bad and obscure I'd try and trade it off. So I let this guy take it off me for some random SNES games and dammit if he didnt have a bunch of software for it. Once I found out it had some decent arcade ports on it I wished I could have gotten the software instead of him getting the hardware. I doubt I'll ever find another one, or the software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 I remember the Tomy Tutor. I think I even remember a commercial but I'm not sure. Never have played one though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted January 31, 2007 Author Share Posted January 31, 2007 Here's a good page on the tutor (hell, it's probably the ONLY page on the tutor): http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/ Most of the good stuff was only released in Japan, but the games are compatible with the US system if you can find them... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 I scored one at NWCGE with six games for $30. It's a pretty neat little system, and the games are fairly good too. It's one of those undiscovered rarities. I didn't even know the thing existed until I saw it. Congrats on picking one up boxed. They don't grow on trees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brasky Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 I would've killed for one of those as a kid had I known there was a port of Scramble on it back then. The Vectrex Scramble didn't cut it. There's a disk online you can download of Tomy Tutor games on some TI-99 sites but the games only run on the Geneve. There are Geneve cards for the TI-99 exp box though. I don't know if I ever heard of it back then though. Tomy has come out with a number of different toy computers over the years, all called the Tomy Tutor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 The Tomy Tutor is a really neat machine, IMO. Of course, as a TI fan, it's pretty much a given I'd love the system's illegitimate brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jboypacman Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 (edited) Thats sweet.I would love to get a hold of one of thoses it would make a nice conversation piece and some of those games(Scramble and Pooyan)would be fun to play.Got any picks of the one you picked up Tempest? Edited January 31, 2007 by jboypacman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted January 31, 2007 Author Share Posted January 31, 2007 Thats sweet.I would love to get a hold of one of thoses it would make a nice conversation piece and some of thosers games(Scramble and Pooyan)would be fun to play.Got any picks of the one you picked up Tempest? Let's see if the auction is still up: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=220071794885 I was pretty happy that everything was boxed (except the cassette deck). Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Supposedly the games themselves are somewhat compatible with the TI99. The biggest problem is that the OS is different. It would be neat to see the TI99 get some good arcade ports... My understanding was that the Tomy Tutor was that it actually had a pretty advanced OS but I'm not sure. There's a Yahoo group dedicated to it if anyone wanted more info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted January 31, 2007 Author Share Posted January 31, 2007 Supposedly the games themselves are somewhat compatible with the TI99. The biggest problem is that the OS is different. It would be neat to see the TI99 get some good arcade ports... My understanding was that the Tomy Tutor was that it actually had a pretty advanced OS but I'm not sure. There's a Yahoo group dedicated to it if anyone wanted more info. Well it's different, I'm not sure I'd say it was more advanced though. Then again I guess it depends on your criteria for OS's. here's a disk online you can download of Tomy Tutor games on some TI-99 sites but the games only run on the Geneve. There are Geneve cards for the TI-99 exp box though. I'd LOVE to get a Geneve card for my PEB, but good luck finding one. It seems like all the really cool TI99 stuff is rare and pricey... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y-bot Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 My Tomy Pyuuta collection. I've barely played it though. Too many games and too little time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 1, 2007 Author Share Posted February 1, 2007 My Tomy Pyuuta collection. I've barely played it though. Too many games and too little time. Wow! I had forgotten about the licensed Tron game (not based on the arcade game BTW). You should send some screenshots of motorbike game to the guy who runs that Tutor site I listed, that's one of the few games he doesn't have pictures for. Umm... Wanna trade those games? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarivision Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 My Tomy Pyuuta collection. I've barely played it though. Too many games and too little time. Very nice collection. I have three Tomy Pyuuta games so far, Monster Inn (boxed), Night Flight (loose), and Tron (loose). I also have several duplicate Tomy Tutor cartridges which I plan on trading or selling someday. Matt A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y-bot Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 My Tomy Pyuuta collection. I've barely played it though. Too many games and too little time. Wow! I had forgotten about the licensed Tron game (not based on the arcade game BTW). You should send some screenshots of motorbike game to the guy who runs that Tutor site I listed, that's one of the few games he doesn't have pictures for. Umm... Wanna trade those games? Tempest I don't wanna trade them. I am kinda on the fence about them though. I don't collect computers and I probably wouldn't keep a Tomy Tutor if I found one but for some reason I wan't to keep these. I found them at the biggest indoor flea market I've ever seen. It was near Tokyo Disneyland. I think I paid $70-$80 for the lot and carried it around all day. Next time I get them out of storage I'll send some sceenshots to that website. y-bot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 1, 2007 Author Share Posted February 1, 2007 My Tomy Pyuuta collection. I've barely played it though. Too many games and too little time. Wow! I had forgotten about the licensed Tron game (not based on the arcade game BTW). You should send some screenshots of motorbike game to the guy who runs that Tutor site I listed, that's one of the few games he doesn't have pictures for. Umm... Wanna trade those games? Tempest I don't wanna trade them. I am kinda on the fence about them though. I don't collect computers and I probably wouldn't keep a Tomy Tutor if I found one but for some reason I wan't to keep these. I found them at the biggest indoor flea market I've ever seen. It was near Tokyo Disneyland. I think I paid $70-$80 for the lot and carried it around all day. Next time I get them out of storage I'll send some sceenshots to that website. y-bot Well if you ever want to sell them let me know. My other secret desire is to get a Sega SC-1000 collection but those are even harder to find (in NTSC I mean). Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y-bot Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 Well if you ever want to sell them let me know. My other secret desire is to get a Sega SC-1000 collection but those are even harder to find (in NTSC I mean). Tempest Like these? Sega SG-1000 & SG-1000 II SG-1000 boxed carts SG-1000 loose carts SG-1000 boxed card games SG-1000 loose cards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 1, 2007 Author Share Posted February 1, 2007 Well if you ever want to sell them let me know. My other secret desire is to get a Sega SC-1000 collection but those are even harder to find (in NTSC I mean). Tempest Like these? Sigh... Yep, those are what I'm looking for... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 I think he's just taunting you now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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