Cybiko

This was an exciting product for me! When I was 14 and learning coding, I got excited about the Cybiko and started playing around with grand ideas about games, apps and even an "RPG Kit" (rpg builder) which I started to spec out on their forums. As a result, Cybiko sent some units to me (in the UK) - before it was released! This got little old me very excited. Unfortunately, not only did it not take off, but I…

I texted my wife (then fiance) so much with this thing back in university. I bought two Cybiko Xtremes (still have them, dead batteries) and gave one to her for her birthday, which remembering her face at that moment really makes me laugh now. Pretty soon though, we were chatting in (e.g. Philosophy of Architecture) class when we weren't playing faux-tetris or some of the other games on there. We had a number of funny conversations that I wish I…

The electrical schematic was available for it. I bought a few to use for ad-hoc networking experiments but never got a chance to do any research with them. They had an earlier clunky rectangular model as well if I remember correctly. It was amazing, like seeing the future, and then everyone ignored it and it disappeared. I think I remember reading at the time that it had taken over a few schools and the teachers were bewildered by it.

I remember turning on the network feature of my Cybiko in my room or in the backseat of the car just waiting in vain for some stranger nearby to connect.