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#### Tomy Tutor (a.k.a. Grandstand Tutor)

Known Issues:
Cassette emulation does not work.

Usage:

The Tutor has three built-in programs:
* Graphic is a Picture drawing program. It enables you to create 256*192
pictures in 16 colors, but the interface is awkward and I don't think the
pictures drawn in this program can be saved.
* Basic is a Basic interpreter derived from the TI99 Extended Basic. Quite
unfortunately, Basic lacks I/O routines and a serious graphic library.
* GBasic is another Basic interpreter that is hidden in Graphic. It is
probably faster than Basic and has better graphic capabilities, but the
language itself is unfortunately lacking. And the editor simply sucks.
A few cartridges were released: almost 40 games and a few educational programs.
9 cartridges are known to have been dumped (8 games and an educational title).

History and Trivia:
This computer is known as Tomy Tutor in US, and as Grandstand Tutor in UK. It
was initially released in Japan in 1982 or 1983 under the name of Pyuuta
(Pi-yu-u-ta, with a Kanji for the "ta"). The Japanese versions are different
from the English-language versions, as they have different ROMs with Japanese

messages and support for the katakana syllabus. There are at least 4 versions:
* original Pyuuta (1982 or 1983) with title screens in Japanese but no Basic
(only the toy-like Gbasic interpreter is available)
* Pyuuta Jr. (1983?) which is a console with a simplified keyboard
* Tomy/Grandstand Tutor (circa October 1983?) with title screens in English and
integrated Basic
* Pyuuta Mk. 2 (1984?) with a better-looking keyboard and integrated Basic
The Tutor was not extremely successful, probably due to the fact that little
software was available (and that the software that was available was not varied
enough).
One question that remains open is the relationship between the Tutor and the
TI-99 series. From a hardware point of view, the Tutor has a lot in common
with TI-99/4(a) (though the two computers are NOT compatible). From a
software point of view, the Tutor Basic is directly derived from TI Extended
Basic (there is even a GPL interpreter in ROM, though the Tutor variant of GPL
is quite different from TI GPL). However, other Tutor software do not seem to
be derived from TI-99 software. It is therefore likely that Matsushita
designed the Tutor independently from TI and licenced the TI Basic from TI as
an afterthought; OTOH, the whole design might have originated from TI, as the
computer really looks like a "TI-99/3" (the hardware is similar to the TI-99/4
series, whereas the concept is very close to the TI-99/2).

Generated on Tue Jul 15 11:11:04 2003