ComputerSmarts was a console-based computer system which was produced by Connor Electronics in 1987 for children ages 6-12. Connor Electronics and the Connor Toy Corporation were subsidiaries of Connor Forrest Industries. They were founded on October 1st, 1985. ComputerSmarts was designed to be primarily used in conjunction with 50 minute interactive VHS tapes which would guide the user through different exercises in language arts. The console would connect to the VCR through an analog cable plugged into the "Audio Out" port. This allowed the video to communicate with the console through the use of audio tones which the computer translated into instructions to prompt the user with specific information.
The console featured a standard QWERTY keyboard with sets of keys color-coded to aid in typing exercises. It featured a slot for ROM cartridges to be inserted. When the unit was turned on without a cartridge or VCR, the user could select from several pre-programmed games including a calculator and a music synthesizer. Cartridges containing additional programs were also available.
When first developed, the unit had a flip-up LCD display which was used to give information to the user during play. It was redesigned so the display was integrated into the main unit. In the videos and some early instruction manuals, the prototype with flip-up display is shown.
There were several VHS videos made for ComputerSmarts. Most were part of the Word Mystery series. They featured two alien puppets named Beek and Rains and their teacher DJ, which was an artificially intelligent computer program who was housed inside a TV monitor. They traveled around the planet in a clubhouse which served as their spaceship which seemed to be nothing more than a cardboard box. In each installment, they would use their ComputerSmarts consoles to learn about typing, sentence structure, paragraph composition, punctuation, word types, and alphabetical order. Users were prompted throughout the video to type words or letters as instructed by the characters. At the end, they are scored by the console on their performance.
The videos were produced by Chicago-based Kinetics Group, Ltd., directed by J. Ried Paul, written by Rick Oliver, and featured music by Tullio and Rans Music, Mark Ohlsen and Elliot Delman. All of these companies are defunct including Connor Forest Industries, Inc., the parent company of Connor Toy Corporation, which in turn was the parent of Connor Electronics.
While Beek and Rains were puppets who appeared in all of the videos along with DJ, each installment also featured live-action characters, most of which were portrayed by Jamie Baron and Joan Schwenk. These additional characters differed in each video, with Baron and Schwenk playing several characters each, but a few characters made appearances in multiple installments. Jamie Baron's Colonel Bragg character was the only live-action character to appear in all of the videos.
The videos themselves were full of campy humor and interesting ways of delivering the information in each lesson. They are fun and make learning the lessons easy for the target age group of 4th-5th graders. The colorful cast of characters is impressively portrayed by just two actors filling multiple roles and are wacky in all the right ways. The voices are all dubbed over with post-production recordings in a typical 80's manner which gives it a further level of camp.
The lessons on each tape focused on a particular aspect of grammar such as sentence structure, nouns and verbs, paragraph structure, etc. There were also "speed drills" in which words would appear on the system's LCD in rapid succession to reinforce typing skills. These words were randomized so each time you would play the tape, it would offer a different challenge increasing re-play value.
I have very fond memories playing these tapes. I still have two of them and I was fortunate enough to have someone send me the digitized video for Word Mystery 2, which I had never seen before. I have yet to find a copy of Word Mystery 1: In Search of the Ultimate Sentence and, unfortunately, I lost the last tape in the series, Word Mystery 4: The Victory of Victor Verb, so I am actively seeking to find copies.
By 1988, Connor Electronics was not performing adequately in the home electronics market and although Videosmarts was selling moderately well, ComputerSmarts did not make enough to cover operating costs. All planned cartridges and future videos for the device were cancelled and Connor shut down the electronics and toy divisions of its business. The ComputerSmarts brand was sold to Hong Kong-based VTech who discontinued it without further development.
The system pops up on eBay about once a year or two and the tapes are very rare - particularly The Power of Tens, Word Mystery 1, and Word Mystery 4. The cartridges are even more rare than the tapes. The system works with digitized versions of the videos so even if you don't have tapes, the videos for a couple of them are available on YouTube on my channel as well as my ComputerSmarts tribute site.
In a future review, I will be taking a look at Connor's system for younger children: Videosmarts.