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Post Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 2:14 pm
It's not finished/committed yet, the developer working on it have been sidetracking or lost interest and releases were on hold until we could get more shots. Will try to work on releasing the data in the following months, sorry it's been taking so long.
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Post Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 7:17 pm
Guess, at least some of these titles weren't listed in this thread yet? Like, Henshin Kanji (へんしんかんじ)on the right.

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Post Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:30 pm
Oh wow, is that the picture from BEEP Shop?
I bought a bunch of software from them recently, haven't posted them yet:

AI enikki (white card)
AI enikki (black my card)
Henshin Kanji
Pin Pon Numbers
Pin Pon Music Rhythm
Pin Pon Music Melody
Okeiko Hanamaru Aiueo (2 cards)
Waku Waku ABC to 123

Looking at the photo it looks like it is exactly the stash I bought those software from? They came exactly like that, manual overlay card but no box
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Post Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:35 pm
Yeah, from their twitter, I can't post the links yet due to forum restrictions - "/BEEP_SHOP/status/752778314796838912" after the twitter url.
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Post Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:46 pm
F1ReB4LL wrote
Yeah, from their twitter, I can't post the links yet due to forum restrictions - "/BEEP_SHOP/status/752778314796838912" after the twitter url.


Here's the link
https://twitter.com/BEEP_SHOP/status/752778314796838912

Sorry yeah, links are disabled until you have 2 or 3 forum posts.
That's the game I bought (you can actually see me replying to their post and asking about them.. took me a year to convince the guy to sell them to me)

The emulating/dumping has been on hold unfortunately but will try to get that resumed (MESS team people have been working on it, and Chris Covell did most of the initial hardware reverse engineering/hacking work).
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:39 pm
Bock wrote
The emulating/dumping has been on hold unfortunately but will try to get that resumed (MESS team people have been working on it, and Chris Covell did most of the initial hardware reverse engineering/hacking work).
What a coincidence, somebody was just asking yesterday about the status of this, over at the MAME forums.
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:33 pm
FYI the dumps were shared with MESS devs (there is a private thread here where they started working on it). I am happy to share access to people who are serious about working on the MESS driver. I still have a few undumped carts. (Recently dumped Henshin Kanji and Waku Waku ABC to 123).
sega ai enikki.jpg (553.9 KB)
sega ai enikki.jpg

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Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 12:44 pm
Hello everyone, and thank you for this discovery, I do not know this sega computer.
Forgive my English, I use google trauction, my French is much better. Thanks to all who share their information on this subject, and hopefully soon.
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Post Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 9:11 am
I worked on mame for the SP-400, and got used to a lot of its macros / drivers definitions. I would love to help if possible.
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Post Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2023 3:17 pm
Some found things I don't recall posting:

(1)
Ad for the Sega AI computer featured in the September 1986 issue of AIA News.
PDF available here: https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:xf661vz6762/xf661vz6762.pdf
https://twitter.com/VGDensetsu/status/1045411967257792513

(2)
PDF scan of Sega AI Computer Pamphlet from https://sudden-desu.net
https://twitter.com/suddendesu/status/1590303114330247168


Quote
I worked on mame for the SP-400, and got used to a lot of its macros / drivers definitions. I would love to help if possible.


Added you.

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Post Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2023 10:27 am
Bock wrote
The emulating/dumping has been on hold unfortunately but will try to get that resumed (MESS team people have been working on it, and Chris Covell did most of the initial hardware reverse engineering/hacking work).
Can the dumps and work done so far be made public?

Keeping this private doesn't seem to be have helped much, perhaps having at least a skeleton driver with the ROMs will encourage external contributions, as happens with other systems from time to time.
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2023 10:34 pm
We're working on it and a public PR has been made to MAME.
We've got several things to organize and I obtained new software but I am hoping to make tangible progress soon.
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2023 10:45 pm
Bock wrote
We're working on it and a public PR has been made to MAME.
We've got several things to organize and I obtained new software but I am hoping to make tangible progress soon.


Thanks for sticking with it and congratulations on getting things released!

Based on the listed bunch of parts, it all seems like off-the-shelf components are inside the AI Computer. It makes me wonder if a clone of the system could potentially be built – the touchpad seems like the big question mark.
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2023 11:16 pm
leadedsolder wrote
the touchpad seems like the big question mark.

probably a raspberry pi+touch screen, outputting a signal on the gpio. This would allow showing the overlays on the touch screen as well.
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Sega AI Keyboard photos
Post Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 9:12 pm
Attached photos of the Sega AI Keyboard (AI-7020).
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1986-1987 vs 1988 software variations
Post Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 9:19 pm
I posted earlier that I've found two versions of AI Enikki (AI えにっき)
respectively dated 1986 and 1989: https://www.smspower.org/forums/15004-SegaAIComputerSoftware?start=50#101205

I have recently acquired a new lot of software including 10 earlier variations of software I had found before:

- Alice World
- Robinson Land
- Cosmic Train
- Cinderella Labyrinth
- Gulliver Pocket
- Mozart Academy
- Arabian Night
- Andersen Dream
- Ocean Fantasy
- Columbus Map

They are 1986-1987 dated, tape/cassette only versions of the software.
The previously dumped ones (same ten titles, same orders) were all 1988 dated and on my cards.
A cursory look at the overlays suggest the software have difference as the overlays are not entirely identical in button placement.

Quick TL;DR;

1986-1987 versions:
- each come on a single sided tape/cassette.
- dates on last page of each manual ranges from 1986/8/1 to 1987/9/1.
- names are in katakana e.g. Robinson Land is ロビンソン・ランド
- no product identifier apart from a 1-10 number on side of box + barcode. Robinson Land is 2.
- thicker packaging, classic art style.
- undumped as of today (I now have a mint cassette player that's known to not alter signal, so on it)

1988 versions:
- each come on a single mycard.
- dates on last page of each manual is always 1988/7/1 for this set
- names are in hiragana e.g. Robinson Land is ろびんそん・らんど
- product number on mycard e.g. Robinson Land is AI-4052
- thinner packaging, modern art style, nicer overlay.
- dumped and shared with MAME devs.

Hopefully we'll make enough progress to have that stuff released in 1 or 2 MAME release.
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Post Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2023 7:38 pm
Bock wrote
I posted earlier that I've found two versions of AI Enikki (AI えにっき)
respectively dated 1986 and 1989: https://www.smspower.org/forums/15004-SegaAIComputerSoftware?start=50#101205

I have recently acquired a new lot of software including 10 earlier variations of software I had found before:

- Alice World
- Robinson Land
- Cosmic Train
- Cinderella Labyrinth
- Gulliver Pocket
- Mozart Academy
- Arabian Night
- Andersen Dream
- Ocean Fantasy
- Columbus Map

They are 1986-1987 dated, tape/cassette only versions of the software.
The previously dumped ones (same ten titles, same orders) were all 1988 dated and on my cards.
A cursory look at the overlays suggest the software have difference as the overlays are not entirely identical in button placement.

Quick TL;DR;

1986-1987 versions:
- each come on a single sided tape/cassette.
- dates on last page of each manual ranges from 1986/8/1 to 1987/9/1.
- names are in katakana e.g. Robinson Land is ロビンソン・ランド
- no product identifier apart from a 1-10 number on side of box + barcode. Robinson Land is 2.
- thicker packaging, classic art style.
- undumped as of today (I now have a mint cassette player that's known to not alter signal, so on it)

1988 versions:
- each come on a single mycard.
- dates on last page of each manual is always 1988/7/1 for this set
- names are in hiragana e.g. Robinson Land is ろびんそん・らんど
- product number on mycard e.g. Robinson Land is AI-4052
- thinner packaging, modern art style, nicer overlay.
- dumped and shared with MAME devs.

Hopefully we'll make enough progress to have that stuff released in 1 or 2 MAME release.


Interesting, but now I'm confused. Were these originally released on cassette and then later on card? If so, then what was this one with both cassette and card in one package?

Bock wrote
Two more software found (from the same seller), I got them.

Educational Software:
English Wonder School - Eigo de ohanashi (えいごわんだーすくーるー、えいごでおはなし): Folk & Fairy Tales

Interestingly this one comes with *two* mycards and *two* tapes. Presumably the tapes contains audio?
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Post Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2023 11:33 am
It's funny to think that they re-released softwares for a hardware that is so rare nobody had seen a copy of it for decades :p
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Post Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2023 5:55 pm
Quote
Interesting, but now I'm confused. Were these originally released on cassette and then later on card?


Yes.

Quote
If so, then what was this one with both cassette and card in one package?


Those later releases are mostly using card for code/data and cassette to play audio tracks.

Quote
It's funny to think that they re-released softwares for a hardware that is so rare nobody had seen a copy of it for decades :p


It's extremely bizarre indeed.
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Post Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:28 pm
Bock wrote
Quote
Interesting, but now I'm confused. Were these originally released on cassette and then later on card?


Yes.

Quote
If so, then what was this one with both cassette and card in one package?


Those later releases are mostly using card for code/data and cassette to play audio tracks.

Quote
It's funny to think that they re-released softwares for a hardware that is so rare nobody had seen a copy of it for decades :p


It's extremely bizarre indeed.


Thanks. It's funny how they didn't seem to support the card slot until later.
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Post Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:02 am
Kenneth wrote
It's funny to think that they re-released softwares for a hardware that is so rare nobody had seen a copy of it for decades :p


I wonder if it was something made exclusively for the educational (school) market.
I'm thinking similar to the Konami Famicom Q-something (I think it was called?) cart which was made to load software from an add-on card slot. Those were reportedly made for school use (though somewhat older, grades 4-6). They had been super rare and undumped until a few years ago (I'm not sure if even all the software has since been preserved, I know about have of the games had been once the base cart was emulated.)
It got attention about 15 years ago when the cart and one of the add-ons (a safety quiz program for a chemicals company) was sold on yahoo for thousands of dollars (so, hundreds of thousands of yen).
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Post Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2024 4:09 pm
I've been populating pages with more contents.
Added all known releases, some emulated title screen (working on getting this in MAME next release), scans of manual front (identical to box art but easier to scan).

Browse from Tags
https://www.smspower.org/Tags/SegaAI

From games list (less useful)
https://www.smspower.org/Games/AI-All

Browse from Releases/Media
https://www.smspower.org/Games-Releases/AI-JP

Scans
https://www.smspower.org/Scans/AI-All
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2024 8:32 pm


This is the only video on YouTube other than the one shared earlier in the thread I can find. Seems a shame there aren't more I would love to learn additional information about this AI Computer.
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2024 3:01 pm
We have now published everything we have about the Sega AI Computer:

https://www.smspower.org/SegaAI/Index

- System Roms
- 26 cards dumps
- 26 overlay scans
- 14 cassette recordings
- 3 manual scans
- Hundreds of photos & scans & more.
- Support in MAME available today.
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Post Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2024 1:00 am
Impressive!
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Post Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:08 pm
Not sure if related to the AI Computer but... From an old interview with Yoshiki Kawasaki, regarding a character he designed: Games Hakase.
Quote

ちなみにゲームズ博士は川崎さんがCAIという教育用コンピュータの取扱説明書のために描いたもの。いつのまにやら全機種用のゲームの取扱説明書でアドバイスをしていたらしい。


"Games Hakase was designed by Mr. Kawasaki for an instruction manual for an educational computer called CAI. He was apparently giving advice in the instruction manuals for games for all models before he knew it."
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Post Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:38 pm
I played around with the URL you provided there and was able to see more articles (here: https://www.sega.jp/fb/album/). Really interesting site when used with Google Translate. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to read them all.
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2024 6:31 pm
There's an ongoing auction with a handful of cards including two undumped ones (Eigo no Uta 1 / えいごのうた1 and Eigo no Uta 2 / えいごのうた2, title of the set presumably will be readable on title screen)so I'll be bidding on that (and should part the remaining cards I have in dupes to owners of AI computers). More news hopefully soon.
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Post Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:31 pm
Good luck with the auction Bock
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Post Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 10:52 pm
Did you win? It went high
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Post Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2024 9:58 am
Yes I won it. You can see the two Eigo no Uta cards in photos 2 and 6.
sega ai cards - 01.jpg (160.58 KB)
sega ai cards - 01.jpg
sega ai cards - 06.jpg (149.38 KB)
sega ai cards - 06.jpg

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Post Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2024 4:55 pm
That's fantastic Omar, well done. I was still thinking about making a video for this for YouTube but it looks like another one has just gone up and beaten me to it. Not all of his facts are completely accurate but it's not too bad. A lot of the images he uses are for the Sega Genesis because it's for quite a generic audience I'm assuming

Link below

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Post Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2024 6:52 pm
As I mentioned in our private discussions, I am afraid few people have made the effort to actually run the games on MAME, and add to the fact that reading Japanese is kind of a requirement to get what the games are about, we don't have much footage out there. Any new footage or information that goes beyond scratching the surface (e.g. this video is paraphrasing our contents + adding extra stuff which I'm not even sure are accurate) would be helpful to be honest.

Note that MAME 0.263 fixed an emulation bug leading to wrong speech samples being played for some games (compared to MAME 0.262).
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Post Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:38 pm
If I see other AI auctions come up, should I let you guys know, or are you guys already watching all the auction sites?
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Post Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2024 2:31 pm
The King of the Mods wrote
If I see other AI auctions come up, should I let you guys know, or are you guys already watching all the auction sites?

Feel free to share them when you find, it happens that I miss something.
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:26 pm
Bock wrote
The King of the Mods wrote
If I see other AI auctions come up, should I let you guys know, or are you guys already watching all the auction sites?

Feel free to share them when you find, it happens that I miss something.


Just caught this.

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/u1130124670?conversionType=yac_item_bottom_r...
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:40 pm
Oh wow, they look great.


The King of the Mods wrote
Bock wrote
The King of the Mods wrote
If I see other AI auctions come up, should I let you guys know, or are you guys already watching all the auction sites?

Feel free to share them when you find, it happens that I miss something.


Just caught this.

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/u1130124670?conversionType=yac_item_bottom_r...
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Post Posted: Yesterday at 2:09 am
I'll be bidding on the other lot with loose HW + documents because it has many documents I haven't seen, and I need a spare machine as my cassette drive is borken.
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