Other Comments: This tape was made exclusively for stores to use to promote 2-XL. Fifty dollars was a lot of money for a toy in 1978, and the folks at Mego wisely knew that if they could get people to try it first then they'd have a better chance of selling it.
The 2-XL floor models were usually set up at the electronics counter or at an endcap, with this specially made tape. In many ways it's similar to General Information, but it does also use different questions. It also makes repeated mentions of the other 2-XL programs available. (ie, "This question comes from my "Science Fiction program," etc.)
The tape runs about 5-7 mintues shorter than a regular tape, perhaps so that it can cycle through more quickly and give more people a chance to try it out. Also of note is that 2-XL assumes he's just met you off the street, and ends it with a chipper "Goodbye, now! Have a nice day!"
As you can also imagine, this is quite possibly the most rare 2-XL tape of all. Since they were floor models, they were played over and over and over until they wore out and literaly could not play anymore. The store where I originally heard it had to replace it with a copy of General Information. Even when you find store displays on eBay these days, they usually don't come with this tape anymore.
Personally, this tape means a lot to me on many, many levels. It was my introduction to 2-XL. When I first discovered it I was completely hooked in, and told my mom that this toy was absolutely the only thing I wanted for Christmas! And in all my years of hunting down 2-XL items since then, it took me a good 27 years to find any copy at all-- I'm just lucky the copy I found actually worked! So my first 2-XL tape is also my last 2-XL tape. The circle is now complete.
I'm happy to say I will be making MP3s of this tape for Mouser to use on his 2-XL Emulator, so everyone will get a chance to play it again.
< - Return to Mego 2-XL Programs
A NOTE ABOUT MUSIC: All music titles have been arbitrarily chosen by Frank and myself. These titles were picked based on many different things: the program we first heard the song on, or the project we first used it in, or whatever imagery it made us think of the most. 15 second wav samples (approximately 325k each) have been included for your convenience to be used as a reference. The running times listed in the description above are NOT the sample length. They are the length of the song as it is used on the 2-XL tape pictured.
< - BACK to previous 2-XL Program
* A NOTE ABOUT PRINTING CARDS OR BOOKLETS: I'm attempting to make these files in the original sizes. Unfortunately computers are odd beasts, and something that looks the correct size doesn't always print at the correct size (or even show up as the same size on different computers). If it doesn't print at the correct size for you, your best bet is to save the file and open it through an image program such as Adobe Photoshop and resize it there.