Dealing with a Cybiko Classic in 2022

Author here: I want to note that I am trying my best to resurrect the /r/cybiko subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/cybiko/). I recently managed to convince the Reddit Admins to allow me to moderate the subreddit, since the moderator who previously had it had set it to "approved posters only" mode. Finally, people can post there. If you're interested at all in preserving this short lived strange piece of early 2000s weirdness, I'd love to see you there!

It is like a crime against all of technology that there is no equivalent of this today.

We have smartphones, but battery life sucks and they have no real local mesh support, and no expansion port.

We have lots of dev boards, but no real finished products without exposed PCBs, and with a proper app-capable OS. And the ones that are reasonably polished are far too expensive for a semi-novelty.

The closest is maybe... pwnagotchi? A graphing calc?

I just want like, a little ESP32 handheld, with an m.2 slot or something in the traditional place for cartridges, and the ability to run apps from files on SD cards(Even if they're just MicroPythons).

But somehow all the "Hacker's handhelds" and the like seem to go nowhere, and are basically just an Arduino with a screen, meanwhile phones never get the expansion pack and local mesh capabilities the cybiko had.

Cybiko was a lot of fun. It would have been better with some AAA games, but it was still awesome.

There was a site (freesamples.com?) that was giving these away. I remember we managed to snag 2 for free when I was in middle school. The coolest feature was the adhoc wireless multiplayer. I could search for other cybikos in the cafeteria and share the game the other kid didn’t have in real-time.

I wanted one of these so bad as a teen. SO BAD.

But alas, I grew up poor. My cyber deck dreams would take years to come to fruition.

I picked up a couple of these when they were being closed out, thinking I would find an interesting use for them later, or at least something for the 900MHz modem module. Never did. Gave them to a thrift store when cleaning out for a move over a decade ago.

They were awkward to use, both physically and from a UX perspective. I wasn't drawn into any of the games, but I haven't taken up video games much in a long time now. I had plans to code something up for it but I don't think I ever even compiled "hello, world" or the equivalent.

Something like the TTGO Lora devices would be more fun to hack on in 2022.

Remembering and adoring the idea of this device as a teenager (and realizing the impracticality), it's insanely irksome to me year after year going to Defcon and seeing #badgelife that totally outclass this thing from a hardware design and creativity perspective but completely fall flat on the software/usability front.

I can guarandamntee that any team putting together a badge with these features would have everyone in the damn con playing with the thing all weekend and onward...

I was fortunate enough to have two Cybiko classics. Those were the only two I ever saw in my life. I remember a program on Windows that allowed me to use AIM wirelessly from one Cybiko, with the other connected to the PC with the AIM client. I only used that for a couple of hours. I don't remember the details, but it wasn't very practical. It was still freaking awesome.

Ah I remember the Cybiko! Such a cool device with so much unrealized potential! The idea of local mesh networked gaming/messaging was the coolest thing, but it could only work if enough people owned one.

I have one of these with the neoprene case and a MP3 player! I don’t think I have the serial cable anymore :( but I have this and an eMate 300 in a mind to refurbish someday!