Tomy Tutor

The Tomy Tutor (known as the Tomy Pyuta in Japan) was a home computer released in 1982 (1983 in the US). It was marketed as a "children's computer". It has a ridiculously small library with only 27 games released for it (combining the amount of North American and Japanese games).

Why It Flopped

 * 1) Only ten games were released for it in the US (more were released in Japan, but that only bumps the amount of games up to 27).
 * 2) The membrane keyboard mechanism hasn't aged well, as it wears out easily.
 * 3) The controllers were sold separately in the US, but in Japan they were bundled in with the system.
 * 4) It only had one controller port (while the normal controllers share the same connector, the Joy Stick has only one on the cord, meaning you can only connect one Joy Stick).
 * 5) Many of the games released for it were mediocre arcade ports (this applies to both territories it was released in).
 * 6) Some games run awfully slow (such as Monster Inn and Turpin, both are Japan only games).
 * 7) It had ZERO third party support; all of its games were from Tomy.
 * 8) Regarding WIF#3, the controllers themselves are awful, and despite having circular D-Pads, they can only go in four directions.
 * 9) Despite the advertising having somewhat of an educational theme in the USA, all of the games released for it (except for one) were arcade-style games.
 * 10) On the Pyuta Jr. (a console version of the Tutor), saving graphics in the graphics program wasn't possible without an extremely rare cassette interface, which plugs into the cartridge port.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Some games were decent, like Frogger and Traffic Jam.
 * 2) The terrible keyboard is fixed in a later revision of the system, but it was only released in Japan. Despite the keyboard being easier to use, it still has a membrane keyboard underneath, so it still wears out easily.
 * 3) The awful controllers have an alternative, which is the superior Joy Stick. However, the SL and SR buttons on the Joy Stick are harder to press.
 * 4) The keyboard is very easy to clean, as demonstrated by David Murray (A.K.A.: The 8-Bit Guy).

Videos
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Trivia

 * About a combined 140,000 systems (including the revisions) were sold in Japan and the US.
 * Just about 35,000 of these were sold throughout the US.
 * It has similarities to the unreleased Texas Instruments TI-99/8 (both have a similar design, they also have the same CPU and Video Display Processor)
 * This system got two Japan-only revisions, which are the Tomy Pyuta Jr. and the Tomy Pyuta MK II. The MK II featured an improved keyboard, while the Pyuta Jr. was a console version of the computer without G-BASIC (but retained the graphics program and the necessary keys for games and the graphics program). Both revisions supported the three 3D games, which require an adapter on an original Pyuta.
 * The system has been getting more homebrew games in recent years.