Reverse Engineering a VTech Socrates: An 80s Hybrid Game Console/Computer Adventure

This blog post details the author's reverse engineering journey of a late-80s VTech Socrates hybrid game console/computer. Starting with a poorly-conditioned eBay purchase, the author cleans, disassembles, and discovers its Toshiba-heavy internals, including a Z80 CPU and an expansion edge connector. An AV mod is designed and built to overcome dim video output. Gameplay ensues, leading to ROM analysis within the MAME emulator to understand cartridge loading and memory mapping. While encountering quirks in creating a simple 'Hello World' program, the author successfully draws pixels to the screen, laying the groundwork for further reverse engineering and development.