Why did we do this?

About this project

2002

Project begins

Learn More - 2002 eBay listing

2006

This may seem to some like a complete waste of time, but to others it will probably mean a lot. If you ever owned one of these toys during the 80s then this page will make you smile. Upon realising one day just how elusive any information regarding Maximus was, a friend and I (who both vaguley remembered owning one) set about trying to track one down.

At the time there was absolutely no reference on Google nor eBay. We went to great lengths scouring the reaches of the Internet trying to find just one morstle of a reference. We even approached PlaySkool who wrote back claiming to not know about the product. Eventually we thought that we might have been getting confused until a chance search on eBay ended up in a successful auction and the acquisition of said toy.

Four years on and Googling 'PlaySkool Maximus' does actually return some results however I do not believe there is any website that details the Maximus product to the depth we have done so below.

Better late than never, we present you with 'Maximus: The Holy Grail'.

Learn More - 2006 original site

2019

Website gets a face-lift.

Nerdy stuff

Tech out like it's 2002 !!1

All sounds were recorded through a pair of headphones (as a mic), through a mixer, into a soundblaster Live and into .wav format using Absolute MP3 recorder.

Learn More - SoundBlaster Live! Learn More - WAV format

The files were then edited using Soundforge and saved at 44,100hz, 16bit Stereo.

Learn More - Magix Sound Forge

All images were scanned using an Epson Perfection 640U at 9600dpi. All images are unedited.

Learn More - Epson Perfection 640U

All sounds and images were taked from the item featured in the eBay auction.


A note from Rob - ReadMe.txt

"This CD marks the end of an era. Looking for this bloody toy has taken up a lot of our time and energy. Our job now is to document every aspect of it so that anyone else who is looking for info on it can get it without going to all the trouble we did.

Steph, it has been fun. I don't know whether to laugh or cry now that I have one...

BTW, Thanks... it was a wicked 21'st birthday present :)

I hereby declare Maximus the most elusive, rare and hard to find thing I have ever had to track down as of today (31.07.02)

well done for finding him :)

...now we've just got to do that damn website!"

Playskool is an American company that produces educational toys and games for children. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The last five letters of the brand name are a sensational spelling of "school."

Click here for more about Hasbro's Playskool brand

"All images were scanned using an Epson Perfection 640U at 9600dpi. All images are unedited."

Playskool Maximus Images

The COP421L is one model of a family of microcontrollers from National Semiconductor. It has 1K of 8-bit ROM and 64 4-bit nibbles of RAM.

Click here for more about COP421L

"All sounds were recorded through a pair of headphones (as a mic), through a mixer, into a soundblaster Live and into .wav format using Absolute MP3 recorder. The files were then edited using Soundforge and saved at 44,100hz, 16bit Stereo."

Playskool Maximus Sounds