The 8-Bit Guy

David Murray (born: ), better known online as The 8-Bit Guy, is an American YouTuber and game developer for retro home computers. He is known for his videos discussing and repairing vintage electronics from the 1980s-2000s. He joined YouTube on July 25, 2006. David is the brother of Mike Murray who runs The Geek Pub https://www.thegeekpub.com/about-the-geek-pub/ .
==Beginning==
Murray was born on June 25, 1975 and grew up in Mansfield, Texas. As a child, he got his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20. He graduated from Mansfield High School in 1993.
Murray was first employed at Mouser Electronics and worked in their technical support from 1994 to 1996. Murray was then employed at AST Research and worked in their technical support from 1996 to early 1997 when AST Research was bought by Samsung. He was retained by Samsung and continued to be employed to them from early 1997 to late 1997 when he and his colleagues were let go due to Samsung closing all of it's American facilities due to competition with other companies and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. From 1997 to 2000, Murray worked at AT&T installing cable modems and from 2000 to 2005, Murray was working at a computer store as a service manager. In 2006, he became employed at FWT in their IT department and worked there until 2017.
==Creating adric22 ==
David made his YouTube channel on July 25, 2006. At this time, the channel was named adric22 (the combination of his favorite Doctor Who character and his age at the time of coming up with the name in 1997). This is also the same username he uses for his eBay account and various other websites online. He really liked obtaining broken iBook laptops, repairing them, then selling them on websites like eBay and Craigslist. He uploaded his first video onto the channel on March 24, 2007, which was an S-Video mod for the Commodore Amiga. Prior to this, he was involved with another channel, MyPCHelp, from December 2006 to March 2007, that was also run by other members of his family. Later on, in 2008, he made a video explaining his refurbished iBooks and how he was better than the competitors. Around this time, David started calling himself "TheiBookGuy", despite the channel name still being adric22. As time went on, when iBooks became harder to find, he switched to MacBooks for repair and sale.
==Becoming TheiBookGuy==
Sometime in 2010, David officially changed the name of his channel from adric22 to TheiBookGuy. He did this because he was making more videos about Apple iBooks, and wanted a more fitting username, and YouTube did not support changing of usernames until around this point.
In 2013, David decided monitize his channel. In addition, he decided to invest in some better video equipment and convert an unused bedroom in his house into a studio. He originally created the studio for his other channel Cranial Pasta. Although the design of the studio was intended for that channel, he would also use the studio room for his main channel TheiBookGuy, as well as his three other channels (awesomeairguns, TheBullionChannel, & 8-Bit Keys).
== Becoming The 8-Bit Guy==
In August 2015, he once again changed his username, this time to The 8-Bit Guy, which is what it still is now. He did this because he hadn't made a video relating to iBooks or MacBooks for a few years at that point, and the content on his channel was now focused on 8-Bit computers and such. After this, David would abandoned awesomeairguns, TheBullionChannel, & Cranial Pasta for several reasons, though he kept 8-Bit Keys active.
==Working for YouTube full time==
In January 2017, David announced that he would be quitting his office job and be working on YouTube full time. In February 2017, his final day at the office job came, and after that, he was officially a full time entrepreneur.
==Current state==
Currently, he makes various videos relating to vintage electronics. He'll demonstrate these products, modernize them, restore them to new condition, and various other things. He has no set video making schedule, making videos whenever he can.
On February 19, 2021, David announced that new videos would be put on hold due to a water pipe bursting in his house. A winter storm had hit Texas a few days earlier, and David and his family were forced to evacuate due to a power outage. When David returned to his house after power was restored, he discovered that a pipe had burst due to the subfreezing temperatures and most of the house was flooded. This forced David and his family to move their non-ruined belongings into his newly-built studio building and garage, and David and his family had to temporarily move next door to his mother's house (it was his parents' home, but his father passed in 2019) while the water damage is remediated.
David, his brother Mike, and fellow friend Craig have launched a podcast called GeekBits where they discuss retro computing but also other things they refer to as "off topic" from their main channels. The podcast is available on YouTube, iTunes, Google, and Spotify.
On January 2, 2024, David announced that revenue on his channel had fallen significantly and as such he will reduce the amount of videos he makes, shifting some focus to the X16 project and the rest to a job he took at a local arcade venue in Bedford, TX.
==Controversies==
=== Fisher Price "I Can Play" keyboard===
On January 11, 2017, David uploaded a video on 8-Bit Keys titled "Destruction of the Fisher Price "I Can Play" keyboard and review" where he reviewed a Fisher Price "I Can Play" keyboard and three of it's software cartridges. Near the end of the video, he attempts to do a disassembly of the keyboard, but wasn't able to locate all of the screws. David ended up using Dremel saw to cut into the plastic and rip off some of the keys in an attempt to pry the keyboard open. Eventually, he located the missed screws and was able to open it up, but the keyboard was damaged beyond repair due to the damage revieved from David and he ultimately threw it in the trash.
===Does Artificial Intelligence already exist video===
On April 9, 2017, David uploaded a now-deleted video titled "Does Artificial Intelligence already exist", which caused a lot of backlash as a lot of people interpreted the video as David trying to insinuate a conspiracy that AI may already exist. Another problem about the video which angered people was David claiming to be able to create AI within 20 years. The day after the video was uploaded, the video was deleted, and he addressed the controversy surrounding the video in a post on Patreon. 
===Cartridges video===
On May 31, 2017, David uploaded a video titled "Relabelling and Restoring Game Cartridges" where he explored various methods of relabeling tattered ROM cartridges. In the video, he explained his stance on relabelling. The video reignited a controversy among collectors whether or not one should restore vintage cartridges.
===Donations===
On May 2, 2018, David released a video showing the donations he received for the month of April 2018. The donation he received of the Kaypro from Jill Hazlett had cost $82 to ship and it had a note mentioning the original owners of the Kaypro 2000 (Paul and Jeanne Catalano) and David did nothing to commemorate or mention the passing away of the original owners, which angered many people, and the previous owner proceeded to rant about that in the comment section of that video. David later apologized, stating that he forgot to mention their names.
===Building a new studio video===
On September 12, 2020, David released a video where it was Part 1 of him building a new studio. During construction, the electrician for the new studio came over to run a conduit between the house and studio to deliver electricity. In that video, he commented "I didn't expect Morgan Freeman would be my electrician". While some viewers enjoyed the joke, others were offended and accused him of being racist. David later removed the offensive comments.
===IBMgate===
On September 25, 2020, David released a video where he finds a rare IBM 7496 workstation computer at Computer Reset, a large computer warehouse in Dallas. While attempting to diagnose the computer, he bridged a proprietary connection on the power supply using a paperclip in an attempt to turn the computer on without the monitor, causing a short circuit. While diagnosing the power supply, David took a rotary tool in order to defeat the security screws in order to take the cover off, which resulted in gouges on the cover. Both actions drew significant criticism to the point where David disabled comments on that particular video. Some people referred the IBM controversy as "IBMgate".
During the IBM controversy, some people unearthed his abandoned awesomeairguns channel and it's associated videos. While some of the videos were controversial (like a video addressing gun control Moms Demand Action, an anti-gun violence organization, which he said was running a “smear campaign” against a gun rights group he left years ago), the most controversial one was a 2013 video where he and thousands of other Texans were opening carrying automatic rifles to protest a Texas law.
On October 1, 2020, David released an unlisted follow-up video named "Response to angry mob about IBM workstation and other issues." In it, he apologized for the rushed and botched IBM 7496 restoration. He said that he had been working on a secret project with Activision that involved Tandy 1000's and that he wanted to release something to make up for the lack of videos. He did defended himself by stating that the paperclip technique he used had worked in the past for other machines and that he didn't have the correct security screwdriver for the machine at the time (he could have order it, but it would have arrived late), and that he would have not released the video had he known how bad it would have been recieved. He also addressed the awesomeairguns situation by stating that the channel was long abandoned for 6 years and that the political views of his that were in the video were not in his main channel because he felt that it isn't right if he were to express them on his main channel to avoid bias. He also mentioned the Morgan Freeman joke from the new studio actually came from the Electrician himself who stated to David that people in the streets would point that out to him. He did promise not to rush repairs and to not try to make any jokes that could offend someone. While some didn't forgive him, most did. Since then, there hasn't been any new controversy.
==Subscriber milestones==
===The 8-Bit Guy ===
*100,000 subscribers: 2016
*1 million subscribers: November 26, 2019
===8-Bit Keys ===
*100,000 subscribers (8-Bit Keys): July 19, 2017https://youtu.be/QCAIIV5JV7Q
==Trivia==
*David's older brother Mike Murray is also a YouTuber and his channel is called The Geek Pub. He also runs the very popular related website TheGeekPub.com. Like David, Mike lives in the Fort Worth area; however, Mike lives in Keller to the north while David lives in Kennedale to the south.
*David and Mike are both involved in Time Rift Arcade, an arcade site in Bedford, Texas. According to the ABOUT/FAQ page, David owned a percentage of the arcade. Visitors can find him roaming around the site regularly. Additionally, Mike Murray buys and sells arcade cabinets, which they can email him.https://timeriftarcade.com/about-faq/
**To make ends meet, David is also involved in restoring and fixing arcade cabinets on the Time Rift Arcade channel. 
*David and Mike both worked together at Mouser Electronics and AST Computer. Mike becoming employed first, and then getting David a job later. David later reveals that his father-in-law also worked at AST.
*David can understand, read, and speak German as he took German classes in High School and even participated in a student exchange program at his last year of High School.
*Besides The 8-Bit Guy and 8-Bit Keys, David also has four other channels named Awesome Airguns, The Bullion Channel, Cranial Pasta and MyPCHelp, but they are all abandoned. He abandoned The Bullion Channel and Cranial Pasta because not a lot a people watched the videos on those channels while Awesome Airguns was abandoned because the entire channel got demonetized for his politcal beliefs and for featuring airguns and his real guns/rifles. MyPCHelp was previously run by David and other family members from December 2006 until March 2007, which was when he started posting videos to his main channel adric22 (now known as The 8-Bit Guy) instead from then onwards. Mike Murray later made 2 more videos for MyPCHelp in August and September 2007 before abandoning it in favor of his own channel TheGeekPub and since then, MyPCHelp has been abandoned.
*David likes to drive electric cars. He has previously owned an Eagle Talon (in which he replaced the engine with an electric motor), a Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, Fiat 500e and a Tesla Model 3. He currently owns a Chevrolet Volt.
*In many videos, David has shown his main breadbin Commodore 64, which is of the "slim" variety. He also says that it has one of the best video and audio quality of any of C64's in his collection. It has seen some changes and disassembly/reassembly in the past.
**It first appeared in a October 2013 video called "Old computers did it better!", where it makes an brief appearence when David opens the box of the breadbin C64 in order to get the manual to show that the C64 manuals were better than modern ones. David used a C64C for the majority of the video.
**The video "Protect your old game consoles and computers from UV light" from November 2017 was the first proper appearence of the breadbin C64 where it appeared in the shelves of his office room along with the rest of his old computers he had at the time as David had set up a computer museum.
**It was used in the last iBook Guy intro used from "Apple Keyboard Evolution 1983-2015 Part 1" of March 2015 to "How "oldschool" graphics work, part 2 - Apple and Atari" of August 2015 (Subsquent intros as The 8-But Guy use the C64C)
**It appeared in the February 16, 2016 "8-Bit Keys" video, "Installing dual SID chips in your Commodore 64 with SID 2 SID", where David assembled and installed the SID 2 SID for his breadbin C64. He pulled out a working 6581 SID chip from a dead breadbin C64, and had to cut the video chip shield and bracket to get the SIS 2 SID working. He also soldered a wire from the SID 2 SID to the cartridge port so the computer can reconize the extra SID chip.
**While not seen, it was mentioned in the June 12, 2016 8-Bit Keys video "Use your Gameboy as a MIDI instrument", where David took out the VIC-II chip from the same dead breadbin C64 that he got the SID chip from in order to trade it for a Arduinoboy.
**It was the used in the video "How a Character LCD Works - Part 2" of May 2017 to show that a LCD can be used with the Commodore's user port. Unfortunately, the power supply of the breadbin Commodore 64 went bad during production and fried David's Speech Synthesizer, 2 of his LCD's, and the computer itself. During the disassembly, the modifications made to the video chip shield and bracket were still visible, but the SID 2 SID had been removed, the original 6581 SID chip had been replaced back into it's original socket, and the wire connecting the SID 2 SID to the Cartridge port pin had been cut. David ended up using his C64C for the rest of the video, along with it's good power supply.
**While not seen, it was mentioned in the video "8-Bit Donation Unboxing May 2017" where David recieved 2 C64 Savers to protect his remaining C64's from any failing power supplies.
**While not seen, it was mentioned in the video "8-Bit Donation Unboxing June 2017" where David recieved a breadin C64 motherboard as a donor board to reair his own C64, as well as a intact breadbin C64 (which had a memory problem).
**The breadbin C64 returned in the video "Modern games for Vintage systems: Assembloids, Bear Essentials, and Bittboy!" of August 2017, where the computer had been repair and was fully funtional. It was used to demonstrate the homebrew game "The Bear Essentials".
**It briefly appeared at the end of the video "1982 Commodore Christmas Demo" from December 2017, where it was used (along with a 1541 drive) to play the 1982 Commodore Christmas Demo in David's living room.
**It appeared in his "200th Episode Special - A Day in my Life" video from February 2018, where it and it's box was still on the shelves of his office room along with the rest of his old computers and electronics he had at the time as David had set up a computer museum. As his computer collection had grown, David had to put the C64 clockwise and on top of his C16 in order to fit his vintage electronics.
**It appeared in his "Updates on Previous 8-Bit Guy Projects" video from April 2018, where David confirmed that "How a Character LCD Works - Part 3" will be coming out soon. It also appears in his office room desk as David was still using it to make copies of Planet X2 for sale.
**It was prominately used in his "Commodore History Part 3 - The Commodore 64" video from May 2018 talking about the history of the C64. Both the breadbin C64 and the C64C are featured heavily in the video. In the video, he confirmed that the main breadbin C64 that he uses is of the "slim" variety.
**While not seen, it was mentioned in the May 2018 video "Restoration - The Worst VIC-20 I've ever seen - Part 1" where David pulled out the same dead breadbin C64 that he took out the SID and VIC-II chip from in an attempt to restore the keyboard of a VIC-20. Unfortunately, the keys and plunger of the dead breadbin didn't match the VIC-20 and David was unwilling to sacrifise his main breadbin C64 or his other donor C64 from the June 2017 donation. In Part 2, David recieved a damaged breadbin C64 top case and keyboard whose keys and plunger did match the VIC-20.
**It appeared in his June 2018 video "How a Character LCD Works - Part 3", where David showed that a LCD can be used with the Commodore's cartridge port. In the video, David also brought up the power supply failiure from Part 2 and is seen removing the fried chips from the speech synthesiser, as well as unboxing new LCD screens to replace the old fried ones. The motherboard from the speech synthesiser is later seen being used as part of a prototype board, before being replaced by a more proper LCD cartridge board.
**It appears in his July 2018 video "Replica Sound Cards - AdLib, Innovation SSI-2001, and SwinSID Ultimate", where David borrows the 6581 SID chip from the main breadbin C64 in order to use in his replica Innovation SSI-2001 card. While open, the motherboard still sports the modifications from the SID 2 SID video, but compared to the Part 2 of the LCD video, the capaciters & computer fuse had been clearly replaced and the video chip shield had been placed loosely, suggesting that the VIC-II chip had also been replaced. In the same video, David also demostrated the SwinSID Ultimate, a SID replacemt for the C64 and compared it with the 6581 SID chip. He later returned the SID chip to the C64.
**It briefly appears in his February 2020 video "Commodore 64 Restoration and new retrobrite technique", where David compares the breadbin C64 that he's restoring to his main one. In the same video, he took a spring and 2 plungers from same damaged breadbin C64 top case and keyboard that he used to repair the VIC-20 in order to repair the C64 in the video.
**It appeared in his "Tour of Home Network 2020" video from March 2020, where it and it's box was again still on the shelves of his office room along with the rest of his old computers and electronics he had at the time as David had set up a computer museum. As his computer collection had grown yet again, David had to put the C64 and the C16 on its sides in order to fit more of his vintage electronics.
**It briefly appears in his November 2022 video "Commodore SX-64 repair and trivia", where David used his main breadbin C64 to trobleshoot and repair his SX-64. David ultimately took out the PLA and SID chips from the breadbin C64 in order to repair his SX-64.
**It appears in his February 2023 video "The Evolution64 - Is it worth the money?", where David compares the Evolution64 to his main breadbin C64. In the video, the video chip shield had been replaced by an intact one. However, the cut bracket still appears. As David had removed the PLA and SID chips from the breadbin C64 to repair his SX-64 he pulled the corresponding chips from the donor C64 from the June 2017 donation to put them in his main breadbin C64. Afterwards, he borrowed the same chips and the VIC-II chip to temporary use in his Evo64 before returning them to his main breadbin C64.
* In an episode of 8-Bit Keys covering the Casio Superdrums keyboards, David mentions that he is a second cousin of the late Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. He mentioned this because he had gotten drumsticks from him. https://youtu.be/zJmhM3-uq4Y?t=248
*His current intro music is called Morning Dew, which was made by Anders Enger Jensen.
**Interestingly, the 8-Bit Guy actually has worked with Anders Enger Jensen before on game projects like Planet X3.
==References==
Category:Tech YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2006
Category:One million subscribers