David Murray, commonly known as The 8-Bit Guy, is an American

retrocomputing Retrocomputing is the use of older computer hardware and software in modern times. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable hardw ...

enthusiast and

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

who runs a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel under the same name.

History

Murray launched his YouTube channel in 2006 under the username adric22. He worked on repairing and

refurbishing Refurbishment may refer to: *Refurbishment (electronics) *Antiques restoration *Automotive restoration See also *Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property *Reconstruction (architecture) * Remanufacturing *Renovation Ren ...

iBook G3 and G4 laptops and later on MacBooks, buying and selling them on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

, and later from his own website. He called himself the iBook Guy. He made videos to show how he repairs some of the equipment, but had made his living with the actual repairs and resales. In 2011, he shut down his repair business. Five months after creating his channel, David and his brother created a channel called MyPCHelp. The channel would mostly upload computer tutorials for the

average Joe The terms average Joe, ordinary Joe, Joe Sixpack, Joe Lunchbucket, Joe Snuffy, Joe Blow, Joe Schmo (for males) and ordinary Jane, average Jane, and plain Jane (for females), are used primarily in North America to refer to a completely average p ...

to understand. Murray noticed his general videos about computing were attracting more subscribers. In 2015, he renamed his primary channel to "The 8-Bit Guy" and focused on

. He says an average episode takes about 15 hours to produce. Murray ran several different YouTube channels with topics such as

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...

s from the 1980s, coin collecting, and

airgun An air gun or airgun is a gun that fires projectiles pneumatically with compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized ''without'' involving any chemical reactions, in contrast to a firearm, which pressurizes gases ''chemica ...

s, although the latter two did not have as much popularity as his retrocomputing videos so he stopped uploading videos to them. Murray was dissatisfied with his long used in-home filming studio, so in 2020 he began construction on a small building in his backyard which would hold his new studio. In 2021, the new studio was finished and became Murray's primary filming location.

Content

The channel is known for its videos on restoration of old computers, and demonstration of old technology. Murray has also developed video games designed to run on old computers, including ''Planet X1'' for the

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PE ...

, ''Planet X2'' for

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, ''Planet X3'' for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

and ''Attack of the PETSCII Robots'' for the Commodore PET. He has demonstrated the development of these games on his YouTube channel. In addition, Murray is working on the Commander X16, an 8 bit computer inspired by the Commodore 64, made using off the shelf modern parts. Murray is also passionate about electric cars, and has published videos about them on his channel. Murray also co-hosts the GeekBits

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

alongside his brother Mike Murray and friend Craig Bowes.

Personal life

Murray lives in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in Texas. Murray's second cousin was musician Dimebag Darrell . Murray used to work for

AST Research AST Research, Inc., later doing business as AST Computer, was a personal computer manufacturer. It was founded in 1980 in Irvine, California by Albert Wong, Safi Qureshey, and Thomas Yuen, as an initialism of their first names. In the 1980s, AS ...

as a tech support specialist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, David American video game programmers Entertainers from Dallas Living people Technology YouTubers Year of birth missing (living people) YouTube channels launched in 2006 YouTubers from Texas