21 replies to this topic

[Toucan]

Well, I just joined this board and it seems very active. More so than rec.games.video.classic is now, what ever happened to that place? Anyway, I've got some TI-99/4A Cartridge Pages on-line that I invite anyone to take a look at. They can be found here: http://www.whtech.com/toucan/ . Hopfully, I will be able to add some info on an Atarisoft Tennis cartridge someone I know how, since it does not seem to be talked about on other pages. In addition to M-Network titles, etc. Keep your eyes peeled for these, maybe over Thanksgiving I can get these games on-line (with a side of Turkey!).

Sincerely,

Bryan Roppolo

e-mail: toucan1@home.se

[SteveW]

Nice site! I really like the instruction manual covers on the Details page. I hope you do that with all your carts. All in all, it's a really well designed site. And welcome aboard AtariAge!

[Toucan]

I just got caught up reading some neat messages on this board. As an interesting note, in 1976 TI first had the plans to make a Video Game Console which is how the TI-99/4 came to be. There was talk also that Milton Bradley was making a video game console and then it became the TI-99/4, which is why MB was one of the first 3rd party companies on board and then also had their "Gamevision" labeled cartridges. The MB-1 or something? Someone on Usenet who worked for MB at the time eluded to this. He might have actually had an MB-1, wonder if it still would work and play the TI games?

[RangerG]

Toucan -

Your webpage looks really good. I love seeing the way games look on different classic systems. The TI games look good, but how does the gameplay compare to say the 5200 or Colecovision? I found a nice TI and the huge expansion port, but I sold it all on Ebay - maybe I'll keep it next time.

Take care,
RG

[NovaXpress]

That's a very well-done site, I love the nice screenshots and info on games I never saw. It will be great seeing it develop.

[Toucan]

Good question. The best answer I can give is to check out Retrogaming Times, they compare ports for other systems and I know the TI has done pretty well over all and won the Gold Medal a few times, in terms of gameplay, graphics, etc. In addtion, I am working with IntelliSteve to review Microsurgeon on the TI to see how he likes it, being an Intellivision fan and also since it came out first on the Intellivision. The one MOST common gripe on the TI games...Joysticks! hehe. Alan Hewston uses 2600 sticks on his TI because of this reason, there are interfaces for them. So if you do have any TI games, be sure to invest in new joysticks! One thing I would have liked to see are the MBX Expansion Joysticks on the TI. This is the gaming accessory Milton Bradley put out that allowed speech recognition, had keypad with overlays, and also foot pedals and the like. The joysticks were 360 degree analog things with rotation balls on the top, very nice. They probably could be interfaced to work on a TI without the MBX, wonder if anyone's tried?

[Christophero Sly]

Toucan, I checked out your TI site when you announced it on DP, but I hadn't visited it for a while. It's coming along very nicely. It looks great!

BTW, what is the latest on that Atarisoft Tennis game?

[Toucan]

Thanks for the comments! I hope over Thanksgiving to really get it going! As to the Atarisoft Tennis, I've progressed so far in hearing that Oliver is having a friend over soon that has a Digital Camera. He's going to take cart pics and screen shots. I don't know the exact timeframe. But it should be pretty soon! Keeping my fingers crossed!

BTW, Check out Donkey Kong on my pages. The TI version is among the elite to have the Pie Factory (I know the Atari 8-Bit had it too).

[Christophero Sly]

Toucan said:

BTW, Check out Donkey Kong on my pages. The TI version is among the elite to have the Pie Factory (I know the Atari 8-Bit had it too).

Yup...IMO, TI Donkey Kong is the best version of Donkey Kong from that era.

[RangerG]

I read Retrogaming Times always and I love Alan's "Faces" column. I will start to read more carefully when he mentions the TI. I really think he could put all those columns in a little book and sell it because he does a great job of fairly assessing each game.

P.S. Does TI DigDug look like a big smurf or is just me?

Take care,
RG

[Toucan]

Never thought of DigDug that way, but yes he does in this version. That's an interesting observation! More reason to try TI Dig-Dug I guess Being a Smurf could be lots of fun!

[SteveW]

I've got most of those games, except for Rotor Raiders, Star Trek, Anteater, and Congo Bongo (i've always wanted that one!) I think I might have a copy of MunchMobile somewhere in a box of junk. I've never really wanted to play it, because I always thought it was a kid's game. Next time I sort through my stuff i'm going to have to look for it.

[The MilkMan]

I saw a TI99/4A at a thrift store for $15. It came with 4 games and thats it. No cables, power supply, or joysticks. I thought about it, then passed. Are these TI's common? Is $15 a good price? How easy are the "hook-ups" to obtain?
The 4 games? They were taped up so you couldn't read the labels.

[Christophero Sly]

The MilkMan said:

I saw a TI99/4A at a thrift store for $15. It came with 4 games and thats it. No cables, power supply, or joysticks. I thought about it, then passed. Are these TI's common? Is $15 a good price? How easy are the "hook-ups" to obtain?  
The 4 games? They were taped up so you couldn't read the labels.

It's a good thing you passed on it. The RF for the TI is proprietary and difficult to find. However, you can build your own composite cable. The PS is also unique and difficult to find separately.

A complete TI with a pile of games can be obtained for very little money on eBay.

[Tempest]

Quote

However, you can build your own composite cable.

I'd like to hear more about this. That RF box SUCKS! Could they have made it any larger? Yeesh!

Tempest

[Christophero Sly]

Tempest said:

Quote

However, you can build your own composite cable.

I'd like to hear more about this. That RF box SUCKS! Could they have made it any larger? Yeesh!

Tempest

I've never built one. I'm lucky to have a standard composite AV cable. Here is a thread that Brian started that has some info on building a composite AV cable.

[JB]

Christophero Sly said:

The MilkMan said:

I saw a TI99/4A at a thrift store for $15. It came with 4 games and thats it. No cables, power supply, or joysticks. I thought about it, then passed. Are these TI's common? Is $15 a good price? How easy are the "hook-ups" to obtain?  
The 4 games? They were taped up so you couldn't read the labels.

It's a good thing you passed on it. The RF for the TI is proprietary and difficult to find.

It's proprietary beause TI, unlike other manufacturers, didn't build a modulator into the machine.
Hence, the (very large) switchbox is a modulator as well.



I know you can build an AV cable rather easily(standard plugs make life SO much easier), but I don't know hte pinout off-hand.

[Toucan]

That's interesting, I never knew people were having trouble finding these RF modulators. I have a basement full of TI stuff and in it are TI consoles with RF modulators, power supplies, etc. I can sell the setup for $10 if anyone needs the system with plug ins. Now there's an idea for the website, maybe have an on-line store or something...

[sku_u]

Toucan said:

That's interesting, I never knew people were having trouble finding these RF modulators. I have a basement full of TI stuff and in it are TI consoles with RF modulators, power supplies, etc. I can sell the setup for $10 if anyone needs the system with plug ins. Now there's an idea for the website, maybe have an on-line store or something...

I really enjoy your site. It's very informative. I'm thinking of getting back into the TI. Having an online store through your site would be a great idea.

[Toucan]

Thanks for the comments! I really hope over Thanksgiving I can update these pages more, in addition to this weekend. I have to also make pages for the MBX system add-on and more, there's a ton of info to post and I just hope I get the time to finish it off. What I would love to do is make this the most complete database, as I have a few titles I know about not listed in too many other places. Those being games like "Astrochase" by Parker Brothers and "Vortex" by Spectravideo.

BTW, I see I got my first joystick below my name! Time to celebrate!

[SteveW]

I got a composite cable from Montgomery Ward's around 1984 so I could hook up my TI to an amber monitor. The cable was also compatible with the Atari 8-bit series and the C=64, too. It had three cables coming off it, one for video and one for audio. The third cable wasn't used, and the TI wouldn't start if that unused RCA plug was plugged into anything, if I recall.

Some of my TI games I got as floppy disk backups from Tigercub Software. Games like Arcturus and such. I also got most of my cartridge games from Triton's great mail order catalogs. I still have most of those catalogs, too! I'm a serious pack rat.

Do you know where I could locate disk backups of some rare cartridges? Or even prototypes like Germ Patrol? I'd love to be able to start adding to my TI collection again.

Also, do you know what happened to MICROpendium magazine? I subscribed for years, but they went bi-monthly and didn't give me 12 issues, I only got about 7 or so that year. I stopped subscribing then. I heard that the owners shut it down and that another guy was trying to start it up again, but I haven't heard anything else.

[Toucan]

The best guy to contact for cartridge dumps would have to be Charles Good at cgood@nicsweb.com . He has a ton of good stuff, and can tell you also where to find other things. As to any kind of prototypes, usually they can be found if you track down the programmers of them. Other than that either the people hold on to them or are not avaliable to talk about them. MICROpendium is gone as you stated and there has not yet been any replacement. I can tell you that the only thing close to a magazine for the TI would be the TI Listserver run by Tom Wills (tom@wills.net). Other than Charles and Tom, Googling the Internet would probably the alternative to find some of these things. You might already know about these two guys, but I thought I would post this just in case.

BTW, For ANYONE looking for TI Roms to emulate or things for the TI on-line, the best resource would have to be ftp.whtech.com . It's a public FTP site where people upload their TI things from their computer. In the MESS folder are TONS of Roms for the TI. I was actually also thinking for putting up these Roms on my website for download in the Detail Page for the game. A thought that would be nice, kind of like a collection of everything you can find for that particular cartridge.