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Toucan

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    New Smyrna Beach, FL
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    Video Games
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    Mouse Trap
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    Space Panic

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  1. I actually had one that looked exactly like this. I almost forgot about it.
  2. That was the Gemini that was pictured earlier that became the MBX which was scrapped and became the MBX. This could have been an earlier version the Gemini possibly. The Gemini has some other titles that you might recognize, like Bigfoot, Turtle Maze, Baseball, etc. However, this could have been an even earlier incarnation of that. I also have to wonder if this could also be a toy and not an actual video game unit, but one made to look like one for kids to play with. I only say that since the unit seems very thin as do the carts (and there's not much room for electronics when you see it with the keyboard removed), and the carts store nicely inside and its made for 4 which seem like that would be the complete set.
  3. I've always wondered this, but what is the significance of the name Not Polyoptics? Obviously they are not polyoptic, but what is the meaning of that? Was always interested in the name of the company and if anyone knows why they chose that name.
  4. That was a good one. I remember that one which was a blast to play.
  5. Sorry to hear this. Looks like his obit is published here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/keir-moon-obituary?id=51782290 I always wondered what his first name was, and now in his passing we learn something new.
  6. I think I remember hearing that since there was no semicolon key on the 99/4, it lacked a key to rest your pinky finger on, which is why they made that overlay with the dummy key. However, maybe the original intention was that people could rest all their fingers on the keys and the space key would in turn provide some functionality for touch typists after adjusting to being one finger over?
  7. Also, here's his old website for kicks: https://web.archive.org/web/20010401110318/http://mrmoon.com/
  8. Here's a good message from Mr Moon to Bill Gaskill in 1999: -----Original Message----- From: Mister Moon [mailto:mister_html@mrmoon.com] <mailto:[mailto:mister_html@mrmoon.com]> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 9:02 AM To: lucky7@gj.net <mailto:lucky7@gj.net> Subject: TI99/4 Dear Bill, This morning, on a lark, I did a web search for 'Moonbeam Software' and discovered your website. I was surprised (and I must say quite pleased) to see that you have images of most of the box fronts of the the Moonbeam line of software. Due to a fire in 1990 which destroyed everything I owned, I was left without any of my TI99/4A software or equipment until a friend gave me an original Moonbeam Software box, still shrunk-wrapped, of 'Moonbeam Express'. Although I have not used a TI99/4A in a very, very long time, I still have an enormous amount of respect for the computer. It was, in fact, my first computer for which I still have my original bill of sale: dated 11/05/1981 from 47th Street Photo for $369.95. A reluctant purchase, it was inspired by my friend, Richard Guenette (subsequent co-author of 'Easy Programming With the Ti-99/4A'), who wanted to play with a 'micro-computer' but couldn't afford one himself. Even though I was not interested in owning a computer, Richard convinced me that I could use it to do my bookkeeping on, so I took the plunge. In a couple of months I had taught myself TI-BASIC and had written a bookeeping system using two cassette recorders as the storage medium. For better or worse, I had become 'hooked' and now, almost eighteen years later, I am still sitting in front of a computer screen more often than not... One thing I would like to know is, on your timeline 1982 page, how did you know that: > Hi-Fi Exchange, Northampton, MA., changes its name to Moonbeam Software Mr Moon
  9. I've never seen it either, so I would be interested in a scanned version as well.
  10. This is sad news indeed. I actually first talked with Mr. Moon in 1999. He had just joined the TI Listserver and people were excited to have someone like him on board. He eventually built a Listserver archive as the Listserver at the time was a mailing list only at The River (before the OLUG was created on eGroups/Yahoo). He came up with a really amazing searchable archive of Listserver messages going back to 1996. So I got to see messages posted by people before I joined in 1998. I met up with him again around 2003 and he helped build another archive, but this time of TI-99 eBay auctions. It would grab completed TI auctions along with images, categorize them, etc. and put them in a searchable database. He was into something called MivaScript at the time which is how he accomplished building these databases. Both of these were amazing and I believe it was his way of giving even more to the TI community. Just wanted to share my memories of him. P.S. I did have a boxed copy of Cavern Quest for the longest time on the top of my nightstand since I liked the looks of his packaging! His games and packaging were definitely more on par with what the companies that put out cartridge based software were doing at the time. Most of the smaller tape publishers seemed to go the plastic baggie route.
  11. If TI put an LED on the beige console, my guess is it would have been purple to go with the new theme. Would love to see that with the purple/beige joysticks.
  12. Saw this mentioned over on the Intellivision boards and wanted to link here. Apparently in 1978 Mattel was considering joining TI and Milton Bradley in offering a system based off the 99/4 as I guess they were interested in achieving some sort of standardization in the industry. See page 5: https://papaintellivision.com/pdfs/CCF10232011_00016.pdf
  13. Which in turn brings me to this. If that was Super Zaxxon Ross Beers was talking about. How many Super titles did the TI have. I can think of Super Demon Attack, Super Space, and Super Duper. I'm glad we are having this conversation since it shows where there were some holes I didn't dig deeper into, like (Super) Zaxxon, Battlezone, Spy Hunter, etc. The issue with Ross Beers was that after my initial conversation he dropped off, so I was left hanging on any further info, though I did try to get more. Most likely the best bet would be to find other programmers from Rich & Rich/Syndein that worked on any system to see if they know about the TI conversions more. Which reminds me of the first thing I asked programmers that found. It was not what did you program or what was it like to work for the company, but instead the all important "do you remember any others that worked at the company on TI games?". I found this was the most important thing to ask, since sometimes life would get in the way for the people I would contact and this way I would have leads to build on to find more info/games. Never wanted to have a dead end, so I always made sure I got more leads from each lead I contacted. The last email from Ross Beers had this interesting tidbit. Needless to say TI Dig-Dug really got around:
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