InfernalKeith

April 7

I actually popped in here to start a thread about KIDware... do you have any of their old tapes? I have a pile of them I haven't gone through in ages, but I feel like they had at least a few that were geared toward very young kids. Also trying to remember "At the Zoo," if it was for older children or not.

December 13, 2023

Curious if anyone else pre-ordered this game and got one?

September 10, 2023

8 hours ago, Tursi said:

Hey, if we could slap an AtariSoft logo on them, I'd happily go for some new titles.

I know it was a Parker Brothers conversion back in the day, but if one of you master coders gives me a good Atarisoft Gyruss for the 99/4A, I'll toe whatever corporate line you tell me to.

September 8, 2023

The community suffers more from a pervasive "you're not giving this to me for free fast enough" mentality more than it ever will at the hands of our Corporate Overlords, and that's been the case as long as I can remember.

September 8, 2023

I just fail to see how this is any different than the situation right now, and since day one of this forum. You're always going to exist online at the whim of someone. Given that reality, it seems weird to take a hostile stance to someone with a track record of being in our corner.

If we're just now deciding to build in backups and redundancy, after everything the TI community has seen since 1978, that's kind of on us at this point.

September 8, 2023

Every forum is temporary. Every format is temporary. Someone should have been archiving things for posterity from day one. If someone on a Compuserve forum in 1982 said "this place will be here forever!" they'd have been laughed off the face of the earth at 300 baud.

The fact that this place has been this stable, for this long, is a minor miracle for which we should be grateful. If it eventually goes the way of Yahoo Groups, Usenet, Delphi, TEXNET, and the library of Alexandria, we should be ready for that.

But let's also not burn the place down pre-emptively. There's no reason to throw the guy under the bus who's kept a roof over our head for two decades and is working hard to keep it there for another two.

August 26, 2023

5 hours ago, 99V said:

Is someone modifying Rampage? That's a no-no

It's okay, we renamed it Ramphage.

August 17, 2023

I've been waiting to really do a deep dive (not worried about bugs, just super busy) and I realized I waited long enough that the bug fix report became a spoiler ("there's a WHAT in this game??").

Time to get into it!

August 17, 2023

I think the difficulty curve in Parsec is great. One of the reasons Barrage and Dragonflyer/Spot Shot are two of my favorite third-party 80s games is their curve -- they both ease you into the action and then wind up pretty frantic.

Outside the arcade realm, I love Not Polyoptics' Khe Sanh because it has a similar arc, even at its slow pace. You start off thinking "how hard can this be?" and by the time your "week" of gameplay comes to a merciful end, the whole playfield is a disaster and everything's spiraled out of control.

August 1, 2023

10 hours ago, 99V said:

Hi PP,

It would be funny if, as your health goes down in the game, you would "forget" where you've been so some of the rooms would go back to question marks. Not trying to edit your game --just something funny that popped in my head.

I actually did that in my Star Trek game. As damage increased for each type of scanner I had (there were 4), they would stay off longer and longer, until it was off 9 clicks out of 10 or completely off at 10/10. They only got fixed by docking at a star base or base station.

I like that mechanic in a game. I had an Amiga game called Captain Blood, I don't remember all the particulars of it, but as your health declined your 'hand' that clicked on your ship's controls got shakier and less accurate, so it got progressively harder to play as you weakened.

July 31, 2023

Hey Tom! Welcome!

Did you and your brother make any other games besides this one? Did you "ride it out" with the TI or move on to another system?

I'm a big Not Polyoptics geek (possibly the only one on earth) so it's cool that you're here. PixelPedant is a user who's been really pushing the limits of TI BASIC recently, and finding ways to make it do amazing things. Check out his "Hells Halls" game if you get a chance, he has some good Youtube videos of it in action.

July 22, 2023

[four months later]

Unhuman: here it sits, broken hearted. Only offer's where it started.

June 28, 2023

I can't believe we missed out on some of this quality stuff...

June 28, 2023

4 hours ago, WhataKowinkydink said:

It makes you wonder how much of this went on then (and probably still does).

Totally unrelated, but watch for "The Producers: The Video Game," coming from my design studio April 15 of next year.

June 27, 2023

This is probably of interest to only a very few collectors, but I was researching a title from ALA Software, a company known for making some very low-quality games for the 99/4A back in the day and selling them in plastic 'clamshell' boxes. I'd found one for the Commodore 64 called 'Techno Sport Toboggan' and, upon loading it, found it to be just as bad as the ALA games I've played on the 99/4A and Vic 20.

A Google search turned up this very long and boring legal document, from someone who'd apparently invested in the game solely as a tax writeoff. The gist of it is that these games were never intended to be any good, and were barely released, then wildly overvalued so investors could write off a loss.

That explains a lot! I don't think "Dungeon Key," the only TI game I own from ALA, would have passed muster as a type-in game in any of the magazines at the time.

Again, of limited interest to most, but I found this a fascinating wrinkle in the story of a company that never made sense to me.

Copy-and-paste below, because the site I found this on is about to go behind a paywall.

MEMORANDUM FINDINGS OF FACT AND OPINION

WRIGHT, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in and additions to petitioner's Federal income tax as follow:¹

                                                         Additions to Tax
                                               ---------------------------------
                                                  Sec.         Sec.         Sec.
Year1                             Deficiency   6653(a)(1)   6653(a)(2)      6659

1980 ..........................   $4,898.17      $244.91         2       $1,469.45
1981 ..........................    5,791.00       289.55         2        1,737.30
1982 ..........................      934.83        46.74         2           --
1983 ..........................    6,108.00       305.40         2        1,832.40

1 Increased interest under sec. 6621(c) was imposed.

2 50 percent of the interest payable with respect to the portion of the underpayment attributable to negligence.

After concessions, the issues for decision are:

(1) Whether petitioner is entitled to claimed deductions and a claimed investment tax credit for taxable year 1983 in connection with his participation in the Century Concepts, Inc., Master Video Game Leasing Program. We hold that he is not.

(2) Whether petitioner is liable for the negligence additions to tax under section 6653(a)(1) and (2) for the taxable years at issue. We hold that he is.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly. The stipulation of facts and the attached exhibits are incorporated herein. Petitioner resided in Corpus Christi, Texas, at the time the petition was filed in the instant case.

In 1983, petitioner participated in the Century Concepts, Inc. Master Video Game Leasing Program. In 1983, Century Concepts, Inc. (Century Concepts or Century), was ostensibly in the business of leasing master computer video games from which the lessee could reproduce copies and offer such copies for sale to retail establishments either directly or through a distributor. Century Concepts acquired low-quality master video games manufactured by General Masters Corp. of Los Angeles (General Masters) that were not designed for commercial use. Using promissory notes, Century acquired the masters at highly inflated values. Century then leased the masters to its "investors" for the sole purpose of allowing these individuals to, as its brochure explains, "benefit from large investment tax credits with a one time lease payment." Century elected to have the investment tax credit flow to its lessees. The investment tax credit is based upon the value of the equipment leased. Century assigned highly inflated values to the subject masters. The lessees are required to make a one-time payment upon entering into the lease transaction. The lessees then enter into an agreement with a distributor provided to them by Century for the alleged marketing of the video games.

Century's brochure, explaining the leasing of master video games, specifically states that Century Concepts was founded for the purpose of marketing tax-advantaged equipment leases to its investors. The brochure totals three pages discussing only in general terms the video game market. The brochure does not specifically address the master video games that Century intends to lease, their quality, nor any other facets of the program. The brochure does, however, strongly emphasize the benefits to be derived from the investment tax credit.

Also included in Century's promotional materials was a "Legal Opinion" and a document entitled "Closing Documents". The "Legal Opinion" totals 16 pages and is entirely devoted to the tax consequences of entering into the Century Concepts leasing program including the tax benefits, possible challenge by the IRS, litigation, and the various Federal tax penalties that may be applicable. The "Closing Documents" totals 20 pages of which nine pages are devoted solely to tax considerations, one page

[72 T.C.M. 274]

discusses how to lease a master, five pages consist of sample tax forms, and the remainder consists of other sample forms and a table of contents. In the "Closing Documents" Century states that the fair market value of the masters equals $375,000 and goes on to mention that the "the total write-off [ratio] is approximately 4.9:1, based on the * * * [investment tax credit] and total business expense write-offs."

There is no meaningful analysis contained anywhere in the promotional materials of the potential nontax, economic profitability of the Century Concepts leasing program. Also, the materials are devoid of any information of substance regarding the marketability of the masters, or any information concerning how master video games can be marketed.

On December 20, 1983, petitioner entered into an equipment lease with Century Concepts for the lease of a master video game called Techno Sport Toboggan. Petitioner entered into the lease transaction under the entity name B.B.B., Ltd. Petitioner had a 30-percent interest in the lease. The lease required an initial payment of $15,000; petitioner's portion totaled $4,500. Petitioner executed a promissory note in the amount of $4,500 for his participation under the lease agreement.

Also on December 20, 1983, petitioner entered into a Computer Program Employment Agreement (agreement) with ALA Enterprises, Inc. (ALA), providing for distribution of Techno Sport Toboggan. The agreement provided that ALA manufacture 500 copies of the video game for an advance payment of $3,900. Petitioner's share of that payment totaled $1,170.

On December 23, 1983, petitioner entered into an equipment lease with Century for the lease of a master video called Monsoon. Petitioner entered into the lease transaction through the entity name BAYS Enterprises, Ltd. (BAYS). The lease required an initial payment of $15,000; petitioner's portion of that payment totaled $1,250. Petitioner executed a promissory note in the amount of $1,250 for his participation under the lease agreement.

Also on December 23, 1983, petitioner entered into a Computer Program Employment Agreement (agreement) with ALA Enterprises, Inc. (ALA), providing for distribution of Monsoon. The terms are identical to those under the agreement covering Techno Sport Toboggan.

Before entering into the lease and distribution agreements, petitioner made no independent investigation of Century Concepts beyond reviewing the promotional materials provided by Century. Petitioner did not obtain a lawyer, an accountant, a C.P.A., or any other professional to review the documents before signing. Petitioner obtained no independent appraisals of the masters before signing the agreements and received the appraisals provided by Century only after entering into the lease and distribution agreements.

Century provided lessees two appraisals for each master video game. On February 23, 1984, VidElect, Inc., provided Century with an appraisal of Techno Sport Toboggan with a listed fair market value of $379,250. On June 1, 1984, WBW Appraisals provided Century with an appraisal of Techno Sport Toboggan with a listed fair market value of $2,333,760. On October 8, 1983, VidElect, Inc., provided Century with an appraisal of Monsoon with a listed fair market value of $379,250. NSO, Inc., provided Century with an undated appraisal of Monsoon listing as its fair market value $375,000. VidElect's appraisals are identical with the exception of the names of the masters.

Petitioner never received a copy of the Monsoon master. Petitioner did receive three copies of the Techno Sport Toboggan master; one was given to the IRS, and the other two are unopened in their original packaging. Petitioner had no experience in the computer video game market before his involvement with Century Concepts and, in fact, describes himself as "not computer literate."

Petitioner made no attempt to market either of the video games other than through ALA. No video games were sold in 1983. On April 5, 1985, petitioner received the first and only payment from ALA in the amount of $3.59 representing income earned from the sale of copies of the video games.

On his 1983 Federal income tax return, petitioner computed an investment tax credit in connection with his involvement with Century Concepts in the amount of $14,375, of which $2,751 was claimed with respect to 1983. The unused portion was carried back to taxable years 1980 through 1982. Petitioner claimed deductions in the amount of $12,718 on Schedule C of his 1983 return with respect to Century Concepts. Petitioner received a refund in the amount of $18,105 with respect to taxable year 1983.

OPINION

Issue 1. Century Concepts

Section 162 allows a deduction for ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on a trade or business. In order to establish entitlement to deductions and credits, taxpayers have the burden of proving that they meet the statutory requisites. New Colonial Ice Co. v. Helvering [4 USTC ¶ 1292], 292 U.S. 435 (1934).

Section 38 allows a credit for investment in certain depreciable property. The amount of the

[72 T.C.M. 275]

credit is limited to a percentage of a taxpayer's qualified investment in section 38 property. Sec. 46(a). Qualified investment in new property is a percentage of the property's basis, generally its cost. Secs. 46(c)(1), 1012. The lessor of the property, here Century Concepts, may elect to pass through the credit to the lessee, here petitioner, and the lessee generally is treated as having acquired the property for its fair market value. Sec. 48(d).

It is well settled that to constitute a trade or business, the activity must be engaged in with an "actual and honest objective of making a profit." Agro Science Co. v. Commissioner [91-1 USTC ¶ 50,162], 934 F.2d 573 (5th Cir. 1991), affg. [Dec. 46,241(M)] T.C. Memo. 1989-687; Levy v. Commissioner [Dec. 45,152], 91 T.C. 838, 871 (1988); Drobny v. Commissioner [Dec. 43,140], 86 T.C. 1326, 1340 (1986). Absent an actual and honest profit objective, tax deductions relating to an investment are limited under section 183 to the income generated from the activity. Dreicer v. Commissioner [Dec. 38,948], 78 T.C. 642, 644-646 (1982), affd. without opinion 702 F.2d 1205 (D.C. Cir. 1983).

Although a reasonable expectation of profit is not required, the taxpayer must have the objective of realizing a profit. Drobny v. Commissioner, supra at 1341; Engdahl v. Commissioner [Dec. 36,167], 72 T.C. 659, 666 (1979). In this context, profit means economic profit, independent of tax savings. Drobny v. Commissioner, supra at 1341; Herrick v. Commissioner [Dec. 42,272], 85 T.C. 237 (1985).

The existence of the required profit objective is determined by the objective of the entity which has control over the activity under scrutiny. Drobny v. Commissioner, supra at 1341. Thus, the existence of a profit objective of a partnership is determined at the partnership level, Agro Science Co. v. Commissioner, supra at 576; the existence of a profit objective of a joint venture is determined at the joint venture level, Brannen v. Commissioner [Dec. 38,894], 78 T.C. 471, 501-505 (1982), affd. [84-1 USTC ¶ 9144] 722 F.2d 695 (11th Cir. 1984).

Resolution of whether a taxpayer engages in an activity with the requisite intention of making a profit is one of fact to be resolved on the basis of all the facts and circumstances. Agro Science Co. v. Commissioner, supra at 576; Hulter v. Commissioner [Dec. 45,014], 91 T.C. 371, 393-394 (1988); Drobny v. Commissioner, supra at 1341. In making this determination, more weight must be given to the objective facts than to the taxpayer's mere after-the-fact statements of intent. Agro Science Co. v. Commissioner, supra at 576; Beck v. Commissioner [Dec. 42,436], 85 T.C. 557, 570 (1985); sec. 1.183-2(a), Income Tax Regs.

Petitioner made no independent investigation of Century Concepts prior to his participation. He did not obtain the services of any professional to review the leasing documents before signing. Petitioner failed to obtain any independent appraisals of the masters and, in fact, never received a copy of one master and never opened the copy he did have of the other. The appraisals provided by Century were wholly inadequate. The VidElect appraisals are identical word for word with the only exception being the names of the different games. One appraisal is not even dated. Petitioner testified that he has no experience in the computer game market and is in fact "not computer literate." Petitioner made no attempt to market the video games other than through ALA and, in fact, received no income from the sale of any games until April 1985, at which time he received a total of $3.59.

The promotional materials petitioner relied upon prior to participating in the lease program focus extensively on the tax benefits of entering into such a venture and contain no substantive analysis of the economic profitability of the program. The materials advertise a "write-off" ratio of at least 4.9:1 with a one-time lease payment and essentially no further action on the part of the investor.

Respondent submitted the report of Mr. Joshua W. Denham of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, as her expert witness in the instant case. We evaluate expert opinions in light of the demonstrated qualification of the expert and all other evidence of value. Estate of Christ v. Commissioner [73-1 USTC ¶ 9454], 480 F.2d 171, 174 (9th Cir. 1973), affg. [Dec. 30,011] 54 T.C. 493 (1970); Parker v. Commissioner [Dec. 42,966], 86 T.C. 547, 561 (1986). We find Mr. Denham's report and testimony to be credible. We find that, based upon Mr. Denham's expert report and testimony, the master video games at issue had little or no value.

Mr. Denham stated in his report that the games were not of commercial quality. The play of the games is too slow, the sound effects and graphics are poor, and the challenge is minimal and simplistic. In short, the games were not manufactured with the intent of marketing them commercially. In fact, as Mr. Denham states, the game packages did not contain any trademarks or any other evidence indicating that the games were protected from being copied by other game producers. We find that the absence of a trademark implies that the producer or owner placed no value on the games; any serious producer would have his or her product protected. Century obtained the masters from General Masters Corp. Mr. Denham found that General Masters primarily developed video games for the purpose of selling them for use in tax shelters.

[72 T.C.M. 276]

Based upon the facts and circumstances of the instant case, we conclude that petitioner has failed in his burden of proving that he participated in the Century Concepts leasing program with an actual and honest objective of making a profit. Instead, we find that petitioner engaged in the leasing program primarily, if not exclusively, to obtain tax deductions and credits, thereby reducing the tax he would otherwise owe on income from other sources. Accordingly, respondent is sustained on this issue.

Issue 2. Negligence

Section 6653(a)(1) provides for an addition to tax equal to 5 percent of any underpayment if any part of the underpayment is due to negligence or intentional disregard of rules and regulations. Section 6653(a)(2) provides for an addition to tax of 50 percent of the interest on that portion of the underpayment attributable to negligence.

Negligence is defined as a lack of due care or the failure to act as a reasonable person would act under similar circumstances. Chamberlain v. Commissioner [95-2 USTC ¶ 50,533], 66 F.3d 729, 732 (5th Cir. 1995), affg. in part and revg. in part [Dec. 49,859(M)] T.C. Memo. 1994-228; Heasley v. Commissioner [90-1 USTC ¶ 50,314], 902 F.2d 380, 383 (5th Cir. 1990), revg. [Dec. 45,025(M)] T.C. Memo. 1988-408; Neely v. Commissioner [Dec. 42,540], 85 T.C. 934, 947 (1985). Petitioner bears the burden of proving that no part of the underpayment for the year at issue is due to negligence or intentional disregard of rules and regulations. Rule 142(a); Bixby v. Commissioner [Dec. 31,493], 58 T.C. 757 (1972). The addition to tax for negligence under section 6653 is correctly assessed in cases where claimed deductions are not supported by the facts. Sandvall v. Commissioner [90-1 USTC ¶ 50,236], 898 F.2d 455 (5th Cir. 1990), affg. [Dec. 45,473(M)] T.C. Memo. 1989-56 and [Dec. 45,642(M)] T.C. Memo. 1989-189; Marcello v. Commissioner [67-2 USTC ¶ 9516], 380 F.2d 499 (5th Cir. 1967), affg. in part and remanding in part [Dec. 27,043] 43 T.C. 168 (1964).

Under some circumstances, a taxpayer may avoid liability for the additions to tax under section 6653(a)(1) if reasonable reliance on a competent professional adviser is shown. United States v. Boyle [85-1 USTC ¶ 13,602], 469 U.S. 241 (1985); Freytag v. Commissioner [Dec. 44,287], 89 T.C. 849, 888 (1987), affd. [90-2 USTC ¶ 50,381] 904 F.2d 1011 (5th Cir. 1990), affd. [91-2 USTC ¶ 50,321] 501 U.S. 868 (1991). In order for reliance on professional advice to excuse a taxpayer from the negligence additions to tax, the reliance must be reasonable, in good faith, and based upon full disclosure. Freytag v. Commissioner, supra. Reliance on representations by insiders, promoters, or offering materials ordinarily constitutes an inadequate defense to negligence. LaVerne v. Commissioner [Dec. 46,544], 94 T.C. 637, 652-653 (1990), affd. without published opinion 956 F.2d 274 (9th Cir. 1992), affd. without published opinion sub nom. Cowles v. Commissioner, 949 F.2d 401 (10th Cir. 1991); Marine v. Commissioner [Dec. 45,686], 92 T.C. 958, 992-993 (1989), affd. without published opinion 921 F.2d 280 (9th Cir. 1991). Reliance on a professional adviser can be inadequate when the taxpayer and his adviser knew nothing about the nontax business aspects of the venture. Beck v. Commissioner [Dec. 42,436], 85 T.C. 557 (1985); Flowers v. Commissioner [Dec. 40,112], 80 T.C. 914 (1983).

The facts in the instant case speak for themselves. Petitioner failed to adequately investigate Century Concepts and failed to elicit the services of a professional adviser before participating in the leasing program. We will not belabor the issue or give undue dignity to petitioner's argument by reiterating what has been set forth above. As we stated in Harris v. Commissioner [Dec. 37,664(M)], T.C. Memo. 1981-46, "To anyone * * * not incorrigibly addicted to the `free lunch' philosophy of life, the entire scheme had to have been seen as a wholly transparent sham."

Based upon the record in the instant case, we find that petitioner's actions do not approach the actions that a reasonable and ordinarily prudent person would have taken under the circumstances. See Chamberlain v. Commissioner, supra at 733. Accordingly, petitioner is liable for the additions to taxdue to negligence under section 6653(a)(1) and (2) for the taxable years at issue. Respondent is sustained on this issue.

To reflect the foregoing,

Decision will be entered under Rule 155.

June 9, 2023

Games I go back to a lot:

Parsec

Munchman

Junkman Junior

Hustle

Barrage

SpotShot/Dragonfly

Yahtzee (I dunno why but I adore TI Yahtzee and have yet to find a mobile or online version I like as much)

Q*Bert

Realms of Antiquity

TI Invaders

Snake Plissken

Tunnels of Doom

BASIC/XB:

Diablo

Khe Sanh

Atlantis

Ant Wars

Legends (with the caveat that I haven't played in years but wore it out back in the day and intend to revisit soon)

Walls and Bridges

Ophyss

EDIT to add Adam's DarkMaze game, which I still find myself playing a lot

Special honorable mention to every Infocom game that I suck at and want to solve but never get around to finishing...

June 5, 2023

32 minutes ago, 8_is_enuff said:

My personal Holy Grail is a complete set of the original Infocom titles for the good 'ol TI-99/4A. I only came to this realization recently. There's something so cool about the text experience, and the Infocom guys really knew how to augment it with 'feelies'. Plus, the TI got to hang with the big boys (Apple II, C64, Atari 8 bit, MS-DOS, etc.) on those early titles--too cool.

I'd also like to pick up a copy of Dragon's Lair. It's such a technical achievement. Unfortunately I had way too many bills at the time it came out. Ah well, now I get to hunt for one.

I had most of the Infocoms and sold them off years ago during a rough patch. I've re-bought a few and I'm hoping to find the rest here and there. Seeing that 40-column screen pop up makes me happy. (I tried playing Moonmist on a C64 a while back and the disk access was slower than ours by a good bit.)

June 1, 2023

On 5/24/2023 at 5:35 AM, Serafini Lapo said:

look at how these auctions turned out! 🤩 Have any of you taken one of the 2 games?

I tried to make an offer too, but I didn't think they would come that high in price! Can anyone tell me more about these cassette productions?

I wanted to wait till I got them and tested them to say anything, but I grabbed these. I was also hoping they wouldn't go for that much! But I have never seen either game, or anything from that game company before, so I decided to go for it.

I've only had time to confirm that both games work. Crystal Sweep is a fun little strategy type game that lacks a 1-player option but is a fairly clever puzzler with some elements of Snake and Othello going on. Dragon Combat is one of those attempts at a TI BASIC platformer, which is only gonna ever be so good, but it seems like a pretty clever execution of the concept. I'll upload both later if they're not already in the Gamebase or elsewhere.

June 1, 2023

Regarding storage and display, I have racked my brain for years to think of a good way to display boxed TI carts. The Parker Brothers boxes look beautiful on a shelf, but the TI boxes are a sea of plain cardboard, and the plastic boxes are worse for stacking.

If I ever have my mythical Highlander loft with 15-foot ceilings for an office/workshop, I love the idea of an entire wall of front facing TI boxes, displayed in order of release, just a huge grid on the wall that you could go pluck the cart box from when yuo wanted to use it. That's as much art installation as it is storage, and the amount of space it would require would be ludicrous. Maybe if I ever make a TI museum.

June 1, 2023

4 hours ago, Torrax said:

The Parker Bros. ones I was wondering about were Super Cobra; 007 James Bond; and Astrochase. We have the existance of the near production prototype of Tutankham. So were there any other PB developer(s) working on the others? Also Astrochase has been mentioned in the past. Even part of a cover of Enthusiastic Magazine (correct me if I'm wrong on the magazine name). Did Sierra, Sega, Brodebund, and Activision get any prototypes done before disappearing from the TI-99/4A scene.

My current hardware holy grail is a working 5.25 DSDD disk drive. All 6 of mine including 2 backups have given up the ghost. And the last 4 from e-bay were DOA. Aging with worsening eyesight and the lack of solder skills have been hard to keep this hobby alive for me. Even e-cycled a Geneve that had the board brown over the years and fail. Lucky another friend from my old computer club had one in storage that was in great shape and gave me a good deal. Now to get my CorComp MES9900 backup and running. Getting better use of my arm that had the elbow shattered and rebuilt at the beginning of February. Feels like an arm now and stiff at the elbow. Using my cat as part of my physio at night as she always crashes beside me like roadkill with her feet up waiting for her nightly tummy rub of 15-20 min. One spoiled here kitty.

I usually assume that if we see a reasonably close version of a classic from another platform hitting circa 1984-1987, that it started life as a WIP for one of the original developers, but I have no proof to back up that assertion. I can't believe Junkman Junior is THAT close to Epyx's version to not have started life as their first step into the TI market.

May 31, 2023

8 hours ago, Casey said:

For me, it would be the beige sidecar Hexbus interface and speech synthesizer that were shown on the box of the beige 99/4A but never released.

Several years ago I picked up a NIB beige 99/4A from EBay - it was fun to open that up as I remember receiving the same for Christmas when I was a child.

The first TI I owned was a new beige 99/4A from Triton Products, bought with my paper route money. I still remember what it smelled like when I opened the box. One of these days when I've wrangled more space I want to have full black-and-silver and beige systems set up side-by-side.

May 31, 2023

Utterly personal holy grail: I'd love to stumble across some of the software I made in the late 80s-early 90s. I sold my system back then and gave my floppies to a friend to reformat and reuse. I can't imagine more than a dozen copies of each ever made it into the world, and I know they probably exist on a disk labeled TIMISC2985 rotting in someone's file cabinet. It might be more mortifying than exciting to see what kind of code 18-year-old me saw fit to inflict upon the world.

The only other real holy grail for me is originals of old third-party disk and tape games. I have a fondness for the days of plucky, short-lived kitchen-table software "companies" with ads in 99'er and Xeroxed game manuals in ziploc baggies. I'm more excited to add a new Not Polyoptics or Extended Software tape to my rack than to get a rare cartridge game or piece of hardware.

It's easy to get hung up on feeling like a 'double orphan' when not everyone in your already-small scene cares about what you care about. But that's more a problem with your focus than anyone else's interest. As sociable as it is to have a forum to share this stuff, it's supposed to be about what personally makes you happy when you carve out that alone time to head down to the basement and be amongst your treasures. I'm as guilty as anyone of losing sight of that sometimes, but I have the most fun in this hobby when I'm doing things for their own sake.

May 21, 2023

After a few more bumps and bruises trying to save memory, and cutting out some things I aesthetically hate to lose but which serve no practical function (no one needs a <q>uit menu option and a "thanks for playing" message), the game now has combat, full turns, and it runs with CALL FILES (0) in unexpanded BASIC.

I chose to "front load" the BASIC pain of setup (which, if you're playing in Classic99, can be hacked by using Overdrive until setup is complete). Once the game screen is generated, gameplay moves along at a fairly brisk pace for BASIC. I have some cosmetic things to fix and then my last big hurdle -- trying to squeeze in some AI for the blue player for a 1-player game. Again, it won't be as visually pretty as I'd like, but I have a plan to make the computer take its turns fairly quickly and with enough forethought to make the game interesting.

I can only imagine how amazing and powerful Extended BASIC and 32K of memory expansion is gonna feel after I finally finish this.

May 21, 2023

How cool! Getting some Omega Race vibes here.

I was wondering if anyone ever tried a game (or any application really) where you used Mini Memory as a small RAMdisk to store variables via file. Perhaps you could run program one, which generated data and saved it to MM, then load part two, which accesses the data files on the MM? Or maybe a game that allowed one to save game progress to MM and come back later?

All kind of academic now that all the Minimem batteries are dead and we can emulate memory expansion and storage space, but I have to wonder if someone coulda come up with a killer app that made Minimem make sense to more people back in the day and made it more commonplace for folks without PEBs or other hardware.

May 19, 2023

Is there any kind of comprehensive list of software made specifically to take advantage of Mini Memory? I know there were a few games (Snake Snake and Entrapment, plus a space game whose name I can't recall) and I think I remember a couple pieces of productivity software. But did anyone make, say, a TI BASIC game that stored player data on files saved to MINIMEM, or something like that? I know it would have been a hard sell commercially back then, due to the low user base, but I feel like there had a to be a few people who took a shot at it.

[Edit: I don't think Entrapment is the name of the game I'm thinking of, but I'm drawing a blank right now.]

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Posts posted by InfernalKeith

MEMORANDUM FINDINGS OF FACT AND OPINION

FINDINGS OF FACT

OPINION

Issue 1. Century Concepts

Issue 2. Negligence