etownandy

Pretty sure it only exists as a ROM. It was relatively unknown before the "Never Released Modules" series came about (there may have been mention of it in 99'er or Compute). I'd say it's equally likely that it got shelved because it wasn't particularly good. Certainly nowhere near as good as Parker Bros' release of "Frogger." What are the geometric symbols (triangles, circles) in the "water" meant to be? And would ET really hop on the back of a frog? Or an owl? The splash screen, IMHO, was the best thing about the game. When I played it, I was surprised that the speech didn't sound anything like ET or Elliot (I assume it was supposed to be the former, since one of the words it says is, "Ouch."). Given the number of voices we've heard coming out of the machine, surely they could have gotten closer. Maybe that was a finishing bit of polish that never got applied. ET At Sea is pretty enjoyable, though.

So you'd have what, only eight possible directions, and no variation in speed? It would be "joystick-like" in its movement, as opposed to "mouse-like?" I suppose you could partially compensate by having the pointer move faster the longer you moved the mouse (I seem to recall a joystick driver - for TI Artist? - doing something similar).

Makes perfect sense to me.

Not to dissuade any others, but I've been talking to my local "Hardin County Chamber of Geeks" and there's some interest in a classic computer and gaming expo of some kind. We're just talking about it. If (big if) it happens, it would likely be a year out.

Indeed it is. What's more, there's a classic video game store in the mall now (the mall has REALLY gone downhill). They only stock console titles, though.

Same here. The Lima group had one available to loan. I spent a weekend with it, tracing over the provided template/sample images, and never got anything that looked remotely like what was on the paper.

I haven't been able to verify all of the sources, but the Wikipedia article on the 4A (which REALLY could stand some expansion) suggests that "4" was a naming convention used as the lower end of the 990 mini line (990/4). It also suggests the "A" came from similar naming conventions and not from the VDP, but every article on the subject I read back in the heyday claimed the "A" was from the 9918A.

Wouldn't mind stockpiling a matching pair.

Do you actually show up at said reception bay later in the game? Makes me wonder if there's something that also labels the lot. If there is, post that, too!

Is there anything you can tell us about them? Full/half height, SS/DS...

Lima UG for me. Since one of our members, Charles Good, literally the face and voice of our group!, was a college prof, we effectively became a student group, which gave our tiny club access to meeting space and other niceties (photocopying facilities) for little-to-no money. I joined sometime around the third grade, and we'd maybe have 5 members regularly show up. Ohio is an interesting place. Because of the number of large cities, there were several UGs in the state. On that basis, the Lima Group decided to have a free gathering, the MUG (Multi UserGroup conference), which was pretty popular back in the day. That was something I looked forward to every year until I moved out of state.

Other than work and school (I'm about halfway through my MBA)...we raise miniature dachshunds (there are 10 in the house), playing around with my car restoration project ("The Chryslerati" an '89 TC), and I loved Doctor Who before it was cool. I also sing and write music (rock mostly) and act in community theater.

Well, there was this ftp://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Command%20Module%20manuals/99%20Home%20Century%20(CorComp)%20and%20X10%20Powerhouse%20manuals.pdf

Not to stray too far OT, but...it makes me wonder about the GROM box TI was taking around to state fairs back in the day. A fair number of unreleased module dumps came our way because they were being shown on these boxes.

I was thinking along similar lines just the other day, wondering about "useful" applications for the 4A these days as opposed to "just" gaming. It seems the retro crowd is mostly into the games (that's not a dig...I count myself in that crowd). Understandable, because they're still enjoyable. It's hard to get excited about firing up PagePro or TI-Writer to actually do "work" these days, although that's the system I used for most of my middle and high school writing assignments. The Lima MUG would use Certificate 99 for signage and Harrison's Video Titler for caption slides on the videos of the conference.

Also in the "licensed" category were the Imagic games - Moonsweeper, Fathom, Microsurgeon, the unreleased Wing War. Sega licensed Star Trek, Congo Bongo, and Buck Rogers. Parker Bros released Frogger, Q*Bert, Popeye, although those weren't officially sanctioned by TI (weren't licensed BY TI), just like the Atarisoft titles. There's a whole post on great games. But as Nate pointed out, TI's primary thrust was education and home applications, with titles from such big names as Scott-Foresman, Addison-Wesley, and Scholastic. MECC was going to release about a dozen titles, but TI dropped out of the agreement (most likely due to Plato being on the horizon). At the time, the 4A was generally regarded as slotting in between the VIC 20 and the C64, with an edge closer to the 64. They competed against the VIC on price, and that was part of their fatal mistake.

I seem to recall one printed strip, with just listings for the function keys (INS DEL ERASE CLEAR BEGIN PROCD AID REDO BACK QUIT). I've seen examples of the User's Reference Guide (green book) that were hole punched and some not, and I've seen some that appeared to be loose leaf (or maybe someone tore out the pages?) while others were soft-bound. The one my family first got wasn't punched and was soft-bound.

Southeast-ish as I'm in Elizabethtown, KY. I've toyed around with the idea of having a classic computer and gaming expo...we have a decent venue for such a thing...but the time and expense (mostly the time) involved in organizing such a thing I just couldn't wrap my little brain around.

No problem. Get yourself a desk about the size of a door and use the sidecar peripherals.

If I'm not mistaken, the 10" monitor is usually regarded as having a superior picture. Bigger doesn't always mean better.

Guilty. 2nd grade. I've NOT had a console in my house for maybe 5 of the years since, and I'm 43 Saturday. <sheepish grin>

From what I understand, a lot of similar annual meets for other platforms are dropping off and no longer happening. It's hard to believe the 4A still has one annual meet after all these years, let alone MORE than one. That's just amazing.

Sorry...got buried in school work. Here's my last one.

Space Bandits! That game never gets the love it deserves.

I always harken back to what folks like Consumer Reports et al complained about - slow BASIC, "confusing" keyboard, and the cost of peripherals. IIRC, the oft-quoted figure of PE Box sales was something like 10% of console sales. Largely because of the cost. $1200-1400 to get 32K and a disk system was pretty high compared to Commodore. Those kinds of prices put the machine in Apple territory, not Commodore. But to stand the argument on its ear, I wonder what things would have been like if the console itself had the slots internally and it sold with the 32K installed...no expansion system needed.