PeBo

I doubt if any TI enthusiast wouldn't jump at the chance to play with a 99/8, but as a local tech journalist said recently about the Occulist Rift, "While the 'wow factor' is there, at current prices most enthusiasts are better to wait for a friend to buy one, so they can try theirs. There's just not enough there to own one yourself yet." At $3600 CAD, I could build a gaming rig, SLI a pair of GTX1080's, add a Asus Gx soundcard and still have money left over to build a decent second system. Not to mention that I simply do not have the technical expertise to deal with the problems associated with operating a pre-production system. If I was going to invest in a second vintage hobby system, I'd opt to grab a couple fully decked out 1040 STe's (or like OLD CS1, Mega's) and that would still probably leave me over $3000 to do with what I might (maybe even buy TI Espial for $325!)

Much smarter way to cut the shielding than what I did...might grab the shield from a dead 4A I have, and copy your choice (I had cut mine at the back end rather than the top, which severely restricted where I could have the vga connector exit the case) I also learned the hard way about using electrical tape to cover the edges (killed my first cable upon reassembly - worked fine but colours were screwed). Good thing replacement cables are such a stock item. Thanks for the video.

Sucks don't it! (said the textbook INFP)

Another selection is required for each item in the poll: - I have purchased but am awaiting delivery. (or ...but have not yet installed) I had to lie on two items as a result, since technically I do own them but, being fairly new goodies, they haven't made it across the border to my front door, so they are not installed in my machine. The Lotharek and HDX additions depend on oil prices continuing to increase (bringing the Canadian $ with them). I've just been a very bad boy in the spending/saving department in the last few months (all of it on the 4A), and have to take a break (although a healthier dollar will allow me to take a break from the break)

Might be worth asking him...I've found that U.S. sellers will often break their US only shipping rule when asked. Not sure what it's like going in that direction, but I buy a lot of stuff from the UK, France and Germany and find tracked shipping is usually considerable less than shipping to Canada from the U.S. (and not much slower - add about an extra week). Take into consideration though that extremely rare TI carts in the UK do not often exceed about £75 (€100 / $110 US) so this one is still a bit pricey for your side of the pond. Insist on int'l tracking and pay the extra though...Standard Royal Mail is cheap as all get out, but isn't the most reliable at trans-Atlantic shipping.

A massive price drop 4 days before the end of the auction? Not something one sees often on ebay. Sounds suspiciously like he's reading this thread.

Oh yes please!!!! Say, would the dumps work in one of them there newfangled Flash ROM carts, or would memory addresses get all kerfuffled?

Anyone have these cue cards/activity sheets they could scan? I checked whtech ftp site, but found nothing. I have the manual, so I can still access all the activities, but an impending visit by a great-grand nephew made me think it would be fun to watch him play with the cartridge as it was originally intended, rather than to have an adult hanging over him assisting with the manual. and I just now realized that there are few things that makes one feel quite so old as typing the prefix "great-grand" and referring to someone younger than oneself!

I have the Navarone DataBase Management Cartridge, and it works fine with smaller record sizes. The problem with it is that the databases are restricted to available disk space, so if you have a stock TI Controller, you're limited to under 90K. As can be expected, being entirely reliant on the disk, sorting can be painfully slow. But it does everything a database is supposed to do, and was better than most of the competition 30 years ago.

I doubt if anyone is going to bite with a STARTING BID of $500, so if it is a con, he's not the brightest con artist. I'd be more suspicious if he had set the starting bid much much lower, and offered int'l shipping. If you're gonna run a scam you want the widest audience possible to ensure you hit a few suckers. This guy is restricting any possible sale to the tiniest handful of folks from a total pool of maybe 300-400 enthusiasts/collectors (and even fewer, since he only ships to the U.S.). Nope, I think it's real, that he happened across it, found out it is extremely rare (especially with box and manual) and just has no idea what the value of 'extremely rare' is within the comparatively small TI community. If he had listed it at $100, he probably would have sold it for $250-$300, but $500 is really pushing it.

Miner2049, (which also uses the expansion port) appears in the selection screen like a regular cart, and if you look at the pics of Espial, you'll see it had a reset switch right on the cartridge (and I believe it DID autostart when you turned on the console.) Not sure about Arcturus (although if someone would like to send me an original Arcturus cartridge, I'd be more than happy to plug it in and report back). Aw c'mon, it's for a good cause.

And it was an imaginative way to offer the games without the need for memory expansion or cartridge GROM support. But still not ideal. We sure do live in a different world as far as software licensing is concerned. I get that hardware manufacturers back then made most of their money off the software, but I often wonder if TI didn't shoot themselves in the foot with the QI os blocking 3rd party carts (although I guess by that point the 4A's fate was already sealed.)

Way above my snack-bracket for that game (and he won't ship to Canada anyway). Miner2049 (and Captain Beeble) were the first two Atari 800 games I ever played, and were always favorites back in the day so I have a particular affection for the Bounty Bob platformer, and picked it up as soon as I discovered it existed for the TI a couple years ago. Graphically the TI version is spot on (except for missing elevator labels), but while I can still make it through the first 6-7 levels of the Atari version (actually completed it a couple times), I can't make it past level 3 on the TI. Never liked the use of the sidecar expansion slot for these games though,,,I understand WHY they made them, but always concerned about the extra wear and tear on a port that was never designed for repeated swapping. And if I am going to wear out the expansion port for a game, I'm not going to spend $500 to do it (and it sure as heck isn't going to be Espial) Don't see it with box and manual very often though.

Good Point. Maybe the Playstation Vita is a better example And actually, there are two Chevy Monza enthusiast out there! This custom 75 model sold for 16,5 at Barrett-Jackson in 2008. So there's the guy who built it and the guy who bought it... ...besides them I think you're 100% correct though.

Update Bump

Honey Ryder was hot, but Valenka is still my fav bond girl (and continues to sizzle (with a kick) in CineMax's Banshee.) That being said though, does anyone beat Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC or Jane Fonda in Barberella??? (Not to mention Brigitte Bardot in anything (or nothing))

But even she got discarded for a newer model when a perfect 10 came along.

Sadly, a vintage computer hobby comes with a 'reality-slap' element... ...our lives have now passed their "peak-oil" mark! (especially those of us who were already adults when the system was new.) But take solace in knowing that 35 years from now, vintage iPhone enthusiasts will be experiencing the same thing.

I already have an Edsel* that I no longer get to drive, so a Ferrari would still be a major upgrade. (and at my age, I don't need to drive it that often... it would suffice to simply look at it parked in the garage from time to time)

OMG, I know, right?!? And while I could probably find a new wife (I hear Russia has some great export models available), replacing Spot Shot or Tris might prove far more difficult.

But my friend, you have said elsewhere in these forums that the "Collector Bug" has never really stuck with you, so it stands to reason that you would question the value of such a purchase - and you are 100% correct, that value has nothing to do with use or application... When Espial (a particularly unimpressive little port of a pedestrian scrolling shooters) came up for auction last year, I dropped out when the bids exceeded $200 CAD (but I did stick with it until then). I can promise you I would never have played it (and if I did want to take it out for a spin, I already have several copies on various compilation disks). BUT I was willing to pay a couple hundred dollars to "have" it. My current "Holy Grail" item is the cartridge and manual of the original Terminal Emulator (not II), and if there's ever been a useless purchase, that has got to be it. But it would get me close to completing the entire TI-released cartridge collection (down to 6 remaining), so I'll happily pay a high price for it when it does eventually get posted. Two months ago my primary computer's GPU died, my television is in dire need of replacing, and the little lady is screaming for a new vaccuum cleaner...with all these pulls on my already strained wallet, what am I doing instead? I'm spending hundreds of dollars on 35 year old computer cartridges. If you try to associate use or purpose to such things, you'll never find an answer. The reasons are far more visceral than logical. (Think Heroin addiction and you get close)

One man's rarety is another man's re-usable cartridge shell. Although I will say that, coming from Blaine, I would wager this really is a prototype for TEII 1200. He does have a massive collection of rarely seen TI items (of course having worked at TI during the 4A's heyday helps) (and I did just place a higher bid than this for a cartridge of Jim Reiss' « Tris », so beauty (and value) is in the eye of the beholder)

Welcome fellow old fart. For transferring between the TI and the PC, I use a nanoPEB, but it has a major disadvantage of not allowing you to use your PEB simultaneously. It comes with 32k and rs232 and you can put any size CF card you like (although the way it's formatted for the TI, you'll only be able to use half of whatever size you buy.). Long and short of it is you can slip the CF card into your PC, then slip it into the nanoPEB. Plus the CF creates very large partitions - nice for creating large compilations. But from what I've been reading these devices are getting mighty tough to find, and as I said, you can't have it and a real PEB plugged in at the same time. The Lotharek HxC that others have mentioned is my next purchase. It is a straight-forward floppy emulator, so it uses your existing controller card and "partitions" a standard SD card into whatever size "disks" your controller will support. (I hope I got that right anyway) You could also look into doing an HDX mod - or buying a HDX moded TI RS-232 card, and use any PC as a file server (which I still find to be just as cool as all get out) And holy poop! Wait until you see the outstanding software being developed! (Super Mario Brothers is gonna blow your mind when you install your F18!). Ports of games from other systems and new originals that you can download here, or head over to arcadeshopper.com and buy brand shiny new cartridges (with insanely large capacities and extensive program selections.) Finally, XB 2.7 Suite is not optional...it is usually inserted into my console, and changes the entire experience of using a TI. Go buy it right now. Why are you still reading this? I told you to go buy XB 2.7 Suite right now. Go. Now.

You are a stronger man than I am my friend...I didn't set out to collect cartridges, but 200+ later I think I would have an easier time breaking an opiate addiction. Luckily I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find anything 'new' or to locate the few I'm actively looking for (mainly DataBioTics games), so supply is defeating my demand. I just thank heaven's that my hobby-machine of choice was a TI, with it's rather small collection of cartridges, and not a Atari 800 or C64, or I would be getting myself into major trouble! As far as these are concerned, I owned tge full Atarisoft collection (just missing the box for Jungle Hunt) and I still bought the Rasmus collection (just so I could get Robotron and Super Storm)...if that's not worse than narcotics, I don't know what is.

Lordy that Centipede is a small board! I too was sorry that Joust was not included, but having the chance to play Robotron 2084 on my 99 was outstanding! So sad these never made it to cartridge 30 years ago. It was nice to SEE Slime/Super Storm running on a TI, but while it was a good looking port, I was never a big fan of the game. It (and Picnic Paranoia), seem strange choices for ports with all the GREAT Atari 8 bit games to chose from, (like Caverns of Mars or Star Raider!!). Although it's was to be a Parker Brothers' release not Atarisoft, the "existing" title I would most like to have an opportunity to play would have to be Tutankham (man, I loved that game when it was in a local tavern back in the day!) . But I've read stories in other threads that quashed any hopes of that happening any time soon. (at least we DID get Shamus - a darned fine one at that!)