Toucan

I understand what you mean. I just think it would look cool on the Intellivision for some reason. If there was a Colecovision version, then it should have looked at least identical to the TI-99/4A version considering both use of the TMS9918A line of graphics chips.

Here's some information from a TI insider. Thought many on this list might find this info really interesting. It looks like the Intellivision cartridge lists need to add "Parsec" to their list of cartridge games. This is pretty cool. The below info was taken off the main page of my website: "Did you know? That TI planned on converting some of their games (one being Parsec) to other systems? According to a reliable source, "The Intellivisions were in a lab which I visited once. They were reverse engineering it to see about making Parsec and other games for it. When they cleaned up the remains, somebody sent me a standard working Intellivision as a present. The dumpstered Intellivison had parts missing and wires hanging off!" Hopefully Parsec for the Intellivision would have made it to some type of beta stage, it would be very interesting to see this famous TI-99/4A game on another system! (7/11/04)"

Lobster Bay is now avaliable on cartridge for the emulators! Thanks to Tursi ([email protected]), who converted the code into a GROM file that runs as a standard cartridge through emulation! It can be downloaded at my website: www.videogamehouse.net/Lobster_Bay_Preliminary.html

Here's the Avitar

HI I was wondering if anyone knows what game this Avitar is from? A person by the name of "Yodan" uses it on this message board but I can't seem to figure out which game it came from. The reason I ask is because this is the same graphic that was used in the TI-99/4A version of Congo Bongo, considering it is not from any other version of Congo Bongo, this got me very curious! Thanks in advance!

Stevew: PM Sent.

To all those interested. Lobster Bay is now avaliable for Download at the Lobster Bay website: www.videogamehouse.net/Lobster_Bay_Preliminary.html . Have fun. But be sure you read the "Readme" file included, it tells you how to run the game. Since this was only source code, I had to include a cartridge with the code so you could actually play the game. If anything goes wrong, let me know. Thanks!

The best is MESS. It works like a charm and in addition emulates TONS of systems. So if I were to recommend one, it would easily be MESS.

HI! I just posted screen shots for Any Colony at: http://www.videogamehouse.net/AntColony.html In case anyone is interested in checking them out. Any Colony is ready for download, I'll have it avaliable on the Any Colony page once ready. As for Lobster Bay, the game is not a fast one due to the idea of making it difficult for the person to make it through the level with all the oxygen. I guess I would describe it as a medium paced game...Not sure if that helps or not. But the point I am trying to make is that it's not too fast, and not too slow As for the difficulty level, I can't get past the first found on the "Advanced" difficulty setting. However, I can make it through on the "Beginning" difficulty setting. So there is a nice variety of options depending on how challenging you want the game to be. As to finishing it like Pitfall!, each level ends with that fish swimming sequence and I have no idea on how the entire game ends if at all. I have only gotten to level 2, so beyond that point I have no idea how far it goes. It would be interesting to find out!

I'll try to get to everone's postings. Here's a rundown: Tempest: Guess you were just destined to be the unlucky one. hehe. Actually, I'm usually very unlucky with these items but finally something came though! I have been hunting since 1998 and am happy that something has came out of the woodwork. I just hope that more things follow. My question is this: Could this be a sign of things to come, or just a bit of random luck. Hopefully it's NOT the later! RangerG: I can say right here and now that Lobster Bay is a very good game. I like it since it has 7-8 screens per level which adds to the challenge. Here's the latest scoop on the game (you can follow along with my description by looking at some of the screen shots): You start out at your ship above water, then descend down. Once in the water you have a limited amount of oxygen as indicated by the meter on the top right of the screen. The oxygen can only be replenished by making your way back to the ship (so if you are on one of the later screens you have to hurry back to the boat or else its lights out!). There are a few enemies on the screen at various levels: The Lobster, which kills you immidiatly once you touch it; The Squid, which sprays you with ink so you can't move for a few seconds (this can be dangerous if you are low on oxygen or a lobster is near); The Puffer Fish, which will kill you once touched (as a lobster, but does not have to walk on the platforms), the cool thing on the puffer fish is it will actually turn into a spike ball and plant itself at the bottom of the ocean floor! Meaning you can't go around it, so you will have to end up climbing up the platform and getting around another way once it turns into this ball; The Oyster, the oyster will not kill you but only hold you in its shell for a a fair amount of time. So there is no real danger once the oyster closes its mouth on you other than the fact that you could run out of oxygen; finally there is the Blue Fish (looks like a small swordfish), once it touches you your oxygen will deplete much more rapidly. He's probably the most frustrating of the bunch. Besides the enemies in the game, there are of course the various treaseures you must pick up that lay on the platform. Included among the treasures are two keys, one opens the treasure chest at the top of some purple steps, and the other will unloack the white door (these doors take you to the other end of the ocean. So unlocking the door at the far right of the screen takes you to the left door, and vice versa). After you do manage to collect all the treasures, you go into this scene that is reminicent of the Astroid Belt in Parsec, you have to shoot your spears at oncoming fish, but only the green ones will give you points and those are the ones you are supposed to hit apparently. Other notes in the game: you can climb up and down the ropes, but the lobsters cannot. There is no jumping in this game, making it quite a bit more difficult and challenging. The purple steps are a neat concept, depending on where the arrows are pointing (they alternate between up and down), that's the direction the stairs are moving. Think of the stairs as really escalators, the arrows indicate which way they are moving, so if you need to get to the top of a stairway, you have to wait for the arrow to change. Sometimes though it will change too late and a Lobster will sneak up on you from behind. Hope this is a good explanation of where I am in the game right now, this is all I know (or at least can recall as I am typing this message right now). Albert : No problem in posting the info. I know it's not "James Bond 007: As Seen in Octopussy", but it will have to do for now Jess Ragan: Don't worry, these games will be dumped for everyone to play. As a matter of fact, they are already dumped and I took those screen shots from the MESS emulator. It's really just a matter of getting the games on-line at this point. So I'll make the announcement once that happens. SteveW: Nope, this Shaghai is from Funware. You control a boat up a river in Shaghai, avoiding other boats that lunge towards you from the sides, picking up things on the side of the river such as gold, fish, cannons, etc. As with the other games, this too will become avaliable. I only hope I can do it before the Fourth of July!

HI! Well, I just recieved a package today in the mail. Inside were prototypes for many released and unreleased games, and in addition many boxed released titles! Below is a listing of all that I got and plan on making avaliable to the Classic Gaming community at least through emulation: (Screen Shots for Lobster Bay, one of the new games just found can be seen at: http://www.videogamehouse.net/Lobster_Bay_...reliminary.html ) Boxed Funware Cartridges: -Schnoz-Ola -St. Nick -Driving Demon -Ambulance -Video Vegas -Henhouse -Rabbit Trail Prototypes: -Ant Colony -Shanghai -Ambulance -Rabbit Trail -Cave Creatures Source Code Only: -Lobster Bay Let me just say right here and now that Lobster Bay is one great game! It is complete and very fun to play. It takes place underwater where you are a scuba diver trying to gather up treasures that are scattered on this platform underwater. This game has about 7 screens per level, making it a much bigger game than the normal one-screeners that Funware put out previously. There is a map above you that shows your location and where you are so you can guide your way through the ocean. It's amazing, and I should be able to get it dumped for emulation sometime this week. Also, the game Ant Colony is a new one too that I've never seen. It resembles The Attack where ants come after you and you have to spray them and their "boxes" (the boxes count down as in The Attack, but in Ant Colony the goal is to exterminate these boxes). All in all, there are some really neat gems here. I hope that everyone finds them as fun as I have today! I'll include scans of the Schnoz-Ola box for the internet as I don't think too many have seen this one before, cool picture on the box though!

I was wondering if anyone here might happen to have any Internal Product Lists from companies such as Sega, Activision, Milton Bradley, Tigervision, etc? I ask this because I have seen numerous Atari 2600 and 5200 lists that have product numbers for unreleased games that I would love to find out where the info came from. Such an example is Sega's "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" which has a product number listed in the 2600 lists and also is mentioned in the 5200 Cartridge Lists. I figured someone might have had an internal listing from companies, such as Sega, where they pulled these product numbers from. Also, this is true with some Milton Bradley titles where the product numbers are known for 2600 Scramble and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The main reason for me asking this is because I thought it would be a great idea to try and round up any internal lists people have and see if there are references to game cartridges that were planned for other systems outside the 2600 and 5200. Since the 2600 and 5200 are two of the top collected systems, I figured that it is very likely some internal lists (if indeed this is where some of these product numbers came from) might have made their way into hands of mostly 2600 and 5200 collectors, and since they did not collect for say the Intellivision, Atari 8-Bit, C64, TI-99/4A, etc. they might have passed up the references to games made for other systems. I know I did this in the past once where I got an internal Parker Brothers 1984 release schedule that mentioned "Mr.Do!'s Wild Ride". I never gave the game a second thought until looking at some 2600 Rarity Lists and noticing "Mr.Do!'s Wild Ride" was not listed. I figure other people might have done this same thing in the past with any internal lists they might have found, which is why I am posting this message. If anyone has any internal product listings from video game companies, it would be great to somehow extract all the data from them for all the systems on them. As I have the feeling since most collectors collect 2600 games, mostly 2600 info might have been extracted from these lists. Just thought I would mention this in case there were any lists floating around out there that might contain some interesting info that has not been added to cartridge lists on the net for other systems. Thanks in advance for any help! Sincerely, Bryan Roppolo

Just thought I would chime in here. I have a October 1982 Parker Brothers binder that has the box mockup and description for a James Bond game. It says avaliablity was scheduled for "Atari VCS 3Q/1983, Intellivision 4Q/1983". While this does not shed too much light on if there were separate James Bond cartridges (the one released and the Octopussy one), there are some other goodies in the binder, such as "The Hulk". Also, someone threw in the binder a 1984 Release Schedule. This is the real interesting: March Bond April Gyruss May Star Wars Arcade June July August Frogger II, Mr.Do!'s Castle September Montezuma, Circus Charlie, Q*Bert II January (1985) Barbados, Do!'s Ride June 1985 Children's Software (3): Video Theatre, Crayola, TBD Arcade (2): (Mylstar/Konami/Durvils) Original (3): Durvils, Gizmo, Panama III, Board/Type, Peoples Adventure, Trivia, Others Disk Albums: Do!'s Greatest Hits Panama Jack Returns Arcade Thought you all might find this interesting. I sent scans of this to Joe Santulli on Digital Press. See if you can get him to send some scans and make it avaliable, it's good reading. It talks about "The Hulk" supposed to be released due to a cartoon series that was to start in late 1983. Parker was a year ahead of planning these games for their release judging by this binder.

You know, I got a TI-99/4A with a Colecovision Power Supply once that I could have swore worked. I don't remember the details, but I do remember getting a TI and looking at the power supply (since it seemed bigger) on it was "Coleco" and it worked when plugged in I thought. But to save you the trouble (and potential of creating a lot of smoke), I've got some TI's here that I can ship to you if you need a new one, with power supply. It sounds like the console itself is where the problem lies, as I have had ones do this to me before. If interested in getting one from me, just send an e-mail to [email protected] , unless you want to try your luck at the thrifts. On a follow up to this, I found a few other posts from rec.games.video.classic that talked about Coleco Power Supplies on TI-99/4A's, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try plugging a Coleco one in the TI and seeing if it works. Toucan

HI! Does anyone here have any Parker Brothers contacts that they could pass a few questions I have along to? If so, that would be great. I am interested in any info that they might have on the TI-99/4A versions PB did, or was going to do. It would be great to add things like this to my TI website possibly, just to get some history behind these projects. Thanks for any help! Sincerely, Bryan Roppolo P.S. Which reminds me, I do need to work on that website, maybe I'll do "Popeye" by Parker tonight.

The best guy to contact for cartridge dumps would have to be Charles Good at [email protected] . 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 ([email protected]). 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.

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!

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...

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!

It's pretty neat for me too. Not too many know this actually, it is a very recent topic. My site is probably the only one that is dedicated to the TI-99/4A / MB-1 Gaming System. It would be cool to see if I could get my hands on this system and set it up. In addition to seeing if there are any cartridges developed for this system that never came to be due to the system going over to Texas Instruments. I guess TI took the system and tossed in a keyboard, Basic, and a few other things. Maybe this is why the Basic was not made professionally (rushed job?) and then why some other things hampered since it really was a video game console at the time. The TI is almost like a mix between computer/video game console considering the history.

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).

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?

Darn, I don't know how to delete posts. I posted two of these and only seem to be able to Edit this message. Anyway, would be neat to try and get a hold of an MB-1 system! Wonder if any carts were made for it that never came over to the TI-99/4!

Here's the info on the MB-1 Gaming System that became the TI-99/4: ------------------------------------------------------------ Yes, this is the one I mentioned, for auction by a former employee of CMD (Anthony Cote) who was previously on the design team for the MB-1 (Milton-Bradley 1, later known as the TI-99/4). Doug Cotton -------------------------------------------------------------- I later wrote to Anthony Cote and he did say, now that I remember, he was on the design team and the MB-1 became the TI-99/4. Pretty neat. The MB-1 was Milton Bradley's Video Game System to be from the 70s, but TI somehow got it, maybe since MB was using so many of TI's chips they decided to get into the action. This explains the MB Gamevision 1979 TI Video Game carts and the MBX expansion system that almost seems like an answer to the Colecovision expansions in 1983, some foot pedal was made according to some guys I've talked with. It simulated the "up" position. Possibly a racing game like "Turbo"? Here's the link the article from Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&...ne.mediaone.net I guess it all makes sense why MB was such a big player in TI Video game cartridges!

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?