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Toucan

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Posts posted by Toucan

  2. Posted

    On 5/28/2020 at 5:41 PM, Andrewmacattack said:

    Soon as I see your name, my heart missed a best hoping to see those thorn emi games up for sale 😁

    Not this time! Anyway, the price would have been more than $75, I would make sure of that :)

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    10 minutes ago, Toucan said:

    Cool. I've been wanting to play this game since seeing the manual cover, and the name is pretty interesting. Big fan of RPGs, so I'll see what it's got. 

    That was short. Got into my first battle and 4 Underlings killed me. It seems most of my attacks (probably 80%) missed and they were able to kill me off. Was more a game of who could actually land a blow.

  5. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    I have some TI-99/4A items I am selling. Included are pics as well:

     

    1. Bad Video TI-99/4A Beige Console (In pristine cosmetic shape though, comes in box, bag, with registration card, Beginner's Basic manual, Read This First Manual,  One-Year Limited Warranty papers, Power Supply, and RF Modulator). It would appear this TI was reconditioned from the factory and never opened. But I did test and can confirm the video has since went bad (scrambled characters). Could make a good unit if one had the innards of a working system to swap out

    2. Editor/Assembler Binder (No Cartridge) with Parts A & B Disks

    3. P-System Binder with Utilities, Editor/Filer, Assembler/Linker, and Compiler disks. Don't believe there was a cartridge with this one.

    4. TI-Logo Binder with TI-Logo Sampler disk (No Cartridge)

    5. TI-Writer Binder with Disk (No Cartridge)

    6. Multiplan Binder with Disk (No Cartridge)

    7. Non-Functional TI Joysticks

    8. Various Magazines/Books

    20200527_182123.jpg

    20200527_182140.jpg

    20200527_182510.jpg

    20200527_182521.jpg

    20200527_183329.jpg

    20200527_183529.jpg

    20200527_183612.jpg

    20200527_183642.jpg

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    As for the cartridge connector. I have had a ton of cartridges and never had any greasyness on the edge connector. I even opened new MBX titles back in 1997 when I first got them from Competition Computer, and I don't remember the contacts having anything on them, and they were new in the box.

  7. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    Not to hijack this thread, but are you the same Kchula-Rrit from the net.micro.ti days? Heck, you were posting on net.micro about the TI in September 1983 at least, before net.micro.ti was created. Here's an old post where you were on board in the push for a net.micro.ti group (which eventually was renamed comp.sys.ti in 1987, as we know it today):

     

    https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/Kchula-Rrit$20ti-99/net.micro/QeduCo20F8I/WYPSYvoftfAJ

     

    Glad to see you here on AtariAge!

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    3 minutes ago, FarmerPotato said:

    Some areas I don't see represented:

     

    Education titles

    MBX cartridges (tougher to get, I know)

     

    Music that didn't make it. Like the disk-version of Arcturus that had something close to the Star Wars theme. And the creepy early version of The Attack song.

     

    That reminds me of one of the sound effects I really liked. It was that intro music/effect that plays at the beginning of "Space Bandits".

  11. Posted

    1 minute ago, pixelpedant said:

    Thanks!  And thanks for pointing that out.  Yeah, I'm sometimes a bit delayed on checking comments, since I mostly just log in to that account to upload or modify videos.  I do have to give Lasso a try at some point.  One of the titles I've never gotten around to. 

    Cool. I actually talked with the guy who did the localization for Fantasy (translated it into English on the TI) while working at Western Technologies. The games were apparently programmed in Japan and came to Western for English translation. I do know Super Demon Attack was programmed at Western and you can see the "Texas Instruments" lettering on the title screen for both Lasso and Super Demon Attack are identical. Just a fun tidbit.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    Went for $2466. I was expecting $3000, so I was pretty close to guessing what it sold for. If it was working, I would have been in and most likely we would be talking around $8000. Now the question is, did someone from here end up with it? Or did it go to an unknown collector?

     

    Looks like the high bidder has a k,m,f, and a 2 in the user id. Maybe Jim Fetzner? Those are his call letters, not sure if he added a 2 in all these years.

    • Like 3

  17. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    On 2/3/2020 at 12:00 AM, sixersfan105 said:

    Oh interesting! Thanks for the information, @Ksarul. Great to know. @Toucan's 99er.net site also confirms your hypothesis that this Star Trek cart was of Triton's creation: "Triton re-released some cartridges produced by TI in a Triton casing with a white label. A picture of one of these cartridges can be found on Bill Gaskill's web site in the "Star Trek" entry. If anybody has a cartridge that matches the one on Bill Gaskill's site, please inform me since it would help the rarity list become more complete." It is listed on 99er.net as UR for "Unbelievably Rare - A cartridge thought to never have existed, but has been found and proven it does exist."

     

    I couldn't come across Bill Gaskill's website, but if someone could point me to it, that would be great. Further, this is my way of informing Toucan that I have one of these cartridges, too. Exciting!

    I believe that listing for the UR Star Trek is not the Triton one, but a 3rd party Sega one. A manual (actually an unfolded box) by Sega can be found on the July 1983 Enthusiast 99 Magazine on the front cover. Oh, I see it now. There is a Triton entry as well with the same rarity rating. 

    • Like 2

  18. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    1 hour ago, kl99 said:

    Thanks again for preserving this document.

    Here are some notes so far.

     

    Document Date

    The White Paper has no date as such, or at least I didn't discover one yet.

    It refers an Appendix A from July 24th, 1978, so it is at least as young as this.

    The White Paper refers 08/31/78 as Date for a Figure (pdf page 61), indicating the Document is younger than this.

    The White Paper Page 20 (pdf page 38) refers to a future Q1/79 date, indicating the Document is older than this.

    So the date of the document must be somewhere in Q3/Q4 1978.

     

    TI-99

    so far I only went through the main document. There was no mentioning of the name TI-99.

     

    GROM

    The GROM is a main part of the TI Home Computer, already in the White Paper from 1978. I didn't see a reference to GPL in the main document.

    On Page 11 (pdf page 18) GROM is set as TI software strategy.

     

    TI Basic

    TI Basic is already the name established for the BASIC Interpreter of the Home Computer in this White Paper from 1978.

     

    UI Limits

    When using Module Software for the TI I often wondered why the developers forces the user to switch between Keyboard and Joysticks input when staying in one game. The remote keyboard would have had eliminated this issue.

     

    Software Module Library

    On Page 18 (pdf page 28) a Software Module Library is referenced. My assumption is that the Review Module Library is the Software counterpart to exploit this peripheral.

     

    Yet another White Paper

    On Page 1 (pdf page 4) refers a White Paper from May 6th, 1978, describing the complete Personal Computer product line.

    In contrast to that the CB Wilson White Paper is dedicated about the Home Computer product line.

     

    Home Computer BASIC

    On Page 15 (pdf page 22) it is said that the SR-60 and the SR-72 are programmable in supersets of the Home Computer Basic.

     

    THE BASIC TUTOR

    On Page 15 (pdf page 22) a GROM for The Basic Tutor is referenced. Afaik this cartridge was never released.

     

    No Joystick Port

    Figure 7.5 (pdf page 34) shows no Joystick port. I mean the digitial one that ended up being there in the production model.

     

    64K RAM Expansion

    Figure 7.6 (pdf page 35) shows a planned product RAM Expansion with 64K.

     

    Product Specification Home Computer System

    Appendix A - Product Specification Home Computer System - is actually a document we are aware of, at least in a more recent revision.
    This shows the revision of July 24th, 1978. The Cyc contains a revision of the same document from May 29th, 1979.
    The later revision already refers to the Home Computer as 99/3 and 99/4.

     

    Great observations. My gut instinct is that this is from September 1978, as they had a quarterly review in September of 1977, as mentioned in the 9/9/1977 drawing I have that says "Quarterly Financial Review".

  19. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    32 minutes ago, senior_falcon said:

    Does anyone know anything about the specs for the 9985? I see it would have been clocked at 5MHz or maybe bumped down to 4MHz. Clearly a faster clock would have helped. Did the instructions take the same number of clock cycles as the 9900 or did they require fewer clock cycles like the 9995?

    I might be wrong on this, but I almost get the feeling after reading that if the 9985 would have worked out like intended, it would have been better in the 99/4 than the 9900? Meaning the 99/4 would have been a faster, cheaper, and better performing system. Is this true or am I wrong on that?

  20. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    1 hour ago, Ksarul said:

    Paragraph 3.4.1 on page 87 answers one of the known speculatory ideas on the origin of certain BASIC features: it was designed to meet the ANSI Minimal BASIC standard (with extensions) and the TI Standard BASIC (for upward compatibility). This explains why the full set of TI-990 BASIC tokens were defined, even though not all of them were used.

    Cool bit in there as well about the bubble memory devices as something that could be coming to the TI for storage. I read a lot of articles from the late 70s about TI being a big player in the bubble memory market, and people were wondering if the 99/4 was going to have that. Kind of neat since it was solid state with no moving parts.

  21. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    See first post. I added the entire scanned document there in PDF form. Ooops. Guess I can't edit the first post. Anyway, here's the PDF attached to this message. bIt's 117 pages. Enjoy! Can't wait to see what other tidbits people dig up and share.

     

    White Papers.pdf

     

    One of the things you'll notice is how TI was big on the whole security system thing. Must have thought it a big selling point.

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 7

  23. Posted

    9 minutes ago, pixelpedant said:

    I definitely tried that a bunch of times without success, earlier on.  But given how finicky the collision detection is, I can well believe it might be the case that it's possible to use certain areas of the platforms above the cave floor to reliably cause the crystal to "drop" without taking a hit or having it drop off the screen.  Since landing on a platform, does cause the crystal to drop, broadly speaking.  Landing on the den floor itself doesn't seem to work, as it tends to just drops through the geometry.  It seems like it has to drop from above the floor level.  But I should experiment with the platforms some more.  Because it does make sense they could be used in this way. 

    Also, if I recall correctly, the other items you get have to be washed in the fountains as well. I guess the dragon keeps a tidy lair.

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

  24. Posted

    1 hour ago, pixelpedant said:

    I'll have to give that a try.  That certainly makes sense, as the Coleco manual references a secret passage to the treasure room.  Thanks again for the pointers.  But for "Toucan's Trivia" I probably wouldn't ever have gotten interested in this game in the first place. 

    Also, I believe if you land on the platform (where you hatch in your den), the crystal will be deposited without having to knock into anything.

  25. Posted · Edited by Toucan

    4 hours ago, pixelpedant said:

    Well, lack of documentation or videos showing gameplay progression made it tricky to figure out how (or if) this variation on the game can really be played.  But having sorted all that out, I couldn't leave it that way. As it feels like this is a game which really deserves to be played.  And it seems like the absence of a manual for this sort of game is a major hindrance to its enjoyment.  The Coleco and 2600 manuals exist of course, but are mostly inaccurate with respect to the TI-99/4A version. 

     

    So here's a video demonstrating (and explaining) the essential progression mechanic, for posterity:

     

     

    There are questions I have which remain, however.  Namely:

    - Can dragon's eggs be found anywhere in the world?  Not that I can find.  But perhaps I've just not found them yet.

    - Is the diamond hidden somewhere?  It could be.  But I have not found it either.

     

    My quest shall have to continue. 

    You missed the hidden passage. Blast through the lower right of the cavern (lowest right screen) and you can fight another enemy and there's ghosts. You can earn different prizes this way. The diamond might be one of those prizes, I forget. I stumbled upon the passage by accident actually. Would love to see that in a video since I don't think anyone else found that, at least from my experience in talking with people who played the game on the TI.

    • Like 2
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