Toucan

Anyone interested in some good TI equipment? It’s located in Deland, FL and contains some goodies like 2 PEBs, at least one with 2 half-height disk drives, Plato software, and more. I can pass along pics to anyone interested. The guy is interested in getting rid of it soon as he needs the room. If you’re interested I’ll pass along the pics and his contact info. Thanks a ton! Sincerely, Bryan Roppolo

http://www.videogamehouse.net/gamemain/cartsnr/robotron/robotronbb.jpg

Feel free to utilize mine if needed: http://www.videogamehouse.net/gamemain/cartsnr/robotron/robotronbf.jpg

Anyone ever think about making a FROgger game? It could be a frog with an afro, hence 'FRO' being in caps in the title. Just something funny that came to mind when thinking of funny ways to pronounce some of the game titles. It could take place in the ghetto as well, maybe have some of the cars be low riders with chrome wheels

The guy who designed the cases has not been seen on AtariAge since Christmas. Now sure if he's coming back or not. The case need a few tweaks here and there, so unless there is someone else in the community that knows how to edit .stl files, this project looks dead in the water. I did send a sample to 2 people, including Omega here, and he had some design changes. He might show off the case at Fest West if anyone wants to see what it looks like.

Got this in my e-mail today, thought I would share it here: Hi, I'm working on a Parsec remake for the iPhone and iPad. I saw your site about Parsec and read with interest! I've done a lot of research and used original hardware as part of the project. See my YouTube videos of it so far: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgsd0ynw4r_FI_FZY3L2uNQ Let me know if you'd like to beta test! Thanks, Yesung.

Retrogaming Times is making a comeback. Starting in March 2016 the magazine will be revived, this time headed by David Lundin, Jr. and will be part of his Classic Plastic site. You can still get to the magazine by http://www.retrogamingtimes.com or http://www.classicplastic.net/trt/ Looking forward to the new incarnation of Retrogaming Times!

I think I talked with Tony and he said it has a 9985 on his wood-mounted prototype and he mentioned something like it's probably one of the only 9985's left in existence or the like.Here's another e-mail from him (2003): " Hi Bryan, Boy does this email bring back some old memories (again)! The alien game I have (Like the MB-1 prototype) is a prototype cartridge with an EEPROM on it. Its not soldered to the cartridge, so we could burn EEPROM's with 9900 games. These were not yet into production. The Alien game is a ONE OF A KIND!. I don't think anybody in the free world has a copy of what I have. As you know the game was later released as "The Attack" for the TI 99/4. It has a different title screen. I don't remember ever playing "The Attack", so I don't know if it was improved or anything more. Keep in mind, the only thing that probably exists is a concept wall painting of the MB-1 (probably now in the hands of MB's advanced research dept head, Paul Arons, if he's still alive) and my prototype and games all on EEPROM's with ONE prototype cartridge. The rest all got canned after TI moved into the market. I managed to salvage and keep the legacy. The prototype cart. doesn't fit in a vintage TI 99 so I'm not sure how I could let you see the game. The MB-1 prototype doesn't have a case. Its mounted on a piece of plywood. Hope this helps, Tony At 06:57 PM 11/19/2003 -0800, you wrote: >Dear Anthony, > Is there any chance of seeing that Alien game >you have? Is it exactly the same as the one released >in 1980 or so? Or does it have a different title >screen? > >--- Anthony Cote <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Byron, > > It may be hard to belive but the MB-1 "was" the Ti > > 99/4. We were going to design a home computer that > > would put 16 bit processing against the current 8 > > bitter's of the day. Mostly the Atari 400 then the > > 800. I don't remember exact dates (late 70's) > > We had full assistance from TI on supplying all the > > chips, the 9900 processor. We actually created the > > 9918 graphics chip in house and TI manufactured the > > die for us. TI decided that most of all the hardware > > was theirs, they decided to take over the product > > and refused to supply MB with any hardware or help. > > There was a legal battle that TI won, so we just put > > our tail under our legs and made games for the "NEW" > > TI home computer. The only thing I personally have > > is one of the two prototypes (mounted on plywood) > > that proceeded the actual production version of the > > 99/4. I think I am going to donate this to the > > computer museum in Boston. This part of computer > > history is not very well known. It should be known > > that the TI 99/4A should have been the MB1 (this was > > just an in house code name. no name was ever > > mentioned after we lost the rights) I like to think > > of it as the MBi9000. If you flip the 3 letters > > around, subtract 1 from each letter . . . . .. > > Hope this helps, > > Tony > > > > BTW: I even have the protoype caridge board with two > > eproms burned with the never released ALIEN movie > > game on it. It was postponed because we never got > > copyrights from the movie company to use the name > > "Alien" TM! We played it a lot at MB. It was > > renamed "THE ATTACK" later when it went into > > production for a very short time for the 99/4. > > > > see ya > > > > At 09:56 PM 09/09/2001 -0700, you wrote: > > > > > >To member: saturn5tony > > >From member: auction99er > > > > > >-------------------- > > > > > > > > >HI! > > > I saw someone from a Newsgroup say that you > > might be Anthony Cote who > > >was on the design team of the Milton Bradley-1 > > Computer. What was the MB-1, > > >and when was it made? Was it a TI-99/4 clone? I > > have some Gamevision > > >cartridges for the TI-99/4 made in 1979, were these > > apart of this computer > > >system you were developing? One last question, do > > you still have any items > > >from this computer? Thanks for any help you can > > provide me with! > > > > > >Sincerely, > > > > > >Bryan Roppolo > > > > > >-------------------- > > >This email was sent by an eBay member via eBay's > > email forwarding system. > > >If you reply to the email, your response will go > > directly to the member and > > >not through eBay. > > > > > >eBay does not tolerate spam (i.e., unsolicited > > commercial email) and is > > >taking steps to protect members from this abuse. In > > addition, solicitations > > >to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay > > rules and are not covered > > >by services that protect members such as feedback, > > insurance, escrow, and > > >dispute resolution. If this is an offer to buy/sell > > items outside of eBay, > > >please do not participate. Enter the following link > > into your browser to > > >learn more. Link: > > http://pages.ebay.com/help/email_info.html > > > > > > > >__________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now >http://companion.yahoo.com/

I think Tony on this one was a little mistaken. From what I have dug up, MB was involved with a gaming version of the TI-99/4 starting at least back in 1977. So I think Tony thought MB was making it first, but really they were making the game system version of the 99/4. Bill Gaskill put together a compilation of info that I dug up through the years and put it into a nice article in PDF format. You can read it here. It's a great read! Those pics of the display stands are from 1977 mockup drawings that Mike Langieri did at MB. On the bigger images that I got from Mike you can read the words, "Compatible with Milton Bradley or Texas Instruments Computer Systems". After talking with numerous people, I have the feeling that MB was to make a game version or entry level computer version of the 99/4 (most likely called the Gamevision), while TI was going to make the full fledged computer. It would have been interesting if it had worked out this way, since there would have been a lot of interesting games put out at the start of the 99/4 life and would have provided an entry point for those that wanted to play games on a TV, who could then graduate and get a 99/4 which would have been fully compatible with the MB game unit. Would have possibly helped boost sale and provided better software, since MB did put out some of the top titles on the 99/4A and came up with unique hardware accessories like the MBX (which was supposed to be a separate system called the Gemini until the Colecovision came out in 1982 and then those games (programmed in 6802 Assembly) were converted to TMS9900 assembly)).

I'd be especially interested in seeing if the MBX games are different at all. I know that in some early literature for the MBX, Championship Baseball had a "Screw Ball" option on the overlay which of course was taken out of the final version.

I just started collecting Colecovision games and noticed that for the Canadian releases, they included a label of the of the game in French that could be placed over the English label on the cartridge. My question is what purpose did that serve? It seems that the title for most games was the same (Smurf I know was different on the French label) and the only things changed were "Presents" to "Presente" and "For Colecovision & Adam" to "Pour Colecovision & Adam", along with the copyright info. I guess my question is why would Coleco bother include stick-on French labels when the only thing most people would read would be the name of the game and the word "Colecovision" to know the system it was for. Was this a Canadian requirement? I figured most people did not read the copyright info anyways, so really "Pour" and/or "Presente" is the only real change that one would actually read. Boxes and manuals I can understand, but the game label seems trivial since there's not much info on the label outside of the game title.

Is the ROM cartridge talked about in the link different from the ones you know about James? https://books.google.com/books?id=jD4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA1870&lpg=PA1870&dq=UCSD-Pascal+Word+Processor+ti-99&source=bl&ots=nr6aojPCwK&sig=0i7kGgyoofP6hEOribKw7eVDZj0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjp28yX3IHKAhXMFT4KHf1-DBEQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=UCSD-Pascal%20Word%20Processor%20ti-99&f=false

Now my question is, if I remove a cartridge from the TI when running it usually crashes the system. How does the Widget get around this? I've pulled out Munchman or the like before and it will crash the system, but a Widget won't crash it? Also, why is a rotary widget not as good for dumping as a slide switch one? Lastly, how does one load one of these dumps back into memory? Can it be reloaded as an E/A 5 option?

Alright. I am ready to lay something to rest. Ever since I got into the TI community I have heard that people use Navarone Widget's to dump their cartridges. Now, I was under the impression that a Widget was nothing more than a cartridge port expander that allowed the user to have up to 3 carts plugged in at one time and nothing more. Therefore, my question is how do you dump cartridges using the Widget. Here's a quote from Kyle who apparently does it. Apparently only the slide switch will do the dumps: So how does one dump carts with the Widget? I always used a Gram Kracker to dump my carts. My gut is that it can't be done without extra software, but many make it sound like you just need a Widget to do a dump.

Just to be on the safe side, you are interested in the NanoPEB, not a CF7+ case that has been talked about as being a potential future project.

Not yet. It looks like John may be busy with other things, so we'll just have to keep tight until he had some free time.

This one? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/187773-can-you-help-me-pick-a-2600-game-for-my-club-at-school/

I updated the images in the NanoPEB Gallery with the new images. Take a look and you'll see a smoother print out this time.

I just finished printing another example upright and it is much smoother than the initial one. Therefore, this seems to be the best position to print it out on. John got his example on Saturday and I'm just awaiting his response to see if it fits his NanoPEB. If so, then we are ready to go! Next project would be trying to convince him to make the CF7+ case I'll post pictures of this one tomorrow. I have to let it sit in the dissolvable bath to dissolve the support material.

A different case would have to be designed for that right? If so, Sprintcarfan might have to get bust on a CF7+ case