pixelpedant

Well, that's now up. This one just talks about Funware's commercially released games and early history. I'll get to their unreleased games (including Lobster Bay) subsequently.

Yes, Pipes does not survive. Probably was never undertaken. Six of Funware's seventeen announced games do not survive at all, though five of those are attested in VIC-20 versions under the Creative branding (at that time, Funware's parent company). The Funware branding was only used for TI-99 products, after the company's acquisition by Creative in mid-1983. I'm doing a deep dive into Funware right now, as may be obvious from this. I'll be putting out a two-part series on Funware's games (and company history) shortly.

Level 9 is hard. 58,600

My first score worth submitting: 39,100

New Databiotics manuals from scans by @arcadeshopper! Space Patrol and Escape! and Breakthrough!

I wonder if using a good substitute mic would make this more achievable. Takes away one piece of the original equation. But the least interesting one.

They're not really numerous enough to have a stable market value, I don't think. But two recently sold for $250USD, and that's probably the upper range, as far as what complete units (with joystick and headset and system all in good condition) will go for, these days.

No first-party manual or materials, since it's an unreleased title which was recovered as source code. Look forward to figuring it out, where strategy and gameplay are concerned.

I can definitely see the appeal of keyboard myself, yeah. Though I've gone back and forth. But in a game where one missed input can and will kill you in no time flat, having precision is at a premium.

Curious to see what this Video Vegas goes for: https://www.ebay.com/itm/VIDEO-VEGAS-Texas-Instrument-TI-99-TI-99-4A-Funware-FW1002-VINTAGE-1982/255051524085 Always interested to see what the going rate is for uncommon games that nobody actually wants to play (see also: Espial)

Driving Demon I do like pretty well. But I do think in general the Funware games lack any real standouts, for me. I was surprised to find myself liking Rabbit Trail quite well, despite its unremarkable design, when I gave it a solid look a couple years back. Pretty simple and derivative. But well executed, all in all.

I feel like there are some pretty strong and clear favourites here. But what's yours?

It figures, but I'd not known until now. Bigfoot started as a late 70s Milton Bradley board game, seemingly marketed as Yeti in Germany. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4968/big-foot

Here are other TI Artist manuals and related manuals, in case they are helpful: TI Artist 2.0: https://pixelpedant.com/items/show/212 TI Artist Plus: https://pixelpedant.com/items/show/283 Other TI Artist related software: https://pixelpedant.com/items/browse?tags=TI+Artist

And a little better: 25,100

My first serious stab at this one: 18,200. Got that exact same score twice in a row, weirdly. Interesting, challenging game.

Great choice of game. Definitely one I'll be playing. It's a game that's been on my shortlist of games I'd like to do a review/history video on for a while. So I'm definitely up for having a proper run at it this month, to see how the endgame challenge holds up.

And apparently one sold already. Not a huge surprise I guess. Pretty steep for what it does, but I guess collector value is high. I'm mostly just holding on to mine because messing around with Barry Boone’s MBX routines could be fun if I ever get around to it - and because somebody else much more capable of doing so might get around to it likewise, one day.

Indeed, see here: https://ftp.whtech.com/Cartridges/FinalGROM99/FinalGROM99.zip

Looks like @globeron takes this one by 770 points. Final scores being globeron: 79,790 pixelpedant: 79,020 jwild: 51,405 Count9929A: 17,750 jblenkle: 3,160

Yeah, it seems to me the question of rarity hinges on whether one considers rarity to be based on 1) ready availability via online auction or sale or rather 2) total items presumed to exist Those two things vary somewhat independently. The advantage of measuring the prior is simply that it's consistently measurable. Whereas the latter is not always well known and in some cases may not be accurately knowable. But the latter is clearly a more literal understanding of rarity. The prior is affected as well just by the ease and practicality of shipping and sale, for a given item.

Tenex Winter/Spring 1985 catalogue and inserts. 56 pages. Tenex Winter-Spring 1985 OCR.pdf I do not believe this one yet exists in digital form, in any of the usual places.

New Score: 79,020 Eventually got caught by a pretty uncommon oil slick bug which can seemingly result in a permanent and inescapable spinout under specific conditions (leading to eventually running out of gas).

34,165 for my second set of runs

Extremely cool. Thanks for adding this! I had been trying to come up with all sorts of practical applications for palette changes (I really like coding on a black background in my day-to-day, so it'd be nice to try that on TI-99). But if I'm being honest, this is mostly going to be endless entertainment screwing around with stupid and impractical palettes. And I shall enjoy every minute of it.