pjduplooy Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Do any of you guys own the Milton Bradley MBX Expansion System? How many were produced, and how many went to market? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Yes! I own one, along with most of the (released) MBX games on cartridge; I started a thread about it shortly after I bought it. It's a fascinating add-on for the 99/4A because it's really a separate computer all of its own. This makes programming for it more difficult, but it adds so many interesting features to the 99/4A that I think it would be well worth exploring for homebrew games. I posted my other thread in part to obtain technical information for some games I had in mind (and which I'd still like to do when I finally have time). I'm suddenly reminded that I promised at one point to dump the MBX OS ROM from my unit; perhaps emulation and homebrew authors may find it useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I picked one up not long ago. Got it for a steal, though it arrived in a cloud of cigarette smoke. I now have all of the MBX cartridges produced for it, working with manuals and overlays. It is a really cool device and adds great dimension to the games, but I do not agree that its speech is better than the TI Speech Synthesizer. I laid out my impressions of the unit in another thread for which I am too lazy to search Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I own one as well (well, two actually, but one is a spare I bought to get a functioning original microphone and joystick). IIRC, they were only in production for a very short time. I once read that only 200 or so were produced, but that does not match the reality of what I've seen for sale on eBay and from other sources over the years. I suspect the real number to be somewhere closer to 1,000. The hardest things to find for these are the overlays. A lot of them disappeared over the years, and the games that had them, needed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I got one, it is very nice device, lots of possible things could be done. As for numbers most likely I think only a few thousand were sold. There is some good docs available on it, plus a rough development interface api for it laying around someplace on the 'net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GratedTopping Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I have two of them. The first got a lot of use out of it when I was kid, especially with the CHAMPIONSHIP BASEBALL that was awesome. The joystick with that one's falling apart a little bit, but still functions, and the actual device shows some wear, but it's fine. The other, I bought brand new from a yardsale for maybe $5 sometime around 2003 and I still haven't used it. One of my best finds ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 i have one. no carts or overlays.. just dumps for the gk and on disk.. played with it a little way back. mostly keep it in my "neet ti stuff"box under the desk now.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krslam Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I have one as well, bought new for $30 at a long ago computer liquidation. I've got most, maybe all, of the carts for it too. Never opened it, so I can't comment on the quality of the experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I am only somewhat disappointed. An analog joystick is something I coveted from the IBM and Apple, and the MBX controller combines that and the Atari paddle into a single device. That is pretty awesome, but it is difficult to use both at the same time as in Super Fly. It is surprisingly responsive, given the communication method between two computers. I would expect it to be a bit sluggish but the opposite is true. The games are great and a testament to what other TI games could have and should have been, recently developments not withstanding. I do not agree about the speech. I have read that the speech synthesis in the MBX is better than that of the console, but not so. The sound of the speech is not that much different, certainly not enough to compel using the MBX over the TI synthesizer. As well, game play becomes jittery while the TI is sending speech to the MBX, whereas jitter is nearly imperceptible when using the TI synthesizer. It seems speech is sent real-time to the MBX, whereas a better method would have been to buffer speech patterns within the unit and call them as desired. When it comes to kids playing on the MBX, it is a total winner. Two younger family members, 8 and 12, played every one of the MBX titles and did very well. Their favorite was Championship Baseball. Honey Hunt was a bigger hit than I expected and they struggled a little with Bigfoot. Of course, the non-MBX Frogger ran a close second. They mastered swapping out overlays and easily managed the speech recognition. Though, a second controller would have been nice, and an option for a second headset would have been helpful for multi-player. The MBX adds a modern touch to the old gal that helps make it more attractive for the young ones in competition to the small hand-held devices which grace just about every tiny palm these days. It is also more than just a fun novelty for the grown-ups once you start using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 i have one. no carts or overlays.. just dumps for the gk and on disk.. played with it a little way back. mostly keep it in my "neet ti stuff"box under the desk now.. I'll note if anyone has extra carts I'm interested for reasonable cost. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OX. Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Would like to see MBX emulation added to MESS in it's TI99/4a Emulator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I have an MBX here that James Fetzner sent me ... so well, maybe ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I have an MBX here that James Fetzner sent me ... so well, maybe ... There is a 6809 emulation core available already, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OX. Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 I have an MBX here that James Fetzner sent me ... so well, maybe ... So one day we may be able to play those currently unusable MBX entries in the Gamebase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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