am1933 Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 Keep your eyes peeled for next months issue of the UK based magazine "Retro Gamer". They are finally doing a feature on the good old TI99/4a, yes-after years of neglect they have finally seen the light. There is a downloadable version of the magazine available, so no need to miss out if you live in the North of Mongolia. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 Yeah, great info, thanks. So, as i am living in the north of Cologne, is there a chance to get it on real-paper, maybe ? Do you know on when it gets published ? Maybe at our railstation, there is a shop with international magazines. So I will have a look for my old tent now RS 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RetroElectroDad Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 I'd hazard a guess that it will be in the "Minority Report" section - it could be two double pages worth, one on hardware and one on the pick of the software. I hope they include some of the newer homebrew titles as they're way above the standard of the vast majority of the back-in-the-day releases. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 I hope it's more than just two pages in a "Minority Section". If it's a full feature covering at least 5 or 6 pages I'll want to buy a single copy. Current printed material is always nice to have; if it were not for Chris and his May 'stand-in' we would all be left out in the cold when it comes to printed material. Having our space here on Atari Age makes up for so much. Back in the mid 80's a site like this would have transformed the TI's future. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Having our space here on Atari Age makes up for so much. Back in the mid 80's a site like this would have transformed the TI's future. OK, I'll bite. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "transformed the TI's future"? Presumably if it was available to the TI, it would have been available for every other platform, not changing the ultimate outcome of history one bit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Maybe they'll test the waters with a Minority Report (these alone are often superb) and if reader response is good enough, they'll plan a full blown article for the future?. Any coverage is better than none, so great to see RG covering the more obscure formats, whilst increasing PS2/Xbox etc coverage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 My only grip with a "Minority Report" feature is the fact that the machine actually shifted a serious number of units and is not deserving of the "Minority" tag, although being a UK based magazine-I can see why they may have that impression................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Stupid B**tards!!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 @am1933:The forum was'nt exactly...cough...'impressed' shall we say with the increase in A8 coverage a while back (or maybe it was too much in a row?) and there seems to be a vocal part calling for less 8 Bit, more Ps1 onwards as the 'time has now come', so i'd guess the team are wieghing up how best to cover it. Then there's question's of who's going to write it, how the article was originally planned and what the team decide they want added/removed. A lot of 'factors' will depend on amount of space allocated i guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 ... is the fact that the machine actually shifted a serious number of units and is not deserving ... At some point they were selling them cheap - below cost and someone had to "pull it". Sure, the machine looked nice and as if it had potential, but soon you'd find a slow Basic and no machine code games to load from tape. Unfortunately millions abandoned it rather quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 OK, I'll bite. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "transformed the TI's future"? Presumably if it was available to the TI, it would have been available for every other platform, not changing the ultimate outcome of history one bit. Back in the 80's, a lot of platforms were purchased because a family member or friend had one, which gave them access to FREE software and technical support as they got their feet wet. User groups were also a large draw at the time because of the quantity of FREE software and the technical support aspects. Do not underestimate the FREE when it comes to peoples decisions to purchase one particular item over another. Having been in marketing, I can assure you that is a major driving aspect. One of the problems for the TI back then was how and were it was marketed and sold, not just the expense of the items. Sheer numbers build on themselves and further drive the numbers up. When you buy at a Sears, Wards or KMART, you do not exactly get a high level of information from a sales person like would from a tech geek at a local computer shop. Independent shops needed a decent profit margin to remain in business, the TI did not offer this as well as the more well known Commodore or Apple for instance. The TRS-80 did well just because it had a whole chain of stores in which to sell it. Anyway, without access to many of these shops, the TI'er was more isolated from the get go. Further compounding the issue.. in the mid 80's to 90's many TI'ers were also isolated electronically, because in the pre-Internet days calling Compuserve or a long-distance BBS's at 300 or 1200 baud was not cheap. It was easier to drop the platform all together than continue to throw money at it when you thought you had little to gain. If Atari Age with it's no-extra-expense calling was available back then, more people would have been able to 'feel included', get access to the holy grail of FREE software, and keep the excitement levels up. Just look at the TI section of Atari Age today... with all the talent there, exchanging of ideas, information, software and just plain socialization, we're ATTRACTING people right and left. So, a place like Atari Age back then would have brought all the important factors together, which would have contributed to user retention and even drawing in more users. TI might not have pulled out, the third-party folks would have stayed around longer so, yes, it would have changed the TI-99/4A's future... (IMHO). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 (edited) Honestly, I think you're oversimplifying TI's issues. Ignoring the misstep that the TI-99/4 was, the /4a was a good computer to get into 1982 and compete against systems like the VIC-20, but it really wasn't designed in a way that would have allowed it to effectively compete into the mid-80s and beyond (too little base memory, clunky and expensive expansion options, etc.). TI would have had to have release the 99/8 in late 1982 for the line to have effectively competed technologically with the other low end competition, and would have allowed it to get the same type of third party support that computers like the Apple II and C-64 got in droves. Of course, TI effectively did everything in its power to discourage third party software, which was certainly one of the factors that made the /4a less appealing. While controlling what software went on their machine worked well enough for Tandy (up to a point), their business model and structure - aided obviously by the massive chain of stores - was not something sustainable or repeatable by anyone else. And again, assuming forums were widely available at the time, they would have been widely available to everyone, meaning zero competitive advantage for TI. What would have fixed TI's woes in the low end computer market would have been nothing more than making better business decisions along the way, but of course that's making the big assumption that they still could have been competitive once the C-64 dropped so dramatically in price. Edited April 27, 2015 by Bill Loguidice 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Yes, there were other factors involved, like you mentioned in TI wanting to control everything like the software, and this of course led to fewer sales. which translated into fewer people left for the existing TI'ers to network with. One fact overrides everything else.. the biggest and fastest computer in the world is like a brick if it has no software. Commodore's drop in price was a brilliant marketing move, it brought them in and locked them in. It's the same type of thing that modern manufactures & brands do with devices like inkjet printers today, they practically give away the printer... so they can hose the consumer on the ink later! Building market share on a single reduced-cost item that relies on others is a tried and true method for profitability. The Japanese used this method quite effectively in the past by selling new items barely over cost (at first) to effectively block competition from American companies who only had short-term quarterly profits in mind. Today the TI is making a comeback of sorts because of communication, software and hardware support. I doubt many people would be very excited about the TI today if no hardware was being developed and no new exciting software was being written. So while we disagree, I don't think it would have been a zero-sum advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Today the TI is making a comeback of sorts because of communication, software and hardware support. I doubt many people would be very excited about the TI today if no hardware was being developed and no new exciting software was being written. So while we disagree, I don't think it would have been a zero-sum advantage. The disconnect we're having here is I fail to see how any of this is or would be a TI-specific advantage. Most vintage computing and videogame platforms are having new stuff made for them all the time, communities built up around them, etc., and many are far more prolific than the one around the TI-99/4a. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 A wonderful magazine. Simply love it. Man did I buy many magazines in the eighties and early nineties. Nice to find some of the old ones on-line, browse and taste the excitement of yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised while at the library with my little son and killing some time while he was playing around. Going to retrogamer.net and pressing the button Formats revealed 68 computers - lo and behold, the TI-99/4A ! Yippee-ki-yay ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolio Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Keep your eyes peeled for next months issue of the UK based magazine "Retro Gamer". They are finally doing a feature on the good old TI99/4a, yes-after years of neglect they have finally seen the light. There is a downloadable version of the magazine available, so no need to miss out if you live in the North of Mongolia. So I was in London last week and picked up the currently on sale Retro Gamer magazine. While the magazine was pretty cool and certainly well worth a few quid, there was nothing about the TI 99/4a in it. When is that issue supposed to come out? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 So I was in London last week and picked up the currently on sale Retro Gamer magazine. While the magazine was pretty cool and certainly well worth a few quid, there was nothing about the TI 99/4a in it. When is that issue supposed to come out? It's supposedly in the next issue which is due out around about now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RetroElectroDad Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Arrived this morning - 6 pages! I was surprised. The article covers the TI-99/4 and 4a life story with side boxes on publishers and peripherals. Way more than I was expecting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 EcXcellent! Now how do I go about getting a copy sent to the U.S.? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 EcXcellent! Now how do I go about getting a copy sent to the U.S.? But it does not look the latest is online yet? (141 does not mention TI-99/4 in the table of contents the minority report) https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/magazines/retrogamer/retro-gamer-issue-141-3562.html It is probably one of these websites: https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/retrogamer/ http://www.retrogamer.net/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RetroElectroDad Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I don't think the online shop puts it up until it is in newsagents - I get it through subscription usually a few days earlier than shops have it. It's issue 142. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Thanks! "then we'll wait and see" ! (I think that came from the TI game with Speech Synthesizer "Peter Pan - Help" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Thanks guys! I've bookmarked it in my shopping folder. When Issue 142 shows up, I'll buy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Hmmm, this kinda BLOWS. It appears you cannot just buy something, but you have to sign up too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 If you're having trouble with online ordering, just wait for it to hit Barnes & Noble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 If you're having trouble with online ordering, just wait for it to hit Barnes & Noble. Yeah, hopefully I'll find something a little closee to home. The closest B&N is 94.8 miles round trip.... and those guys want my email address too. These online places are getting as bad as Radio Shack was back in the 80's! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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