TI History with a bit of drama

[Ed in SoDak]

I've been re-reading (for the umpteenth time) old issues of Micropendium. Back then, it was my (our?) primary news and info source. One by one, old newsletters and sources vanished, but M'Pendium remained till its own bitter end in '99. The internet was taking off and many formerly loyal subscribers had already departed for other pastures to browse upon.

 

Reading in the 89-91 timeframe, a lot of new stuff was happening. But it wasn't all rosy. Seems to me some people had mighty thin skins and all it took was a seeming small slight that made its way into print might cause an author to drop the TI (only to come back later - or not!), some notable deaths that happened way too young (John Guion and John BIrdwell to mention two) and the on-going saga of when will MDOS get finalized?

 

In one rather notable issue, April '91, John Koloen reported he had been taken to task ("Apology to a Reader") for accepting "fraudulent" ads from Myarc over their statement in their advertising for the HFDC that it supported streamer tape backup. John's letter to Lou Phillips resulted in a call from Phillips back to Micropendium where Myarc withdrew all support of Micropendium. And that was that. The loss of two full-page ads per month had to hurt, but John didn't kiss up or back down and it probably hurt both concerns, over one single phone call. And the month prior, someone was also raked over the coals online for releasing some MDOS .98h beta version he'd come across, and was just trying to share it.

 

This many years later, it seems to this reader some folks had thin skins, but maybe their skins had been stretched far enough already. What could John Koloen do, but draw up his chin and continue in true journalistic fashion and try to keep his reporting as fair as he could. It must have been a challenge for him and Laura some months to keep that even keel. There was simply no way to please everyone, but they sure tried their darndest.

 

Developing for or supporting any Orphan computer was in those days probably as much a labor of love as anything. Seeing (or not seeing) your name in print meant a lot and criticism usually stung a bit. The same might be true now as it was back then, but it doesn't reach the point where somebody takes his foot ball and goes home nearly as often.

 

But, boy, things sure coulda turned out differently if some of those in-print conflicts could have been worked out more amicably!

 

While I'm not actively purchasing new stuff for my ol' TI, I'm truly amazed at all the offerings today that have built on those foundations laid long ago. The new mantra of open-source and shared resources has helped in no small way, along with much better tools to work with. And it's easy to see many of the players from back then are still around and active here.

 

One thing for sure, I don't see those thinly veiled barbs (real or imagined) and reactionary rebuttals being slung about now, like I saw in those old pages. No doubt, as heavily-financed small businesses succumbed to the reality of a dwindling market, it became more than personal to many.

 

It must have been a stressful time in those years for anyone seriously trying to support the TI (and hopefully also earn a yeoman's wage doing it)!

 

-Ed

Edited March 22, 2018 by Ed in SoDak

[Opry99er]

Here's a cool piece of history. The June 1992 Newsletter from the CTIUG. Our own venerable Beery Miller with a call to arms (so to speak).

 

 

 

[Ed in SoDak]

There's gotta be a backstory in all that. M'Pendium followed it all in detail as well. Only Paul Charlton or Lou Phillips could relate what caused it all to break down between them and end up as a buyout with Beery as our Hero. Has a similar sequence of events ever happened before or since?

 

Anyway, what a lengthy route Myarc went through to slit their own throats on what coulda been the TI99's salvation at the "right" time in history for it to matter against the established survivors of the "computer wars" like Commodore, IBM, Apple and Atari. In retrospect, the market was already heading to the PC/Mac consolidation we know today, but with TI's marketing clout long gone by then, Myarc never could have competed in the broader market, no matter how swiftly or how well they might have met their self-announced goals.

 

Even with their millions of dollars invested way back in '83, would TI have survived the industry-wide "Black Friday" blast to emerge as a player to shape what coulda been, had they gone ahead with all those delicious goodies on the verge of release? Someone (a certain TI CEO, perhaps?) shoulda stuck it out for one last Christmas season at least. The outcome may have been no different, but we would have much better toys to build on now!

-Ed

Edited March 22, 2018 by Ed in SoDak

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Context is important. So many of the 'companies' making hardware and/or software for the TI were single person shops. Others had one or two employees and supplemented with contracts. Unlike Texas Instruments, these companies weren't able to do much more than the hobbyists do today. Certainly, no one got rich making and selling hardware or software. Those who thought they could make a living with the TI were often in denial or trying to recoup their costs, with rarely a positive out come.

 

Yet for all the scorn and drama, it's amazing to read through the history and see all that was created and produced over the years. Good times.

[+acadiel]

The stories that could be told if we could get the people to tell them... Paul, Lou, Bill Moseid, and more... a lot of them left the community and were never really heard from again.

[+OLD CS1]

A lot has been done for the history of other computers. Of my particular interest have been the production of "On the Edge" by Brian Bagnall, his upcoming "Amiga Years" book which I am a KickStarter, and several other Commodore- and 8-bit-related projects (artwork, etc.)

 

It would be interesting to see something done for Texas Instruments Home Computers, not limited to the 99/4A, but the entire Home Computer series, BASICcalcs, etc. and their progeny. We already have a number of people "around town" who have collected a lot of the materials as well as some communications from those involved, but actual interviews, hell maybe even a gathering of the Old Minds with talk and discussion panels.

 

Big ideas from a guy with little time, but then my time lately has been slush and monotony and I do not see it getting any better.

[+adamantyr]

I started getting MICROpendium in 1990, and continued until around 1997. (Sadly I didn't stick with it to the end... Shame on me.)

 

I never quite perceived how small the TI community really was at the time. The fact that the community continued to thrive after Texas Instruments shut down the home computer division is amazing in itself. I've encountered many people who had no idea that there WAS a community, for them, TI's history effectively ended in 1983.

 

I didn't own a Geneve so I was largely oblivious to the MDOS debacle. I do remember there was major drama with OPA over failure to ship products to customers, enough that OPA was "uninvited" to the Chicago Faire. I remember being relieved I hadn't just mailed off a check to them for a TIM chip, and instead sent an inquiry about how to purchase one that was never answered.

[+FarmerPotato]

There's gotta be a backstory in all that. M'Pendium followed it all in detail as well. Only Paul Charlton or Lou Phillips could relate what caused it all to break down between them and end up as a buyout with Beery as our Hero. Has a similar sequence of events ever happened before or since?

It's possible that MDOS was not finished because of money. Lou Philips had contracted Paul Charlton to work on a lot of things,

and for whatever reason as of Summer 1989 Paul had not gotten paid. To make things worse, there was software piracy. I recall Lou

Philips stating that only one customer bought the MyArt+Mouse package, yet Dave Plotzkin's Myart software was widely copied. Paul

Charlton had completed the excellent GenAsm package, to sell through Genial (how many copies did that sell?), and I think it was

the case that he did not want to do any more work for free. To speculate, by 1992, I think that Lou could only "release" MDOS by

raising the money he had contracted to pay Paul.

I was fortunate to be mentored by Paul on a number of occasions, starting with his offer of free Xmodem source code.

He was generous with his time and expertise.

-Erik

[+Ksarul]

I must have been one of a small number of folks that actually purchased MyArt and the mouse--and I bought four of them, one for each of my Geneves, one for my then brother-in-law in Germany, and a spare for emergencies. The non-payment for MDOS work already done was pretty much widespread knowledge at the time of the buyout. I know I threw in some cash for that effort (I think I handed $50 or $100 to Beery Miller at the Wiesbaden TI Treffen), as I figured it would be the only way we Geneve users had a chance at long-term survival. I also liked the fact that it would no longer be beholden to the vagaries of any one person or company. That was some of the best TI money I ever spent!

[+FarmerPotato]

I must have been one of a small number of folks that actually purchased MyArt and the mouse--and I bought four of them, one for each of my Geneves, one for my then brother-in-law in Germany, and a spare for emergencies. The non-payment for MDOS work already done was pretty much widespread knowledge at the time of the buyout. I know I threw in some cash for that effort (I think I handed $50 or $100 to Beery Miller at the Wiesbaden TI Treffen), as I figured it would be the only way we Geneve users had a chance at long-term survival. I also liked the fact that it would no longer be beholden to the vagaries of any one person or company. That was some of the best TI money I ever spent!

 

I think I heard that remark about MyArt in 1988 or 89. Good for you.

 

In August 1992 I had just started an internship, and I borrowed $200 against my first paycheck to send to Beery for the MDOS buyout. I consider that money well spent.

[+adamantyr]

 

It's possible that MDOS was not finished because of money. Lou Philips had contracted Paul Charlton to work on a lot of things,

and for whatever reason as of Summer 1989 Paul had not gotten paid. To make things worse, there was software piracy. I recall Lou

Philips stating that only one customer bought the MyArt+Mouse package, yet Dave Plotzkin's Myart software was widely copied. Paul

Charlton had completed the excellent GenAsm package, to sell through Genial (how many copies did that sell?), and I think it was

the case that he did not want to do any more work for free. To speculate, by 1992, I think that Lou could only "release" MDOS by

raising the money he had contracted to pay Paul.

 

Yes, software piracy was very prevalent. Unlike the other systems of the time which used very nasty copy protection to block disk copying (thinking Apple and Commodore), TI was largely open for copying. Extended BASIC's protection option was typically enough to block casual users. The only disk software I'm aware of that HAD a challenging bit of protection was Doom of Mondular, a game hardly worth the effort to crack.

 

I'm ashamed to admit that I participated a bit in that myself. My best friend had a TI, and we often traded copies of software on cassette and later disk. We didn't think anything of it, after all, we were kids with $10 a week allowance, we couldn't afford anything.

 

Later, when I got my P.E. box as a birthday gift in 1987, I convinced my parents to drive me to a computer store in Edmonds, WA, called Bits N'Chips, which was one of the few vendors of TI software still around. (In the location were they were is now a "Another Castle" vintage gaming store. I wonder if the owners are the same.) They offered you a library of software you could make copies from for like $5 a disk. I ended up getting my first copy of Legends that way.

 

Later, though, I felt uncomfortable when I realized that I'd gotten what was supposed to be a $30-40 game for only $10. I saved up money and bought a legit copy of the game, and promised myself never to get copies again. A few years later when Asgard closed it's doors, it made me realize how much damage software piracy can do to a community. Eventually people stop trying to make a living at it because nobody respects the effort that goes into producing something. It's that lack of respect that I dislike the most in a typical software pirate.

 

When guys in college bragged about getting software off of bit torrent I would dryly remark "Ah, so you're a thief then." And when they'd protest being called that I'd point out that they were taking something that they didn't purchase, and the original author who put in all the work was getting nothing. I never heard a single legitimate reason from them after, most would whine "Well what if I REALLY NEED the software? And it's so easy to get there." To which I'd say "Fine, take it. Just don't try and pretend you're not stealing."

 

Since then, I buy software I need and don't use cracked versions of trials. I haven't always been perfect at that but I feel good when I put down $30 for a good text editor or hex editor. And I have to thank the TI community for inadvertently opening my eyes long ago.

[FDOS]

I, too, contributed to the MDOS buyout. I don't recall the exact amount, and I can't easily research it as my email only goes back to late 1997. I do believe the original amount to be either $100 or $200, and later Beery asked for some additional funding, due to Lou requiring the "Buyout Group" to provide the final distribution of MDOS to all users (2200) to which I sent an additional $50. I also paid Paul Charlton $70 for GenASM. I still have the original manual and disk. I also paid for MyART as part of my original Geneve purchase. I believe I still have the add that contains all items included in the purchase. What I don't know, is if my second Geneve that I purchased from another user leaving the TI/Geneve community, paid for the included V1.40 MyART package. I don't think it matters as I never used either. Just not my thing! I was developing Forth+ for MDOS at the time, and my GenMod Geneve was constantly undergoing fixes and upgrades. It spent much time back with Bud Mills in Toledo due to the many "white" page(s) problems. The reason I purchased the 2nd Geneve. Today the 2MB GenMod Geneve functions without any "white" pages or a monitor for that matter. The second is a PFM512K+ that also has a full MEMEX card but can only access 512K of it. Same problem as the other Geneve - no monitor. Low interest in the Geneve part of this community, so I'm back concentrating on my TI-99/4A systems.

[RickyDean]

Same problem as the other Geneve - no monitor.

I have recently purchased this Tv/Monitor to use with the Geneve/TI99(with 80 col), samsung syncmaster 910mp, it has SCART and there is information here on Atariage as well as other places to use the rgb output from the Genny using the SCART connector. acadeshopper and others say it works well.

[Ed in SoDak]

Interesting stuff, thanks guys for the replies! I was very close to ordering a Geneve but held off to see if it would solidify as a platform. An opportunity came my way with an older Mac with a serial-port hard drive upgrade for just $200 and shortly afterwards an SE, so that's when I went dual-platform. I never really gave up the TI, just no longer did I have major expansion plans for it.

 

At the time I had dual TI PEB systems up and running daily and they were crucial to my photography business. It wasn't until the mid-90s when hi-res scanning and printing came to the Mac that it finally took over. Even today I still have the majority of my TI stash but only one is currently set up. I and my dad spent frequently on software, ordering two copies. But we were also guilty of sharing some software we'd bought with the other.

 

While I followed the MDOS buyout via the publicly released statements and reports, I wasn't that aware of the details. Had only the hardware and the software releases coincided, it would have benefitted Myarc to a much greater degree. It took so long, many Geneve buyers probably felt whatever they could grab oughta be theirs.

-Ed

[Opry99er]

Here are some articles from 1989/1990. 'Twas a tumultuous time for our /4A.

 

 

 

[+mizapf]

What critical bugs were they talking about, concerning the Geneve memory?

[+Ksarul]

There were some issues with the way the Gate Array worked. Look into the documentation for the MEMEX board, as that was able to quash the bugs to allow reliable use of the larger memory space. ISTR seeing a detailed description of the problem there.

[FDOS]

I have recently purchased this Tv/Monitor to use with the Geneve/TI99(with 80 col), samsung syncmaster 910mp, it has SCART and there is information here on Atariage as well as other places to use the rgb output from the Genny using the SCART connector. acadeshopper and others say it works well.

Yes, I am aware of this, but I have already laid out my plan and schedule, which I will continue to follow, as it supports a much larger segment of our community. I will get back to my two Geneves and one SNUG TI-99/4P afterwards, as I have a big financial investment in the hardware and MDOS development, for as long as I'm able.

[+arcadeshopper]

I have recently purchased this Tv/Monitor to use with the Geneve/TI99(with 80 col), samsung syncmaster 910mp, it has SCART and there is information here on Atariage as well as other places to use the rgb output from the Genny using the SCART connector. acadeshopper and others say it works well

 

I built my own cable.. the biggest trick is getting voltage to trigger the analog rgb on scart. I have tried using a external power supply but they tend to be noisy and cause issues. So I ended up with a battery pack on mine.. It may also be possible to yank the 12v off the video plug if that's enabled on the Geneve and then use a voltage regulator to get it down to what scart wants..

[+acadiel]

I have recently purchased this Tv/Monitor to use with the Geneve/TI99(with 80 col), samsung syncmaster 910mp, it has SCART and there is information here on Atariage as well as other places to use the rgb output from the Genny using the SCART connector. acadeshopper and others say it works well.

 

 

There's a nice list of monitors that support 15Khz here: http://15khz.wikidot.com

[+InsaneMultitasker]

There were some issues with the way the Gate Array worked. Look into the documentation for the MEMEX board, as that was able to quash the bugs to allow reliable use of the larger memory space. ISTR seeing a detailed description of the problem there.

 

There was also the large problem with cards overheating, something Myarc could have resolved easily enough by installing better regulators and heat sinks. Later, word of mouth coupled with the time it took to repair the cards (if at all) led to more bad press and the eventual hand-off of IP and repair responsibility. Every so often I still (!) run across an original card without proper heat sinks; these are usually cards that failed and were placed on the shelf, never to be used again by their once-excited owners.

[unhuman]

I'd be hesitant to blame just the community on decimating the providers. I blame the providers too. I personally had a very bad experience with Asgard. I had written a program called Artist Enlarger, which I released as shareware. Asgard approached me to sell it, so I removed it from shareware and signed a multi year deal with them for distribution - I think it was 2 years. I was excited to be associated with the "best" company in the TI world.

 

The program was well reviewed in a subsequent issue of Micropendium.

 

Over the contract, I never received a single penny from Asgard. They claimed they never sold a single copy. As soon as the contract ended, I sent written notification to Asgard telling them they no longer could sell my software and wrote to Micropendium announcing the return to shareware and how the contract was over. They published that notification.

 

Once again, revenue began to trickle in.

 

While I can't say for sure that he was lying, I certainly have no evidence that he was telling the truth. And, it certainly sounds implausible.

 

-H

[+Lee Stewart]

I'd be hesitant to blame just the community on decimating the providers. I blame the providers too. I personally had a very bad experience with Asgard. I had written a program called Artist Enlarger, which I released as shareware. Asgard approached me to sell it, so I removed it from shareware and signed a multi year deal with them for distribution - I think it was 2 years. I was excited to be associated with the "best" company in the TI world.

 

The program was well reviewed in a subsequent issue of Micropendium.

 

Over the contract, I never received a single penny from Asgard. They claimed they never sold a single copy. As soon as the contract ended, I sent written notification to Asgard telling them they no longer could sell my software and wrote to Micropendium announcing the return to shareware and how the contract was over. They published that notification.

 

Once again, revenue began to trickle in.

 

While I can't say for sure that he was lying, I certainly have no evidence that he was telling the truth. And, it certainly sounds implausible.

 

-H

 

Is it possible that the point of the contract was to keep it effectively off the market for 2 years?

 

...lee

[+Ksarul]

On that one, I personally bought several copies of Artist Enlarger from Asgard (I was one of their dealers) and sold them to folks in Europe, so I know the program had "some" sales during the two years Asgard had it.

[+9640News]

Well, just now seeing this thread today. The MDOS Buyout was the last time I saw Paul when I flew up to New York for the handoff. That trip turned into a bit of a nightmare as I missed a connecting flight and had to fly into Newark. I do know I made it in record time from Newark to Kennedy to pick up my computer. Between renting the car in Newark, and jumping the curbs at Kennedy airport, I managed to get to luggage claim and get my luggage before they locked the doors for the night with < 40 minutes time between the two airports.

 

Myself, I never had a "bad" call with Lou. Lou was always pleasant and shared some personal life details with me over the years. He was beginning to focus on family. Paul, I apparently irked, with some negative comments somewhere that "linger" on the internet. I've tried to reach out and apologize, but got nowhere.

 

As far as releasing software, I forget who, but someone sent me V1.14 which was the first decent version with hard drive support for the HFDC I released with 9640News. I think that really helped kick off the 9640 News business.

 

As far as memory and hardware issues on the Geneve, Ron Walters solved that issue with the Memex and GenMOD upgrade. When it was first released, Bud did not use the higher quality chips Ron specified which resulted in those white pages with MemTest. The chips needed to be extremely fast and had to do their thing before the Gate Array could do its thing to function. I ended up sending my Memex and Geneve to Ron whereby he solved those issues. The GenMod definitely was not the easiest modification to make.

 

Quite a few users contributed in varying degrees over those first few years including our Tim aka InsaneMultitasker, Clint Pulley, Jim Schroeder, Jim Uzzell, Al Beard, Jeff White, Mike Maksimik, myself, and others I do not recall.

 

I did have Don Walden that tried to buy my Geneve with the desire to also buy out the rights to MDOS. Not sure what his plans were, but, the rights to MDOS everyone contributed were not mine to sell off. I think Don went out of business pretty soon afterwards.

 

For myself, after GEnie disappeared and following a divorce, I pretty much vanished from the scene until somewhere around 2004 when Raphael Nabet was working on the Geneve Emulator for MESS. I looked up some details he needed, and helped him squash a few bugs in that process. For a short period of time in the 2004 timeframe, I did write a program where I converted an Excel Spreadsheet containing all the verses of the Bible into a MDOS application. It was on one of the MESS HD images I put out so long ago to get users started with MESS and Geneve emulation.

 

Personally, I have always maintained some kind of hobby interest that turned into a business opportunity that paid for the hobby and kept the wife off my back so she would not complain about expenses. First, it was with the Geneve and 9640 News. During the divorce timeframe in 1997, I was into Scuba. Did quite well there as a side interest. It just kept me pretty busy teaching and selling gear besides my normal daytime chemist job. Then, after I remarried and moved to Houston, I started Powered Paragliding. Been selling gear now for close to 10 years. Doing very well with that business with 2017 being the best year yet.

 

So, here now, I moved back to Kentucky and finally have a place, and the room to setup all my gear. Two Windows 10-64 bit systems, Raspberry PI, Geneve 9640, and a TI-99/4A. There is also a fairly new laptop, but used really only for astronomy. Hoping this year when it warms up to really begin to make some use of it.

 

Anyways, numerous people of the years have made significant impressions on me in the TI world. First person ever was Terri Masters when she reached out to me in 1986 at a Chicago Fair. Tom Freeman caught me a bit off guard when he questioned how I had a copy of Diskassembler when he had not sold me a copy. I came clean with him, and that pretty much stopped any piracy I had been involved. Tom was a great man.

 

Barry Boone, Mike Dodd, Peter Hoddie, John Birdwell and Paul Charlton were all far superior in their understanding of assembly language. More so than I will ever be. Tim Tesch has my upmost respect for what he does now which is leaps and bounds beyond me today. Same for Michael.

 

Myself, I will still putter around in my office doing stuff I enjoy with the Geneve. Will I write anything everyone will think they must have, probably not.

 

Anyways, thanks for digging up that article and starting this thread.

Beery