Obscure TI accessory - Percentage of Ownership Inquiry

[Omega-TI]

Airshack recently questioned the possibility of home brew for the MBX. I was once told that the number of people who own one is so small, that no one would bother spending so much time and effort developing something for it, considering the mere handful of owners. This quick poll to to determine (as much as possible) the percentage of active users who actually own one, or not.

 

 

 

 

[jaybird3rd]

(I actually own two MBX systems, plus an extra controller.)

 

I'd still be very interested in developing homebrew for it, even knowing the small potential audience, just because the MBX has some very interesting potentialities and I think it would be a fun project. As always, the problem is the lack of free time.

[blackbox]

It is many years ago but I did see a reference to Milton Bradley closing things down with an initial stock of 250 units. The joysticks were superb if a little complex, especially for the day. The membrane keyboard was possibly a weakness but little used. Speech recognition was a bit of a gimmick, and it took a long time to train the user! The module "I'm hiding" was the favourite for my (then) 4 year old.

[digdugnate]

no, but i always wanted one since we had one when i was a kid.

 

i have all the carts and most of the overlays, but not the system/headset/joystick.

[+mizapf]

I thought that "own" and "possess" is the same, maybe the latter one having some sinister notion behind, with black candles and stuff.

[+Vorticon]

Aside from speech recognition (extremely gimmicky), I'm not sure there is much value to the MBX outside of collector circles. Most of the MBX games can be played just fine without the machine itself...

Had one for a long time, but eventually sold it as it saw extremely little use and took up a lot of desk space...

[Omega-TI]

Had one for a long time, but eventually sold it as it saw extremely little use and took up a lot of desk space...

 

I hear ya on the space aspects, and I also agree that the price to benefit ratio seems out of whack, but then again, it *IS* a hobby.

 

I wonder though, of the ones who answered, how many of you keep them plugged in full-time and in use?

[FDOS]

I have the complete system, and all the MBX modules, but I only opened the Championship Baseball game. I only used it twice, because it took so long to get it to recognize my speech during game play versus speaking the words it can recognize during normal setup. I have no idea what it is worth today, as I never got any of my kids (when they were young) nor any of my 8 grand kids (4 of the young teens live with me now) interested. They have an X-Box One and a X-Box 360, in addition to on-line friends with which to play highly sophisticated internet games for hours on end. I know when this is happening by all the screaming and shouting, words I wasn't aloud to speak when I was their age! Bah humbug!

 

Bill

Edited November 6, 2018 by FDOS

[krslam]

I have one, but it's never been opened so I'm unlikely to buy a homebrew for it.

[+FarmerPotato]

I have a MBX with 10 cartridges. It is a little flaky. When you press the membrane keyboard, sometimes it power cycles. Midwest Gaming Classic has it in their storage space so I only play with it once per year. I'm Hiding and Terry Turtle's Adventure are classics, just for the speech.

[Omega-TI]

I find it kinda neat to see a larger number of them out there than expected.

[Airshack]

“I was once told that the number of people who own one is so small, that no one would bother spending so much time and effort developing something for it, considering the mere handful of owners.”

 

 

If the MBX is in fact interesting enough I’d guess many here would want to try a homebrew simply out of curiosity and self-entertainment.

 

What others get out of anything you may do with MBX is nice but probably inconsequential.

 

One thing I took away from the Big Daddy of Retro expos *Portland Retro Game Expo* was that nobody was getting rich off this Retro Game/Computer hobby, yet thousands were deriving pleasure from it.

 

It’s not a money thing.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Edited November 6, 2018 by Airshack

[Airshack]

Aside from speech recognition (extremely gimmicky), I'm not sure there is much value to the MBX outside of collector circles....

So no appreciable Joystick functionality? It’s analog or what? Extra buttons? Wondering if the microphone can be used to produce a crude audio recorder? Etc...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[+Vorticon]

So no appreciable Joystick functionality? It’s analog or what? Extra buttons? Wondering if the microphone can be used to produce a crude audio recorder? Etc...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

I don't believe the MBX joystick fully works without the MBX box itself because it's analog as compared to the TI standard joysticks which are digital. Too bad because it's an excellent joystick.

The microphone is a standard one that should work with any application.

I know it's really a shame more was not done with the MBX, but it's very small run and high cost handicapped it from the start...

 

Regarding voice control, I did this project in 2015

 

https://youtu.be/uBc2XhaJ0-g

 

https://youtu.be/IO7Vm9pcUA8

[rickneff68]

 

I hear ya on the space aspects, and I also agree that the price to benefit ratio seems out of whack, but then again, it *IS* a hobby.

 

I wonder though, of the ones who answered, how many of you keep them plugged in full-time and in use?

 

Only when I play Championship Baseball really. Sometimes with Bigfoot or Meteor Belt as the joystick is nice, but typically not plugged in all the time.