pixelpedant Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 I'm creating this as a gathering place for various MBX materials I've been accumulating/creating/scanning recently, on the principle that it would be nice to have one place where these things are collated. More things will likely be added over time. I still have some items I need to scan. Released MBX Titles MBX Manuals: Arcade Plus Series Championship Baseball Manual.pdf Bigfoot - New.pdf Superfly.pdf Space Bandits.pdf Sewermania.pdf Meteor Belt.pdf MBX Manuals: Bright Beginnings Series I'm Hiding.pdf Terry Turtle's Adventure - New.pdf Honey Hunt.pdf Soundtrack Trolley.pdf MBX Manual: The MBX Itself MBX Manual - New.pdf MBX Overlays - Touched Up for Printing (Note: dimensions are 15cmx16cm on the printed surface) Images - Milton Bradley Expander as shown at Winter CES 1983: Images - The MB Gemini prototype that turned into the Expander/MBX: Other Images - MBX Promotional Materials Third Party Catalogues/Ads: First Party Catalogues/Ads: TI Home Computer Program Library 1983.pdf Further Reading - Bill Gaskill and Bryan Roppolo on Milton Bradley's relationship with TI and the history of the MBX: mbx-gaskill.pdf Development Tools - Barry Boone's source/notes on MBX diagnostics and XB CALL LINKs: mbx-boone.zip Gameplay for MBX Only Games: Updates: - 1983 TI Home Computer Program Library scan, containing MBX promotional materials. - Terry Turtle's Adventure scan. - Bigfoot manual scan. - Terry Turtle, I'm Hiding and Championship Baseball gameplay. - I hadn't originally included the Honey Hunt manual. Oops. Fixed. - Soundtrack Trolley manual. 11 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 Freaking awesome post! I linked to it << HERE >> so people will be able to easily find it years from now as it goes down the list. Good job! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+videofx Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 Great job thanks! How best to print the overlays? I only have original Championship baseball. Are the other games available for download? will they work with finalgrom or do I need something else? Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 The (original) overlays are very thinly laminated, with 16cm x 15cm dimensions on the printed surface. I've printed the ones I've printed using matte photo paper, then laminated with 3mm laminate sheets. I actually like the result better than the original. But granted, the replacement isn't 40 years old. Here's an example: On 10/6/2020 at 7:49 PM, videofx said: Are the other games available for download? will they work with finalgrom or do I need something else? As far as I know, there are no fully functional dumps/conversions of the MBX-only games (Terry Turtle, Championship Baseball, I'm Hiding) which will run from a FinalGROM. Apparently they have some on-cart RAM and use a bank switching scheme that might or might not be supported by the FinalGROM. Honey Hunt and Soundtrack Trolley seem to work for me via FinalGROM both with and without MBX, though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 Incidentally, the late 1983 TI Home Computer Program Library pamphlet I've now scanned and uploaded there in the original post (as the MBX and its library are featured prominently) is of particular interest. Includes a blurb for Imagic's Wing War and lots of promo for the MBX. And has the "modern" style covers for Golden Voyage and Tunnels of Doom on the cover. I've now as well added the Terry's Turtle Adventure manual. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+eebuckeye Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 Best thread idea ever.. I always wanted one back in the day and finally got on about 10 years ago. If only it had been used more.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 For a system that was effectively cancelled two weeks before it was going to be released I really can't complain about the library, though. I consider Championship Baseball, Bigfoot and Superfly genuinely good and enjoyable games, at least. And I figure (at least) three good games is above par, for systems that are cancelled before they're released. That having said, I do hope that we can see more development, at some point. Barry Boone's library of (possibly functional) routines are a good starting point, anyway. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 6 hours ago, pixelpedant said: Barry Boone's library of (possibly functional) routines are a good starting point, anyway. I recall seeing a working demo built around those routines many years ago. No idea where it is. The MBX games are fantastic and most work well without the MBX, just lacking in some enhanced functionality (SuperFly, for instance, benefits from the rotating controller.) I wrote a while back that I find the speech from the TI Speech Synthesizer superior to that of the MBX. Thus, I prefer to play the games without the MBX attached. Notice the odd-looking Baseball overlay in the CES show photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 4 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said: Notice the odd-looking Baseball overlay in the CES show photos. Indeed, and yet another alternate version is visible in the final promotional poster, in the top centre: Which is kind of funny, given the final overlay is pictured several inches below. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kl99 Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 very nice thread. when i won the auction about the ti-99/8, it came with a mbx "prototype", which was the model they used in the TI labs. http://www.ti99.eu/?page_id=1218&lang=en 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toucan Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, pixelpedant said: Indeed, and yet another alternate version is visible in the final promotional poster, in the top centre: Which is kind of funny, given the final overlay is pictured several inches below. Interestingly enough, there is a variant of the overlay in press materials that looks like the final one, but has one extra button for "Screw Ball". It has an additional orange button so instead of one button in the second row of orange buttons, there are two, with a gap in the middle where the final "Curve" button is located. It's actually in that image that you called the "final overlay", so I guess neither of those overlays are the final ones Also, note the "Time Out" button on that one. Bill Gaskill made the joke that I should have become a detective when I grew up (I was 14 in 1998 when I was looking up all this TI info with him), since I would spot those little details. Edited October 7, 2020 by Toucan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toucan Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 (edited) Fun Fact: The kid in the brochure for the MBX was Stephen Langieri, son of Mike Langieri who was one of the VP's of MB's Advanced R&D, who was involved with the MBX project. You'll notice the name "Stephen" used in some promo screenshots. I also believe the other names used in the other game screen shots were of others involved in the MBX project. Mike is a big Yankee's fan, not Red Sox like you might think. Edited October 7, 2020 by Toucan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 I would like to note: I do not know of a source for a full scan of the Soundtrack Trolley manual, and do not have the manual myself, to scan (the only MBX game for which I don't). So if anyone has this available to scan, it would certainly be helpful (and would complete the set, for materials associated with released titles). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 I have all manuals which I stored from new-in-box condition (I bought them all unopened, ostensibly.) To get a proper scan I figure I would need to dissect it, unless someone has a better plan. I suppose I could scan as tiff and crop the pages as-needed, then combine into pdf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 Or if you can scan the pages (to any image format) and post the page images, I will crop and combine into a PDF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 31 minutes ago, pixelpedant said: Or if you can scan the pages (to any image format) and post the page images, I will crop and combine into a PDF. I will work on that tonight or tomorrow. Not feeling too well today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 9 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said: I will work on that tonight or tomorrow. Not feeling too well today. Get well soon, my friend. . . 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 4 hours ago, OLD CS1 said: I will work on that tonight or tomorrow. Not feeling too well today. Sorry to hear that. But thanks so much for offering, and by all means, take your time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+hloberg Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 going to create a section on TI99RESOURCES for MBX this weekend. downloading everything off this page. downloading games from WHTECH. linking to @pixelpedant update: it's added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 ScanImage02_page_0001.tif ScanImage02_page_0002.tif ScanImage02_page_0003.tif ScanImage02_page_0004.tif ScanImage02_page_0005.tif ScanImage02_page_0006.tif ScanImage02_page_0007.tif ScanImage02_page_0008.tif ScanImage02_page_0009.tif ScanImage02_page_0010.tif ScanImage02_page_0011.tif ScanImage02_page_0012.tif ScanImage02_page_0013.tif ScanImage02_page_0014.tif 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Thanks! I've updated the original post to include the paginated/OCRed Soundtrack Trolley manual PDF. Which means that's all of them, for the released MBX titles and hardware. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeddyBear89 Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 Just a "thank you" to all who contributed to this thread. I came across Bigfoot today on Ebay, got intrigued, started wondering what in the hell a MBX was and finally found this thread. Knowing that having a MBX is not a requirement to play this game was very helpful. Cart will be on its way, manual is already printed and I do have a speech synthesizer ......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted February 7, 2021 Author Share Posted February 7, 2021 Nice! Yeah, it's a great game, and really doesn't require the MBX at all. Only advantage with the MBX is that all the speech samples always play without interruption when playing via MBX and they sound a little better than the TI samples to me. But on the other hand, to me it doesn't make any sense to play with the MBX joystick, since the game is strictly four-directional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 On 10/7/2020 at 1:20 AM, pixelpedant said: I do hope that we can see more development, at some point. Barry Boone's library of (possibly functional) routines are a good starting point, anyway. Would love to do so if I could find some documentation to these routines. Boone’s code seems like the much needed MBX Rosetta Stone. Would really enjoy seeing these routines deciphered and documented. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Here's a disk with most of the cartridges dumped (HSGPL images - which CAN run MBX carts). - see post #5. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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