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Hello I believe I have found the munchman prototype.


ebay3211m@gmail.com

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Hello I Believe I Have just bought the munchman prototype I have archived the website so everyone can see it (https://web.archive.org/web/20210211004529/https://www.ebay.com/itm/TI-99-4A-MUNCH-MAN-ORIGINAL-UNRELEASED-ON-5-25-FLOPPY-DISK/392968417024?hash=item5b7ebe2f00:g:VZcAAOSwvltfemw9 ) I am ecstatic that I have this rare prototype, but I don't know how to dump roms so it would be wonderful if someone could help me dump this historical time piece of munchman and the Ti-99/4a. And like the listing says it is on a 5.25 floppy disk.

573484064_tp.jpg

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On 2/11/2021 at 8:44 PM, ebay3211m@gmail.com said:

Hello I Believe I Have just bought the munchman prototype I have archived the website so everyone can see it (https://web.archive.org/web/20210211004529/https://www.ebay.com/itm/TI-99-4A-MUNCH-MAN-ORIGINAL-UNRELEASED-ON-5-25-FLOPPY-DISK/392968417024?hash=item5b7ebe2f00:g:VZcAAOSwvltfemw9 ) I am ecstatic that I have this rare prototype, but I don't know how to dump roms so it would be wonderful if someone could help me dump this historical time piece of munchman and the Ti-99/4a. And like the listing says it is on a 5.25 floppy disk.

573484064_tp.jpg

 

a very rare prototype for 5$ ?

You bought a copy on floppy disk, so what ROM do you want to dump ? ?  ?

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20210211004529/https://www.ebay.com/itm/TI-99-4A-MUNCH-MAN-ORIGINAL-UNRELEASED-ON-5-25-FLOPPY-DISK/392968417024?hash=item5b7ebe2f00:g:VZcAAOSwvltfemw9

 

 

 

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The Muchman prototype version on disk (which is what you bought) has been available to the community for about 20 years now. It is not in the form of a ROM on that disk, it is already a set of extracted files. There is a soft copy of the program in the directory of MAME cartridges that @mizapftried to point you to.

 

Probably the most important bit of data for you is that this prototype code is not at all rare. Any of us with interest in those things probably already has a copy of it or knows where to get it.

 

TI prototype cartridges in general are a bit odd, as they use specialized chips called GROMs. These chips could be emulated using an EGROM board (making for a very heavy cartridge). I have a number of these. They are NOT at all common, and don't exist at all for most titles (and never did, as TI used a special hardware device to test most of their code before committing it to GROM). There were a couple of different devices here--an EGROM Box (could simulate 5 GROMs at once, which was necessary for larger cartridges) or a GSIM (used simulated GRAM to load and run ANY cartridge file). I have examples of all of these devices and more in my collection. What most people call TI prototypes are actually pre-production copies made to verify the manufacturing process prior to moving to full production. Generally 100-150 copies of a cartridge were made as part of these qualification runs. QUAL copies of most cartridges survive (and their code is the standard production code). What makes each one special is the fact that it came from a QUAL run and the limited number of cartridges made in the QUAL run for that title. There are even a couple where the QUAL run is the ONLY physical cartridge version to turn up, but it is much more common to find soft copies of unreleased titles on disk, as that was the way TI stored them BITD. None of the disks are rare, as whenever a new one turns up, it is copied and makes the rounds in the community.

 

I hope this helps. . .and as @fabrice montupetnoted, the prototype copy in his FinalGROM cartridge is his favorite version of this game.

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18 hours ago, Ksarul said:

The Muchman prototype version on disk (which is what you bought) has been available to the community for about 20 years now. It is not in the form of a ROM on that disk, it is already a set of extracted files. There is a soft copy of the program in the directory of MAME cartridges that @mizapftried to point you to.

Wasn't this eventually sold in a TexComp or Triton catalog in the 80s?

 

I first got this on floppy before 1985, along with TI Invaders and Chisholm Trail, in E/A 5 format.

 

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TI Sold Munchman and TI Invaders on disk BITD, but both were E/A 5 versions of the released cartridges. The disks were never common back then for some reason. It took me a long time to track original copies of both of them down. I think the original version of Munchman may have actually been released as part of the TI Cares packet sent out to user groups. I think I have a complete set of those disks somewhere in my collection (and these TI disks were also the source for the Lasso and Crossfire files). It took me 35 years, but I actually tracked down one of the Qual cartridges for Crossfire, as that one never made it past the Qual run before TI withdrew from the market. I know there are about 100 of them out there, but I have never seen anyone else that has one of them. They were bought up by the IUG and sold to their membership BITD, and most of them were never seen again.

 

In answer to the question though, I believe it was Tex-Comp that sold the prototype version of Munchman on disk, as they packaged and sold most of the programs contained in the TI Cares package. Sold is a bit of a misnomer though, as they sold them basically for the cost of production/distribution, in a similar fashion to their other "backup copies" of TI software and cartridges.

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I think the original poster is feeling somewhat deflated at this point.  This is the thing with Ebay these days.  It's full of scalpers and con-merchants basically.

If they're not trying to sell you something for £20,000 because it has vintage applied to it , they're trying to sell things that can be sourced online.    

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