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     ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER APRIL 1994

                          THINGS THAT HAVE COME AND GONE
                             AND SOME THAT NEVER WERE
                                      Part 2

                               Trivia collected by
                                   Bill Gaskill
                                    April 1994


     More trivia about the people, peripherals, programs, publications, and
     products for the 99/4A that have come and gone in the last decade.


     -99/4A NATIONAL ASSISTANCE GROUP: They claimed to be there to help us
     and provide us with new and innovative products, but they turned out to
     be a commercial venture that offered virtually nothing new and little
     that was innovative or even original. Remember when they promised us
     the "Super Computer--99/8 Upgrade", which was supposed to be available
     in August 1985? What a joke! No loss when this Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
     based company turned their toes up.

     -99ER MAGAZINE/HOME COMPUTER MAGAZINE/HOME COMPUTER JOURNAL: What can
     you say about these Emerald Valley Publishing Company offerings that
     hasn't already been said? Well, how about an excerpt from Mike Wright's
     TI-Cyc on 99er Magazine for starters?

     "99er Magazine was the best of times, 99er Magazine was the
     worst of times. In the innocent days of 1983 we eagerly
     anticipated each new issue. We would spend long hours keying
     in Basic listings. We would spend even more hours trying to
     find the typo that kept the program from working."

     "In retrospect, 99er was a beacon of blatant publishing amateurism. The
     rot started at the top with Gary M. Kaplan, a pontificating publisher
     who habitually resorted to the poor writing practice of using italics
     for emphasis.  His other crimes included being a puerile pundit and, in
     the end, a cowardly crook who absconded with subscribers' money.

     "The editorial integrity of 99er left much open to question.
     Could our informed source have been so blind that it could not
     see what was happening at TI? Or was it neglecting its duty to
     its readers? Perhaps the ad in Enthusiast 99 showing 99er in
     the back pocket of TI put the correct spin on the situation?"

     Way back in January 1982, when Don Bynum introduced the Peripheral
     Expansion Box for Texas Instruments at the Winter Consumer Electronics
     Show in Las Vegas, the infamous friend of 99ers everywhere, Mr. Gary
     Kaplan, predicted that the new device would be called a TI-Box
     (pronounced tie-box).  Instead, as we know, it's generally referred to
     as the P-Box or PEB.  I have yet to run into anyone who calls it a
     TI-Box! So much for predictions by people who pretended to know what
     was going on in the TI Commmunity!

     Despite the negativeness I feel for Emerald Valley publishing, (I lost
     about $63 to them because I took a multi-year subscription in an effort
     to show support) I really did look forward to seeing their magazine in
     my mail box each month. Too bad...I would still be a subscriber had
     they not nuked me and so many others.

     -ACCESS ENGINEERING INC.: According to R/D Computing, this corporation
     was founded in the Spring of 1986 and was made up of Jim Horn, Chris
     Bobbitt and Richard Roseen.  Their purpose was to manufacture products
     for the Myarc Geneve, including: AC Basic, AC Pascal, ADOS, AMOS (AEI
     Multi-Tasking Operating System), and I don't know what else.  Too bad
     the Geneve never had an operating system dependable enough to produce
     anything for.

     -ARRO-SOFT SYSTEMS: the Edmond, Oklahoma firm that supported the TI
     community for several years with products like Biorhythm, Las Vegas
     Bandit, SpaceMatch, Create-A-File and Amortize, appears to have gone
     the way of DATAX and has joined the hordes of computer users and third
     party manufacturers who now compete in the PC Clone market. I found
     their ad in the May 1990 issue of PC Resource. They were offering a
     Lottomaster program along with another application called Biowriter.

     -While it's not much consolation to the TI-99ers of the world, the
     evidence seems pretty clear to me that virtually all "home computers"
     are being snubbed by the hardware and software manufacturers these
     days. It doesn't seem to matter whether you own the Commodore 64, 64C,
     128, 128D, the Atari 400, 800, 1200 or 1400 XL, or even the Apple IIE
     or IIc. There just isn't the emphasis on this market that there once
     was. Obviously users aren't buying product at the low end of the
     market, or at least they are not buying with enough frequency to
     justify the cost of developing new products. We should REALLY feel
     fortunate in the TI-99/4A community to (still) have so many loyal
     companies willing to take a chance on us.  The "Home Computer Market"
     of the '90's appears to be in PC Clones and to a somewhat lesser degree
     the Macintosh. Even the powerful Atari ST and Commodore Amiga line of
     computers can't compete with the myriad of programs and hardware
     add-ons now available for anything that runs under an MS-DOS
     environment.

     When Berkley Software developed the GEOS graphical user interface line
     of products for the Commodore 64 and 64C some years ago, a resurgence
     of sales surfaced for Commodore, but that subsided to the point where
     mass marketers like Target stores have now dropped home computers from
     their shelf space altogether. People just aren't buying those type of
     machines anymore. Hence they are also not buying the software designed
     to run in these environments. Sales are the source of profit and profit
     is the source of initiative and innovation. If we in the TI community
     wish to stay alive, then we had better start supporting the folks that
     are trying to stay with us.

     -CHILDRESS PHOTOGRAPHY CONTRACT: Jim Childress probably made a lot of
     money from Texas Instruments back in the days of the 99/4A. I have
     maybe twenty 8" x 10" color photos that his firm did of the 99/4A and
     its peripherals that show the Home Computer off in its best light. The
     Lubbock, Texas photography shop did many, many more. Unfortunately,
     they just recently cleared out their remaining inventory of 99/4A stuff
     and "threw it in the trash" because it had been too many years since
     Childress and TI did business. Mr. Childress told me there were about
     700 photos in the lot that got tossed!

     -COMPUTER 99/4A: Anyone who owns one of the beige colored plastic
     consoles can attest to the fact that they don't have a TI-99/4A label
     on them like our more familiar black and silver consoles do. Instead,
     they are called the "Texas Instruments Computer 99/4A". This naming
     change seems to have been adopted company wide in 1983 because all TI
     references to the 99/8 also show up as "Computer 99/8" rather than the
     TI-99/8 name most of us use.

     If you look at photos of the Computer 99/4A and the Hex-Bus peripherals
     that TI had planned for late '83 release you can see why the console
     color was changed...it was done to match the color of the peripherals.
     But virtually everything else was changed in color too, including the
     TI joysticks, the cassette recorder, the Panasonic Color Monitor, the
     modem and even the facing of the Peripheral Expansion Box. Placed
     together, they made a very attractive setup.

     Texas Instruments advertised Computer 99/4A as;

     "Now with state-of-the-art styling. Sleek, compact, low-profile
     design and a comfortable, efficient, well-organized keyboard
     with full-travel, sculptured keys".

     I've no idea how many Computer 99/4As were manufactured, but they seem
     to be rather hard to find. They were officially introduced at the June
     1983 Consumer Electronics Show, and TI continued to produce consoles
     into 1984 to complete production runs, but I have never seen a "number"
     anywhere that indicates how many beige consoles were produced.

     I did learn from the late John Guion's P-Gram manual that some (but not
     all) of the beige consoles were produced with what TI called "Quality
     Improved" circuitry, which was TI's way of saying they changed the
     internal workings so that unlicensed third-party modules wouldn't run.
     But I don't know if this means that some beige consoles will run
     third-party cartridge programs and some will not. I've always operated
     under the impression that they would not, because even 1983 Atarisoft
     ads state that some of their games will not run on consoles with the
     2.2 operating system.

     -CORCOMP PHOENIX (aka CC-99/64): Shortly after the "bailout" by TI the
     promise of a new compatible computer for the millions who purchased the
     TI-99/4A loomed on the horizon. The computer was to be manufactured by
     CorComp of Laguna Hills, California.  They fed us information based
     upon an idea rather than anything that even closely resembled a product
     and we ate it up in our eagerness to want to believe that it was all
     true.

     Dana Webb, then president of CorComp, first told us that the 99/64, aka
     the "Phoenix", would have two cartridge slots, but that was changed to
     three before the hoax ended. He told us the computer would have RS232,
     Disk Manager, 256 X 256 X 3 display resolution capabilities, and it
     would have Extended Basic, Speech, and ten octaves of sound generating
     as many as five voices built in to it. He even went so far as to say
     that the Phoenix would be offered with your choice of four different
     keyboards; a membrane style for kids, a calculator or chicklet style
     for young students, a standard style keyboard for general use and word
     processing and finally a keyboard with a numeric keypad. And we bought
     it all, the whole banana! The whole joke was so real at the time that
     advertisements actually existed from companies who thought they were
     going to distribute the new computer! Hah! Corcomp never even got to
     the alpha stage with the project, no less having a beta version
     available. Boy were we suckers!

     -DATAX: This was a company best known for it's TI-123, Da-Tax Auditor
     and The Brain programs. It was owned by Julian Achim, who apparently
     had some business relationship with a gentleman named Mike Bergen. I
     mention Bergen because he is the person who announced to the TI World
     in June 1985 that Datax was leaving the TI market and all of its
     software was being placed in the public domain. A short time later the
     whole story was retracted though. Wonder what was behind that?

     I ordered the Da-Tax Auditor in October 1986 (I sent my money in like a
     dummy) and made several telephone calls over the next four months
     trying to find out why it never showed up. Finally, in January 1987
     someone picked up the telephone and it turned out to be Mr. Achim.
     When I asked him about the status of my 4-month old order, he very
     calmly replied that he was busy working on the IBM version of the
     program and I would have to wait. I did get the program eventually, and
     it was also received in time for me to do my 1986 taxes. Nevertheless,
     I cried no tears when the company moved to Florida in October 1987 and
     eventually left the TI market.

     -J and KH SOFTWARE: Jim Hollendar was one of the early "gurus" in TI
     assembly language who tried to pass his knowledge on to others and in
     many instances did, through the SXB Newsletter. The Arlington, VA firm
     also gave us Video Titles I, II, Video Titles II Accelerator, Video
     Titles III, the Video Titles Combo, Super EXtended Basic and Multi-Disk
     Informer. I don't know if Mr. Hollendar is still in the 99/4A support
     business, but we haven't seen nor heard from him in several years.

     -MICROpendium's SPECIAL BROCHURE: How many 99ers found out about the
     existence of MICROpendium from another magazine? I did. I found what
     turned out to be John and Laura's only Compute! advertisement in the
     June 1985 issue of Compute! on page 105. I sent away for the free
     "Special Brochure" they offered and the rest is history. I've been a
     loyal reader ever since.

     The Special Brochure consisted of 8 pages of material excerpted from
     existing issues of MICROpendium, done in the same newsprint material
     that has been the magazine's hallmark from day one. I might have to
     send it to the Smithsonian for preservation though, since it and all of
     my earlier issues are fading badly, despite the dry climate here.

     -MYARC GENEVE 9640: Myarc did of course release the Geneve, but never
     as a fully functional computer. Although it was originally intended to
     be a standalone computer, as we know it turned out to be a computer on
     a card, usable only by owners of the Peripheral Expansion Box (PEB).
     Myarc struggled to make something out of nothing with the Geneve, with
     next to nothing as far as financial resources. The fate of the 9640,
     the world's oldest incomplete computer, seems to be sealed now that
     Myarc has officially closed its doors.

     -NAVARONE INDUSTRIES: The California, no Texas, no California firm that
     produced some great products, but who never could find anyone who knew
     how to write, no less who knew how to spell! I don't think they ever
     did produce a truly professional instruction manual for any product
     they released, as long as they were in business. Even their Homework
     Helper manual has the photo of the TI on its cover reversed so that the
     cartridge port is on the left side of the computer. Nice touch, huh?

     -OLYMPIC SPONSORSHIP: I'll bet you don't remember that TI was the
     "Offical Computer and Calculator Supplier of the 1980 Olympic Winter
     Games"? It was, and the fact is proudly touted on many of the flyers
     and brochures that TI produced in 1979 and 1980. No doubt it cost them
     several million to do so.

     -PHA 2500 SPEECH MODULES: These little known cartridges were designed
     to slip into the Speech Synthesizer to add new words to the device's
     vocabulary. In case you ever wondered, that's why the front of the
     Speech Synthesizer has a hinged top. But TI cancelled these cartridges
     in December 1981 and placed an official addendun announcing so in with
     all Speech Editor Command Modules and Speech Synthesizers sold after
     that date.

     -R/D COMPUTING NEWSLETTER: Bruce Ryan's newsletter was designed for the
     hardware gurus of the TI Community and appears to have failed from the
     lack of an adequate subscriber base. As far as I know, there were 23
     issues of the newsletter produced, which started in late 1985 and ran
     through mid-1987. He may have left a few people holding the bag when he
     shut Ryte Data operations down, but he did at least do us the courtesy
     of warning readers before-hand.

     -SUPER SALES: In January 1982 Texas Instruments mailed a huge (14.5" x
     11") 8-page flyer to all registered 99/4 owners offering 10% off your
     order of $100 or more of software, 10% off the price of a Solid State
     Speech Synthesizer and your choice of $25 worth of software when you
     bought the 99/4A Home Computer (presumably as an upgrade/replacement to
     your 99/4) for the bargain basement price of $449. The flyer listed
     over 100 software programs for sale as well as the soon to be obsolete
     RS232 Standalone Unit, Disk Drive Controller and 32K Memory Expansion
     Unit. Pretty clever way to reduce obsolete inventory, don't you think?
     Oh yes, the offer expired Feb 28, 1982.

     -TC-99: Remember this snazzy looking piece of hardware? I do. When I
     spotted its picture in MICROpendium my heart was pumping with great
     anticipation of a real TI-99 replacement until I read the article that
     went with the picture. Unfortunately, TexComp's TC-99 PC look-alike was
     a glamorous looking shell with only a Corcomp 9900 Micro Expansion
     System for the guts. But even worse, it was only an experiment and
     never intended for full production. Talk about building myself up for a
     fall? I kind of wish Jerry Price had produced the TC-99 anyway. I'd
     have bought one just for the looks.

     -TEXNET: Funny, how we seem to have forgotten all about this pioneer
     telecommunications effort specifically for the TI-99 Community? It was
     first announced in Source World magazine in December 1980, but didn't
     actually go on-line until October 23, 1981. Nonetheless, it proved to
     be a marvelous forum for 99ers during its heyday and to this day is the
     only commercial on-line information service that could display graphics
     on the screen.

     -TI COMPUTER CAREL: These 5.5' high by 4.0' wide pieces of furniture
     were used to show off the 99/4A, Expansion system and various cartridge
     programs, much like you see Nintendo and Sega do today for their
     systems. They were originally manufactured for the Consumer Electronics
     Shows that took place in Chicago and Las Vegas, but also appeared at
     the 99er Magazine TI-Fest in November 1982 in San Francisco. Word has
     it that Texas Instruments sort of got dragged into TI-Fest and once
     committed, pumped a ton of bucks into the show in order to make sure it
     was not a flop. I honestly don't know how true that is, but it makes
     for interesting conjecture.

     -TI SOFTWARE SHOWCASE: Here again, furniture for use by TI's marketing
     department at the CES shows. This cabinet was also approximately 5.5
     feet by 4.0 feet and deep enough to hold four software packages per
     rack for a total of 144 products per showcase in 6 by 6 layouts. The
     photo I have of this display case suggests that it was introduced in
     late 1982 or early 1983 because all of the software displayed is
     packaged in the plastic cover/plastic tray that superceded the more
     common 1043601-1 packaging most 99ers are familiar with.

     I don't know where "goodies" like this go when computers die, but I'm
     told that both Mike Wright of Salem, NH, and Joy Warner of Mt. Baldy,
     CA have rooms full of TI-99/4A showcase furniture.

     -TIGERCUB SOFTWARE: Founded by retired military officer Jim Peterson,
     Tigercub Software was probably best known for the "Tips From Tigercub"
     articles that kept many a User Group newsletter alive. Peterson issued
     his first "Tips..." article in June 1983 and as far as I know continued
     to write until his untimely death on January 12, 1994. He leaves a void
     in the TI Community that cannot be filled.

     -TRITON TURBO XT BRIDGE BOX: Remember this Craig Miller produced piece
     of hardware? It was an impressive looking device that connected your
     TI-99/4A console to a PC Clone chassis called the Triton Turbo XT. It
     appeared on the scene in March 1987 after a lot of secretive fanfare
     and speculation, mostly initiated by Craig Miller himself. He announced
     an un-named product that he had produced for a "major American company"
     on the TI SIGs like CompuServe's TI Forum. When the dust settled, the
     product turned out to be the Bridge Box.

     When Triton first offered the Turbo XT one could purchase it with the
     standard PC keyboard, or with the Bridge Box. For reasons unknown to
     me, they would not sell the Bridge Box separately. It was an either or
     situation. The $499.95 Turbo XT came with one or the other, but not
     both, not at any price. By the Summer of 1989 though, you could buy the
     Bridge Box for $29.95 since Triton had stopped selling the Turbo XT and
     all of the related PC products. I wish I had bought one, just as a
     curiosity, but I didn't. Guess I'll have to be content with the
     pictures in my catalogs.


     THINGS THAT NEVER WERE:

     -The DEMON ATTACK cartridge that was supposed to be ported to the 99/4A
     according to Charles LaFara's September 1983 Enthusiast 99 article on
     new software for the 99/4A. Yes we got Super Demon Attack, but we never
     saw the original Rob Fulop authored Demon Attack program that generated
     $15 million in sales for Imagic in the first three months of its life.

     -The sophisticated DATA BASE MANAGER that Corcomp was supposed to
     release which was designed to take advantage of their "memory" cards.
     Remember the DBMS, word processor and spreadsheet they promised. The
     word processor promised probably ended up as WriterEase and the
     spreadsheet likely ended up as Console Calc (aka TI Planner), but the
     DBM never made it in any form. Most likely reason is because Galen Read
     was supposed to write it for them, but he "left town".

     -IUG's REPROGRAMMABLE CARTRIDGE LIBRARY: Remember the claim by Charles
     LaFara that John Phillips' D Station program was only the first of many
     titles to come in the IUG cartridge library that was to be based upon
     the Romox Edge Connector Programmable Cartridge (ECPC)? Many of the
     titles that may have been planned for the IUG's ECPC library showed up
     in March 1985 under the Exceltec (aka Sunware) banner. Shortly
     thereafter, May 1985, the IUG went belly up.

     - The MECC educational programs that were to be written for the 99/4A
     in 1982 and scheduled for a fourth quarter 1982 release. According to
     the June-December 1982 TI Price List, the titles were: Astronomy,
     Elementary Economics, Elementary Math and Science, Exploring, Math
     Practice, Metric and Counting, Natural Science, Science Facts, Social
     Science, Teacher's Tool Box and Word Beginnings.

     According to Ms. Terry Leonard, who is one of only a handful of MECC
     employees who worked there in 1983, neither the MECC-TI agreement, nor
     the reason for its cancellation were common knowledge among the troops.
     So it looks like whatever dark secrets lurk behind the decision to drop
     the MECC products will apparently stay hidden forever.

     -The "Programming Language" that DATAX was considering developing. It
     was to be a high level language that would appeal to the inexperienced
     user, but it was not going to be anything like Forth or Basic. Looks
     like it turned out to be just like ZIP, NADA, RIEN, nothing!
     .PL 1
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