home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.whtech.com
/
ftp.whtech.com.tar
/
ftp.whtech.com
/
articles
/
limanews
/
COMGONE3.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
2006-10-19
|
10KB
|
171 lines
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 1994 LIMA NEWSLETTER
THINGS THAT HAVE COME AND GONE
AND SOME THAT NEVER WERE
Trivia collected by
Bill Gaskill
September 1994
You may recall that the April 1994 Things... article touched on the
Childress Photography contract that TI had for the production of most
if not all of its color workups and dealer sales pitch stuff. If you
don't recall, I've repeated it below for those who didn't get to see
the original.
Well, if your newsletter editor is able to do so, I hope that you will
be able to see some of the 8" x 10" photographs of things TI that Mr.
Jim Childress and his staff put together. I have photocopied all of the
ones I have in hopes that they can be reproduced for use in the club
newsletter. If so, it is likely that they will appear over several
issues because there are so many.
-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!
Here's a list of the photos:
-99/4A Black and Silver Console and various cartridges on cables (to
prevent theft) in a computer carel for demonstration purposes.
-99/4A Black and Silver Console and various cartridges on cables (to
prevent theft) in a table top computer carel made for demonstration
purposes.
-99/4A Home Computer Display with Software module. This is a drawing of
a marketing tool designed to display the console, monitor and expansion
box along with the newly adopted plastic encased cartridge software.
The curious thing about the drawing is that the console being shown in
the drawing is the 99/2, not the 99/4A?
-99/4A Home Computer Display. This is a photo of the actual product
that came to be as a result of the drawing mentioned above. The real
thing does have the 99/4A console shown in the photo, not the 99/2.
-99/4A Shipping Box (black cardboard) with top and bottom views.
-99/4A System including Black and Silver console, black Joysticks, 10"
brushed bronze color monitor, original black acoustic modem, original
Speech Synthesizer, and a Peripheral Expansion Box that has "Peripheral
Expansion System" next to the rocker type On/Off power switch.
-99/4A System with Black and Silver Console, 10" brushed bronze
colormonitor, and Peripheral Expansion Box with "99/4 Peripheral
Expansion System" next to pushbutton On/Off power switch.
-99/4A System (Beige console) including Console, Hex-Bus Interface,
Joysticks, Monitor (10" Color), Program Recorder, Speech Synthesizer
and TI Impact Printer.
-Addison-Wesley Math Games III and IV in same photo.
-Buck Rogers game screen as 1 of 3 screens shown in photo.
-Burgertime game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Congo Bongo game screen as 1 of 3 screens shown in photo.
-Crossfire game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Demon Attack game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Entertainment Value Pack (juvenile female on box)
-Entertainment Value Pack (adult male on box)
-Entrapment game screen as 1 of 4 screens shown in photo.
-Facemaker game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Fathom game screens (2 ea) in photo with Wing War.
-Hopper game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Jawbreaker II game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Key To Spanish opening screens.
-M*A*S*H game screen as 1 of 4 screens shown in photo.
-Microsurgeon game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Moonmine game screen as 1 of 4 screens shown in photo.
-Moonsweeper game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Munchmobile screens (2ea), at T-Intersection and on winding road.
-Peripheral Expansion Box with "99/4 Peripheral Expansion System" next
to pushbutton On/Off power switch, Scott, Foresman Multiplication 1
cartridge in forground and RS232C interface card to the left of the
cartridge.
-Return to Pirate's Isle adventure screen filling entire photo.
-Software Display Case with lockable, sliding glass doors, capable of
holding well over 100 pieces of software. Case stands about 4' x 6'
with six rows of software displayed and each row capable of displaying
uo to six pieces of software. Has "Texas Instruments" in large letters
on front and side as well as the words "Information Management, Arcade
Entertainment, Computer Programming and Education" in a banner on the
front of the case.
-Sneggit game screen as 1 of 4 screens shown in photo.
-Star Trek game screen as 1 of 3 screens shown in photo.
-Story Machine game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-TI Impact Printer.
-Treasure Island game screen filling entire 8" x 10" photo.
-Wing War game screens (2 ea) in photo with Fathom.
-Word Invasion and Word Radar screens in same photo.
-SPINNAKER SOFTWARE: Long time 99ers will remember that TI was able to
reach an agreement with Spinnaker Software in the Summer of 1983 to
have Facemaker and Story Machine produced for the 99/4A. With the help
of Jerry Spacek, who wrote Defend The Cities, and TI's own John
Phillips, the job got done before the October "bailout". Well, just
this year Spinnaker Software, like so many casualties of the computer
industry before it, disappeared forever. Back in 1986 Channelmark
Software of San Mateo, California produced some of the earliest
low-cost PC software under the Power Up banner. The Channelmark name
eventually disappeared in favor of the jazzier Power Up name so the
company became Power Up Software. It did pretty good in the mail order
arena, acquiring a few flagship products from independant developers
until it became an attractive buy for Spinnaker Software. Spinnaker was
doing pretty good too, having recently purchased Software Publishing's
low-end PFS Series line of productivity software. But no sooner had
Spinnaker acquired Power Up than along comes giant New Jersey catalog
sales company Misco, who buys Spinnaker. Although this is a story about
things in the PC world, Spinnaker, like Sega, Imagic, Data East and
others, all hold at least a little corner of my heart for the support
they once offered to the 99/4A, back in those heady days when there
really were things called "Home Computers".
TI's "CL" MARKETING FLYERS: Mike Wright has the most exhaustive list of
flyers put out by Texas Instruments in his TI-Cyc book, but because the
book is on disk, there are no examples, just text. In the same package
containing the Childress Photography photos covered above, I have also
included copies of some really obscure flyers from the early days of
the "Home Computer so you can see some of the items Mike lists in
TI-Cyc. All of the "CL" flyers I have are 8.5" x 11", glossy white
paper with an orange band at the top. The flyers I have are:
CL458A-RS-232 Interface (PHP1700)
CL459B-Solid State Speech Synthesizer (PHP1500)
CL465A-Telephone Coupler (PHP1600)
CL467A-TI-99/4 Home Computer and Monitor Bundle (PHC 004M)
CL481A-Solid State Printer (Thermal printer) PHP1900
CL482A-Disk Memory Drive (PHP1850)
CL504^-TI-900 Video Modulator (PHA2100)
CL709^-TI-99/4A Home Computer Console (PHC 004A)
CL710^-Peripheral Expansion System and Accessory Cards
CL711^-10-inch Color Monitor (PHA 4100)
-TRITON/TM DIRECT: This information came to me last weekend in a phone
conversation I had with a long time friend in the TI-99 Community. I
can't verify it, but I also don't have any reason to disbelieve it, and
it is certainly not damaging to anyone, so here goes.
Back in November and December of 1983, after TI announced that it was
leaving the Home Computer market, TI and it's network of retailers saw
revenues soar to incredible levels as existing owners scrambled to buy
hardware, software and other products related to the now "orphaned"
computer and new buyers soaked up the bargains to be found at major
retailers like JC Penneys, Skaggs Drug Stores, Elek-Tek, K-Mart, Target
and others. Things went so well as a result of the "fire sale" hysteria
created by the October 28th "bailout" announcement that TI continued to
produce the 99/4A until the end of March 1984. It was right around that
time that the FTC or some other Federal Government office, told Texas
Instruments that they couldn't have it both ways. Either they were
getting out of the Home Computer business and therefore were going to
liquidate their inventory, or they were going to get back into the Home
Computer business and stop misleading the public with their "fire sale"
approach to marketing. Having been "warned", TI then came up with the
fulfillment house idea that would allow them to continue to profit from
existing inventory, even if they could not do so through their existing
retail network. TI found Triton Products company, which was originally
headquartered out of Minnesota, and paid McCann-Erickson, the ad agency
that Texas Instruments used for all 99/4A advertising, whatever it cost
to create the first Triton Catalog.
=eof=