Jeffrey Sharp wrote:
> On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, Keys wrote:
>
>>Someone paid over $500 dollars for it??????????? I have two maybe three of
>>them and never paid over $5 for any of them.
>>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3402403400
>
>
> Those are 99/4s, *not* 99/4As. I believe the 4s are more rare than the 4As.
> Back when I was selling stuff on eBay, I had three, and each sold for over
> $100 IIRC. Don't take what I say as fact, though. Other than playing
> cartridge games on one when I was a kid, I don't know anything about TI-99s.
>
I have a pile of 4A's, but only one /4. They were scarce even in '83
when I got my 1st 4A. People were unhappy with the "chiclet" keyboard,
and TI supposedly ate most of them as returns to get the 4A's on the shelf.
There was a project apparently to use the logic boards and other
components in the guise of the TI Insight 10 terminal, which was not a
big seller because, like the TI-99, it had only a 40-column display.. I
say apparently because there are pictures of what looks like a heavily
breathed-on /4 that served as a prototype for the Insight, at the
Smithsonian site.
http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/texas/ti-thumbnails/pages/NMAH2000-07541.htm
(Pic of Insight 10 here:
http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/texas/ti-thumbnails/pages/NMAH2000-07537.htm)
I don't have an Insight 10, never ever even saw one, but I have been
contacted by a party who has one of the prototypes and assures me it was
a modded 99/4.(different roms, modified case, goosenecked display, modem
board, beefed up ps, etc.) The photos above are not inconsistent with
the premise, anyway.
If any of the TI people listed as donors on the Smithsonian page are
still around, they'd know, obviously. Meantime, anyone comes across an
Insight 10 they don't want, give me a holler, please.
jbdigriz
Received on Wed Feb 26 2003 - 13:25:01 GMT