Listed
below are all the brochures and books that were published for
the TI-99/4 in 1979. All of these items were available at or before the
time of the 99/4's October release. There are only 2 brochures known to
exist from 1979 (both of which appear to have been made available
around
the time of the 99/4's announcement in June) and 1 book which TI
had a strong influence in developing. If you know of any other
literature items printed in 1979, be sure to send me an e-mail! Click here to see a
table of the
1979 manufactured items that I have in my collection along with their
production dates
1979 TI Introduces the TI-99/4
Brochure (Pamphlet)
This
brochure seems to have been released around the time of the TI-99/4's
announcement in June 1979. This pamphlet is a smaller version of the
booklet listed below and basically acts as a handy pocket sized
reference guide to
the 99/4 system. Included is information on the
computer, monitor, speech synthesizer, joysticks, command modules,
warranty, and more. This pamphlet carries product number CL-436A and a
1979
copyright.
1979 TI Introduces the TI-99/4 Brochure
(Booklet)
This
is the big brochure that basically has it all when it comes to the
TI-99/4 in 1979. Not only are the 99/4's specifications talked about,
but this one also goes into detail on all the peripherals and some of
the soon to be available cartridges (some of which were not released
until 1980). It's a nice booklet that gives the user a more in-depth
look at the 99/4 and exactly why that person should get such a system
(ranging from home finance to education to entertainment). This was
probably one of those items that was given out at the June CES show in
1979 when the 99/4 was announced. Also, this brochure was available for
the price of shipping from TI and various dealers before and after the
release of the system, for people who were interested in reading up on
it. The booklet carries part number CL-435 and a 1979 copyright date.
[Image compliments of Bill Gaskill's TI-99 Cartridge Collection Kit.
Used with permission].
1979 Gamevision Brochure
Probably
the rarest brochure relating to the TI-99/4 back in 1979 is this one
for the Gamevision line of cartridges by Milton Bradley. It seems that
this was most likely only used to promote the series since there are no
instructions on how to order the games or when they would be
available. This probably came out before the release of the actual
cartridges, possibly for the June 1979 CES show. There is a cut out
that could be mailed into MB on the back of this brochure for more info
on the Gamevision series (maybe an MB catalog?). Each game in the
Gamevision line
is on this two-sided sheet, which includes Yahtzee, Connect Four, Hangman, and
Zero Zap.
The game Zero Zap is given
special attention since it was an original video game by Milton
Bradley, unlike the others which were mostly conversions of popular
board games.
1979 Modem Brochure
During
the lifetime of the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A, Texas Instruments released
numerous Product Specification Brochures that went into extreme detail
on every TI-made product.
These brochures seem to have been made for the public since they talk
about looking at your Users Reference Guide for complete warranty
information. Only 4 of these specification brochures were released in
1979, this one for the modem being one of them. Basically all the
information you ever wanted to know about the original 300 baud modem
is provided in this brochure. This was probably used as a way to
promote TI-99/4 items to the public who might not have any idea on what
certain products could do. This brochure carries part number CL-465A
and a 1979 copyright.
1979 RS-232 Brochure
This
is another one of those very detailed Product Specification Brochures
that TI put out for the system. It probably contains more information
than you ever wanted to know about the sidecar RS-232 peripheral, but I
guess if you were new to computers in 1979 (which most people would
have been) then this could come in handy. This brochure carries part
number CL-458A and a 1979 copyright.
1979 Speech Synthesizer Brochure
Perhaps
the best of the brochures, this one not only goes into detail on the
specs and functions of the Speech Synthesizer, but also includes 2
pages listing all of the built-in vocabulary. Therefore, someone could
pick up this brochure and see what words the Speech Synthesizer could
speak before buying it. The only other place a comprehensive list like
this exists is in the manual for the unit, something which the buyer
would not have access to before purchase. This brochure carries part
number CL-459A and a 1979 copyright.
1979 System Specifications Brochure
While
the other Product Specification Brochures focused on peripherals, this
one is for the main computer setup that included the monitor and
TI-99/4 console. Since you could not purchase the 99/4 and monitor
separately in 1979, TI made one brochure outlining the main setup. This
specification sheet also makes mention of the peripherals that could be
bought separately for the system to add more functionality to your
computer. This brochure carries part number CL-467A and a 1979
copyright. [Image
compliments of Bill Gaskill's TI-99 Cartridge Collection Kit.
Used with permission].
1979 Programming Basic Book
Now
this book had me fooled, as I thought at first it was an
official TI-99/4 product put out by TI themselves. As it turns out,
however, the book was actually published by McGraw Hill in 1979 with a
ton of help from TI. Apparently TI wanted to have a well-known BASIC
author write a book on TI BASIC so that when the system hit the
market there would be an easy to understand guide for it. It was
probably good planning on TI's part, since Herbert Peckham does a
better job in slowly pacing the user along in how to use TI BASIC than
TI's own Basic manual. As far as I can tell, this is the only book
published for the
TI-99/4 by an outside source in 1979.