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1979 TI-99/4 Literature

Speech Bubbles  





THE 1979 TI-99/4 BROCHURES & BOOKS

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)

1979 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)

1979 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

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

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

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

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

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

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.



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e-mail me: Bryan Roppolo