FEB 1998: Fest-West '98 takes place in Lubbock, Texas in the Texas Instruments facility where the TI-99/4A was actually produced. This was possible through the hard work of Tom Wills and the Southwest 99ers, as well as the support and cooperation of Texas Instruments, Inc. The keynote speakers were Lee Kitchens and Bill Gaskill.

• The Lubbock, Texas Avalanche-Journal publishes an article by reporter Ray Westbrook on the Fest-West '98 event entitled "Computer Memory".
  

MAR 1998:

APR 1998:

MAY 1998: The Jim Peterson Achievement Awards for 1998 go to:

	TI-99/4A COMMUNITY SERVICE:	Charles Good
	TI-99/4A SOFTWARE:	CADD Electronics
	TI-99/4A HARDWARE:	Michael Becker
	MYARC, "GENEVE" 9640:	Tim Tesch

JUN 1998: Competition Computer releases the Super Storm (aka SLIME) cartridge for the TI-99/4A. Kyle Creighton at Competition Computer 800-471-1600 rescued the source code from dumpster at Atari and completed the program so it could be released to the TI Community. Super Storm is based upon the Synapse Software game released as SLIME in 1982.

The only references that I have been able to locate for the Slime cartridge appear in the June 1983 issue of the President's Letter from the International 99/4 Users-Group on page 2 and in the August 1983 issue of Compute! magazine on page 36. The IUG article focuses on the Summer Consumer Electronics Show and in one paragraph states; At the Atari booth, demos were being run on soon-to-be-released titles such as Pac-Man, Defender, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and Dig Dug. Atari Publishing also announced that it will be bringing to market four additional titles under a licensing agreement with Synapse. These will include Shamus, Protector, Picnic Paranoia and Slime. The Compute! article also talks about the Summer CES, but focuses heavily on the reorganization at Atari, including the forming of Atari Publishing (Atarisoft) with the announcement of that division's intention to make software titles for competing computers, including the TI-99/4A.

The original Slime program was written by Steve Hales for the Atari 800 in 1982 (source: The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers by James Hague) and was manufactured by Synapse Software 820 Coventry Rd. Kensington, CA 94707 (415) 527-7751 (source: Antic magazine June 1982, p.38 under "New Products"). The game's theme tells you that Plexarian Invincibles threaten all life on Earth. These invaders hover in the sky and drop layer after layer of SLIME into the Sargasso Sea. Their intention is to raise the level of the oceans until all human life is drowned. lf that happens, the SLIME-breathing Invincibles will colonize the Earth. You must stop them with meager defenses, or mankind perishes.

In the Slime game large drops of slime fall from the sky onto your ships. If one drop hits your ship, it will sink. Use the triangular diverters to aim the slime into buckets on the sides of the screen. If slime falls into the ocean the level of the ocean rises. When the ocean level reaches the top of the screen the game is over.

If one reads the excellent article "Pole Position, Jungle Hunt coming", authored by Laura Burns in the March 1984 issue of MICROpendium, on page 12 she describes the theme of a game cartridge named Super Storm that is identical to that of Slime. This leads one to the logical assumption that Slime was to be released as Super Storm in its TI-99/4A version. An Atarisoft ad in the January 1984 issue of BYTE magazine on page 409 shows the Super Storm cartridge as being available for the TI-99/4A. It does not list Slime as being a TI-99/4A product.

• MISC -- The Learning Company, formerly SoftKey International,  buys Broderbund Software. SoftKey International evolved from the Feb 1994 merger of WordStar, SoftKey and Spinnaker.

JUL 1998: CMP Media Inc. purchases BYTE Magazine and immediately suspends publication of the personal computer industry's oldest journal.

AUG 1998: Brøderbund Software 500 Redwood Blvd. Novato, California, 94948 is acquired by The Learning Company, Inc of Cambridge, MA on August 31st. Brøderbund was founded by Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980, when the personal computer software industry was still in its infancy. The brothers established the company in order to market Galactic Empire and Galactic Trader, computer game programs Doug had written in his spare time when he wasn't practicing law. By the summer of 1980, after forming an alliance with the Japanese software house StarCraft, the company was able to market a substantial line of home entertainment products. Before the end of its third year, Brøderbund had moved from Eugene, Oregon, to California's Marin County, had grown to more than 40 employees and was selling millions of dollars' worth of software annually. Cathy Carlston, Doug and Gary's sister, joined the company in 1981. Until her departure in 1989, she served as vice president of educational market planning and was instrumental in formulating Brøderbund's marketing efforts to schools. Gary Carlston, the firm's first CEO, also left in 1989 to pursue other interests.

SEP 1998:

OCT 1998: MICROpendium reports that Texas Instruments will be closing the Lubbock, TX plant which gave birth to the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A Home Computers. Some 600 jobs will be lost in the process, devastating Lubbock civic and political leaders.

• Long time member of the TIsHUG (TI Sydney Home Computer Users Group) and MICROpendium contributor, Benedek von Takach Dukai (Ben von Takach), dies on October 16th.

• Dr. Jonathan B. Postel, director of the Computer Networks division at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of Southern California, and director of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, dies on Friday, October 16th, in Los Angeles.

One of Dr. Postel's many accomplishments was to establish the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) which acted as the Internet's central coordination, allocation, and registration body for addresses, names, and protocol parameters since the early days of the Internet. In parallel with the rapid expansion of the Internet in recent years, he expanded the staff of IANA and strengthened IANA's traditional consultative and advisory support from other groups.

NOV 1998: Glenn Bernasek announces that the TI-CHIPS User Group will host 1999's MUG (Multi User Group) Conference in Brook Park, OH on Saturday May 15, 1999.

• Gary Cox announces a new address for the Mid-South 99ers User Group. It is 1910 Wall St. #6 Memphis, TN 38134.

• Bruce Harrison of Harrison Software, releases TI Bingo and MIDI Play In at the Chicago TI Faire.

• George Kaal of the Dutch TI Users Group releases DM 2000, a new 40-column disk manager that is said to be compatible with all known disk drives and their controllers.

DEC 1998: The last issue of the Rocky Mountain 99ers’ newsletter, TIC-TOC, is sent to members. Newsletter editor Bob Grossart notifies members that the group is undergoing a reorganization.

• CMP Media, purchaser of BYTE Magazine in July 1998, announces on December 16th that BYTE will not return as a printed publication, thus ending the life of the oldest personal computer magazine in the world. Following is the official announcement, taken from the BYTE website.

"Dec. 21, 1998. In the July 1998 issue of Byte, subscribers received notice that CMP Media Inc. had purchased Byte and suspended publication. We would like to thank everyone for their patience during these last few months while we made some important decisions. After carefully considering our product line, we have decided Byte will not re-launch as a print publication. To serve the needs of business technology professionals, CMP intends to re-launch Byte.com in the first quarter of 1999, continuing its tradition of objective, analytical exploration of computer technology and application developer issues. Watch for new features, new tutorials and new columns at Byte.com. CMP sent a notice to every Byte subscribers on Wednesday, December 16th explaining how the balance of their Byte subscription will be fulfilled. In the meantime, if you require immediate assistance or have an inquiry, our customer service operators are standing by to assist you at (904) 445-4662."

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