FEB 1999: The Rocky Mountain 99ers of Denver, Colorado announce to their members that they are discontinuing the club's monthly newsletter.

MAR 1999:

APR 1999: Microsoft acquires Access Software, a company founded in Salt Lake City, UT by Bruce Carver, to write game programs for the Commodore 64 market in 1983. Prior to the acquisition, Access Software had made it money in the production of golf games for the PC environment.

MAY 1999: Mattel purchases The Learning Company software house for over $3 Billion dollars.

• HASBRO INTERACTIVE RELEASES RIGHTS TO THE ATARI JAGUAR HARDWARE PLATFORM BEVERLY, MA (May 13, 1999) - Leading entertainment software publisher, Hasbro Interactive announced today it has released all rights that it may have to the vintage Atari hardware platform, the Jaguar.

Hasbro Interactive acquired rights to many Atari properties, including the legendary Centipede, Missile Command and Asteroids games, in a March 1998 acquisition from JTS Corporation.

This announcement will allow software developers to create and publish software for the Jaguar system without having to obtain a licensing agreement with Hasbro Interactive for such platform development. Hasbro Interactive cautioned, however, that the developers should not use the Atari trademark or logo in connection with their games or present the games as authorized or approved by Hasbro Interactive.

"Hasbro Interactive is strictly focused on developing and publishing entertainment software for the PC and the next generation game consoles," said Richard Cleveland, Head of Marketing for Hasbro Interactive's Atari Business Unit. "We realize there is a passionate audience of diehard Atari fans who want to keep the Jaguar system alive, and we don't want to prevent them from doing that. We will not interfere with the efforts of software developers to create software for the Jaguar system."

Hasbro Interactive, Inc. is a leading all-family interactive games publisher, formed in 1995 to bring to life on the computer the deep library of toy and board games of parent company, Hasbro, Inc. (ASE:HAS). Hasbro Interactive has expanded its charter to include original and licensed games for the PC, the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 game consoles and for multi-player gaming over the Internet. Headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, Hasbro Interactive has offices in the U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Canada. For more information, visit the Hasbro Interactive Web site at www.hasbro-interactive.com.

Atari is a trademark of Atari Interactive, Inc. a Hasbro affiliate. ã 1999 Hasbro Interactive, Inc. (http://www.holyoak.com/atari/)

The Jim Peterson Achievement Awards for 1999 go to:

	TI-99/4A COMMUNITY SERVICE:	SouthWest Ninety Niners User Group
	TI-99/4A SOFTWARE:	Bruce Harrison
	TI-99/4A HARDWARE:	SNUG
	MYARC, "GENEVE" 9640:	Tim Tesch

JUN 1999:

JUL 1999: Long time 99er and VAST User Group member Raymond Frantz dies on July 28th at his home in Phoenix, AZ. His death is reported to the TI Community by daughter Sheila McBride. Raymond was a staunch advocate of the TI-99/4A in his later years and the founder of an exchange organization to broker used hardware and software for other 99ers. As with all members of our community, his presence will be missed.

• On July 1, Billy Mitchell of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, set a world record by playing through all 256 boards of Pac-Man and eating every dot, every fruit, and every blue ghost, all on his first man. The feat took six hours to accomplish, after which Mitchell stepped back from the machine and announced his retirement from the video game that took the 1980s by storm. "I never have to play that darn game again," he uttered. "There's nothing more I can accomplish." Mitchell says he was hell bent on setting the world Pac-Man record, and on blasting through the former record held by Rick Fothergill of Ontario, Canada. On May 8, 1999, Fothergill came within 90 points of a perfect game. (http://www.holyoak.com/atari/)

AUG 1999: After 17 years in existence, the Will County 99ers of Joliet, IL disband. Non-attending members who live in other communities are courteously notified by mail in an August 20th letter authored by the group's Secretary/Treasurer and nNewsletter Editor, Carl Winterrose.

• Cartridge collector Bryan Roppolo receives the following information from former IUG president Charles LaFara: ----Original Message Follows---- From: Charles La Fara To: brop99@hotmail.com Subject: Modules Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 00:30:10 -0700

Dear Bryan,

The "Star Trek" manual that was on the cover of July 1983 issue of "Enthusiast 99" magazine was from a prototype e-prom module that I received from Sega. I only know of 3 copies. One was sent to T.I., the second was sent to the IUG for our evaluation and the third was sent to Jack Carroll who worked for me at that time. Jack; if I remember correctly re-burnt 4 other copies for other IUG employees.

The game was almost identical to the Atari 800 version except it ran much faster on the 99/4 and had better sound qualities. Jack, once he broke the source code, added some "text-to-speech" features to his copy.

I am not sure where any of the modules are today. My ex-wife still has all of the hardware and software we salvaged from the bankruptcy of the IUG. My son who is now has his MBA, and is webmaster for a large bank on Tulsa still plays with the 99/4 when he visits his mother in Oklahoma City. I will ask him if he has seen the "Star Trek" module lately.

In November of 1983 I approached T.I. in an effort to purchase the entire remaining inventory of hardware and software. I had some very strong financial backing for an OKC bank. While considering my offer I was given 1 each of the current module inventory and 17 unreleased projects from T.I. and third party producers, none which ever reached the consumer level. If I remember correctly all but one was on e-prom. Several of the projects were from Milton-Bradley; some from Creative and some from Sega, only one was from Activision.

Needless to say T.I. was unwilling to sell us their remaining inventories, under our terms, and chose to use another source to dispose of their remaining product. Bound by copyright laws ( by this time we had enough legal problems, Guy Romono was suing us for 1 million dollars) we did not attempt to copy and distribute any of the prototype product in our possession. We did, however make copies of all except the Activision project for internal use. Some where someone may still have copies of all of these. I will ask Bill Gronos who worked for me if he still has any of the ones we burnt off, if not he may have the original source code. He is a pack rat by nature. Sincerely, Charlie La Fara

• John C. Shepard, a patent attorney in Winnetka, Ill., wins Dell Computer Company's "Search for the Oldest PC" contest with an MITS Altair 8800b he has used for the last 22 years. Shepard bought the beast in 1976 for $1,300 from Chicago Computer Store, in Evanston, Ill. He even had the original purchase receipt to prove it. The contest sought the PC in longest continuous use at a small business.

SEP 1999: From the September 20th issue of BusinessWeek...an article entitled "The Soul of an Old Machine"

The last Amiga rolled off the assembly line in 1994. But the pioneering multimedia PC still commands the loyalty of several hundred thousand devotees around the world. Gateway Inc., which now owns Amiga, last year promised to resurrect the old Commodore computer by Christmas. ''The new Amiga will take the breath away from all computer users on the face of the earth,'' boasts die-hard Danish fan Michael Ljungstedt Andreasen. Alas, it is not to be. Instead of building new Amigas, Gateway plans to develop Amiga-like software that will link Internet appliances over home networks. ''Amiga will be the Internet-appliance infrastructure company,'' says a company insider. For Gateway, which declined to comment, the shift is part of its strategy to move into Internet services. By early next year, Amiga hopes to have test versions of the new software, which will be written in Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java language. The interface will allow users to control household devices and download content off the Web with simple commands, the source says. Sounds great: unless you're one of the disappointed Amiga faithful. By Steven V. Brull

OCT 1999:

NOV 1999:

DEC 1999: Tom Wills founds the TI-99/4A section on PeoplePost, inviting 99ers to become members under the SouthWest 99ers umbrella. Unfortunately, the PeoplePost Sponsor changes business direction and shuts down the service on December 31st.

• In a press release issued on 12/14/99, Hasbro Interactive reports that Microprose development studios in Alameda, CA and Chapel Hill, NC will close in mid-January 2000.

• Pong creator and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell joins WebQuest International's Board of Directors. The company runs several web sites, including www.ipong.com, a site that lets gamers play Pong against one another over a browser. In early 2000, players will be able to compete for cash prizes.

• TI List Server Host Tom Wills initiates the eGroups.Com Internet User Group for the TI-99/4A Community.

• Tyler Van Tighem posts the following message on the TI egroups Server regarding ports of old InfoCom adventures to the TI:

To: ti99-4a@eGroups.com CC: Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 16:58:25 -0800 [ti-99/4a] Infocom Games

"Over the X-mas holidays I ported my "Lost Treasures of Infocom" PC CD to the TI. Finally figured out how the DAT files are split on the TI. And been using the Masters Interpreter v1.3 for testing and verifing the converted files (v1.2 SC for the larger vocabulary games).

"The 27 games I re-ported are:

• Zork I
• Zork II
• Zork III
• Enchanter
• Sorcerer S
• pellbreaker
• Infidel
• Cutthroats
• the Lurking Horror
• Plundered Hearts
• Starcross
• Suspended
• Hitchhikers Guide
• Planetfall
• Stationfall
• Deadline
• Witness
• Suspect
• Ballyhoo
• Hollywood Hijinx
• Moon Mist (SC)
• Seastalker (SC)
• Leather Goddesses of Phobos (SC)
• Wishbringer (SC)
• Mini-Zork I
• Infocom Sampler #1 (SC)
• Infocom Sampler #2 (SC)

(SC) - EA Super Cart required

With my conversions the original documentation is needed at points in some of the games. Not sure on the status off the copyrights for the games. Let me know and I'll upload them to the WHT FTP if possible. The Master's Interpreter v1.3 & v1.2SC can only handle Z-Code v3 games. Anyone out there willing to code a v4,5 interpreter for the TI/Geneve?? I looked into to it but there's lots of optimisation to be done for the TI due to memory constraints. And I don't know much for coding on the Geneve.

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