ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN NOVEMBER 1990 LIMA NEWSLETTER

A DEFINITION OF "OFFICIAL NEVER RELEASED" TI PRODUCT
by Charles Good
Lima Ohio User Group
A product is "official TI" if it has the TI name engraved on it (hardware), or has a "copyright TI" statement (software). To find out if the product was ever released call TI's consumer service at 806-747-1882 and ask if the product in question is on any of their lists. This can be important to you if you own TI products, because TI will still repair and honor "original purchaser" warranties on all officially released products. Even today, you can purchase NEW TI99/4a products, including the 99/4A computer, from dealers such as L.L. Conner, TexComp, and Tenex. TI still honors warranties, and still offers for a flat fee product exchange or repair on ALL its products that are out of warranty.

You might be surprised what IS on the officially released list. Many of the HexBus peripherals ARE on the official list. I am told that recently someone purchased a HexBus printer plotter for the CC40, never used, from a dealer. The printer was defective. Although it is now 1990 and this product was withdrawn from the market by TI in 1984, the company honored its warranty sent a replacement printer plotter at no charge.

On the other hand, products that were developed by TI but never officially marketed will not be repaired or supported by the company, even if the product has "Texas Instruments" written all over the thing. If you have one of these products and call TI about the thing, they will tell you that what you have does not exist!^^Here is a partial lost of "official never released" TI hardware that relates to home computers. These products officially do not exist.

  • 99/2 computer.
  • 99/8 computer.
  • Hexbus disk drive for 99/8 and CC40
  • Hexbus interface (PHP1300) to let 99/4A use HexBus peripherals.
  • Wafertape drive and wafertapes (HX2000) for CC40.
  • IEEE card for the PE box.
  • HexBus 80 column video interface.
  • TI DSDD controller for PE box

I checked through back issues of Micropendium and found these products advertised used, as follows:

    DATE             PRODUCT                       ASKING PRICE
    January 1987  HexBus interface              $ 175
    January 1987  99/8 with HexBus drive     $1000
    March 1987    99/8 with HexBus drive     $ 800
    July 1987       IEEE/488 card for PE box $ 250
    July 1987       TI DSDD controller            $ 175
    January 1989  HexBus video interface      $ 150
    January 1989  Wafertape drive                $ 150

The MBX system is a special case. The software, including those modules that only work on the MBX system, were officially released by TI and can still be purchased new. The actual MBX system was marketed by Milton Bradley and not by TI. I don't know if the MBX system is "officially" released or not. Milton Bradley does not offer to fix our of warranty products. It was manufactured for a few weeks in November of 1983 before production was halted due to the TI Black Friday. Asking prices vary considerably.

    DATE ASKING PRICE SOURCE OF INFO
    June 1984 and Unisource has 200 Enthusiast 99
    October 1984 units for $100 each and Micropendium
    March 1986 $40 (Texcomp) Micropendium
    May 1985 $49 Micropendium
    August 1986 $40 Chicago UG newsletter
    October 1987 $200 Micropendium
    April 1989 $30 Micropendium
    May 1990 $75 with 4 modules Lima faire

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