I rarely question hardware for the TI-99/4A, but it in this case I ask myself... WHY?

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A friend sent me a screenshot of someone wanting to remake the old GramKracker device.  But seriously, WHY?  Most everything that has ever been made for the TI-99/4A has already been ripped & saved and anything of value is already on less expensive cartridges or the FinalGROM.  Nostalgic techies probably already own one, and for the rest of us non-programmers, well even if we had the time to learn what is necessary to play with it, what value is it really if most everything has already been ripped?

Now if whoever is making it for themselves and a few friends, cool, but I cannot imagine it being a viable product that will sell much.

 

 

[RobertLM78]

I think pretty much what you said: for ripping the odd cartridge that hasn't been ripped yet.  DataBiotics Beyond WordWriter is an example of a rare cart (though it might be ripped at this point).

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5 hours ago, RobertLM78 said:

DataBiotics Beyond WordWriter is an example of a rare cart (though it might be ripped at this point).

I believe it has...

bww8.bin

[Atarigeezer]

The price of a gramcracker is way to much for some/me. a remake would only be fun to play with and if price was in reason I would buy just for that reason.

 

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On 2/7/2022 at 9:09 AM, Atarigeezer said:

The price of a gramcracker is way to much for some/me. a remake would only be fun to play with and if price was in reason I would buy just for that reason.

 

I suppose if you are a programmer type of person, but that limits the user demographic for these devices even more.  Maybe someday someone will come out with a new item for the TI that will interest me, but this sure ain't it. 

Now for new gadgets, a sidecar or a device that takes up the space in the upper part of the console case would be interesting.  Of course I'd prefer something that took less than 16 soldering points to install.  What would it do?  How about a software switchable MSX emulator, or something that turns the TI into something better than a Geneve 9640?  I imagine a cartridge "KEY" could bootup the new system and work quite nicely with an F18A and TIPI unit.  Once the cartridge is removed, it would appear to be an average run-of-the-mill TI.  Just an idea or two.