From: andy-w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Andrew webster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti
Subject: Re: XBIII not available / was RE: Asgard 128K AMS Memory Expansion C
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 21:13:45 MDT
Organization: Edmonton Remote Systems #2, Edmonton, AB, Canada

willi@zrzsp5.chem.tu-berlin.de (Winfried Winkler) writes:

- In article <00962082.38BC4BE0@GOMEZ.PHYS.VIRGINIA.EDU> cohen@GOMEZ.phys.virgi
- >...there is currently NO XB that will take advantage of the 128K AMS 
- >Final note regarding XB III:
- >A dealer who distributes Asgard products in the Cleveland area (Ron Marcus)
- >said that Harry Brashear (Asgard) told him that they have troubles producing
- >the XBIII cartridge, and it will be a long time before it is ready, if at al
- >XBIII has been around in GRAM disk format for some time now, but its author
- >is keeping it under tight security and nobody can use it.
- >Unfortunately, it might never come out, and have no impact on the TI world-
- >unless it is released in some form soon.  Similar fate to other good softwar
- >that was marketed the wrong way (e.g., turbo Pasc'99, which could have been
- >as sucessful as C'99 if the authors had not insisted on marketing it for
- >$$$(too much) through L.L. Conner).
- 
- There's a *Hardware* Problem ...
-  Or: Not enough Mechatronic-GRAM-Cards sold in the U.S., as this one's the
-  only GRAM simulator commercially available which is able to load XBIII :-) 
- 
- My Ext.Basic III needs more than two ROM-Banks to load & execute -
- but most GRAM-Simulators available provide only two (enough to load orig.TI X
- Asgard wanted to buy GRAM-Simulator Cartridges from a producer who could NOT
- (maybe never will ?) provide the GRAM cartridges ordered so far ...
- These GRAM-Simulators would have been able to load my XBIII.
- The main reason I use 3 (maybe 4 ROMs, if I add other features C.Bobbitt from
- Asgard is talking about...) instead of only two ROMs is, of course, speed ...
- I've re-written some GPL-parts in assembler.
- 
- I've signed a contract with Asgard in order to let someone else handle the
- marketing (incl. writing of a *good* manual ...), as I have not the time nor
- the experience for doing that.
- 
- 
- HOWEVER: As the 128K AMS Memory Card will be out *very* soon, I'm working on
-          using that memory instead of a 3rd ROM-Bank, then there should be 
-          NO problems anymore.
- 
- Winfried Winkler

______________________________________________________________________

I simply dont see why you you are writing code for a 128K card that is 
not available and wont sell anyway when it is. Why dont you adjust you 
coding to take advantage of a fine product which would do a much better 
job and which most North Americans have already? That being the Horizon 
3000 Ran and the R.A.M.B.O. MOD which is perfactly suited for your 
application. It would, in my thinking "sell" a heck of a lot more of your 
XBIII's rather than struggle and wait for Asgard to produce, try to
sell their 128k card... Bank switching is easy with OPA's R.A.M.B.O.
Talk to Gary Bowser, why dont ya? He is at 1 416 960 0925
OPA
432 Jarvis St.
Toronto Ontario suite 502
M4Y 2H3

Andrew webster              andy-w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca