ROMOX instruction manuals

[kchris73]

Did the ROMOX games come with separate instruction manuals, or just what was on the back of the box? Did they usually come with warranty cards?

[deathtrappomegranate]

Did the ROMOX games come with separate instruction manuals, or just what was on the back of the box? Did they usually come with warranty cards?

There were no instruction manuals in the retail games, but they did come with a warranty registration card, which also had an order form for 2' x 3' posters of Romox cart artwork.

 

For the ECPC games, with the first purchase you apparently got a large book with instructions for all the games. I've never seen one, though, and I don't know for sure whether this is true. The information does come from a (normally) reliable source, though.

[kchris73]

What does ECPC mean?

[deathtrappomegranate]

What does ECPC mean?

 

"Edge Connector Programmable Cartridge".

 

ROMOX was one of the pioneers of electronic software distribution (along with Xante and a couple of others). The idea was that you would buy a blank EPROM cartridge (8K and 16K versions were made) and then take it along to a terminal in a mall or wherever, and the cart could be programmed with a game of your choice at a kiosk (for a fee, of course). You could have the cartridge reprogrammed with a different game later.

 

Unfortunately, the timing was bad, and these systems arrived just before the videogame crash.

[BigBen]

Does anybody have a picture of the Romox program station?

 

BB

Edited June 17, 2007 by BigBen

[deathtrappomegranate]

Does anybody have a picture of the Romox program station?

Well, this TI99 page has a nice picture.

 

I don't know whether they had different terminals for different systems or not, but it looks like a very pretty device

[re-atari]

What does ECPC mean?

 

"Edge Connector Programmable Cartridge".

 

ROMOX was one of the pioneers of electronic software distribution (along with Xante and a couple of others). The idea was that you would buy a blank EPROM cartridge (8K and 16K versions were made) and then take it along to a terminal in a mall or wherever, and the cart could be programmed with a game of your choice at a kiosk (for a fee, of course). You could have the cartridge reprogrammed with a different game later.

 

Unfortunately, the timing was bad, and these systems arrived just before the videogame crash.

Interesting to read. I don't see a quick way of reprogramming the carts, though. As you can see on the TI99 webpage listed above, they contain an eprom. This basically means the cart would have to be dissassembled in order to erase the eprom with an UV-lamp, before you it can be reprogrammed (back then flashroms did not exist yet). This would probably be to cumbersome and time consuming for a store (erasing by itself can take up to 30 minutes), so in practice it will have come down to trading in the old cart in order to receive another one. I can imagine you would also have payed some kind of flatrate fee to cover the expense of possible defective or damaged returns.

All in all it looks a bit unpractical to me. As you say, the videogame crash probably was the final nail in its coffin, along with TI's withdrawal from the homecomputer industry.

 

re-atari

Edited June 20, 2007 by re-atari