Mad Hatter Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Anyone have one they can email me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 (edited) This has been my Holy Grail of all TI games... I remember a friend of mine had a copy he ordered out of a catalog back in the 80s. I never had it, but always desired it. I would pretty much trade my mortal soul for one of these.. (not literally of course) Maybe literally..... Edited October 26, 2010 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfernalKeith Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 This has been my Holy Grail of all TI games... I remember a friend of mine had a copy he ordered out of a catalog back in the 80s. I never had it, but always desired it. I would pretty much trade my mortal soul for one of these.. (not literally of course) Maybe literally..... I am confused. I seem to recall an ad for "Killer Caterpillar" from Norton Software, but I thought it was a cassette/disk game. Did someone dump it to a cart and release it, or is this a completely different game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 If I'm not mistaken, Killer Caterpillar is an expansion port sidecar cartridge in the vein of Miner2049er and Espial. I thought it was a Tigervision game, but I may be wrong about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Norton software--- yep. Listed as (ER) on cart rarity lists online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Wiki says its Exceltec... From wiki: "Tigervision developed a unique solution to the memory limitation of the standard cartridge slot. They had a 24K cartridge that attached to the side expansion interface, emulating an expansion device. This allowed them to implement a larger game completely in machine code. Tigervision cartridges using the expansion port included Espial and Miner 2049'er. A third cartridge, Sprinter, is listed in their 1984 catalog but was not released. Exceltec also released two similar side cartridges, Arcturus, and Killer Caterpillar." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchase1970 Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Killer Caterpillar was also released on disk, same game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Yea, I've seen the disk version for sale on eBay. It's been a while, but I believe Kyle used to sell copies. Can't verify that though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Hatter Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 I have heard before from a fairly reputable TI enthusiast/collector that there were only THREE of the Killer Caterpillar cartridges released by Exceltec. However I believe that number is incorrect because based on conversations I have had with people, I know of 5 (including mine) which are currently in the hands of TI'ers or collectors. It may be safe to assume that Bill Gaskill has one as well, but I have not confirmed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 There's not that many of them out there, I'm sure. Here's a picture of mine.. Killer Caterpillar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 How about some screenshots and maybe photos of manual/instructions ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 (edited) I'd love to see some screenshots... Wish I had known how rare this cart was 10 years ago when I saw my friend Eddie in Texas. I believe it was his uncle who worked with my dad at Tronics. He was a big TI collector and, if I'm not mistaken, had a 99/8 and a ton of tech manuals. He also had a bunch of really whacked out cart boards and manuals. Eddie got most of that stuff when his uncle moved on and got rid of his TI stuff. Last time I saw Eddie was 2001 and he had a ton of TI gear. I contacted him via Myspace in '08 to see if he wanted to get rid of all that TI stuff to me. Included in that lot was the Killer Caterpillar cart, a least 20-30 other third part carts, RAMDisk, several consoles.... We're talking a ton of stuff. Unfortunately, between his uncle and Eddie, they sold most of that stuff in the local classifieds. Eddie told me that one buyer in Ft. Worth TX bought most of their stuff... I haven't talked to Eddie since 2008... But I'll always be pissed that I didn't get those carts when I had the chance. I had no idea in 2001 about the rarity of those carts... And I wasn't really thinking about it anyway. I bet he had several prototype carts, hardware prototypes.... Lost to me now. I DO remember that the Killer Caterpillar cart did not have an Exceltec label on it. It was a piece of masking tape with a hand written label. Edited October 30, 2010 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Hatter Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 This is the best I can do. I took a pic of my monitor with my 1.2 megapixel camera on my phone. The game is okay, but you may as well just play Centipede. Unfortunately I do not have the manual anymore, and from what I remember it didn't come with a box. How about some screenshots and maybe photos of manual/instructions ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 There is a disk version on eBay for sale. Kyleti994a is the seller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Also there are Killer Cat. EPROMs for sale at his store as well. Make your own cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 I keep meaning to put a link to it on my site.. along with Arcturus. Probably will put Miner 2049er and Espial up there as well. BTW, one interesting bit of trivia about these carts that plugged into the side. They mapped themselves to the 32K memory expansion memory addresses (>2000 and >A000) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Mad Hatter, you have Killer Cat AND Arcturus? Your profile pic is quite nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 I don't have a manual with mine either. I don't recall anyone ever volunteering one when asked in the past, so I'm not sure if one even exists for Killer Caterpillar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Interesting, Jon... You gotta wonder why there were so few made and why there was no manual... Was this a prototype run of some kind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Hatter Posted November 1, 2010 Author Share Posted November 1, 2010 I actually ordered mine through a catalog back in the day (forgot which company). This would lead me to believe that there were a decent amount of them produced if they were available for sale in a catalog. Maybe the company shut down operations and there's still a big box of them laying around somewhere. Who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 I'd give my prized "The Attack" cartridge for a Killer Cat cart.... Call me crazy, I know. If you catch me on the right day, I might throw in "A-MAZE-ING".... But no... That would just be crazy---- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/store/EPROMS.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 @sometimes - yep, he got those from me. I can make them too. . Matthew also now has the EPROMs in his collection as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Oh. Just happened to see "Killer Caterpillar" there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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