**** TI ADVENTURE COMPENDIUM ****
     
     The TI ADVENTURE COMPENDIUM is a joint copyrighted fundraising package of the Western New York 99ers (WNY99ER) [contact Harry Brashear,  2753 Main Street, Newfane, NY 14108]  and the Massachusetts Users of the Ninety-nine Computer and Hobbyists  (M.U.N.C.H.) [contact Jack Sughrue, Box 459, East Douglas, MA 01516].  This mutual effort is an attempt to  provide users with a historical and, in many cases, remarkable collection of fascinating and fun adventure games and utilities (and some bonus  games and utilities) that would not be readily available anywhere else.  These disks are a collection of the *COMPLETE* Fairware and Public Domain adventure programs written for the TI-99/4A as of 1989.  Over two  years and the diligent efforts of many users have gone into the  gathering of these items, and every attempt was made to secure the original versions.  The authors of these adventures  did wonderfully well and take us from the simple simulation type of all-text adventure of the early 80s to some recent heavy-duty graphic  fare.  Although some authors have remained anonymous, their work is as greatly appreciated as some of the more famous authors whose works are  part of this collection.  Without these ingenious and very creative  authors, of course, there would be no adventures, none of the fun that only such puzzles and games can reward you  with.
     
     Mickey Schmitt (herself the  author of the Adventure Module  adventure "Oliver's Twist") is the person most responsible for this  compilation.  Two years ago she spoke  to me of her vision to gather up  every known adventure for the TI and  to write a book which would be a source and reference guide to all users.  Her book, THE ADVENTURE  REFERENCE GUIDE (The Encyclopedia of TI-99/4A and Geneve Adventure  Gaming), is - At Last! - completed.  And, in the process, the gathering of these adventures has been made  possible.
     
     Mickey's book ($7.95 && $2 S/H  from ASGARD Publishing, P.O.^Box 10697, Rockville, MD 20850), has  already become the adventure  afficianado's bible.  This classic  work is not only a multi-sorted  bibliography of EVERY known  Commercial, Fairware, and Public  Domain adventure, but breaks the  adventures into mode (TOD, BASIC,  etc.) and type.  Each adventure is  rated against other adventures of  kind.  The names of all known authors  and addresses are given as are the  required hardware needs.  Checklists  for players are provided along with  detailed descriptions.  And much  more.  This book - one of a kind in  the entire computer world - is an  almost-essential companion to these  disks and highly recommended by both  user group compilers.  About 200  adventures are analyzed.  The  Fairware and Public Domain items  amount to a little less than half of  these.  All of THESE games (and some  utilities and a few other items and a  game) are contained on this TI  ADVENTURE COMPENDIUM disk  collection.
     
     The nominal fundraiser cost for  these packed-full disks (about 35OO  *ARCHIVED!* sectors for over 5,000!  extracted sectors of materials!) are  $11.95 for the DSDD set (3 disks),  $15.95 for the DSSD set (5 disks),  and $19.95 for the SSSD set (10 disk  sides) .
     All of these programs were  gathered from around the world on  hundreds of disks.  Mickey sorted  through them all, checked for repeats  with different names, hunted down the  originals, hunted down the authors,  tested them all out, and reduced them  to about 30 disks which she released  to our two groups for distribution  and fundraising.  These disks, in  turn, were packed tightly onto disks  and ARChived and, again, repacked  tightly onto the present disk form on  DSDD.  They were then repacked onto  DSSD and SSSD forms (which took up  more space).  To attempt to release  this huge package in any other form  would be too expensive and costly,  and it would not get into the hands  of the average user.
     
     Besides the *READFIRST file you  are now reading, the only other file  on the disk which is not ARCHived is  Barry Boone's v.3.02 ARCHIVER (with  the XB Loader [ARC/LOAD] and docs), a  most extraordinary Fairware program  for which the author should be fairly  rewarded ($20 is not unreasonable for  such a fantastic program, as you will  soon see if you do not own it  already).

     To use the ARCHIVER for this  project, just load it through XB with  ARC/LOAD or the program loader  section of FUNNELWEB's Assembler, the  E/A cartridge, or any other E/A  version.   Be sure you have about 25 disks  initialized and ready (SSSD) or 15  (DSSD) or 10(DSDD).    Then load ARCHIVER, have the  first disk in your extra drive (or  ready to swap if you have only one),  choose CATALOG from the menu, get the  Disk Name off the listing.

     At this point you may want to get  a hardcopy of this catalog.  PIO is the printer default which you may change when you choose to print out  at this time.

     After you catalog the untouched disk, you would be wise to catalog the separate files to see if there are any duplicate names (such as LOAD) on the ARChived files.  If so, they should be unloaded to separate disks.  We've tried to avoid this doubling as much as possible. 

 Then return to the menu, choose EXTRACT.  When it says ALL FILES, you choose Y (unless you are putting each program on a separate disk or want to avoid doubling filenames; then say N).

    Then follow directions for configuration. The decompressing and unpacking of the ARCHIVER will automatically read from the old and write to the new disk (unless you have one drive; then it will tell you when to swap).

     When all this is done, you will be able to leap into adventuring with both feet.  There is enough here to satisfy the most jaded gamester and programmer, perhaps, for years! There are no age limitations to interactive fiction; no barriers of any kind to imagination.  Enjoy thoroughly all these journeys into your own mind and the challenges that await you there.
     
     Thank you very much for your support of our groups' efforts.
     
    (NOTE: TI ADVENTURE COMPENDIUM is  a copyrighted collection by JAHA and  may not be distributed in any form  except by user groups to their own  members and not part of an outside  revenue or "distribution cost"  fundraiser for M.U.N.C.H. && WNY99ER  groups as mentioned above.  If you  come into possession of this package  other than ordering through our  clubs, would you be kind enough to  send just $6 donations to EACH of the  groups above.  If you received this  through your user group would you be  kind enough to take up a user-group  collection and send half of that  amount to each of our clubs.  Please  maintain the integrity of our work by  keeping these disks in these original  forms as you received them.  Again,  thank you.)
     
  ** Copyright 1989 by JAHA **