I have very fond memories of the 99/4A.
When I was about 10 we emigrated to Lubbock, Texas as my dad took on the lofty-sounding role of Vice-President of Personal Computing (in fact there were several VP's, but it sounded good to me). This was back in 1982.
We had a 99/4a at home (as you'd expect) and used to get early prototype's of things like the speech synthesiser, and games. The games weren't in cartridge form, they were a big box with a ribbon cable coming out of it, with a cartridge end that you plugged in the slot!
Parsec was a great game, and the pac-man clone that had a kind of cheat option that let you pick any level - I seem to remember that on level 99 the walls were invisible (and because you left a path as opposed to eating one like Pac-Man) you needed a good memory of the map!
Happy times!
Sadly, as has been pointed out, the short-lived lifespan of the 99/4a and in fact the Home computer Division as a whole meant we weren't in Texas for long. My dad got another job in California working on the original Apple Mac. Unfortunately that didn't last as my old man was not a big fan of Jobs!
Wish I'd been able to hang on to some of the kit that used to come through the house, I might be worth something!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
