TLB2


 * "The TLB2, that little black box what does it all!"
 * -Marketing slogan

The TLB2 (short for "That Little Black Box") is a fanonical game console created by JustAlex93.

It is a console released in Late 1983/Early 1984 in the U.K. by Murphy Computing and was eventually discontinued in 1992. It sold a total of 8.329 million units worldwide throughout its retail lifespan.

Its successor for the fourth generation of game consoles, the 16-bit Super Box, was released in Late 1990. The last game to be released on the system is Mega Man 5, having been ported to the system on July 4th, 1993.

Overview
The TLB2, developed by a team lead by Murphy Computing's hands-on CEO, Barton Murphy, was touted to be a low-cost, full-colour system that could be used as either a games system or a home microcomputer. Instead of cartridges, the TLB2 uses a small-sized floppy disk format, referred to as the "Floppy Card", for its software titles. Each Floppy Card comes included with a protective storage sleeve.

The system has a distinctive display mode where ASCII characters are used to create a pseudo-bitmapped screen. Text VDUs store a small grid of ASCII values used to look up appropriate entries in a character matrix table accessed by the display processor. By changing the character matrices, or essentially treating them all as user-definable graphics, a bitmap screen could be achieved using less memory.

If the system is started up without a Floppy Card in its drive, it will display a message that prompts the user to turn the system off, insert a Floppy Card into the drive, and then turn it back on. Whereupon, it would immediately run the drive to read the Floppy Card's contents to start the program.

The TLB2's main input device, the TLB2 Game Controller is a joypad with four rubber fire buttons, a D-pad, and a start/pause button.

Murphy Computing had also developed the TLB2 Keyboard, a peripheral which, with the included TLBASIC OS Floppy Card, lets the user run the TLB2 as a computer. With the MGC-004 External Floppy Card Drive, the user can save data on rewritable Floppy Cards when the TLB2 is in computer mode.

With the TM-16/TM-32Memory Expansion Pack (M.E.P.), the user can add an extra 16K/32K of memory to the TLB2's base memory, making it ideal especially for the system's computer mode.

In April 1991 (months after the release of the Super Box), Murphy Computing changed their company name to Murphy's for convenience purposes.

MORE INFO TO BE ADDED

Product Listings
MORE TO BE ADDED
 * MCG-001 - TLB2
 * MCG-002 - TLB2 Game Controller
 * MCG-002A - TLB2 Mk. 2 Controller
 * MCG-003 - TLB2 Keyboard
 * MCG-004 - External Floppy Card Drive
 * MCG-005 - TLB2 Trackball Controller
 * TM-16 - TLB2 Memory Expansion Pack (M.E.P.) 16K
 * TM-32 - TLB2 Memory Expansion Pack (M.E.P) 32K
 * FCD-C - Floppy Card Drive Cleaning Kit
 * FC-RW - Rewritable Floppy Card (ranges from 128 to 512K capacity)

Legend

 * * - Supports two players
 * 16 - TM-16 M.E.P. Required
 * 32 - TM-32 M.E.P. Required

Video Games

 * Bladenite (1984, Action-Adventure)
 * Bladenite II: Dreadhunt (1987, Action-Adventure)16
 * Bladenite III: Revenge (1991, Action-Adventure)32
 * Bladeflite (1989, Racing)16
 * Dead Dude: Undead Cool Guy (1985, Platformer)
 * Dead Dude II: Night of the Living Uncool (1989, Platformer)32
 * Solar Nightmare (1985, Shoot-'em-up)
 * Guacamole Rush (1985, Platformer/Racing)
 * Hayden's Adventure (1988, Platformer)*
 * Hayden's Adventure II (1989, Platformer)*
 * Hayden's New Adventure (1990, Platformer)*16
 * Rags to Riches (1989, Clicker)
 * Q.W.E.R.T.Y. (1984, Puzzle)
 * Q.W.E.R.T.Y: Extra Aim (1986, Puzzle)
 * EVADE (1988, Maze)*
 * Grimbot: Robo-Reaper (198?, ????)
 * Titan Assault (198?, ????)16
 * Cloudmania (19??, ????)
 * Street Fighter (1988, Fighting, port of the arcade game by Capcom)*32
 * Doraemon: Daiboken (1985, Platformer, Japanese exclusive)
 * Mega Man (1988, Platformer, closer to the NES Version than the DOS port, made by Capcom themselves instead of another developer)32
 * Mega Man 2 (1989, Platformer, similar to the NES version)32
 * Mega Man 3 (1990, Platformer, similar to the NES version)32
 * Mega Man 4 (1991, Platformer, similar to the NES version)32
 * Mega Man 5 (1993, Platformer, similar to the NES version, the last game to be officially released ever on the system)32
 * Desperation (1987, Beat-'em-up)
 * Toki (1990, Platformer, port of the arcade game)
 * Hammerin' Harry (1991, Platformer, port of the arcade game)16
 * Felix The Cat (1993, Platformer, port of the NES game)
 * Oswald The Lucky Rabbit (1992, Platformer)
 * Magical Doropie (1991, Port of the NES game, an improved version of the game, with content exclusive to the Japanese version of the original being restored in the American TLB2 version)
 * 170 more games

MORE TO BE ADDED

Computer Programs
MORE TO BE ADDED
 * TLBASIC v1.0
 * TLBASIC v1.5
 * TLBASIC v2.0
 * Canvas: Art Program for TLB2
 * TLB2 File Manager
 * Calculator
 * Theme Settings (here, it only changes colors, but the Super Box's theme settings does allow you to change Backgrounds and more customization)

Critical Response
The TLB2 was met with generally favorable reviews at launch. Computer And Video Games magazine gave it a 8.5/10 for its line-up of games, good hardware, and dual console/home micro functionality.

Sales
The TLB2 was very popular in Europe, selling around 5 Million units. Not as much in Asia, where it only sold 1.2 Million, while in America, it sold an average of 2.129 Million units.

Trivia

 * The TLB2's display mode is inspired by that of the Sinclair LC3, an unreleased game console.
 * The number 2 in the system's name is supposed to represent the symbol for squared (2), referring to how there were two words that start with the letter B.