Texas Instruments TI99/4A

Texas Instruments was a chip-making giant, so when it moved into the home with the 99/4 in 1979 and the improved 99/4A soon after, it did so with real silicon muscle. Most notably, it ran a processor with a 16-bit heart at a time when nearly every rival was firmly 8-bit, which on paper should have given it a serious edge.

In practice the machine was hamstrung by an awkward internal design and by TI's iron grip on who was allowed to write software for it. The clever processor spent much of its time waiting around, and the closed approach kept developers at arm's length, so the games library never blossomed the way it should have.

Then came Commodore. A ferocious price war dragged TI into selling the machine at a loss, and the company eventually walked away from home computers altogether, having lost a fortune. The TI99/4A survives as a cautionary tale: proof that great components and a big name count for little without the right design and a thriving software scene.