TI99ers Hall of Fame - Craig Miller

Craig Miller brought the TI community a huge volume of high quality products: software, hardware and publications. In 1982 Craig Miller started his commercial activities for the TI-99/4A and founded, together with his wife Susan, the firm Millers Graphics. That name was later changed to MG. The company was based in San Dimas, California. Only some of the company's products were from his own hands, but he was far more than just a vendor of somebody else’s software and books. If you look at the manuals of the software he sold, you can see his contribution clearly. Craig Miller was a publisher, a writer, a programmer and first of all an entrepreneur. The products of his firm Millers Graphics make him indeed a prominent TI-er.

PUBLICATIONS

in 1984 Craig Miller published the first issue of The Smart Programmer newsletter.
In March 1986 he sold the rights of this newsletter to Richard Mitchell, publisher of Super 99 Monthly. The merged version of the two journals, also called The Smart Programmer, was published till 1988.
Craig also published a number of TI-99/4A related books. Some titles are:

Fundamentals of Microcomputer Design
Getting On-Line
Illustrated Multiplan Dictionary
The 9900 Microprocessor
Agriculture Computer Programming

The MG books Smart Programming Guide for Sprites and Night Mission (with cassette), written by Craig Miller, helped many Exbas game programmers to control sprites and to use other Exbas functions.
The book The Orphan Chronicles by Dr. Ron Albright was also published by MG and gave a clear report of the rise and fall of the home computer division of Texas Instruments.

GAMES

In 1982 Craig Miller wrote several Games in Exbas and Assembler for the TI-99/4A and marketed these through his firm Millers Graphics. The most important were: Battle Over Titan, Blackbeard's Treasure, Casino Blackjack, The Crazy Fun House and The Pharaoh's Tomb. Later he wrote Alphabet Soup.

UTILITY SOFTWARE

Craig Miller published and marketed three important utility programs for the TI-99/4A:

Advanced Diagnostics(written by Steve Mildon)

Explorer (written by Doug Warren)

DisKassembler (written by Tom Freeman)

HARDWARE

In 1985 Millers Graphics brought the GRAM Kracker on the market. The design was a cooperative effort between Doug Warren and Craig Miller. It is a device which plugs into the cartridge port allowing you to save and load cartridges to the device or the floppy drive. Early 1987 Craig Miller ceased production of the GRAM Kracker, due to inability to deliver it on time.
In 1987 Craig designed the Bridge Box, produced and marketed by Triton Products. With this device you can use your TI-99/4A keyboard with an IBM Turbo XT clone. The Bridge Box was not a commercial success.
Craig Millar programmed the software for an EPROM to update the Corcomp 9900 disk controller to 80 tracks.
Craig also created the Super Extended Basic cartridge, with contributions by Doug Warren, Danny Michael, Mike Dodd and Mark Shillingburg. The module was released by Triton Products.

At the end of 1987 Craig left the TI community unexpectedly. One of his main reasons for quitting the TI99/4A market, was the appearance of certain 'track copiers' in the TI99/4A world, that could by-pass his disk protection system for his company's software. Currently the whereabouts of Craig Miller is not known.