Money Minder is a home budgeting application for the
VideoBrain that was, according to the manual, supposed to help
you "fight back against inflation and high taxes". I'm
not exactly sure how a cartridge is supposed to change US
fiscal policy, but I guess the VideoBrain is more powerful
than we though.
If you've seen one home budgeting application, you've
seen them all. Basically one types in their household's
various cash inflows and outflows and where they came from.
Then (if you've been a good boy), the VideoBrain will
tabulate the data so you can see where your paycheck seems to
disappear to each month. In some ways Money Minder is
the prehistoric ancestor of modern day programs like Quicken.
The cartridge actually identifies itself as Money
Manager on the title screen. It is thought that
Videobrain decided to change the name of the program shortly
before it was released for unknown reasons (it was also known
as Cash Manager in early advertisements). Interestingly the
box sleeve for the cartridge is actually from a Financier
cartridge with new labels for Money Minder put over the top.
It is unknown if real sleeves were ever printed
for Money Minder.
Money Minder had a print run of only 1,025 units making
it one of the rarer VB cartridges. Cartridges were
manufactured from 9-1-78 to 2-12-79.