I also wonder, who were the first customers for TI TMSxxx. Currently the oldest ones we have are from 1977: MB Comp IV (serial 904) and Parker Bros Codename Sector(serial 905)
I have Dark Tower and Super Simon on my watch list. I can start looking for cheap Little Professors and DataMans (DataMen?) I agree that the DataMan is probably an 0980 and Little Professor is likely an 0970.
The Speak and Read I got looks much more professional inside than the old Speak and Spells I have. The chips are CD2705B-N2L MES 8149, CD2801A-N2 ME 8144, CD2394A-NL MBU 8144 and CD2395A-NL MBU 8149. The CD28 and CD23s are 28-pin SDIP, and the CD27 is a cute 40-pin DIP that's the length of a 28-pin DIP.
I've got a backlog of chips that'll have to wait until work slows down a bit: Entex Baseball 3, Entex Space Invader with the TI chip, Kosmos Astro, and Light Fight should be here this week.