Why am I compelled to get a beige console?

[+OLD CS1]

I am hoping someone can help me either rationalize my compulsion to acquire a beige non-QI console, or talk me out of it. Recently I have become obsessed with trying to find one with the bronze grounding fingers which, according to Mainbyte, indicates that it is using the non-QI motherboard, so it will still be a 1981 console and thus accept ROM cartridges.

 

But I have two working black consoles, one with what appears to be bad VDP RAM, and probably another one or two in storage. Why in the world do I want a beige console? Is there anything particularly special about it which would make me think, well, that's alright, then.

[InfernalKeith]

I am hoping someone can help me either rationalize my compulsion to acquire a beige non-QI console, or talk me out of it. Recently I have become obsessed with trying to find one with the bronze grounding fingers which, according to Mainbyte, indicates that it is using the non-QI motherboard, so it will still be a 1981 console and thus accept ROM cartridges.

 

But I have two working black consoles, one with what appears to be bad VDP RAM, and probably another one or two in storage. Why in the world do I want a beige console? Is there anything particularly special about it which would make me think, well, that's alright, then.

 

 

 

Nostalgia? Which is, at the root of it, 99% of why any of us are here. So don't let anyone (besides maybe anyone who shares your checking account) tell you not to do it. Beige consoles get a bad rap around here, and I personally prefer the old-school black and silver look, but my first TI was a beige one, and they've served me well over the years. If I *really* was gonna go bananas in collector mode, I'd have a full setup of each in my basement -- maybe a beige with my PEB and a black-and-silver with my CorComp 9900 mini expansion system.

[nathanallan]

Simply, I think you want it BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ONE YET. It's the collector in you going crazy. Been ther, I feel ya

[jchase1970]

I had a beige and my best friend had the silver and I liked mine better but neither of us had a PEB, if I had a PEB I think I would have like the matching silver one better. This year I bought one on ebay and I bought the best value one I could get, it just happen to be beige, Later I was able to a silver one for next to nothing and then a later my PEB. I have the beige on in the bed room with the games and is the one I play on since it's a nostalgia thing. The silver is with the PEB in the computer room. I have not used it much yet since the whole reason to get it the PEB was to play games on disk that I download. and to play the stuff I make on a real machine. I didn't need the PEB but it was always one of those things I wanted and never could afford, now I can.

[Opry99er]

The devil sneaks into our lives and gives us sinful compulsions--- you may feel the urge to do many dastardly things in life.... Don't give in to sinful temptation.... Trust in good and in righteousness and keep the beige devil at arms length, lest ye be smited in thy sleep by minions of the beige devil!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, there's nothing wrong with beige... It just fades and is made cheaply. Do what you gotta do, brotha!

[matthew180]

I don't know why you would want one, they are pretty gaudy IMO. They also housed the evil QI motherboard, so to me they represent evil. The black and silver was my first style of console, it matches all the other hardware, and it looks nice. But, if you want a beige console, go for it.

 

As for you console that has problems, send it to me if you want it fixed.

 

Matthew

[matthew180]

Actually, now that I think about it, I have a beige console that I use for the F18A testing (it also has bad VRAM, but that does not matter any more... ). When I went to the Faire this year, I put the motherboard back in the bottom of the beige case and it didn't exactly fit! There were subtle differences, which makes me think that the motherboard is not from the beige system, and that also means there are physical differences in the motherboards.

 

Matthew

[unhuman]

I don't know why you would want one, they are pretty gaudy IMO. They also housed the evil QI motherboard, so to me they represent evil. The black and silver was my first style of console, it matches all the other hardware, and it looks nice. But, if you want a beige console, go for it.

 

As for you console that has problems, send it to me if you want it fixed.

 

Matthew

 

That an open offer? I have a silver one that displays snowy video. I need to diagnose if it's the console or my cable... I think I tried 2 diff consoles - which would point to me building a crappy cable... Wonder if ferrites would help.

Edited November 24, 2010 by unhuman

[+save2600]

Nostalgia for sure. I grew up with the beige console. Was my first home computer purchase actually. Gave that away years ago, only to re-acquire one like new in the box. But what's strange is that I keep the black and silver model out 24/7 and use that as my primary TI console. I think it's a little sharper looking machine maybe and recognizing that it's the original, I guess that's sort of appealing too. The boxed beige example sits above it on a shelf though

[matthew180]

I think the beige consoles were two-fold. 1. that was the color of the PC, Apple, and C64 (kind of). Also, probably much cheaper than the black/silver.

 

Matthew

[matthew180]

That an open offer? I have a silver one that displays snowy video. I need to diagnose if it's the console or my cable... I think I tried 2 diff consoles - which would point to me building a crappy cable... Wonder if ferrites would help.

 

Sure. I think I have offered in every thread where people were complaining about bad consoles. The only *problem* is the shipping though, it probably costs more to send them back and forth than to buy a working one off ebay or somewhere... But, anyone who wants me to look at a console, send it my way. Video problems are easy to troubleshoot.

 

Matthew

[jchase1970]

Yeah I think design wise the silver was using TI's business machine style look, and when they came out with the beige they were making it look more like something friendlier to a home look. The atari 8btis the c64. They look more casual and therefore less intimidating. Of course they were looking for a cheaper production cost to since they were loosing money selling the console. Shame there business model was make profit with hardware, software is just support. If they could have realized how much money they could have made with software with the market share they, had had they not dropped out of it, they could have seen each console sold for a loss meant big profits in software that was cheap to produce after the initial developement. Basic was limiting the cheap software sales, but they should of had alot more cassette stuff available, because everyone that had a TI seemed to by a cassette cable. Some bought the player but me and my friends had cassette players already and you just plug them into it. Cassettes were much cheaper then carts and they could have made alot of profit selling them to the new owners of the system. And at the end programmers got smart to, the ADVENTURE series and TOD, buy a cartridge for fast machine interface and sell cheap cassettes for stories.

[InfernalKeith]

Speaking of PEB's and matching... in the last batch of TI stuff I picked up, in the inevitable pile of paperwork and literature, was something I'd never seen before: a Bill Cosby sales brochure from the tail end of the 99/4A's life, with Hex-bus peripherals and a beige console in the photo. Also, and my eyes may be deceiving me, but it looks like the PEB in the photo is beige! Has anyone ever seen this? I can't even imagine that silver behemoth done in family-friendly beige... it just seems... wrong.

[+OLD CS1]

A lot of great cheer here, thanks to all! I find it interesting how many people actually answered my plea for help

 

Nostalgia is not so much my motivating factor. I never had a beige console, only the black and silver. So it may be more that I do not have one. There is the coolness factor, and specifically wanting the non-QI console is seemingly more for the cool factor, since there is nothing overly special about a v1 motherboard in a plastic case... other than just being cool. It would also match my Amigas Since I have so many black/silver units, maybe I will put them up for sale and use the proceeds on a beige unit, just for fun.

 

I appreciate the offer to fix the broken console. I probably will not bother, but I will not toss it either. I will most likely offer it up to someone for the cost of shipping, which I can do with my UPS account for around $10. (That is not an offer at this time, mind you, just a thought.)

 

I have attached a picture of the screen from the bad console. Any thoughts?

Edited November 24, 2010 by OLD CS1

[jchase1970]

Speaking of PEB's and matching... in the last batch of TI stuff I picked up, in the inevitable pile of paperwork and literature, was something I'd never seen before: a Bill Cosby sales brochure from the tail end of the 99/4A's life, with Hex-bus peripherals and a beige console in the photo. Also, and my eyes may be deceiving me, but it looks like the PEB in the photo is beige! Has anyone ever seen this? I can't even imagine that silver behemoth done in family-friendly beige... it just seems... wrong.

 

I've seen that add and I think it is beige. Maybe a reg PEB just painted beige for the ad and a real unit might have never been made. But I'm sure a beige one was on paper somewhere just never had time to come to light of day.

[+save2600]

I thought of another reason someone might be compelled to get a beige TI: to finally put to use all those $4.95 NOS closeout TI keyboards we bought from Radio Shack back in the day. I bought a handful for even less at a GoodWill yeeears ago.

 

[Opry99er]

very nice. =)

[matthew180]

The video problem is probably some bad DRAM. The console I'm using to work on my F18A video chip has bad DRAM, but it does not matter since with the F18A the DRAM is no longer used.

 

I'll take it for $10 shipping. Send me a PM with your PayPal email address. This will give me a console to start my "bad for good" console swap program.

 

Matthew

[+OLD CS1]

I thought of another reason someone might be compelled to get a beige TI: to finally put to use all those $4.95 NOS closeout TI keyboards we bought from Radio Shack back in the day. I bought a handful for even less at a GoodWill yeeears ago.

 

INDEED! However, my Radio Shanty had a number of black ones on clearance for $2 or $3. I think I picked up two of them, and they are both still in storage -- which I hope to be able to clean out this weekend. (Reminds me, I need to call Waste Management.)

 

I know Texin still has several of the beige keyboards for $5.

 

I'll take it for $10 shipping. Send me a PM with your PayPal email address. This will give me a console to start my "bad for good" console swap program.

 

I will get back to you after this weekend. All goes well, I will be spending Saturday clearing out a large swath of my storage room, and hopefully uncover a quantity of "lost" equipment, including some TI consoles.

[Opry99er]

Ahhh yes... the cleaning out of the storage. =) Hopefully the TI gear universe will be richer. =)

 

I always love uncovering forgotten caches of gear. =)

[+OLD CS1]

Ahhh yes... the cleaning out of the storage. =) Hopefully the TI gear universe will be richer. =)

 

I always love uncovering forgotten caches of gear. =)

 

I would not get my hopes up if I were you. For the TI, I had a meager collection of non-special items. The PEB I have now is the most expanded my TI system has ever been. Now, Commodore 64 and Amiga stuff, I usually turn up a gold nugget or two. I think I may even have a PCjr in there. (I will never admit it was mine, I was, uh, holding it for a friend. Yeah.)

[S1500]

I have not one but TWO beige consoles. I grew up with the silver console. Would have rather had the silver one, because yes, it does match the PEB monolith. Sadly, one of the consoles has a missing = key. I can't find the male-to-male coaxial adaptor around my house to test it with the switchie-box.

[Willsy]

If you get a beige console:

 

1) Your friends will begin to shun you

2) Your colleagues at work will not invite you to meetings and will leave you out of joke emails

3) Your neighbours will suddenly rush indoors when you come outside

4) Your wife will suddenly start having lots of "headaches"

 

This is all, of course, true.

 

Don't do it!

[+OLD CS1]

If you get a beige console:

 

1) Your friends will begin to shun you

 

Already happens. Something about spending a week on getting a "good sample" of a program cassette which can be decoded into an emulator-usable file. Or something like that.

 

2) Your colleagues at work will not invite you to meetings and will leave you out of joke emails

 

This is supposed to dissuade me?

 

3) Your neighbours will suddenly rush indoors when you come outside

 

Very likely.

 

4) Your wife will suddenly start having lots of "headaches"

 

Not married. I had a marriage scare once, though. Fortunately one of us realized marrying me would be a horrible, horrible mistake.

 

This is all, of course, true.

 

Don't do it!

 

Yeah, still not discouraged. You all have failed. I see a couple on eBay........

[Opry99er]

Get it man!!!! But make sure you also get some perfume to hide the stink of it!!!!

 

Just kidding... I had a beautiful beige console that I gave to a friend who's TI's VDP was shot. I'll see if he's interested in sending it to Matthew! He's about 80 years old, and once was an assembly master (if there is such a thing.) That console was sealed when I got it and it was perfect in every way. Worked fast and quick and I had no problems whatsoever with it. I actually ran it as my game console while I did my programming on my modified silver console with a custom number pad. =)