Find me somebody to love

[+Ksarul]

I actually have an Aquarius as well--but then I also have a Powertran Cortex, a Tomy Tutor, a Tomy Pyuuta, a Tomy Pyuuta Jr., a Tomy Pyuuta Mark II, a TI CC40, A TI74, a Kaypro IV, a Sage II, and a Marinchip S9900 (all of these in addtion to my regular TI machines: a 99/4, a 99/4A, and a pair of 99/8s (one of each major type for the 99/8s).

[sometimes99er]

It's like Willsy said , that Z80 must have felt shame being housed in that thing.

 

Almost the same could be said about a certain shoehorned 9900.

[Retrospect]

Almost the same could be said about a certain shoehorned 9900.

mmm ..... do you mean the TI hated the fact the 9900 was inside it, or the 9900 hated the fact it was inside a TI?

[sometimes99er]

Like the 9900 was crippled with the TI-99. The 9900 is slowed down by waitstate, multiplexer, low on memory and what's more. As said it was shoehorned and hence I'd conclude it is the 9900 who 'hates' the environment. Guess the TI-99 likes the 9900. Certain things sort of stay in the family - excluding the bits (8 versus 16 bit families).

 

I think Carl Guttag (TI) talked about an 'unautorized' Z80A based TI-99, that's like a in-house TI prototype. Might have fitted better, but also it would not be what we have/love/hate.

 

[eck]

Concerning the feelings of a TMS9900 CPU I do agree with Mr. sometimes99er here.

 

Does someone have any experience with the TI-99 shaped, TI-Minimem cloned Basic inside, ColecoVision compatible Bit 90 computer? Will not say it was the 'unautorized' TI-99, but sort of.

[Retrospect]

Like the 9900 was crippled with the TI-99. The 9900 is slowed down by waitstate, multiplexer, low on memory and what's more. As said it was shoehorned and hence I'd conclude it is the 9900 who 'hates' the environment. Guess the TI-99 likes the 9900. Certain things sort of stay in the family - excluding the bits (8 versus 16 bit families).

 

I think Carl Guttag (TI) talked about an 'unautorized' Z80A based TI-99, that's like a in-house TI prototype. Might have fitted better, but also it would not be what we have/love/hate.

 

Now, if the TI-99 had been made with a Z80A, what we would be looking at would most certainly be an MSX of sorts ..... IF the Z80A had direct access to RAM and all that .... it may of changed things who knows ..... but your right it wouldn't have been what we have grown to love/hate.

[Retrospect]

Concerning the feelings of a TMS9900 CPU I do agree with Mr. sometimes99er here.

 

Does someone have any experience with the TI-99 shaped, TI-Minimem cloned Basic inside, ColecoVision compatible Bit 90 computer? Will not say it was the 'unautorized' TI-99, but sort of.

I had never heard of this computer until just now.

 

Here's a tech page regarding the BIT-90 ..... it seemed very good until I read "1K left for programming" ..... ewwww......

 

Another thing I noted, was that it has rubber 'chiclet' keys rather like a Timex/Sinclair computer, and each key has 'commands' as well as letters & numbers which are accessed via Function keys , again, like the ZX Spectrum or Timex 2068.

 

The hardware inside the Bit-90 was otherwise mostly TI-99 related stuff.

 

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=93

Edited April 17, 2014 by Retrospect

[Gary from OPA]

I would love to get into this debate, but I too much in love with TI99, so everything else to me just sucks balls, even tho alot of them had better performance, and that was sadly like others pointed out because of the TI99 crippled design using a 16bit into 8bit, but then originally it was never to have a nice 16bit processor, it was not even going to have 16k of video ram, all that was squeezed in at last moment, after problems with the broken silicon dies that was to be the 8bit '99 cpu (of which I have one of working (almost stable) versions), thinking of one day shoehorning it, to see how well it would have worked being a tottally 8 bit system, without the 16bit to 8bit multiplexer and added wait states, it would be weird opposite of my other ti shoehorn console having a 99105 accelerator in it instead, making basic so fast you would be wondering what happen..

 

Performance wise, the TI99 can outdo alot of other systems at the time, but sadly not stock wise, it needs programs written in assembly and running on 16bit bus using at least 32k of direct memory, and then it is onpar with other 80s systems, combine that with at least another page of memory or two, and a V9938/58 video chip and you have a nice MSX2 type system, of which is my second love when it comes to eighty computers, and sadly close to what the 99/8 would have been, if the market had not crashed.

[Lisias]

Does someone have any experience with the [..] ColecoVision compatible Bit 90 computer?

(resurrecting the thread)

 

I had owned a BIT-90 Computer in the early eighties. I had some fun programming it, and had access to the Technical Guide.

 

I don't own it anymore (sadly, really sadly), but I remember some tech specs. May I be of help?

[Lisias]

Here's a tech page regarding the BIT-90 ..... it seemed very good until I read "1K left for programming" ..... ewwww......

 

 

The Old Computer's page is inaccurate.

 

The BIT-90 had only 2K RAM internally (you will need a external memory expansion for more), and I remember the manual stated something about 1900 bytes free for BASIC programs. It's almost 50% more memory than Old Computer's page states. :-)

 

It's almost nothing, but somehow I managed to make some (silly) two player games (with graphics AND sound!) with so little memory: ignorance is bliss, I didn't knew that 2K is too few memory to make programs! :-)

 

By the way, I'm pretty sure BIT-90 is a unauthorised clone of the Coleco ADAM.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Lisias