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F18A - 80 Column & Enhanced Graphics Supported Programs


Omega-TI

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Guillaume Tello's MLC (My Little Compiler) program also supports the F18A--and even supports the 9900 coprocessor Matthew put in there. . .

 

http://gtello.pagesperso-orange.fr/mlc_e.htm

 

Wow.... it almost sounds like this compiler was made just for it! :)

This is looking to be a good start. I was hoping to see a hacked version of BA-Writer, but no such luck. It was real interesting to see Multiplan listed. I'll download the disk after I get my F18 installed and see if it works without the Cartridge.

 

When I get a few more entries (hopefully) and compile the list, I'll probably even add links. I'm also going to change up the title to "F18A - 80 columns & Graphics Supported Programs"

 

I'm going to include Titanium as well, while it's not specifically 80 columns, it uses the F18A partially for sprites. So I think it 'qualifies'.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The 32k option is not redundant; however, you have the console mod (32K 16 bit 0 WS) active by default. You should not use both expansions at the same time. Yuo can turn off the console expansion in the TAB menu.

 

BTW, it proved already helpful to have both kinds of expansions, because some programs like TurboPasc99 have problems with the 16 bit expansion.

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Just tried it ... now I see: You tried to plug in the 32K memory expansion in slot 2 which I hardcoded to contain the EVPC card. Try the option "-listslots" to get a list of valid slot options. You can plug it into slot3, but as I said, as long as you have the console 32K RAM mod, this is not necessary.

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Programs that exploit the extended features of the F18A Video Upgrade

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As of (10/27/2013)

 

80 Column Programs/Utilities

 

4A DOS / Command DOS

80 Column

Author: Monty Schmidt

 

BOOT (Menu Loader)

80 Column

Author: John A. Johnson

 

CF2K

80 Column (in ‘View’)

Author: Fred Kaal

 

MLC “My Little Compiler”

80 Column, Graphics and extended operations

(Most extensive use of the F18A to date)

Author: Guillaume Tello

 

TI-Microsoft Multiplan

80 Column (Third Party Hack)

Hacker: Unknown

 

 

Enhanced Graphics/Games

 

Titanium

Extra Sprites

Author: Rasmus Moustgaard

 

Scramble

Enhanced Graphics

Author: Rasmus Moustgaard

 

 

Please: If you know of any others, please let us know.

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The 32k option is not redundant; however, you have the console mod (32K 16 bit 0 WS) active by default. You should not use both expansions at the same time. Yuo can turn off the console expansion in the TAB menu.

 

BTW, it proved already helpful to have both kinds of expansions, because some programs like TurboPasc99 have problems with the 16 bit expansion.

 

 

Why would Turbo pascall have problems with the 32k16 mod when assembly does not? Has this been verified on a console?

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What I found out is that TurboPasc'99 tries to figure out whether it loaded its utility routines into RAM before. It compares a memory location to some other value, and weirdly (or silly!), the memory location must contain FF00 to qualify as original (in which case the routines have not been loaded during uptime of the console). It showed that only the TI 32K expansion has FF00 words on powerup, which may be due to its construction, but this needs some more investigation to be fully certain.

 

Other expansions, in particular 16 bit expansions, have 0000 as original values.

 

I remembered that in those days long ago, TurboPasc'99 stopped working on my console, but I never found out why. It was right after I installed my 32K expansion in the console.

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Kevan,

There is an 80 column Infocom Interpreter lurking out there (no pun intended) that may work, I don't recall it using extra V9938 features. There is also a 80-column disk editor written by John Birdwell that might work. Folks with the 80 column cards probably know of other programs that could be tested for compatibility.

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Kevan,

There is an 80 column Infocom Interpreter lurking out there (no pun intended) that may work, I don't recall it using extra V9938 features. There is also a 80-column disk editor written by John Birdwell that might work. Folks with the 80 column cards probably know of other programs that could be tested for compatibility.

 

I'd love it if someone could provide a link, or transfer them to https://www.wetransfer.com/ so we could download them and check them out.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

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While searching for 80 old column utilities to dig up and bring out into the open for F18A users, I came across the attached 80 COLUMN VERSION of Mass Transfer.

 

Now this program comes up just fine in the emulation of the F18A under Classic99, but on the actual F18A itself, it's screwed up. This should be an easy tweak for one of you TI-Gods out there.

 

So anyone want to pick up the baton and run the final lap for the rest of the team?

MassTransfer 80 Columns.zip

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Kevan,

There is an 80 column Infocom Interpreter lurking out there (no pun intended) that may work, I don't recall it using extra V9938 features. There is also a 80-column disk editor written by John Birdwell that might work. Folks with the 80 column cards probably know of other programs that could be tested for compatibility.

 

 

Y.A.P.P. & XHI & X80 I have on my SCSI drive but only work with a 9938 or 9958.

XHI is like TML but with a 9938/9958 performance and the drawing takes place from the chip not Assembly.

 

So like Y.A.P.P. when you draw a line or a circle it is the hardware that is doing it from a command sent to the Registers. Hardware is always faster then software.

 

Gawd would love to run Y.A.P.P. and XHI again as these were just so cool to use.

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The old versions of BOOT that have floating around in the wild for decades have an 80 column bug that was overlooked by previous 80 column cards. This bug has been patched by Tursi.

 

If you would like to run BOOT in 80 columns on your real TI-99/4A equipped with an F18A, please download the attached .ZIP file. :)

BOOT-F18A (Mod).zip

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Makes you wonder why Hardware bothers with Software. ;)

 

This is why I prefer the 9938 or 9958 over the F18 as all the 128K VDP memory and crazy fast options to draw from hardware are not there.

(Circles, Ray drawings, Rectangles, Blocks and Lines all drawn by hardware)

 

The F18 is great new stuff, but I miss these killer programs that made all the TI stuff look 4 times slower and smaller.

 

XHI in XB was almost instantaneous drawing a screen you could barely see the pixel moving as it drew the whole image so quickly from hardware in 1 second.

(XB slowed it down but compared to normal XB and TML was not a contest)

 

Just reminiscing over my dead TIM card.

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The lack of a blitter in the F18A is way undershadowed by the high-speed GPU, though. You can implement those circles, rays, rectangles, blocks, and more in the GPU, and they will easily make you believe it's hardware doing it. There's even a dedicated 2k block of RAM for those functions, so you don't need to sacrifice any of the 16k.

 

We just need some apps to show it off -- most of us are just time constrained. RamusM has been kicking butt and starting to show what it can do, though. :)

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The old versions of BOOT that have floating around in the wild for decades have an 80 column bug that was overlooked by previous 80 column cards. This bug has been patched by Tursi.

 

If you would like to run BOOT in 80 columns on your real TI-99/4A equipped with an F18A, please download the attached .ZIP file. :)

 

Interesting choice of words. Since BOOT was written for the 9938/9958 family, and the supposed 'bug' never materialized, would not a better description be, 'BOOT patched for the 80 column deficiencies in the F18A device' ?

 

Gazoo

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