Tempest Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Anyone ever see one of these? http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/251736467693?item=251736467693 Looks like a later beige TI-99 with a a modified BIOS. I've never heard of this particular model, I wonder why CD decided to make these? Was there some specific project between TI and CD that these were created for or was CD planning something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 CDC had committed to the TI-99/4A for PLATO. When TI abandoned the 4A, CDC continued with their own stamp on it. There are a few posts on this forum that mention it. ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Oh PLATO. Totally forgot about that. Makes sense. Are these particularly rare? Anything else special about the BIOS other than the changed graphics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 They are not really that rare (they made at least 1,500 of them, from message traffic I've seen in the past)--but the OS they modified was the V2.2 one, so third-party cartridges are pretty much locked out. They also did PEBs and the various peripheral cards with the CD branding. They are among the last TI 99/4As manufactured, however. In the 2000-2004 timeframe, a lot of these were sold on eBay, along with the PEBs and cards, by someone who had located a large stash of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Oh PLATO. Totally forgot about that. Makes sense. Are these particularly rare? Anything else special about the BIOS other than the changed graphics? Others would have to speak to their rarity; but, I suspect that they are fairly rare compared to the sum total of TI-99/4As out there. I do not think there is anything otherwise different except, perhaps, that they are the QI 2.2 consoles that will not run cartridges that do not have any GROMs, i.e., ROM-only cartridges like @Willsy’s TurboForth or my fbForth 2.0 (SSP ). But, see How to identify a QI console. ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Neat! I have only read about these; never seen one in the wild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfernalKeith Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 In the late 1980s I saw a whole room of these with PEB's, set up in the basement of some education center in Ohio where I was filling out paperwork for some kind of high school jobs training thing (the details are lost to my fuzzy memory now). I didn't get a chance to turn one on or do anything with them. I was startled to see TI gear with a different nameplate. Never seen one 'in the wild' outside of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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