Looking for Information on my newly acquired TI-99/4A system

[iainnitro]

Greetings:

 

I am brand new to this forum and just became a proud owner of a well loved TI-99/4A system. This is the orginal black and silver model. My setup includes the expansion chassis and a number of cartridges as well as the speech synthesizer module.

 

I had two questions regarding my new system and hoped someone here could help. I was recommended to this forum from Erik Klein's Vintage Computer forum :-)

 

Question 1: Was there a port of Joust to the system? If so, where can one find it if not eBay? To that end, is there any other resource for other games?

 

Question 2: My expansion chassis has a floppy drive in it, I presume it is a Shugart drive -- would love info. But wondered if that is the case can a second floppy be added? It would appear to possible just looking at the controller expansion card, but I have no manual for the expansion chassis and would love a link to a PDF of that manual or better to acquire the real paper one if someone is willing to part with it.

 

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

 

Mike

[Omega-TI]

Greetings:

 

Hi Mike,

Welcome aboard! Okay...

 

First thing first, << CLICK HERE >> to download the PDF of the TI controller card.

Second, YES! You can install a second drive. In fact a fellow TI user started a fantastic thread about doing just that.

<< CLICK HERE >> to go to that thread.

Third, if you might be interested in expanding your storage capabilities in the future, << THIS >> blog entry may interest you.

 

On the Joust game, I've never seen one, but I will not say no, because I simply do not know. Someone else will probably pop in with a definitive answer soon.

 

Ω

[+Ksarul]

Welcome to the forum!

 

On your first question, Atarisoft was working on a Joust Port for the TI, but unfortunately, no one has copies of the code they produced. You might want to look for the ROMOX Hen Pecked cartridge (also produced by Navarone with the title Chicken Coop) as a somewhat close equivalent.

 

It is possible to add disk drives. You can put two low-power direct-drive floppy drives into the expansion box (TEAC FD-55B drives were very popular for this). You can also put a pair of half height drives into a Tandy external drive case from a TRS-80 or a COCO and make it into a three-drive system. Just connect a 34-pin cable properly oriented (with NO twist in the middle--most commercial PC cables have a twist so it helps if you can fabricate your own or get one without the twist from another source), make sure you set the drive selectors properly and that you only have one termination pack in the chain.

 

Manuals are easy, just go to the WHT FTP site and there is a wealth of TI goodness. The link takes you straight to the TI manual directory, but there is an amazing amount of data on the site.

[+Schmitzi]

Hi,

welcome.

 

Here you find a list of floppydrives

 

and if you are dreaming for a 2nd drive maybe you have a look at the HxC-Drive from Lotharek. This is really cool stuff.

 

Have fun.

[Opry99er]

I may have spare manuals for your PEB and cards. If not, all the scans are available for download.

 

Welcome to the TI.