Major_Tom_coming_home Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 You have been warned. Throwing in a dash of humor... Okay, to be honest I was originally going to get a C64 to go with my TRS-80 Color Computer 2, Amiga 1200, and Atari 800xl. Then I priced them on Ebay (expensive) and heard about all kinds of hardware issues, shady sellers, bad chips, bad power supplies, dogs and cats living together, etc. Maybe I was being paranoid, but there is nothing I HATE more than a hassle and I avoid them at all costs. There seemed to be tons of "untested" C64s on Ebay, and I'm sure we all know what "Untested" means. I love the history, success, and variety the C64 brings to the table, but for now my C64 curiosity will be quenched via emulation. Enter the TI/99. It was a system I was familiar with because a friend of mine had a second hand one from a garage sale when we were kids. I remember being pissed because his TI/99 had more memory than my COCO2. One thing I have learned is that the best things to collect for your wallet are those that have low demand but high supply. For me, this is fun. I casually collect staplers, typewriters, adding machines, old cameras etc. As far as old computers, this seems to be what the TI/99 has going for it. Inexpensive and 'unpopular', but still has enough going for it to be interesting. A Mattel Aquarius or Emerson Arcadia it is not. I just ordered a fully functional one in nice shape with games and joysticks for $65 shipped. Hell yeah!!! The TI/99 seems to have a great bang for the buck. Plus, unlike anything Commodore ever made the black and silver model simply looks bad assed - the computer Darth Vader would use. From what I have heard it also has reliability to match it's appearance. I purposely avoided the beige TI/99, it reminds me of a shitty Packard Bell 486sx POS from 1993. Anyway, it's nice to join the club. Once my TI/99 is set up I'm totally getting the SD cartridge I read about. The TI/99 seems like the perfect system for me: Great value, lots of software, awesome 1970s appearance, well built, affordable, cult classic, underdog etc. If anyone has advice to offer, fire away. I'm happy to report my TI/99 will be coming with Joysticks and Parsec. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Welcome! There is so much more you can do these days with the TI. Browse around and ask questions. This is the most friendly forum you will ever see 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Welcome aboard! Yeah, the 4A was designed back in the era when there was originally 'lots of margin' in the 'list price', so TI did a great job in the early to mid runs of the black & silver model. Sadly the market was changing and they were losing their shirts with every console sold, but 35 years later we still have our computers holding their own. I agree with you on the beige models, not just because of appearance, but also for the lousy self-destructing Mitsumi keyboards and the fact that the later ones were crippled. The most prevalent failures seem to occur in the video portion of the console, but now days we have an easy plug-in fix that is a radical improvement over the original output anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDOS Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Welcome to the place to be for exciting new developments, software and hardware, for a beast that was supposedly buried in 1984. Read all about it in "The Orphan Chronicles" bye Ronald G. Albright, JR., M. D. I haven't been long on this AtariAge forum for the Orphaned TI-99/4A, but I've owned at least one (currently 12) since Christmas 1982. Most of the 12 are fully functional, a few with flaky video, and one with a keyboard issue that's not a bad keyboard. Two have the F18A video upgrade, both are connected to either a CF7A+ or NanoPEB via a TI Speech Synthesizer, and both will be getting the USB keyboard adapter real soon. One FlashROM 99 is on the way, but I really need the FinalGROM 99 for software development reasons, and due to only having one GramKracker (everyone tells me I'm just one person, so I only need one--I know how to multi-task ). You can get all your questions answered here, just don't ask me, as I'm not nearly as smart as those here doing all this new hardware and software development--it's CRAZY good. fdos 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Welcome to the DARK Side! The TI-99/4A is truely a great machine. I have had quite a few different systems and always loved the TI. The current hardware and software development for this machine is amazing. It seems a few times a year new hardware is e being experimented with and developed. Developers are always coding new games, or porting old games from other systems to the TI. Once you get bit by the TI then you will keep wanting to expand it to it's full potential. To read up on Omega's blog about getting into the TI and some key points go HERE 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Welcome... ask away, and read read read. "There be gold in them tharr threads...." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 So welcome to the show... "....the computer Darth Vader would use" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Welcome to the club. Hope you find as much joy as I have. Too much fun does not make Sinphaltimus a dull boy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdugnate Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Oh you poor sod, you have NO idea what you're getting yourself into. Mine started out with my wife buying me a TI 99-4/a she found at an antique store and now 2 months later i have a tote with ~40 cartridges, lol. Welcome! I'm a relative newbie to this forum, too, but I will vouch that everyone I have interacted with is super friendly and helpful when it comes to the hobby. There is a TON of technical info here! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major_Tom_coming_home Posted April 8, 2017 Author Share Posted April 8, 2017 Update: I went ahead and ordered a flashrom 99. Getting a system and access to all of the cartridge games for a total of $120 is pretty sweet. I was watching some ti/99 gameplay footage and I'm quite surprised at how good the games look. For some reason I thought the gaming capabilities were slightly below Atari 2600 but I was mistaken. Maybe my friend had his ti/99 hooked up to a black and white television LOL. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 ... Enter the TI/99. It was a system I was familiar with because a friend of mine had a second hand one from a garage sale when we were kids. I remember being pissed because his TI/99 had more memory than my COCO2. ... Did your friend have some soft of RAM expansion? Because the TI normally comes with 16K, and the CoCo 2 came with at least 16K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LASooner Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Update: I went ahead and ordered a flashrom 99. Getting a system and access to all of the cartridge games for a total of $120 is pretty sweet. I was watching some ti/99 gameplay footage and I'm quite surprised at how good the games look. For some reason I thought the gaming capabilities were slightly below Atari 2600 but I was mistaken. Maybe my friend had his ti/99 hooked up to a black and white television LOL. You'll really go nuts over some of the ports and original games written by some of the guys here at AtariAge over the past couple of years. Rasmus, Sometimes99er, Tursi and others have written some real cool stuff that blows away nearly everything written in the old days. In fact Airshack has written a really neat game that people are going to love. Attendees of Fest West are going to be the lucky first ones to get copies to play... but I have a feeling it'll make it over here to Atari Age within 24 hour after the gathering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfreige Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Update: I went ahead and ordered a flashrom 99. Getting a system and access to all of the cartridge games for a total of $120 is pretty sweet. I was watching some ti/99 gameplay footage and I'm quite surprised at how good the games look. For some reason I thought the gaming capabilities were slightly below Atari 2600 but I was mistaken. Maybe my friend had his ti/99 hooked up to a black and white television LOL. Do you have any sort of 32K expansion?. Most cartridge images needs it. All TI games converted to ROM for example. There is a zip containing all the ROMs you can use without a 32K exp. however. Start with them. Most third party games (as ATARI ones) doesn't need the 32K. Or you can just buy Matt 32K sidecar expansion and use all the wonderful ROMs available 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 you can find it on arcadeshopper.com It is for the sideport, no PEB needed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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