Would like to see a similar Retro Hardware project for TI99 like this!

[Gary from OPA]

As much as I love to see 'tiny' new boards with FPGA's and SMT and doing amazing new things with the TI99.

 

I also have a retro feeling of making something like pictured below for the TI99:

 

 

With each function on separate board, using good old-school tech, DIP packages, easy to be assembled by anyone in their home like good old days of Horizon ramdisk, simple kits, simple boards, one for sound, one for vdp, one for disk, etc.

 

This project is for MSX, but it would be great to work on something similar for TI99, a replacement for PEB and everything, imagine the possible ideas, and since each function on different board, users could expand what they want and how they want, super-duper stack of boards, or just 3 or 4 basic boards, and with TI99 and it's DSR setup and CRU bases, it makes for design like this already.

 

Anyhow enough soap box ranting, take a look at blog https://blog.kimoan.com/kimohachi/(translate it with Google) and I bet you will feel similar to me, we could even use possibly the 'same bus interface' so some of its boards like VDP or Sound etc could be swapable, compatible.

[FDOS]

I think we already have a similar beast, known as, a SNUG TI-99/4P. Which i'm currently trying to setup without an RGB monitor. I do have the new SCART adapter, but I need VGA and USB keyboard capability, in order to share my 4 port VGA/USB KVM with F18A TI-99/4A & CF7A+ or NanoPEB V1/V2; also a Win7 Ultimate laptop with real serial & parallel ports docking station as a TI support workstation.

[HackMac]

I like this idea because I had the same plan a long time ago. Therefore, as a first step, I digitally captured the original circuit diagrams (to be found on the project pages at bitbucket) in order to realize single boards, which are divided into their own functions: CPU & Clk, VDP, Keyboard & Joystick, Sound, ROM/RAM, GROM, etc... Here I already tried to point out every single functional unit.

I have already bought a suitable 19 inch slide-in case for this project.
But unfortunately I am a bit frittered away with my many projects. The two projects TI-Disk Manager and the FPGA board for the TI alternately share the highest priority.

[Omega-TI]

I just looked at your schematic site and once I saw the Flex Cable I was reminded of the age old desire to rid myself of it.

 

From what I've been told in the past there are timing issues and other things that cannot be overcome with a Bluetooth or WiFi mini sidecar device used to interface with things like memory or physical disk drives. Bummer too because with the TIPI, many of us already have 1/2 of what would be required!

[Airshack]

Bummer too because with the TIPI, many of us already have 1/2 of what would be required!

Since I have none of the more exotic PEB cards, I rarely use my PEB anymore. Seems nanoPEB/TIPI/FinalGROM99/sidecar32K have kind of rendered my PEB useless.

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Omega-TI]

Since I have none of the more exotic PEB cards, I rarely use my PEB anymore. Seems nanoPEB/TIPI/FinalGROM99/sidecar32K have kind of rendered my PEB useless.

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

Well, sorry to say it, but yeah!

 

Some legacy programs require a disk drive (real or emulated) to function properly. So even without exotic cards, this gives us the best of both worlds, while maintaining the nostalgic feel of an actual P-Box. Also, even if it is a tank, it still looks cool!

[RXB]

My fav cards in PBOX are SCSI, SAMS 1 Meg RAM, PGRAM and Horizon 3000 RAMDISK.

 

Interested in FinalGROM99 and TIPI, but zero intrest in NanoPEB or sidecar32K