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jstimson

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  1. After TI left the market, my next machine was a Commodore 128. The BASIC on that was amazing and I truly loved that machine (still have it). All the features that had to be accessed by peek/poke on the 64 now had a full set of dedicated commands.
  2. Perhaps the batteries have reached their end of life? It can be months between running my machine and my Horizon still boots fine from battery backed RAM.
  3. The machine I moved onto after my TI was a Commodore 128. It also had the standard convention for use of integer only variables vs float (and string). From the system guide..... The Commodore 128 uses three types of variables in BASIC. These are: normal numeric, integer numeric, string (alfanumeric). Normal NUMERIC VARIABLES, also called floating point variables, can have any exponent value from -10 to +10, with up to nine digits of accuracy. When a number becomes larger than nine digits can show, the computer displays it in scientific notation form, with the number normalized to one digit and eight decimal places, followed by the letter E and the power of 10 by which the number is multiplied. For example, the number 12345678901 is displayed as 1.23456789E+10. INTEGER VARIABLES can be used when the number is from +32767 to -32768 (inclusive), and with no fractional portion. An integer variable is a number like 5, 10 or -100. Integers take up less space than floating point variables, particularly when used in an array (see below). STRING VARIABLES are those used for character data, which may contain numbers, letters and any other characters the Commodore 128 can display. An example of a string variable is "COMMODORE 128". VARIABLE NAMES may consist of a single letter, a letter followed by a number, or two letters. Variable names may be longer than two characters, but only the first two are significant. An integer is specified by using the percent sign (%) after the variable name. String variables have a dollar sign ($) after their names. EXAMPLES: Numeric Variable Names: A, A5, BZ Integer Variable Names: A%, A5%, BZ% String Variable Names: A$, A5$, BZ$
  4. With a quick google search, I found the PDF of that issue here. The program you're looking for is on page 69. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiDl8PrpJz4AhXGmIQIHVIgC2EQFnoECAIQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homecomputerworld.at%2Fmagazine%2Fhappy%2FHappy.Computer.N14.1984.12-Cartman.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2AbPKDWXkoFHjDG8xjq7W-
  5. There was also the Creative Computing magazine article from 1984. What amazes me is just how many completely separate (and competing) hardware and software platforms there were back in the day. It was truly the wild-west of home computing. I have the magazine but here's a direct link to the specific section.... https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1984-03/page/n7/mode/2up
  6. There was also Defender from Atarisoft on the TI. Although Defender was not truly a vector game, it certainly had a lot of the look-and-feel of a vector game.
  7. I grew up with the noisy fan in the PBOX. This may sound strange, but I find it comforting now as an adult. I think I would miss the steady noise of it when I use my TI.
  8. The "Hejne" series of shelving from Ikea. Fairly cheap and very configurable. https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/search/products/?q=hejne
  9. A section of my Retro area. Still some tidying up to do.
  10. The CDTV is mostly an A500 at heart.
  11. Regular console BASIC could not access the extra memory. So with that all you have is the 16k that is really the memory native to the video chip. Extended BASIC gives you access to the 32k. Under that setup you have about 24K of space for actual program code, and almost 14k of space for things like variables. That 14k is within the memory native to the video chip. So out of the 32k, you get 24k for program code.
  12. I find it interesting to compare Coleco and TI games given the same video hardware. Something like Q*Bert was done so very well on the TI. The programmers there went that one extra step to have the main character made up of more than a single sprite, giving him white eyes with black pupils and a black detail at the end of the nose, which adds so much to the main character. The coleco version had a single colour sprite with the eyes and nose having transparent parts that looked odd.
  13. Maybe actually finish off a game I've been working on for (ahem) 36 years now? I had posted my first real updates to it here (see link) in 2014. I had done more work on it since then but life got in the way. My next "real" work on it is to get working on a compiled version of it.
  14. By itself, the machine is a very closed and limited box. But as soon as you add memory and something like the FinalGROM it opens up beautifully.
  15. Honestly, I'd love a full size TI 99/8 machine, even if the entire innards are a raspberry pi, but if it looked and acted like a TI 99/8, complete with all external ports, I'd be thrilled and happily fork over cash for that.
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