seanlanefuller

My most recent acquisition was an extended basic cartridge which I am pleased with. My next step is an actual cassette recorder and maybe a joystick.

I think someone should create one if that is what they want. The more options, the better. I don't think I would buy one though. I would just run an emulator. What I desire is a TI-99/9 from an alternate dimension where the IBM-PC didn't take over the market and where social media, YouTube, and cloud computing failed I want it like the TI-99, but with an evolved basic, faster CPU, more memory, higher resolution, more colors, better sound, and a flashcard drive. I always wonder what kind of market it would be if the diversification of what existed in 1983 (the year I graduated high school) had continued on.

Thanks, Opry99er for not raining on my parade. Once again I am waxing nostalgic at 12:16 AM about TI-99/4a's while drinking Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout. Late night computing has always been my favorite. I was playing King Richard the Lionhearted tonight in The Adventures on Robin Hood at the South Jackson Civic Center tonight and I also was the house manager for lockup so I have an excuse for being up really late. So, Opry99er I like your avitar on here. Is that Tunnels of Doom? I have never played it. How much more do I have to add to my setup to run it? I have a TI-99/4a, output to a RF modulator, save to a cassette port connected to another PC. Also, do you know what I need to add minimally to try assembler programming?

Hello. My name is Sean and I have a problem with vintage computing. It has been almost 5 minutes since my last indulgence. Funny thing is I am drinking Tawny Port Wine while writing this. Which should I be more concerned about? I think they go well together.

Thanks everybody! It is weird to me just how slow and limited TI basic seems. That is one of the things that is cool about it I think. That was a cool animated screen capture River Patroller. How did you do that? I did use the L=LEN(A$) in the real program and it works great. I love the feeling of the program model in my head that working on the TI forces. I get a stronger feeling of this when I try to write code for the Tandy PC-1, PC-3, and PC-8 I have. It reminds me of my early days in college writing code using a DECWriter printing terminal. The pocket computers only show 1 line at a time. I feel like it makes me think harder. Like when I take a Google it break and make myself remember something rather than Googling it. Also, River, the idea of printing black on black and then switching the color map sounds pretty cool. I'm going to try that one out. I love learning cool tricks like that.

BTW, it is something like: 10 a$="Hello, World!" 20 l=14 30 x=10 40 y=10 50 gosub 1000 100 goto 100 1000 for i=1 to l 1010 call hchar(y,x,asc(seg$(a$,i,1))) 1020 next i 1030 return

I have a simple setup with a TI-99/4a and regular basic, no disk, no expanded memory, and save programs out the cassette port to another computer running sound recorder. I was trying to print a string at a location on the screen. A lot of BASIC interpreters have a print at command. I couldn't find one on the TI, so what I did was load a string variable, and an x and y, then call a subroutine that chops up the string and writes to the screen using a call hchar. Is there an easier way to do this?

I finally got it to work. I set the microphone gain to maximum and the output volume to 1 tick below maximum. Thanks for everybody's help and encouragement. Now I am going to try to get an old shoebox cassette recorder and get it to work. If I get a Texas Instruments branded one that would be cooler. I have seen a couple on Ebay, but I need to watch for the right price. Sometimes I ask myself why I am doing this. Why are we all doing this?

I bought a cassette cable from Ebay and now I realize I don't have a cassette recorder. I connected it to a laptop I have running sound recorder on XP. I was unsuccessful in loading a program. I can record fine and the audio sounds nice. Any advice? On my old TRS-80 Model I there were blinking asterisks to let me know that it was at least seeing data. On the TI I just get a failure message at the end. The only variables I seem to have control over are the gain on the recording and the volume of the playback. Also, maybe there are some audio files on the Internet that are known to work. I would like to try one of those if somebody can point to an address where some are stored.

I can second the keyboard advice. I bought a couple before I got a good one. It seems that a green PCB visible thought the air holes in the bottom is better than brown.

I only recently starting building up a system. I have a TV, a TI-99/4a, and a Parsec cartridge. That's enough to have a lot of fun.

Cool! I am going to have to go into training just to be a founding member. I just got my copy of PARSEC only 2 days ago and only played for a couple of minutes. I have watch YouTube video of Alpiner being played. I have never played invaders either. I never owned a TI back in the day. I had a TRS-80 Model I with 4k which I eventually upgraded to Level 2 basic and 16 KB. That got me most of the way through college. Before I was out I got a Model 100 and a CoCo 3. I really wanted a vintage computer and had been watching Ebay for a good deal. My cousin had a TI and always bragged about how great it was. I was taken in when he talked about sprites and it made me want one. The funny thing is that the TI basic on the TI-99/4a doesn't have sprites. I didn't realize he was using extended basic. I plan to upgrade at some point when I have recouped from bidding on a couple of TI-99/4a's that I combined into 1 that worked. I only hope that they don't become even more rare and expensive by that time.

Hi neighbor. Looks like you are 94 miles northwest of me. It is a small world. I haven't run into anybody in my neck of the woods that collects retro computers. I guess it takes a certain kind of person. There are so many I would love to have and it hurts me to know that so many have just been thrown away.

Thanks. Sounds like I want one. Lucky for you I am on a spending freeze for a bit. You won't get any competition from me.