Ksarul

Sometimes, the intent of the post doesn't come through they way it was intended to. Electronic messaging is problematic that way. I usually read my posts a couple of times to try and make sure that it really says what was intended in a way that makes sense to the reader. I don't always succeed either. The earliest demonstration of an UberGROM was in 2012, using the first board revision that exists only in the hands of the three developers. We fiddled with it for a few years to get it really stable and to develop some comprehensive documentation for it. We met our design goals--and the huge number of TI cartridges that never existed in physical format (but which do as UberGROM images now, thanks to the efforts of @acadiel, @Gazoo, and others), were actually the main driver for this board on my part. I am eternally grateful to @Tursi for the work he did to develop the software and to @acadielfor the comprehensive testing he did along the way. Both became my good friends as the project progressed, and I am really glad to have been able to spend in-person time with both of them at various Chicage Faires. Your intent was definitely good--and knowing what has been done with it may inspire others to do their own thing with it too.

Turtles has also been getting pictures of things I've been digging out as part of a rearrangement down in my basement lair. . .every time a new thing comes to light, he temporarily pillages it for a photo session.

And the label on Rabbit Trail is one that we recreated to replace a really gnarly one that came with the cartridge. . .

I'll try and go through all of these tomorrow. Yes--there are some interesting differences that make sense to be opposite (I think TI was taking a signal that was considered to be a normal low and inverting it to get a high input)

I have plenty of my own disks, so getting it to a floppy isn't an issue--and since I build lots of cartridge boards, if the disk also has the cartridge binary on it, you can be sure I'll make a test cartridge to play with (and I'll definitely want the final version of the cartridge to go with the three or so sets I want to buy).

I will need at least three of these--and the price is more than acceptable.

The SST Expanded BASIC Compiler is exactly what it says it is--a compiler for a subset of Extended BASIC. The weird Sideport adapter looks like a nice one-off to rotate the keyboard foot to a vertical position, probably to make if fit on a narrower desk without hanging over the edge. I suspect the cable is a monitor cable. . .

I've been able to download both in Firefox--and they both open with Acrobat Reader.

Notice one important reference that will continue through a lot of the documentation: Product 156. That number links everything (a lot of things for the 99/4A went by Product 360).

If you post the equations for the other three TI cards, I can look those over as well. . .

I just looked at the RS-232 equations. Outputs O13, O14, and O15 are correct. O16, O17, and O18 are half right. There are two separate sets of logical conditions for each of these last three outputs (an OR state), and the equation only identifies the first one. See page 5-16 of the document I linked to earlier. Note also that TI expected the input to be active low for some of the signals, so you have to pay attention to the states on those inputs/outputs in the document.

If Ed doesn't locate a console/speech synthesizer/power supply, I may be able to find one in the stack my son was looking at earlier this week. . .

I have one of the two Hex-Bus Interfaces Michael completed. The inside wiring is a work of art.

His initial listing failed to get a bidder at $1500. He immediately upped the price to $2499 on subsequent listings and it has languished there ever since.

Actually, there is no serial number on the case. The only reference to one is on the presentation tag, which is not attached to the case. Based on that tag, the case was also probably presented as a gag. The "No-Lockup Home Computer" makes sense in that context, as it is not possible for the empty case to lock up (and based on the test sheet on the 99/4 in the auction, lockups were common problems). The machine in the auction is NOT a Dimension of any kind. It is a TI-99/4 motherboard in a Dimension case. See the product tag on the bottom (Serial Number 739, which puts it in the same range as the engineering prototype that someone was trying to sell earlier this year). It also includes the test sheet for the machine, which shows it was built in July of 1979 (the year isn't on the sheet, but the chips on the board will confirm the year). I have brought this to the seller's attention. There are a lot of signs to show that it isn't a Dimension. The side port shows resistors behind the copper protective fingers--on a Dimension mother board, thee are no components in this area. The channel selection slide switch (3-4) on the left hand side of the console is completely missing. It has a Joystick connector on the left side--a Dimension expects the handheld units and has no standard Joystick connector. The video connector is a standard five-pin DIN connector, but that is where the Dimension has the video modulator connection. The second video connector opening (for a monitor) is completely blocked by the motherboard shield. The connection point for the IR receiver is blocked by the metal shield. The secondary expansion port a the back of the console is not present (and does not exist on standard 99/4 boards but is present on all Dimension boards). The mother board is a single board in this machine--not a mother board with a processor and component daughter board as would be found in a Dimension. It has a standard TI power plug connection. The internal power supplies on the Dimension prototypes had a cable leading out that hole, connected directly to the external power supply--no connector is present. The IR handset and receiver are nice--but I seriously doubt anyone will buy that lot for anything close to the price he's asking. I made a best offer for approximately the real value of the lot and was rebuffed by the automatic rejection method on eBay. Just because only one of something survives does not make it extremely valuable--the size of the market (and the ability of that market's collectors to pay) determines value, something he hasn't quite internalized yet, based on the price he wants. The complete Dimension 4 I have cost barely more than a tenth of his asking price in open auction earlier this year. The complete board set I have for one cost me the princely sum of $20, again, in open auction. These are the only Dimension 4 items in the wild outside of the items he has here. I wish him luck on his attempted sale, but I am pretty sure he has completely misjudged the ability to pay and the desire of the community for these items. The most expensive TI-99 related prototype item ever sold went for about $3,500, and it was a complete 99/8 with functional p-Code components. That has a lot more community interest, as it can actually be used. The IR set can only be used with a Dimension--and the only Dimension owner out there (me) isn't going to bite at anything near his price. Maybe some collector will want to buy it and disappear it into a collection of things he can't use, but not at that price. . .

I'm glad you like it. Restoring that one was a lot of slow work, as the original was nearly illegible at various points.

I'm pretty sure it is one of the Pyuuta cartridges I modified for the Geneve a few years ago using Barry Boone's translation method.

Here's a link to the document on WHT. My original copy was pretty gnarly, as it was a very late-generation photocopy, so I retyped the entire thing before I uploaded it in 2009. It has the equations for the RS-232, P-Code, 32K, and Disk Controller cards, along with the pin assignments for each of the PALs.

There are two versions of Forth that run on the Geneve. One is by Mike McCann (and used with The Printer's Apprentice, The Geometer's Apprentice, and HQ Stacks), the other is Forth+ by Bill Sullivan. It was a further development of Mike's version, IIRC, and Mike's was a further development of TI Forth.

In the case of the TI cards, the original JEDEC equations are available in several of the documents on WHT (I put them there many years ago). That should give you a good comparison set to verify the four TI cards in your list.

I think I would need a larger tank to do a keyboard frame--and I'd still need a good printed one to use to make some molds. I've been digging in my basement and came across my molding tank this weekend. . .

I forgot that you had to have a Google account to actually post in the chat stream, so I just got to watch the Faire without commenting. Good job everyone! I enjoyed it!

Even now it shows that there was minimal difference between the TI code and the Tomy code, Klaus. Excellent comparison work!

One of our fellow users here on AtariAge (@OX.) built a wonderful TI Gamebase. I'm not sure what the current download link is though, as it is a big file and it moves around.

I'm pretty sure that Klaus, Ciro, and I are the insane TI-99 documentation archivers.