Ksarul

Here's a link showing a lot of the possible cables to connect the TI-86 to a PC or MAC. http://www.ticalc.org/hardware/cables/

Do note that the FM formats are 90K/180K (SSSD and DSSD), so there are some differences from PC formats--and the 16-sector DD format only gives you 160K/320K (SSDD and DSDD). Many thanks for the response.

TI-99/4As used FM (40 tracks, 9 sectors/track, 256 bytes each, single or double sided), or MFM (40 or 80 tracks, 16 or 18 sectors/track, 256 bytes each, single or double sided) using WD1771, 1772, or 1773 controller chips. The Cortex used MFM (40 or 80 tracks, 18 sectors/track, 256 bytes each, single or double sided) using TMS9909 controller chips.

I'd like to see it work with the TI-99/4A disks too. They have a pretty big community dedicated to software preservation. My real edge case would be with a Powertran Cortex though--but there are probably less than 100 of those left in the world. . .

Das war Gut, Michael! Vielen Dank! (That was good, Michael! Many thanks!)

They will surface as soon as we isolate a minor issue in the layout (the assembled boards work fine when they work but sometimes they don't--and the problem appears to be some type of capacitive resonance issue). As soon as we remove the problem, the boards will be available. I still have about 20 blanks of the current board revision for experimentation. I sent Fred Kaal a couple (via Berry Harmsen) for him to play with in an effort to speed up the troubleshooting process, as he will bring a new pair of eyes to the problem.

It looks like you just had the typical electrolytic capacitor drying out and exploding when power was applied, now that I look at the picture. It looks like it was the bleeder cap for the voltage regulators--and those are often 100uF. I suspect that all you will need to do is replace the cap and it will work fine. . .

I never saw schematics for that one published anywhere--though you might want to ask Harald Glaab or Juergen Stelter. And @Willsy, the CPS99 was a sidecar device from a German hardware company (Atronic) that made a lot of RS-232, DSDD controller, and 32K cards for the PEB. The CPS99 had all of these functions integrated into a nice little sidecar that also had the floppy drives in it, and wasn't much bigger than a regular floppy case. The closest US equivalent was the Myarc MPES50, which did all the same things but was also a lot chunkier (I have an MPES50, but not a CPS99). Atronic also did some single-function sidecar devices (I've seen a 32K and an RS-232--and have both).

Peace, people, Peace! I respect all of you--but we need to try for a bit more civility, please! And I LOVE all three of my F18As (which I still need to get updated)! Thank you Matthew--and I'm glad I met you at Chicago too.

Looking at the list, it contains all of the Not-Polyoptics releases, all of the Norton releases, some stuff from Oak Tree Systems (the Display Enhancement Package), some CSI Design Group stuff, some Miller's Graphics stuff, and a few others that I don't remember the original US sources for. It also has a lot of titles that didn't come from one of those sources, which makes them the ones to really look for, as many of the ones which also had US sources are available already.

On the downstairs bathroom thing--I've seen that a few times before, mostly in Germany. You think it's bad in a building--try approaching the natural enemy of a drunk when it is between you and the facilities on something that's moving! Some of the tour boats on the Potomac are built that way--and serve alcohol. . .

I'm in a couple of the pictures--one of which looks truly bizarre (my eyes appear closed as I'm showing a Wiesbaden Supermodul II to the audience). I knew I was a bit zombified that day, but that photo proves it!

I've got a good copy of that one, Ernie. I'll get you the scans sometime later this week. Any other book things you need, just ask and I'll try and get them scanned for you.

Ack! The first site appears to be offline from here. . .I hope someone has a downloaded copy of the manual, just in case it doesn't reappear. I tried again this morning and it downloaded promptly (it took about 10 seconds). Thanks for the link!

Excellent! It looks like this one is finally reaching completion (does the 379 cart builder work with the 378 cartridges too, or will it need a modification for that?). I only ask because the most recent boards you have are 378-based on the ROM side. . .

I haven't seen anything directly Marble-Madness-Like, but Diablo would probably be the closest, and it is a really distant match.

@Virios That looks suspiciously like a Hex-Bus Interface or late-model Speech Synthesizer case. Did you buy one of the cases Ernie Pergrem was selling a couple of years back or did you find one somewhere else? In any event, it does make a very nice addition to the side of the console. How did you connect it up internally? That would be a very nice project to have documented.

Boulder Dash=Rock Runner. The version titled Boulder Dash was for the Mini Memory (making it one of the great reasons to have that cart) and sold by Legio Computing Centre in Holland. Asgard asked the Eric LaFortune if he could port it over to the E/A environment so that they could sell that version in the US. As Chris Bobbitt was worried that the name would cause copyright issues, he also asked Eric to change the name. Eric pops in here now and again, though he hasn't posted in a long while. He's a nice guy that I talked to several times while I was in Europe long ago.

You might just want to ask Eric Bray over on the OLUG that question. He maintains several Multiplan templates for the TI.

That would fit with a useful term I learned several decades ago: Mung, which is short for Modify Until No Good. . .

Rasmus, my only weird question on Stargames: I wonder if they have permission from Jaime to reproduce his devices--or if they just purchased them from him in bulk quantities? Since Jaime rarely produces more than a few at a time, I'm suspecting they are building them on their own (this is not a hit on them either here, just a question that popped up in my mind when I looked at their site, since it didn't specify).

The IDE card would be functionally identical to the Nouspikel card--but it would use through-hole components. No SMT, which would make repairs/troubleshooting a lot easier. I also plan to put dual connectors on the back so that folks have the option of connecting a small CF/IDE board directly to the tab sticking out or running a cable to either an IDE drive or a CF/IDE box. Note that the tab would be able to power a CF combination directly (yes, there will be a 4-pin connector there, but it won't carry 12V and the 5V is strictly for low-power applications, so no direct connection to IDE hard drives). And I would make more than one of the RXB carts--assuming Rich gave me permission to do so. I'd even put them in new-manufactured cartridge cases using my case molds.

One note on the SAMS: Mike Dudeck of Tex*in Treasures did a new run of them a few years ago, and I believe he still has them available. Just send a question to MDUDE on eBay to ask him to put one of them up for auction. I believe he sells them in both kit and complete form. For that matter, the necessary files to get your own made are up on the SWPB group's files section, IIRC. Dan Eicher and I did a short run of 8 of them before Mike made his. It is possible to get them, all of the parts are readily available, and it is a relatively straightforward build. In truth, there are only a small number of truly valuable TI expansion peripherals (note I exclude a lot of routine, useful items from this list just because they are necessary to a standard expanded system, and not because I don't find them to be useful). The really short list would be GRAM devices (all types), the SAMS, 80-Column cards (only the 9938/9958 devices, as I have to exclude the Foundation 80 Column card (does anyone other than me even have one of these anymore?) due to rarity and the fact that it is monochrome), and the F18A. Hard disks and RAM disks are great too--but they are primarily for storage, and don't allow programmers to push the bleeding edge of the possible with our machines (but they do help to keep all of the data a programmer needs connected to the machine while they work). Note I also exclude the NANO PEB/CF7 devices from my short list--and I own several of them too. They are a great user device, but they don't wxpand the realm of the possible for the programmer. The same goes for adding a Lotharek CF drive--they are nice to use, but don't push the programming envelope. The SAMS finally has enough utility support to make it very useful, so much so that it is now usable with the newest version of RXB (thanks, Rich) by anyone who wants to write truly humongous BASIC programs. This will actually let me port a program back to the TI from my Geneve once I have the free cycles (it lets me generate 1st Edition AD&D characters quickly and without error). Cartridges are great too--and that's why I worked on the various extensions of the format with Jon and Tursi. Like the SAMS, cartridges having 512K (plus about 128K of GROM) to fill gives the programmers our community is blessed with a lot of possibility. Bottom line, please don't knock it because you don't see a use for it yourself--I like ALL of the TI hardware I own (and I own more obscure items than most folks have EVER heard of). Everything built gives new capabilities and spurs programmers to do more with our systems--it is just that some of those hardware items are more equal than others when it comes to adding capabilities. The one thing that most folks forget is that new capabilities hardware-wise cost money, sometimes a lot of it. A good, 9938-based video card will cost upwards of $180 to build--and that is just the PARTS. Could it be built into an FPGA-type board? Maybe yes--maybe no. It depends on the device used and how much additional logic is required to put the necessary memory on the board (similar to what the TIM did, with an FPGA replacing the 9938). Postle assembled half a dozen of the IDE cards--and tried to sell them at his cost ($250) and met with much resistance because those who wanted them decided that the cards cost too much to buy. When the hardware IS available, our community balks at the price if it is more than about $75. Not many things can be built for less than that, so many good ideas wither on the vine. Marc Hull went to a lot of trouble to develop his SID Master card (I helped with the layout), but finds few buyers even when selling the cards at a LOSS. It is a wonderful thing that brings over 8,000 pieces of music from the Commodore 64 over to the TI and makes it possible to add some really interesting music to TI software too--but only a dozen or so have been sold (I doubt it is over 20 so far), and that is unfortunate. It is a nice, useful device, easily worth $75-$100, but which struggles to sell for $45-$55. I'm working on a through-hole layout for the IDE board too--and I don't expect that more than 20 people will buy one, even as a bare board sold at cost. Will I still do it? Yes--because I am committed to furthering the TI community. There are others who have that kind of committment too. Rich can be a bit brusque and monomaniacal when it comes to showcasing RXB--but he's DOING something to further the community. I respect that. I really want to burn a copy of the newest RXB into one of my 512K boards, just to see that expansion of BASIC where it truly belongs--in a real cartridge. Tursi, Marc, Jon, Rasmus, Willsy, Ox, Walid, Postle, Kevan, Fred Kaal, Michael Zapf, Dan Eicher, Bob Carmany, Jaime Malilong, Ernie Pergrem, Hal Shanafield, Tim Tesch, Bill Gaskill, Tom Wills and many others are doing the same, all in different ways. That is community, and I love being part of that community. We end up destroying more ideas with infighting and pooh-poohing than I care to count--when the real goal is to encourage and refine the idea to make it even better than the originator thought it could be. Look at the interaction that went into the development of Scramble--that was a beautiful collaboration between programmer and user community. We need more of that. Lots more!

This is truly an outstanding set of scans! Many thanks for the effort!

Scott Foresman color coded a lot of their cartridges to make it easy for teachers to use them in school--with different cartridges in a series using different colors. A really good example are the three combined game modules (Module A, Module B, and Module C) One was Red, one was Green, and one was Yellow in their original production incarnations (later runs used regular black cases, and I've seen Yellow used for at least two of them, so they weren't always consistent). That told the teacher at a glance that the student was using the right one, without needing to disturb the student to get a closer look at the screen. Most of the color cases I've seen from Scott Foresman came in sturdy library cases--not boxes, and came with manuals that were burnt orange print on a white background.