Imperious

You can still use a normal electrolytic capacitor, You just have to bend one of the legs all the way back over to the hole on the other side. Use heat shrink if You want for extra protection.

The F18a does not output audio, so You still need an Audio cable connected to the rear A/V connector. Modding the RF unit is a waste of time when the outputs You want are direct from the A/V output.

You fella's are absolute geniuses

Thanks for the replies, here is the .dsk file attached.. Rockrun.dsk

Hi All, For starters I know why the game won't run, which is because I do not have a genuine EA Cart, but have tried with the EA II and other utils like funnelweb to no avail. The same behaviour is reproduced in Classic 99. Works fine with a genuine EA cart in Classic 99 of course. It would be wonderful if someone talented could come up with either a fix for the non-genuine EA II cart (on a Jon Guidry 64k eprom board), or a load file that works with Extended basic. It's a bit of a shame that I can't try this on the real hardware. I'm unlikely to ever get a real EA cart, and I'm probably not the only one here that can't get this game to run. I like Boulderdash type games, and this would be nice to play along with a brilliant 3.5k version for my Vic-20 and the c64 version. Maybe I could try converting it to a bin file for use in a 64k board?

I assume it isn't something as silly as You having the Alpha lock key pressed down? I hadn't used a TI for about 27 years so was wondering why "up" didn't work in games, then I realised You have to have the Alpha lock key in the up position, which is something that I had forgotten completely from all those years ago. This is with a joystick of course.

Thanks for the reply. Definitely one to look forward to..

I will be interested in a UberGrom board at some point for sure but have a few questions 1. Any idea of a price? 2. Will it be end user programmable?, I do have a eprom burner 3. Will I be able to order a blank pcb and build it myself?

I am just posting this in case anyone else found that burning the already made up bin file from this website failed http://home.vodafonethuis.nl/fgkaal/Modules/mod_edas2.html#edas_2 This was one of the 1st eproms I burned after putting together one of the v0.3c Jon Guidry boards. The menu came up no probs, then just rebooted back to the boot screen. Tested on Classic99 too, same there. Anyway, I just joined up the individual files manually and all is good. Apologies to the website Author but there is no way to contact anyone. Unless I have missed something obvious with regards to the "complete module" file, this is just a heads up so it hopefully can get fixed.

Get a download manager that opens up multiple connections to the file at once, provided their system allows that. I use Jdownloader, which is javascript based. On a good Cable internet day, I have gotten 10 mB/s downloading vids from Youtube, as I had 11 connections open to the file at the same time. http://jdownloader.org/ OK, EDIT that. I tried with jdownloader, it doesn't work due to security from epson website. Manually It said less thaqn 3 minutes to go from the start so You must of had a crappy connection to their website, or their website was rubbish at the time.

I have one of those converters that I use for my Commodore's via the S-video output [vic-20, c64, plus/4, Amiga 500]. They work very well for S-video, unfortunately the composite input to VGA is unuseable and gives a result like that pic on the other thread shows. That is precisely the reason why I bought a F18A, as composite through anything other than a CRT is just atrocious

I'm not that far off a Noob myself. You have to go to a command prompt on Your PC, navigate to the files location. Hope You are familiar with Dos commands. when You are in the right location, do this copy /b rom1.bin+rom2.bin combined.bin The resultant file should be the exact sum of the individual files. Give the combined file whatever name You wish.

The 64k Jon Guidry carts do not work with any games/utils that use Groms, so a lot of games are not possible, like Alpiner and Tunnels of doom. There are a lot of games that are available in .dsk format, which is why I bought a nanoPEB, but that is another topic. You need bin files for the eprom, I have a Willem Clone that programs various sizes. New titles like Arcturus, Roadhunt, Pitfall, TIscramble, TItanium, and many utilities can be burned to an eprom. http://www.hexbus.com/TI-99_4A_Home_Computer_Page/Downloads_and_Links.html The Atari titles will work off an eprom, but to load numerous files onto one eprom You need a loader for titles higher than 8kb, or a way of switching them like a dipswitch. Tursi has menu software that works with 8kb files, but as far as I am aware will not work with titles higher than 8kb.

Thanks for the comments. 1 Day on and I am in Awe of the F18a, absolutely superb quality on my Dell Monitor. Haven't had any issues with the NanoPEB either. I definitely do not think I'll use the cassette port, but have 2 other TI's if I ever felt the need. It wasn't easy drilling those holes as there is only 2.5mm either side of the plastic ends of the cutout to the center of the screw hole. I started with a 1.5mm, then 2mm, next 2.5mm and that was it. Fortunately TI made these out of far better quality plastic than Commodore used on their machines.

As I didn't like the idea of hacking into a perfectly good case, I thought I might try something a bit different. Figuring that I likely will never use the cassette port, I desoldered the connector and spent a fair part of today to achieve this. The shield is still on the mobo, and I did have to file down the hex screws as otherwise the VGA plug wouldn't fit.

I had to paint one of my breadbin c64's as it was full of digs and scratches, retrobrighting it wouldn't help in that case. Painting is not easy either, You really need proper plastic friendly paint as my first attempt never dried properly. I have a Vic-20 that is slightly yellowed, also an Amiga 500. Both are slightly yellowed, I'll give this a go sometime preferably before summer comes here as leaving them out in our summer sun will melt the plastic.

Absolutely 100% I am, and I bet if You do have a rip of Alpiner that loads from disk, there will be quite a few interested peeps. Please upload if possible.

I repaired my TI with a Mitsumi keyboard by repeatedly drawing with a pencil over the area with broken contact on the carbon part of the membrane. The whole thing peels apart to reveal the membrane circuit. What reminded me to try that was how I unlocked an old AMD Duron processor years ago for overclocking purposes. I don't remember anything to do with the Alpha lock key though.

I have mostly given up attempting to convert one of my Ti's to do component video, maybe later. Nothing I have tried there actually gives a signal that the component input of my Capture card can work with. The Ti's implementation of Component video with a TMS9928a or 9929a is obviously a long way from what modern equipment can understand, hardly surprising considering the age of these video chips. I capitulated and Ordered an F18a last Friday and am looking forward to what will be the best picture any of my retro computers has. Next best is the s-video mod I did on my A500 Amiga. Should be fantastic on my 24" Dell. Thanks for the installation tips.

I've been working on a component video mod for mine, with TMS9929anl or TMS9928anl Video processor chips. At the moment I'm waiting on some LM1881 ic's to arrive as the component inputs of my capture card don't like the rubbish vertical sync that the TI produces and the LM1881 ic's do some cleaning up of the signal according to the docs. Horiz sync looks good. If I'm successful I'll share the schematic, if not You won't here about this again. How this relates to this thread is that I cannot stand the rubbish composite output. My vic-20, c64, plus/4 and Amiga 500 have much better quality via s-video. I'll use the TI quite a bit more when I hopefully get this sorted.

Any upgrade is nice obviously, however it's not as though the TI is alone in this respect, only the biggest selling computer of the 80's is in the exact same boat, the c64 of course. Most games across the Vic-20 and c64 have you pressing at least one of the Function keys to select levels, difficulty, start. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but imho this is what sorts consoles from computers, and it's exactly the same 30+ years later. I doubt I could ever get the hang of playing an FPS game with a controller only, and flight sims (not that their popular anymore) had You having massive keyboard reference charts just to play them. Part of the charm of using these old computers is having to use the keyboard, its feels more interactive. Some games were definitely handicapped with one fire button though, Xevious comes to mind there with its separate fire/bomb buttons in the arcade cabinet.

For some reason He doesn't ship overseas.

That's a PAL model that has been dissected there. The great thing about performing Autopsies on old computers is that You can still revive them if they are dead.

That was Jack Tramiel's fault, it was explained in the book "Commodore, a Company on the edge" that He had no understanding of the value of software at that time, the "If you can't see or touch it, it doesn't seem real" kind of mentality. The c64 was sent out as a prototype with basic v2 installed (exactly the same version the vic-20 had) and shown at computer faires at the time, and despite objections from the machine's programmers that v2 basic wouldn't cut it, Jack's mind could not be changed. The PET had a more advanced basic than the c64. Anyway, what to some might be seen as an achilles heel, probably forced programmers to dig deeper to get anything out of it, hence why even to today there is a very active scene for the c64

TMS9918A NTSC 60hz composite output TMS9928A NTSC 60hz component (r-y,b-y,y) output TMS9929A PAL 50hz component output. The component output is not compatible with TV component input, which is unsurprising considering that There were no TV's with a component input in the early 80's