FarmerPotato

Not speaking for Matt, but I realized that TI doesn't have a DIP for SN74LVC245A (there is a 244) which I chose to go between 5V bus and 3.3V chips (my FORTI project).

Thanks, I will read that. I began with your fbForth 2.0 manual Dictionary Entry discussion, and started to write my own decompiler from there. Spent most of last Thursday on that. When I think I understand how TI FORTH works, I will go back to the present and continue looking at the ARM assembler inner interpreter for MeCrisp FORTH (I spent most of January and February on that!) -erik

Good news: David Olson located a SSSD disk of FORTI card demos. It contained the Bach BWV 578 Fugue in G Major ("Organ"), Ricercar (unknown) (12 voices), and Chariots of Fire (12 voices). As I remembered, the 12 voice tunes sound awful on a plain TI-99/4A (well, Classic99.) Unfortunately, it is only the binaries in the first 90 screens of the disk. The second 90 screens containing the source were never copied! The compiled dictionary lacks most of the FORTI compiling words and what is does contain doesn't fully match the documentation (it lacks some note and duration words). Perhaps it was an early demo. I believe this disk was demoed at the Lubbock TIUG around 1984 when there was an active FORTH SIG. My goal is to recreate the FORTI composition system, if that means decompiling the FORTI music demo from binary or recreating from scratch. I started decompiling the binary. Really learning how FORTH works, finally! I found Rene LeBlanc's FORTH-DISASM in my old floppies, and looked around in the FORTH interpreter. I am paying this shareware fee, though it is 30 years since I received this disk. Meanwhile, David and I converted 160 disks (the first box out of 3) of the Milwaukee Area TIUG library to DSK format, using Kryoflux. Owen Brand had received the MATIUG library from Ted Z and brought it over. Among 16 FORTH disks (10% of the first box of disks!), I found copies of the TI FORTH source distribution, and several disks of games or utilities including FORTH DECOMPILER - BERG/WERNECKE. That will be useful. A surprise I did not expect was to find my name E.Olson on FORTH code from 1984 on Disk #103. This must have been printed in a Lubbock TIUG newsletter and typed in by a Milwaukee member! (There is still some cleanup to do on these disks, because 30 had at least one bad sector. But I understand Owen has two full sets of disks from the library, so those disks must be checked.)

You were lucky that the Vectrex attended in the same year as you I first went in 2005 and played Minestorm. A lot. For me it was the first time I'd seen a system outside of a magazine ad and comp.sys.vectrex. I got a shout out in a message on Yahoo as "minestorm guy". Vectrex have been on again, off again since then on the Museum floor. They are also rare in the vendor hall. I think there was one on Friday night. They do sometimes appear, working or not, and sell fast for $200 and up. I saw the Color Vectrex. I didn't have time to stop and play it. (I also had no time for Space Duel... same guilty pleasure... But I did play Cosmotrons! If you like Minestorm you'll see why.) Heck, they claim there were 1000s of games. I played only a handful: 3D Pong (mechanical). VideoBrain Gladiator. Magnavox Odyssey Escape.

I'm working on a Verilog 9902. The idea is to provide CRU bus compatibility with existing TI-99/4A software that writes directly to the 9902. It's easy to add a large ring buffer behind it. Once it's virtualized, there's many uses for it. You would use any TI-99/4A terminal program. One port can access an internal device console. Another port can be routed to the outside world through a USB adaptor. An actual RS232 DB25 connector is kind of the last thing on my mind.

I haven't had Symantec issues since I switched to Borland.

Bit of a TI FORTH summit happening late nights at Midwest Gaming Classic. We will be sure to check out Camel FORTH! Thursday: Tour Yerkes Observatory, namesake of YERK (i.e. MOPS) OO FORTH on the Mac II. Friday: set up TI FORTH exhibit, fbFORTH cartridge. Scan pile of newfound old floppies for any lost FORTH code! First public demo of FORTi sidecar. mini-hackathon. Write a game in FORTH! (My other exhibits include TI LOGO on the original 99/4, games on the F18A, Geneve 9640.) Saturday: talk about FORTH to anyone who will listen as ten thousand folks walk through exhibit hall. We will also play with the TI LaunchPad MSP430FR33 running FORTH variants.

I advocate doing everything in FORTH. If you want to experiment with low level features like writing to VDP for sprites or Bitmap mode, it's interactive. As a teenager, I went that route. FORTH was my second language after BASIC. But constructing large programs in FORTH, especially main loops, was beyond me. All I did was (bitmap mode) circle drawing routines and typing up code to make bitmap images drawn on graph paper. I ended up adding bits of assembly to my Extended Basic programs (draw lots of graphics, scroll, do RS232 communications) until I was comfortable migrating everything to assembly. If I had stuck with FORTH, I might have learned to structure things better. The thing that bugs me about FORTH now is how to package a program for delivery. I think folks just want to download one file and run it.. TI FORTH has blocks (entire disk image) and other FORTHs have multiple files. I'm not sure how to transition a FORTH game into the cartridge space either (at the very least this would still require 32k RAM expansion.)

I just tested two working PHP1800 sidecar disk controllers with original TI external (single sided) floppy drive. What model# of drive do you have in the P-Box?

I did not see that at first, but it is obvious now. The photos were texted to me and I looked at them on my phone. I have some 2564s for use with the TI EPROM programmer, but I also had an adapter for 2764 that Nick Hulbert put together. -Erik Olson

David Olson found this example of the TI Double Density controller card prototype. This one uses two TMS2532 eproms and the NEC upd765 double density controller chip. I believe this is the card nicknamed "Lewisville" after the TI office in Lewisville, TX. Back in the day, a Front Range 99'er newsletter editor relied on a Lewisville card and we had an interesting time exchanging files on floppy. I'll have the card at Midwest Gaming Classic. Maybe we will do some elementary troubleshooting on it. Any supporting information is welcome. NEC Datasheet: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/f/f3/UPD765_Datasheet_OCRed.pdf

I learned that Apple //gs users are in the same situation. Here is a circuit with LM1881 to connect an Apple //gs to a Samsung 710. (Borrowed from MSX!) http://www.apple2faq.com/knowledgebase/15khz-compatible-monitors/ I'm going to try out an Apple //gs monitor on my Geneve! I still want to get a modern LCD solution though.

Eagerly watching this effort! I need to get a Geneve monitor solution of some kind. I ordered a Samsung Syncmaster 910MP for my Geneve. I am comfortable assembling surface mount, if you reach a kit stage. (is this 0803 discrete components?)

FORTi Background: FORTi was a Pbox card with 4 sound chips. This allowed 12 voices. The supplied FORTH software let you control attack, sustain, tremolo, and use the Periodic noise for bass notes. A demo for 3 voices only was part of the TI FORTH Demo disk. I've been working on a tribute to the FORTi card. I built a FORTi card in hardware. (over two years but.) I scanned all my floppy disks with KryoFlux hoping to find any FORTi software. Alas, I did not find any! We had a demo of the FORTi card at the Lubbock Users Group around 1984. (Our meetings at Texas Tech's 4A lab attracted up to 100 people in summer meetings. Our FORTH Interest Group had a separate meeting.) At one point, I had the original Bach "Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (included in the TI FORTH Demo), Chariots of Fire for 12 voices, and one other disk. These were the versions that show graphical bars for each voice. I do know about the manual from WHTech: http://www.whtech.com/ftp/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Hardware/FORTi%20Music%20Card%20Users%20Manual.pdf I do not think I ever had the original software distribution with the compiling words. I may try to reconstruct it from the manual! Wanted: If anyone has any FORTi disks - compiled songs or source code - I'm very much interested in them. I'm trying to get this project into a showable state by Apr 13. -Erik

I think I heard that remark about MyArt in 1988 or 89. Good for you. In August 1992 I had just started an internship, and I borrowed $200 against my first paycheck to send to Beery for the MDOS buyout. I consider that money well spent.

It's possible that MDOS was not finished because of money. Lou Philips had contracted Paul Charlton to work on a lot of things, and for whatever reason as of Summer 1989 Paul had not gotten paid. To make things worse, there was software piracy. I recall Lou Philips stating that only one customer bought the MyArt+Mouse package, yet Dave Plotzkin's Myart software was widely copied. Paul Charlton had completed the excellent GenAsm package, to sell through Genial (how many copies did that sell?), and I think it was the case that he did not want to do any more work for free. To speculate, by 1992, I think that Lou could only "release" MDOS by raising the money he had contracted to pay Paul. I was fortunate to be mentored by Paul on a number of occasions, starting with his offer of free Xmodem source code. He was generous with his time and expertise. -Erik

Wanted: original 32k sidecar for 99/4 museum display Back in the day, I used all the sidecar peripherals, thanks to TI donating them to Boy Scouts. Alas, I gave those away in 1987. If anyone is willing to share an original 32k sidecar where it will get lots of public exposure and love and run Logo one weekend a year. I'd like to buy one, or even borrow one for Midwest Gaming Classic, Apr 13-16. For the past decade, I've been showing TI-99/4, 4A and TI speaking toys at the Midwest Gaming Classic. It's all hands-on, no machines under glass (excepting the prototype Odyssey), with original owners demoing machines to 15,000 people (with a lot of kids.) My 99/4 exhibit has grown piece by piece. This year it gains a sidecar disk controller and external floppy drive! It's almost ideal. Choice 99/4 console, original 99/4 Color Monitor, dorky Remote Wired Controllers, TI cassette deck, all black cartridges (some of them with anti-theft rings. Accumulating those to make a mock store display!) All I need is a 32k sidecar. Then we can run Logo on the 99/4! New exhibit this year will be an original TI Logo Teachers Manual and a selection of 99er magazines with Logo articles. I am reluctant to use a modern sidecar! FYI, the CF7+ was perfectly compatible with the 99/4. (RS232 would be nice too but I don't do anything with it. I do have the acoustic coupler modem on display.) Just need that 32k! https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/home/

I have my original Geneve, purchased in 1988 and used regularly until 1992. I have a GenMod Geneve, purchased from an elderly Milwaukee UG member, in storage, going on display for Midwest Gaming Classic Apr 13-15 in Milwaukee. I have a Myarc HFDC (Geneve only), with MFM drive. I should start getting ready... I must find a RGB monitor (or run with TI's 13").

Yes, that is consistent with what is documented in the PEB technical Data (old blue manual). RS232 PIO uses an LS251 one-of-eight multiplexer with 3 address bit inputs and the signal CRU_I* enabling the output (tri-state) to drive CRUIN. There is probably a PAL on the card that outputs CRU_I* which isn't documented. I'm concerned about multiple drivers on the bus. MAybe not a big deal as long as the signals settle down on schedule. One strategy might be to capture what the actual RS232 puts out on CRUIN.

I'm trying to understand the CRU read behavior, to determine what goes in a PEB card logic to gate a signal to CRUIN. Memory cycles have MEMEN*, DBIN, WE* signals to gate them, but from what I can tell from the PEB Technical Data, a CRU cycle is defined by the absence of MEMEN*. CRU writes are signaled by CRUCLK* but CRU reads just... fill all the rest of time? I looked at Thierry's RS232 page http://www.unige.ch/medecine/nouspikel/ti99/rs232c.htm but it lacks the black-box logic for CRU_I*, which enables the gate that drives CRUIN. It seems like there is the potential for multiple drivers on CRUIN while A2-A14 are changing. Since address is stable on the falling edge of PHI3*: CRU_I* = NAND(MEMEN*, 10011 == A3-A7), perhaps a latch gated on the rising edge of PHI3. (10011 is >13 for first RS232 card.) Does anyone know what's in the actual CRU_I* or how CRUIN is enabled on a real PEB card? This is for my re-invented FORTI card project. (Yeah I know the original has no CRU.) -Erik

I just received a paper copy of the fbForth manual. Much easier to digest! Lee, thanks for all your work on this. The list of differences with Starting Forth is a gem: I wish I'd had that for TI FORTH in 1984 when some kind engineer gave me that book! I especially enjoyed the chapter on division - T-division and F-division. The example (of the plotter line drawing) answered my question: what application determines if you choose one or the other? Last weekend I spent some time in fbForth and TI FORTH. All of my hobby time has been on various FORTHs this year. -Erik

Scrolling was just one example. I'm thinking of data structures in general, using only VDP RAM.

Is there an XMLLNK or GPLLNK for moving memory? I'll probably inline the VDP routines. What happens on the 9918 if you set up VDPWA and then mix accesses to VPDRD and VDPWD? are there any tricks there?

For a program with not much CPU RAM (yes, for this contest), what's the best way to move data in VDP RAM? For instance, one might write: * VMOVE - move VDP memory * R3 destination vdp memory address * R4 source vdp memory address * R5 length * VMOVE LI R1,@834A BUFFER LI R2,8 BUFFER SIZE VMOV1 MOV R4,R0 BLWP @VMBR MOV R3,R0 BLWP @VMBW A R2,R4 A R2,R3 S R2,R5 JNE VMOV1 RT * Scroll the screen upwards by 1 line SCROLL MOV R11,R10 LI R3,0 TO VDP ADDRESS LI R4,32 FROM VDP ADDRESS LI R5,736 LENGTH BL @VMOVE B *R10 How could you improve on this?

Hi Jim. I'm interested in one board. -Erik