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majestyx

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Posts posted by majestyx

  2. Posted

    So I have the cables now but I don't have a TS-DOS ROM. Is there any way to send programs to the machine without it, or is the ROM chip required? And if I do need the ROM chip, does anyone have one for sale or know where I can get one? If not, it looks like I'm right back where I started.

  3. Posted

    I would argue the Apple II is only better for early and mid 80s RPGs. The C64 got sequels like Curse of the Azure bonds that did not get Apple ports. You also got things like Times of Lore on the C64, which the Apple did not get, etc.

     

    Overall in regard to graphics I would almost take the Apple II's faster disk access over the more graphical C64 (Might and Magic, Might and Magic II, Pool of Radiance, etc. all look better on a C64).

     

    Actually, both of those games were released for the Apple ][:

     

    http://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/curse-of-the-azure-bonds/cover-art/gameCoverId,169637/- 128K required

    http://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/times-of-lore/cover-art/gameCoverId,120918/- 64K required

     

    I remember the old C64 joke from when I was in high school (mid-80s):

     

    Did you hear about the new 3-speed C64 disk drive?

    Yeah - slow, slower and slowest.

  4. Posted

     

     

    You did (and I did) but you cannot now as stated in the previous post. I found it very unfortunate and was able to get ByteBoosters and Console5 together to continue getting these projects to the masses. I am really glad and grateful I could help. I bought the 8MB expansion on a whim on ebay a while back, was really impressed and purchased the sound card. Asked Alex if he had any other projects up his sleeve and then found someone was threatening him through ebay about selling/importing the products. That is when I decided to try to help him. I do what I can when it comes to good homebrew developers.

     

    It doesn't seem to matter how small a niche market there is for something, someone will come along on ebay and try to ruin it for everyone. Glad to see you were able to help them out.

  6. Posted

    ACS was pretty cool at the time, but overall, it was kind of clunky. I had it on the Apple ][ and Amiga, but found creating decent "adventures" (more accurately RPGs, but when it came out, RPG wasn't really the terminology used) to be quite tedious. Still, the random dungeon generator definitely helped me kill many hours of playing time back in the day.

     

    I loved a game called Xyphus by Penguin/Polarware, even though it played very slowly on a regular Apple ][. I was lucky enough to own a Laser 128EX which could be sped up to 3 MHz. Never got to complete it, but definitely spent many hours playing that one as well. Not sure which was the original platform, Apple of C64.

     

    Trillium/Telarium's Shadowkeep was another one that really looked cool but was dreadfully slow to the point of being nearly unplayable in 1 MHz mode, not to mention its ridiculous copy protection that even made playing with original disks difficult. No idea if the original platform was the Apple though.

     

    Good times and great memories~!

  8. Posted

    Yup at this point that is the case. I have had good luck with a null modem cable and my pc using laddiealpha as a drive emu. Also there is an android app that some are using that requires a special adapter and usb rs232 cable

     

    Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

     

    What would be the best way to set this up for a PC without a serial connector, only USB (or is that not possible)? I'm still confused as to whether it needs a specially wired null modem cable, or if any one will do. I'd appreciate any guidance you can provide, thanks!

  9. Posted

    To me, the ZX Spectrum Next should be the model for all classic computer recreations to follow. Basically, it provides close to 100% backwards compatibility with the additions of key modern conveniences. The catch is, not every classic gaming community could fund such an effort for their platform of choice. I'm skeptical if the TI community could.

     

    I would have to say that's the cold hard truth. The ZX Spectrum Next reached its funding goal in a day and had gone to more than double what they original wanted, with add-ons for each additional level beyond the goal, not to mention over 2400 people having made contributions. While the TI forum on here may be the most active, it's a very small base of users, at least based on how many post.

     

    As far as whether or not a new machine would actually be a TI-99/4A - well, the PC is still with us after being introduced in 1981 but due to its evolution over time, it's nothing like it was 36 years ago. In fact, you need emulation to run software from back then. That being said, I suppose it's a matter of what people are looking for in a new machine - as realistic to the original, some modifications, advances on the technology... some combination of all of these?

     

    And as for the TI-99/8 - while I think we'd all love to see that could have been, once it's made, what do you do with it? What software is available that you can use from day one? How many people are going to develop for it once it's released? And how many people would actually buy it and at what price? From what I've seen, it's an emulated system in MAME but how many people actually even use that FREE program to do anything 99/8 related?

     

    I voted YES mainly because the machines that are still available are still over 30+ years old and will eventually wear out. I'd love a dedicated solution along the lines of an RPi that could act as a TI-99/4A with add-ons built-in such as expanded memory, F18A capability, speech, access to cartridges/disc/cassette images via SD card, an acceleration option - pretty much what Classic99 can do on a PC. But that's only MY vision of what I'd personally prefer. I prefer less clutter now that I'm getting older and not having to insert cartridges, worrying about diskettes getting damaged, drives dying, and all the other headaches of add-on hardware. Having everything (or almost everything) in one little box would be ideal for me... but I know that others probably have a completely different vision than my own.

    • Like 2

  10. Posted

    Just an update - I emailed Ken at the email address provided on the Club 100 website on May 8th and haven't heard back so my guess is that the REX is likely no longer available or the email address may have been abandoned since it didn't get bounced back to me. Here's hoping that it may eventually be remade.

  11. Posted

    I know what you mean Omega. I received it and in the closet it went after I took it out and had a look at it (and the mandatory TI addendum sheets). Will wait for a storage device for it before I'm likely to take it out again, sad to say, although I'm not sorry I bought it. Kinda cool to have a device that old in brand new condition.

  14. Posted

    To your final, un-numbered point of why the TI didn't catch on with the developers - I think you've inadvertently explained why some of the TI versions of arcade games were so much better than most of the computers/consoles of the era. It's because the programmers who did program for it were pretty much starting from scratch, with the graphics chip being the one thing the TI had in common with the ColecoVision, which was pretty much the top of the line machine back in 1982. While I still prefer the CV version of Q*bert over any other edition (not including the arcade original of course), that's mostly due to it's control method which was a 90 degree shift from how the TI's joystick operates. I still can't play the TI version for any length of time due to how used to the CV edition I am. But compare games like Popeye, Frogger, most of the Atarisoft titles, as well as the Imagic titles (Microsurgeon being a real standout, as well as the more-like-Phoenix-than-Demon Attack) to their console editions, and I think most people would admit that they look and play much better thanks to some high-quality programming for a somewhat alien machine when compared to the 6502 and Z80 powered ones. Also, even the numerous versions of the popular arcade games of the day made by independent companies are quite impressive too, to say nothing of more recent homebrews which show what can still be done on this old piece of hardware.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    MillipedeMan,

     

    Sounds like the same place. They had a lot of around 35 of them for sale at a Buy It Now Price of $40 and change, including shipping, so I figured, why not? I figured someone will eventually figure out a way to store stuff for this thing (or should I say hope?).

     

    On the opposite end of the spectrum, I only recently realized I had a Tandy Model 102 which I bought in the early 90s at an auction but never knew what it was. I think it was included in a box lot of computers which included a C64. When I looked online to see if there was any info available on it, I found out that some years back there was a pretty dedicated following for it. So instead of being ahead of the game with the CC-40, it looks like I missed the boat on a storage solution for it since the Model 100 website looks to have given up the ghost with no updates in nearly 5 years. I posted a message on the Tandy Computer forum here, but so far, no response.

  17. Posted

    ElectricLab,

     

    Your experience is very similar to my own. In fact, it appears we're about the same age. I got my TI a little less than a year earlier than you did (I was in 8th grade which is the reason I remember when I got it) for the same reasons - very little money and a buddy of mine already had one. It definitely gave me a leg up when they introduced computer programming courses in high school, having gone through the Beginner's BASIC book numerous times as well as trying out the numerous commands in the User's Reference Guide, typing in the few programs that COMPUTE! would publish along with a book or two of type-in programs led me to program my own simple programs which are now lost forever. Good times, for certain!

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    I found this on TI's own website:

     

    http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/thinkinnovate/archive/2013/12/01/these-ti-toys-remind-us-why-we-re-all-kids-at-heart

     

    The part I found amusing was the info posted about the 4A:

     

    "The 1980s marked the first time anyone could consider a computer as a toy. Until then, computers graced the campuses of universities and technical companies, but a computer at home was a rare luxury. In 1981, TI introduced the 99/4A, the first 16-bit personal computer designed to out-perform other 8-bit computers in the market. Equipped with a 13-inch video color monitor, it used plastic plug-in modules of read-only memory containing games like Donkey Kong, Frogger and TI Invaders. Other plug-in modules could be used for personal finance and educational programs."

     

    Let's see, did it REALLY out-perform other 8-bit computers in the market? And wasn't the TI-99/4 actually their first one with a 16-bit processor?

     

    Was it really equipped with a 13-inch video color monitor? Sure, if you felt like paying $399.95 retail for it (based on TI's June-December 1982 Suggested Retail Price List)

     

    And irony of ironies - DONKEY KONG? You mean, by Atarisoft, the company whose cartridges you redesigned the computer to lock out?!

     

    • Like 6

  21. Posted

    George,

     

    Have you had any success contacting Ken from Club 100? I'm interested in getting a REX for my Model 102 but if he's not responding to emails or if it isn't available anymore, I won't bother to send an email to the address listed on the Club 100 website which hasn't been updated in about 5 years. Thanks for any info you can provide.

  22. Posted

    Yes, I'd be happy to pay for an assembled one, so if enough people are interested in a storage solution for the CC-40, it might motivate the right person to have them available for purchase. And indeed, a memory expander would also be another excellent addition. I saw on the hexbus.com page a 16K RAM expansion cart and a 32K "constant memory cart" which might provide clues on how to go about making that possible.

     

    Thanks for the links and info!

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    So I had some ebay bucks which were about to expire and found a new-in-box TI CC-40 which ended up costing me $30 delivered out of pocket. Is it safe to assume there is still no way to save/load anything to this machine and unless you get a hold of the few hard-to-find cartridges that were available for it, it's pretty much an interesting conversation piece but not something one will get much use out of? I'm guessing that is the case, but figured it was worth asking once again.

  24. Posted

    In all the time I've been visiting the TI pages here on AtariAge, I never paid attention to the other platforms under the Classic Computing section. I really got a shock when I saw that the TI section is the most active by far with over 90,000 posts, with the next highest post count being less than 7000 for the Apple ][ series. So indeed, the subject of this topic is no joke and the video of this year's Fest West was an absolute treat. I wholeheartedly echo other member's sentiments. Never would I have thought that this platform would still have such an amazing following and user support so many years after its release. Bravo to everyone for all the amazing developments that are still ongoing for one of the earliest orphaned platforms in computing history.

    • Like 3
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