PeBo

Find it and download it... Attack of the Creepers is one of the most impressive multi-screen action/platformers ever released for the TI. Control take a little getting used to (blows me away what they used to pull off with a single red button) because your little dude can do so much (squat/jump/summersault/shoot/sprint/walk) but once you get used to it, all the moves become second nature (a responsive joystick is a MUST). If you like platformers, Junkman/Jumpman, Space Station Pheta and Attack of the Creepers are 3 obligatory titles in your collection.

thx...only ever saw the one released for FR99

I won;t bitch about hardware, since we'll never know what the machine would have been like has it included the 8 bit processor it was designed for. I know that memory cost a fortune in 1978, and that as a result rom space was limited, but the lack of a simple CAT command in TI Basic has always driven me crazy. The idea that you have to either load a little proggie or insert a cartridge for this most basic of disk functions has always driven me crazy. Yes, I know that most folks couldn't afford a disk drive back then, but including the command in Basic would have demonstrated forward thinking.

And of course, that would be correct!

Gonna be rude and not wait for confirmation... #3

that would be Bang Bang Sub. (is there a non corrupt version of it? anyone know??) I believe embedded pictures are stored elsewhere.

I feel your pain brother! I think we've all been there and I can empathize with the frustration of having something that was just working suddenly not work. At least the cable is pretty easy to find and isn't gonna cost you an arm and a leg...I'd try replacing it first, as far as the datasette, any cassette deck with a remote jack will work, or the PC Audio trick is an alternative. Did you just say that you also hooked up a PEB?? Has it got a floppy in it? If so, PM me and I'll fire you off a couple disks filled with ToD games. They're DS, but you can just flip 'em over to access side two. Sure makes it faster to load them (and save) too!

Ah c'mon...If you're going to have a vintage computer hobby, you have to grow a thick skin against the icy stares, stern looks, angered glances and hours (days, weeks?) of stone cold silence! YOU have to live with the knowledge that any day you could arrive home to find the "budgetkeeper" sitting at the dining room table with a newly arrived USPS delivery and a "I thought we had talked about this" look. And after all, what is more important??? Your toys, or your continued financial health? (In my case, it's between my toys and my continued GENERAL health, since she's way bigger than me, but at least being Canadian, we have universal health care, so my injuries don't eat into my TI budget)

a favourite 4A game of mine is 3D-Maze written by Glen Schworak back in '88. It had no enemies to battle and no weapon overlay...it was simply; here's the maze, find your way out (after finding a key, and with luck, a map). Amazingly fast (within the context of the time) through the use of minimalist graphics, my head spins at the possibilities for a raytraced version someday soon. hmmmm...if a section of the megademo resulted in Skyway, could Rasmus' current experiments result in a playable raytraced '3-D Maze' in relatively short order as well? (Kudos to Mr Schworak though, who produced one of the most entertaining and well-conceived early era 3D games for the TI) Question...Are all vintage systems enjoying this wealth of astonishing development?? Because it sure seems we are living in a golden age for TI enthusiasts!

I am looking for an acoustic coupler power supply for the Atari 830 Modem, the TRS80 Interface II Modem, Cat Novation model CAT Novation 490190 modem, or TI-99/4A Phone Modem (part 490267-4). Note I am only looking for a single power supply, all of the listed modems are the same product with cases custom designed for various computer manufacturers. Preference would be for the Ti-99/4A branded modem power supply, or the Cat Novation part #901017 (this was the manufacturer of all of these variants) . Considering that this item no longer suits any real world purpose, I am looking in the $12-$15 US price range max. TIA

Good Lord! I wish there was a polite way to tell people to get real! I pray that some nostalgic fool doesn't see it and assumes it to be a fair price for a 35 year old computer and gets suckered!

Ya I got that cart (w box and manual - albeit it the more common non-flip-front box) in a package deal a couple years ago, and you're correct, it only adds those CALLs to BASIC. (Unless you count the "editor" which basically let's you type in words from the built in vocabulary ("Ready to Start?") and hear them spoken. I paid about $30 US, which might seem high to some, but I was just starting my quest to acquire the complete TI catalog (don't even ask what I paid for Terminal Emulator I !!). I knew I was getting a lame duck cart (I already had XB and assorted variants), but not even I would have paid that price...which translates to $102 Canadian shipped!) I also have the disc based "Text To Speech" which allows you to work with phonemes in XB, which would be kick-a$$ if it didn't have such a huge memory overhead. With it you can use the built in vocabulary AND phonemes in your programs, It would probably be more useful if the routines could used with a SAMS card. Hmmmm maybe with RXB???

Still one of the cooler TI-original arcade games though. Parsec, still holds the crown (Invaders, and Munchman are right up there, but they aren't original) I'd put Slymoid immediately after Parsec(dare I say it) even above Alpiner!

same here...I saw it when it was first listed a couple weeks ago, then when it scrolled off the "newest Listings" page, I just assumed it had sold with minutes. When I saw it on the "ending soonest" this aft, I kicked myself for not mentioning it here sooner.

I was surprised that this ad ("Buy it Now" no less)for a PEB has lasted this long at such a low price. Heck it even got reduced! At first I thought maybe it was in Europe, which would make shipping a tad expensive for North Americans, but nope, it's in California (and even shipping to Canada would only be $80!!) Anyway, there's only 5 hours left, so I thought I'd mention it, since there are always folks around here looking for a PEB...not much in the way of cards with (not even sure if it has a firehose and card) but it's a good start at a decent price if anyone is looking.

I wouldn't lock myself to SSSD disks, since you never know when a DSDD disk controller might cross your path (and if you ever decide to go the route of an HxC drive emulator, a disk controller upgrade should probably be on your wish list. Get DSDD disks now! Sure, you'll only be able to format them SD with a stock TI controller, but you can always write to both sides by flipping over the disk, so no waste there. At least that way, when you're ready to go from 90K to 360K you'll already have a bunch of disks ready to re-format and fill.

Thank you for pointing that out!!

So how about simply setting dip switch functions through XB? Even something simple like a CALL INIT to toggle the emulated scanlines on and off? It would be nice if we lowly basic programmers could have even minimal access to the F18A feature set.

I kinda like em...in fact every disc I have is in a TI sleeve, (only a few being authentic originals sleeves). It's my personal nod to the uniformity that TI tried for in their software packaging. I might agree if the cut and paper tried to perfectly mimic the real thing (originals are on a nearly styrofoam like paper, with curved edge cuts) , but they're not even close except for the graphic design. That being said, if you'd like to send me 40-50 authentic sleeves, I will immediately throw out all my forgeries!!

As mentioned elsewhere, I've been building a collection of F18A / slideshow99 compatible pix using Tursi's little convertor proggy (which is a lot of fun to fiddle with). And so here's a small batch.... I was going to categorize them, but I'm way too lazy to be that organized. That being said, I have created a separate disk of NLL (National Lacrosse League) logos (past and present) since, as always, I become completely obsessed/stressed-out at this time of year as the post-season draws ever closer... I know, I know, what kind of Canadian puts ANYTHING above hockey??? Well, I was raised in a Lacrosse town, so I like my hockey to have BALLS! (Although congrats to the Leafs for making it into the Playoffs). I've attached a single ZIP file for those who do not use a CF7/nanoPEB, so that you can use HDX, Floppies or your storage medium of choice. If you do use CF's I have also attached 5 separate CF7 discs (each contains 21 images). All but two or three of the images are converted from bitmaps I have on my PC, so many will be instantly familiar, but I think it's safe to say, this is their first appearance on a 4A. If there is already a thread where we are sharing these (besides the sample batch in the Flashrom99 thread), I ask that these get moved there and point me there for future reference. But if this is the first such post of this kind, then what's up with that??? I haven't looked, but I'd wager there are forum repositories of Spectrum512 images in the Atari forums! F18A_PICS1.zip NLLPIX_1.dsk PEBOPIX_1.dsk PEBOPIX_2.dsk PEBOPIX_3.dsk PEBOPIX_4.dsk

I get it...I have both a stock console and an F18A upgraded one. Before I installed an F18A, I was more than happy with the picture I was getting with an RCA to VGA convertor (not perfect, but better than using an RF modulator). And while others have sung the praises of the multiple sprites per line, and 80 column text (multiplan becomes mederately useable!!), along with other niceties (like emulator quality display), I say a picture (or a few) is worth a thousand words. (sorry, my tablet has a crappy camera) These images were converted to Scanline Paletted F18A bitmaps with Tursi's « convert9918 » program, and are being displayed on my 4A using « slideshow99 » (I've got about 100 images converted and saved as CF7 volumes if anyone is interested). If you've ever seen images created with Spectrum 512 on an Atari ST, this is the picture quality of these images on a TI-99/4A. Now there's some wow factor...ST static image quality on a 4A!!! So Major_Tom_coming_home, without hesitation, I join the chorus of those suggesting your next toy should be an F18A. (and how the heck else are ya going to play Super Mario Bros!?)

I had forgotten Perfect Push (have never launched the ship more than once, but man, what an excellent Pengo variant!!). War Zone 2. Good Call! I still shake my head that that one doesn't require an F18A it has such good looking sprites, engaging gameplay and smooth scrolling. It really gives the 4A an original Xevious-like scroller that can compete with similar on any system of the time - and win!

Somewhere around six, maybe seven, I got stumped. Haven't started at level one and played the levels sequentially since then, although I have completed a few random levels past those. As I've said before, I not particularly good at video games (except falling brick games for some reason), but it has never stopped me from loving them anyway.

I think the TI Scrabble is impressive for the time and deserves special mention (the slow speed actually goes a long way towards REALLY simulating a human opponent (probably better than any other computer scrabble game on any computer)... But my top-10 "go-to" games are (in no particular order): Tris (or Tris II) Tex-Turbo Mad Marvin Shamus Tutankham Junkman Jr / Jumpman Jr (best game on ANY computer of the era, PERIOD!) Miner2049er Qbert Space Station Pheta Attack of the Creepers (this should be on everyone's list - it is absolutely outstanding!) And if I might add an 11th (because I DO play it all the time)... Aperture. I once posted a comment jokingly saying I'd like to see Portal ported to the TI. Imagine my surprise when Ω replied that it was already done! Not only was it done (an achievement in and of itself), but it was done so well that it is easily as addictive and confounding as the brilliant Valve original (and lets not forget its written in BASIC!!!!)!

True dat! I didn't notice how much I had gotten used to that handy little stroke of brilliance until I had to do a directory search the other day with another cartridge inserted. Although I always have a utility disk in DSK2 that includes a little basic cat proggie, it is a pain to have to exit to basic, load it, run it and then hit the drive letter, when one has become used to simply hitting the number from the 2.7 menu. It is the main reason for continuing to use the 2.7 cart instead of the stock TI XB cart (I mean besides having XB and EA on the same cart, which I guess we'll soon have in FinalGrom99. To be fair of course (before someone reminds me of the omission) RXB also had both RXB and EA on the same cart as well)