PeBo

Best thing about the FlashROM 99?? Turbo Forth! No longer have to get a new eprom burned with every revision. Just concatenate the c and d bins, and save em to an SD...Et voilá - a shiny new updated Turbo Forth Cartridge. No fuss, no muss. Now how frackin' cool is that!?!?!

Once you've followed schmitzi's excellent guide (would have taken me 200 lines to say the same), you might find the attached documents handy (in MS word format). a 256 MB CF will hold 312 volumes, and unlike the HxC, there's no read out to help you know what's where. I created these two files to solve that...the first, "CF7 Volumes Index" lists every volume in numeric sequence including contents and status. The second "CF7 Contents Index" is an alphabetical listing of individual programs, the volume on which they appear, and instructions on how to load them (ea3/ea5/xbload/etc). If you update these files as you load the CF, it takes mere seconds extra to create these detailed guides (of course you'll want to delete my entries which I have included as examples) One (important) final thing to take note of... You mount your DSK's using the CALL MOUNT (x,y) command where x is the DSK# and y is the volume you're mounting... BUT... When you use the CALL UNMOUNT (x) command (where x is the DSK#) anything you have saved in volume x is is remounted. In other words Volumes 1, 2 and 3 are default contents of DSK 1, 2 and 3. Unless you have mounted a different volume into a DSK, whatever is in Volume 1, 2 or 3 will be on DSK1 DSK2 and DSK3. Clear as mud? CF7 Indexes.zip

As non-American users will attest to, the abuses have simply been taken over by eBay under the guise of the Global Shipping Program. Locked into the more expensive USPS Priority shipping (which offers absolutely no advantages over the far less expensive USPS 1st Class), it takes all choice away from the buyer. And now that it is the default method for sellers (unless they set up international shipping in their "Mybay) it is becoming difficult to find posts that do not use it. The only time I have received anything damaged (and I have completed hundreds of transactions) has been items shipped through the program - no doubt because of Pitney Bowes insistence on repackaging shipments. Shipments tend to be slower as well (although this HAS improved) since they are first sent to a distribution hub - often in the wrong direction). I once had a shipment from Mt Clemens Michigan sent to me in Toronto a few miles away VIA FLORIDA!!! Worst of all though are the import fees - which have no basis in actual trade treaties. Now, I will admit, that over the last 2 months, this has been addressed (I'd like to think that it had something to do with my sending ebay the articles of NAFTA that cover used software, but I'm sure ebay pays little attention to complaints from users and it was just a fluke that they fixed things after my missive). Under NAFTA, there is no duty between Canada and the United states on used software (unless licences remain valid, then there's a licence-transfer fee). Until 2 months ago, ebay was applying value-based import fees to everything, usually about the same cost as the shipping itself - effectively doubling or tripling (or more) the price of the item. They have now correctly removed these fees from used TI software...but not before they (and Pitney Bowes) pocketed hundreds of dollars in bogus fees from me. Now that's abuse!

OK this one I don't understand... THIS is the ebay listing for the Lotharek HxC, that seems to be placed by Lotharek dude himself. It is listed @ £86.99 (=$124 US / $158.47 CAD) But if you purchase it directly from the Lotharek site it's €100 (=$112.50 US / $143 CAD) an extra $12 US for the "privilege" of buying on ebay? I understand that vendors have to pay a commission to ebay, but should a buy & sell (/auction) site not be the same price or cheaper than the MSR price for current tech? Otherwise, what's the point?

Writing style got away from me this time though...as my excitement about inserting 95 cartridges into the cartridge port all-at-once resulted in unintended capacity exaggeration. The last time I was this impressed with modern/classic hybrid tech though, was when I stored all 487 (I think it was 487) Plato Courseware disks on a single CF (even though I wasted 310k for each disk because of the nanoPEB's inability to format a 90k disk) I think the idea of putting 177 cartridges in the cartridge port at the same time has that experience beat though. (and being able to leave the files as bin's and the SD as FAT32 means it takes about 10 seconds to copy those 177 carts over!! In fact all I did to prep the SD was delete the DCIM folder I had on there from previous use. Don't think I've been this blown away since the first time I heard the Parsec babe say "Press Fire to Begin" some 35 years ago.

True dat. Ω mentioned it in his topic opener. I currently only have about 130 images (or whatever is in Classic_Carts and Homebrew_Carts archives) , so that's still ample space for everything I've got. And years of digital cameras have ensured that as that collection grows, I have a closet filled with SD cards! (As was the case with Compact Flash cards for the nanoPEB). That's the REAL beauty, these newfangled gadgets! They allow the re-use of smaller capacity cards that would have otherwise been buried in the back of a closet (if not a landfill).

Considering the average size of a cart image and the size range of sd cards, why plan anything? I copied 5 "pages" worth of bin's onto a 1 GB card (so about 95 cartridges), and still had 998+ MB free! A single card will hold nearly every non-grom, non-CRU-bank-switched cartridge ever released, so my first compilation is going to be ... ...ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!!!! And I gotta say with the FlashROM 99 in the cartridge port and the nanoPEB in the expansion port, My TI is looking mighty Geek-Chic these days. There's just something sexy about exposed 21st century circuit boards sticking out of a 80's console computer. Frankeninetynine?

Speaking of languages (on topic this time) Now you C me.... Set of 12 disks with C99 Releases. C language for TI-99/4A Sample c programs I'm all spent-out for June, and these are a bit pricey for disks, but they would surely be a splendid acquisition for someone's collection (for which the images could then be posted here (pretty please with sugar on top))

I've found similar difficulties in using phonemes to reproduce é in french....always mispronounced as "eh" in english, it is actually much closer to the i in "pig" or "dig"...but not quite And you're right (I likely looked like an idiot, but I confirmed that if you say kiss while puckering for a kiss, it comes out as a near perfect ü)... Of course when it comes to cool sounding speech, there are no cooler sounding words in any language than those containing double vowels spoken in Finnish...it's more akin to singing than speaking!

Vowels are easy...there are always english sounds that you can "fake" into working for nearly any language...consonants are another matter entirely. English is pretty unimaginative when it come to consonant sounds, so there is nothing that comes close to the french "R" or german "CHT". I love playing with phonemes, but finally gave up trying to recreate these two sounds accurately with a TI Speech synth. if anyone has had success please share you method!! There's gotta be a way.

Too funny!

I'll do a proper page-flow hi-rez scan of the manual this week and post it, but here's the one that is currently available. The module was intended to provide access to the synth's pre-defined stored speech vocabulary in TI-Basic to folks who did not own Extended basic. My preferred solution is the text-to-speech disk which provides phoneme routines that can be embedded in any Extended Basic programs (although it is a real memory hog). IT is also available in various languages . ATTN: Euro dudes and dudettes, Looking for the French and German versions if you see them on your travels...english is missing the rolled RRRR's and guttural RRRCCHH's required for effective speech synthesis of those languages (although it pulls off the long double vowels of Finnish really well) phm3011.pdf

Posting this notice might drive the price up to above what my toy-budget can handle, but this one doesn't show up very often, so in case no one here noticed, and someone here wants it more than I do, « Terminal Emulator I » was just posted here. TI actually called it Terminal Emulator "I" ??? Before Disk Manager II there was Disk Manager not Disk Manager "I", and before TI Logo II there was TI Logo, not TI Logo "I", so I really expected the packaging for this one to simply read "Terminal Emulator" (and I had never seen it before seeing as "II" was everywhere by the time I bought it back in the day.) Did TI know, even prior to the package-design and marketing of this version, that they'd soon be releasing a second version with phoneme based speech capabilities, or were they marketed simultaneously at different prices depending on the features the user wanted? Did buyers of version I get a special price to upgrade, as is common in software today?? One thing is certain, here in 2016 version "I" is going to cost you one helluvalot more than version "II" ever will. I'd wager TI marketing gurus never saw that coming!!

I leave my nano permanently connected to a speech synth...I found the nanoPEB to feel flimsy, so I feel more secure disconnecting both when switching to the PEB (which I run thru a separate speech unit). I've never had an issue, so have to agree with hloberg that the problem is in the contacts.

I'd be up for a chance at some 80 track goodness!

You got that right!!. I figure Funware and DataBioTics games are the best you can get for the TI. (without DBT, we would have never had a Jumpman Jr clone - a kick-a$$ clone at that!) Being able to have them - even the hard to find one's like "Escape" and "St Nick" - all in one place, was my main motivation behind getting myself a flashrom99. I really likes Miner2049 though...it was among the first Atari 8 bit games I ever played (the actual first 2 were Captain Beeble and Popeye) and became an instant and long lived favorite. Aside from the missing 1st and final screens, I thought Tigervision did an excellent job porting it to the TI. But we know what they say about one's man's tea... Seems that everyone agrees on Espial though....too bad too, I fired up the original arcade version in MAME a few days ago, and it really wasn't a bad vertical-scroller. An f18 port could probably do it much better today.

Funny that... I used Ottawa as my "400 km" cut off marker in the example. I've bought a few items from a guy in your neck of the woods, so I knew there was at least one kindred spirit there. Was lucky enough to get my PEB from there, so even shipping was affordable. Came with a dead 32k card, but that was easily replaced, and the box with shipping, cable, 2 drives, stock controller, RS232 and dead 32k came to just over $150 Canadian, so I had nothing to complain about (one of Zach's empty boxes is well over $300 with shipping to Toronto!) Anyway, nice to know I'm not the only Ontario 4A hobbyist!

700 km and an international border crossing still isn't quite local enough to be practical. Living in the 4th most populated Metropolitan area in North America, you'd think that there would be something a little closer that wouldn't require a passport/visa - not to mention a 0.70 % exchange rate!

I don't think there's another 4A enthusiast within 400 km of me up here in Toronto, and likely only a handful of others throughout the country. I see lots of Atari and Commodore stuff at flea markets, but never see TI stuff. I'd love to attend a local TI swap meet, but I've always found that swap meets are much more fun if you have someone to swap with, and I'd probably be the only attendee! (although in that case I wouldn't have to actually give up anything I might trade with myself)

the nanoPEBs had a reputation for less than stellar build quality, but don't let that (or this thread) sway your decision. I've had mine (2 of them) for a couple years now, and have never had a single problem with them. I've encountered a couple problems (literally a couple (2)) that I've related to the non-standard disk size/format, but there's no proof that the error is not with me instead of the device. And there sure is a lot to be said on being able to put the entire Plato learning series library on a single 512MB CF card. I will opt for a Lotharek later this year for the sheer advantage of being able to move stuff back and forth between floppies and an SD, but if it were not for the nanoPEB not allowing simultaneous with the PEB (especially with the AMS cards now being available), I'd be happy with it for many years to come (of course having a spare allows me to relax a bit in regards to something going wrong) If you don't want to invest in a PEB right away, (shipping can break the bank if it's not from a local source) the nanoPEB is a great stop-gap solution regardless of the build quality. Buy one....you'll likely be thrilled with the purchase until a replacement comes along. I know I have been!

Although I loved my ST, until Windows 10, I was more than happy with STeem's Engine emulation, which kept me from being tempted to re-buy one. Unfortunately, STeem engine is getting mighty old, and with Win10, it refuse to work in full screen. So who knows, maybe I'll break down one day and get a replacement (although, like the TI, I will be kicking myself for all the software I gave away when I got rid of my last ST a few years ago). I've seen talk of multiple OSes being installed, which would be a must-have now that I'm used to that nicety in emulation!!) Wouldn't an older NEC Multisync monitor work in all ST resolutions??

An online retailer is only as good as it's return policy, and this site seems to have it covered... Tranlated, their return policy is pretty standard and reads: "Items must be returned in their original packaging, unopened and in perfect condition, accompanied by all accessories and any documents/invoices attached to a completed RTS form. We do not accept returns of items with missing components or that have been spoiled, damaged or soiled. You are responsible for return shipping cost. Also, the original shipping costs will not be refunded. A €5 restocking charge will apply to items for which shipping was free. To make a return, you must send a meesage through the forms available in the "Contact Us" section of the site. Within a few days you will receive a return waybill which must be attached to the returned product. Without this waybill returns cannot be processed. No postage due shipments will be accepted." So bottom line, if a purchase doesn't work, you lose your shipping costs, and also have to pay for shipping on the RTS. Sounds mighty Caveat Emptor to me.

I've thought often of grabbing a C-64, but I never owned one, so the nostalgic appeal is lost. This entire era of tech continues to fascinate (after all, everything here started there), but there's an added oomph! when a vintage computer hobby includes actual memories of having used the h/ware and s/ware. So my trio is TI, 800XL, and ST (with particular affection for the ST and the TI) A quartet would include an Odyssey2, but for me emulation of that one is more than satisfactory. While the C-64 and Amigas are always temptations (C-64's starter systems are so damned reasonable), we don't even have enough space for the Atari's (the TI has maxed out my allotted area - and toy budget), so when it comes to C-64's & Amiga I have to live vicariously through you fine folks.

Damn Game of Thrones!! Missed this one completely!

Original price $5.95 Now yours for the incredible low price of $130.26 CAD. TI-Logo Student Guide