PeBo
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Posts posted by PeBo
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no, that is the definitive Rasberry-Pi TI kit!
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...isn´t it the Gopher from the movie with Chevy AND Rodney ??
that would be caddyshack.
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And up here in Canada, with our Gun Control, I have to make do with a lowly Dremmel!
Think someone might be willing to ship me a dissasembled Tiger II and declare it as "gift - used computer parts"?
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We seriously need some moderator input to stop all this unfounded b****bear hating!!!!!
I know, old post again, but have something pertinent to add, so here goes...
I have bought from buddybear99 several times.
I too get frustrated when Charles posts disk copies of software and calls it *rare* (here let me burn another dozen *rare* disks), or when he lists a cart, but fails to mention that the manual listed is just a copy (although he has been good lately about stating that up front). His prices are all over the map....sometimes jaw-droppingly inexpensive (got a complete in box Adventure off of him for 6.99! and his shipping fees are always very low - to Canada at least) and other times insanely expensive (some of his disks sell for over $40 - when, let's be honest, they should be free since anyone can download these in .dsk or TIDisk format)
BUT (and that's a huge but)...
2 months ago my 32k card died. The project I was working on used the text-to-speech disk, so without a 32K card I was dead in the water.
I sent out emails to the usual suspect of TI 'suppliers' whom I have come to trust. No one had a card, or those who did were asking way too much for me at the time. Then I contacted Charles...
He sold me a card dirt cheap, and sent it to me ExpressPost. It arrived at my door in 3 days.
But that's not the really impressive part of the story. When it arrived, he had still not yet quoted me a price + shipping. He shipped it before I had paid, and when I emailed him about it, he simply said; "Yes, I shipped it already. You sounded like you needed it. No problem".
Now, of course I fired him off the payment within minutes, but to this day I can't believe he did that...and the card (one of the sexy brushed aluminium shells not one with the beige shell I was replacing) plus shipping came to $50 (I paid more for the now-dead card before shipping!)
So yes, there ARE all kinds of reasons to comment on some of the buddybear99 listings, but he will always remain among my favorite and most trusted ebayers. (although yes, I DO wish he wouldn't flood the TI listings with copies)
btw, if anyone wants the dead card (not sure how serviceable they are) it's yours for shipping.
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yeah PeBo, I think you found the one out of a million
nice storyWell I used to be the first to bitch in here about the attitude of ebay sellers, but I have to say that the past few months I've found it:
a: very easy to convince folks to agree to deal off-ebay
b: get people to relist WITHOUT the Global Shipping Program (a horror show for Canadians that adds time and money to shipping)
c: got people to drastically reduce their ebay list price
There are still a few zach's out there where the price is the price (no matter how many items you offer to buy), and people selling manual for a couple bucks with $30 shipping, but a few good folks have made the belligerent ones easier to contend with.
I think an easy way to judge is to offer someone an email address in an ebay message - disguised of course, so that the ebay thought-police don't catch you doing it and delete it (« me at not cold mail dawt calm » for example)
If you get a reply, you've likely found someone very willing to play ball.
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War Zone II (Xevious clone with smooth scrolling) is from 1991.
Excellent point and excellent game (as was War Zone I). My bad for having forgotten it.
In fact I think I'll go play it!
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Portal=Aperture by Adamantyr.
TI BASIC only, no assembly. For BASIC, it is unbelievable.
WOW! thanks for the heads up! (and for the video arcadeshopper)
Had never seen or heard of it will definitely look for it. Portal is among my favorite games of all time (right up there with Jumpman and Lode Runner to make up the top 3 (knocked Dungeon Master down to 4th)).
I don't know if you folks have ever seen these pics, since they're local (taken here in Toronto) but these two buildings are in completely different parts of the City.
But the question is, who would be so cruel as to abandon their companion cube in a portal like that???
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Have an anectotal story I wanted to share....
I learned from others in these forums, that quite often, ebay sellers list high, but are willing to sell far more reasonably. Well that has now been proven to me in spades.
A few weeks ago I contacted a guy who had a dozen DataBioTics games listed (including my beloved Spot-Shot (aka Dragonflyer)!!).
His average list price was between $120 and $700 ($699 for Spot Shot alone -ouch). After contacting him and making it clear that I wanted these for my own collection, and had no interest in re-selling them for the foreseeable future, he dropped his price to an average of about $50 a cart - WITH NO HAGGLING!
You can imagine that no one wants to sell a «rare» item for a fair price, only to see it relisted the next day for triple or more, but we've all seen it happen time and time again. In the case of the guy I contacted, it was enough to know that the cart was going to someone who had a genuine nostalgic affection for the system, and that the items sold would remain off of ebay.
Moral of the story...a dozen DataBioTics games w/ manuals (flysheets really), originally listed for several thousand dollars are now mine for just a few hundred! (even got an original Junkman Jr w/manual for less than the price of the hummingbird eprom and a cart/board to put it in!)
PLUS, the chap and I have become fast email friends and continue to keep in touch just to « shoot-the-sh*t » about our vintage tech hobbies.
For every « price-is-firm » seller out there, there are dozens of fellow enthusiasts who are hoping that their items fall into a loving home, and are willing to sell them at a fair price if they think that will happen.
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cool cool!!!
Can always use a new ToD game!!!
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I would hate to see Portal attempted...but only if it was a 3D attempt...a 2D portal game could be brilliant on the TI!
As far as the success at getting a machine to raise itself beyond it's original limits, this has has much more to do with the abilities of the coder than it does with the ability of the hardware! Remove the time restraints of corporate deadlines, the creativity hobbled by adhering to existing licenses, the importance of « number-of-units-sold », or the memory limitatons of the original modules, and programers can truly shine.
This has never been more apparent as it is with current software being created for all manner of 80's systems!
Did any of us ever expect to see the likes of a Titanium (or even a Mad Marvin's Great Escape - which really should get mentioned far more often when discussing 21st century TI game releases) on our abandonned 4A's back in '84 (or 94, or '04?) ??
Most of us would have said, « Can't be done » to Flabbybird! (or to the smooth scrolling we now know the machine is more than capable of)
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IMHO there is nothing worse than seeing some 16bit games downported to 8bit systems. Yes I realise the TI has a 16bit cpu, but it's
capabilities are realistically 8bit.
A good example of how horrible this is, is Street fighter 2 on the C64. The TI should stick to what it does best,
and not punch too far above it's weight.
Generally I'd agree with you, but down-porting (from 16 or 32 bit to 8 bit) isn't always the problem (and porting from 70's arcade machines to the 2600 occasionally resulted in some great games).
But going the other way has also resulted in some mighty lame translations.
Case in point: The 8 bit version of Datasoft's « Alternate Reality: The City », was brilliant, but I would love to be able to forget the gawd-awful (IMO) Atari ST version.
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Looking for the following (luckily the list keeps shrinking)
Moon Patrol: Box Only
Popeye: Manual Only
Video Games 1: Manual Only
Computer War: Instruction Flysheet
Already have copies of the manuals (no, not from buddybear99, printed them myself) so only interested in the originals.
The « Video Games 1 » manual comes up on ebay all the time, but it's always listed under the Global Shipping Program (impossible for the seller to change without re-listing, so most refuse when asked), and I just can't justify spending $30 to ship a $2.00 manual, when it could simply be put in an envelope with a couple pieces of card stock, have a stamp stuck on and shoved in a mail box!
If the price is right, might consider re-purchasing some the carts to get the manuals.
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Knew I should have grabbed one when I had the chance!
Anyone buy multiples and looking to sell one??
The groovy label alone was worth the price of admission!
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TIMES RUNNING OUT!
Grab your own copy of: ZERO ZAP!
------------------ << HERE >>-------------------
Hey! Be fair!
Zero Zap is a GREAT GAME if you have the right controlled substances with which to accompany your gaming!
I mean, how many games are there where you can go make a coffee (or partake in more controlled substances)
after you launch the ball!
There's a lot to be said for a game where each round consists of a single key-press!
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Hi,
not following the whole thread up to here, as it is too much for me at this time:
Are only nanoPEBs/F18A involved, or PEBs too ?
Sorry if dumb/p question.
schmitzi
The only dumb question is one that is not asked.
My second console is down right now, so I was unable to test a system without an F18A installed. Unplugging the nanoPEB and pluggng in the PEB however made no difference. The 2.7 specific CALL commands faled to function in either case. CALL CAT wouldn't work if it was cataloguing a physical drive or a CF volume.
Now that everything is working (fixed in under 48 hours no less!), and folks continue analysing what happened, the obvious can now be stated...the most powerful diagnostic tools any of us have for our 4A's are the people in this Forum!
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I would like to know WHY it fails, though. I would still like to see a dump of the failed cartridge to know what has 'changed'. With the information I currently have, nothing that GROMCFG changes should break the cart. So some information is missing. In the meantime, PeBo, congrats!
I'm sorry I didn't save the uberGROM out to disk before I fixed the problem...just too damned anxious to see if the solution would work.
Of course it shouldn't be too hard to break it again!
(unfortunately I want to bask in the glory of a working cart again...and finally figure out how to use BOOT - which got me into this mess in the first place.)
But buddy, I just sat through the youtube instructional video for uberGROMCFG, and you've created an amazing tool (which you have said yourself was never intended for a general audience...if a 10 year old gets a hold of a rifle, you can't blame Smith and Wesson if she shoots her dog!)
I don't think your tool is as problematic as the folks who are having trouble with it. Case in point: it fixed the problem it seems to have caused - even if you're not quite clear how it worked!
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I mean this is a minimum $13.99 for a couple of OPENED and EMPTY boxes with some old paperwork.
You know, there was a time I would have agreed with you, but I've been looking for an original manual for Popeye and a box for Moon Patrol for a few months now, and if I found either listed in the $10-$20 range I'd jump at the chance, They are the only pieces missing to give me full Parker Brothers and Atarisoft collections complete with boxes, warranty cards and manuals. Hard to put a value on completing a collection.
Hell, I'd even put out a few dollars for the Video Games 1 or Tunnels of Doom manuals (although far less than the ones above since you can nearly always find a boxed set of either of those for under $20
(And I just now noticed I replied to a 2 year old message...oops)
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stock PHP1240 controller here
Wouldn't mind a DD alternative, but with modern options like CF7, HxC and HDX as alternative storage solutions, the TI controller card is all I really need.
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... and the fix: open GROMCFG, press F7, set 4 options to on, off, on, off. Pull out cartridge.
When I inserted the cartridge again it was back to normal.
I avoided doing this yesterday since it was not recommended, but...
IT WORKED!!
I'm assuming that CTL F (Flash Dev OFF) made it work, but I will again hide beneath my ignorance of such things, and just extend a huge THANK YOU! (not the first time you've come to my rescue).
Can't test with F6 since that features not in my current version, but all the calls are back and functioning.
hooRAH! All is once again right with the world (or at least that tiny portion of it that I chose to acknowledge)
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If it fails again, Pebo, try going back into GROMCFG and /save/ the UberGROM off (to a new disk), and post the save file for us to compare? If we can see WHAT is corrupted, perhaps it will give a clue.
Won't be for a couple days, but will do.
Really appreciate the attempted assists and suggestions. If worse comes to worse ofcourse, I can always just get another 2.7 cart.
Also as suggested I tried the CALL MOUNT and CALL UNMOUNT commands without the nanoPEB connected and both locked the system rather than returning an error. For a lark I tried CALL with random commands (some standard XP, some 2.7 and some imaginary) all the standards commands work fine with or without the nanoPEB. But the nanoPEB's mount/unmoiunt, 2.7 CALLs and random fakes all lock the console rather than returning an error.
also tried it with & without 32k expansion still no go.
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You shouldn't ever load GROMCFG again after upgrading the cart, that may be the source of your problems. When GROMCFG is loaded, it changes the advanced options. The update process sets the advanced options the way they need to be for the XB v2.7 Suite cart to work properly. I have a hunch that people were reloading GROMCFG after they upgraded their carts, then complaining that the cart didn't work. But I'm here sitting in my chair, and I can't see what others are doing sitting in their chairs, so I can only guess.
Gazoo
Then would it not stand to reason that updating my cart would reset those advanced options to the correct settings for 2.7 to work again??
And believe me, I had no idea I was loading a GROM configuration program. I thought I had downloaded a tweaked copy of BOOT for use with 2.7 and fully expected the familiar White on Blue BOOT menu. When the GROMCFG menu appeared I didn't know what the heck it was (which is why I didn't touch anything). If I had known I was loading something that would alter the contents of the cart unassisted I would have exercized more caution or at least done some reading first.
I'll try upgrading over the next few days and see what happens. At least I'll get the fixed DM2 call out of the deal (of course, only if the CALLs works after the upgrade). Whatever happens, I will start reading first!
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Tursi explained here that just running GROMCFG will turn on the flash device, so you don't have to edit anything in order to make changes to the cart.
haven't read it yet, but I would think that's exactly what happened. Bizzare results though.
I feel the clue to fixing this is in the fact that the nanaoPEB's CALL MOUNT is also not working.
It works fine with a TI Extended Basic cart, but not the 2.7. So if I can figure out what broke Mount, I, it should help identify what broke the 2.7 CALLs.
Didn't even know GROMCFG was going to load when it appeared on screen....thought the autoLOAD on the disk I had mounted would take me to the standard BOOT menu...The old story of rushing in and not reading the instructions first. (I'm embarassed because I KNOW that nobody here would ever do anything like that! « evil grin »)
BOOT just looks so damned cool that I wanted to dive in.
I'll follow the message board link provided in a bit and see if I can figure this out. At least I'm not the only one with similar symptoms...hate when that happens.
Thanks!
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...there's something wrong with your system or you didn't successfully complete the upgrade. All I added was the verification routine to make sure the cartridge data was correct by pressing F6. The version that this was added is the most recent one of May 13th. This should be the one you use if you're interested in checking the validity of your cart. Decimal To Hex and all the calls other than CALL DM2 have always worked in every version.
All I can offer is that some people went into the advanced options after upgrading their cart and set the 4 options as previously mentioned....
GazooAs I explained Gazoo, in my case I haven't upgraded my cart because I didn't think it was necessary. All I did was install an F18A (and I can't even say with certainty that is when I started having problems - only that it is when I first noticed it). I loaded the gromcfg program once when I took a quick look at using boot, but I never edited anything with it (for fear of fiddling above my level of knowledge)
So I guess I am simply asking if you would have any idea what could have changed in my system to stop the custom 2.7 CALL commands from working suddenly, when they worked perfectly for months. Would this not be a memory address issue (or am I demonstrating my ignorance?)
Also, since my F7 info screen is dated September 9th, 2014, should I updrade to a newer version??? Is there even a possibility that doing so might fix my problem??? I had read that if I had a black border on a green screen that I should not upgrade, so I never did so.
If the upgraded Rom chips you mentioned might restore full functionality, then private message me, and I'll get you to send me one. I'm really willing to try anything to fix this, and will happily buy a replacement chip if that's what it takes. I use Extended Basic 2.7 more than anything else on my TI right now, and it's frustrating to be missing these commands now that I've grown accustomed to having them available..
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I too am using the black border, green screen version dated April, 26 2015 with an F18A. Curious.
BTW - Welcome back PeBo, yes, it's been too long!
Hmmm, mine comes up black border/green screen but is dated September 9, 2014...maybe I SHOULD update it???
I'm confused, but I DO confuse easily.
btw the link you sent me to the color BBS sweetness was jaw-droppingly awesome!
p
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Extended Basic 2.7. She never CALLs!
in TI-99/4A Computers
Posted
So it won't work mounted into a CF volume??
I currently have no easy way to get files from my PC to the TI except through the nanoPEB, which of course cannot be used simultaneously with the PEB. An HxC (or - far cheaper - a null modem cable) is a coming purchase, but right now I'm stuck using one or the other.