fimbulvetr

CAN$314.16 for a sideport 32k memory expansion, but hey the shipping is free! https://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Texas-Instruments-Computer-TI99-4A-32K-Sidecar-Memory-Expansion-Card-729-/114192263681?&_trksid=p2056016.m2516.l5255

I can’t help you there. I have a Lotherek floppy emulator, so I just copy the disk images onto a flash card and go.

I would be in for an assembled card.

Hah! I had the same first reaction, and only noticed it was county after I reread it.

Plato disk images available here.

Plato! There are hundreds of lessons in all subjects available. We’ve been using it for our kids for math since the schools closed. The range in difficulty from grade 1 through high school.

Yep, speech in PEB is something I would really like to have.

Agreed! I am spending more time using my ti99 than usual now, but that is because my kids are using Plato every day to do math now that the schools are closed.

Huh. I always pronounced it wike-oh (rhymes with bike-oh)

Awesome!

I’m curious about why they got rid of the coffee cup bonus in the cartridge version of Burgertime.

Now that my kids are off school for an indeterminate amount of time we are having them work through Plato math courses on real iron. They don't mind doing them -- they say they are better than doing math worksheets -- and there are no distractions from the internet on the old ti99. So, it ends up that keeping all that old equipment going WAS preparation for the apocalypse. Gotta love all that indestructible military-grade 40-year old ti hardware. Retro computer hobby justified!

Ottawa has a toilet paper factory right in town, so there is no chance we will ever have to worry about shortages, and still people went nuts hoarding the stuff. Shelves were restocked at the grocery store near me by today though with a limit of one package per customer.

All these years I've just been willy-nilly plugging in the wires for my ti99 until I got sound and video as I never got around to labeling them. Today I found out that the AV cable I've been using for the past while is one of those universal ones, and one of them was the 12V line. It is now wrapped up with electrical tape. I'm surprised I never fried anything ....

Page 33, Volume 1 No. 4 of 99’er magazine has a type-in game called Maze Race that randomly generates a maze.

Just for the heck of it, I tried the disk version and it is definitely easier than the cartridge version. The patterns are much more predictable, the enemies always start from the bottom and work their way up, and I think it is more generous with extra lives but I could be wrong on that count. Interestingly, it alternates ice cream and coffee for extra pepper, while I’ve only ever seen ice cream in the cartridge version. 45850 on real iron with pain sticks instead of my Tac 2 joystick, and I still doubled my last score on the cartridge on my first go.

A bit better than yesterday: 28850.

My first go, 17700. I love Burgertime, but geeze, that crappy repetitive, restarting song in the ti port.

I finally got around to building a home for my retro computers.

Fully loaded PEB, and looks like it has a p-code card, starting bid $0.99 https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Texas-Instruments-TI-994A-Peripheral-Unit-RS-232-32K-Expansion-computer-/193369043164?&_trksid=p2056016.m2518.l4276

The seller has a couple other weird pieces of hardware too: GROM box https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Texas-instrument-GROM-box-As-Is/264633449019?hash=item3d9d61fa3b:g:zewAAOSwTZ9eRcZS Some sort of dialer for the side port https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Texas-instrument-Wire-wrap-Dialer-As-Is/264634336957?hash=item3d9d6f86bd:g:ntsAAOSwwD1eRslf

Anyone know what this “ti-99/4a circuit board” is? Doesn’t look like it goes in a PEB, it just seems to plug into the cartridge port: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ti-99-4a-Circuit-Board-/264635574125?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

Just answered my own question .. it is a modem. https://www.ebay.com/itm/113710354394?ul_ref=http%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F711-53200-19255-0%252F1%253Ficep_ff3%253D2%2526pub%253D5574735181%2526toolid%253D10001%2526campid%253D5336086427%2526icep_item%253D113710354394%2526ipn%253Dpsmain%2526icep_vectorid%253D229466%2526kwid%253D902099%2526mtid%253D824%2526kw%253Dlg%2526srcrot%253D711-53200-19255-0%2526rvr_id%253D1984237308970%2526rvr_ts%253Df028cf8d16a0ab4c9380ac96fffef8c3&ul_noapp=true

Not sure what this thing is, or if it is actually for a ti: Signalman Anchor Automation Mark III https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Signalman-Anchor-Automation-Mark-III-T-I-300-232-25M-for-TI99-4A-New-/273862275235?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

I actually prefer the pain sticks for a lot of ti games. They have a nice short throw and are a decent size in my hand. But you cant go wrong with a Suncom Tac2 or a Competition Pro, which are my go-to joysticks. I have several Wico sticks, and while the leaf switches are nice I find the throw too long so dont use them much. The Suncom Starfighter is also nice. It is smaller than the Tac2, but has pretty similar performance and you can pick one up much cheaper. One of these days I have to get around to making a real arcade stick setup for my ti, as that would by far be better than any of the commercial options.