x24b

Thank you for the game. Chuck Yeager would be happy with the title!

There are many who helped me get into computers. My Cousin Lee Courtney told me about the TI 99/4A home computer because it was the first true 16-bit CPU on the home market. He was going to College with a Mathematics Major and Minored in Computers. He worked a giant Mainframe at Cal Poly Pomona while studying. He then went on to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (new Mexico Tech). His best friend in New Mexico, Phil Olguin, had a TI, but preferred his fully decked out MITS Altair 8800 with screen and keyboard! Once I bought my TI, at great expense, I had to learn about how to operate it with the manuals that came with it, and magazines I could pick up from the rack. Eventually I joined a TI Club meeting many mentors, teachers and fellow noobs to computers. One man stands out, and I would like to Honor him here: Bob Butts, may he rest in peace, had a wonderful Wife. I am ashamed to admit I've forgotten her name after so many years (about 33 years ago). Out of the Blue, She called me one day and told me that Bob had had a lingering illness and that he had finally succumbed to it. Bob never told me, but he seemed frail all of the time I knew him. She wondered if I would like a gift of his TI computer with the PEB stuffed full of glorious things like a dual-disk controller, disk drives, RS232 card, 32K memory card and PASCAL card with supporting software. I gladly accepted with great honor. I have to think that Bob asked her to call me with this wonderful offer, once he had passed. No fanfare. Just a kind, quiet gesture. At the time all I had was a console, voice synthesizer, cassette player/recorder, Games on tape, some financial, Extended Basic, mini-memory and terminal emulator (to work with voice synthesis) cartridges. I subscribed to Micropendium, was active in my TI Club and eventually wrote a pamphlet entitled "Easy Assembly". She knew me from the dozens and dozens of visits I made with Bob. He and I were members of the Pomona Valley 99er's Club. I went over to his house to talk 99/4A, computing in general, program and print out the programs I had written that week. He was a great mentor, and a very patient and nice man. Without his help I doubt I would be as far along with computers as I am. I ended up as an IT Network guy and eventually became a Systems Analyst for a large non-profit Family Foundation. I will be retiring from there soon. I have to credit Bob Butts for the inspiration, knowledge, confidence, hardware and software to boost me into a wonderful lifelong career. Bob Butts - A great TI 99/4A man! Thank you Bob. I'll see you one day, in Heaven.

You are a very cruel man. In a nice kind of way. I like that!

Where was I? Oh yeah, printers... I am seeing multiple cross-references in the print codes. If I just memorize the new codes, can I just use them instead? I can forget about the old and use the new, unless TI-Writer and other programs have the codes hardwired in the machine code. Maybe it does not matter, as long as raw text is printed on paper, what do I care? I should just give it a whirl. Propeller spinning. Aircraft... NO! Printers! Stay on task.

I got to meet Bob Hoover twice. Yes. I am a Lucky man. Once as a teenager at an Air Show in Orange County. He had just parked his Yellow P-51 Mustang at the end of the flight line and I ran over there realizing no one else was there! I got to shake his hand with no one around and say something stupid ,I'm sure, but it was glorious. He treated me like I was the only kid on earth. What a moment. The second time was at the Palm Springs Air Museum fund raising Gala. He looked old and frail, but he was dressed to the 9's and wearing his Trademark flat brimmed straw hat! I said hello to him as we were all exiting the event. I also was able to tell him "Thank You for your performances over the years", and it was a thrill to meet him as a teenager and he took the time to talk with me. He was amused by this and smiled. He was a genuine good egg and a fantastic pilot! One of the best.

Got your PM and answered. My little fire engine red (inside and out) coupe '66 Mustang had a 289, 4 barrel carb, with a 4 speed and a dual-Tachometer and Clock cluster attached at the top of the steering wheel column! Stock Mustang hub-caps and white wall tires turned in on the rims so only black showed! I put dual exhaust on it and tore up Southern California for 4 years. Many speeding tickets back in the day. I bought it for $900 and sold it for $900. A free Mustang for 4 years! My blood runs Ford Blue, so, yeah. I've seen Ford Vs Ferrari, more than once. Thanks for the heads-up. Fabulous story.

That thing is on another level entirely. I can't believe it was designed in the 60's! They had Slide Rules! Pocket Protectors galore as well, I assume. I'm sure there's something else hidden in the shadows today that will leave it in the dust, but come on! It's dust is at 85,000 feet and at Mach 3+! Eat My Dust!

Good Lord! I can't even imagine! The landings on those loooong gear legs with the stiff structure looks great! I dreamed of that thing as a young man. All I could pull back then was a 1966 mustang. I have a million questions, but I'll settle for just one answer (please): As a pilot, of no doubt several types, how was it to fly?

Sorry for the spacing problems. This web based word processing system is NOT text only... so... I'm on my way. I have both code systems for both printers now. Or so I think. Can't get oranges to oranges comparisons yet. I just need to figure out what the new stuff actually means. Also, I do not see a BELL command on the new machine! Gotta have one of those to play with! ======================================= EPSON MX-80 dot-matrix printer TI-HACKERS Handy Conversion Chart #2 CONTROL 'U' COMMAND LIST FOR TI-WRITER USING EPSON COMPATIBLE PRINTERS Symbols used: <ESC> = CONTROL "U" FUNCTION "R" CONTROL "U" <CHR> = CONTROL "U" SHIFT (specific character) CONTROL "U" Examples: <ESC> M = CONTROL "U" FUNCTION "R" CONTROL "U" M <CHR> O = CONTROL "U" SHIFT "O" CONTROL "U" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINT FUNCTION ENABLE DISABLE WIDTH ------------------------- ------------------------ ------------------------ ELITE mode <ESC> M <ESC> P continuous EXPANDED <ESC> W1 <ESC> W0 (WO ?) COMPRESSED mode <CHR> O (0 ?) <CHR> R single line EXPANDED <CHR> N <CHR> T PRINT FUNCTION ENABLE DISABLE QUALITY ------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------ EMPHASIZED mode <ESC> E <ESC> F DOUBLE STRIKE mode <ESC> G <ESC> H SUPERSCRIPT mode <ESC> SO (S0 ?) <ESC> T SUBSCRIPT mode <ESC> S1 <ESC> T UNDERLINE mode <ESC> -1 <ESC> -0 (-O ?) MASTER RESET CODE <ESC> O (0, Q ?) ALTERNATE FUNCTION ENABLE DISABLE CHARACTER ------------------------ ---------------------- ---------------------- SETS ITALIC mode <ESC> 4 <ESC> 5 GRAPHIC CHARACTER SET <ESC> m <CHR> D <ESC> m <CHR> 0 (O ?) SPECIAL FUNCTION ENABLE DISABLE PRINTER ------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- FEATURES BELL .1 SECOND <CHR> G BACKSPACE <CHR> H HALF SPEED mode <ESC> s1 <ESC> s0 PAPER FUNCTION ENABLE DISABLE FEED ------------------------ --------------------- --------------------- COMMANDS FORM FEED <CHR> L CARRIAGE RETURN <CHR> M PAPER SENSOR <ESC> 9 <ESC> 8 * Refer to TI-HACKERS chart #1 for DECIMAL equivalent if necessary. (Example: If n = 8 then procedure is <CHR> H) Note: Since these codes are imbeded in the text, the formatter is NOT required in most cases. However, since control codes do not show up in the printed text as they do on your screen you will have to adjust your format to comensate. One example would be if the underline feature was activated it would require three line characters, so text would have to be moved over three spaces. This looks weird on the screen, but the printed result is very sharp looking. ======================================= EPSON LX-350 dot-matrix printer LX-350 supports the EPSON ESC/P control codes & IBM PPDS emulation control codes listed: EPSON ESC/P control codes Selecting an EPSON ESC/P printer in your software allows you to use advanced fonts and graphics. General operation: ESC @, ESC U Paper feeding: FF, LF, ESC 0, ESC 1, ESC 2, ESC 3, ESC A, CR Page format: ESC (C, ESC C, ESC C 0, ESC Q, ESC l, ESC (c, ESC N, ESC O, ESC (U Print position motion: ESC $, ESC \, ESC D, HT, ESC B, VT, ESC J Font selection: ESC k, ESC x, ESC y, ESC P, ESC M, ESC g, ESC p, ESC 4, ESC 5, ESC E, ESC F, ESC ! Font enhancement: ESC W, DC4, SO, DC2, SI, ESC w, ESC G, ESC H, ESC T, ESC S, ESC - Spacing: ESC Space Character handling: ESC t, ESC (t, ESC R, ESC %, ESC &, ESC :, ESC I, ESC 6, ESC 7 Bit image: ESC K, ESC L, ESC Y, ESC Z, ESC *, ESC ^ Bar code: ESC (B IBM PPDS emulation control codes This printer emulates the IBM Proprinter using the commands below. For detailed information, see the IBM PPDS reference manual. General operation: NUL, DC3, ESC j, BEL, CAN, DC1, ESC Q, ESC [ K, ESC U Paper feeding: FF, LF, ESC 5, ESC A, ESC 0, ESC 1, ESC 2, ESC 3, CR, ESC ] Page format: ESC C, ESC C0, ESC X, ESC N, ESC O, ESC 4 Print position motion: ESC d, ESC R, ESC D, HT, ESC B, VT, ESC J Font selection: DC2, ESC P, ESC :, ESC E, ESC F, ESC I, ESC [d, ESC [I Font enhancement: DC4, SO, ESC SO, ESC W, ESC [ @, SI, ESC SI, ESC G, ESC H, ESC T, ESC S, ESC -, ESC _ Spacing: BS, SP Character handling: ESC 6, ESC 7, ESC [ T, ESC ^, ESC ¥ Bit image: ESC K, ESC L, ESC Y, ESC Z Bar code: ESC [f, ESC [p Download: ESC = The IBM code has BELL! That's nice.

A Kelly Johnson work of Engineering Art. We all know the Skunk Works team did 90% of the grunt work using their calculating slide rules and an occasional foray into an IBM's lair for some general ground work. Compromises in places where it won't count (fuel leaking on the ground, requiring in-air-refueling, human body protection from the blazing heat, cool-fuel routed just under the wings skin to keep it from melting, engine nacelle shock-cone problems causing an engine un-start condition slamming the pilots helmet against the cockpit, causing adverse yaw possibly leading to catastrophic fuselage failure etc etc), but when on task and blazing across the sky... It's ALL business! Just don't expect to turn on a dime when at full bananas.

You guys are making my day. Thank you all for your service! I was too young for Vietnam, but I was in the last Lottery for the Draft. My Birthday was in one of those large blue pills rolling around with all the other guys. My number was not called, but by then, even if I were drafted, I would have been relegated to marching around in the heat or unloading planes for the guys just coming home. Here's an off-topic, T-38 Talon related story. My Cousin and I attended a Thunderbird's show at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was a VERY windy day and they should have called off the show, but pressed on anyway. Chuck Yeager flew supersonic for the last time in an SR-71 at that show. My cousin was a bold and saucy fellow and told me to follow his lead. We walked up to the VIP set of bleachers that were guarded by armed guards. My cousin said something to the guy, and he raised the yellow tape and let us in! We walked up the bleachers and sat in the center/center area. The Thunderbird Announcer was right in front of us. Quite a PERFECT location to watch the show. Then I realized that my knees were up against the back of a man that looked familiar. It turned out to be Buzz Aldrin! You know, the 'Right Stuff', 'second man on the Moon' guy. The wind was howling, but the T-38 Talon Thunderbird's took off and started their show. Their routines were great as ever, but they sure changed positions as the wind blew them off course here and there. They wobbled and yawed a bit. Then two of them headed right at each other, low on the deck, just over the runway. They went into a mirrored knife-edge so their wings were 90 degrees to the ground. A HUGE GUST of wind struck just as they passed! Buzz Aldrin pressed back into my legs and winced like he was dodging a fast ball! His hands raised a bit and then just as they passed without incident, he regained composure and sat up subdued once more. Something MUST have been VERY dangerous for him to react that way! I saw Buzz Aldrin wince regarding a T-38 Talon in action! THE END. Ummm... Uh... I want to print an image of a T-38 Talon on my new printer being driven by my Ti 99/4A. (Did anyone notice we were off-topic?)

You Sir... understand! And then the Thunderbird's had a brain-wave and got some for all of us to ogle at. I concur with your opinion. A Beautiful Aircraft, even if it was a Trainer. It was the most elegant and wicked Trainer of all time! During the Apollo missions the Astronauts had their own private T-38's to travel from Coast-To-Coast for the program. I want one too!

Excellent! THANK YOU! You are a kind person. I was looking for those last night, and then I had to sleep. I think I was up until 3:30AM. Some light reading and then I'll hunt down the LX-350 manual and codes. Maybe there won't be any guess work after all.

Bob's your Uncle, is right! I think it's just that simple. I had read that someone here, used a Laser Printer with his TI, and said; "If it's got a parallel port, It'll work". That's the kind of chutzpah I need! I should just pull the trigger on the LX-350 and keep the shipping box and receipt. My Uncle Bob is RIGHT! Ah... to be able to remember codes within a word processor so you can italicize something. Yes, Electro-Archeology is also something we are forced into once we bought our first home computer, no matter the brand. A TL code here, and a TL code there and I'll be writing Novels and Screen Plays with my trusty TI in no time! Who needs Word, Edit, WordPad or Libre Write? We have TL codes darn-it! Well, probably just a coin toss program in Basic, but that's almost the same... right? Thanks for the info... and banter.

It's a thing of beauty. It'll be awesome once it's sorted. Take your time and enjoy the journey. When this one's done, you'll be forced to think up something new!

Thanks! I'm tempted to grab an old MX-80 but fear a breakdown when I'm deep in a project and neeeeeeed to see a print out so I can scribble on it and comprehend the spaghetti code I created. 'New' would calm my nerves. I still have my old printer cable from the MX-80 in a box deep in my garage (I won't be able to find it when I need it though). I made mine too, from a diagram from something somewhere. It worked, so, there's that. I'm sure I can research that easy enough. A friend had that Canon... I think. I just remember how sleek it looked next to my 'box' of a printer. That LX-350 is calling my name. I just wish I could be sure it would work. I might just have to get one to tell if it will. It sure looks 80's NEW!

I may have found it!!!!!! It looks like an 80's dot-matrix printer, it's name sounds sorta like MX-80, is priced like one, has a 9-pin head, prints slow, prints graphics poorly and looks like it might work with our old hardware. Tell me what I'm missing... https://epson.com/For-Work/Printers/Impact/LX-350-Impact-Printer/p/C11CC24001 LX-350 Impact Printer $231.00 Epson, world leader of Impact Printers, introduces a new printer with the same technology, reliability and quality of its predecessors, but with a more compact presentation and robustness. The new LX-350 has fast and durable EPSON 9-Pin technology, prints up to 347 characters per second and is ideal for front and back office applications needing continuous paper or multi-part stationery. Now more reliable than ever, the LX-350 has a mean time between failure of 10,000 operating hours. Model: C11CC24001 High reliability: MTBF of 10,000 operating hours Power-efficient: Energy efficient model for less power consumption Economical: New Ribbon yield of 4 Million characters Easy integration: Parallel, Serial and USB interfaces Compact design: Fits neatly onto desks In the Box: Epson LX-350 Impact Printer Ribbon Printer Driver Quick Installation Guide Parallel Cable Power Cable Printing Technology: 9-pin, serial, impact dot matrix, narrow carriage Print Direction: Text Mode: Bi-directional Graphics Mode: Uni-directional (bi-directional via software) ISO Print Speed: High Speed Draft: 347 cps (10 cpi), 357 cps (12 cpi), 390 cps (15 cpi) Draft: 260 cps (10 cpi), 312 cps (12 cpi), 223 (15 cpi) Near Letter Quality: 65 cps (10 cpi), 78 cps (12 cpi), 55 cps (15 cps) Character Sets: 13 standard versions 15 international character sets 43 NLSP versions Resident Bitmapped Fonts: Epson Draft: 10, 12, 15 cpi proportional Epson Roman: 10, 12, 15 cpi proportional Epson San Serif: 10, 12, 15 cpi proportional Epson OCR-B: 10 cpi Bar Code Fonts: EAN-13, EAN-8, Interleaved 2 of 5, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 39, Code 128, POSTNET, REVIEWS: ★★★★★2 out of 5 stars. · 3 years ago Great for Documents; Lousy for Web Pages and Forms I really like the printer for documents especially since it has a USB port and can be connected to a router for remote printing. Printing web pages and forms such as 1099Rs is terrible. The print is not legible. I have tried all combinations of settings on the control panel Font and print quality (dots per inch) in the Printer setup on my computer. I can tell no difference in readability no matter what combination I use. I bought the printer primarily because my wife likes to print recipes from the internet. The printer is virtually useless for that. My recommendation below is for printing the items I bought the printer for. ✘ No, I do not recommend this product. ★★★★★5 out of 5 stars. · 7 months ago I salute Epson for still supporting legacy intefaces I don’t understand the harsh criticism of this product. If you want nice graphics and crisp text, buy a laser printer or an ink-jet printer. Back in the eighties, when I got my Epson, a dot matrix was the only affordable printer. These days laser and ink-jet printers are sold absurdly cheap, so they can hook you on the consumables. I kept my eighties dot matrix Epson to print labels, a task it excels at. I am grateful to Epson that they still make this product, supporting legacy interfaces at an affordable price for what must surely be a very limited market, because if mine fails, I’ll need to replace it with this one. ✔ Yes, I recommend this product.

The X-24B is my 2nd favorite aircraft of all time. My first is the X-3! Not for their technical specifications or historical value or achievements, just their looks. They both look 'RIGHT'!

I would think that the powerful, supported, hacked, Raspberry Pi CAN print wireless to a WiFi enabled printer. Even my iPhone, with software, prints to my WiFi printer. Why not the Pi?

Noise canceling anything is a boon to mankind. Headphones in light aircraft are finally comfortable, other than the sweat, and you see them on passengers in planes and trains. I agree that dot-matrix printers are annoying! At least they sound like they are working really, really, hard at producing something for you. I wonder why you seem to be the first person to think of this. Companies find millions of ways to diversify their product lines, but this never crossed their minds? Great idea.

Thank you! The Canon would be new-ish and it is good to know about a device that was actually used with our little TI! The 'modern dot-matrix' with legacy connectors is what I am comfortable with. I like the idea of fan-fold paper too. Easier to keep track of without using staples! I'll check the Epson product site and look at the specifications. Auto repair places are still using them with multi-part paper for invoices and such. This printer is WAY too much printer (Price, Speed etc.), but maybe not if it does what I want. I can still use it with my PC's and SBC's. It does everything else that I would want. EPSON LQ-590II SERIES Dot matrix printer Printing Method = Impact dot matrix Number of Pins = 24 pins Number of columns = 80 columns Hi-Speed USB - compatible with USB 2.0 specification, Parallel Here is where I fall down. How do I find out if this is associated with the ancient Epson communication code? Barcodes = Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, EAN-8, Interleaved 2 of 5, POSTNET, UPC-A, UPC-E Character Tables = PC437, PC708, PC720, PC850, PC858, PC864, PCAR864, ISO-8859-15, Roman 8, Italic That RetroPrinter seems worth investigating. I will poke around checking it out. The TIPI seems to be the thing lots talk about. I'll actually have to read more. Just a bit Leary of added complexity. One more thing for me to screw up or maintain! I was in the IT industry for more than 2 decades and I am a bit tired of hunting down printing problems. My old MX-80 just worked like a brick in a wall. It did what it was designed to do and never quit. I just had to add ink carts and paper. Thank you both for contributing! I'll report back when I find a solution I'm comfortable with. Onward!

Back in the day I had an Epson MX-80 dot-matrix printer with GrafTrax+ added (I loved it)! I think GrafTrax+ was a chip that was added to aid in printing graphics. I could hunt one of these dinosaurs down on the Internet, or I could ask all of you if you have a new replacement printer that would work on our TI today? I am not worried about WYSIWYG text, just good old dot-matrix style printouts for programming. I would like to buy a modern/new dot-matrix printer so I can get new ink cartridges for it and paper. Epson still sells dot-matrix printers for business applications and provides ink and paper for them. Would any of them work? Are there any printers out there that still speak an ancient dialect of Epson? Thanks for your interest and help in advance. I just want to get up and started without having to build a Frankenstein Monster printer setup. I have a PEB with an RS232 card that I used for this purpose back then. I am assuming it all still works. I know it had a special cable with a couple of wires moved around on the connector at the printer end.

I could solder up my own, but my time is precious these days. A built and tested board would be helpful. Thanks for thinking about another round of builds.

Of course you did! You are so amazing. Thanks for being around, tinkering and sharing. What is possible? Can the TI send and receive a file to another server? To DropBox? That function alone would revolutionize access to the TI. While at work, I could drop a file into DropBox, go home and access it on the TI and vice versa. With the TIPI how much more functionality is available? With a true 80 column Word Processor and Multiplan Spreadsheet, modern printer usage and DropBox... All of a sudden, my TI starts to look like a home office or tiny business machine like in the old days. Games are fun, but productivity would keep it on my desk in my home office and out of the closet. A Newbie buys an ebay 99/4A, buys and installs his shiny new F18A MK2 VDP replacement, and a newly designed side car with 32k RAM, 2 SD card connections, TIPI, Internet DropBox type access, RS232 Printer hookup, 80 column Word and Multiplan software, Speech Controller attached, and nothing else! Workin' hard... and then you feel like a quick 30 games of Hunt the Wumpus are in order. Yah' just do it!

I imagine much of this is dependent upon the F18A and F18A MK2. That VDP replacement, maintaining backwards compatibility, has opened our eyes to practical and fun uses. A true 80 character Word processer and Multiplan spreadsheet would open new vistas. When real work is saved in the 99/4A environment, we will want to send it out into the world, and get profitable responses in return. The TIPI can be the next generation modem for us. Printing is still a real issue. How can we print out invoices without a modern replacement, even if it is dot matrix style product? Can TIPI help with printing? A small business can be run on the old hardware, albeit with much toil. A small business can be run WELL with 80 columns, printing and connectivity to the modern world. TIPI will now be the 99/4A's port to the outside world. Think Large. What form will that take? Can we send attachments to an email address? Or, barring that, dropping a file into a drop-box? I think the goals should be practical. The fun will follow with Internet gaming, 99/4A to 99/4A, and such.