Airshack

Here's a demo using TIdBiT and coding BASIC on a TI-99/4A without line numbering:

Do you attend the retro computer group meetings in Indy? The Floppy Day's Podcast host Randy is usually there.

So when is the 2019 faire going down?

Thanks Sparky! I enjoyed reading this on my flight from Nashville to Philly today.

http://www.allbasic.info/forum/index.php

Perfection is the enemy of good.

I picked this up this week...both extremely informative and enjoyable. Found this: I’m only half-way through it and already have learned so much about the origins of: BASIC, Time Share systems, and the early microcomputer era. Easy to enjoy the fascinating stories within. Recommend. So is it safe to assume the whole “TI only supplied Microsoft with a TI interpreter” deal was yet another example of TI’s closed system approach biting them in the posterior? Looks like Microsoft did a version for the 99/4 which understandably ran too slow, so TI rolled their own less-slower BASIC?

Classic99 on a modern laptop is my portable TI-99/4A.

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Please post the driver if able Greg.

Please post sketch mate? Do you really need the cart port expander to use this software with the SuperSketch?

Looks fun! Was that a vectrex screen shot?

May need a thread for remote 99er activities. Where’s the most remote location you’ve played ENK?

No photo validation waiver approved.

No photos = it didn't happen.

We use a 10” LCD for VAST meetings. I have a 7” screen which seems barely adequate. Nice project! I’m thinking about cutting into one of my beige models with the ole Dremel. TI had it right originally with the internal speaker. Maybe a headphone jack too! I’m going to rig one of these with the speaker inside. Thanks for the inspiration! Needs 32K and FlashGROM. How about a battery pack somehow? Something from a laptop?

I have an original Xbox running MAME in a large arcade cabinet. Wondering if I can get this to run your TI-99/4 GUI/Launcher? Any ideas where to begin Chris? I don't know anything about MAME since this all installed semi-automatically via a package deal with the other emulators. Watched a video and got it all done without learning the details of what I was doing. Is the MAMEoX just a Launcher itself? Assuming I'd have to somehow add your Launcher seperately?

$ = USD > = Hex

Another question about Blasto is why "Trademark Milton Bradley." I know they wrote it but how do they get to claim the trademark on a Blasto port? I suppose MB purchased the rights to Blasto? By 1978 Sega owned Gremln: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlin_Industries Then in 1979 Car Wars comes out which is an obvious clone of Gremlin's Head On. I suppose Car Wars style games were all over the place without legal measures being exercised. Much like the multiple versions of Space Invaders everywhere back then. Crazy how you could just steal ideas back then and make no effort to share the credit.

Photos from the event would be greatly appreciated.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Me too. To this day I despise TI Disk Manager cartridges. The way the system manages disk drives is so after-market, it hurts. The original TI-99/4 with it’s BASIC manual proved an excellent introduction to computing. It was fun saving and loading games from cassette. This was advanced stuff for those crossing over from video game consoles. The machine really got me excited about game programming. I didn’t mind the chicklet keyboard because I hadn’t anything to compare it to. Then came the giant anvil to my 16 year-old dreams. The Extended BASIC cartridge. That one got me very excited at the time it was released. I believe I willingly paid $90. After a few days of using it I realized the damn collision detection call was virtually useless due to the sloth pacing of XB itself. Many issues listed on this thread explain why. What good is a fast sprite if you can’t find it’s actual location in a timely manner? The final nail in the coffin for me was the price of a new 99/4A console, and a reasonably equipped PEB. Way too expensive. Hello Apple ][+. Apple // graphics and sound were inferior to the TI but everything else was better. Plus, tons of software due to the open architecture approach. Why was this obvious to a very average 16 year old but not the TI leadership? IMHO the giant military grade PEB is an attempt to save face. TI should never have tried to save the 99/4 via the 99/4A + Fire-Hose PEB route. They should have designed a new grown-up computer right away. Admit failure, liquidate stock, learn from your mistakes. Was the 99/4 ever salvageable with all these mostly unnecessary restrictions we’ve listed on this thread? Apple/Atari/Commodore/Tandy didn’t need a giant expensive PEB to get the computer to behave like an adult. Maybe the first TRS-80s did but not the others. How about a 99/8 with internal expansion slots, built-in serial port, 32k expandable to 64k, and plug in disk drive? Anything less was doomed to fail. Unfortunately, the only computer the 99/4A + PEB combo bested was the 99/4. Which is not to say I don’t love this machine. I do. Just...someone in Lubbock decided to put lipstick on a pig. What TI could have done better was learn from their mistakes and start over. In the mid to late 80s Tramiel and Shiraz Shivji (C-64 fame) at the then smallish Atari Corp, with a shoestring budget, created an entirely new ST line, including the 68000 16-bit Atari ST models, in less than seven months. After a frenzy of designing, programming, and testing, Atari Corp was able to produce FIVE working prototypes in time for Winter CES 1985. FIVE new computers! The entirely new 68000 "Jackintosh" ST models in only five months! Maybe big bad TI lacked a sense of urgency? TI should have cowboy’d-up and started over by early 1981. They could have dominated the 1981 Christmas season with a world beater.

Interested to see what comes of this.

Brett says, “They sent them back to TI. All of the computers sold to employees were reconditioned.” To his knowledge ALL refurbs were done in Lubbock at TI. The refurbished units were sold at significant discounts to employees. That may be a former TI employees computer. Maybe a friend or relative of an employee?

Hope y'all are having a blast in Austin. Been in bed all week with a bilateral ear infection. Enjoying the video feed and looking forward to re-watching everything soon with actual sound.

I have a former TI Lubbock Fab tech buddy whom used to refurbish the factory returned TI-99/4As. He also worked on the production line failures. I'll send him your message and get a definitive answer.