Compiled BASICs using labels?

[Compiled BASICs using labels?]

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

 

 

[Chicago TI International World Faire]

On 9/5/2019 at 4:25 PM, FarmerPotato said:

I used the Megabus for Chicago. Right now it’s as low as $6 for the 3.25 hour leg from Indianapolis to Chicago. (It’s ridiculously cheap when you book in advance. It is also ridiculously posh inside for the price, WiFi and AC.) In Chicago, I use public bus from the airport to Evanston where the show is. Don’t know if that works for you, but it would mean less wear on the car. 

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

[Chicago TI International World Faire]

So when is the 2019 faire going down?

[Yesterdays News]

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

 

[Who created TI-99 BASIC, TI or MS?]

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

[The Best and Final Joystick Adapter]

Perfection is the enemy of good.

[Who created TI-99 BASIC, TI or MS?]

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?

[My Mini TI System Is Complete]

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

[Who created TI-99 BASIC, TI or MS?]

*** removed ***

[TI Related -- Ebay / Heads Up Notice]

58 minutes ago, arcadeshopper said:

I had a supersketch driver for ti-artist as well, used that before the mechatronic mouse

Please post the driver if able Greg.

[TI Related -- Ebay / Heads Up Notice]

1 hour ago, Ksarul said:

SketchMate was a software disk that would add options to your use of the SuperSketch. I may actually have a copy of it, as I saw the manual when I was looking for something else in a bunch of third party manuals.

Please post sketch mate?

 

Do you really need the cart port expander to use this software with the SuperSketch?

[My Mini TI System Is Complete]

Looks fun! Was that a vectrex screen shot?

[My Mini TI System Is Complete]

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

[New Shell]

On 8/16/2019 at 9:12 AM, RickyDean said:

While I was working in Iraq

No photo validation waiver approved. 

[New Shell]

47 minutes ago, RickyDean said:

I have traded around several internals on the 4A and have placed one in a KayPro II case(aiming to make a portable) and into a Rave 99 box. If this is what you mean.

No photos = it didn't happen.

[My Mini TI System Is Complete]

On 8/14/2019 at 8:12 AM, --- Ω --- said:

👉 Thanks!  It was a little something and inexpensive to do while waiting for what will probably be the best and most important item for the TI-World in 2020.

I'm afraid InsaneMultitasker is right though, it's nearly impossible to get through the level 3 tunnel in Parsec using that screen. 😵

 

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?

[OoeyGUI Version 3 Released!]

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?

[FlashROM99 vs FinalGROM99]

On 8/11/2017 at 11:11 AM, cbmeeks said:

BTW, I cannot get used to > for hexadecimal addresses when the world uses $. Lol.

$ = USD

> = Hex

[Do all TI Games use Sprites?]

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. 

[Great time at Fest 99/4 ATX]

3 hours ago, GuruSantiago said:

There was also a museum setup with all kinds of Ti consumer products from calculators to speak n spells along with other products that I never saw before like the talking clown head that spoke when parts of the head were moved or removed. Un-released Ti computer products were also on display.

Photos from the event would be greatly appreciated.

[What could they have done better with the 99/4a?]

On 4/24/2017 at 1:57 PM, PeBo said:

I know that memory cost a fortune in 1978, and that as a result rom space was limited, but the lack of a simple CAT command in TI Basic has always driven me crazy.

   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.

[where are all the dockbus peripherals?]

Interested to see what comes of this.

[TI-99/4A Reconditioned At The Factory Or By A Third Party?]

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?

[Fest 99/4ATX (Austin, TX) Weekend August 9 to August 11, 2019]

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.  

[TI-99/4A Reconditioned At The Factory Or By A Third Party?]

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.