blackbox

September 19, 2023

re
http://ftp.whtech.com/Users/stephen/

That is splendid, many thanks. Finding something just right is proving quite hard and the clock is ticking. Dear Ciro has very kindly offered a subdomain for my content , which is another possibility. Right now github seems a possible repository. I'll post here when things are properly settled, but the wht content can remain forever if that's ok.

It has the advantage of being searchable and I can update the content as required. Many many thanks, that allows me time to do things properly.

Best wishes Stephen

September 14, 2023

Hello. This is to advise the community that my web host is withdrawing their service from the end of October 2023. If there is anything on my website you need to stash, now is the time to do it.
I am entirely happy for anyone to copy any content to their own web site that they may wish.

If there is anyone on here who can post to the data/media side of archive.org, please do feel free to parcel up my web site and add it to archive.org in any way they see fit - the archive.org requirements for adding content are above my head. Suitable "collections" to add to would seem to be:
Texas Instruments TI 99/4a Books
Vintage BASIC Games: TI-99/4A
Folkscanomy Computer: Books on Computers and Programming
Computer Magazines

I will make every effort to ensure that all the pages and content of my website are backed up on web.archive.org by mid October- alas the web archive is not searchable- to see the archived pages just add "https://web.archive.org/web/202309/" before the original URL, that is instead of:
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/TI.htm you would need to type in :
https://web.archive.org/web/202309/http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/TI.htm.

If you have any bookmarks to any part of my site please adjust the URL to now include the web.archive.org prefix as above. Make sure the date in the url you type is 2309 to ensure you see the latest version. The page returned will indicate in its url the date the page was actually grabbed.

The main parts of the website are:
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/TI.htm - the main TI entrance page.
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/stainless1.htm - a big section listing the programs offered by Stainless with screengrabs and the magazine reviews.
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/articles.htm - lots of articles and extra sources. Scans of the user group magazines are already to be found on the wht website.
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/book.htm- the book what I wrote. (safely on pixelpedant but without the correcton sheet)
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/pc99dsk.htm - disks for pc99 and v9t9 emulators (the UK disk library is safely stashed in wht already)

Feel free to explore the rest of the website- there is a wide range of unique material including radio history, music, and some real oddities.

Note: I cannot read nor reply to DMs via this forum- my computers and browsers are too old and as a pensioner I really can't be replacing everything every year. Any web host that does not support FTP is out of my league.

with best wishes Blackbox

December 27, 2022

The file to download is: TIBASIC_to_SSS_MEGA_Pack_V1.0.2_Addendum_by_TMOP.zip s

December 27, 2022

99Vaders bin can be found in the basic-bin none-compiled pack

See the post dated 14th August 2022 in the thread
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/311250-ti-basicti-extended-basic-games-that-are-worth-to-be-compiled/page/32/

It cannot be compiled but has been converted - enjoy.
s

December 26, 2022

Thank you Ernie- your hard work so early on has certainly saved a lot of TI software. It is a pity that so many user groups rushed to process their entire collections rapidly with slightly incompatible software. I have looked at thousands of disk images, many corrupted- and it seems that the original TI 5.25 inch disks have lasted far longer than their replacements; that many TI disks suffered an element of damage by being processed through Myarc disk controllers, more damage if a Geneve was involved, more damage if the original TI disk had fractured files (typically a fairly full disk but the disk history was also an element), and extensive damage if the now fragile TI Disk had then been edited in any way eg by adding a LOAD program or extra docs. The transferred dsk images remain fragile if the original TI disk bit map was adrift- the safest way to treat the dsk images is to create a new blank TI disk image and copy the files over, creating a new bitmap.
So two items remain: Does anyone have access to or know of a TI Disk Collection not on the main repositories yet?
and -
Has anyone been able to run with an FG99 and standard console, the Tunnels of Doom snapshot .BIN files which have the data preloaded
(No-one has asked- but I do intend to add the Milwaukee disks to WHT in due course- after the TIUGUK disks have been thoroughly checked out and recreated if lost, if possible.. In the absence of a catalog I will look to create a detailed listing of the Milwaukee disks to make them more accessible.)
Happy new year all..... s

December 25, 2022

Thanks for that - I am in touch with Mike and just sent him the Milwaukee disks, which he didn't have til now. It made me wonder if there were other disk collections out there keeping a low profile... we need a concerted effort to get these before they totally disappear. I will be putting the TIUGUK library onto WHT when (if?) I get it into a reasonable state (target 80%, target date is March 2023, but there is much hard work to be done....) and then adding the appropriate WHT page onto web.archive as well as links on my own website. Intention is to keep the information out there for the long term. All the best S

December 25, 2022

Thanks for those TMOP. I split the C&D files to maintain compatibility with some much older software.

Sadly your bin files also do not function with fg99 - I take a little comfort from that - but there is still the sad fact that the environment that would most benefit from this treatment is proving itself unhelpful.

Anyone else try these with fg99 and get them to work? It is either timing or we need to trim something somewhere somehow....

Tunnels does take some strange paths- for example the data file includes a PAB which overwrites the normal pab- very odd.

all the best for the New Year s

December 25, 2022

It seems I can no longer attach anything and this new sparkly host doesn't seem to like links either- last try-
downloads from my webspace at
" h t t p : // " shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/ti/todassaultthecity.zip and

* h t t p : // * shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/ti/todcomputernightmare.zip

......stephen

December 25, 2022

A couple of zips attached with BIN files for snapshots of Tunnels of Doom - Assault the City and Computer Nightmare. - no need to load the tape data.
These load and run fine on a PC using MESS but the intention was to use "preloaded" adventures with Final Grom.

On my console these crash on FinalGrom at a fairly early stage- my guess is a speed issue with the 40k Grom file. Do these work with your consoles? If no- any hints on what would need fixing?

I have quite a set of these but have come to a bit of a stop. Garfield adventure seems to have a problem generally- possibly my dump is a bad one.

While here- I am reconstructing the TI User Group disk library to put up on wht, and would welcome any web addresses you have for collections of disk images, especially the more recent disks- I have wht, archive org, and the Cyc already and have just added Milwaukee. And still disks missing...

Comments welcome. All the best for the season and the coming year- Stephen

December 16, 2022

Hi there- yes please, Martin of Intrigue is still looking to contact Simon- they were schoolboy programmers together.

Martin is at tudodesk.com.

Stephen

October 18, 2022

And on the topic of disappearing web assets- if you know a website is about to disappear eg due to excessive domain costs, it can be safely placed into archive.org. However- it cannot be saved after it has gone.
If you have a TI website that is about to go, and have a week or two's notice, make a big noise about it on this forum and with any luck it will be saved for you.
If there are any assets to be placed on WHT please advertise them here. Perhaps we need a couple of threads: "Please save to wht" and "Please archive" ?

There are several methods to save a website to archive.org, the best is to have a log in but it is not required. Or post on this forum.
But you must act before the website disappears.
It does not have to be a web page that is disappearing- if a page is amended it can also be resaved to archive.,org - they have internal limits on how often you can do this, but seem to accept every couple of months without a qualm. ss

October 18, 2022

Version 8.3e has now been added to wht
http://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/TiDir/

and the wht page has again been saved to archive.org:
Archive org current url for the page is:
http://web.archive.org/web/20221018085443/https://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/TiDir/
and the zip can be downloaded from there.

8.3e is quite a bit bigger than 8.3b- up from 617k to 917k. Quite a bit bigger than dear old 41b at 50k!
How these youngsters grow when you take your eyes off them.... :-)

ss

October 17, 2022

The wht page has now been archived to archive.org INCLUDING the zip files-
see
http://web.archive.org/web/20221017202848/https://ftp.whtech.com/pc utilities/TiDir/

ss

October 17, 2022

Thanks, the latest versions have been added to whtech (pc utilities/TiDir)

ss

October 16, 2022

Version 6.4a is available at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20190829051936/http://www.ti99-geek.nl/Projects/ti99dir/ti99dir.html

I would recommend that any such TI asset pages are saved to archive.org (using the save now option etc) whenever there is an update. Also useful if when an update is advised here that someone saves a copy of any zip or dsk file to wht - I can now post to wht even if I can't post attachments on this site!

ss

October 16, 2022

However the important zip file is not on archive.org, which leaves us for the time being with some rather old versions at:

http://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/TiDir/
(from 2011 - v4)

or I have a copy of v5.2 at:
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/Tidir52b.zip

Has anyone else saved a more recent version somewhere? ss

October 16, 2022

archive.org to the rescue:

http://web.archive.org/web/20210507163015/https://www.ti99-geek.nl/Projects/ti99dir/ti99dir.html

has version 8.2c

September 7, 2022

I can't post documents on here- but I can give you links to where I am now putting them....
Recently added to wht:
Chicago User Group:
8709 http://ftp.whtech.com/user%20groups/Chicago%20TIUG/newsletters/chicago8709.pdf

UK TI*MES:
No 43 http://ftp.whtech.com/user%20groups/TI-MES-England/Times/TImes%20(UK)%2093Q4%20n43.pdf
No 44 http://ftp.whtech.com/user%20groups/TI-MES-England/Times/TImes%20(UK)%2094Q1%20n44.pdf
No 45 http://ftp.whtech.com/user%20groups/TI-MES-England/Times/TImes%20(UK)%2094Q2%20n45.pdf
regards BlackBox

August 12, 2022

If you would like to see how Bruce programmed in Assembly, I can strongly recommend his 76 articles "The Art of Assembly" which appeared in micropendium (available at wht.com./magazines/micropendium). from issue 5 (Jan 1999) to the end of micropendium..
Many of the earlier articles were reprinted in various user group magazines but you need micropendium for the full set (he actually wrote 83, but micropendium ceased publication...)
Hello Micropendium set owners- care to put them all together into a book style pdf?
stephen

August 10, 2022

Old ones! My PC is old. My operating system is old. (I am old!) But they work.
Browsers available on this machine are Opera 12.16; Konqueror 3.5.10; Firefox 20.0; Seamonkey 2.17, lynx 2.8.7rel.2; and w3m/0.5.3
The principal lack is no support for EC only servers.

I have been trying to get the latest Vivaldi on board but there are so many problems I think it may be impossible on this machine.
(NB: When you have an archaic nvidia video card, upgrading the kernel is not supported- never ever buy nvidia!)

So I guess that will be the last of my uploads to the forum. It's been fun! I will put together a final updated index to the software manual/software docs posts on here, and add it to my website tomorrow at:
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/atariage_docs_index.pdf

with an overall index of all web sites to be found at
http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/manual_index.pdf

I'll still be dropping by and looking in - mine is the sad face you see at the window in the snow and ice.... bye s
.

August 10, 2022

Due to the server settings at present I have to access the site using a proxy. (works with 2 out of 3 proxies tried). My best endeavours will not allow me to see any web site where the server is set to "https elliptical curve only" - Microsoft themselves dislike this setting!! Try using elliptical curve only on an Azure hosted site...
(I also can't access websites that pay cloudflare to stop anyone visiting them by using a paranoid setting!- not a problem with atariage)

With forums.atariage I can view the contents, download documents, log in.... and if you can read this I can post text..

BUT I am unable to upload documents at the moment... indeed I can only see the reply box if I turn off css. With css turned on- nothing. With script turned on-nothing.

No "choose files" option with script and/or css on or off - and I can never use any "drag and drop" options on any web site so no more uploads from me just now. Give it a week or so to settle down and then if I've not posted here again, check wht. I could post an updated index to atariage as a single huge post, but I'll be friendly and avoid that- however I may add it as a link on my own webpage.

Have fun Stephen

August 6, 2022

Here is a zip file containing clean hi res TIF images scanned from the British TI99/4a User Group magazine:
TI*MES Issue 42, Autumn 1993

for you to read, OCR, PDF, print or add to an archive.org collection.
80 pages, A5 size, pale blue covers, white pages inside.

Some longer articles than usual in this issue. Separate pdf of contents.

If I can access the new site OK it looks as if updating the articles list should be easy- keep watch! If all else fails this thread at least seems to be fully on web archive- http://web.archive.org/web/202208/https://atariage.com/forums/topic/248687-ti-99-docs-manuals-ebooks-lost-found/#comments

TImes 93Q3 n42.zip TImes 93Q3 n42_contents.pdf

August 4, 2022

Ahhh.... just after I put up a list of links on Atariage we learn all the url's are going to change in a few days.... oh well. The wht links are still fine. Let's see- before the change occurs some basic information.

The list has links in two forms:
/?p=3866062
/?do=findComment&comment=3866062
The first link actually takes you to the second, which is the real link. Both forms function as at 4 Aug 2022.
To access these links via the web archive you need to add to the start:
http://web.archive.org/web/20220801/
I have selected two at random in the older format, and these both return the page holding the document, which is available:
Sengoku Jidai (Cassette)(Not Polyoptics) (2 or 3 players)
http://web.archive.org/web/20220801/https://atariage.com/forums/topic/248687-ti-99-docs-manuals-ebooks-lost-found/?p=4195292
Sewermania
http://web.archive.org/web/20220801/https://atariage.com/forums/topic/248687-ti-99-docs-manuals-ebooks-lost-found/?p=4227083
And I have chosen one at random in the newer format:
Disk of the Ancient Ones:
http://web.archive.org/web/20220801/https://atariage.com/forums/topic/248687-ti-99-docs-manuals-ebooks-lost-found/?do=findComment&comment=4659799
In all three cases I received the page containing the post and then did a page search for the title.

As the results I got back from archive.org were all dated 4th August I suspect someone has requested that archive.org archive the whole forum for safety sake!?
SO.... that index list is not a complete waste of time and can still be used, just add the web archive bit at the start.

GOING FORWARD: Three years back, at the last change, I had problems, but work here rewriting the web page css and by Albert adjusting the server got me back in, to add several scanned documents over the years... this next change is quite likely to also lock me out for a short period, but if it does I will see if Albert can assist. If everything works well, I will adjust the list and repost it.
If Albert and I can't make the new homepage work for me, and I am excluded, I will scan to wht instead.
Yes I have ancient software and yes I have even older hardware - but adding scanned documents does not merit my buying new hardware. I have tried upgrading my browser, failed miserably, it is beyond me. The owners of the software to be used market the ONLY Android app that crashed my router (!!!) so I have no great faith in their coding.
take care all, I can squeeze one more in by Monday, and then we shall see what we shall see. Stephen

July 31, 2022

Two items for interest...

Where are the manuals?
It has been ages since I listed the manuals alphabetically here- we even have a chock full new website of them. So here we have three lists in pdf format:
1. All sources index- tells you the website where you can find the manual for X.
Quite easy to locate on ti99iuc and pixelpedant, but atariage and wht are harder to find things so therefore:
2. Atariage alphabetic list with actual links to the posts.
3. wht alphabetic list which will guide you to the folder in which the document is found.
Errors and omissions are of course all mine. Lists compiled July 2022.

Where can I get the software Goflyakite?
I was considering an index of software, but with 600 Basic/XB games transferred to fg99 bin files alone, that would be an immense task. Certainly wht, archive.org, ti99iuc, and other sources have a huge amount of software available. Do we have or need a thread on here for people to ask about software they are looking for? Not just a one off thread for one item of software,but a continuing thread for software availability queries.

bb

atariage_docs_index.pdf manual_index.pdf wht_manual_index.pdf

July 31, 2022

Here is a zip file containing clean hi res TIF images scanned from the British TI99/4a User Group magazine:
TI*MES Issue 40, Spring 1993 - part 2 of 2.

for you to read, OCR, PDF, print or add to an archive.org collection.
80 pages, A5 size, yellow covers, white pages inside.

Some longer articles than usual in this issue. Separate pdf of contents below.

Now we are into rather thicker magazines updates may become less often!

TImes 93Q1 n40_pt2.zip TImes 93Q1 n40 contents.pdf