blackbox

There is a lot in the FG99 (and the multicart) and if the console power supply is having to meet all the demand there may not be enough power to go round, which could cause the fairly random effects you describe. If you have problems with no 32k connected, and just speech plus parsec, that suggests a problem with the module socket. The module actually plugs into a socket which in turn plugs into a second socket at right angles and both sets of connections have to be good. The internal socket needs the console to be taken apart. There was also often a rubbery "cleaner" the module pushed through to get to its socket which was supposed to clean the module contacts but ended up spreading dirt on them- most of these clip on parts were removed. So much opportunity for poor contacts...

May be worth mentioning that with a speech synth between the console and 32k ram, the 32k needs its own power, as the speech synth does not pass it through. The FG99 and 32k without speech can manage without a separate power source. I have had similar corrupted screens to that shown at http://atariage.com/forums/topic/289705-final-grom99-wont-work-if-speech-expansion-is-connected/?do=findComment&comment=4248384 and it seems to be due to mechanical module seating problems - the console module seating was never intended to have a module pressed on from the top, and no matter how carefully I press those switches my FG99 module seating becomes tenuous, especially leading to GROM errors, but also the screen corruption as shown above. I am considering taking the FG99 out of the module case so that I can seat it more deeply into the console! (This thread seems to be duplicated? Clean up?)

Appendices to TI Manuals Clean hi res tif files for you to ocr, pdf or print. Whether you are an original purchaser or second hand, there is a good chance you don't have all these official changes and notes on various TI Manuals, so here they are in one place- well, two places. Check the small text file for more detailed info on the contents, but briefly zip1 contains appendices covering the changes between the 4 and the 4A. changes between XB versions 100-110, and general TIB and XB corrections. zip2 covers the floppy drives (may help some having problems) and the change to the PEB from push button switch to rocker switch and the new back panel fuse. Now doing some really thick cassette program manuals, Programming Aids 1 and Mailing List will be next followed by a cleaned up SPAD XIII. This may take a while. APPX Addendum zip contents.txt appendix1.zip appendix2.zip

You can perhaps appreciate my joy in paying US$32 for Zero Zap back in 1983, when money was worth more than now. Using UK inflation that would today be US$90!!!! Quite a lot for not very much. It colours my love for the program a little.

Documentation in hi res clean tif format for you to OCR, PDF or print as you wish. TI Runner Level Editor, disk from EB Software, includes appendium for Version 1.3 Oldies but Goodies Games II - TI Tape PHT6017, also released on disk- the manual text refers to both versions and includes the well known games of 3D Tic Tac Toe, PegJump, Hidden Pairs, Hammurabi and Word Safari. And confuses tape owners immediately by starting: STEP 1 select TI Basic and type CALL FILES(1), - which is not very successful if you don't have a disk drive. Para 7 is "to load the program from a cassette tape" and fails to say you don't need CALL FILES(1). Oh dear. Speak and Math - TI Tape PHT6031, also released on disk which is covered first in the manual text. Requires a TE2 module and speech synthesiser. Programs are Solve It, Mix It, Greater/Less, and Write It. I've added a photo of the cassette! Impressively sharp print on these early manuals, but the pages don't quite line up and the print isn't always parallel to the page bottom..... I found a bundle of papers issued by TI in a box- a collection of "Addendum" and corrections to TI Manuals. Mine are not with the manuals and I suspect new owners who may be lucky to get manuals with modules may also lack these nuggets of gold. So my next task is to collect these together into a single zip file. Lots of pages so may take a while. Then on to Programming Aids I and Mailing List- both fairly thick. Oldies but Goodies 2 Games.zip SpeakAndMath.zip ti_runner_level_editor.zip

Football was indeed a disappointment- but do we have any fans of the incredible fast-action adrenaline packed module game ZERO ZAP??? The word "astonishing" captures it nicely.

Documentation for two items, in hi res tif format for you to ocr pdf or print as you choose.... SUPER DEMON ATTACK is what it says on the module label and the manual, but the menu choice and the title screen just say Demon Attack. An Imagic game which failed to attract me, mostly as I kept being killed - the starting level was too high for me. ARTIST PRINT SHOP by Paul Coleman / Comprodine was a utility set for users of TI Artist, supplied on disk in 1989. The original documentation was a bit blurry due to emphasised well inked print being reduced from A4 to A5. The suite included Signmaker, Banner Maker, and Stationery Maker. The images used are TI Artist _I instance files (which you had to supply) and it used TI Artist font (_F) files- one font was supplied (named PC). Stephen SUPERDEMONATTACK.zip ArtistPrintShop.zip

Not an easy choice. For no particular reason - except that I keep returning to these regularly and play them! 1. Mancala - an African strategy game. The unreleased module for this was very well written and may still be the best games software emulating the game. Good choice of set ups and playing levels. 2. Big Foot- Climb and avoid obstacles- Still love playing this, and now play it better than I did some secades ago. 3. Pole Position- racing emulation- some folks don't like this, but I do, and again I now play better than before... 4. Entrapment- silly little game to while away the time, build a wall across the screen. 5. Dragonflyer- barrier destroying shooting game- rather different. Bit of variety there and some maybe not so common, but playable on FG99 without 32k. stephen

Hi Omega- Just checked out the Chess manual at: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/275379-ti-video-chess-documentation/?do=findComment&comment=3958578 and it looks pin point sharp here and very clean. The covers really were printed as badly as Fritz scan (ahem- copied from PC99/The Cyc....). I tend to smooth the colours on the covers I scan, I don't think any of them match today's printing standards. Even the black print on the later US manuals got somewhat (eg very) fuzzy and the colour covers sometimes looked out of focus. I do have the 99/4 88 page 2 language manual as well as the 36 page 99/4A 5 language manual for VideoChess. I think the Cyc manuals were reformatted (copyright commercial product!) rather than scanned so perhaps it is a genuine scan you want? I hadn't intended to do this one but as the copy we have on the forum is (ahem) not a genuine scan I'll bump up my scanning for this in the interests of archiving. The later 99/4a version would probably be more useful. Stephen

If the titles do not appear on this list: amalgamatedlist5mar19.pdf I would be happy to add the documents to my little pile of documents to scan for the forum - but I don't have the funds to pay postage. DM me if you just want to find a good home for them and share them with the community. regards Stephen

Thanks, yes it is there, as PHM3219 - somehow I missed it! The manual will appear in a day or so as indicated above.

Demon Attack / Super Demon Attack PHM3219 I know this is available for FR99 but I couldn't see a FG99 version. When a game is available for FR99 is there a community interest in an FG99 version (eg one with a GROM file) ? Perhaps I've missed it somewhere- but just in case here is my FG99 version. Works with FG99 and also my prehistoric MESS, so probably anything that can use C and G bin files. The manual (I will add it to the documentation thread by month end) and the module label both say SUPER DEMON ATTACK but the menu entry and the game title screen just say DEMON ATTACK. I am a very poor player of this one. Watch for the manual appearing in the next week or so after http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248687-ti-99-docs-manuals-ebooks-lost-found/page-11?do=findComment&comment=4239382 regards Stephen SuperDemonAttackFG99.zip

Horrible weather has kept me in scanning so here are three more items of documentation for you- clean hi-res TIF images for you to ocr, pdf or print as you wish. Disk Memory Card- blue manual PHP1240 TI Invaders- the brown manual for the disk release, which still refers to the module version of the game Video Games One- this is the European manual, but I only have the pages in English, sorry, no French or German. The front cover is with and without the statutory UK sticker for warranty cover. Note this 1979 manual refers only to the TI99/4, so the keys used are for the 99/4, there is reference to the Equation Calculator, and the reference to "wired controllers" refers to a "side button" which is the joystick fire button.... VideoGames1 EU ENG.zip TI Invaders Disk.zip php1240 disk system card blue.zip

Documentation for the Milton Bradley (MBX)/Texas Instruments module SPACE BANDITS. The module will work with or without the MBX system. If you have tried the game without reading the manual and found it hard going, read the manual and try again. Usual hi res TIF images for you to OCR PDF or print as you wish. An added extra for this one - an ultra hi res scan (2400 dpi) of a couple of the "blue" printed letters in the manual, which puzzled me. I can't recall seeing this mode of printing used anywhere else, it made me think my eyes or scanner were going... ongoing... making progress with PHP1240 should have it done by the end of the month. I have SPAD XIII on my pile to redo as the existing scans are rather difficult (so no urgency)- the original documentation had illustrations which were in black and white and over-reduced- does anyone have access to original larger images? I have found a better photo image of the inside cover photograph so can improve on that. have fun Stephen space bandits ti_mbx.zip

Updated Programme Documentation lists. Note- some low quality docs are not referred to, to encourage someone to add a high quality version. A handful of documents have comments added to highlight low-res, smeared scans or missing or monochrome covers. BOTH lists are up to date to 5th March 2019. Errors and omissions- please let me know! First up is a TEXT list of what is on the forum, with the URLs to go to. This is basically the documentation segment from: http://atariage.com/forums/blog/567/entry-12507-strips-cards-manuals-labels-3d-objects-more-updated-02132019/ with a handful of updates since that entry was last updated. Then we have a PDF which is the amalgamated sorted list of documents from this forum and other principal websites - in particular: Atariage, ti99iuc, 99er.net, whtech.com, and www.mocagh.org I have reformatted the pdf list a little since the last one, it may be easier to refer to or print now. As I am now scanning fairly thick documents which takes a looong time, I won't reissue these lists until the start of May 2019. Hope they are useful. Regards Stephen amalgamatedlist5mar19.pdf omegalist.txt

A couple of stand alone peripheral manuals, the disk control manual has all those error codes folks keep asking about. Apart from the physical packaging the operation of the peripheral cards was the same. As the Sewermania docs were so popular I will take a little excursion to do Space Bandits in the next few days before moving on to the the very thick blue cover "Disk Memory System" peb card manual which is going to take a week or two, So - intended timetable is- in next few days, updated list of TI documentation on Atariage and across the Internet; then Space Bandits (which is quite a thick manual so maybe in 7-10 days); and hopefully by the end of March (!) the PHP1240 documentation. Meanwhile here we have in the usual clean hi res TIF format for you to ocr, pdf or scan- PHP2200 32k ram standalone peripheral PHP1800 disk control standalone peripheral Sorry about some curvature on the edges of some pages, these thick stapled manuals don't always like to lie flat (the staples are not always in line). Stephen 32kram php2200 standalone.zip php1800 disk control standalone.zip

Bumper bundle today- Dave, find the manual.... Documentation, in clean hi res TIF format for you to ocr, pdf or print as you wish for: Two TI/Milton Bradley modules for the MBX unit, which work fine without it: METEOR BELT SEWERMANIA and a TI module where I found the sfx just a tad annoying, SLYMOIDS. For peripheral lovers, the docs for the full height disk drive peripheral PHP1850, a single sheet of paper folded into 10 pages. Disk Drive PHP1850 white.zip meteorbelt.zip sewermania.zip slymoids.zip

For the record only- do not follow these pin outs! Two pages from the FIRST release of the RS232 dark green manual - multi language - PHP1220 The PDF of the green manual at ti99iuc: http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/124/download/RS232%20Card%20Interface%20PHP1220%20-%20Manual%20(EU)%20-%201103010%20-0001.pdf is clear, clean and absolutely fine and is corrected. It differs from my version of the manual so for the record here are the two differing pages- the pin out given on page 10 for the PIO pins is quite wrong in my manual, which led to an errata being pasted inside the front cover. I am just posting the two differing pages (p10 and inside front cover) for the archives, make sure you don't use the original pin outs as given in this first release, it could damage your peripheral..... regards Stephen RS232 euro 1st edition PHP1220 Archive.zip

Several peripheral manuals are on ti99iuc as below. I have additional manuals which I will post in a little while- still need to finish Sewermania and get Slymoids on---- then onwards to some fairly thick manuals. First to whet your appetite, manuals already on ti99iuc: http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/121/download/Disk%20Memory%20Drive%20(PHP1250-1850)%20-%20Manual%20(EU).pdf http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/122/download/Disk%20Memory%20Drive%20Add-On%20(EU)%20-%201103174-0000.pdf [English is some way into the document...] http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/123/download/Disk%20Memory%20System%20-%20Manual%20(EU)%20-%201103011%20-0000.pdf [php 1240 multi language dark green cover 32k] http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/120/download/Peripherial%20Expansion%20System%20Manual%20-%20EU.pdf [php1200 dark green cover PEB] http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/124/download/RS232%20Card%20Interface%20PHP1220%20-%20Manual%20(EU)%20-%201103010%20-0001.pdf [php1220- dark green cover --RS232- I have an errata which I will post] http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/download.php?fn=_archivio/175/download/WiredRemoteControllers_Manual(Eng)-(1039061-2)-Ver1.pdf [ my thicker wired remote controller manual is older and multi-linqual- despite its size it may be one that needs me to scan it...] I'll first do an errata sheet for the RS232, then scan the standalone manuals, and then do a blue cover PHP1240 [Disk card- English only] and the multi-language wired remote controls manual. Then perhaps some more games and disk programme manuals... regards Stephen

Another bulky manual supplied in the form of clean hi-res tif images for you to ocr, pdf or print as you wish. This time we have a very odd game called HOPPER (PHM 3229) No, it is not a variant of Frogger (there was an unauthorised Frogger variant in the arcades called Hopper which was transferred to other computers including dos - this isn't it). This is a version by John Philips and Mike Archuleta of the 1982 SEGA arcade game PENGO, where a penguin slides blocks of ice. They changed it into this variant- a kangaroo pushing crates... Cheat mode (?) - at the title screen press the asterisk then select your starting level from 0-9. regards Stephen Hopper.zip

I hope to be at the agm in Loughborough. The real ale is very tasty. I usually walk from the railway station- takes around 20 minutes. Stephen

Documentation for TI /Milton Bradley module BIGFOOT (now also on FG99) - one of my favorite games. Hi res tif images for you to OCR or PDF or print as you wish. Bigfoot.zip

With reference to the Sound Experiment 1 above (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248687-ti-99-docs-manuals-ebooks-lost-found/page-10?do=findComment&comment=4219271), you can find the code on disk (with expanded docs - retyped) courtesy of Sparkdrummer at http://atariage.com/forums/topic/288302-sound-digitizing/page-1?do=findComment&comment=4220895

Getting on to the long slog of TI manuals now, but first a last rarity- Documentation for GIANT ARTIST POSTERS written in c99 by Paul Coleman and distributed by Comprodine in 1989. The documentation is a little short (how do you load what with what for example!) and the original was not as clear as we like, but here it is as best as I can get it in hi-res TIF for for you to ocr, pdf or print as you wish. The disk loads with Extended Basic, works with TI Artist Vn 2 images saved as full screen (24x32) _I (instance) files, requires an Epson compatible printer, and can print an "instance" up to 24x size.. These instance files are created using the Artist option "Enhancement" then "Slides" options then "save an instance" - these files may occupy 75 sectors. Printing a 64 inch by 100 inch picture will take of the order of three hours, and probably exhaust your ribbon and you will have 80 pages to stick together... Just the documentation here...... stephen Giant_Artist_Posters.zip

The tape has gone to that big wrinkly vinegar smelling acetate heaven.... alas. Yep, great for on/off operations (you can do that in Basic with the Advertizer module...). For "amazing hifi" think of a square wave 0v/1v at fairly low frequency, speech was not readily understood.