Opinions/Help Regarding My Quest To Build a PI99/4a

[Opinions/Help Regarding My Quest To Build a PI99/4a]

 

I have an idea for a project. My son is getting a Raspberry PI 3. I am hoping that this little computer will be for him what the TI99/4a was for me when I was young. I have seen people putting Raspberry PIs inside classic computers and for obvious nostalgic reasons this appealed to me. It would be nice to have all the bits contained in a roomy protective case and a classic computer just seems “right”. Plus I want to get various emulations of older computers running on it for him to mess around with… sort of his own personal computer museum. I know someone has done a mod like this with a TI99/4a before and I would only consider such a thing if I could find a unit that was headed for the recycling bin otherwise. In other words…

No destruction of working units!

No permanent modifications to the case.

Salvage all parts and keep as replacement parts for my two TI994/a computers.

I don’t think I would do the keyboard conversion (ruin a working TI99 keyboard? feels wrong) the PI 3 has BlueTooth so… I think we will leave the TI keyboard as decorative and use a wireless.

I have been looking for a few weeks but I am a bit frustrated with eBay at the moment, people seem like they may be purposefully obscuring if potential units are working or not or just lack the knowledge to test them. I see a lot of units labeled "untested". The crazy thing is the prices for these non working or "untested" as-is units are not any less than a good deal an a nice working unit. I have passed on 2-3 nice looking and working TI99/4a auctions that closed at around $40 due to my unwillingness to take a useful unit out of circulation. The two sales on kinda ugly, beat up, definitely non working TI99s I currently find both work out to about that same price or more. I have also passed of a couple of "untested" or non-working sales because the shipping seemed outrageous (can they inflate that with a handling fee or something?). This is really making me regret the downfall of the huge computer surplus stores that used to exist.

Questions for TI99/4a people:

Do you like or hate this idea?

Any ideas on getting a nice looking non functional unit that fits my criteria?

Has anyone ever tried to buff the scratches out of a unit? (Steel Wool? Is it bare aluminum or is there a finish of some sort?)

What is the current state of TI99/4a emulation on the Raspberry PI3? Anyone have one?

I don’t know if the people that did the “TI PI” even bothered to get a TI emulator running on it. All I could see is that they installed RetroPI, played some console games and called it a day. I have read that TI99/Sim can be made to work. My goal would be for the PI99/4a to sit proudly in our entertainment center and act as a TI99/4a by default, but with the switch of a card could be one of several classic computers or a computer with a modern OS.

Thanks in advance for any advice you would like to share.

 

Really nice work. I believe you are missing the oportunity to put that TI keyboard to work WITHOUT touching anything from the "real" hardware. Do you know the Soarer's Converter for matrix keyboards? https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=50437.0;all

For a Raspberry guy, an arduino-based board would be just a walk in the partk. I´ve done myself with an old and broken TI and it works perfect!! Let me know if you need any help with the configuration of keys. I've pulled up a cool config having almost any PC keystroke in the "tiny" TI keyboard.