cbmeeks

Thanks everyone!

I got my first TI-99/4a when I was 9 years old. I turned 9 in June of 1982 (yes, I am old). The TI was my first computer. My family was really poor then and I suspect my grandmother bought it for me when the TI got "really cheap". Does anyone know the timeline of TI's pricing (i.e., their price war with Commodore)? For example, was it common to get TI's for $50 in late 1982 or was that later? Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks!

Yes, I'm very familiar with MAME. I do prefer, however, more localized emulators designed for the platform.

This is great news to hear! I'm a long time Linux user (Fedora) and it gets frustrating sometimes when there isn't a Linux native version for some apps I enjoy using. Thanks for doing this!

Sorry for the dark pic. This is my current TI setup. I have a PEB loaded out in the closet. I plan on bringing out a cassette drive soon just for fun.

Will do. When I get to it, I will be on here for sure. Thanks!

I have a TI terminal on top too. Just not in this pic. It screams TI and matches the TM990 perfectly. I only wished I had a TI enclosure instead of the HP.

No. Unfortunately, I just don't have the resources and/or time to really devote looking into this machine. At the moment, it's just eye-candy for me. I do hope to get to it one day.

The monitor should be a TI monitor! I mean, that's what everyone had or wanted to have back in the day. 🙂 Also, for the love of all things holy, PLEASE tell me this will get a nice boxed, cart release! I both loved and hated this game on my C64 back in the day. And now I want to love and hate it on my TI today. LOL Great work!

Are there any good art programs for the Apple II? I'd prefer a modern tool that runs on Linux but would be OK with something that runs on real hardware if it's good. I look at all of terrific games for the II and note that many of them actually had great graphics for the day. How do you think those were created? I've considered creating my own editor but I'm still learning the wonky format of II graphics. Thanks!

My IIc has an internal Mockingboard.

I plan is to actually use them more. I have many Apple II's of different models and yet they don't see the light of day as often as they should. I plan on doing some programming for them as well.

Unfortunately, no. I'm not even quite sure how to tell which TI 990 this is.

My assumption would be the same way any other accelerator would. Such as a BASIC compiler, etc. I actually have a book or two on COBOL but never got into it. However, in 2006 I was told by a very large insurance company (job interview) that if I knew COBOL, they would hire me on the spot.

Yeah, I can't imagine what this computer cost back in the day. One of those cards is a 2 MiB cache card too. Which was a lot of RAM in the early 80's. I can't figure out what this machine would have been used for. It has a bunch of cards that all have 4 or 8 ports. I'm not sure what they were used for. I assumed maybe printers or maybe some type of industrial operation. But the COBOL card tells me it probably ran some business software. Perhaps financial reports that ran on a bunch of printers?? Who knows. One day, I will put power to it. But the PSU's are in very bad shape and I'm not an expert on this machine. Too nervous to just power it on.

If the TI had fixed all of these issues, we wouldn't have a computer to bitch about 40 years later! LMAO. But seriously, I don't know of any one mass produced computer that had so many bone-head moves as the TI. For me, all of these (and the fact it was my first computer) is exactly why I love the thing. There must be something great about it if we're still using it all of these years later. When I think back to my 9 year old self using a computer for the very first time, I didn't know what a sprite was. I never could figure out how games moved stuff around but all I could do is cheesy char drawing. But if you twist my arm, I would say these would be my biggest gripes of the TI: 1) TI Extended BASIC should have been standard and built in. 2) A user port like the C64 and perhaps a decent serial port fast enough to drive a good floppy drive. 3) A "cheapish" floppy drive. 4) 32KiB of RAM standard (in addition to the 16 KiB for VDP)

This thing is HEAVY. Especially the hard drive.

This was given to me by a friend at work. It has some major rust on the PSU's and some of the case. Ignore the HP rack enclosure. It was just something to stack these behemoths in. Hope to restore this one day.

Well, I think it was more than that this time. I pulled the switch out and even took it apart, cleaned, etc. But no matter what I did, when I would reassemble the switch, it wouldn't work. Plus, some of the plastic was so brittle that it started snapping off. So I just found another switch on eBay and it actually arrived yesterday. I got it soldered in and now it works. But who knows which key is next. 🙂

Yes, always something. Pulled my IIe out this evening and discovered some keys don’t work. Worked when I put it away a few months ago. I hate fixing keys. 😕

So I have my TI with an F18a, speech synth and 32K. When using my FG99, the TI crashes a lot. Many times it won’t even load the menu. The 32K RAM test seems to work fine. But BASIC and games crash frequently. When I play A-Maze-ing from the FG99, it crashes. When playing the actual cart it’s fine. I don’t have a case for th FG99 so I’m wondering if the connection is flaky. Any ideas on what to do? I really need to get a case anyway.

Now I want an ECS. lol

Oh cool. I have no idea where I got this. I have an original Intellivision and the Intellivision II. Plus, an Aquarius. So who knows where this came from. lol Thanks