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Don't forget to visit Ninerpedia; our wiki about the TI-99/4A. Check here. If you are the owner of one of the programs or sites and do not want it posted, please let me know and it will be removed immediately. Also if you think a reference to an important development resource is missing, then please let me know and I'll be happy to add to the list. If you are new to the TI-99/4A or returning after a long time, then you might want to check out the TI-FAQ page here. Also make sure to visit the TI-99/4A Home Computer Book Archive by @airernie, now hosted by @acadiel. It's a great collection of excellent technical books about programming the TI-99/4A. Latest update: March 17th 2024 1. Emulators classic99 win Windows-based emulator including TI-99 ROMs under license from Texas Instruments. Debugger, memory heatmap, OS file support, support for 128K bank-switch carts, can create ROM/GROM cartridges, possibility to record AVI movies. User manual is included. Check the classic99 Updates thead for the latest news on classic99. Click here to watch Tursi's classic99 tips and tricks video tutorial. Author: @Tursi MAME win+linux Multiple system emulator that supports the TI-99/4, TI-99/4A, TI-99/8, and Geneve. Emulates more than 400 systems. Requires ROMs from the original systems. Features a powerful Debugger, most accurate emulation, support for 64K bank-switch carts / Gram Kracker / UCSD p-code expansion card. Possibility to record AVI movies. Also see the MAME section in ninerpedia. Author: @mizapf Js99'er All major browsers TI-99/4A emulator written in javascript. Has support for TMS9918A VDP & supports most of the F18A functionality, TMS9919 sound. Virtual disk drives using google drive. Some preloaded games, demos and applications included. Js99'er development thread on Atariage can be found here. Js99'er source code repository on Github can be found here. Author: @Asmusr V9t9 win+linux TI-99/4A emulator written in java. Has support for TMS9918A VDP, TMS9919 sound & TMS5220 speech. Debugger included. V9t9 also supports the UCSD P-Code system. Some of the advanced V9t9 features include: ability to save/restore emulator state, record & playback, support for V9938 VDP. Requires ROMs from the original systems. This emulator needs the Java Runtime Environment available for free at Oracle. V9t9 discussion thread can be found here. Author: @eswartz DS99/4a DS/DSI TI99/4a Emulator for the Nintendo DS/DSi. DS99/4a discussion thread can be found here. Author: @wavemotion Win994a win Windows-based emulator of the TI-99/4a Good TMS9900 cross-assembler included. No debugger. Ti994w win Windows based emulator. Offers 80 column support, SAMS card 1Mb of RAM, V9938 support, built-in debugger, ... Author: @F.G. Kaal TI-99/Sim linux Linux-based software simulation of the TI-99/4A. PC99 DOS Commercial DOS-based emulator licensed by Texas Instruments to sell ROMs. 2. Programming languages Assembly language - Software Winasm99 win Windows based TMS9900 cross assembler with GUI and ability to build 8K cartridge roms. Is part of the Win994a emulator. asm990 linux Linux based cross Assembler for the TI 990 by Dave Pitts. You'll also need lnk990 a separate linker which can be found on the same page. TIasm win TMS9900 cross assembler TIasm will build 8K console (>0000) or cartridge (>6000) rom. Is part of the old V9T9 emulator package. Source is included. Editor/Assembler IV TI-99/4A Editor/Assembler IV is a module for the TI99/4A home computer. The software this cartridge contains is the in TMS9900 assembler rewritten Editor and Assembler loader, Program loader and an implementation of my own written Linking Loader and a simple debugger. The editor and debugger are running completely in the module space (>6000 - >7FFF). The assembler is copied from EPROM to CPU RAM before it is started. Author: @F.G. Kaal XA99 - Cross Assembler 99 win XA99 (Cross Assembler 99) is a program for assembling TMS9900 assembler code on the PC. Author: @F.G. Kaal L99 - Linker 99 win L99 is a tagged object file linker by Fred Kaal for creating program files for the TI99 and Geneve home computer. Author: @F.G. Kaal xdt99 - TI 99 Cross-Development Tools win, linux, OS X The TI 99 Cross-Development Tools (xdt99) are a small suite of programs that facilitate the development of programs for the TI 99 family of home computers on modern computer systems. All programs are written in Python and thus run on any platform that Python supports, including Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Includes xas99 (TMS9900 cross-assembler), xga99 (GPL cross-assembler!) and some command line tools for handling disk images and nanoPEB/CF7A+ volumes. The development thread on atariage can be found here. Author: @ralphb Assembly language - Manuals Editor/Assembler reference manual PDF The official Editor/Assembler reference manual. Note that this is not a tutorial for beginners. Still, it's an essential manual when writing assembler for the TI-99/4A. The online version can be found here. The TMS9900 Cheat-Sheet PDF Very helpful reference card with opcodes, VDP tables, colors, etc. Author: @SteveB COMPUTE!'s beginner's guide to assembly language on the TI-99/4A PDF The Lottrup book. The only manual available today focusing on programming games in TMS9900 assembler. The examples in the book are for the Mini Memory line-by-line assembler which is rather limited. The manual also contains a few errors. Check here for the corrections. Nonetheless this book is a must-read for everyone seriously interested in writing assembler games for the TI-99/4A. The online version can be found here. Introduction to Assembly Language for the TI Home Computer PDF The Molesworth assembly language introduction book. Covers VDP communication, keyboard reading, file access and a lot more. The Art of Assembly series PDF The full series of articles by the late Bruce Harrison compiled as PDF. Over 600 pages, very well written and thorough. Assembly on the 99/4A WEB Excellent thread on Assembly language programming for the TI-99/4A, focussing on game loops, etc. Author: @matthew180 SPECTRA2 zip Library for programming games in TMS9900 assembly language. Has routines for handling tiles, sprites, sound & task scheduler. Documentation manual PDF is included. Author: @retroclouds BASIC - Software Cortex BASIC TI-99/4A This is a port of the 'Cortex BASIC' interpreter used with the TMS9995-based Powertran Cortex machine. It is written in pure assembly. Graphic commands, sprites and saving to disk are supported. Currently no sound and speech supported. Power BASIC instruction manual available. Playground TI-99/4A Playground is a package making it possible to create assembly language programs that run from TI BASIC on an unexpanded console using only a cassette player to load the program(!) Although primarily intended for use in TI BASIC, programs written for playground can be run from XB, saved in E/A 5 format, loaded into a supercart, and even made into an actual cartridge. The manual describes in detail the differences in style necessary when programming for an environment that runs in only 256 bytes of memory. There is a library of subroutines for printing text, printing a number, shifting blocks in VDP, generating random numbers, using the line editor from BASIC, HCHAR, VCHAR,GPLLNK, a bit reversal routine, and a fast scroll routine. Source code is included for three different programs that should help you get started. Check here for the development thread on Atariage. Check this related thread for some clever work based on Playground. Author: @senior_falcon Extended BASIC - Software Extended Basic Game Developers Package "JUWEL4" TI-99/4A This package consists of two applications that make it possible to produce arcade quality games using Extended BASIC. Although they are designed to complement each other, each is a stand alone utility. Also included is XB 2.9 G.E.M. which offers greatly enhanced graphics in Extended BASIC. The package has been extensively updated to be fast, versatile, and simple to use. It is meant to be used with the Classic99 emulator, but the programs it creates are fully compatible with a real TI99, requiring nothing more than XB, 32K and a disk drive. Purists can use Juwel994 which has modified prompts to work with a real TI99. There is an option to use the older, more compact TI BASIC only runtime routines. This replaces for the older "Harry Wilhelm's BASIC COMPILER" and as a bonus, it's much easier and faster to use. Author: @senior_falcon 1) XB256 XB256 lets you toggle between two independent screens as desired. Screen2 lets you define all 256 characters and still have up to 28 double sized sprites using the character definitions available to Screen1. Scrolling routines let you scroll characters left, right, up, or down or scroll using single pixels. There is a text crawl that gives an effect similar to the STAR WARS title screen. You can highlight text, set the sprite early clock, print in any direction on the screen using 32 columns, read/write to VDP ram, write compressed strings or sound tables to VDP ram, play a sound list, and catalog a disk. A utility lets you save selected areas of VDP memory as compressed strings that cn be merged with your program. With this, character definitions, sound tables, screen images, etc. can be saved in a more compact form that can be loaded virtually instantaneously, even in XB There are two utilities that can convert the CALL SOUNDs in an XB program into a sound table containing music and sound effects. Sound tables can be loaded directly into VDP memory and played automatically while your XB program does other things. Also, a second player can play a different sound list simultaneously with the first, so you can have music playing with sound effects on top of the background music. 2) XB COMPILER COMPILER lets you compile an XB program into an equivalent assembly language program that will run about 30 times faster. All the XB256 subprograms are supported by the compiler and in general, all the major features of XB are supported, including XB style IF/THEN/ELSE and named subprograms. Programs using assembly support routines such as The Missing Link, T40XB and T80 XB programs can now be compiled. About the only unsupported XB features are DEF and the trig functions. There are provisions to save programs in EA5 format, as an XB loader, as a grom cartridge, or as a rom cartridge. T80XB TI-99/4A T80XB is a collection of assembly language subroutines that give the Extended BASIC programmer easy access to the 80 column screen mode offered by the F18A and other 80 column upgrades. Lets you select from two independent screens. G32 is the default screen when a program starts running.. This is the 32 column graphics mode screen normally used by Extended BASIC. It is accessed using the usual XB graphics statements. T80 is the 80 column text screen which offers 24 rows of 80 columns.. You can toggle between the two screens as desired, preserving the graphics on each screen. When using the T80 screen there are assembly equivalents that replace PRINT, CLEAR, COLOR, INPUT, CHAR, HCHAR, VCHAR plus routines that will scroll the screen and invert text on the screen. Author: @senior_falcon XB 2.9 G.E.M. (Graphics Enhancement Module)TI-99/4A XB 2.9 G.E.M. is a greatly expanded version of Tony Knerr's XB 2.7 The cartridge contains utilities that enhance Extended BASIC's graphics capabilities. XB256, T40XB, T80XB, THE MISSING LINE, and THE MISSING LINK GRAPHICS ADVENTURE are all available from the main menu or from a running program. 60 different fonts can be loaded from the cartridge or loaded from or saved to disk. Programs can be chained together and when the new program runs it will retain all numeric and string variables. This allows very large programs with the size limited only by disk capacity A powerful new editor is included that permits full screen editing in 40 and 80 columns. You can save or load programs in either IV254 format or DV80 format, and windows text if you are using an emulator. RXB 2024B TI-99/4A Rich Extended Basic (RXB) is an updated version of TI Extended Basic. Most bugs in XB have been fixed in RXB and GKXB is in the main core of RXB. RXB has features no other XB has such as batch processing, SAMS support, hard drive access or updated CALL routines. The below RXB tutorials on Youtube give a good overview of RXB's power: RXB 2020 Release video on features video RXB memory manager routines in RXB 2020 video RXB 2021 demo 1 video RXB 2021 demo 2 video RXB 2021 demo 3 video RXB 2021 demo 6 video RXB 2021 demo 7 video RXB 2021 demo 8 video RXB 2022 demo 9 video RXB 2022 demo 10 video RXB 2022 demo 11 video RXB 2022 demo 12 video Full documentation, examples, links to YouTube tutorials and GPL source code are all included in the ZIP package. Cartridge image for classic99 emulator also included. Requires a GRAM device such as a GRAM Kracker or finalGROM99 cartridge for running RXB on the TI-99/4A. Author: @RXB RXB 2024B.zip RXB 2023.zip RXB 2022.zip RXB 2021.zip RXB2020E.zip TiCodEd Windows + MAC OSX Modern, structured Extended Basic. Integrated PC editor. Development thread on Atariage. Author: @SteveB My Little Compiler (MLC) TI-99/4A Library for using assembler-like language & routines from Extended Basic. Great for putting more power in Extended Basic programs. Now includes a precompiler for high-level language syntax. Demo Pong game and documentation included. The MLC development thread can be found here. Check out the video by @rocky007 on his MLC based TI-99/4A port of Kaboom! Author: @moulinaie The Missing Link 2.0 (TML) TI-99/4A The zip archive contains "The Missing Link 2.0" and its documentation. This was published by Texaments in 1990. It gives the XB programmer easy access to the bit mapped features of the 9918 VDP. Full color cartesian graphics, turtle graphics, sprite graphics (32 sprites with auto motion) are supported. Text can be displayed on screen with fonts having sizes ranging from 4x6 pixels to 8x8 pixels. The manual is updated with many previously undocumented features. A tutorial called "Potatohead" is included. There is a loader that embeds A/L programs in high memory - they can be saved as an XB program and run directly out of high memory. Author: @senior_falcon TidBiT - BASIC/XB Translator win, linux, OS X A translator program that reads a program written in a custom, structured form of BASIC and translates it to a BASIC / Extended BASIC program. PHP required when doing a local installation. Check here for the latest revision, installation instructions included. Author: @matthew180 Kull KXBII Extensions TI-99/4A Kull Extended BASIC II programming package. High resolution graphics and clock support in Extended Basic. Documentation by @hloberg. Extended BASIC - Manuals COMPUTE!'s Programmer's Reference Guide to the TI-99/4A PDF TI-Basic programming manual touching graphics and sound. COMPUTE!'s TI Collection volume One PDF The online version can be found here. Best of TI-Basic programming by C. Regena Texas Instruments TI-99/4A user reference guide PDF The official user reference guide with details how to setup and connect your TI-99/4A. Includes an introduction on the TI-BASIC programming language. Extended Basic reference manual PDF The official extended basic manual, explaining the 40 new or expanded commands, sprites, etc. Check here for the online version with command lookup functionality. MG Night Mission PDF Advanced tutorial on how to program an arcade game in Extended Basic. MG Smart Programming Guide for Sprites PDF Advanced tutorial on how to efficiently use sprites in Extended Basic. C - Software C99 v4 TI-99/4A C99 is a small C compiler for the TI-99/4A written by the famous C. Pulley. Documentation included. C99C - C99 cross compiler and optimizers win C99C is the enhanced PC version of the C99 compiler for the TI99/4A home computer. Also included are multiple optimizers for compacting the generated assembly source (C Optimizer, Function Call Optimizer, ...) Author: @F.G. Kaal GNU C Compiler (GCC) win + linux + osx GCC for the TMS9900 allows you to cross-compile C programs on your PC (Linux, OSX or Windows) for the TI. Insomnia's release contains a set of patches against GCC 4.4. Just check out the code from the GCC project, apply the patches and build according to the build instructions for your platform and you're on your way to write programs and games for the TI in a high level language that rival the speed of assembly. And if you need just that little bit extra in terms of speed, you can always inline TMS9900 assembly for the critical sections of your code and compile everything with the same toolchain. For access to the VDP, the SN76489, etc... you can use Tursi's ti99 library, which you can find in the GCC thread. Hop over to the INSOMNIA LABS blog for background information on this port. Check the "Setting up the GCC compiler for the TI-99/4A" video by @Tursi for detailed steps on how to build and install GCC on your Windows PC. You can now download the cygwin binary port of the older TI GCC 1.10 for Windows here. (Thanks @lucien2). Author: @insomnia Fortran - Software 99-9640 Fortran TI-99/4A & Geneve The zip archive contains LGMA Products' FORTRAN v4.4 in both a version for the TI-99/4A and the Geneve 9640 computer. Documentation in PDF format included. The discussion thread on Atariage can be found here. Forth - Software Turboforth TI-99/4A A brand new implementation of the Forth langugage for the TI-99/4A. The Forth system itself is written in assembler and is optimized for speed. It runs from the cartridge space so there's plenty of space for your program in the 32K memory expansion. Check TurboForth.net the companion web site for the TurboForth system. Click here for seeing some Turboforth video tutorials. Author: @Willsy TI Forth Instruction Manual "2nd Edition 2013" PDF 2012 enhanced version of the original TI Forth Instruction Manual in PDF format by @Lee Stewart. Look here for details on manual improvements, etc. The updated TI-Forth system disk can be found here. Author: @Lee Stewart fbForth TI Forth with File-based Block I/O zip fbForth uses Level 3 file I/O for I/O of Forth blocks. It also implements 80-column text mode if you have a system with that facility. fbForth 32KB 2.0.X ROM cartridge available. Check the fbForth website Author: @Lee Stewart CAMEL99 V2 Forth TI-99/4A Multi-tasking Forth for the TI-99/4a. CAMEL99 Forth has been built as an educational tool for those who are interested in how you could cross-compile Forth to a different CPU using an existing Forth system. Camel99 Forth Development thread on Atariage can be found here. Author: @TheBF GPL - Manuals/Tutorials GPL Programmers Guide PDF The original GPL programming reference manual from Texas Instruments. Covers all opcodes and advanced stuff like coincidence detection, I/O routines, etc. The Graphics Programming Language (GPL) PDF GPL manual with instruction syntax as accepted by the RAG Software GPL Macro Assembler. Edited by @Lee Stewart TI-Intern PDF Details on "Monitor", the OS of the TI-99/4A. Disassembly of console ROM/GROMS and GPL interpreter. Has details on interrupt routine, utility subprograms, basic interpreter, etc. GPL HOW 2 Series video A complete series on how to program GPL (Graphics Progroamming Language) on the TI-99/4A. Each tutorial has its own support package with example code, GPL assembler, etc. Video tutorials done by Rich, the programmer of Rich Extended Basic. Author: @RXB GPLHOW2A - Introduction video / zip GPLHOW2B - Sprite demo video / zip GPLHOW2C - How to make a Screen Editor like TI Writer or Editor Assembler video / zip GPLHOW2D - Editor Assembler TI BASIC support.video / zip GPLHOW2E - DMII cartridge upgrades and how GPL works video / zip GPLHOW2F - TI Basic to GPL. Converting a TI Basic program to GPL video / zip GPLHOW2G - TI Basic CALL SOUND to GPL video / zip GPLHOW2H - Simultaneous sound lists and interrupt timer in GPL video / zip GPLHOW2I - XB2GPL demo of a XB game Baloons converted into a GPL program video / zip GPLHOW2J - Update to GPLHOW2I and adds a automatic music to the game from the last demo video / zip GPLHOW2K - How to make XB Program Image files into I/V 254 files video / zip LOGO - Manuals TI-LOGO programming manual PDF The official TI-LOGO programming manual. The online version can be found here. Pascal - Software Turbo Pasc'99 TI-99/4A The zip archive has the patched version of Wiposofts Turbo Pasc'99 which you can run on your favorite emulator or on the TI-99/4A itself. While Turbo Pasc'99 is not as complete an implementation of Pascal as the UCSD Pascal system, it does have the advantage of not requiring any special hardware other than 32K RAM and a disk drive, and will likely meet the programming needs of most TIers. Check here for an english translation of the german documentation. This version is started by running the Editor Assembler #EA5 program image DSK1.TP99A Pascal - Manuals UCSD Pascal ZIP + PDF The official UCSD Pascal programming manuals and disks. The zip file contains all manuals in PDF format. Here are the PDF manuals for online viewing: Compiler, Editor, Filer, Utilities, Assembler, Linker, p-code card The UCSD system disk images in v9t9/MESS format can be found here. Note that you need the UCSD P-code expansion card for running UCSD Pascal on the TI-99/4A. Thierry Nouspikel has lots of information on the technical implementation of UCSD Pascal on the TI-99/4A. Check here for details on the P-Code card and here for details on the P-Code system software. 3. Technical Documentation Hardware TMS9900 Microprocessor Data Manual PDF Data Manual on the TMS9900 16-bit processor. The TMS9900 is the CPU used in the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer. Contains instruction execution times, opcode size, etc. TMS9901 Programmable Systems Interface Data Manual PDF Data Manual for the TMS9901, Interrupt and I/O interface controller VDP Programmer's guide PDF The official programmer'a guide for the TMS9918A and its variants. The 9918A is the Video Display Processor chip used in the TI-99/4A and several other home computers + game consoles of that era. SN76489 sound chip datasheet PDF Data sheet for the SN76489 sound generator. The TMS9919 in the TI-99/4A is close to being identical with the SN76489. SN76489AN Sound Generator TMS5220 Speech Synthesizer Data manual PDF Data manual for the TMS5220 chip used in the TI-99/4A speech synthesizer device. Interface standard & Design Guide for TI 99/4A peripherals PDF The purpose of this manual was to consolidate all information available in the public domain on the design and development of peripherals for the TI 99/4A computer into one reference. Also covers the software aspects such as DSR architecture, PABs, etc. ROM Command Module Guide 2.0 PDF This manual provides a complete description of how Assembly Language User Programs need to be written so that the object code can be downloaded into (EP)ROM's which canthen be used in the "(EP)ROM module", a module designed to be used with the TI 99/4A Home Computer. TI Hardware Manual txt Compilation of valuable hardware & programming info on Myarc memory cards, Disk Controllers, Hard Drives, CPU identification (TMS9900, TMS9995, TMS99000) in assembly language, etc. DSR (Device Service Routine) / Disk & File Management Device Service Routine Specification for the TI-99/4(A) Personal Computer PDF Functional Specification for the 99/4 Disk Peripheral PDF Software Specification for the 99/4 Disk Peripheral PDF GPL Interface Specification for the 99/4 Disk Peripheral PDF File Management Specification for the TI-99/4 Home Computer PDF File Operations in assembly language 4. Homebrew Hardware Graphics & Sound F18A Video Display Processor The F18A is a FPGA based hardware and pin compatible replacement for the TMS9918A/TMS9928/TMS9929 VDP's (Video Display Processor). Besides VGA output it offers enhanced functionalities such as 80-column mode, additional video resolutions, hardware register scrolling, an embedded TMS9900 compatible GPU, etc. The development thread on Atariage, which includes the F18A programming documentation can be found here. The store on code|hack|create has the details on F18A availability, costs, etc. Author: @matthew180 SID Master 99 sound synthesizer card The SID Master 99 is a new sound synthesizer expansion card for the Peripheral Expansion Box. It integrates the famous MOS 6581 or 8580 SID chip (as used in the Commodore 64 home computer). SIDPLAY99 sound player software available for use with this expansion card. Author: @marc.hull Homebrew cartridge boards There are a number of Homebrew cartridge boards available to the users of the TI-99/4A now. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages from a usability standpoint, and some earlier types are only available by having your own made. To read the PCB layout files mentioned below, you need the ExpressPCB software which is available for free. Check here. The files are currently not released in Gerber/Excellon format, but can be converted to it using the RobotRoom Copper Connection software, available here. Note that to convert files to Gerber format you have to have the licensed version of the software ($50). 16K board PCB file The first of the new cartridge boards is the 16K board designed by @acadiel and @Stuart. This board used an inverted output from a 74LS379 to select between two 8K banks at >6000 in the TI memory map. The banks are selected by writing to >6000. This board allows most of the third-party cartridges designed for the 99/4A to be replicated. Further details on this board (components, EPROMS, software, etc.) can be found in: 16k_board_details.rtf FlashROM 99 PCB file, firmware source code The TI 99/4A Flash ROM Cartridge, or FlashROM 99 for short, is a cartridge for the TI 99/4A home computer that allows for running ROM cartridge images stored on an SD card. The FlashROM 99 supports ROM-only images of up to 32K that use the write-to->60xx bank switching scheme. It will not work with programs using GROMs or CRU-based bank switching. The cartridge does not require the Peripheral Expansion Box and runs on both PAL and NTSC consoles. Discussion thread on Atariage can be found here. Author: @ralphb FinalGROM99 PCB file, firmware source code The TI 99/4A FinalGROM Cartridge, or FinalGROM 99 for short, is a cartridge for the TI 99/4A home computer that allows you to run ROM and GROM cartridge images from an SD card. It succeeds the FlashROM 99 released in 2016. The FinalGROM 99 supports ROM images, GROM images, and mixed images of up to 1 MB in size that use the write-to-ROM bank switching scheme. The cartridge does not require the Peripheral Expansion Box and runs on both PAL and NTSC consoles, including modified consoles with an F18A. It will also run on v2.2 consoles and enables those to run ROM-only programs. The development thread on Atariage can be found here. Author: @ralphb UberGROM code, binary, image This cartridge board significantly expands the capabilities of the TI cartridge port by providing up to 512K of ROM memory using a non-inverted 8K bank-switching scheme. This is the opposite of the scheme originally found on the 16K and 64K cartridge boards built by Jon Guidry, as that method could not extend the banking beyond the 128K maximum imposed by the 74LS379 design. The Guidry boards using the 74LS379 do not impose an expected initialization state on the latch outputs, thus requiring header files in each bank to ensure cartridge initialization. The 512K of bank-switched ROM on the the new board uses the 74LS378 and does not require the bank inversion used in prior versions of Jon’s cartridge board, but it still requires the header files in each bank to ensure stable startup. Finally, the board includes a socket for an ATMega 1284 (or 1284P) AVR. Tursi provided code to allow the AVR to be used as 128K of GROM memory space, using up to 16 GROM bases. The combination of these feature changes now allows the board to be used to replicate older ROM/GROM cartridges using 6K or 8K GROMs, with the exception of MBX cartridges, as those would require some additional logic to add 1K of RAM to the board. It is now possible to play some of the unreleased TI titles from a cartridge, as they were originally designed to be used, instead of from disk. Authors: @Ksarul @Tursi @acadiel 5. Utilities (file transfer, graphics, sound, ...) File Transfer TIImageTool win + linux TIImageTool is a tool that allows you to open disk image files as used with many emulators, and to work on them with common disk operations (like cut/copy/paste of files). It is particularly tailored for use with MESS but can also be used with other emulators. Has support for v9t9 format, PC99 format, CHD format, working with files & directories, Archiver support (can process Archiver files on the images), ... This utility needs the Java Runtime Environment available for free at Oracle. Supports Cf7a+ card images. Author: @mizapf TI99Dir win TI99 filemanager for windows. Great for transferring disk images to the TI-99/4A. Supports Cf7a+ cards and Cf7a+ card images. Author: @F.G. Kaal TiDisk-Manager OS X The TiDisk-Manager is a disk tool for disk images from floppy disks used by a TI-99/4A home computer. You will need an Apple Macintosh or Hackintosh running with Mac OS X 10.9 or newer. Has many features including file preview, export, etc. and even an interactive editor to disassemble program files and create good readable source code. The development thread on atariage can be found here Author: @HackMac Cf2k - Compact Flash 2000 TI-99/4A Cf2k (Compact Flash 2000) is a file manager for the TI99/4a with a CF7A+ compact flash adapter. With CF2k it is possible to protect/unprotect files, rename files/volumes, format volume, mount volume, copy/move/delete files, execute program files, ... Supports Cf7a+ cards. Author: @F.G. Kaal Graphics Convert9918 win Windows program for converting images into TMS9918A Graphics II (bitmap) mode. Output is in TI-Artist format or raw image/pattern dump. The article Modern Graphics on the 9918APDF gives an interesting overview on the techniques used in Convert9918. Author: @Tursi GraphiCV win/linux/osx Sprite Editor written in java. Draw your sprites on the PC and export them for use in Extended Basic and Assembler. Also supports export to Colecovision C format. Work with multiple sprite "layers" for creating multi-colored sprites. Click here for the GraphiCV development thread on atariage. Source code is also available at github. Check here. This utility needs the Java Runtime Environment available for free at Oracle. Author: @unhuman Magellan win/linux/osx TI-99/4A map editor written in java. This is the latest, updated, unofficial version. Draw your maps/screens on the PC and export them for use in Extended Basic and Assembler. Has a rich feature set: Import character set from '.PNG' or '.GIF' file, copy & paste, drawing functions, support for half-bitmap mode, Export in XB display merge format, etc. Possibility to export maps as data statements for Extended Basic and Assembler, binary export also possible. Click here for the Magellan development thread on Atariage This utility needs the Java Runtime Environment available for free at Oracle. Author: @The Codex Sprite Editor TI-99/4A TI-99/4A sprite editor written in C99. Runs from Editor/Assembler #EA5. Draw your sprites in an emulator or on the TI-99/4A machine. The zip file contains both the files for use in emulator and a TI disk image for easy transfer to the TI-99/4A. README file with detailed instructions included. You can see the Sprite Editor at work building some sprites: Jet Set Willyvideo and Parsecvideo. Author: @Willsy Sound VGM player Compresses VGM files into a format that can be played back on the TI using the included player from C and assembly. Author: @Tursi Mod2PSG2 Fully featured PC tracker for arranging music for the SN76489 and compatible sound chips. Can export to VGM and other formats. Author: KonTechs/Martin Sound List Ripper PC tool for ripping and playing back sound lists from TI files. Supports basic editing of sounds lists. Author: @Asmusr Sound list player Plays back sound lists from XB and assembly. Author: @matthew180 Advanced Sound List Player TI tools for editing and playing back advanced sounds lists. Author: @marc.hull Speech QBOX Pro win QBOX Pro is the windows software that converts WAV files to LPC speech data for playback on the TI-99/4A speech synsthesizer. This is a 16bit windows application but it still runs in Windows 2000/XP/Vista. It requires the BWCC.DLL library. BlueWizard osx LPC analysis tool for the Texas Instruments TMS5220 chip. Replacement for QBOX Pro. Has very good speech quality. Source code and pre-built install image for OS X can be found on gitHub here. Discussion thread on Atariage available here. Author: @patrick99e99 Python Wizard unix/win This project is a python port (command line version and GUI) of the great macOS tool BlueWizard. It is intended to convert (voice) audio streams into LPC bitstreams used in the TMS 5220 chip or e.g. in the Arduino library Talkie. Now you can generate your own LPC streams and make your chips say the things you want them to. Author: @deladriere TI Synth Editor win TI LPC speech pattern exploration and editing app in the spirit of the venerable Speecoder. Watch the "How To" video to create custom speech synth here Author: @pixelpedant Editors Notepad++ win Notepad++ is a free source code editor that supports several languages. Runs in Windows environment. Notepad++ syntax highlighting file win Syntax highlighting file for Assembler and Extended Basic to be used with the Notepad++ text editor. 6. Tutorials Assembly language How to implement an assembly sound player for XB web Very well written tutorial on how to implement an assembly sound player for Extended Basic. It covers the tools needed and steps involved. Commented assembly source code Not a tutorial in the classical sense, but the commented source codes of the below games should help you get the idea. Pitfall! source code ZIP Munchman source code PDF TI invaders source code PDF TI Invaders source code TXT PARSEC source code PDF Moon Mine source code PDF Hopper source code PDF TI-99/4A Operating System source code repo on GitHub The thread "The TI-99/4A Operating System" is an ongoing community project for commenting the source code of the TI-99/4A and allowing it to be assembled with todays' assemblers. TMS9918/TMS9928 Video Display Processor TMS9918/9928 video modes video Video tutorial explaining the supported graphic modes of the video processor used in the TI-99/4A. TMS9918/TMS9928 Sprites and Characters video Video tutorial about the use of sprites and character patterns in the different video modes. TMS9918/TMS9928 How to create a bitmap title screens video Video tutorial on how to create a bitmap screen for games. Speech Synthesizer Convert WAV file for playback using speech synthesizer video Video tutorial on how to use QBOX Pro to convert a 8kHz mono WAV file to LPC speech data for playback on the TI-99/4A with the speech synthesizer device. It shows how to embed the LPC byte stream into your own assembly language program. Compilers The Wilhelm Basic compiler video Video tutorial on how to compile a basic program to assembly language. Author: @Opry99er File transfer (TI99->PC) RS232 File Transfer video Video tutorial on file transfer from the TI-99/4A to the PC using a serial connection cable. Author: @Opry99er (PC->TI99) RS232 File Transfer VIEW PART 1 / VIEW PART 2 video Video tutorial split in 2 parts dealing with file transfer from the PC to the TI-99/4A using a serial connection cable. In detail: DL a game from TI Gameshelf, Use ARC303G to unarchive it, Test in Classic99, Transfer using QModem and MFM, Running game on TI. Author: @Opry99er 7. TI-99/4A related websites TI-99/4A @ wikipedia Introduction and basics of Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer. ninerpedia Wiki with information on MESS and its multicart format (RPK). Home of the TI-FAQ. Thierry Nouspikel's Tech Pages Probably the best TI hardware and software tech page. It has a wealth of technical details on all things TI-99/4A. This includes GPL, GROM, keyboard scanning, speech, etc. You can also download the full site as a zip file for offline viewing. Mainbyte's home of the TI-99/4A Very good tech site with many detailed pictures and reference area. Includes various projects for upgrading your TI-99/4A, e.g. build a supercart cartridge. Jon's hexbus page Several hardware projects including pictures. Home of the 64K bank-switched cartridge project. Author: @acadiel [code|Hack|Create] New website run by Matthew of the Atariage group. The site covers many new hardware projects as the F18A FPGA based VDP and Bank-switch mini 256K. There's also a store where you can buy cartridge PCB's and other funky stuff. Author: @matthew180 The nanoPEB & CF7+ Website Official website archived by internet archive wayback machine. Has the documentation, tools and some source code of the popular TI-99/4A Compact Flash device. Stuart's TI-99/4A Computer Home of Cortex BASIC port and lots of other projects for the TI-99/4A. TurboForth.net TurboForth.net is the companion web site for the TurboForth system written in TMS9900 Assembly Language by Mark Wills for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer. TI projects page Several hardware and software projects for the TI-99/4A. Home of TI-99Dir, TI99HDX and several other must-see projects. Author: @F.G. Kaal TI-99/4A Home Computer Book Archive Site where you find many books about the TI-99/4A not seen elsewhere, all collected by @airernie and now hosted by @acadiel Author: @airernie TI-99/4A Game Shelf Provides a gallery of interesting games with images of the opening screen as well as an in-play snapshot, along with a brief review tested on a real TI 99/4A system. Hardware requirements are also listed. Has many good Extended Basic games. Author: @Vorticon WHTech WHTech is the primary archive - though it's a bit overwhelming. But pretty much all software, hardware docs, etc, are available there. 99er.net Site with useful file archive and forum functionality. comp.sys.ti Covers all TI devices, including calculators.

Hi All, As I walked into my "Manshed" a small slip of dot matrix printed paper floated down in front of me, I picked it up and it was an XBasic single line program that I must have created back in 1984, so here it is: 1 CALL KEY(0,K,S):: X=X-(K=68)+(K=83)-(X<2)+(X>31):: Y=Y-(K=88)+(K=69)-(Y<2)+(Y>23):: CALL HCHAR(Y,X,30-(K=32 OR K=51)*2,1-(K=51)*768:: GOTO 1 So here is a chance for all those single line XB programs that are actually a complete program to be listed. The proviso is it must comply with standard TI99 XB cartridge. If you have other types of enhanced XB, please include them but make it known what you used and the special CALL or Function that make it unique. Regards Arto

Way back in the 80s, when I was a kid, there was this thing called the TI International Users Group. The group had a TI magazine and a cassette program exchange. You could create programs and summit them to the IUG who would make them public for others to buy on cassette. If you submitted a program you would be able to get the cassette programs free. So being the cheap-ass I am I submitted a lot of programs to the IUG. Here are some that I recently downloaded from WHTECH site. I know I have a lot more but since the IUG had the irritating policy of removing the name of the programmer from the games, these are the only ones I remember. All the programs are on the .dsk. Here is the list: Note: on all games ;xb means programmed in extended BASIC. ;tib means programmed in TI BASIC. Awari I typed this from the famous book -David Ahl "BASIC Computer Games'. It was a straight BASIC scrolling on the screen game that me and my friend Keven converted to TI-XB graphics. It's a simple game that can me mastered rather quickly but still fun. Name is 'awari1;xb' Eagle1 this is a side scroller shot-em-up. it's rather sluggish but you can do just so much in TI XB but it does play a good game. Most of the code enhancements came from Miller Graphics 'Smart Sprite' book. name: eagle1;xb Kroakers This game is inspired by the arcade game 'frogs and flies'. plays rather well and includes speech. probably my best game of the era. name: kroak1;xb Othello There where a LOT of othello style games on the IUG. I 'think' this is the one Kevin and I created, it looks like the kind of code we would create. Our major enhancement to the Othello lot was we really ramped up the AI in level 3 to play a very tough, and slow, game. game name: othello1;xb Stock Market Another one where there were lots of versions on the IUG. What makes me think this was mine was the inclusions of being able to choose the company name for the stock. name: stock1;tib Star Trek And again a lot of versions. We added graphics to ours and a little sound effects. We also got this one from David Ahl BASIC book. name: Trek1;xb Even though there are multiple files it's the same thing on all the files. As I find more I'll post more. enjoy the TI experience! HLO MyHLOGames.zip

So I came across this video by 8-bit Show and Tell on Youtube and I thought it would be interesting to recreate that on the TI, so I did I could not get the pattern to work initially, until I figured out that the line length had to be Odd, not Even, for reasons that are unclear to me. That said, I'm not terribly happy with my code, and I was wondering if there is a way to optimize it somehow... 10 CALL CLEAR :: RANDOMIZE 20 CALL SCREEN(10) 30 CALL COLOR(1,7,10,2,9,10) 40 CALL CHAR(33,"FF7F3F1F0F07030180C0E0F0F8FCFEFF") 50 CALL CHAR(40,"FFFEFCF8F0E0C0800103070F1F3F7FFF") 60 B=B=0 70 FOR I=1 TO 27 :: B=B=0 80 Z=INT(RND+0.5) 90 IF Z=0 THEN CH=33 ELSE CH=40 100 IF B=-1 THEN IF Z=0 THEN CH=34 ELSE CH=41 110 IF I=27 THEN PRINT CHR$(CH)ELSE PRINT CHR$(CH); 120 NEXT I 130 GOTO 70

I am not promising a game, BUT I am playing around. Just getting around the did it hit or not was a issue... "Shit, I need to do that more often, to keep the "programming mindset" from dying!" 😛 hehehe Finally, figuring that CALL COINC had to be inside to loop to work. Ohhh, that stupid computer! Questions... I see that the "bullet" continues and comes out on the other side. I guess that is the time it takes to get the message that it is to delete the "bullet", in line 460? Am I wrong in presuming that to move that hole animation around as a sprite is not possible? To @SteveB: "Uppercase Beautifier", I wrote. "Call screen", when beautifying, it only change it to "CALL screen" (ver. v24), Same with xpos, it kept it lower case. Is this how it should work? PS! What about a short cut to that "Beautifier", Ctrl-U? Also... what about if I Export from SXB to XB. What if I could in pref. say to TiCodEd, ALSO copy the text in XP. So I can paste in right into Classic99? (save me some steps). I made a mistake and put the Characters from 32 and up... (Char page) In Extended Basic, Can I move it to XB256 or Auxiliary And can I move it from 32 and start it all from some-place higher, like Char 60? I was using Display at and I only got my Char and not numbers. So I wish to move Char above numbers so I can get values from Display at. "code completion feature" is it gone? I tested the "animation" function on the Char page, very nice function! Can you also do that with a 4*(8*8) Sprite? PS! I did this animation, first in another program, but your Char page was more useful when I knew how it was supposed to be.

I like to do my programming, these days, for my TI99 using a PC. First off I can use the wonderful Notepad++ for editing and test the software in the equally wonderful MAME and secondly I don't wear out my 40+ old TI99/4a. And to increase the already massive wonderfulness I have added language support for the TI99 to the already extensive list of programming languages built into Notepad++. I added TMS9900 and TI99 XB support to Notepad++ with the two .XML files attached in the .ZIP below. To add language support for TMS9900 & TI88 XB to Notepad++ use | Language>User Defined Language>Define Your Language. on the 'Define...' page click the Import button and add one .XML file at a time. Shutdown Notepad++ then restart and TMS9900 & TI XB will now be a choice in the Language list. Note: the TI XB works well with AdvBASIC of the Geneve too. I then use Classic99 and paste straight in XB or for Geneve ABASIC I use TIImageTool to import the file into a .dsk or .hd by | Edit>'Import from Text Editor' then paste>save the file. For TMS9900 a cross compiler would work nicely as well as the other two previous methods. that's it. Enjoy. notepad++-xml-lang-files.zip

COMPUTEs_Programmers_Reference_Guide_to_the_TI-99_4A_1983 - C.Regena How the Program Works Naturally, some characters were defined in order to create the screen display in this program. Character 97, a, is fe-defined as an open square, 0 , and Character 98, b, is defined as a filled square, • (lines 200-210). When the 8x8 grid is drawn on the screen, it is done by printing the string "aaaaaaaa" eight times (lines 420-440). The character codes as they will appear on the screen are READ in as DATA (lines 120-170). The string array H$(O,l) through H$(lS,1) holds the sixteen patterns of blank (" a") or filled-in ("b" ) squares. The string array H$(0,2) through H$(15,2) holds the corresponding code number or letter as you would use it in your programs later. The flashing cursor is red so that you can tell where you are on the pattern you are designing (lines 180-190). CALL GCHAR(X,Y,C) determines what character number C is at row X and column Y (line 480).

Hi. I'm trying to set up the color table of an XB program from an assembly subprogram in low memory and it's not working. I'd like to confirm a few facts: The color table is at >800 and is 32 bytes long The color bytes are set up as foreground in most significant nibble and background in the least significant nibble The color numbers are those used by assembly and not XB Color set #1 (starting with character # 32) is at >804 in the color table If all the above are correct, then I am stumped...

I just acquired a Tandy 64k Color Computer 2. It was listed on eBay as untested, so I figured it was a gamble. The price was good, so I gambled. Turns out it works! The display is actually better than I expected for RF. I am thinking my next step is to get a coco SBC. Is that what you would suggest as my first add on?

Here is the Star Trek game I posted in the very 1st post of this project blog. There it was a completion of several of the games I had posted as a kid to the TI99IUG. But it's such a neat little game I decided to make it it's own post. It's a real snap shot of the BASIC/XB program that was done back in the 80s. I made some minor updates but it's still essentially the same. It's a TI-BASIC program that was converted to TIXB. Some cleaver graphics and sound. Instructions included in the program. It self starts in XB. TREKXB.dsk

What we have here is my 1st attempt at using Harry's XB compiler. All I can say is, WOW! that's fast. The game is an Othello game I typed in from some? book and summited to the TI99IUG waaaay back when we used to type in such things from dead tree sources. It was originally in good ole' TI BASIC. The game was painfully slow, really slow, I mean, get a cup of coffee, drink it, piss it out and maybe the computer would have made a play slow. I later, much later like, 2018 later, rewrote it and tightened it up in XB. Now you could just go get a cup of coffee and a sip before the computer made a play. Still slow. That made it a perfect candidate for compiling. What I expected was a moodiest speed increase, make it playable increase. Instead what I got was a, blink and you missed the computer play, fast. Wow! This compiler makes so really fast code! If you follow Harry's documentation and play within the limits the compile is stupid easy. My 1st compile returned no errors and played the 1st time. The game is a simple version of Othello. Graphics are fair to good and the play, as stated, is fast. There are 3 levels of play and I can tell you Level 3 is very hard to beat. You can specify Computer or Human start 1st. Nothing more except did I mention it was FAST ! The download file contains the self boot game on .DSK and the official rules for Othello. Enjoy, HLO othello256c.zip

Here is the Uno+ TI-99/4a Extended BASIC version of the Atari Microsoft BASIC Uno+ that was an updated Uno that had been ported from the original TI-99/4a in that had been created using the KXBII Extended BASIC programing package. Got that. Anyway, here is the game and a fun one it is. It has color, it has sound, it has speech, it plays a fairly fast game and includes several of the variations of Uno. You can also save your games parameters to disk so that you wont have to type them in each time. To Play: the bottom 4 lines are the letters for your cards marked by color; red, yellow, green and blue. last line is Spl which is the change color cards with C (change color) or F(play draw 4 change color). the types of cards beside the colors are 0-9 D=draw 2, S=skip and R=reverse. under Spl are C=change color and F=draw 4. when the human plays you choose SORT, PLAY and TAKE. SORT just sorts your cards. TAKE will take a card from the pile. PLAY will play 1 of your cards. in Play you type the card you want to play by following the prompts. the game plays a standard game of Uno except; Uno call is automatic and has 1 in 12 chance of 'forgetting to call a Uno penalty which is also automatic. The original version was the simple standard rules of the game. But the real fun of Uno is the various versions of the game that one can play. So I went back to program and added several of the additional game versions to spice up the game, and a little sound and speech too. There are six new versions of game play: 2S as pick 2? - this version has the 2 card as aTAKE 2 for ALL players. Play a 2 and all the other players will have to take 2 cards. 7S swap cards? - Play a 7 and you can swap your cards with any other player. Take till play? - when you have to take a card you must KEEP taking cards until you get to one that is playable. DRAW4 only? - you can't play a DRAW4 until it's the only card playable. Good Take must play? - When you TAKE a card, if that card is playable, you must play it. NOTE: If TAKE card is playable you get a beep then the game rolls you back to the SORT, PLAY, TAKE screen. The other 3 computer players play a very good game. I programed in that sometimes they will mess up, but not often. I found I win about 1 in 4 or 5 games, which is a good average. The game disk auto-boots a loader program which in turn boots the Uno+ game. Anyway, enjoy the game. unoplus.zip

Update: moved packages to emulation section from software. I have put a together MAME/MESS emulation package that emulates the MyArc Extended BASIC II & TI P-Card for the Ti99. MyarcXBII: MyArc was a company that made peripherals for the TI-99 line. There most famous peripheral (if you want to call it that) was the Geneve. The Geneve was a complete TMS 9995 computer that fit in the TI-99 PEB as a card. Another peripheral that was lesser known, but just as revolutionary, was the MyArc Extended BASIC II. The MyXBII consisted of the 128k or 512k Memory card, a set of disk and a cartridge. When running the MYXBII had 3 times the memory of TIXB, was up to twice as fast as TIXB and was able to access all the graphic capability of the TI graphics card including the hi-rez. If a MyArc HD disk card was added the software could even boot from the MyArc hard drive. It turned the TI99 into a real power house. Unfortunately because of it's expense and the fact that you needed a PEB to run it, the MyArcXBII never really caught on. Now, though, with emulation it cost nothing so through the power of MAME/MESS the power is being released. Start the MyArcXBII at the TI99 main menu by choosing 3-128k BASIC and this will boot the MyArcXBII from the hard drive. P-Card: The P-Card was a card for the PEB that was, more or less, a complete operating system apart from the TI99. It's a virtual machine processor on a card that ran P-Code. It was written totally in software and was based on Pascal and was able to run on other computers that also conformed to the P-Code specifications. It is nothing like a standard TI-99 and when booted takes over the TI-99 and even has a specially formatted disk it uses. There is a complete suite of software and if you can figure it out, kinda nice. To run the P-Card in MAME/MESS click under OPTIONS-DIP SWITCHES then turn on the P-CARD. Hard reboot the machine and the TI-99 will start in the P-Card mode (after a few seconds of beeping and blank pages). To go back to MyArcXBII just turn the P-CARd switch OFF then hard reset the machine. The MAME/MESS package works with any versions of MAME/MESS past version 222. Just merge your version of MAME/MESS into the MESSxxx directory and point the already created batch file in the root to that directory. Package includes manuals, software, batch files and everything you need except MAME/MESS itself. Enjoy. Download from my https://ti99resources.wordpress.com/emulation/ At the bottom of the page is MAME packages, click on MyArc Extended BASIC II to show download files. I have both a package with and without the P-Card. (a truly nice tripped out Ti-99 from mainbyte.com)

Finally my tiny tribute to Phoenix! Download it in various format from here: https://www.bleepbit.com/2020/12/27/phoenix-tribute-for-ti-99-4a-extended-basic-basic-compiler/ Bye

i saw this video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yKwJJw6Abs and i thought, i can totally do that on the TI.. so.. 10 D$="FF" :: FOR D=65 TO 65+8 :: D$="00"&D$ :: CALL CHAR(D,D$) :: NEXT D :: FOR B=1 TO 10 :: PRINT "F";"E";"D";"C";"B";"A";"A";"B";"C";"D";"E";"F";"G"; :: B=1 :: NEXT B i had to print each character individually to get the required screen movement.. Here's xbasic, and compiled.. WAVE is normal extended basic, -X is compiled but loads in extended basic, and -E is EA5 load. looks pretty slick compiled some small screen glitches likely because I'm running classic99 in Wine on a linux pc.. WAVE-X WAVE-E WAVE

After a long time of procrastination I have finally got around to updating the Mille Borne for the TI-99 in Extended BASIC. I have added some sound effects, some voice CALL SAY("UHOH"), sped up parts of the program and cleaned up some minor bugs that had been long standing. This is 'probably' the last version but I have learned never to say never. The game is XB autoboot and is in .DSK v9t9 format. Enjoy. MILLEBORNE-V340.dsk

I don't know how much cross-over there is in this TI-99/4a sub-group with the Atari 8-bit home computer sub-forum, but I presume since this forum is hosted in the AtariAge forums that there must be at least a few people who collect for both computers. Right now, I have a six books for books for the TI-99/4a computer. They're the one's in my first TI video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoBjUDMar84 I'm looking to expand the TI books that I have currently in trade for spare Atari books that I have in my personal collection. Is anyone interested in doing trading books with me? If so, then I'd like to use this thread to post the books I have, and others can post the books that they have for trade. If a few people like this idea, then over the next few days I'll make a list of TI books that I want and a list, maybe with pictures, of the Atari books that I have for trade. So... is anyone interested in trading their spare or unwanted TI books with me? Adam P.S. Oh, and if you have no interest in Atari books, then you can always give your spare TI books to me...

Created a little package for MAME/MESS that enables MyArcXBII and P-Card in one pre-made package. Just add latest MAME/MESS and go. It's on my project page that accesses my https://ti99resources.wordpress.com/:

Couple of updates here: 1.) Having never had the original manual for KXBII (Kull XBII) I had to make up the manual as I tested it out. One problem that has been plaguing me is that occasionally the disk that I had KXBII (or a program wrote in KXBII) would randomly corrupt. Well after much more testing I found that you need to do a CALL INIT before you save a file after using KXBII. It's notes in the new v3 manual attached. See my https://ti99resources.wordpress.com/ for the complete KXBII package. 2.) the KXBII version of Uno that I wrote on my emulator looked absolutely horrible on a real TI99 with a real monitor. I re-wrote the program to change the colors to look much more palatable. Also fixed and added a few things to both the KXBII version and the standard version. KXBII Manual v3.pdf UNO.dsk

I want to show all of you a project that I have been working on and off for a few years now that I feel is ready to be shared, but first, some context: For years I had always wondered how the TI BASIC and XB games would have worked differently if these had been compiled or simply implemented on a faster system. Around 2008 I found a game development package called DarkBASIC Professional that featured a BASIC IDE to create 2d and 3d EXE (compiled, as in fast) games on Windows systems. The BASIC syntax reminded in many ways to console and Extended BASIC but the lack of decent documentation at that time did not give me the confidence to write anything more than a few lines of simple code. Years later, around 2013 I came back to the developer company's web site and found a larger user base, more code samples and even two large tomes of books that thoroughly documented the language. I went ahead and purchased the books and as I learned the 2D graphic features, I started to get an idea of the project I wanted to accomplish. And that's how TI99E originated. TI99E consists of a set of functions developed using the DBPro IDE to simulate the high-resolution graphics, color, string and numeric, input and output functions of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer. DBPro is a free, open-source BASIC programming language suitable for creating Windows applications and games. TI99E programs are developed using the editor and compiler included with the DBPro software. This development environment was created primarily to simulate, as faithfully as possible, writing graphic programs that look and feel like those originally written for the TI-99/4A in TI BASIC or Extended BASIC but without the speed or technical limitations. It also includes additional features that were not available in the original TI BASIC but that enhance the experience of coding TI graphical programs. TI99E is not an emulator; it also does not simulate TI-99 sound directly (it does through .wav files), or many other input-output functions, or file processing. Programs created in TI99E become EXE files for Windows; the BASIC source code is not compatible with the original console, and it is not intended to create programs that run on the original console. TI99E simulates and enhances the following features of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer: - 256 x 192 display size for high resolution graphics - 24 rows x 32 columns screen size for regular ASCII character graphics - Exact replica of the entire ASCII character set from the TI-99/4A - Customizable ASCII characters - 16 colors available for graphics, with multiple color sets - Sprite graphics with auto-motion capabilities - Implementation of sprite collision, magnification, motion, location, position, and distance - Implementation of the TI BASIC graphic subprograms (CHAR,HCHAR,VCHAR,SPRITE,COINC,PATTERN,POSITION,LOCATE,MOTION,etc) - No missing sprite collisions - Modified implementation of Input and Output instructions such as PRINT, INPUT, DISPLAY AT, ACCEPT AT, CALL KEY and CALL JOYST - Math functions using radians instead of degrees: SIN, COS, TAN - String functions such as SEG$, RPT$ - Numeric functions such as SGN, MIN, MAX - Plus, many new features that were not available in the original system: o Up to 1,000 moving sprites at once - yes, and at a fluid 60FPS o Over 1,000 customizable characters and 120+ color sets o Ability to change color to individual characters instead of sets o Ability to create multi-color sprites o Ability to create multi-color characters o Ability to create animated sprites o Individual sprite magnification o Ability to hide sprites and keep them active o No 4-sprite max in horizontal line limitation o Fast, compiled programs o Full-featured Sprite Editor – Supports single and multicolor sprites, load, save, reverse, rotate, mirror, copy, paste and magnify using keyboard or joystick inputs. o Conversion programs to simplify converting original BASIC or XB code into TI99E I call it the TI BASIC that I always wanted. Below you will find the link to the TI99E system, including a Quick installation guide PDF, technical documentation PDF and all the necessary software: - The DBPro IDE - Direct X 9.0C runtime files – required for the EXE programs to run on newer versions of Windows - The TI99E BASIC project files - Sprite Editor – created with TI99E – includes EXE and source code - Conversion Programs – with instructions - Many Showcase programs ready to run and with their source code I recommend using the built-in help files in the TI99E editor instead of the technical documentation PDF. The help files are more complete, updated and organized, plus it is part of the IDE, which is a big plus. The help system includes sample code to test every documented function which, in addition to the showcase programs, is extremely useful to quickly learn the ins and outs of TI99E. The help system is accessible with F1. Just follow the Readme instructions for more details. I really hope you enjoy using this system I created with a lot of care, as a tribute to my beloved TI-99 4/A. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XKvWir9pgkUMoSZJWuHTE6_qKzWi7y7R?usp=sharing

So I've been thinking about extended basic lately and that it is the go-to language on the TI-99/4A. We've seen multiple extensions to Extended Basic, like for example Gram Kracker Utility 1 which probably generated one of the first enhanced Extended Basic versions. We also have Rich Extended Basic and now Extended Basic G.E.M. Also don't forget the work on SDD99 that is enhancing Basic in multiple ways. Just for fun, and who knows what happens next in the future, I'd like to collect ideas on how an Ultimate Extended Basic should look like. What the benefits are, etc. I'll kick it off with following proposals: Compatible with existing Extended Basic Fully runs from cartridge space so that we get as much program space use out of 32KB memory expansion as possible Built-in support for SAMS Full-screen editor or advanced line editor as seen in MSX Basic Built-in assembler integrated in Extended Basic, so that you can mix assembly source code right with your extended basic program code. Something along the lines of: http://www.peter-cockerell.net/aalp/html/ch-4.html Full 80 columns support, both for basic program code and line editor.

I have been going through my Atari 8-bit games and looking to translate them into TI-99 games, mostly BASIC. The games I wrote in Atari MSBASIC are fairly straight forward translations. Atari BASIC has the issue of strings being completely different but can be got around. One thing that both Atari BASICs have in common is the Atari uses 40 column text. This can be a tedious issue to fix when translating to TI99 32 column text. You have to go through each line check, recheck, reformat recheck again etc... It would be nice if the TI99 had a 40 column text mode... oh wait, it does it's just not easily accessible in XB. But some nice people, much smarter then I in all thing TI99, have addressed this deficiency. Enter the 'Senior Falcon' (Harry Wilhelm) with a wonderful little utility called T40XB which makes the 40 column mode usable from XB. For more on it read this thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/289953-40-column-routine-or-early-version-of-xb24-for-xb/ Simply you use CALL LINK routines to call the T40 and use the 40 column routines in it's own screen. Here is the file: T40XB1.zip the ZIP file has a very nice booklet with it. Now to the game. To test this 40 column routine I chose the simple game 'Civil War'. It's from David Ahl 'BASIC computer games book'. Here's a copy of the book online: https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/ How I got this game from the Atari to the TI99 was thus: 1.) load the game in Atari Altirra emulator. 2.) print the game to text. 3.) do global REM of lines that the TI99 won't understand (such as POP) 4.) global replace PRINT with CALL PR(.. 5.) create CALL routine: CALL PR(A$) CALL LINK ("PRINT",25,1,A$) SUBCALL 6.) Now go through the program and change other things such as INPUT and replace multiple PRINTs with SCROLL 7.) start classic99 and paste in the code and save, test, save, test ..... All in all this conversion didn't take that long since string use was minimal and I didn't have to go line by line reformatting. The T40XB does eat into the stack area in the VDP so you will have about 2k less memory for created CALLS and string arrays. It doesn't use any main memory though. It does, currently, have an issue with classic99 sometimes locking up the emulator but Tursi is looking into that. Here is the game disk: T40XB1.zip from the menu press 2. It starts the T40XB package which calls the civil war game. now lets look at some of the commands of T40XB: First off the 40 column mode is one color; that is one fore and one background color. Also you have no sprites. This is a limitation of the TI99. You must load in the T40XB using the loader program, DSKn.TX40XB. Afterwards CALL LINK("T40") to turns it on. You must have this as the 1st line before you do anything T40 related in your program. All the T40XB text lives in it's own memory area so when the program ends or you jump back to the 32 column mode using CALL LINK("G32") your T40 text will disappear. CALL LINK("COLOR”,foreground-color,background-color) this changes the fore and background colors. Standard TI99 won't work. CALL LINK("CHAR”,character-code,pattern-identifier[,...]) this is CALL CHAR for T40. You get a separate character set for T40. Harry has already supplied a nice character set with true lower case. CALL LINK("INVERT”,row,column,length[,...]) this gets you inverse text much like the Atari has (nice touch). a lot of the other commands also have an inverse mode. CALL LINK(“SCROLL”[,repeats]) this will scroll the page up 1 to [repeats] lines. CALL LINK(“CLS”) this does a CALL CLEAR CALL LINK(“HCHAR”,row,col,character-code[repeats,.....]) & "VCHAR" same as TI CALL HCHAR & VCHAR. CALL LINK(“PRINT”,row,col,string or number[,length,.....]) this is the meat of the program. It is a combination DISPLAY AT & PRINT. If you specify the row & column it will display at that row & column. Put 25 in the row and it will print at the bottom of the page and scroll everything up just like print. Note: you must have a properly formatted string to display. Errors might crash the TI99. CALL LINK(“INPUT”,row,col,string-or-numeric-variable[,length,prompt-string]) this is INPUT AT or just INPUT like the TI99. Refer to the manual for lots of features. One nice thing is that if you crash or exit the program the T40 routine exits gracefully. Good programming. Not many commands but it gets the job done without not much overhead. Very nice. Well, that's it for now. HLO XBGames1.dsk

A few years ago I came across this disk of extensions to XB and was intrigued. It had nice high resolution capabilities and some interesting clock functions. I initially did some research and found it was released by Peter Kull in Germany in the 80s and that he has since disappeared from the TI99 scene. Not much more was known about it. Well, life happened so I put this project aside for a few years. But recently, having gotten back into the TI99,I pulled the old KXBII disk and decided to finally figure out how to use it with what little info I had. What I did was use the example programs that came on the disk a just test out the functions till I figured them out, or as far as I could figure them out with the information I had. What is Kull Extended BASIC II programming package. Well the name makes it sound like it's a XB cartridge but in reality it's a series of XB CALL LINKs that add high resolution and clock functions (oddly enough) to Extended BASIC. The KXBII package is very similar to Harry's Weilheim's TML (TML is much more feature laden). The main difference being that theTML package you live in the TML environment from LOAD. KXBII, on the other hand, once you load the KXBII just lives in the background till the high res graphic are invoked. You actually can run the clock functions without turning on the hi res graphics functions. This is good and bad. Good, you don't have all the memory restrictions of using hi res graphics till you need them. Bad, you have to be a lot more careful with your string and sprite management (see notes in manual). The program can be a little tricky to use (again see notes in manual) but it looks to be stable if you stay within the bounds. Still, there are some nice features; I especially like the multi colored. And it never hurts to have another tool in you tool belt. Anyway, here's and exert from the manual I created and attached is a package with the programs for it (V9t9 format). Enjoy. ****UPDATE***** update the manual. I translated a program from the Atari 8-bit, an Uno program I wrote. Found some issues and some mistakes in the manual. Here is the new manual v2. ______________________________________________________________________ manual *************** * * * EXT/BASICII * * * *************** BY Peter Kull Extended Basic II or for short KXBII is a series of CALL LINK subroutine functions which add graphics and clock functions (among other things) to TI Extended BASIC. To start. Use the LOAD program supplied with the disk. It calls the LOADEX program which loads in the extensions to memory. SOME NOTES: Memory restrictions. If you have ever used TML you know of the lack of stack space using high resolution graphics can cause. Same here. You have about 1088 bytes of stack space after you load the high resolution utility package. From test I found that means about 200+ characters of string space available for strings. But be warned, if you exceed this limit you may not get an out of memory error but just have the upper limit strings corrupted. Be sure to test and check all large strings. Also dimension string arrays after you load in the graphics package with 'INITG' and 'GRAFIK’. Otherwise it corrupts the strings. the <Break key>. The break key will get you out of any blank or gibberish screen created by exiting the high resolution graphics unceremoniously. You may have to hit the break key twice but I found it usually works. Bugs. If you put a character on the screen at about column 9, row 6 some partial random garbage will sometimes appear on that character when a CALL LINK(“PRINT”...) command is executed. Not lethal, but annoying. Sprite commands are, unpredictable. I had all kinds of random errors happen while attempting to use the sprite commands with the high resolution graphics with a limited amount of stack space left. On the other hand, if I used the sprite commands with plenty of stack space left they usually acted fine. RANDOMIZE will sometimes causes errors with the point graphic commands such as “SET” and “DRAW”. This came up when using the trick RANDOMIZE :: CALL PEEK(-31808,A) to get a fast random number. If I just put RANDOMIZE at the beginning of the program and used RND normally, though, things usually worked as normal. Not really a bug, just a consideration. There doesn’t seem to be much error checking in the values you can insert into the CALL LINK(“... ) commands. You may not even get an error at all related to the command but instead have a random line give you a SYNTAX ERROR or such. Commands: All commands are CALL LINK(“command”....) functions. LOADEX This initially loads the package into memory from the LOAD program. Loading this a 2nd time screws up display. Initialization functions. INITG ("INITG") - initialize high resolution. Always must use before GRAFIK. GRAFIK (“GRAFIK") - opens the high resolution area for use. also can be used to clear the screen in high resolution. TEXT "TEXT" - puts you back in the standard text mode. These command functions DO NOT need 'INITG’ or the ‘GRAFIK’ to work. Timer functions. TIMER (‘TIMER’,output variable) - A timer that if you divide the output variable by 39 will you roughly give you a one second counter. TIMSET ('TIMSET') - This resets the TIMER to zero. Clock functions. STELL ('STELL',hour,minute) - This sets a clock in the upper right of the screen which stays resident. START (‘START’) - starts on-screen clock. STOP (‘STOP’) - stops the on-screen clock. UHRAUS (‘UHRAUS’) - removes the on-screen clock. UHREIN (‘UHREIN’) - puts the on-screen clock back on the screen. General functions POKEV ('POKEV',memory location,input variable) - pokes data into the VDP area PEEKV('PEEKV',memory location,output variable) - peeks at data in the VDP area These DO need 'INITG' & ‘GRAFIK’ commands before use. Draw functions. PRINT (“PRINT”,y,x,"string",foreground color,background color) - this will print a string on a screen at Y,X in whatever color and background color you wish. Probably the most useful function of the utilities. SET ("SET",y,x,color) - turns a pixel on at Y,X with specified color. DRAW ("DRAW",y,x,color) - draws a line from last point (SET or DRAW end) to Y,X coordinates. PAINT ("PAINT",y,x,color) Fill command. CIRCLE ("CIRCLE",center y,center x,right y,right x,color) - to draw a circle or ellipse. (OR) ("CIRCLE",cy,cx,ry,rx,color,begining degree, ending degree) - to draw a partial circle arc or ellipse arc. Sprite functions (use sparingly they can be kinda buggy). Normal TIXB sprite functions will corrupt the high resolution screen area so always use these sprite commands when using high resolution screens with ‘INITG’ and ‘GRAFIK’ commands. SPRITE ('SPRITE',sprite#(1-27),char$ number(32-127),color,Y,X) - Works like the sprite function in TIXB except you can not define the speed. CHAR ('CHAR',char$ number(32-127) ,’Char def of sprite’) - You MUST define each char used for the sprites with this command. They are not the same as the chars defined for the PRINT command. COINC (sprite#, sprite#, tolerance, output variable ) OR (sprite-number, dot-row, dot-column, tolerance, output variable) - works like TIXB sprite coincidence except no ALL command. DIS ('DIS',sprite#,y,x,output variable) (OR) ('DIS',sprite#,sprite#,output variable) - works like TIXB sprite DISTANCE command POS ('POS',sprite#,y,x) - Works like TIXB sprite POSITION command. DEL ('DEL',sprite#) - removes a sprite from the screen. LOC ('LOC', sprite#,newy, newx) - relocates a sprite on the screen. COL ('COL',sprite#, new color) - changes the color of a sprite. PAT ('PAT',sprite#,new char#) - changes the char pattern of a sprite. MOTION ('MOTION',sprite#,yspeed,xspeed) - changes the speed of a sprite. same values as TIXB. Kull XBII.zip

I wrote a version of Uno for the Atari in Atari Microsoft BASIC and posted a few blogs ago. Well, here is Uno in the Kull XBII. Kull XBII is a little known package to TI-99 Extended BASIC. Check an earlier post for more on the KXBII package. One nice thing about KXBII is that it enables multi-color text which I use a lot in the program and it looks really good. Multi-color text is the best feature in KXBII. As I detailed in the earlier post about KXBII is there are a few limitations such as a very limited amount of stack memory. And there is also a weird quirk, if you put text in location x=6, y=9 a little character flickers in the upper right of that character. Odd. Anyway, here you go: uno.zip enjoy HLO update: I forgot to mention the game autoboots of the vdisk. It 1st starts KXBII then starts the game. takes about 15 seconds to start. also included is an instruction manual.

I looks like I screwed up. A little while back I posted a blog about Harry's 40 column routine he created for the TI-99/4a. I also added a the game Civil War. After rechecking the blog I discovered the two files I posted were the wrong files. ACK! So, here are the right files and a little more. I have the T40XB utility on .DSK and my XBBOOT.DSK which included the T40XB on a menu along with TML & KXBII. And I have a directory with all the games I have posted so far. Here is the correct files. Downloads.zip