fred Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 (edited) I found a stack of TI 99 games at a local thrift store. About 20 games $0.98 each. I've never even seen a TI 99 but I have heard about them. My question is are the games worth buying? They are less than a buck each. Is a complete system affordable and what are some of the best games? Edited July 26, 2008 by fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I have enjoyed mine. You should pick them up, a ti 99 goes for a few dollars on ebay. If you do decide to get a ti 99, you should try programming, thats what I started on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremoloman2006 Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I love the TI-99/4A! If you get one, snag the Atarisoft and Parker Brothers arcade ports - they are very faithful to the originals. Some good TI games include Jawbreaker 2, Moon Mine, TI Invaders, Munchman, Adventure (and the text adventures that go with it), and many more. I'm sure you won't regret it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I've always kind of wanted a TI99/4A. Almost bought one back in the day for $50 bucks. Never did. A friend of mine had it and bragged how it was better. I had a C64 and another friend had a Coco 1 or 2 (I forget). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic George 2K3 Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 My family had a TI 99/4A computer at one time. The only cartridge game I remember having was Hunt The Wumpus, which was something you could play in BASIC programming from one of Creative Computing's books on BASIC games. It didn't last us long enough for me to take advantage of getting any Atarisoft game titles, though. Big shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XT Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 My family had a TI 99/4A computer at one time. The only cartridge game I remember having was Hunt The Wumpus, which was something you could play in BASIC programming from one of Creative Computing's books on BASIC games. It didn't last us long enough for me to take advantage of getting any Atarisoft game titles, though. Big shame. I remember Hunt the Wumpus! I also played the heck out of Star Trek and programmed in basic all the time I also used the add on speech synth to make it say some choice things, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christophero Sly Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 (edited) It really depends on the games. All the Atarisoft and Parker Bros. games (Donkey Kong, Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac-Man, Q*Bert, Frogger, etc.) are worth the $1. Super Demon Attack Fathom Burgertime Congo Bongo Buck Rogers Bigfoot Miner 2049er Espial Jawbreaker II Munchmobile Moonsweeper Are, also, all worth the $1. And there are many rarer TI games that would be worth picking up at that price. But a lot of the TI-published games are dead common and those are usually what are found in the wild. Games like Blasto, Parsec, Tombstone City, Munchman, TI Invaders, Alpiner, A-Maze-ing, Connect Four, Car Wars, Hunt the Wumpus, Chisolm Trail, etc. Now, I happen to like those games and the TI in general, but I don't think I'd recommend the TI to someone unfamiliar with the system if those were the games they planned on playing. Edited July 27, 2008 by Christophero Sly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthkur Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 The TI99/4A was my first computer. I think it's a great little machine with plenty of great games. There are a lot of educational titles also, which unless you have young children, aren't worth anything. Other than that though anything else is well worth getting, especially for 99 cents. I wouldn't even think twice about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 Last time I was there last year, Chicago's Museum of Science and INdustry was still using TI994/A's in some of thier displays in the 'Hall of Basic Science' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 Last time I was there last year, Chicago's Museum of Science and INdustry was still using TI994/A's in some of thier displays in the 'Hall of Basic Science' They still had those last time I was there. I'm a bit sad that all the Nixie-tube based equipment seems to have disappeared, though. Nixie tubes were cool. Numerical readouts that actually looked like numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenDayRlz Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Tandy color computer 1 is the way to get, get a 64K upgrade, and it`s the best programing machine. BETTER/faster micro then the TI-99 and /4A (I think), and faster then the C64, but lacks sound. But Assembly is awsome.... I have a TI-99/4A CIB w/ all plastic.... It`s going to the flea market for a Tnady COCO.....Even if the COCO doesn`t work, it`s worth the trade. /4A is a piece of junk to me. Takes 5 minutes to list a 10 line program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vectorman Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 The TI-99 is cool. It's kinda like a ColecoVision with less RAM or something. The games are close to CV but a little more basic. Hardware wise, it's VERY solid and has a very clear picture quality, even through the RF cable setup. There are SNK and Data East arcade titles on the TI that aren't on any other console or computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 I'm having trouble finding these games online. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm trying to track down Pyramid Puzzler in particular, as it has a really catchy theme song that would work well in some of my videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 The Ti99/4A is a pretty decent computer. Expanding it is expensive thanks to that huge and rare expansion box. If you just want to play games it has some pretty decent ones, good graphics and great sound. It's not that fast though. I know you didn't mention programming but... For programming in BASIC I'd rate the Tandy Color Computer the best of the 8 bits, esp. when combined with the capabilities of the CoCo 3. With an add on program you have access to 128K or more of RAM. The Apple II series has a pretty decent BASIC and the IIgs is one of the best 8 bits period. It has the best sound of any 8 bit hands down and some of the best graphics minus sprites. It requires an aftermarket BASIC to really unleash the IIgs features and the complexity jumps. It's also one of the fastest machines though for 8 bit code the IIc Plus is faster stock. The Commodore Plus/4 was also pretty good for BASIC and you can pick up those pretty cheap. It gives you more RAM from BASIC in stock form than the other machines. Disk drives or 8 bit to PC cables are cheap. The Atari and C64 are pretty decent if you get one of the add on BASICs... not so much stock. Loads of games. Stock Atari BASIC is slow, add ons fast. The TI is pretty good with the extended BASIC but it's lacking RAM compared to the others so it limits program size. It's also slower than most of the machines. If you count European machines the BBC is fast and has a great BASIC, the Spectrum has a great BASIC but it's slow thanks to some of the unique syntax and a lack of optimization when it was ported from the ZX-81. I think MS-X ranks pretty close to the Atari and C64. An MSX Turbo R would be about as fast as you can get in an 8 bit if you don't mind spending $450 or more for one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthkur Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 ... the IIgs is one of the best 8 bits period. It has the best sound of any 8 bit hands down and some of the best graphics minus sprites.. The Apple IIgs is much faster and more advanced because it's a 16 bit machine not 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 ... the IIgs is one of the best 8 bits period. It has the best sound of any 8 bit hands down and some of the best graphics minus sprites.. The Apple IIgs is much faster and more advanced because it's a 16 bit machine not 8. The IIgs is faster because it's clocked at ~3MHz and I wouldn't call the 65816 a 16 bit cpu... I'd call that more marketing than fact. Besides, who cares, even if it is 16 bit in native 65816 mode... it still runs the old software since it starts up in 8 bit 6502 compatibility mode at 3MHz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I'm having trouble finding these games online. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm trying to track down Pyramid Puzzler in particular, as it has a really catchy theme song that would work well in some of my videos. Here's a rom-pack (pyramid puzzler is not included though): http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/public/psp/pspti99/TI-99-roms.rar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenDayRlz Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I sold mine for $2, and bought a COCO instead...... Mine listed 1 instruction every 5 SECONDS. I wrote 10 lines and listed for 1 minute. I personally don`t think it`s very reliable on BASIC. You`ll need to go big or go hame.... OR, get a CoCo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I sold mine for $2, and bought a COCO instead...... Mine listed 1 instruction every 5 SECONDS. I wrote 10 lines and listed for 1 minute. I personally don`t think it`s very reliable on BASIC. You`ll need to go big or go hame.... OR, get a CoCo There is a BASIC benchmark thread from within the last year comparing different machines. The only major machine we didn't get benchmarks on was the TI 99/4a. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monzamess Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 On TI BASIC being slow... most BASIC languages are interpreted (on classic home computers anyway), but the TI version is "double interpreted." From Wikipedia: One serious shortcoming of TI BASIC was that, as an interpreted rather than compiled language, it was inherently slow. TI BASIC was a double interpreted language, as the BASIC interpreter was itself written in a mid-layer interpreted byte-code language known as Graphics Programming Language (GPL), which was unique to the TI Home Computer. TI Extended BASIC improved execution speed somewhat by providing some functionality in assembly language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
else Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Does anybody actually program these old machines in BASIC any more? I mean, is it really a factor for anybody when deciding which machines to collect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Wolfe Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 So did you buy the carts? a $1 or under per cart for just about ANY system is probably a safe bet and in this case a very good investment since there seems to be a lot of interest lately in the older computers. I've seen cart lots for the TI computer on ebay go for more than $2 a cart and up so even if you turned them around for sale you'd double your money I just picked up a TI99/4A not too long ago for chump change. I found these sites to be very helpful: http://tigameshelf.net/ http://www.ti-994a.com/faq/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Does anybody actually program these old machines in BASIC any more? I mean, is it really a factor for anybody when deciding which machines to collect? Not so much these days. There's a relatively healthy dev scene for the VIC-20 over at Denial, but I think the majority of homebrewers have moved on to currently supported game systems and personal computers. If you do own a TI 99/4A, and you are going to design games in BASIC, the Extended BASIC cartridge is a must. The system's built-in BASIC is gimped beyond belief... you don't even have access to those staples of game design, PEEK and POKE! The Extended BASIC broadens your horizons immensely, giving you access to sprites and other advanced functions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcfrick2112 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Does anybody actually program these old machines in BASIC any more? I mean, is it really a factor for anybody when deciding which machines to collect? Man, I have to laugh at that... ... I spent/spend hours and hours writing BASIC programs on my Mattel Aquarius Well, I don't program on it much anymore.... the 'tiny-pencil-eraser-keyboard-with-the-non-space-bar' is a bit tedious nowadays... Although, the Aquarius DOES have PEEK and POKE commands The TI 99 does have a real keyboard tho.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Wow, you program on an Aquarius? You're a real glutton for punishment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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