How do the TI 99 4A graphics stack up to other computers?

[rhindlethereddragon]

I think most people would say that the Commodore or Atari 8-Bit had better graphics, but looking at Demon Attack on the TI for the first time, notably the backgrounds and the "mother ship", they seem to be more advanced than other 8-bit computers were capable of at the time.

 

On the other hand, Pac Man looks great on the TI, but seems to play real slow. Did the TI 99 have a slow processor? Or am I just playing it on a slower setting?

[frenchman]

The TI 99 4/A is a 16 bit computer, and can only be compared with such as Atari ST or Commodore Amiga.

[oracle_jedi]

I think most people would say that the Commodore or Atari 8-Bit had better graphics, but looking at Demon Attack on the TI for the first time, notably the backgrounds and the "mother ship", they seem to be more advanced than other 8-bit computers were capable of at the time.

 

On the other hand, Pac Man looks great on the TI, but seems to play real slow. Did the TI 99 have a slow processor? Or am I just playing it on a slower setting?

 

The TI did have very good graphics for it's time.

 

The TMS-9918A (or 9929A on the European models) was capable of 256x192 graphics, 16 colours and bitmap scrolling. It also has hardware sprites.

 

The TMS processor is the same one used in the Colecovision, Adam and MSX machines amongst others.

 

The Atari machines could outclass the TI graphically due to their better colour palette and mult-directional hardware scrolling abilities. The Atari's display list and ANTIC processor provided alot more power than the TI could manage. No matter how much memory you added to a TI, I don't see it ever producing an Elektraglide, or a Ballblazer or a Yoomp.

 

Several TI games are slow. TI Basic is notoriously slow due to BASIC being written in an interpreted language called GPL. However even machine language games tend to be slower. The TI's CPU is a 16-bit processor running at 3Mhz. But the rest of the machine is 8-bit. The CPU talks to the rest of the machine through a multiplexer.

 

On an Atari or Commodore, both the CPU and the video processor can directly access the same memory. Not so on the TI. On the TI the CPU must access the 16K of video memory through an 16bit/8bit interface.

 

That said, the TI does have a much better port of Pac-Man than the Atari. Several other games are also better on the TI including Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, MASH, Star Trek. This is simply due to the TI versions being more carefully put together. I find it ironic that the Atari 800 with all it's power has one of the worst Pac-Man ports of any home computer. Even the VIC-20 had a better version (Jelly Monsters).

 

Hardware aside, there is no substitute for a well written port of a great game.

Edited February 14, 2009 by oracle_jedi

[rhindlethereddragon]

I think most people would say that the Commodore or Atari 8-Bit had better graphics, but looking at Demon Attack on the TI for the first time, notably the backgrounds and the "mother ship", they seem to be more advanced than other 8-bit computers were capable of at the time.

 

On the other hand, Pac Man looks great on the TI, but seems to play real slow. Did the TI 99 have a slow processor? Or am I just playing it on a slower setting?

 

The TI did have very good graphics for it's time.

 

The TMS-9918A (or 9929A on the European models) was capable of 256x192 graphics, 16 colours and bitmap scrolling. It also has hardware sprites.

 

The TMS processor is the same one used in the Colecovision, Adam and MSX machines amongst others.

 

The Atari machines could outclass the TI graphically due to their better colour palette and mult-directional hardware scrolling abilities. The Atari's display list and ANTIC processor provided alot more power than the TI could manage. No matter how much memory you added to a TI, I don't see it ever producing an Elektraglide, or a Ballblazer or a Yoomp.

 

Several TI games are slow. TI Basic is notoriously slow due to BASIC being written in an interpreted language called GPL. However even machine language games tend to be slower. The TI's CPU is a 16-bit processor running at 3Mhz. But the rest of the machine is 8-bit. The CPU talks to the rest of the machine through a multiplexer.

 

On an Atari or Commodore, both the CPU and the video processor can directly access the same memory. Not so on the TI. On the TI the CPU must access the 16K of video memory through an 16bit/8bit interface.

 

That said, the TI does have a much better port of Pac-Man than the Atari. Several other games are also better on the TI including Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, MASH, Star Trek. This is simply due to the TI versions being more carefully put together. I find it ironic that the Atari 800 with all it's power has one of the worst Pac-Man ports of any home computer. Even the VIC-20 had a better version (Jelly Monsters).

 

Hardware aside, there is no substitute for a well written port of a great game.

 

Thanks for the well thought out post. I always thought the Atari 800 Pac Man was great. Of course, there are no intermissions, but the monsters IIRC move the way they are supposed to (ie: Will not go up the tunnels above the middle box, but will go down, etc.).

 

What are your thoughts about Munchman as far as Pac Man clones go? What about TI Invaders?

[S1500]

The graphics didn't stack up too terribly well. Yes, the 8x8 pixel graphics per character & sprites(up to 16x16) were nice, but still, you had limitations in how much free character space you had to do the graphics with. It was more limited in Extended basic than in regular basic. No fancy scrolling routines, sadly.

[Mazerati]

I think most people would say that the Commodore or Atari 8-Bit had better graphics, but looking at Demon Attack on the TI for the first time, notably the backgrounds and the "mother ship", they seem to be more advanced than other 8-bit computers were capable of at the time.

 

On the other hand, Pac Man looks great on the TI, but seems to play real slow. Did the TI 99 have a slow processor? Or am I just playing it on a slower setting?

 

i never even gave the TI99 a look..even in the 80's i had a coco,vic 20,c64 and atari 800xl and passed up the TI

but when i saw your message i thought maybe i would get an emulator and finally check out some of the games

and i gotta say they are A LOT better than i thought they were!...i mean pac man,donkey kong and popeye are excellent and it looks like the system had much better graphics than i ever gave it credit for

[ApolloBoy]

The TI 99 4/A is a 16 bit computer, and can only be compared with such as Atari ST or Commodore Amiga.

Surely you jest.

[nathanallan]

I think most people would say that the Commodore or Atari 8-Bit had better graphics, but looking at Demon Attack on the TI for the first time, notably the backgrounds and the "mother ship", they seem to be more advanced than other 8-bit computers were capable of at the time.

 

On the other hand, Pac Man looks great on the TI, but seems to play real slow. Did the TI 99 have a slow processor? Or am I just playing it on a slower setting?

 

i never even gave the TI99 a look..even in the 80's i had a coco,vic 20,c64 and atari 800xl and passed up the TI

but when i saw your message i thought maybe i would get an emulator and finally check out some of the games

and i gotta say they are A LOT better than i thought they were!...i mean pac man,donkey kong and popeye are excellent and it looks like the system had much better graphics than i ever gave it credit for

You should definitely get into a rig, then! They're pretty inexpensive when you find them, I got two computers and a boxload of games for about $45 (before shipping) and there were a lot of the manuals and things, too.

 

There are a lot of upgrades you can do to it, like ram, sound outputs, a whole bunch of stuff. There's even an Atari joystick adapter so you can use the tried and true CX-40.

 

Nathan

[TwiliteZoner]

I think most people would say that the Commodore or Atari 8-Bit had better graphics, but looking at Demon Attack on the TI for the first time, notably the backgrounds and the "mother ship", they seem to be more advanced than other 8-bit computers were capable of at the time.

 

On the other hand, Pac Man looks great on the TI, but seems to play real slow. Did the TI 99 have a slow processor? Or am I just playing it on a slower setting?

 

i never even gave the TI99 a look..even in the 80's i had a coco,vic 20,c64 and atari 800xl and passed up the TI

but when i saw your message i thought maybe i would get an emulator and finally check out some of the games

and i gotta say they are A LOT better than i thought they were!...i mean pac man,donkey kong and popeye are excellent and it looks like the system had much better graphics than i ever gave it credit for

You should definitely get into a rig, then! They're pretty inexpensive when you find them, I got two computers and a boxload of games for about $45 (before shipping) and there were a lot of the manuals and things, too.

 

There are a lot of upgrades you can do to it, like ram, sound outputs, a whole bunch of stuff. There's even an Atari joystick adapter so you can use the tried and true CX-40.

 

Nathan

 

Great point Nathan regarding using an Atari joystick. Try playing Donkey Kong for an extended period of time with one of the TI joysticks.

[oracle_jedi]

Thanks for the well thought out post. I always thought the Atari 800 Pac Man was great. Of course, there are no intermissions, but the monsters IIRC move the way they are supposed to (ie: Will not go up the tunnels above the middle box, but will go down, etc.).

 

What are your thoughts about Munchman as far as Pac Man clones go? What about TI Invaders?

 

 

Munchman is an ok game - like many of the maze-and-ghost games of the early 80s, it was an attempt to cash in on the Pac-Man craze without violating Atari's copyright. Whereas some smaller 3rd party operations might have flown under the radar with ports for European only machines, Atari did sue Commodore for Jelly Monsters and would have likely done the same to TI for anything that looked too similar to Pac-Man.

 

So Munchman replaces eating dots with a complete-the-chain concept, there are monsters chasing you and there are power-ups. The game takes place against a white background, the graphics are small and the sound is mediocre. I would give it a 5/5.

 

Compared to Pac-Man on the Atari, Munchman is an inferior game. The Atari game looks more like and sounds more like Pac-Man. But unlike Atarisoft's Pac-Man for the TI, the Atari version has the wrong colours - things look orange instead of yellow. The ghosts colours are wrong too and the eyes are just empty black squares. Pac-Man's mouth doesn't move correctly. The whole display looks squashed - especially on PAL computers. The Atari could have supported an authentic arcade conversion - look at Super Pac-Man to see what could have been achieved.

 

 

TI Invaders on the other hand is a good implementation IMHO. Like many Invaders clones, it does not try to authentically replicate Taito's arcade version, but does retain all the key ingredients including bases that gradually get blown away, saucer ships for bonus points, invaders that speed up as their ranks diminish and each wave starts lower. The entire invaders graphics are replaced in later waves to keep the gamer's interest, and some of the ships at the higher levers are damn hard to hit.

 

I would say TI Invaders is better than either Space Invaders or the home-brew port "Invaders 5200" on the Atari 800. Deluxe Invaders however is better as it is more authentic. Avenger on the Commodore VIC-20 is the best for me as it plays just like I recall arcade Invaders playing.

 

 

Neither Munchman nor TI Invaders represent the best of TI games - but neither do they represent the worst. If anyone is interested, the following site shows some good examples of TI games in machine language, TI Extended BASIC and TI Console BASIC:

 

http://tigameshelf.net/asm.htm

[tremoloman2006]

The TI-99/4A was a great system for its day. The system could perform voice synthesis in 1979! Not only that, it was very clear and easy to understand.

 

 

I got into the system in 1983 when Texas Instruments announced they were abandoning the system. At a naval base near me they were selling them NIB for $1! (limit 1 per customer). I bought one and it quickly became one of my favorite gaming systems. Cartridges were being liquidated so I could get near arcade quality for $10 a game!

 

Give the system a shot! It's VERY affordable and a lot of fun! Just be sure to get an adapter so that you can use Atari joysticks. The TI's are absolutely pure evil.

 

I put together an animated GIF of some screenshots I ripped off the net.

Edited February 19, 2009 by tremoloman2006

[Rybags]

PMSL.

 

So, I bet they modelled the voice on this guy...

 

(NSFW) Edited February 19, 2009 by Rybags