Bought a TI-99/4A system

[S1500]

Bought this on craigslist today.

 

 

$100. 2 consoles, 1 original box, 25 disks or so, speech module, PEB(above), not the TV. Eh, I felt I paid a bit much. Sadly, no Editor/Assembler module to play many of the asm games. This was a total impulse buy. Wanted just the PEB to make a case mod out of it.

[+remowilliams]

New PEBs alone sell for $75

[S1500]

New PEBs alone sell for $75

 

But the shipping would have killed me.

[+remowilliams]

But the shipping would have killed me.

Yes they are truly tanks of the classic compuring era. That's why $100 is a good deal, don't regret it - even when someone invariably comes along (because someone always seems to) and posts 'I saw the same setup and was offered $25 to take it and refused'

[atwwong]

Ah, the TI - saved me and my brother from boredom at my relatives over the summer, way back when... Good memories, programming basic games into it from magazines...

[nathanallan]

I have TI Invaders and Parsec up on ctcw for cheap if you need a couple of games. It's a pretty fun game system.

 

And I would say you got a pretty good deal, too.

Edited July 8, 2009 by nathanallan

[Polybius]

I found my Ti-99/4a for $5 at some thrift shop. No PEB though.

[S1500]

I got my good share of big thick(okay, just 2) binder manuals, one for Microsoft Multiplan & TI Writer. Also got the reference guide for BASIC, but oddly enough, this one's a manual. The BASIC manual I got when I was a kid came in individual hole-punched pages, and I had provide the binder.

 

Also some original cart manuals + the carts for various home budgeting programs and so forth. These will be fun to scan in. I should fix up that cable so I can get sound, or get an adapter that goes from coaxial to BNC connector, as I have 2 near-mint RF modulators. Dang those things were thick. Also got a great Wico stick, as pictured. That is one heavy mutha.

 

Now refresh my memory, was it DIS/VAR 80 for Extended Basic programs?

[Tursi]

Now refresh my memory, was it DIS/VAR 80 for Extended Basic programs?

 

Nope! BASIC programs and XB programs that fit in VRAM (12k or so) are stored as PROGRAM type files. XB programs that are larger than VRAM and require memory expansion are stored as DIS/FIX 254

 

DIS/VAR 80 is usually a text file, although it can also be an Editor/Assembler compressed object file. DIS/FIX 80 is usually an Editor/Assembler uncompressed object file.

[S1500]

Now refresh my memory, was it DIS/VAR 80 for Extended Basic programs?

 

Nope! BASIC programs and XB programs that fit in VRAM (12k or so) are stored as PROGRAM type files. XB programs that are larger than VRAM and require memory expansion are stored as DIS/FIX 254

 

DIS/VAR 80 is usually a text file, although it can also be an Editor/Assembler compressed object file. DIS/FIX 80 is usually an Editor/Assembler uncompressed object file.

 

Shows you how much I remember from 20 years ago. Okay, PROGRAM = good to go then. Looks like I had it backwards. By chance remember what I/O error 06 is? I got quite a few of those when trying to load a few of these programs.

[Tursi]

I/O Errors are broken into two parts. The first digit is the operation attempted (you probably know what command you entered, so I won't go look those up). The second is the actual error:

 

0 - bad device name (ie: DAK1 instead of DSK1)

1 - write protected (on a write operation)

2 - bad attribute - basically the display/internal, variable/fixed, or record length didn't match

3 - illegal operation - not supported by the device (like trying to input from a printer)

4 - disk full

5 - read past end of file

6 - device error - all hardware errors, bad media, etc

7 - File error - PROGRAM versus Data, file not found, etc