+jmazzy Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) Greetings. I recently needed to move my TI-99/4A out of a family crawl space and decided that, rather than pack it away again in a closet, I'd indulge in an occasional trip down memory lane and actually use it. So I now have it set up in my bedroom. I did a few Google searches to help me get my feet wet again (it's been over 20 years since I've used it regularly), and I came across the posting: Telnet - Getting your TI on the Internet & TI BBS's. I'm currently in the process of setting up a UDS-10 as laid out in that topic. (Many thanks to Omega for beginning the topic and to those people who contributed to it.) Back in the day, I used Terminal Emulator II along with a 300 baud Volksmodem to attach to CompuServe and a few local BBS's. But from the discussions I'm reading now, it seems Telco may be the most ideal terminal program for my future connections to BBS's. (I haven't connected to anything since the unpacking. I still need to finish preparing my UDS-10.) So my question: how do I get Telco? I know I can download a copy of it from WHT. But...downloading that with my MacBook obviously means a copy of it lives...on my MacBook, not on a TI diskette. So how do I actually get the Telco program to my TI-99/4A? Since WHT seems to have it available for download as a DSK file, I assume I have to prepare a TI diskette and copy the program to it. But I not entirely sure how I would take the downloaded file from my MacBook and get it onto a TI diskette. The wheels in my head are turning now, and I'm wondering if this means I need to run some sort of TI-99/4A emulator app on my Mac along with an attached diskette drive. I imagine somewhere there's an explanation of how to do what I'm trying to do, but I haven't found it yet. Rather than continuing to search, and since I'm past-due to get involved in some discussions here, I decided to pose the question to all of you. Any guidance or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! - Jerry Edited March 2, 2015 by jmazzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Ahhh, the chicken and the egg... The easiest solution is to ask someone here to send you a disk. What type of drive(s) do you have? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprintcarfan Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) I just went through the same ordeal this past weekend.... I have a console and loaded PEB, but with no modern hardware like HDX boards, or floppy emulators. I have a Terminal Emulator II cartridge and tried to transfer between the TI and various TI emulators on my PC, but didn't have much luck for whatever reason. I ended up typing in a crude assembly program that was listed in the October 1989 Micropendium magazine. It uses Xmodem and can talk to Hyperterminal,etc on a modern computer. I compiled it and was able to transfer MagicFM using this terminal emulator on the TI and Qmodem Pro on a PC. As long as you have an E/A cartridge, RS232 card, and some kind of term program on your Mac that supports Xmodem, you should be able to transfer files and open up more possibilities. Quick and Dirty RS232.txt Edited March 2, 2015 by sprintcarfan 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) few ways to accomplish this most of which you won't be able to do without something on your TI to load programs with.. There is no reliable way to write a ti disk on modern hardware.. As everything's hd and all the controllers that would do the lower density are long gone from computers.. Easiest way is to get a copy of magicfm on disk. I can mail you one if you pm me that will give you a good starting point.. you load magicfm on the TI, and an xmodem capable term on the pc, then use that to talk to the TI, copy files over..etc.. over a straight through cable db25-db9 (assuming your pc has db9 anymore, might need a usb to rs232 adapter some are peices of crap and don't work.. ymmv) Another easy way is to use a XB2.7 cart and the hdx utility on it with hdx server on the pc..but then you need the cart..which is about 50$ for a nice one or you can buy a ubergrom with the burn on my website arcadeshopper.com Greg Edited March 3, 2015 by arcadeshopper 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrax27407 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Do you have disk drives in your PEB? Are they 5.25" or 3.5" drives? What kind of disk controller card do you have? Are they SSSD, DSSD, or DSDD? I can send you a copy of TELCO if you let me know what configuration your drives are. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jmazzy Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Thank you all for the helpful feedback! While I think I may have the requisite cables for a Mac-to-TI file transfer, I agree w/Omega that receiving a diskette from a fellow user would be the easiest route for me. (Although I am interested in digging deeper into the Magic File Manipulator program for some potential future projects.) So, Atrax, I appreciate your offer and will take you up on it. I have a console and a PEB with one RS232 card, one internal 5.25" diskette drive (model # PHP1250), and one disk system card (model # PHP1240). It's been ages since I've used the diskette drives so I'm having trouble remembering the supported diskette format. But, according to the PHP1240 documentation I'm looking over now, looks like it's SSSD. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Later, if the TI bug really bites hard, you might want to consider << one of these >>. A lot of the guys are starting to get them as it makes moving files a snap and you don't have to mess with disks or even get a program first. Of course, being that you are using a MAC it may be a little more bothersome.. because from what I understand, depending upon the model, you may not even have an SD card slot. If you do, you'll have to run Windows on it to use TI99Dir and I think to even format the SD card. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kl99 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 HI Jmazzy! If you have a working Serial connection between TI and WindowsPC I can send you a not yet released Windows Program that solves the Egg/Chicken problem for you.All you need is to type then on the TI-99 is OLD RS232.BA=9600 and the loading of a PROGRAM starts, it should work with an Assembler Program as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 There is no reliable way to write a ti disk on modern hardware.. As everything's hd and all the controllers that would do the lower density are long gone from computers.. The situation is not so bad, but still difficult. You can use DD disks in a modern floppy drive, but you have to configure the floppy controller so that the format can be read by the TI controller. Some time ago (ouch... 6 years ago already!) I and Gerhard Wiesinger wrote two C programs (Linux) that allow to read and write TI floppies on a PC drive (3.5 or 5.25). Maybe this can be ported to Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrax27407 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 If you still want the TELCO disk, send me a PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 ...or just take OmniFlop. Works fine. Here you can format TI-Disk-Format at your local drive, and also transfer DSK-Files to them. (don´t forget to change your Floppy- AND your Floppycontrollerdriver in windows, for that) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I ended up typing in a crude assembly program that was listed in the October 1989 Micropendium magazine. It uses Xmodem and can talk to Hyperterminal,etc on a modern computer. I compiled it and was able to transfer MagicFM using this terminal emulator on the TI and Qmodem Pro on a PC. That's BAD ASS! Desperation as the mother of problem solving? I respect your perseverance! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 not BAD ASS, it´s GOOD ASSembly 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jmazzy Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Later, if the TI bug really bites hard, you might want to consider << one of these >>. A lot of the guys are starting to get them as it makes moving files a snap and you don't have to mess with disks or even get a program first. Of course, being that you are using a MAC it may be a little more bothersome.. because from what I understand, depending upon the model, you may not even have an SD card slot. If you do, you'll have to run Windows on it to use TI99Dir and I think to even format the SD card. Yes, I can easily see the value in this device. It's on my To-Purchase list now. Thanks. I'm certainly intrigued, and I have an array of questions about it. My primary question, though, is: if my PEB drive slot is currently occupied, how would I connect the Lotharek unit to my system? I assume I can purchase an external version of the Lotharek unit? ...and then just connect that unit to my PEB's disk system via ribbon cable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 yes, should work 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprintcarfan Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 That's BAD ASS! Desperation as the mother of problem solving? I respect your perseverance! If I'm not mistaken, you, or someone on here posted a link to that assembly listing not long ago. I think you said it was originally typed up by Jacques Groslouis. I probably wouldn't have attempted to type the source in from the scanned article if it weren't for that. The text is too hard to read in the article and I don't know assembly well enough to know what to expect when there are fuzzy characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoodland Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 HI Jmazzy! If you have a working Serial connection between TI and WindowsPC I can send you a not yet released Windows Program that solves the Egg/Chicken problem for you. All you need is to type then on the TI-99 is OLD RS232.BA=9600 and the loading of a PROGRAM starts, it should work with an Assembler Program as well. kl99 - I sure would be interested in the Windows Program that solves the Egg/Chicken problem as I am in the same boat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 BTW - Now that you are running Telco, be sure to << CLICK HERE >> 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 kl99 - I sure would be interested in the Windows Program that solves the Egg/Chicken problem as I am in the same boat. Thank you for bumping this, as it brought information I needed to my attention. I just went through the same ordeal this past weekend.... I have a console and loaded PEB, but with no modern hardware like HDX boards, or floppy emulators. I have a Terminal Emulator II cartridge and tried to transfer between the TI and various TI emulators on my PC, but didn't have much luck for whatever reason. I ended up typing in a crude assembly program that was listed in the October 1989 Micropendium magazine. It uses Xmodem and can talk to Hyperterminal,etc on a modern computer. I compiled it and was able to transfer MagicFM using this terminal emulator on the TI and Qmodem Pro on a PC. As long as you have an E/A cartridge, RS232 card, and some kind of term program on your Mac that supports Xmodem, you should be able to transfer files and open up more possibilities. And thank you for bringing the Micropendium article to my attention. It is EXACTLY what I needed. Yes, I could have thrown money at the bootstrap problem with a disk emulator and a flash drive full of files, or an HDX card, or so on and so forth. But I wanted to do this with only period hardware on the TI. It was supposed to be a fun project, before everything went wrong(basically every problem I had was related to learning TE2 is "quaint" at best, and figuring out how to get files on the system). This gets the train back on the tracks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Kl99’s solution reminds me of ADT for the Apple. You boot a utility to transfer disk images over a Java servlet over a serial port. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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