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TI-99/Sim is quite good ... however ...


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On the pi 2 model b with retropi 3.6 image the sdl lib. install was not needed as they are included i think. The mouse cursor is not a big issue.

But it would be useful to have the function keys mapped fctn-8 redo and fctn-9 back and fctn-= quit. And key assignments for 1 2 3 on the ps/3 controller and the ESC to get out the simulator. Then everything can be controlled via a controller otherwise need to switch between the two each time

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I have a Raspberry Pi 3 that I want to run TI99/4a emulation on (to teach my son Basic and other other classic computing fun). So I am watching this all with great interest. I have looked over the instructions for getting TI99sim into RetroPI and I think that, not only is that a big job, but it is not what I wanted to end up with. (I am trying to get him to play LESS games). : ) So, I decided to attempt to just install it on Raspian, but after a couple of days of trying whenever I had a few spare minutes, I still have not had any luck. I am completely new to Linux and have mostly avoided the terminal in OS X over the years. I think I may have a clue as to what has been going wrong and will be making another attempt today after I get some work cleared up. Hopefully I will be able to report on performance on the pi 3.

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I have a Raspberry Pi 3 that I want to run TI99/4a emulation on (to teach my son Basic and other other classic computing fun). So I am watching this all with great interest. I have looked over the instructions for getting TI99sim into RetroPI and I think that, not only is that a big job, but it is not what I wanted to end up with. (I am trying to get him to play LESS games). : ) So, I decided to attempt to just install it on Raspian, but after a couple of days of trying whenever I had a few spare minutes, I still have not had any luck. I am completely new to Linux and have mostly avoided the terminal in OS X over the years. I think I may have a clue as to what has been going wrong and will be making another attempt today after I get some work cleared up. Hopefully I will be able to report on performance on the pi 3.

 

For your son I think the fastest way to setup and to learn Basic, etc. is to get Classic99 from harmlesslion website (Tursi)

(or get the complete package is somewhere here on AtariAge, with all modules installed already, including Extended Basic v.27 suite, etc.)

I cannot find the link now), or V9T9 (but requires the TI-99 roms) or JS99er.net online. Or even better a real TI (:-))

 

My 4 year old know how to start and use Classic99 (and start Rasmus games :-) he likes Jet Set Willy),

but we also did some Basic programming, programming colours, printing his name, etc.

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I am completely new to Linux and have mostly avoided the terminal in OS X over the years.

Don't give up. There's no rush. A command line shell will always be there (on almost any mac, *nix or *BSD) when all the GUIs become too bizarre, cumbersome or just won't start. What is going wrong when you attempt to install raspbian?

 

Maybe, when your son is older you can point him to Neal Stephenson's In The Beginning...Was The Command Line.

The OS X Finder is looking more and more clunky, even Gnome's "Files" is feeling pretty slick compared to that NextStep throwback. I used to really like OS X so much I maintained it on several Hackintosh laptops. However, Apple has gone pretty far off track in recent years, pushing UI candy silliness and integration with throwaway mobile devices while completely ignoring wonderful new things like ZFS and 3rd party SSD support. Everything is just too tightly locked down and broken in mysterious Apple ways. I gave up on Apple a year ago and mostly use Linux for fun and games and FreeBSD for media storage ("NAS," in the buzzword bingo of our times).

 

Anyway, ti99sim is worth it. So is MESS. If you have a desktop system or don't care about loud fans, just run classic99 in wine. (For some reason, wine goes nuts running Classic99, eating 70 to 100 percent CPU.)

 

I've had some trouble with disk images with all three, but it may have been my own fault since I have accumulated way too many different TI disk image formats and messed with them in many, many emulators over the years.. As far as I know, there is no good GUI frontend to either, but it isn't so hard to make a quick, dirty command line selection dialog using only BASH and dialog:

#!/bin/sh

# Run me from the ti99-sim directory.
# -4 makes the window bigger.

CART=$( dialog --stdout --title "Choose a cart" --fselect ./cartridges/ 14 48 )

DSK=$( dialog --stdout --title "Select dsk1" --fselect ./disks/ 14 48 )

./ti99sim-sdl -4 --dsk1=$DSK $CART
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For your son I think the fastest way to setup and to learn Basic, etc. is to get Classic99 from harmlesslion website (Tursi)

(or get the complete package is somewhere here on AtariAge, with all modules installed already, including Extended Basic v.27 suite, etc.)

I cannot find the link now), or V9T9 (but requires the TI-99 roms) or JS99er.net online. Or even better a real TI (:-))

 

My 4 year old know how to start and use Classic99 (and start Rasmus games :-) he likes Jet Set Willy),

but we also did some Basic programming, programming colours, printing his name, etc.

 

We are on the same page here, I pulled out one of my TI99/4a units for my son to start with a few years ago and he fell in love with it. Over school breaks I usually have a TI99 hooked up in the front room just for him and we have daily "programing club" of course, what he really wants to do is play the cartridges. : )

I have been using MESS and other various emulators for many years but Mac OS support seems to come and go, at times it has being strong (simple installs and clear documentation) and then it will fall off as people lose interest and the ports and front ends start breaking. It feels like we are in one of those lulls now. Currently I am running the Java Version of V9T9 with good success and also have TI emulation running acceptably (with issues) in MESS/QMC2. We run Open Emu on a Mac in our entertainment center that he gets to use on a limited basis for games, so we are covered there. Open Emu is nothing less than fantastic by the way, and if they ever add support for classic computing cores, this whole discussion might become moot. : )

I would love to try Classic99 but I don't currently have a way to run it. (and little interest in that environment) I will learn Linux, that feels like time well spent, but I don't see the point in windows. emulation is literally the only thing I would do with it.

 

So, really, the focus is really on making a compact flexible "Classic computing" emulation machine (not just TI but eventually Apple II, C64, MacOS...) that he can explore and also use for learning other types of programing moving forward. Just because I struggle with Linux, there is no reason to assume that he will, and I think it is a valuable thing to be familiar with. The VERY appealing things about the Raspberry Pi are direct control over electronics projects and the fact that its no big deal if he wrecks the OS or deletes a bunch of stuff... just stick in a different sd card. Now if he were using my work computer, or even the Mac in the entertainment center and started messing around...ugh. Plus we are putting it in an old non functioning TI99 case as a project so thats a big reason to get TI emulation working on the PI. My hope is that some form of TI emulation will be added to one of the nearly turn key installs for the PI that support various classic computers. RetroPi being the most popular, but I also want to look into Chameleon as it seems less "games" focused. Until then I will keep throwing effort at getting it to work on Raspian. I am sure you all would have a good chuckle watching the genuinely dyslexic “artsy-half-technocrat” guy carefully typing in commands to copy files one at a time and growling at a tiny computer about permissions.

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Don't give up. There's no rush. A command line shell will always be there (on almost any mac, *nix or *BSD) when all the GUIs become too bizarre, cumbersome or just won't start. What is going wrong when you attempt to install raspbian?

 

Raspbian is running great and last night I seem to have been able to get TI99sim to install, but it still doesn't seem to be working, I have a theory and it is most likely a silly misunderstanding on my part hopefully I will be able to correct it today.

 

 

 

The OS X Finder is looking more and more clunky, even Gnome's "Files" is feeling pretty slick compared to that NextStep throwback. I used to really like OS X so much I maintained it on several Hackintosh laptops. However, Apple has gone pretty far off track in recent years, pushing UI candy silliness and integration with throwaway mobile devices while completely ignoring wonderful new things like ZFS and 3rd party SSD support. Everything is just too tightly locked down and broken in mysterious Apple ways.

 

I have a strong feeling that you are right. Way too much IOS creeping in. How long will it be before they start shopping for a new OS to replace it? heh.

Back in the day, we all thought BeOS would be the choice to replace OS9. I wonder how different the world would be if that had happened? I am very knowledgeable with OS9 and earlier incarnations. Even considered by some to be an expert... talk about useless skills! When Apple purchased NexT, I just could not do it... I could not learn the whole thing over again to that level. So I dropped down to "user" status. and avoided looking under the hood. Command line interface is a problem for me as I am actually dyslexic and it takes me much longer to get things done in that way than it would for others. I CAN do it, It is just frustrating and slow. So, GUI has been a major boon to me, everything I have done in life centers around computers and I would not have been able to do that had it not been for the GUI on that first Mac 512k I got back in 1985-ish. Thanks Xerox Parc!

 

Linux seems like a very useful environment and I want my son to know what it is to be able to fully explore a computer like I did starting out with TRS-80, TI99/4a and eventually old Macs. I have some faulty wiring in the old noggin that makes programming and command line a real chore... but he does not. A friend saw our PI99/4a project open on the table and asked why I wanted him to have a Raspberry Pi and why was that different from him using a iPad... I don't think I was able to explain it to her. I may have regulated myself to "simple user" but I will not regulate him to that dull existence. "its too late for me my son... *cough* GO! Go on with out me! uggggg" (too dramatic?) : )

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Can't agree more about how much fun OS 9 was and how, um, uninspiring was the stuff that came after. (Many seem to worship at the altar of NextStep. Like those who fanatically like Rush, I just don't get it. The only time I ever saw a Next machine in real life was in some wacky physics professor's underground lab in 199x.) btw, there is a noble attempt to keep BeOS alive that's been going on for a good few years now: Haiku.

 

The last straw for me and Apple was a little over a year ago when I discovered my brand new SSD was running at 80C because Apple's AHCI kernel module doesn't care to implement SATA link power management. (At least, I think they don't; if there is an interface, it is well hidden and they're not telling!) In Linux (via a boot time kernel parameter) or FreeBSD (via a clearly documented sysctl) SATA power management can be enabled and the drive runs around 50C. Had I kept using OS X, I am pretty sure a year or two of that high temperature abuse would have killed my SSD.

 

iPad is a passive magazine/document/pdf textbook reader for me. An appliance. It makes it easier to peruse all my TI99/4A manuals. RPi...it's a total Rube Goldberg work-in-progress. More inspiring than a fresh role of duct tape. I started out using it with cheap temp/humidity/pressure sensors as a weather station. Then it evolved into a Nintendo Streetpass relay (Even 40something people play too many video games....) and wireless print server. Then I tried to do all three on the same RPi and realized that things were getting too complex and that used RPis are cheap so I got more. Right now, I'm waiting on a DIN4 to DB9 cable to use one as a DriveWire server for a Tandy Color Computer 2. All this wacky stuff can be installed and configurated as a mere user; I'm too much of a bone-idle tennis bum for any serious hobby development work.

 

Getting back on the topic of the PI99/4A, ti99sim is really light; it would probably run just fine on an old Raspberry Pi A+.

I see there is an ARM binary for download...I have to get around to trying this out!

A while ago, I put together Adafruit's Raspberry Pi-based Gameboy clone PiGRRL and found adding more systems to RetroPi "Emulation Station" GUI to be a total pain. GB/GBA/Atari/Coleco work very well, but there are just not enough buttons to be able to play around with emulated real computers like TI, C64, etc. Maybe someone could create a text input method for a portable PI994/A? There are lots of 3D printed cases you can print or buy from someone if you want to make a handheld PI99/4A.

 

Whatever you guys decide, please take lots of pictures of the process to document how you make your PI99/4A for the rest of us.

 

 

EDIT: I just noticed this Raspberry Pi "Laptop" case. This would make an awesome portable retro computing machine. Then again, considering the cost...a cheap old intel atom netbook would also be up to the job of TI99/4a emulation.

 

 

My PiGRRL build:

post-28728-0-07121000-1459440328_thumb.jpg

post-28728-0-30638100-1459440364_thumb.jpg

Edited by ceratophyllum
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Can't agree more about how much fun OS 9 was and how, um, uninspiring was the stuff that came after. (Many seem to worship at the altar of NextStep. Like those who fanatically like Rush, I just don't get it. The only time I ever saw a Next machine in real life was in some wacky physics professor's underground lab in 199x.) btw, there is a noble attempt to keep BeOS alive that's been going on for a good few years now: Haiku.

 

The last straw for me and Apple was a little over a year ago when I discovered my brand new SSD was running at 80C because Apple's AHCI kernel module doesn't care to implement SATA link power management. (At least, I think they don't; if there is an interface, it is well hidden and they're not telling!) In Linux (via a boot time kernel parameter) or FreeBSD (via a clearly documented sysctl) SATA power management can be enabled and the drive runs around 50C. Had I kept using OS X, I am pretty sure a year or two of that high temperature abuse would have killed my SSD.

 

iPad is a passive magazine/document/pdf textbook reader for me. An appliance. It makes it easier to peruse all my TI99/4A manuals. RPi...it's a total Rube Goldberg work-in-progress. More inspiring than a fresh role of duct tape. I started out using it with cheap temp/humidity/pressure sensors as a weather station. Then it evolved into a Nintendo Streetpass relay (Even 40something people play too many video games....) and wireless print server. Then I tried to do all three on the same RPi and realized that things were getting too complex and that used RPis are cheap so I got more. Right now, I'm waiting on a DIN4 to DB9 cable to use one as a DriveWire server for a Tandy Color Computer 2. All this wacky stuff can be installed and configurated as a mere user; I'm too much of a bone-idle tennis bum for any serious hobby development work.

 

Getting back on the topic of the PI99/4A, ti99sim is really light; it would probably run just fine on an old Raspberry Pi A+.

I see there is an ARM binary for download...I have to get around to trying this out!

A while ago, I put together Adafruit's Raspberry Pi-based Gameboy clone PiGRRL and found adding more systems to RetroPi "Emulation Station" GUI to be a total pain. GB/GBA/Atari/Coleco work very well, but there are just not enough buttons to be able to play around with emulated real computers like TI, C64, etc. Maybe someone could create a text input method for a portable PI994/A? There are lots of 3D printed cases you can print or buy from someone if you want to make a handheld PI99/4A.

 

Whatever you guys decide, please take lots of pictures of the process to document how you make your PI99/4A for the rest of us.

 

 

EDIT: I just noticed this Raspberry Pi "Laptop" case. This would make an awesome portable retro computing machine. Then again, considering the cost...a cheap old intel atom netbook would also be up to the job of TI99/4a emulation.

 

 

My PiGRRL build:

 

Reply: Getting back on the topic of the PI99/4A, ti99sim is really light; it would probably run just fine on an old Raspberry Pi A+.

I see there is an ARM binary for download...I have to get around to trying this out!

 

See also the video of Paradroyd : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHJKwX318_g&feature=youtu.be

 

Last week I tried it runs on Raspberry Pi 2 model B (here is a separate discussion regarding the setup/installation):

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/250767-how-to-install-ti-994a-ti-99sim-on-retropie-v36-raspberry-pi2-or-pi3/

 

nice setup with the PiGGRL, have not seen this one before

(also Paradroyd has a similar setup on another type of device, forgot what it was)

but I did setup of the customized TI-99/SIM on a Sony PSP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvDwXt-oMbg (see also the description below the video)

Really love the SonyPSP, it makes TI very portable

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I feel that I am very close to having ti99sim working on Raspbian, I am getting an error, I suspect I converted a set of roms that it did not like. But as of today, at least the PI3 has a very fancy case!

PI994a 2210

I feel I have ranted a bit in this thread and am going to retreat to my own post on the subject and put up a few more pics.

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  • 1 month later...

FYI, earlier today I was playing with TI99sim in my RetroPie setup and I got annoyed with the mouse pointer constantly showing up when I switched games to the point that it motivated me to hunt down why it was happening and fix it.

 

Since I compiled my TI99sim from version 0.12 source, I was able to go through the code and find the problem and fix it. if you have compiled from any version of source you can probably do the same thing. If you're using binaries you're probably out of luck for now.

 

There's an SDL function, "SDL_ShowCursor" that's supposed to turn the cursor / mouse pointer off. I went looking in the source of TI99sim to see if I could find it or find someplace to shoehorn it in.

 

I found it in "ti99sim-0.0.12/src/sdl/tms9918a-sdl.cpp" in a block of code that should conditionally be run if ti99sim is running full screen. That makes sense, because if it's running in a window in a multitasking environment, you're not going to want it to turn your pointer off.

 

I went back and double checked /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg (which is a big XML file that controls actually launching emulators in RetroPie & feeding them parameters). I wanted to make sure that TI99sim was getting launched with the "-f" (full screen) parameter (it was).

 

It seems there's something about the RetroPie/EmulationStation environment that's making TI99sim think it's not running full screen when it clearly is being called as full screen, and appears to be running that way. Because of that, the conditional block of code that contains "SDL_ShowCursor(SDL_DISABLE)" never gets run, and the mouse pointer shows.

 

My quick & dirty solution was to put the SDL function to hide the cursor someplace where it would get run unconditionally.

 

In the same file, "ti99sim-0.0.12/src/sdl/tms9918a-sdl.cpp", I went to this section of the file:

FUNCTION_ENTRY( this, "cSdlTMS9918A ctor", true );
        m_Mutex = SDL_CreateMutex( );

        memset( m_RawColorTable, 0, sizeof( m_RawColorTable ));
        memset( m_SDLColorTable, 0, sizeof( m_SDLColorTable ));

and added the SDL function there, so that block wound up being:

FUNCTION_ENTRY( this, "cSdlTMS9918A ctor", true );
        m_Mutex = SDL_CreateMutex( );
        SDL_ShowCursor( SDL_DISABLE );

        memset( m_RawColorTable, 0, sizeof( m_RawColorTable ));
        memset( m_SDLColorTable, 0, sizeof( m_SDLColorTable ));

Then I saved the file, went to the root of the ti99sim source directory, and compiled by doing:

make

..lots of compiling ensues...

 

then

sudo make install

After that, I launched RetroPie, launched TI99sim, launched Parsec, and NO POINTER! No apparent Ill effects, either.

 

Annoyance is the other mother of invention, or modification, or whatever

 

Obviously I am not a C programmer and I'm pretty sure this is violating some kind of programmer's prime directive, but it works and it causes no errors or warnings. This is really only useful for RetroPie or any other non-X launcher where full screen is used but mis-detected.

 

Hopefully someone else can get some use from this.

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  • 3 months later...

Hello,

 

I've installed ti-99sim on my raspberry pie 2. Cartridge works great :)

 

I try to understand how to make the disk works but with no success....

 

I got some disk from 99er magazine in dsk format. I just want to use them with extended basic....

 

I just want to know what step to be able to load something........

 

I try "ti99sim-sdl --dsk1=/home/pi/ti99sim-0.14.0/Disks/99ER1-01.dsk /home/pi/ti99sim-0.14.0/Cartridges/Extended1.ctg" but nothing work.

 

I get the message subprogram not found

 

What is the TI-DISK.ctg? where do I get it? where does it go?

 

Can anybody help please...

 

Yves

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Hello,

 

I've installed ti-99sim on my raspberry pie 2. Cartridge works great :)

 

I try to understand how to make the disk works but with no success....

 

I got some disk from 99er magazine in dsk format. I just want to use them with extended basic....

 

I just want to know what step to be able to load something........

 

I try "ti99sim-sdl --dsk1=/home/pi/ti99sim-0.14.0/Disks/99ER1-01.dsk /home/pi/ti99sim-0.14.0/Cartridges/Extended1.ctg" but nothing work.

 

I get the message subprogram not found

 

What is the TI-DISK.ctg? where do I get it? where does it go?

 

Can anybody help please...

 

Yves

 

I was able to create the file ti-disk.ctg that I've put in /opt/ti99sim/console/

 

root@retropie:/home/pi/ti99sim-0.14.0/bin# ./convert-ctg --cru=1100 /home/pi/ti99sim-0.14.0/roms/disk.bin

TI-99/Sim .ctg file converter

 

Found the following names:

 

 

Module Summary:

Title: <Unknown>

CRU: 1100

GROMS: None

1 bank of ROM at 4000

1 bank of ROM at 5000

 

But I still get the same message in TI extended basic :(

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Hi there. I use TI-99/Sim with Red Hat Linux.

 

ti-disk.ctg (all lower case) belongs in a folder called ROMS which also contains TI-994A.ctg (note the upper case!) - so if you have the console rom which it sounds as though you do, check out the directory it is sitting in. The program is VERY sensitive to the CASE and I did struggle to get the upper-case / lower-case correct but it works for me with TI-994A.ctg and ti-disk.ctg

 

My ROMS folder also holds Disk.bin, 994agrom.bin, 994arom.bin, Disk.Bin - so look for any of these files.

 

Check the sim readme files::

"The ti99sim emulator uses special .ctg files to store the ROM and/or GROM images contained within the computer console and plug-in cartridges. The convert-ctg program allows you to create these cartridges. It will convert your existing v9t9 ROMs or create cartridges using output from a hex dump of a ROM image. A set of sample files, TI-994A.dat, Mini-Memory.dat, and Gram Kracker.dat, located in the roms directory, are supplied as examples of the format of the hex dump file. NOTE: These files do not contain complete hex dumps of their corresponding ROMs but can be used as templates if you have the required information.

In order to use the disk emulation features, you need to create a cartridge from a TI disk ROM with the name "ti-disk.ctg" with the CRU address 1100."

 

regards Stephen

 

 

 

 

 

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The help file I obtained with my vn 1.2 gives a required directory structure of:

 

 

executable-|

|

|- cartridges This contains .ctg files for modules

|

|-disks This contains .dsk files

|

|-roms This holds .bin and .ctg files for devices

 

regards

 

Stephen

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If it really is Extended Basic telling you "sub program not found" then you are using a CALL SUBPROG that does not exist in Extended Basic (or TI Basic if you have selected that in error)

 

From the command line, for example, type CALL IBM and see what that produces!..

Now key in a test program eg 1 REM then from the command line type SAVE DSK1.TRIAL and see if the error message looks the same.

 

Or is the error from the emulator? Are you getting to the TI Master Title screen?

 

Lack of a disk system would normally produce a I/O Error.

 

The XB error message generated from a running program should be something like "sub program not found in NNN" - is it? If it is in that form, list the program line referenced and look for a CALL of some sort.

 

regards

 

 

Stephen

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Are you emulating the same disk controller in both mame and sim? Are you using exactly the same XB cartridge version with both mame and sim? (there are many versions- use CALL VERSION(A) then PRINT A.

 

What is the size (in kb) of the emulated disk that works in mame but not sim, and the size of the emulated disk that does work in sim? May be an indicator.

 

If it is a subprogram not found error I suspect the program is calling a subprogram that is in one version of XB but not another. Or could you be calling an XB subprogram in TI Basic!

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Thanks again for the help!

 

I did a simple solution since I was not able to do anything with my disk image.

 

I use tiimagetool to copy my files on the disk not working to a working empty disk. (I keep the load programs from the PC99 disk)

 

It works ok.

 

Yves

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

What a great site! I still have my TI99/4a that my parents bought from Sears in the 80's! So great to see all these resources.

In digging around in here I also saw the js99'er by Asmusr. That software is awesome! It's great being able to play these games on my phone and tablets.

OK. On to my question:
I've very recently gotten a RetroPi set up on a pi zero. Installed the emulator through the optional installation and got it up and running by putting the rom (ti-994a.ctg) into the proper folder along with some games. There is just one thing left to set up. I see some of you using disks on Raspberry Pi's but I haven't heard of anyone(Maybe I missed it. I apologize if I did.) using games that require additional data loaded from a disk (or cassette) from within the Retropie emulation station interface.

One of my favorite games growing up was Tunnels of Doom (I had the cassettes and not the disks...). I am having trouble understanding how to set up disk support in this system. I'm not even sure if it will work at all. Has anyone had any experience using this TI-99Sim emulator in retropie with cartridges that require additional data loaded via disk? If the disk controller has to be converted to a cartridge, can the emulator load a game cartridge and the disk controller cartridge and use it to incorporate the extra data? I'd try to put the disk controller cartridge in the folder myself and just try it out, but I don't have a copy of the disk controller file. I wanted to ask here before I spent a lot of time trying to track it down.

 

Sorry for the long rambling...

 

Again, thanks for any help you can provide.

 

 

 

Bio

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What a great site! I still have my TI99/4a that my parents bought from Sears in the 80's! So great to see all these resources.

In digging around in here I also saw the js99'er by Asmusr. That software is awesome! It's great being able to play these games on my phone and tablets.

OK. On to my question:

I've very recently gotten a RetroPi set up on a pi zero. Installed the emulator through the optional installation and got it up and running by putting the rom (ti-994a.ctg) into the proper folder along with some games. There is just one thing left to set up. I see some of you using disks on Raspberry Pi's but I haven't heard of anyone(Maybe I missed it. I apologize if I did.) using games that require additional data loaded from a disk (or cassette) from within the Retropie emulation station interface.

One of my favorite games growing up was Tunnels of Doom (I had the cassettes and not the disks...). I am having trouble understanding how to set up disk support in this system. I'm not even sure if it will work at all. Has anyone had any experience using this TI-99Sim emulator in retropie with cartridges that require additional data loaded via disk? If the disk controller has to be converted to a cartridge, can the emulator load a game cartridge and the disk controller cartridge and use it to incorporate the extra data? I'd try to put the disk controller cartridge in the folder myself and just try it out, but I don't have a copy of the disk controller file. I wanted to ask here before I spent a lot of time trying to track it down.

 

Sorry for the long rambling...

 

Again, thanks for any help you can provide.

 

 

 

Bio

 

I asked this very same question earlier this year to the developer of Ti99SIM and his response was exactly below. Now I have not tried this as of yet.

 

 

 

Once you have the ti-disk.ctg file created properly, you can specify the disk image file for each disk on the command line. For example:

ti99sim-sdl --dsk1=assm1.dsk --dsk2=foo.dsk --dsk3=bar.dsk ea.ctg
You currently can't swap disks while it's running so plan accordingly.

 

Of course you will need to create the TI Disk Controller cfg file.

 

The below was also provided to me by the developer, but i have not tried it completely yet. I also wonder if this will work for other device peripherals other than the TI FDC, like the Myarc FDC..

 

 

 

For device cartridges, you need to tell it the CRU address it should use (which also tells it that it's ROM and not GROM). For the ti-disk cartridge it should be >1100. So try this:

convert-ctg --cru=1100 /home/pi/temp/ti-disk.bin "Ti Disk Controller"
That should change the output to:
Title: TI Disk Controller
CRU: 1100
GROMS: None
1 bank of ROM at 4000
1 bank of ROM at 5000
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Hmmm. So it can be done with a command line. Doesn't look good if I want to use the gui that comes with retropie.

I am in the process of converting a disk.bin to a ctg file using the cru=1100 option. Downloaded ti99sim for windows...

 

Thanks for your quick response!

 

if you get it working let us know.

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