Any bare console/tape only users?

[Opry99er]

Anyone on here run bare console or cassette-only rigs?

 

I am thinking of converting some XB games to tape, just wondering if anyone would be helped by it. Thinking of putting them up for sale for the price of the cassette plus shipping. Could get a tape full of XB programs shipped for under $5... I can.get tapes in bulk for a buck a piece... Ship in padded envelope for a couple bucks...

 

If we have any minimalist 99ers on here, I will proceed with a plan. Could have my hardware up in a week or so.

[+save2600]

Yep... fan of the datasette and cassettes in general. Bring 'em on please!

[am1933]

I don't have a bare bones system but I do like to take out the old TI program recorder out for a test drive every now and again-I do like having original tapes so I would be up for a copy.

[notwhoyouthink]

Pretty much. Bare console with speech, and Extended Basic, plus a tape player.

[Sinphaltimus]

I don't run that bare anymore but my PEB system does indeed still have a tape drive although I've been using it to move programs from tape to disk, I wouldn't mind a collection of programs on tape for hoarding....

[Everett1954]

Sign me up, ill take one.

[Opry99er]

Wow... old thread, just now getting some responses.

 

 

Let me see what I can do on a cassette shipment. The last one went toward the Christmas demos, and I'm almost out of tapes.

[ti99iuc]

Oh yeah i always told you to do something... i am waiting for the second official batch of your old great games

[Opry99er]

I have been absent because my hard drive crashed on my PC and it really kind of depressed me, to be honest. I usually back up my development files to my external hard drive once a week or so. I put 3 weeks of hard development time into 3 of my old games to streamline them for tape right before the crash and never backed up. Stupid.

 

Anyway, I lost all that work... at least I THOUGHT I did. I had transferred a couple non-commented listings to 3.5" diskette for testing purposes, and I found them last night. All my commented code and version history is gone, but at least I have SOMETHING to start over with.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Opry99er

[RickyDean]

I have been absent because my hard drive crashed on my PC and it really kind of depressed me, to be honest. I usually back up my development files to my external hard drive once a week or so. I put 3 weeks of hard development time into 3 of my old games to streamline them for tape right before the crash and never backed up. Stupid.

 

Anyway, I lost all that work... at least I THOUGHT I did. I had transferred a couple non-commented listings to 3.5" diskette for testing purposes, and I found them last night. All my commented code and version history is gone, but at least I have SOMETHING to start over with.

Backups are the real thing..... feel you... been there, done that.

[+Vorticon]

Owen, assuming the XB programs are your own creation, I suggest you charge a bit more than just the cost of materials and shipping. Unless you have a cassette duplicating machine in your home, this will be a laborious process at best, and it will be only fair to charge for that labor and service.

Regardless, if you do decide to do this (it is an old thread after all ), please sign me up!

[Chuck D. Head]

A few thoughts on this:

 

#1 - I'm in for this, put me on the list, even if it costs a little more than the old post said.

 

#2 - I am running even a little more bare bones than most with just the bare console and speech module, but I use cassettes for my C64 and Coco. Having said that, if anyone has a spare TI cassette cable to sell, I would be interested in that. If no, I will hit eBay.

 

#3 - Using a cassette duplicating machine gives pretty crappy results. I used a high speed machine (about 2-3 minutes for a c-60 tape) in the day to try to duplicate Coco and Apple software and the resulting product never worked. My dad told me the machine could have 1-2% speed variance, which was apparently enough to mess things up. If you were to just use an old dual cassette deck, I imagine it would be fine.

[Opry99er]

I will need to revisit/rethink this. I was pretty hot and heavy on tapes in 2015, and I had a good source for tapes and I was rocking my Photoshop art software for inserts.

 

I haven't touched any of it in almost 2 years, so I need to get my sh** straight and I'll report back.

 

 

I was planning on selling my own games for a bit more, but I was going to do some compilation tapes of smallish Legacy XB programs for materials plus shipping. It absolutely does take time though... quite a bit of time.

 

More to come.

[x24b]

Back in the day I ran a bare console with cassette for a couple of years. With Mini-Memory I was able to tinker with Assembly a bit. I learned a great deal with that setup. That is how I fell in love with my TI.

 

When a friend of mine in the Pomona TI99er's club passed away, his widow asked if I would like his old equipment as she had no use for it.

I ended up with his PEB. It had a 32K RAM card, disk drive card, dual drives, and P-Code Card. From there I was able to get a modem and visit BBS's, buy an MX-80 dot matrix printer and eventually run my small business with it!

 

To your question: Now that I'm getting back into all of this, I'll start with the bare console again. Cassettes will be used.

 

This time I'll add an F18A (Purchased 2, 1 ready to install the other will be backup or for a second machine).

I'll also be using the FinalGROM99 cartridge (Purchased 1... so far).

Over time I'm certain I'll get the PEB cleaned up, tested and operational. A Printer is mandatory for me, so the PEB will return.

The FinalGROM 99 will most likely provide most all my storage needs once I convert my cassettes and floppies onto SD card.

 

I'm up for some bare console software.