How to install TI-99/4A (TI-99/SIM) on RetroPie v3.6 (Raspberry Pi2 or Pi3)

[Shift838]

if the rpk is a standard binary then it should be possible following the below.

 

The below was taken from HERE

 

To convert existing v9t9 cartridges, type convert-ctg foo.bin where foo is the base name of a set of ROM files. The base name is usually the portion of the filenames that are common between all files associated with a particular cartridge. convert-ctg understands the naming conventions used by present and past versions of v9t9, and will attempt to determine which version of files that you have installed. For example, the following command will convert the files PARSECC.BIN and PARSECG.BIN to PARSEC.ctg

convert-ctg YOURPATH-HERE/PARSEC.BIN

 

I have converted DSR for use with TI99SIM but have not tried any cartrdiges yet

[globeron]

if the rpk is a standard binary then it should be possible following the below.

 

The below was taken from HERE

 

To convert existing v9t9 cartridges, type convert-ctg foo.bin where foo is the base name of a set of ROM files. The base name is usually the portion of the filenames that are common between all files associated with a particular cartridge. convert-ctg understands the naming conventions used by present and past versions of v9t9, and will attempt to determine which version of files that you have installed. For example, the following command will convert the files PARSECC.BIN and PARSECG.BIN to PARSEC.ctg

 

convert-ctg YOURPATH-HERE/PARSEC.BIN

 

I have converted DSR for use with TI99SIM but have not tried any cartrdiges yet

 

There is/was a whole zip file on the internet which had all the modules already in .ctg format.

 

See step number 5 (in the initial post), the zip file is still downloadable

Edited December 20, 2016 by globeron

[etownandy]

Yeah, except that archive file contains no educational modules. It's almost completely all games. I specifically was asking about Scott Foresman Math, the Reading modules, etc. My understanding was that RPK is pretty different from V9T9 format, and the docs for the tool really only mention V9T9 formatted modules. I did try it, and the tool says it doesn't recognize the file as a GRAM Kracker file (which seems odd, since I didn't think the module files of V9T9 were GRAM Kracker format...those usually have several files, one with the name of the module and subsequent files having an incrementing number). I've had no luck finding these in any format other than RPK and after trying the conversion utility (and failing), I asked.

[globeron]

Yeah, except that archive file contains no educational modules. It's almost completely all games. I specifically was asking about Scott Foresman Math, the Reading modules, etc. My understanding was that RPK is pretty different from V9T9 format, and the docs for the tool really only mention V9T9 formatted modules. I did try it, and the tool says it doesn't recognize the file as a GRAM Kracker file (which seems odd, since I didn't think the module files of V9T9 were GRAM Kracker format...those usually have several files, one with the name of the module and subsequent files having an incrementing number). I've had no luck finding these in any format other than RPK and after trying the conversion utility (and failing), I asked.

 

Sorry I did not see your earlier post about the educational modules. I have the V9T9 .bin formats (Milliken, Scott Foresman, Plato) and the large .bin Education rom for Classic99, but I have not tried them to use in the RetroPie / TI-SIM and convert it to .ctg let me try today

[globeron]

 

Sorry I did not see your earlier post about the educational modules. I have the V9T9 .bin formats (Milliken, Scott Foresman, Plato) and the large .bin Education rom for Classic99, but I have not tried them to use in the RetroPie / TI-SIM and convert it to .ctg let me try today

 

I tried to convert the Educational Rom to .ctg file for TI/Sim but it gives errors

(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uBiaDrJav8g-Yjk7w2wfVE5CKHGKCZidBE3W7tVGBWQ/edit#gid=0)

you can find the .bin image at AtariAge (it works with Classic99).

 

 

 

Also I converted PHM3090G.Bin to .ctg which seems to work fine

 

root@retropie:/opt/ti99sim/bin# convert-ctg /home/pi/temp/PHM3090G.Bin

TI-99/Sim .ctg file converter

Found the following names:

* MILLIKEN

Module Summary:

Title: MILLIKEN

GROMS: 3 4 5

root@retropie:/opt/ti99sim/bin# mv PHM3090G.ctg /opt/ti99sim/cartridges/

 

 

But I do not see it appearing in the Retropie software list (not sure if I need to refresh the directory)

also after a reboot it is not listed (I remember I had some issues on my system to get the cartridge list

updated when adding new files). I wrote it down in my configuration file last time:

 

Adding Cartridges

 Goto RetroPi settings

o Parse Gamelists only change from “On” to “Off”

 Normally it should work to add the additional .ctg files to the /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ti99sim directory, but somehow the gamelist.xml does not get updated

 

also after the reboot the RetroPI I do not get the list updated (and therefore cannot see the Milliken to test it in Retropie but it should work in a linux environment)

[globeron]

Etownandy:

 

The education module like PHM3090G.Bin Milliken Addition Sequence it is working and I have tested

others as well. Number Readiness Sequence, etc.

 

I just learned why the gamelist.xml was not updated as .ctg files need to be installed in this directory

(it is in the installation document, but that time I was not sure if they need to be both in /opt/ti99sim/cartridges,

but that is not needed)

 

Roms need to be here (if you add .ctg to this directory then the best is to reboot the RetroPie)

root@retropie:/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ti99sim#

[etownandy]

THANKS SO MUCH! I'll get busy converting the rest of these today.

[globeron]

Also I just tested it to get the list updated, you only have to restart "Emulstation" (and not the whole RetroPie) that saves time when added / removing .ctg to the roms directory.

 

At this moment I am upgrading the RetroPie to version 4.1 and check if everything still works.

> https://retropie.org.uk/2016/11/retropie-4-1-released/

 

(In case some is upgrading from 3.x will need to update the RetroPie-Setup script first.

See the upgrade instructions on the Wiki for more details.

[etownandy]

I again want to express my gratitude for the assist in converting some additional modules to CTG format so I can run them on my PI. I've completed the educational module conversions and I'll be testing them out before uploading. Attached is a copy of a spreadsheet I did some months ago listing the educational modules I knew about - some unreleased.

 

However, there are a small number of modules that weren't in the ZIP file, and I'm wondering if you have these in V9T9 format as well:

Verb Viper (DLM) - unreleased

Frog Jump (SF)

Picture Parts (SF)
Pyramid Puzzler (SF)

Star Maze (SF)

Story Machine (Spinnaker)

Honey Hunt (MB)

Plant Genetics (TI) - unreleased

Touch Typing Tutor (TI)

Peter Pan's Space Odyssey (Disney) - unreleased

Pinocchio's Great Escape (Disney) - unreleased
VonDrake's Molecular Mission (Disney) - unreleased

TI Educational Modules.pdf

[globeron]

Perfect, nice list and thanks for the help with the Pi images, good for the community!

Also follow Schmitzi (Ralf), he did a great job (and still does) building these lists: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241978-ti-99-resources-lists/

 

 

Verb Viper (DLM) - unreleased << never heard of it

Frog Jump (SF) << maybe I know it (Princess and the Frog? Frogger? or TI-Toad ?)

Picture Parts (SF) << never heard of it
Pyramid Puzzler (SF) << never heard of it

Star Maze (SF) << Have seen it before

Story Machine (Spinnaker) << played with it in the '80s

Honey Hunt (MB) << yes have seen it in the emulators once

Plant Genetics (TI) - unreleased << never seen it before

Touch Typing Tutor (TI) << << played with it in the '80s

Peter Pan's Space Odyssey (Disney) - unreleased << played with it in the '80s

Pinocchio's Great Escape (Disney) - unreleased << played with it in the '80s, my kid loves this one, especially the dancing!
VonDrake's Molecular Mission (Disney) - unreleased << played with it in the '80s

[etownandy]

"Frog Jump" was the title. It's an educational math game from Scott Foresman, in the same vein as "Picture Parts," "Star Maze," and "Pyramid Puzzler."

 

Attached is a ZIP of about 78 educational modules that can be used with TI Sim on a Raspberry Pi.

 

They seem to work OK for me, except for the main titles in the SF Math series (Addition 1/2/3, Division 1, Decimals 1/2, Fractions 1/2, etc.). In all of those modules, you hear exactly one word of speech before the module locks up. For example, if the computer is meant to say "3 2/5" ("three and two fifths"), you will hear the "three" and then it locks up. TI Sim itself isn't locked up, as ESC still gets you out of the emulator.

 

Thinking maybe something is askew with the speech synthesizer emulation, I tried numerous games that had speech, as well as the XB module. I had some interesting results. I'm not sure if these are faults with bad module dumps or something wrong with the emulation. If I say "It works," that means I've at least played one full round/level and heard numerous speech samples.

Alpiner - You hear the first "Press any key" prompt, but no speech is generated after that. No "Look out" or being chastised for falling off the mountain.

Demon Attack (conversion/beta) - Speech works fine

E.T. - OK

Extended BASIC - OK

MASH - "Welcome to Korea" is heard at the title screen, but no speech after that (similar to the results with "Alpiner")

Microsurgeon - OK

Moon Mine - OK

Parsec - OK

 

That makes me think bad dumps are more likely than bad emulation, but I'm hardly a diagnostics expert.

 

Anyway, hopefully these .ctg files will give you more to play around with on a Pi.

Educational.zip

[globeron]

Thank you for the conversions! (will look into the modules with Speech issues),

 

but I believe some code changed to get them to run, someone mentioned it for Alpiner as well (I have the same thing, sometimes it is garbage)

(game competition: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/259666-high-score-competition-dec-16-alpiner/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3648661)

PS. 2x days left to beat my high score

[+eebuckeye]

I copied the bios to the BIOS/ti99 directory as seen in the attached picture. I changed the file to TI-994A.ctg but when I pick a rom it goes back to the rom list like the bios can not be found.

 

What am I missing? thanks!

Edited December 31, 2016 by eebuckeye

[etownandy]

I copied the bios to the BIOS/ti99 directory as seen in the attached picture. I changed the file to TI-994A.ctg but when I pick a rom it goes back to the rom list like the bios can not be found.

 

What am I missing? thanks!

 

I know things are case sensitive. On my Pi, I have the following:

ti-994a.dat (note, this is LOWER case)

TI-994A.ctg (note, this is UPPER case)

spchrom.dat

spchrom.bin

 

Maybe try changing the case of ti-994a.dat because I noticed it's in upper case on your screenshot.

[+eebuckeye]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it and it still did not work.. odd. I think only the TI-994A.ctg file is needed in the ti99 folder anyways but I could be wrong.

 

Odd that the rom list is great and the bios files appear to be in the right spot but it does not work. Any other thoughts?

[Shift838]

Have you set the PATH :

 

Setup the PATH, so that the RetroPie knows where to find the TI-99/Sim emulator:

• PATH=$PATH:~/.ti99sim:/opt/ti99sim:/opt/ti99sim/bin:/opt/ti99sim/console/:/opt/ti99sim/cartridges
• export PATH

[Shift838]

I copied the bios to the BIOS/ti99 directory as seen in the attached picture. I changed the file to TI-994A.ctg but when I pick a rom it goes back to the rom list like the bios can not be found.

 

What am I missing? thanks!

 

also your directory looks like it may be wrong my BIOS files are all int he BIOS directory. I am running the latest .14 version of ti99sim.

[+eebuckeye]

I'm not sure what version I am using. I am using Retropie with Emulation Station. I follow these instructions:

 

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/TI99

 

I also put the files in the BIOS directory like you mentioned but no luck. I also tried upper and lower case with TI-994A.ctg

 

I think the Retropie setup does the patch command automatically?

[Shift838]

I'm not sure what version I am using. I am using Retropie with Emulation Station. I follow these instructions:

 

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/TI99

 

I also put the files in the BIOS directory like you mentioned but no luck. I also tried upper and lower case with TI-994A.ctg

 

I think the Retropie setup does the patch command automatically?

 

This is the updated doc that I followed.

TI-99-Sim-Installation-on-RaspberryPI2ModelB-RetroPieV381-DocV2.pdf

[elehman3]

Followed the .PDF file above and got it working. All the cartridges are listed in the Emulation Station screen, and will load and work from the TI Title screen. ESC key will take you back to Emulation Station. To get the joystick (controller) to work add "--joystick1=1" to <command> line in /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg between the "-f" and %ROM%. It will be the left analog controller. Well that is how mine was found, it is a USB Logitech Rumble Pad.

 

Now if there was a way to "select" disk images like in the old version of MESS or something like that. I really don't want to have to keep editing the es_systems.cfg file to "insert" disks into the "drive(s)" by adding "--dskn=<filename>" to this file also.

 

Now to see if someone can set up a scraper file to get all the artwork etc. for the cartridges to make ES start screen look better then just listing the filenames of the cartridges.

 

Emory Lehman

Edited January 5, 2017 by elehman3

[globeron]

(to keep the topic in the same forum - info about Joystick configurations to work with TI99SIM)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2209774843/permalink/10154848099579844/

[globeron]

 

 

 

 

This is information of the author of TI99SIM (M. Rousseau).

 

ti99sim should handle all the keys you've mentioned properly in most cases. All keyboard input is received through SDL and translated into a virtual TI-99/4A keyboard. This does introduce some issues: when pressing 'special' keys like [ or ], it has to emulate both the function key and the corresponding key to properly emulate the special character. If the actual function key was already pressed, it tries to remember this and not show a function key up until all 'virtual' function keys are no longer needed. This may introduce some issues, but mostly related to the proper status of the shift (and caps lock) and function keys.

 

The issue with the alt keys is usually due to the X11 window manager intercepting Alt keys. They usually do this handle menus or things like holding alt and pressing the left mouse button to move a window. There is usually some what to either disable those features or remap them so that the alt key gets passed properly to the underlying applications. Without knowing the exact configuration, I can't really give you any steps to fix it, but a quick google search should point you in the right direction.

 

 

>> I am not an expert in this, but tried to find where these settings could be.

>> 1. When I start ti99sim-sdl from the command prompt I see the TI-screen, but also a mouse pointer (something like the X11)

(and that would interrupt with the ALT-keys)

>> 2. When I start ti99sim-sdl in full-screen, then I do not see the mouse pointer (but it does not solve the issue)

 

Re-mapping of X11 keys need probably to be done as mentioned:

 

>> I have been searching in the GUI of RetroPie dispmanx

>> xmodmap

>> there is also a xutils (or something like that)

 

but so far no luck to find where the configurations are mapped.

Edited January 5, 2017 by globeron

[globeron]

Here is the link with the RetroPie Image without the ROMs. You need to upload them manually

(the directory with ROMs are my TI-99/4A ROMS).

 

See also the V3 instructions how to get .ctg (games, etc.) to the RetroPie.

 

Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3kslhbw0du0tseq/AAAAapT6929jV3VppuPCQbkta?dl=0

Edited August 14, 2017 by globeron

[TPR]

but so far no luck to find where the configurations are mapped.

 

I got everything to work thanks to those wonderful instructions... THANK YOU!

 

Has there been any word on being able to re-map keyboard commands to a control pad? I'm using a PS3 wireless controller, which works great, but I'd love to be able to map keys like "1" or "2" and "exit emulator" to the control pad so I don't always need a keyboard attached just to play a couple of quick games.

[majestyx]

I posted this in the other RPi subject (PiPlay) here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/271054-piplay-and-attracting-new-blood/

 

...but figured it was worth posting here as well.

 

-----

 

Before I try to get this running in RetroPie, I just have to ask - does this implementation support diskettes or is this meant just to play cartridges? I understand that TI-99/Sim run from a command line (i.e not launching through emulation station) can do this, but I'm not sure I see how you could play a game like Tunnels of Doom or Adventure without the diskette images that go along with them. Since there is no GUI, there appears to be no way of changing diskettes on the fly either such as in Classic99. I'm just debating whether it's worth the effort to run this through RetroPie if diskettes are not usable and instead just stick with my Windows based emulators.