Cool things happening on the TI-99/4A

[+swlovinist]

Recently I did a video covering some of the cool things that were show at Fest West, as well as a brief overview of the great classic computer. Legend of Tilda, Dragon's Lair, as well as the Sparkdrummer's Challenge. Enjoy the video!

[Airshack]

Amazingly fast turnaround time! Thank you swlovinist for capturing some great moments of Festwest17. A pleasure to meet such a friendly and knowledgable game guru.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+swlovinist]

What a great event. After organizing my own events for a long time, it was nice to just hang out with very smart people and talk computers. It has inspired me to continue to further upgrade my TI 99. I need to get that VGA upgrade and a custom controller(Omega's looks like a dream) for sure!

[PeBo]

A great video and a real gift for those of us who could not attend!

[+swlovinist]

A great video and a real gift for those of us who could not attend!

 

You are most welcome. That is why I did it and will continue to do this again if it happens locally next year.

[vectrexroli]

Great video, even Arcadeshopper, Tursi and Omega are there.

Great to see all those guys on video!

Edited April 30, 2017 by vectrexroli

[Opry99er]

Great video!!!

[+save2600]

Vid was awesome, thank you so much for posting! Great to put some faces with names here too. Nice job all and very cool to see an F18A given away as well - lucky!

[Omega-TI]

Amazingly fast turnaround time!

 

 

Yeah - he's putting me to shame! I especially liked the segment on your new game.

[+helocast]

Recently I did a video covering some of the cool things that were show at Fest West, as well as a brief overview of the great classic computer.

Thank you for taking the time to showcase the event and for editing this together!

I'll have to start planning and rounding up resources earlier in 2018 so that I can attend. ... time flies.

[majestyx]

In all the time I've been visiting the TI pages here on AtariAge, I never paid attention to the other platforms under the Classic Computing section. I really got a shock when I saw that the TI section is the most active by far with over 90,000 posts, with the next highest post count being less than 7000 for the Apple ][ series. So indeed, the subject of this topic is no joke and the video of this year's Fest West was an absolute treat. I wholeheartedly echo other member's sentiments. Never would I have thought that this platform would still have such an amazing following and user support so many years after its release. Bravo to everyone for all the amazing developments that are still ongoing for one of the earliest orphaned platforms in computing history.

[+Ksarul]

It is good to see that at least one more copy of the Gamevision version of Yahtzee! survived, @swlovinist. I only know of three other surviving copies--and I owned all three of them at one point (now I just have one). BTW, that version of the game cheats. The computer player gets a Yahtzee! a whole lot more often than random chance would expect. They actually recalled all copies of it a few months after it was released because of that bug--and didn't put out a replacement until the TI-labeled versions came out (and there was never a Gamevision replacement issue).

[+swlovinist]

It is good to see that at least one more copy of the Gamevision version of Yahtzee! survived, @swlovinist. I only know of three other surviving copies--and I owned all three of them at one point (now I just have one). BTW, that version of the game cheats. The computer player gets a Yahtzee! a whole lot more often than random chance would expect. They actually recalled all copies of it a few months after it was released because of that bug--and didn't put out a replacement until the TI-labeled versions came out (and there was never a Gamevision replacement issue).

 

Wow, I knew it was rare but not that rare. I amassed some great carts and things from someone clearing out their collection years ago.

[+retroclouds]

Thank you so much for doing this video! I love it. Cool to see all the great stuff going on for our beloved TI-99/4a.

[+eebuckeye]

Great video! Thanks!

 

I have a Gamevision Yahtzee.. didn't realize it was that rare. Also have a Gamevision Connect Four - no idea if it is rare.

[etownandy]

From what I understand, a lot of similar annual meets for other platforms are dropping off and no longer happening. It's hard to believe the 4A still has one annual meet after all these years, let alone MORE than one. That's just amazing.

[PeBo]

From what I understand, a lot of similar annual meets for other platforms are dropping off and no longer happening. It's hard to believe the 4A still has one annual meet after all these years, let alone MORE than one. That's just amazing.

My only complaint with our continued popularity are all the folks who say "My dad bought our first TI when I was 5" or "I grew up with the TI as our family computer"...

 

Not slamming young-uns with life-long nostalgia for the 4A, but seeing as I was already in my 30's when I brought home the TI, makes me feel like I should be drinking a bottle of Geritol everyday (of course only 25% of readers are old enough to even know what Geritol is)

Edited May 1, 2017 by PeBo

[etownandy]

My only complaint with our continued popularity are all the folks who say "My dad bought our first TI when I was 5" or "I grew up with the TI as our family computer"...

 

Not slamming young-uns with life-long nostalgia for the 4A, but seeing as I was already in my 30's when I brought home the TI, makes me feel like I should be drinking a bottle of Geritol everyday (of course only 25% of readers are old enough to even know what Geritol is)

 

Guilty. 2nd grade. I've NOT had a console in my house for maybe 5 of the years since, and I'm 43 Saturday.

 

<sheepish grin>

[matthew180]

The Fest West that Omega started is only in its second year. There is another event, the TI World Faire, that happens annually in Chicago and has been running since the 80's I believe. IIRC, the Fest West was started last year as a get-together for people on the West coast who could not make it to the Chicago event.

[ElectricLab]

These whippersnappers today with their fancy '4A' computers. Well back in my day, we had just the '4' and we were happy

 

Just kidding. But seriously, I think if you remember your first time on a computer at 5 years old and it was a TI, and this is the machine that sparked your lifelong interest in computers - more power to you. Some of these "young-uns" were writing code before they were 10, after kicking Dad off of his Parsec game.

 

As for me, back-in-the-day I wanted a computer so bad but had no funds. All my friends seem to have a TI at home, but we lacked the funds for such a luxury. I would ride my bike to school early in the morning just to get a few minutes of keyboard time on our school's Apple 2s, Commodore Pets and 64s. There were always a ton of kids there and I was a low geek on the totem pole, so I didn't get near enough time to quench my insatiable desire to play with the machines.

 

I was just 14 so I mowed lawns all summer/fall and scrimped and saved up for a TI, right before Christmas of 1983. I saw an ad in the paper that K-mart was going to have a limited supply for just $50 (!) and since I just had to have one, I got up early and rode my bike to the store, hours before they opened. There was a huge line of people already there, and some guy was handing out numbers since they only had 25 or so. I remember I got the second to the last one.

 

Getting a computer this young in life changed my life and from then on, I spent every waking moment that I could, hacking away and writing code in BASIC.

I can definitely point to this as a seminal moment in my life that started me down the path I'm still on. It's for these reasons that I will always hold a special place in my heart for the quirky little machine.

 

 

Long live the TI!

[digdugnate]

These whippersnappers today with their fancy '4A' computers. Well back in my day, we had just the '4' and we were happy

 

Just kidding. But seriously, I think if you remember your first time on a computer at 5 years old and it was a TI, and this is the machine that sparked your lifelong interest in computers - more power to you. Some of these "young-uns" were writing code before they were 10, after kicking Dad off of his Parsec game.

 

As for me, back-in-the-day I wanted a computer so bad but had no funds. All my friends seem to have a TI at home, but we lacked the funds for such a luxury. I would ride my bike to school early in the morning just to get a few minutes of keyboard time on our school's Apple 2s, Commodore Pets and 64s. There were always a ton of kids there and I was a low geek on the totem pole, so I didn't get near enough time to quench my insatiable desire to play with the machines.

 

I was just 14 so I mowed lawns all summer/fall and scrimped and saved up for a TI, right before Christmas of 1983. I saw an ad in the paper that K-mart was going to have a limited supply for just $50 (!) and since I just had to have one, I got up early and rode my bike to the store, hours before they opened. There was a huge line of people already there, and some guy was handing out numbers since they only had 25 or so. I remember I got the second to the last one.

 

Getting a computer this young in life changed my life and from then on, I spent every waking moment that I could, hacking away and writing code in BASIC.

I can definitely point to this as a seminal moment in my life that started me down the path I'm still on. It's for these reasons that I will always hold a special place in my heart for the quirky little machine.

 

 

Long live the TI!

This story is so awesome! I am one of the 'whippersnappers'.

 

My dad worked for TI (and later Superior Magnetics), but in the late 70s/early 80s he programmed in TI Basic for their User contribution contests (or whatever they were called back then, lol). His name was Sam Moore Jr.

 

I would've been like around 5 or so at the time that I remember, but I definitely would vie for my programming/gaming time on the TI when he wasn't messing with Basic or Assembly. We had our TI 99 4A until I probably was 12 or so.

 

We had other computers along the way (C64, C128, Tandy 1000 EX/HX, IBM Clones), but the TI is the one I have the fondest memories of- enough so that just recently my wife bought me another TI (which I later added a PEB and a boatload of software/books/etc for).

[+Ksarul]

Nice, this thread has nearly doubled the number of Gamevision Yahtzee! cartridges that are known to survive (now there are at least five of them). The other Gamevision titles are a lot easier to find, with the exception of the Gamevision Demonstration cartridge (I only know of two of those in circulation, although there may be more).

[eightbit]

Thanks for the excellent video! Great to see all of this cool stuff happening for the TI99. Now we just need a "Fest East"

[PeBo]

North-East please (Vermont or New York work)

[randalrand]

These whippersnappers today with their fancy '4A' computers. Well back in my day, we had just the '4' and we were happy

 

Just kidding. But seriously, I think if you remember your first time on a computer at 5 years old and it was a TI, and this is the machine that sparked your lifelong interest in computers - more power to you. Some of these "young-uns" were writing code before they were 10, after kicking Dad off of his Parsec game.

 

As for me, back-in-the-day I wanted a computer so bad but had no funds. All my friends seem to have a TI at home, but we lacked the funds for such a luxury. I would ride my bike to school early in the morning just to get a few minutes of keyboard time on our school's Apple 2s, Commodore Pets and 64s. There were always a ton of kids there and I was a low geek on the totem pole, so I didn't get near enough time to quench my insatiable desire to play with the machines.

 

I was just 14 so I mowed lawns all summer/fall and scrimped and saved up for a TI, right before Christmas of 1983. I saw an ad in the paper that K-mart was going to have a limited supply for just $50 (!) and since I just had to have one, I got up early and rode my bike to the store, hours before they opened. There was a huge line of people already there, and some guy was handing out numbers since they only had 25 or so. I remember I got the second to the last one.

 

Getting a computer this young in life changed my life and from then on, I spent every waking moment that I could, hacking away and writing code in BASIC.

I can definitely point to this as a seminal moment in my life that started me down the path I'm still on. It's for these reasons that I will always hold a special place in my heart for the quirky little machine.

 

 

Long live the TI!

I had a similar experience when I was 17. I worked after school and on weekends so I could get mine. I remember that mine came with a special rebate after buying the console and two cartridges I got the Speech Synthesizer for free in the mail - direct from Texas Instruments! When that synthesizer came in the mail my heart stopped I heard the first spoken words. What I learned from this sent me on a career path of speech recognition ultimately working for a speech recognition company.

 

Now, this is so much fun and delight to know that so many people are still very interested in the TI computer and supporting it with new hardware peripherals. This is place makes social networking fun.