The TI-99/4A at work

[sparkdrummer]

About 20 years ago I was the Assistant Service Manager at a dealership here in Phoenix (I still work here, part time).

I had a TI-99/4A setup initially and then talked my boss into buying a Geneve 9640 for a little more speed and power.

Amongst other things I did with it at work I also would run an information loop for fellow employees to see if they came into my office (which was often)

I had it running on DSK2 on my system, which was a DSQD drive. I have split the files up so some of you here might get a kick in seeing it.

It runs THE DISPLAY MASTER which was a software package back in the day which would allow loading TI-Artist files and do some stuff with text.

It will autoload with Extended Basic or Editor/Assembler.

DRIVE1.dsk(DS/DD) of course goes into DSK1 and DRIVE2.dsk(SS/SD) goes into DSK2.

To autoload from XB just select it from the main menu and it will look for the LOAD file on DSK1.

To autoload from E/A select Editor/Assembler then select option five and press enter. It will look for the UTIL1 file on DSK1.

Once loaded select run demo and load DSK1.*98.

It is a continuous loop.

 

I reduced the delays appreciable so you won't get too bored with the CSI and FIR screens

 

DRIVE1.dsk

 

DRIVE2.dsk

 

You can reference a story I wrote: Yesterdays News - September 2016 - Volume 1, #6 - page 1.

 

Anybody else?

 

 

 

[etownandy]

I was thinking along similar lines just the other day, wondering about "useful" applications for the 4A these days as opposed to "just" gaming. It seems the retro crowd is mostly into the games (that's not a dig...I count myself in that crowd). Understandable, because they're still enjoyable. It's hard to get excited about firing up PagePro or TI-Writer to actually do "work" these days, although that's the system I used for most of my middle and high school writing assignments. The Lima MUG would use Certificate 99 for signage and Harrison's Video Titler for caption slides on the videos of the conference.

[sparkdrummer]

It's funny you mention Page Pro and TI Writer because back in the day I got to be as close as one could come to being an expert when I was doing the newsletter for VAST and now here I am again using both programs (and many others) to publish Yesterdays News. It's not gaming but just as much fun for me.

[digdugnate]

I actually had the opportunity to pick up a complete TI Writer set not too long ago. For grins I loaded it up and if I were to need to use it as a word processor I think it'd do the job nicely.

 

I want to say we had 'Magic Desk' for the C64 that included a word processor, too.

[x24b]

For a brief period in my life I worked on video camera's. I pretended to repair them, and the company pretended to pay me.

Early on, I brought my cassette player and (beige) TI 99/4A to work and wrote a small program that would produce color bars, and different size grid patterns on a monitor.

I used this setup to help align the videcon tubes in the cameras.

No. I was not a good video camera repair person. But I had fun using the TI at work!

[apersson850]

I once created a program to compute dimensions of piping for evacuation systems used to extract for example saw dust from saw mills. It ran on the 99/4A and was used professionally by a company selling such systems. It was later ported to PC platform, running under DOS. It can still run as a console application in a command window under Windows XP.

 

We called the program DUSTBUSTER. What else?

Edited May 7, 2017 by apersson850

[harley800p]

Many years ago I was the director of facilities for a McDonald's franchise who had 9 stores at the time. In order to save money on maintenance supplies, (soap, toilet paper, etc), we would buy in bulk and distribute from our warehouse. I wrote a program in Extended Basic that would maintain costs, inventory, print invoices, maintain returns, billing and everything in between.

All using 2, 5.25 SSSD with 32 K PEB, your basic expanded system.

I found the old disks and salvaged them to 3.5 disks. Due to space limitations, I currently do not have my system set up but rest assured when the space becomes available, it will be back!!!!!!