Papalapa Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 After some time looking for I finally found a TI-99/4A in excellent conditions for my retrocomputers collection. In fact it's brand new and be in mind that here in Europe this computer was not as popular as in the USA. It has never been used by his owner and remained closed in your box for years. Same with the software and cartrigdes (It's crazy, I know... ? but sometimes happen). I connected the TI-99/4A to the monitor using the luminance+ground signals of the video connector because european models do not have composite video output like the american ones, but this weekend I'll solder a components cable to see the color image. Now I'm excited to receive the ordered FinalGROMM 99 and 32K memory expansion to start to use the TI-99/4A in conditions. One thing that has drawn my attention is that there's only capital letters and "lowercase" letters are "small capital" ones. Hope this week-end I have enought time to discover this computer because seems to be a very "particular" one. Here are some pictures of my new "pet": 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 Welcome to the TI-99/4A community. It is nice to see such a well-preserved console in all its pristine beauty! ...lee 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 "New kid in town" Wow, You must know the Eagles personally! Scott Adams' Adventure's have a nice looking lowercase character set! Welcome! P.S. ..."I don't want to hear it!" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRStoetzer Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 I didn't realize there were aluminum V2.2 consoles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 13 minutes ago, PRStoetzer said: I didn't realize there were aluminum V2.2 consoles. Me either. Excellent condition super nice score, hopefully it's not a crippling version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papalapa Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 17 minutes ago, PRStoetzer said: I didn't realize there were aluminum V2.2 consoles. Yeah, I was also surprised because I was thinking that all the V2.2 were grey, not alluminium. This one was assembled in Italy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 (edited) Welcome Papalapa!! I am from Italy here in Italy i seen v2.2 silver versions and instead never assembled in the italian TI factory the beige ones... in Italy only Silver TI99 were present. Edited October 2, 2019 by ti99iuc 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Papalapa said: Now I'm excited to receive the ordered FinalGROMM 99 and 32K memory expansion to start to use the TI-99/4A in conditions. One thing that has drawn my attention is that there's only capital letters and "lowercase" letters are "small capital" ones. Hope this week-end I have enough time to discover this computer because seems to be a very "particular" one. Here are some pictures of my new "pet": WELCOME TO THE FOLD! I have to admit, I'm a little envious, getting your hands on such a pristine in the box unit is amazing. There are some programs that use a different lower case set, but for the most part WYSIWYG... unless you use a different CHARA1 file that some programs recognize or you redefine the characters yourself in a program. The 32K and FinalGROM 99 were excellent first choices to augment your new system. The FG99 is my favorite cartridge of all time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 Welcome to the community. The only thing you have to watch out for with the V2.2 GROM set is third-party and homebrew cartridges, as a lot of those will be locked out. Note: there are several ways around the problem, and some things (Extended BASIC cartridges from Triton, Mechatronics, and Exceltek, all Parker Brothers cartridges, Break Free homebrew, Dragon's Lair, St. Nick cartridge from Funware, Final GROM cartridge, and any cartridge built on the UberGROM board) will work without issues already. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apersson850 Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 Look on your console how they spell Texas Instruments, and you get an idea about where this thing with large and small capitals came from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papalapa Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Ksarul said: Welcome to the community. The only thing you have to watch out for with the V2.2 GROM set is third-party and homebrew cartridges, as a lot of those will be locked out. Note: there are several ways around the problem, and some things (Extended BASIC cartridges from Triton, Mechatronics, and Exceltek, all Parker Brothers cartridges, Break Free homebrew, Dragon's Lair, St. Nick cartridge from Funware, Final GROM cartridge, and any cartridge built on the UberGROM board) will work without issues already. Yes, I was aware of this and that's why I ordered to Ralph the FinalGROM 99 that seems to work in all the cases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papalapa Posted October 5, 2019 Author Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) Today I received the FinalGROM 99 from Raph and works like a charm. The only problem I found was to find a SD compatible card. I used (all Kingston brand) 8GB, 4GB and 1GB FAT32 formatted unsuccesfully. Finally I get an old 256MB SD card from an old Nokia telephone and started to work. Another thing that catch my attention is that although the power supply connector has 3 pins and sends 16v and 8c AC to the TI-99, only the 16v is used. As you can see in the picture (yeah, I completely dissasembled the computer to see inside ?) only two cables reach the board. I guess that this can be one the lasts units that Texas manufactured and maybe they used this configuration in order to be compatible with the "old" power supply blocks. Edited October 5, 2019 by Papalapa Too much pictures 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I believe that is the switching regulator type board... more efficient(cold coffee). More to go wrong??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+chue Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Never saw one of those power supplies with an LED. It seems you have a rare machine here. I've never seen a Silver & Black with 2.2 firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FALCOR4 Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 5 hours ago, HOME AUTOMATION said: I believe that is the switching regulator type board... more efficient(cold coffee). More to go wrong??? Yep, that's what it is, the new switcher power supply. I've never seen a silver v2.2 console so that's different! I read somewhere that TI did a lot of mixing-and-matching the last year of production with consoles? We've seen beige QI consoles that were both v2.2 and not, non-QI beige consoles which were both v2.2 and not. It looks like you have a rare one with a silver console! And, a nice acquisition! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I recognized it from when Radio Shack was selling them for $5 in the late 80's. Come to think of it, I wonder where R/S got all the 317 regs. from... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papalapa Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 12 hours ago, HOME AUTOMATION said: I believe that is the switching regulator type board... more efficient(cold coffee). More to go wrong??? I think so, the main unit outiside the computer is not heavy so, most probably there's no transformer inside and it it switched but this board inside has a diode bridge and two 78xx voltage regulators. Those can be easily replaced by the new "cold" TracoPower ICs but after a few hours using the computer is dosn't really becomes very hot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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