cbmeeks Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Have you ever watched a movie, TV show or commercial and noticed a TI-99/4a in the background? Or, have you ever gone shopping to notice a TI in the office? I would love to hear about the time you saw a TI in the wild when you weren't expecting it. Unfortunately, for me, the closest I've come to seeing TI in the wild was seeing some TI games at my local K-Mart when they mostly stocked C64 and NES games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 I saw a TI a few times on an episode of Diffrent Strokes. I'm sure that's well documented in "Starring the Computer". Weird seeing it used for graphics on an episode of The Price Is Right. It was featured in 2 music videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 I saw a TI-99/4A being used at the Weyerhaeuser water treatment plant in Longview, WA back in the 1980's. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 This may not qualify as "strange" per se: a TI-99/4a on my high school Geometry teacher's desk which later resulted in being allowed to submit an XB-based Geometry program for my end-of-semester project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabrice montupet Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 (edited) For non commercial, for me the best ever: ? Edited October 14, 2019 by fabrice montupet 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 I used a TI-99/4A then a Geneve at work many moons ago. Bill Gaskell even wrote a software piece for me called TIMETRACK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Powering some displays in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum back in the late nineties. . . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 I also remember using a TI-99/4A to send text to the video titling device (kyron?) at KLTV (a cable access channel) in the mid 80's. It was eventually replaced with an Amiga with it's genlock capability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 For years (at least into the mid 90s), Iowa State University’s College of Engineering’s career office used a TI 99/4A hooked up to a black and white TV as a display showing which companies were coming to interview for jobs and when. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xabin Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Up until I found out about my boyfriend's one, I've only seen a TI-99/4A in the hands of collectors, like Ashens. Strangest place we did hear about it was at a local game shop; as some of you know, when we found my boyfriend's old TI and was trying to repair it, we talked with the owners there about whether or not they worked on such things (I was interested, because they had some Atari 8-bit games and a computer in stock), and one of them said that he remembered his dad owned one, so that was rather surprising to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8_is_enuff Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 I found an RS-232 card in a bin of towels at my local Wal-Mart around 1985 or so. It was marked to clearance at $15, so of course I bought it. The thing is, I had never seen a single TI-99 anything, hardware or software, at my Wal-Mart. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 I purchased my TI-99/4 back in 1980 from a Sanger-Harris store in Arlington Texas. The display kiosk for the TI computer system was curiously sandwiched between the men’s and women’s clothing departments. Nowhere near the electronics/TV department. I first spotted the 99/4 while shopping for clothes with my Mom. Weird. I’ve always felt the the storefront mosaic looked the part: https://youtu.be/2ro-COj2OzM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LASooner Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 When I was being recruited to the Army in 1989, they had a recruit information program that was run off a TI connected to a laser disc player and text from the computer was overlaid on top of the LD video footage, kind of a multimedia thing. I believe it had the video controller attached to it, and the software was a cartridge. That would probably be a rare find. I know it's not a TI, but when I was in Basic Training, they had a rifle range simulator that ran off of a Commodore 64 that had an M-16 peripheral with a DB-9 Joystick cable. When you pulled the trigger a solenoid moved to simulate bolt action and kick. Apparently they switched them out with a Super Nintendo a couple years later. A-5. MULTIPURPOSE ARCADE COMBAT SIMULATOR (MACS) The U.S. Army developed the MACS as an inexpensive marksmanship trainer (Figure A-10). a. The system consists of a Commodore 64 microcomputer, 13-inch color monitor, specially designed long-distance light pen, and mount that attaches to the M16A2 rifle. (Some versions use a permanent mount on a demilitarized rifle.) The system is activated by a program cartridge, which contains several training exercises. Figure A-10. Multipurpose arcade combat simulator. b. The MACS was designed to enhance other training techniques and existing training aids and devices used to train and sustain marksmanship skills. It is not designed to replace live-fire training or to eliminate the need for knowledgeable instructors. The MACS provides additional practice for those units without access to adequate range facilities, or that have other resource constraints. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kl99 Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 The former owner of my PEB used his TI-99 setup to control the heating of his house, he wrote his own DSR for that. So I assume it was running 24/7. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Saw one a few years ago while binging SYFY's Defiance. Came here, and sure-enough another intrepid TI fan spotted first: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaximRecoil Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 (edited) The first place I ever saw a TI-99/4A was in fifth grade (1985); there were two of them in the back of the classroom, connected to a pair of 12" B&W TVs. It was strange because there were no other TI computers in the school; there were only Radio Shack TRS-80s and Apple IIs. It turned out that they weren't school property; they belonged to the teacher; a fact that he pointed out whenever students felt entitled to use them. We did get to use them sometimes, but not very often. Parsec and some text adventure game that loaded from a compact cassette tape were the only software I ever saw him run on them. He also typed out a BASIC program once that created an animation of a crude-looking rocket taking off, and challenged us to figure out how he did it, but no one ever did. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure he did it purely with print commands, i.e., something like this... 10 print " /\ " 20 print " / \ " 30 print " | | " 40 print " | | " 50 print " | | " 60 print " | | " 70 print " | | " 80 print " / \ " 90 print " | | " 100 print " | | " 110 print " | | " 120 print " | | " 130 print " | | " 140 print " | | " 150 print " / \ " 160 print "| |" 170 print "| |" 180 print "|_/\__/\_|" ... followed by enough blank print commands to make the "rocket" appear to scroll up and off the screen. We knew how to make the crude rocket with print commands, but none of us could figure out how to make it "take off." Edited October 18, 2019 by MaximRecoil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 This will make it take off... 185 PRINT 190 PRINT "PRESS ENTER TO BLAST OFF" 195 INPUT A$ 200 FOR A=1 TO 40 220 A=A+1 230 PRINT " " 240 NEXT A 300 END BLAST OFF.webm 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaximRecoil Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 (edited) That's awesome, though I don't think his was that clever. He typed it in while we were at lunch or on recess or whatever, and then just typed run when we were watching the screen. The rocket scrolled up and off the screen and that was it. A bunch of blank print commands after line 180 will make that happen. Edited October 18, 2019 by MaximRecoil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retiredqwest Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Back in 1990 I was a Business Telco installer. I had an order at a local "Alternative" school and had to goto the basement. I passed by several class rooms and glanced at one and did a double take. In that room were 20 or so CDC 4A's with PEB's. On the way out I stopped and talked to the teacher. His only complaint was the students were not gentle on the floppys and of course he couldn't make copies. I couldn't help as I no longer had a 4A. Several years later I stopped by and asked about the 4A's and of course they did not know what happened to them. Probably made it to a landfill..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Someone was using a TI in 1990? So I wasn't the only one. Wow. Then again, Apple //e in the early 1990s was still common in schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 1 minute ago, S1500 said: Someone was using a TI in 1990? So I wasn't the only one. Wow. Then again, Apple //e in the early 1990s was still common in schools. TI was my ONLY computer until 93 or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick99 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 52 minutes ago, S1500 said: Someone was using a TI in 1990? So I wasn't the only one. Wow. Then again, Apple //e in the early 1990s was still common in schools. I used my TI and Geneve until 95... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 (edited) My Geneve had a crucial role for my math diploma thesis in 1995. Here are some graphs that I created with FORTRAN9640, using complex calculations (yes, FORTRAN has a data type for complex numbers). This was also the most complex (in another meaning) program I ever wrote in FORTRAN. It was able to draw the graph and to save it in MyArt format to disk. I wrote my diploma thesis in LaTeX on a 486 PC, left some space for the graphics, printed them on my Geneve, and glued the graphics into the spaces. Then I photocopied the whole text and submitted it. (For the mathematicians among us, the thesis was titled "Mapping properties of general triangle functions" and dealt with the solutions of hypergeometric differential equations. The scary thing about this is that I also have trouble to understand my own text by now.) Spoiler C Darstellung komplexer Funktionen C mit dynamischer Schrittweite DOUBLE PRECISION XM,YM,I,I1,J,K,AR,AI,FK,SM COMPLEX*16 X,Y,F,G,CDLOG1,W,A,B,C,D INTEGER FARBE,XV,YV,XP,YP,KY,S INTEGER XKOORD,YKOORD,II,JI,JJ,TASTE,STATS C CHARACTER NAME(20) C F(X)=CDLOG1(CDSQRT(X)+CDSQRT(X-1D0)) G(A,B,C,D,X)=(A*X+B)/(C*X+D) C CALL CLEAR WRITE(6,*) 'Darstellung einer Dreiecksfunktion' WRITE(6,*) WRITE(6,100) 'Bitte |x|max eingeben:' READ(6,*) XM WRITE(6,*) '|y|max ist |x|max*0.75' YM=XM*0.75D0 WRITE(6,*) WRITE(6,*) 'Moebiustransformation: (az+b)/(cz+d)' WRITE(6,*) WRITE(6,100) 'a (real): ' READ(6,*) AR WRITE(6,100) 'a (imaginaer): ' READ(6,*) AI A=DCMPLX(AR,AI) WRITE(6,100) 'b (real): ' READ(6,*) AR WRITE(6,100) 'b (imaginaer): ' READ(6,*) AI B=DCMPLX(AR,AI) WRITE(6,100) 'c (real): ' READ(6,*) AR WRITE(6,100) 'c (imaginaer): ' READ(6,*) AI C=DCMPLX(AR,AI) WRITE(6,100) 'd (real): ' READ(6,*) AR WRITE(6,100) 'd (imaginaer): ' READ(6,*) AI D=DCMPLX(AR,AI) WRITE(6,100) 'Dateiname (Speicherung am Ende ausser nach ESC): ' READ(6,110) NAME CALL SETMOD(8) CALL SETPAL(4,0,0,0) CALL SETPAL(12,0,0,3) J=0D0 FARBE=6 I=XM 6 FARBE=13 J=0D0 FK=1.5D0 SM=0.015D0 DO 7 JJ=-16,-1 I=-1D10 XV=-1 DO 8 II=-200,200 CALL KEY(0,TASTE,STATS) IF (TASTE.EQ.32) GOTO 14 I1=I CALL HOLE1(I,II,FK,SM) I1=I1*I X=DCMPLX(I,J) Y=G(A,B,C,D,F(X)) YP=YKOORD(Y,YM) XP=XKOORD(Y,XM) C IF (J.EQ.0D0.AND.I1.LE.0D0) XP=-1 IF ((XP.NE.-1).AND.(YP.NE.-1).AND.(XV.NE.-1).AND.(YV.NE.-1)) A CALL SETVEC(XV,YV,XP,YP,FARBE) XV=XP YV=YP 8 CONTINUE FARBE=11 IF (J.EQ.0D0) J=30D0 CALL HOLE(J,JJ,FK) 7 CONTINUE 10 FARBE=10 I=0D0 SM=0.2D0 FK=2D0 DO 11 II=0,16 DO 13 K=-1D0,1D0,2D0 YV=-1 J=22D0 IF ((K.EQ.1D0).AND.(I.EQ.0D0)) GOTO 13 DO 12 JJ=-150,-50 CALL KEY(0,TASTE,STATS) IF (TASTE.EQ.32) GOTO 14 CALL HOLE(J,JJ,1.1D0) X=DCMPLX(I*K+0.5D0,J) Y=G(A,B,C,D,F(X)) YP=YKOORD(Y,YM) XP=XKOORD(Y,XM) IF ((XP.NE.-1).AND.(YP.NE.-1).AND.(XV.NE.-1).AND.(YV.NE.-1)) A CALL SETVEC(XV,YV,XP,YP,FARBE) XV=XP YV=YP 12 CONTINUE 13 CONTINUE CALL HOLE2(I,II,FK) 11 CONTINUE C 14 CALL KEY(0,KY,S) IF (S.EQ.0) GOTO 14 IF (KY.NE.27) CALL SPEICH(NAME) CALL SETPAL(4,1,7,1) CALL SET80 100 FORMAT('+',A) 110 FORMAT(20A1) END C C Unterprogramme C SUBROUTINE HOLE(KOORD,SCHRITT,FAKTOR) DOUBLE PRECISION KOORD,FAKTOR INTEGER SCHRITT IF (SCHRITT.LT.0) KOORD=KOORD/FAKTOR IF (SCHRITT.EQ.0) KOORD=-KOORD IF (SCHRITT.GT.0) KOORD=KOORD*FAKTOR END C SUBROUTINE HOLE1(KOORD,SCHRITT,FAKTOR,SUMMAND) DOUBLE PRECISION KOORD,FAKTOR,SUMMAND INTEGER SCHRITT IF (SCHRITT.LT.-50) KOORD=KOORD/FAKTOR IF (SCHRITT.GT.50) KOORD=KOORD*FAKTOR IF (SCHRITT.GT.-51.AND.SCHRITT.LT.51) KOORD=KOORD+SUMMAND END C SUBROUTINE HOLE2(KOORD,SCHRITT,FAKTOR) DOUBLE PRECISION KOORD,FAKTOR,SUMMAND INTEGER SCHRITT IF (SCHRITT.EQ.1) KOORD=0.3D0 IF (SCHRITT.EQ.2) KOORD=0.5D0 IF (SCHRITT.EQ.3) KOORD=1D0 IF (SCHRITT.GT.3) KOORD=KOORD*FAKTOR END C INTEGER FUNCTION XKOORD(X,XM) COMPLEX*16 X,W DOUBLE PRECISION XM,XK,DREAL XK=(DREAL(X)/XM+1D0)*256D0 IF ((XK.GE.0D0).AND.(XK.LT.512D0)) THEN XKOORD=INT(XK) ELSE XKOORD=-1 END IF END C INTEGER FUNCTION YKOORD(X,YM) COMPLEX*16 X DOUBLE PRECISION YM,YK,DIMAG YK=(1D0-DIMAG(X)/YM)*106D0 IF ((YK.GE.0D0).AND.(YK.LT.212D0)) THEN YKOORD=INT(YK) ELSE YKOORD=-1 END IF END C COMPLEX*16 FUNCTION CDLOG1(X) COMPLEX*16 X,Y Y=CDLOG(X) IF ((DIMAG(X).EQ.0D0).AND.(DREAL(X).LT.0D0)) Y=Y+(0D0,6.28318530718D0) CDLOG1=Y END C SUBROUTINE SPEICH(NAME) CHARACTER DATEN(128),NAME(20) INTEGER I,J,ERR,POS,JALT,FARB,BISHER,ANZH,ANZAHL INTEGER*1 WERT1,WERT2 DATA DATEN / 0,250,0,0,0,0,17,6,51,7, A 23,1,39,3,81,1, A 39,6,113,1,115,3,97,6,100,6,17,4,101,2,85,5,119,7/ CALL OPEN(3,NAME,1,0,0,0,128,ERR) POS=35 DO 2 I=0,211 J=0 JALT=0 1 IF (J.NE.512) CALL GETPIX(J,I,FARB) IF (J.EQ.0) BISHER=FARB IF (FARB.NE.BISHER.OR.J.EQ.512) THEN ANZAHL=J-JALT ANZH=ANZAHL/256 WERT1=BISHER*16+ANZH WERT2=ANZAHL-256*ANZH DATEN(POS)=WERT1 POS=POS+1 DATEN(POS)=WERT2 POS=POS+1 IF (POS.EQ.129) THEN WRITE(3,130) DATEN POS=1 ENDIF JALT=J ENDIF J=J+1 BISHER=FARB IF (J.NE.513) GOTO 1 2 CONTINUE IF (POS.NE.1) WRITE(3,130) DATEN CALL CLOSE(3) 100 FORMAT('+',A) 110 FORMAT('+',10A1) 130 FORMAT(128A1) END Edited October 18, 2019 by mizapf Shrinked the graphs 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papalapa Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 At home ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrhodes Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 They appear behind my eyelids now and then. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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