The TI-99 in 1982: Dawn of the Golden Age
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- Опубліковано 22 січ 2024
- In a bit of a follow-up to an earlier video on TI's greatest home computer hits of the pre-1982 era, I take a look at how everything changed for the TI-99 in the year that followed, as the TI-99 entered its golden age.
- Наука та технологія
I'm deeply honored that you have once again included my TOD game Computer Quest in one of your retrospectives, and especially since you chose so few games to represent the custom games that were made using John Behnke's fantastic TOD Editor software. TOD was my very favorite TI-99 game and just having the system and being able to play that game in 1983 was spectacular enough. I was so surprised and pleased when Asgard Software chose to publish Computer Quest in 1988, and would never in my wildest dreams have imagined that more than 35 years later a fellow TI enthusiast would be keeping these things alive and celebrating them publicly. Words cannot describe how meaningful it is that you selected CQ as the closing screenshot of your TOD portion at the end of this video. If I thought that my own game would someday be in a clip that represented TOD itself, flanked by MunchMan and Parsec, I would have melted on the spot. This would have thrilled my grandparents if they were here to see it. They were very much into the TI-99/4A and each had their own console which they used at age 80+ back in the 1980s. These tributes are very meaningful and my personal gratitude for being included is boundless. Keep up the good work!
Appreciate the channel. The attire seems to celebrate all of today’s grandmothers who once used a ti-99
haha it reminds me of computer chronicles with everyone sitting there in formal and slightly retro attire
it's got a good energy
So much childhood nostalgia. Thanks for this extremely well produced trip back in time. I can't even imagine how long it took to get all the screen captures together.
This is one of the system in the large line of video consoles and computers on display at Service Merchandise back in ‘82 when I lived next to the mall. I could walk over and spend an hour playing games when I had no funds for the arcade. Now I have a TI-99/4A I found in 2015 at a goodwill. 😁
Another fantastic video - by far the most informative Tuber on all things 99. Keep up the excellent work.
I'm new to this channel, and I love the content - very detailed and well presented.
Thank you so much for bringing back all these stories.
During that time I was around 15 years old and I remember a representative from TI was at the local store in downtown Hamburg showing the TI-99/4A with the expansion box and explaining everything to me.
I always have font memories of this system and only recently finally got the P-Card and the TI-99/4 with its expansions.
Another great video, it's always a happy moment when a new video arrives, more!
My first computer was the TI99/4A. I now enjoy emulation and got to play those games that weren't available to me, so can now fully relate to your video and what it has to offer.
This is an amazing channel...I owned a TI in 1982-3 and I had the "holy trinity" of games...in fact...I didn't even know that Tunnels of Doom was based straght out of D&D...a game I wouldn't start playing until 1984....you are an absolute gem, Pixel!
Everytime you upload a new video I say to myself, I need to get off my butt and get my computer lab fixed up. (Which of course features a TI99/4A!) Love the outfit too BTW, it’s a perfect fit and just goes with the era beautifully!
I remember hours as an 80s teen predesigning sprites on graph paper then coding them into my TI994A... and saving up for extended basic.
Yeah me too - a tiny 16x16 pixels! Still, it introduced me to Hexadecimal!
@@davidstclair3402 Yep, exactly!
@@davidstclair3402 You mean "characters," not "pixels."
@@carybrown851 Perhaps I did, although I seem to remember the sprites on the TI were either 8 x 8 pixels or 16 pixels by 16 pixels, which made graph paper so useful for designing them.
@@davidstclair3402 well, there are normal size sprites which are a single 8x8 pixel characters, and there are double-size sprites which are still just a single character, but with each pixel doubled, as a 2x2 "super pixel." So, technically, there are 16x16 sprites, but they're rougher looking than the 8x8 ones.
One of the best known examples of these are in "Super Demon Attack." It also overlaid multiple sprites to seem like there were multicolored sprites (which the TI can't actually do).
Back in the TI's brief heyday I ordered the speech synthesizer C.O.D. after I got some money for my confirmation. Sadly, I didn't have the discipline to keep enough of the cash. I remember the delevery guy who knocked at the door. He had the package in his hand, but I didn't have enought money. He turned and walked back to his truck and drove away. Ugh. Lesson learned, next I was able to save up for an electric guitar! Still have it! Nothing but fun memories of my Ti-994A, my Atari 2600, and my Atari 800xl! The best times! 😃😃😃
I remember in the early 90s finding tons of TI-99s in Goodwill's assorted electronics "trash" bins being sold for a dollar or two. I would pester my parents to let me buy them. Unfortunately not a single one ever worked.
It's so interesting hearing the story about the patience needed to get the tools needed for software development on the Ti-99/4a. At the time, I had a VIC-20 and then a C64. In both cases, third party software development happened almost instantly.
Developers were already up and running writing 6502 code on the Apple ][ (1977) and Atari 8-bits (1979). So a lot of early C64 titles were straightforward ports of Apple and Atari software. Was Jack Tramiel crazy to sell the 6502 cheap to his direct competitors? Crazy like a fox! Anything that hurt the primary target of his vengeful spite (Texas Instruments) I guess ...
Of course, now it's 2024 and Commodore Business Machines is but a memory and Texas Instruments is still around, so ... who got the last gasp?
My favourite memory (on C64 in my case) of Scott Adams adventure games was Mission Impossible. Near the end of the game, checking my inventory, I discovered I was still carrying "A DEAD ASSASSIN". Apparently I'd crawled out windows, across ledges, and up and down rope ladders with him awkwardly slung across my back.
We had a TI99/4A in the mid 80s. It was gifted to my family without any commercial software, which meant the only games we had were my Dad's simple text based BASIC games or games I typed in from books and magazines. I would often just sit in my room with the brochure from the box and wonder what some of the games mentioned looked like, such as Tombstone City. It's amazing seeing these games now. What I would have done for a few of these and a couple of joysticks.
Or maybe skip the joysticks (TI's were pretty bad, so a lot of folks resorted to keyboard regardless). But yeah, a TI-99 without at least a couple of TI Invaders/Parsec/Munch Man/Tunnels of Doom/Hunt the Wumpus/Tombstone City is an unfortunate thing!
@@PixelPedant I've heard that about the joysticks but I didn't know you could use the keyboard instead. That's certainly not the case with other some computers of this era such as the Atari 800 and C64. Which keys were movement typically mapped to? I know in the JS99'er emulator it's TAB for fire and the arrow keys for movement but I assume that's the emulator emulating the joystick.
Indeed, TI's first party games support keyboard input. As to the why of it, I would say this was partly a function of TI's original input design concept for the system (circa 1977-1978). Their design involved a wireless (IR) controller/keyboard apparatus which *conflated* keyboard and joypad input. The TI Wired Remote Controllers (note the "wired" as a contrast) were, in effect, a last-minute low-effort alternative. Because of course, the wireless keyboard/joypad thing got thrown by the wayside. Yet it left behind a legacy, as far as how the keyboard is mapped and scanned, and how directional input is assigned to the ESDX keys, on the keyboard (to answer your question).
Ouch - an unexpanded console with just TI Basic would look pretty, but would be limiting. We didn't have much software, except we did have TI Extended Basic, which was one of the keys to making the machine a bit more fun.
@@davidstclair3402 I only learnt about Extended BASIC years later in the post Internet era. Which is weird because when I look through magazines like Compute! now, a large proportion of the type in games require Extended BASIC. Maybe I just got lucky and the only games I attempted used standard BASIC.
Cool! Thanks for the memories.
Yay! I bought a TI99/4A a decade or 2 ago with a speech module, and it's sat in storage since. Until I discovered your channel. I check every day hoping for a new episode. I've since gone on and picked up a TIPI +32k , a FinalGROM, and a bunch of cartridges... ahem... command modules, including a mint copy of the Assembler / Editor that's sat in a box from TI in a warehouse for decades. What an odd, interesting, and extremely cool computer. Hoping to pick up a SAMS side car and FA18 at some point. Keep up the great work, and thank you!
A loved Alpiner back then taking full advantage of the "speech synthesizer" with both male and female speech, I'd play it for many hours and came soooo close to beating it. I played through Munchman, if I remember rightly there was 20 levels of baddies before it would start over, but still harder and 60 levels in total, I went around the clock twice and couldn't quite finish it. I loved Extended Basic with full access to sprites and even speech, but I didn't learn Assembly until I later got a Commodore 64.
Thanks another great informative TI-99/4A video and looking good too. Keep up the great work.
These videos always make me nostalgic. Tunnels of Doom, Parsec (with speech synthesizer)… good times!
This is my favorite TI99/4A channel❤
Why is there two distinct looking Munch Mans here? The first footage shows the man eating the dots, similar to Pac Man. The second footage shows the man laying down track, which is the version I’m familiar with from promotional screenshots. Are these just different levels in the same game?
Yes, the first footage shows the fairly distinctive disk prototype of Munch Man which debuted at CES (as that's what I was discussing there). It has a different title screen, and Munch Man gobbles dots instead of laying chains. The cartridge release which came a couple months later (and which is what everybody played, in the end) has Munch Man laying chains instead (as a hedge against obvious legal concerns) and has the familiar title screen.
Another great video. I always appreciate the time and effort you put into these and the passion you share with your audience.
I don't know a lot about TI computers, being more familiar with CP/M and with IBM-compatible computers, but I'm seriously impressed with how much the TI-99 had going for it. Is the TI-BASIC used on their computers very similar to the TI-basic used on their graphing calculators?
The TI-99 is really an unsung computer hero
Hello again!! Another great video. The TI was a bit special being the first 16 bit home computer.
Thank you for this great video. I missed out on the TI-99 experience but it's cool seeing the retro computers.
Munch-man and Parsec! Bona fide classics! Both feature fast and addictive gameplay. These are my top two Ti 99 games.
Great video as always ❣ when it comes to ti99 and ti99/4a content ur channel takes the cake 🎂 please always keep doing what u do the way u do it 🤙
1982 rocks! I was born that year on the day Iron Maiden released their Number of The Beast album. Good to hear your voice is much better.
Memories; The TI 99/4a was my first computer, unfortunately it died after about 2 to 3 years. Besides learning Basic, it was fun to play with the text-to-speech feature, not as good sounding compared to our modern technology :-).
seems like TI released alot of home management and personal finance command modules for the 99, along with some educational command modules, most of which were unique to the TI 99/4
i also heard that scott adams really enjoyed programming on the TI 99/4
Do you recall, or own, a Space Invaders-like game that was included with the Editor Assembler package in addition to Tombstone City? It ran in both Extended Basic and Assembler and obviously the latter was much faster. The aliens trickled down from the top of the screen, I think falling off a ledge to start. As you shot them they turned into "bricks," blocking their path down. I think they also sped up as you eliminated more of them. You would win by trapping the aliens above the wall you created as you shot them. I cannot find any mention of this game anywhere and I cannot remember the name. I played it endlessly in the summer of '84 or '85. Sadly, I sold my whole TI setup when I bought a Compaq 286 to replace it around '88. I had the PEB and a third party RAM Disk. Tunnels of Doom, Car Wars, and a snake game like Hustle that I can't remember the name were my other favorites. Did all of my college papers on TI-Writer, learning to use escape codes for fonts and special formatting.
I just bought one of these from my local goodwill, couldn't pass up the opportunity to own a computer twice as old as me. That being said, I have no idea if it works since I don't have an ac adapter for it and finding one is proving to be a challenge. Hopefully it works!
I just want to say that I’m so happy you get to be yourself finally, madame! Well, on different things, I really enjoy this channel, and I feel like I’m gonna have quite a bit of fun here! The memory management you had implemented in the dungeon crawler game a couple videos back, it gave me so many good ideas for MSBASIC on my Macintosh Plus. Thanks!
Heck yeah, Munchman is the best!
Chisolm Trail is great though, not really any other game quite like it.
Welcome back.👍
As always, another informative and well-produced video. I'm going to download an emulator and give these titles a try. Oh, and it's nice that you're showing your true self, even if some trolls would bizarrely prefer for you to pretend to be someone you're not. (And that blouse has great retro flair!)
No, all the "new arrivals" who never saw this page or commented even once before the cosplay started seem to be the "trolls." Like, ya know, YOU.
I'm proud you can be who you want to be. Love the Ti99.
your new look is fantastic!
She is the nostalgia heroine we all need...more woman than modern women.
This is misogynistic
Could I possibly suggest a subtle application of eyeshadow in a similar colour to your blouse? The lipstick is great and a good match.
Something' different. I can't put my finger on what...
Try lower, about 2 feet down, in the middle...right thhheeerrreeee
People should be saying something but they're afraid the backlash won't be worth it. No hate for this YTer just saying it's not good for a person's sanity to have no pushback and nothing but support. Cut off what you can't handle and pay attention to what you can.
@@abominationdesolation8322 There's nothing to say. There's nothing negative about it, and positive comments would be kinda creepy. You just don't comment on a woman's chest area.
As for feedback: we're strangers, not close friends. It isn't our place to provide feedback for her decisions.
Her voice was a bit coarse in the last video.
@@ZipplyZane maybe helping him ack himself...
lmao
LOL
YWNBARW
Cool story, kidfiddler
You'd rather a person pretended to be someone they're not, just because you feel uncomfortable? You're the one with the problem. And isn't the USA supposed to be the land of liberty? Whatever happened to "don't tread on me"? Let people be themselves; keep your nose out of other people's personal lives.
trvke, he is a traitor to the ti-99 community and isn't valid
@@DontEatTheSquidhe’s pretending to be something he’s not right now
@@Stoonk There never has been, and never will be a gender binary. Educate yourself.