Yes that was one of the most hilarious additions. That thing was the laughingstock of all the PC components in the 80’s. Sort of the Talking Moose of the 80’s.
The TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A had plug and play hardware that Just Worked. The key was the Device Service Routine or DSR. The DSR was part of the firmware in any device that connected to the expansion bus in the side port. The OS in the console only had support for the hardware built into the console. It had a set of "ports" that were scanned on powerup to look for DSRs. Each peripheral had to be set to use a specific port. TI's PEB cards had their default ports (the RS232-C/PIO could be set to two different ports to use two cards) so 3rd party cards that weren't replacements for a TI made one had to use a non-conflicting port. The DSR worked as an expansion to the console OS, without needing to load into RAM. With a peripheral installed, any commands needed to use it were instantly available, as were the device names. For example if you typed OLD DSK1.MYPROGRAM without a disk controller you'd get an error message because there's no such device. Plug in a disk controller and all the code to operate the disk drives and the DSK1, DSK2, DSK3 (and DSK4 for some 3rd party controllers) became available. This seamless extension of the operating system makes it so that pretty much any kind of peripheral can be made for these computers because the core system has no pre-programming for outside devices. TI didn't try to anticipate all the possible additions. All that's needed is a DSR to operate the device and present itself to the console properly. Imagine that kind of operation with a PC. Put the driver into the peripheral and have it run from the peripheral. No driver installing so it cannot muck up the OS. Disconnect the peripheral and it's like it was never connected. It was a revolutionary, highly flexible design and TI was >thisclose< to introducing an upgraded version, literally had a prototype TI-99/8 behind the curtain, ready to roll out - then suddenly decided to quit the microcomputer business.
The GROM cart and 32k expansion are good if you only want just games. It's a good way to make this machine a decent retro console. Bit if you truly want to see what the TI99/4A is truly capable of, I would highly recommend (if you can find it). Custodio Malilong's NanoPEB. A remarkable piece of kit, this adapter plugs into the expansion port (mod needed if you opt to add the NanoPEB to the Speech Synthesizer) and in addition to emulating up to 4 virtual disk drives, it also gives you depending on version, either a Serial Port, or the later version which has a Centronix Parallel Port. Also it has a full 32K additional ram for a total of 48K (not sure if you can use the tiny 4K RAM). This device uses a Compact Flash with 256MB standard RAM. However, it can take much higher storage with some limits and there is a CF to SD adapter that can be used as well. Max is 4GB I believe, but that is the entire library plus storage to boot. There is also the TIPI (Texas Instruments to Raspberry Pi) adapter. But this is a bit higher learning curve to work with. It requires some Linux experience due to the Raspbian. Good choice as well for a decked out unit. I always thought the TI was a powerhouse of a system and if time and sales had permitted, a complete rework of that God awful PEB and addition of the TI99/8 (Roadrunner) would have made this machine an excellent contender in the market. (Myarc made a TI clone called Geneve). What could have been.....
@@deathstrike Those NanoPEBs only allow for half the storage to be used because TI's disk controller used 256 byte blocks rather than 512 byte ones. So each block of data in the compact flash only gets half filled.
Great video, short and sweet and to the point. The TI-99/4A was my very first computer experience. It was on loan from a friend of my dad and I got to play with it for a few weeks, in the early 80s. He took it back then. Cut to 30years later and that same guy gave me that TI99/4A as a gift. As a result this computer holds a special place in my heart.
The TI994/A was out first family computer. It was a hand me down from my Grandfather in the mid 80s and my Dad hooked it up to our black and white TV. At that point, I knew nothing about computers and sat and waited while Dad typed in a program from the instruction manual, possibly taking 15 to 20 mins. I was getting so excited at this stage. He types RUN and all that happens is a ball bounces around the screen. We didn't have any software, nor did we have any way of saving the stuff we typed in. So when I asked my Dad if I could play the computer, it meant allowing me to muck around in the BASIC prompt until I got bored. Not too long after this, a friend in my street asked if I wanted to come in and play his computer. I had fobbed him off a few times before, but on this morning I thought I'd give it a go. I get in there and there was his Commodore 64, with colour monitor, disk drive, joysticks and what looked like at least a hundred games. It was like a switch was flicked in my brain. This was the object of my desire for years to come. I'd then go home and pretend I was loading C64 games into our TI (LOAD "DONKEY KONG",8,1 etc). Though by this stage my Dad had connected a cassette drive and was getting pretty good at writing his own simple games. It was only when the Internet came to be that I was able to see that the TI indeed had a reasonably recent library of games of it's own. It's just that by the time it was handed down to us, TI had long discontinued the system so the computer really just came as is. So my favourite games weren't anything you could find commercially. They were the ones my Dad wrote for me (mostly text adventures, but some very simple graphical stuff as well).
One classic for the TI-99/4A is obviously Parsec together with the Speech Synthesizer box in the sideport to get that full 80's Sci-Fi feel! There is also a mod that you can do to the Speech Synthesizer which entails extending one of the pins (to supply +5V power on pin 1) from the card-connector to the passthrough port, that then makes it possible to use the Speech Synthesizer plugged into the TI-99/4A sideport and then also use the 32K ram expander plugged in to the passthrough port of the Speech Synthesizer! Now I would consider the TI-99/4A fully specced out! :)
I used to program on a 990/4. But I never owned a 99/4. The 990/4 used the full power of the 9900 microprocessor; the 99/4 crippled it, using some slow memory to run BASIC.
Parsec was my favorite game. Loved my 99/4a. Had the PEB, floppy, 32M expansion, speech module, RS232 & the acoustic modem. Loved the feel of the expansion cards. They were substantial!
Ah, the Ti-99/4A. One of those computers I strangely have a soft spot for even though I've never owned one. I do hope you are enjoying yours. All models are functionally the same but I understand some of the beige ones won't run unlicensed GD-ROM carts thanks to Ti trying to make extra money. In spite of my soft spot I've avoided buying one as Ti's engineers really needed a good slap for nearly all their design decisions. Things I'd end up wasting time on reengineering if I owned one: Ti VDP - very good Ti Sound chip - rather underrated Ti 16 bit CPU - the first home computer with one and not a bad CPU to boot! ...then it all goes horribly wrong! A stupidly over-engineered case and motherboard considering the intended market. (the beige ones tried to 'fix' this) An over-engineered keyboard mechanism that doesn't have enough keys to be nice to use. Full on self-defeating greed not to go with Atari-type joystick ports. (terrible Ti joysticks that time has not been kind to) Oh, and worst of all... They saddled their 16 bit CPU with an 8 bit bus, only give it just enough local static RAM for the system to boot, then rely on the VDP's local RAM for all of the volatile storage - all calls have to go through the VDP to access this RAM so slowing things even more! Then use GD-ROMS because they are cheaper... and much slower. As a final insult write the interpreted basic in an interpreted language stored on said GD-ROMS to really slow things down. Without major upgrades / reworks the only time the computer comes even remotely close to the potential of it's parts is when using carts that have proper ROMs in them because the CPU has direct, is still 8 bits wide, access to the data. And yet I still have a soft spot for this machine. P.S. Trivia: the only implementation of Basic slower than Ti's is found in the ZX Spectrum - I have no idea how that is possible as it's a traditional implementation found in a much faster machine!
I had 3 TI 99/4As. I like seeing this oddball computer getting modern electronic upgrades. You need to get the speech synthesizer and play games like Alpiner.
There is currently a project in the works for a full 3D raycaster game on the Ti. It's on UA-cam and it's very impressive. Should be a must-play when it releases.
I like how all the upgrades plug into the machine, rather than being internal. It looks like what I remember upgraded home machines being like, with all sorts of boxes plugged into them.
I would say Parsec, Alpiner and Q-Bert are three of my favorite games for the Ti99/4a. Do get a Speech Synthesizer module for your system. There is also a decent Tennis game and a good Space Invaders clone (T.I. Invaders) for the Ti99/4a.
Seconded. Speech Synthesizer is a must-have for the 99/4a. Not terribly hard to find either. Also agree with parsec and alpiner. Vectrex Roli did a video on the speech synth a few years ago that might be worth watching. ua-cam.com/video/hYR3kFVr3gg/v-deo.html
Ah. The TI99/4A. I picked one of a couple years back, the black and silver one, with a few game carts. I may suggest looking into a NanoPEB if you plan on using disk based software. Perhaps even a TIPI which is a Raspberry PI based expansion that also allows internet connectivity. It also contains the 32K expansion if I remember correctly (I plan to eventually get one as I enjoy basic programming when I can get around to it) Some games I enjoy playing are "Hunt The Wumpus", "Parsec", and "Miner 2049er"
From memory we only had three games on it when I was a kid, Jump Joe (in which I found a secret room) Space Invaders and Tomb Stone. They were all fun games.
Very nice setup, Thanks for the video. This is something I would have dreamed of decades ago. it was my first computer, it was very frustrating to be on this platform but I loved it, it felt like it was ahead of its time but some bad decisions made it unable to be a commercial success against the competition (crippled 8bits bus while having a 16 bits cpu, vram used for most data instead of ram because the size of the ram was too small. , restricted licensing policy etc .. ) BTW nice Walter White pair of glasses !😁
I am not into Games but I do remember the TI99/4 and only knew one person that had one. The one I do remember had a metal case and looked really nice. Honestly have the fun with these old computers is discovering exactly what you can do with them which if you think about it is exactly what we all had to do back in the day.
Great video Lurch! Really cool to see some TI-99/4A content out there. I never had one, but my uncle did and I LOVED playing Parsec and Hunt the Wumpus! Wumpus looks very basic, but the gameplay is great, and while easy at first, is challenging as you level up. Though it does get to the point eventually that any direction you go is just a total guess, becoming impossible to work out based on what you can see. But fun up to that point. Parsec is a great side scrolling shoot em up, with solid gameplay that is fun to replay. From memory, enemy patterns are consistent, but otherwise random, so not one of those shoot em ups that are about memorising where everything will show up - instead you learn and employ the tactics that work. Also has a fun refueling mini-game that gets pretty hard later on.
I would play the mpx add on games but you must have a speech synthesizer. Plus the Milton Bradley control box. The baseball game is one of my favorites. It's a two person game but I played it by myself many times. It's better when you have two players because you never know what type of pitch that's coming. What's good about this game you can name all the players in the outfield and just say their name as and that ball player will try to catch the ball. Big foot is another game which can be played with or without the mpx box. But that too really needs the speech synthesizer. 73
When I was in elementary (primary) school, I usually had the opportunity to play Munch-Man. It's quite a fun knockoff of Pac-Man. If you probe the internal power connector, you will find 5vDC there, eliminating the need for an external connection. If your keyboard ribbon cable ever has issues, an IDE cable will make it work, as long as there are pin headers installed. I had to do that to mine.
Part of this video was going to be the installation of Re:Enthused replacement power board, but it started playing up. But something I want to re-visit when time allows.
Alpiner is one of the best original games for the system, but loses quite a bit if you don't have the speech synthesizer. If you are looking for simultaneous multiplayer, Blasto is a lot of fun. Munchman is a neat spin on Pac-Man, with different "ghosts" for each level, and a secret code that lets you select your level. On the homebrew front, anything by Rasmus Moustgaard is fantastic (I particularly like Bouncy, Road hunter and his port of Sabrewulf.).
Fantastic upgrades. My brother had a Ti99/4a (silver and black one) back in the day. I was the VIC-20 and C64 kid in the house and he wanted a computer too -- not sure why he ended up with that computer, tbh. Anyway, I hated it compared to my C64 🤣. I found its BASIC not easy to use and the interpreter seemed so slow compared to my C64. Today, I have much greater respect for all microcomputers of that age. And I do like the all-beige version -- a very nice addition to your collection. Try out Parsec -- it was the big seller game cartridge in these parts back then.
I had the beige model. It is confusing to keep seeing the silver model. I got mine at a going out if business sale at texas instruments went the home computer division was discontinued. As a preteen I was able program some basic games using graphics char memory.
My first computer was indeed the Ti994a. TI were flogging them off for $199 Christmas 1983 after they pulled out of the home computer market. The C64 was $600 which was way more than my parents could afford. I have a few of them which I got from the USA years ago when You could get them with shipping for around $100 AUD. There are some great new games for the Ti now such as Bounce'n'Pounce, Ti Scramble, Titanium, Road Hunter and many more at tigameshelf.net/ Some games need a Editor assembler Cartridge or an Extended basic Cartridge to run them. Good classic games are Tunnels of Doom, Alpiner, Parsec, Buck Rogers, MsPacman, Pacman, Moon Patrol, Warzone II, Qbert, TiInvaders. A few require a F18A which is a FPGA video chip with VGA output, You won't be able to run those. There is a very good Ti forum section at Atariage, all the information You could ever want is there. Also check this out runs in Your web browser js99er.net/#/
Jack Tramiel at Commodore succeeded using price reductions to drive TI out of the home computer business as he said he wanted to, but in a roundabout way he set the path to doom for Commodore in the process.
Thanks for running through all the mods - been looking at getting one of these for ages - they seem to be quite reasonably priced in the US even though the shipping down to Aus is pricey
@@MrLurchsThings No, I mean for the computer itself - you can get one with a large bundle of stuff for less than US$100 - it just seems cheap compared to other more popular computers ... and it's easily still usable in 2021, as you've shown ... of course I'm mainly looking at it from the perspective of having a decent keyboard ;)
@@Brfff They are cheaper as they were never as popular than things like the C64. There is a good, small community out there tho. Mind you, I have no idea how a 110v/NTSC model will run here even with a step-down transformer.
Wonderfu video - I would love to re-acquire a TI99/4a - I live in Australia too and it was my first Home computer - brings back such fond memories and feelings. Any tips on where to find an old one in Australia ?
Interesting... looks like you had a stroke of luck there, picking up a beige TI-99/4a that's equipped with the old silver TI-99/4a ROM. AFAIK the last rom (V2.2) can be problematic when using stuff like FinalGrom99. BTW can we expect to see you playing with a TIPI any time soon? :)
I had one of these that I picked up at a yard sale in the mid 90s. Had a lot of fun with it, but yeah, there was very little support for this and there wasn't much I could do with it outside of BASIC and the few cartridges I had for it. However, it did lead to us purchasing our first family computer, a Pentium-based PC. And from that my career into IT started taking its shape.
Be sure to get a raspberry pi 3+ or W and a TIpi card. This gives you a network and hard drive. (Raspberry pi SD card Acts as a share so it gives the ti a simulated storage Device that allows mapping of dsk1-4. Also allows mapping to web sites that are written strictly for ti html.
If you're into side scrolling shooters, Parsec is the goto classic on it. And I seem to remember Tunnels of Doom being a decent rpg if a bit basic. The TI did use a disk drive with the PEB, so it's worth keeping an eye out for one of those. Also, the speech synthesizer!
There are modern replacements for the PEB - I've gone with TiPi/32 since it's compact. Unless one really wants a serial port, or a centronics, and has a lot of desk real estate for the OG PEB, there's not much to be gained IME
Like you, I never had a TI99, and I never actually saw one being sold in my area here in the states when it was being sold. I would be VERY interested to hear if there were any games worth checking out.
10:31 Coincidentally Robin of 8-bit Show & Tell just recently mentioned why some C64 games use joystick port 1 (typically the oldest games) and most other port 2: port 1 interferes with the keyboard: ua-cam.com/video/V7-Ub-Cyugo/v-deo.html#t=3m27s
Interesting additions - it definitely makes it more usable. But a light blue memory expander next to a beige box. Ugly! Is there an option of installing RAM internally? Or maybe erecting a "somebody else's problem" field around it? 😉
@@MrLurchsThings There was a PCB made to install the speech synthesizer, 32K and a couple of other expansions inside the console. It connected to the back of the right angle adapter for the cartridge port by soldering the PCB directly to it. Connecting the board internally to the expansion slot was the tricky bit since it had to be done with a ribbon cable. But it did leave the port free for the few "sidecar" game cartridges or a PEB or other peripherals. IIRC it was called the Zenoboard. Schematics and parts list should be available online somewhere. A gerber file or even full scale artwork would be nice for people to make their own. The craziest "peripheral" was the Triton XT. What that really was, was a complete PC-XT clone with a box that allowed using the TI console as a keyboard. Why anyone would want to use the TI keyboard on a PC instead of a decent 84 or 101 key PC keyboard...
@@tommyovesen The single de-soldering pump version is almost impossible to find in Australia, but the dual station is relatively easy to get hold of for some reason.
It's not unusual. My C128D has several places where it is used. (Also, there a several machines out there that probably SHOULD have something like this and dont)
If only the TI99 4A could use 1GB of RAM, The amount of RAM installed really lets the machine down so if it had 1GB or 16GB of RAM would have allowed for games that won't glitch or lock up the machine.
Great video! I have just ordered a beige TI like yours, but later I read that the FinalGROM 99 is incompatible with the QI model. I don't know yet if the TI that I ordered is a QI, but I will appreciate your opinion on this subject.
Given the comments below, it seems I'm now shopping for a Voice Synthesiser :)
Yes that was one of the most hilarious additions. That thing was the laughingstock of all the PC components in the 80’s. Sort of the Talking Moose of the 80’s.
collection piece YEAH! :)
The TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A had plug and play hardware that Just Worked. The key was the Device Service Routine or DSR. The DSR was part of the firmware in any device that connected to the expansion bus in the side port. The OS in the console only had support for the hardware built into the console. It had a set of "ports" that were scanned on powerup to look for DSRs. Each peripheral had to be set to use a specific port. TI's PEB cards had their default ports (the RS232-C/PIO could be set to two different ports to use two cards) so 3rd party cards that weren't replacements for a TI made one had to use a non-conflicting port.
The DSR worked as an expansion to the console OS, without needing to load into RAM. With a peripheral installed, any commands needed to use it were instantly available, as were the device names. For example if you typed OLD DSK1.MYPROGRAM without a disk controller you'd get an error message because there's no such device. Plug in a disk controller and all the code to operate the disk drives and the DSK1, DSK2, DSK3 (and DSK4 for some 3rd party controllers) became available.
This seamless extension of the operating system makes it so that pretty much any kind of peripheral can be made for these computers because the core system has no pre-programming for outside devices. TI didn't try to anticipate all the possible additions. All that's needed is a DSR to operate the device and present itself to the console properly.
Imagine that kind of operation with a PC. Put the driver into the peripheral and have it run from the peripheral. No driver installing so it cannot muck up the OS. Disconnect the peripheral and it's like it was never connected.
It was a revolutionary, highly flexible design and TI was >thisclose< to introducing an upgraded version, literally had a prototype TI-99/8 behind the curtain, ready to roll out - then suddenly decided to quit the microcomputer business.
The GROM cart and 32k expansion are good if you only want just games. It's a good way to make this machine a decent retro console.
Bit if you truly want to see what the TI99/4A is truly capable of, I would highly recommend (if you can find it). Custodio Malilong's NanoPEB.
A remarkable piece of kit, this adapter plugs into the expansion port (mod needed if you opt to add the NanoPEB to the Speech Synthesizer) and in addition to emulating up to 4 virtual disk drives, it also gives you depending on version, either a Serial Port, or the later version which has a Centronix Parallel Port.
Also it has a full 32K additional ram for a total of 48K (not sure if you can use the tiny 4K RAM).
This device uses a Compact Flash with 256MB standard RAM. However, it can take much higher storage with some limits and there is a CF to SD adapter that can be used as well. Max is 4GB I believe, but that is the entire library plus storage to boot.
There is also the TIPI (Texas Instruments to Raspberry Pi) adapter. But this is a bit higher learning curve to work with. It requires some Linux experience due to the Raspbian. Good choice as well for a decked out unit.
I always thought the TI was a powerhouse of a system and if time and sales had permitted, a complete rework of that God awful PEB and addition of the TI99/8 (Roadrunner) would have made this machine an excellent contender in the market. (Myarc made a TI clone called Geneve).
What could have been.....
@@deathstrike Those NanoPEBs only allow for half the storage to be used because TI's disk controller used 256 byte blocks rather than 512 byte ones. So each block of data in the compact flash only gets half filled.
Great video, short and sweet and to the point. The TI-99/4A was my very first computer experience. It was on loan from a friend of my dad and I got to play with it for a few weeks, in the early 80s. He took it back then. Cut to 30years later and that same guy gave me that TI99/4A as a gift. As a result this computer holds a special place in my heart.
Welcome to the TI rabbit hole. There is always something to get for this machine. Enjoy the ride!
The TI994/A was out first family computer. It was a hand me down from my Grandfather in the mid 80s and my Dad hooked it up to our black and white TV. At that point, I knew nothing about computers and sat and waited while Dad typed in a program from the instruction manual, possibly taking 15 to 20 mins. I was getting so excited at this stage. He types RUN and all that happens is a ball bounces around the screen. We didn't have any software, nor did we have any way of saving the stuff we typed in. So when I asked my Dad if I could play the computer, it meant allowing me to muck around in the BASIC prompt until I got bored.
Not too long after this, a friend in my street asked if I wanted to come in and play his computer. I had fobbed him off a few times before, but on this morning I thought I'd give it a go. I get in there and there was his Commodore 64, with colour monitor, disk drive, joysticks and what looked like at least a hundred games. It was like a switch was flicked in my brain. This was the object of my desire for years to come. I'd then go home and pretend I was loading C64 games into our TI (LOAD "DONKEY KONG",8,1 etc). Though by this stage my Dad had connected a cassette drive and was getting pretty good at writing his own simple games.
It was only when the Internet came to be that I was able to see that the TI indeed had a reasonably recent library of games of it's own. It's just that by the time it was handed down to us, TI had long discontinued the system so the computer really just came as is. So my favourite games weren't anything you could find commercially. They were the ones my Dad wrote for me (mostly text adventures, but some very simple graphical stuff as well).
Parsec, Buck Rogers. And the PAC-MAN port was amazing.
The TI-99TI-99/4A games i remember most vividly are: 'Parsec' (w. speech synthesizer), 'Miner 2049er' and 'Space Station Pheta'...
One classic for the TI-99/4A is obviously Parsec together with the Speech Synthesizer box in the sideport to get that full 80's Sci-Fi feel!
There is also a mod that you can do to the Speech Synthesizer which entails extending one of the pins (to supply +5V power on pin 1) from the card-connector to the passthrough port, that then makes it possible to use the Speech Synthesizer plugged into the TI-99/4A sideport and then also use the 32K ram expander plugged in to the passthrough port of the Speech Synthesizer!
Now I would consider the TI-99/4A fully specced out! :)
TI Invaders is best "8bit" homeport of Space Invaders for 16bit TI-99 :)
I used to program on a 990/4. But I never owned a 99/4. The 990/4 used the full power of the 9900 microprocessor; the 99/4 crippled it, using some slow memory to run BASIC.
Parsec was my favorite game. Loved my 99/4a. Had the PEB, floppy, 32M expansion, speech module, RS232 & the acoustic modem. Loved the feel of the expansion cards. They were substantial!
Ah, the Ti-99/4A. One of those computers I strangely have a soft spot for even though I've never owned one. I do hope you are enjoying yours. All models are functionally the same but I understand some of the beige ones won't run unlicensed GD-ROM carts thanks to Ti trying to make extra money.
In spite of my soft spot I've avoided buying one as Ti's engineers really needed a good slap for nearly all their design decisions. Things I'd end up wasting time on reengineering if I owned one:
Ti VDP - very good
Ti Sound chip - rather underrated
Ti 16 bit CPU - the first home computer with one and not a bad CPU to boot!
...then it all goes horribly wrong!
A stupidly over-engineered case and motherboard considering the intended market. (the beige ones tried to 'fix' this)
An over-engineered keyboard mechanism that doesn't have enough keys to be nice to use.
Full on self-defeating greed not to go with Atari-type joystick ports. (terrible Ti joysticks that time has not been kind to)
Oh, and worst of all...
They saddled their 16 bit CPU with an 8 bit bus, only give it just enough local static RAM for the system to boot, then rely on the VDP's local RAM for all of the volatile storage - all calls have to go through the VDP to access this RAM so slowing things even more!
Then use GD-ROMS because they are cheaper... and much slower. As a final insult write the interpreted basic in an interpreted language stored on said GD-ROMS to really slow things down.
Without major upgrades / reworks the only time the computer comes even remotely close to the potential of it's parts is when using carts that have proper ROMs in them because the CPU has direct, is still 8 bits wide, access to the data.
And yet I still have a soft spot for this machine.
P.S.
Trivia: the only implementation of Basic slower than Ti's is found in the ZX Spectrum - I have no idea how that is possible as it's a traditional implementation found in a much faster machine!
I had 3 TI 99/4As. I like seeing this oddball computer getting modern electronic upgrades. You need to get the speech synthesizer and play games like Alpiner.
There is currently a project in the works for a full 3D raycaster game on the Ti. It's on UA-cam and it's very impressive. Should be a must-play when it releases.
I like how all the upgrades plug into the machine, rather than being internal. It looks like what I remember upgraded home machines being like, with all sorts of boxes plugged into them.
The "too late" 80'ies computer. 1983 was hard and hit Texas Inst. very hard. (same for GE Vectrex. But they are very trendy now! :)
Must play games on ti 99: Parsec, Burger Time, Bigfoot, A-Maze-ing, Ti Invaders
I would say Parsec, Alpiner and Q-Bert are three of my favorite games for the Ti99/4a. Do get a Speech Synthesizer module for your system. There is also a decent Tennis game and a good Space Invaders clone (T.I. Invaders) for the Ti99/4a.
Seconded. Speech Synthesizer is a must-have for the 99/4a. Not terribly hard to find either. Also agree with parsec and alpiner. Vectrex Roli did a video on the speech synth a few years ago that might be worth watching. ua-cam.com/video/hYR3kFVr3gg/v-deo.html
Thank you for the video Mr Lurch, don't have a TI99 myself but when I do I'll check back here. G'day from Perth WA. 👍😎
Ah. The TI99/4A. I picked one of a couple years back, the black and silver one, with a few game carts. I may suggest looking into a NanoPEB if you plan on using disk based software. Perhaps even a TIPI which is a Raspberry PI based expansion that also allows internet connectivity. It also contains the 32K expansion if I remember correctly (I plan to eventually get one as I enjoy basic programming when I can get around to it)
Some games I enjoy playing are "Hunt The Wumpus", "Parsec", and "Miner 2049er"
just ordered the Ready? shirt
From memory we only had three games on it when I was a kid, Jump Joe (in which I found a secret room) Space Invaders and Tomb Stone. They were all fun games.
I hope to do this soon.
Very nice setup, Thanks for the video.
This is something I would have dreamed of decades ago. it was my first computer, it was very frustrating to be on this platform but I loved it, it felt like it was ahead of its time but some bad decisions made it unable to be a commercial success against the competition (crippled 8bits bus while having a 16 bits cpu, vram used for most data instead of ram because the size of the ram was too small. , restricted licensing policy etc .. )
BTW nice Walter White pair of glasses !😁
RXB 2020 is not available for FinalGROM now too at ATARIAGE
I am not into Games but I do remember the TI99/4 and only knew one person that had one. The one I do remember had a metal case and looked really nice. Honestly have the fun with these old computers is discovering exactly what you can do with them which if you think about it is exactly what we all had to do back in the day.
Yeah, that'd be the original version of the machine. It seems to be the more sort-after, but I'm happy with this one.
Great video Lurch! Really cool to see some TI-99/4A content out there. I never had one, but my uncle did and I LOVED playing Parsec and Hunt the Wumpus!
Wumpus looks very basic, but the gameplay is great, and while easy at first, is challenging as you level up. Though it does get to the point eventually that any direction you go is just a total guess, becoming impossible to work out based on what you can see. But fun up to that point.
Parsec is a great side scrolling shoot em up, with solid gameplay that is fun to replay. From memory, enemy patterns are consistent, but otherwise random, so not one of those shoot em ups that are about memorising where everything will show up - instead you learn and employ the tactics that work. Also has a fun refueling mini-game that gets pretty hard later on.
I would play the mpx add on games but you must have a speech synthesizer. Plus the Milton Bradley control box. The baseball game is one of my favorites. It's a two person game but I played it by myself many times. It's better when you have two players because you never know what type of pitch that's coming. What's good about this game you can name all the players in the outfield and just say their name as and that ball player will try to catch the ball. Big foot is another game which can be played with or without the mpx box. But that too really needs the speech synthesizer. 73
Parsec, Congo Bongo, Alpiner, Ti Invaders, Munchman etc..
When using Joystick, watch out that CAPS LOCK is in off position, or not all directions will work. Best Regards
getting ready to upgrade my TI ninty niner, I have a TIpi coing in monday for my PEB
When I was in elementary (primary) school, I usually had the opportunity to play Munch-Man. It's quite a fun knockoff of Pac-Man.
If you probe the internal power connector, you will find 5vDC there, eliminating the need for an external connection. If your keyboard ribbon cable ever has issues, an IDE cable will make it work, as long as there are pin headers installed. I had to do that to mine.
Part of this video was going to be the installation of Re:Enthused replacement power board, but it started playing up. But something I want to re-visit when time allows.
Alpiner is one of the best original games for the system, but loses quite a bit if you don't have the speech synthesizer. If you are looking for simultaneous multiplayer, Blasto is a lot of fun. Munchman is a neat spin on Pac-Man, with different "ghosts" for each level, and a secret code that lets you select your level. On the homebrew front, anything by Rasmus Moustgaard is fantastic (I particularly like Bouncy, Road hunter and his port of Sabrewulf.).
Fantastic upgrades. My brother had a Ti99/4a (silver and black one) back in the day. I was the VIC-20 and C64 kid in the house and he wanted a computer too -- not sure why he ended up with that computer, tbh. Anyway, I hated it compared to my C64 🤣. I found its BASIC not easy to use and the interpreter seemed so slow compared to my C64. Today, I have much greater respect for all microcomputers of that age. And I do like the all-beige version -- a very nice addition to your collection. Try out Parsec -- it was the big seller game cartridge in these parts back then.
I had the beige model. It is confusing to keep seeing the silver model. I got mine at a going out if business sale at texas instruments went the home computer division was discontinued. As a preteen I was able program some basic games using graphics char memory.
Here's my recommendations for games:
Bigfoot
Chisholm Trail
Slymoids
Microsurgeon
Spotshot
Protector II
Shamus
My first computer was indeed the Ti994a. TI were flogging them off for $199 Christmas 1983 after they pulled out of the home computer market. The C64 was $600 which was way more than my parents could afford. I have a few of them which I got from the USA years ago when You could get them with shipping for around $100 AUD. There are some great new games for the Ti now such as Bounce'n'Pounce, Ti Scramble, Titanium, Road Hunter and many more at tigameshelf.net/
Some games need a Editor assembler Cartridge or an Extended basic Cartridge to run them. Good classic games are Tunnels of Doom, Alpiner, Parsec, Buck Rogers, MsPacman, Pacman, Moon Patrol, Warzone II, Qbert, TiInvaders. A few require a F18A which is a FPGA video chip with VGA output, You won't be able to run those. There is a very good Ti forum section at Atariage, all the information You could ever want is there. Also check this out runs in Your web browser js99er.net/#/
Jack Tramiel at Commodore succeeded using price reductions to drive TI out of the home computer business as he said he wanted to, but in a roundabout way he set the path to doom for Commodore in the process.
I guess that this RPG converter board would work on other machines that are using the same video chip (like MSX) as well!?
I believe so, yes. If I understand correctly, it was originally designed for the Colecovision.
Thanks for running through all the mods - been looking at getting one of these for ages - they seem to be quite reasonably priced in the US even though the shipping down to Aus is pricey
You mean the TMS-RGB board? It actually wasnt too bad if memory serves me right. Just checking my emails, it was $49US all told.
@@MrLurchsThings No, I mean for the computer itself - you can get one with a large bundle of stuff for less than US$100 - it just seems cheap compared to other more popular computers ... and it's easily still usable in 2021, as you've shown ... of course I'm mainly looking at it from the perspective of having a decent keyboard ;)
@@Brfff They are cheaper as they were never as popular than things like the C64. There is a good, small community out there tho.
Mind you, I have no idea how a 110v/NTSC model will run here even with a step-down transformer.
Wonderfu video - I would love to re-acquire a TI99/4a - I live in Australia too and it was my first Home computer - brings back such fond memories and feelings. Any tips on where to find an old one in Australia ?
Best bet other than the obvious (FB, eBay) would be the Ausvintage Buy/Sell/Swap group on FB
Interesting... looks like you had a stroke of luck there, picking up a beige TI-99/4a that's equipped with the old silver TI-99/4a ROM. AFAIK the last rom (V2.2) can be problematic when using stuff like FinalGrom99.
BTW can we expect to see you playing with a TIPI any time soon? :)
How do you set it up to an hdmi tv? What adapter cables, et al, to use,, information, please, thanks.
I had one of these that I picked up at a yard sale in the mid 90s. Had a lot of fun with it, but yeah, there was very little support for this and there wasn't much I could do with it outside of BASIC and the few cartridges I had for it. However, it did lead to us purchasing our first family computer, a Pentium-based PC. And from that my career into IT started taking its shape.
Be sure to get a raspberry pi 3+ or W and a TIpi card. This gives you a network and hard drive. (Raspberry pi SD card Acts as a share so it gives the ti a simulated storage Device that allows mapping of dsk1-4. Also allows mapping to web sites that are written strictly for ti html.
If you're into side scrolling shooters, Parsec is the goto classic on it. And I seem to remember Tunnels of Doom being a decent rpg if a bit basic.
The TI did use a disk drive with the PEB, so it's worth keeping an eye out for one of those. Also, the speech synthesizer!
There are modern replacements for the PEB - I've gone with TiPi/32 since it's compact. Unless one really wants a serial port, or a centronics, and has a lot of desk real estate for the OG PEB, there's not much to be gained IME
Parsec is excellent.
Like you, I never had a TI99, and I never actually saw one being sold in my area here in the states when it was being sold. I would be VERY interested to hear if there were any games worth checking out.
10:31 Coincidentally Robin of 8-bit Show & Tell just recently mentioned why some C64 games use joystick port 1 (typically the oldest games) and most other port 2: port 1 interferes with the keyboard: ua-cam.com/video/V7-Ub-Cyugo/v-deo.html#t=3m27s
T.I. invaders 1)
Munchman 2)
Interesting additions - it definitely makes it more usable. But a light blue memory expander next to a beige box. Ugly! Is there an option of installing RAM internally? Or maybe erecting a "somebody else's problem" field around it? 😉
I went with the corei64 sidecar case (the TiPi option, so I can connect a Pi to the beast) - that looks a lot nicer.
my TI already has the memory expansion inside the 20lb PEB... remember there are always bigger sillier options
It wouldnt take much to reprint the case. Pretty sure the design is on Thingiverse.
@@MrLurchsThings There was a PCB made to install the speech synthesizer, 32K and a couple of other expansions inside the console. It connected to the back of the right angle adapter for the cartridge port by soldering the PCB directly to it. Connecting the board internally to the expansion slot was the tricky bit since it had to be done with a ribbon cable. But it did leave the port free for the few "sidecar" game cartridges or a PEB or other peripherals. IIRC it was called the Zenoboard. Schematics and parts list should be available online somewhere. A gerber file or even full scale artwork would be nice for people to make their own.
The craziest "peripheral" was the Triton XT. What that really was, was a complete PC-XT clone with a box that allowed using the TI console as a keyboard. Why anyone would want to use the TI keyboard on a PC instead of a decent 84 or 101 key PC keyboard...
How come this double desoldering station? What is it doing? I have the same, but single station
Combined soldering iron and de-soldering pump/gun/thing
@@MrLurchsThings Ah, of course - never seen that before
@@tommyovesen The single de-soldering pump version is almost impossible to find in Australia, but the dual station is relatively easy to get hold of for some reason.
Any one knows a place where I can find VRAM for the TI-99/4A??
I have it at arcadeshopper.com
The sound is missing!!
What’s going on with the white-encrusted IC at 2:50? Is that normal in a TI-99?
It's thermal paste.
@@Rodville What? How? Why? In an 8-bit computer? And if true, why is it applied this way?
It's not unusual. My C128D has several places where it is used.
(Also, there a several machines out there that probably SHOULD have something like this and dont)
@@MrLurchsThings I see. Did not know that. It stil looks messy, though. ;)
@@rudodejong I can live with some mess if it means a chip doesnt cook itself :)
If only the TI99 4A could use 1GB of RAM, The amount of RAM installed really lets the machine down so if it had 1GB or 16GB of RAM would have allowed for games that won't glitch or lock up the machine.
Can this mod work with a us ti?
I *think* so?
I considered this, but went Atari 8-bit instead.
I have one of those too - great machines.
Great video! I have just ordered a beige TI like yours, but later I read that the FinalGROM 99 is incompatible with the QI model. I don't know yet if the TI that I ordered is a QI, but I will appreciate your opinion on this subject.
Probably I'm wrong but the color fidelity of RGB mod is not so good. Colors looks washed up.
More what the camera picked up than IRL