TI Goodies

[Justin]

This is the official topic thread for
TI Goodies

 

[- Ω -]

Some of you TI'ers may still run 3.5" drives, but Texas Instruments only made sleeves for 5.25" floppies.  Sadly the TI was commercially extinct when 3.5" drives started to dominate.  So, what is a guy supposed to do when he wants some nostalgia and love for his 3.5" mechanical storage device?  It's simple really, make your own and share it with the world!  The attached PDF file below is sized perfectly for the smaller disks, just print it up, cut it out, fold it and glue it.

 

TI-Sleeve (Three and a Half).pdf

Edited March 11, 2021 by - Ω -
Added photo

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If you guys want to see what some of the games for the TI-99/4A are like before you decide to download them this link: http://tigameshelf.net/ is pretty darn cool!

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To those of you that use TI99Dir on your PC, there is a new improved version available by

<< CLICKING HERE FOR THE DOWNLOAD >>

 

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Planning on getting into the TI-99/4A?  Only have a FlashROM or maybe a FinalGROM, but no 32K memory expansion yet?  If so,

<< CLICK HERE >> trust me!

[- Ω -]

First of all, the site linked below is a mess, there is stuff stuffed everywhere and it can be hard to find something specific.  Hower it is the largest repository of TI stuff that I know about.  Go in and take a peek, you may just find something that grabs your interest and sends you down the rabbit hole.

 

<< CLICK HERE >>

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One of the best places to see the amazing new and classic TI games before downloading them is the << TI-99/4A Game Shelf  >>.  You'll see photos and descriptions of the games BEFORE you download.  This way you will not waste time blindly downloading and trying something that 'only sounded good'.  He has a LOT to choose from!

 

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So, do any of you guys know of, or have a link to a stash of TI goodies not yet mentioned?

[RickR]

I found this ebay auction for an acoustic coupler modem..and it's for the TI 99/4A!  How cool. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTRA-RARE-MINT-TEXAS-INSTRUMENTS-TELEPHONE-COUPLER-ACOUSTIC-MODEM-PHP-1600/265119482215?hash=item3dba5a4167:g:FZ0AAOSwsgZgchPf

 

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On 4/12/2021 at 9:00 PM, RickR said:

I found this ebay auction for an acoustic coupler modem..and it's for the TI 99/4A!  How cool. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTRA-RARE-MINT-TEXAS-INSTRUMENTS-TELEPHONE-COUPLER-ACOUSTIC-MODEM-PHP-1600/265119482215?hash=item3dba5a4167:g:FZ0AAOSwsgZgchPf

 

That brought back memories.  I had one of those... I HATED IT!  Manually dialing a busy BBS repeatedly was not fun.  The cord on that thing was short, so the location you could put it was limited.  300 baud, well by today's standards that's "Molasses in January" speed.  Come to think of it, I don't even have a phone anymore with the correct handset.  There is not even a BBS that I'd want to call via the phone lines.

[RickR]

2 hours ago, - Ω - said:

That brought back memories.  I had one of those... I HATED IT!  Manually dialing a busy BBS repeatedly was not fun.  The cord on that thing was short, so the location you could put it was limited.  300 baud, well by today's standards that's "Molasses in January" speed.  Come to think of it, I don't even have a phone anymore with the correct handset.  There is not even a BBS that I'd want to call via the phone lines.

Yes, they were pretty terrible!  Manual dialing, stuff the handset in that coupler, and hope for the best.  But that was my first foray into the on-line world (it wasn't a TI, but a mainframe terminal of some sort at my elementary school).  They didn't let just anyone have access.  For some reason, they trusted RickR.  Shocking.

I kept those credentials for years after.  Shh, don't tell anyone, but I sometimes would use my VIC-20 (and then Atari 800XL) to dial in just to see if that old school mainframe still worked.  🙂  It always did. 

I always have wanted an acoustic coupler modem just to have for my shelf.  I feel it's a piece of history and a real conversation starter.  If anything, it's the kind of thing that would make me smile when I look at it.  I may just buy this one, as it's the cheapest I've seen.  For as ubiquitous as these were, there are very few out there to buy.  Most probably got trashed once better technology came along. 

 

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This << NINERPEDIA WEBSITE >> is chock full of useful TI information, while some of it is a little dated, it's a treasure trove you should go take a peek at.

[Mr SQL]

On 3/10/2021 at 2:46 PM, - Ω - said:

If you guys want to see what some of the games for the TI-99/4A are like before you decide to download them this link: http://tigameshelf.net/ is pretty darn cool!

Wow I was checking out the TI-99/4A bookshelf BASIC games, they all look awesome! 🙂 

My best friend had a TI-99/4A growing up and I really liked the machine and it's colorful boot screen and the assortment of Tapes and cartridges we had. 

I also saw a GPL breakout game in the Assembly section of the bookshelf, always wanted to learn more about that interesting programming language unique to the TI, it sounds like a CHIP-8 type dialect closer to the hardware than BASIC and powerful enough apparently to run the BASIC interpreter. 

[- Ω -]

On 4/14/2021 at 9:22 AM, RickR said:

Yes, they were pretty terrible!  Manual dialing, stuff the handset in that coupler, and hope for the best.  But that was my first foray into the on-line world (it wasn't a TI, but a mainframe terminal of some sort at my elementary school).  They didn't let just anyone have access.  For some reason, they trusted RickR.  Shocking.

I kept those credentials for years after.  Shh, don't tell anyone, but I sometimes would use my VIC-20 (and then Atari 800XL) to dial in just to see if that old school mainframe still worked.  🙂  It always did. 

 

At the Community College I attended they also had a low speed connection to their PR1ME mainframe.  I used to log in remotely from home to submit my programming assignments.  Funny thing about the PR1ME, it used a variant of ANSI BASIC, which is what my TI-99/4A used, so that class was a walk in the park. Unfortunately after that quarter and the class came to an end, I lost my credentials, but I spent a LOT of time playing with that system and learning things that were no related to to class.  

[Atarigeezer]

On 3/9/2021 at 10:42 PM, - Ω - said:

Some of you TI'ers may still run 3.5" drives, but Texas Instruments only made sleeves for 5.25" floppies.  Sadly the TI was commercially extinct when 3.5" drives started to dominate.  So, what is a guy supposed to do when he wants some nostalgia and love for his 3.5" mechanical storage device?  It's simple really, make your own and share it with the world!  The attached PDF file below is sized perfectly for the smaller disks, just print it up, cut it out, fold it and glue it.

 

TI-Sleeve (Three and a Half).pdf 241.34 kB · 2 downloads

I Printed this yesterday and was very happy with it. only problem was my cutting straight is not like it used to be. but this is awesome. ThankS!!

 

[Retrospect]

On 6/15/2021 at 7:09 AM, Mr SQL said:

always wanted to learn more about that interesting programming language unique to the TI, it sounds like a CHIP-8 type dialect closer to the hardware than BASIC and powerful enough apparently to run the BASIC interpreter.

The TI GPL programming language came about for a couple of reasons, the reasons I understand are that firstly TI thought 9900 assembly might put people off programming for it (I don't know why?) and secondly, they didn't have a working CPU when they were developing the 99/4 and Dimension-4 computers, as the 8 bit CPU they wanted kept failing, so GPL was used for the OS and it's internal BASIC.  It was recommended by one of the TI employees to use the Zilog Z80 cpu.  I think they shot him.  They went with the 9900 and GPL along with the so-called GROMs.