Hi Stuart, I'm the guy that lent you the Beeb for the film. It wasn't a Master, sadly - it was a BBC Model B (actually converted from an A in-house) and it was used by my Grandad at the BBC Research Lab at Kingswood. He was at the BBC for a long, long time (retired around 1987) and worked testing and implementing colour TV in the 60s, energy-efficient stage lighting, radio transmission and acoustics and early holograms. His research papers are online on the BBC archive - some of which were probably written on the Model B that was used in Gamechild. I did pick it up in the end! It took me a long time to get around to it. Was a difficult time! Thanks!
Fun fact: the ti-99/4A gets so hot under the plastic that leads to the cart slot, that you can keep your coffee/tea warm by placing the mug into the cart tray.
Fun Fact: Cassette man actually ISN'T a knockoff Soundwave. It's actually the other way around. The original TRANSFORMERS toyline was sort of an unholy amalgamation of various unrelated transforming toys from Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change series, along with several from Takatoku toys. Micro Change was the source of not only Soundwave (A.K.A. "Cassette Man") but also Megatron (A.K.A. "Gun Robo Walther P-38 U.N.C.L.E.). The toys were later brought over to America, and re-branded as "The Transformers". The cartoon actually released before the toys, because of a law that a cartoon couldn't exist solely as a 22-minute commercial.
The "joystick port" on the back of the TI99/4A is actually for hooking up a cassette player to save/load data. You need a special cable for it. Also, the video cable is the same as the commodore 64 and model 1 mega drive.
Cyntikka agreed, somebody said actions are better than this but the way RU-vid's going with the adpocalypse I don't blame people for having ads. But if you're going to have an ad at least make it entertaining like ashens does.
mathematics117 again I agree oh, I see no issues with people having an attitude. It's better than TV where you have about 5 minutes worth of ads and 3 minutes worth of television show lol!
Look guys, life ain't free, but these videos are. So unless you want to start buying RU-vid RED I suggest you get used to content creators having some sponsored content. We need to keep in mind that content creators are people just like us who want to make money for their efforts. It's not 'selling out', it's survival. If listening to 4 minutes about an app is the only price I have to pay for more entertainment, then I consider that a bargain.
If you want to see just how terrible _Deep Fear_ for the Sega Saturn is, Retsupurae did a great video on it. Just look for _'Resident Seavil'._ Ashen's remarks do not do justice as to how hilariously awful it is. One of the characters was court-martialled for firing torpedoes on what was eventually revealed to be a passenger cruiser, and *he won't stop complaining about how unfair it was that he faced disciplinary action.* Like the fact that he lost his job dishonourably was worse than the massive and tragic collateral damage. It's a hoot. Please go and see a _Deep Fear_ LP when you finish watching this video.
Ashens did sponsoring right, about 1 minute in i forgot i was still in the sponsor bit, i have seen some terrible videos lately where people whoring out their channel have done a terrible job integrating the sponsor bit into their video, "Alpha m" for example and its completely destroyed the video as every actual video is built around the sponsor.
I remember using a BBC master at school. We used it to program a little wheeled robot thing that drew on the ground. We were only 8 so I'm guessing the teacher did most of the programming.
+Adam Walker There's no way for the sponsor to know how many people skipped through the ad when it's actually part of the video, he's probably being paid on a per-video basis.
I had to jump back and look at the disk, to see in which way he was wrong. I had a vague recollection, that Amstrad had 3inch disks on some of their computers. He was going to be off by quarter of an inch either way :) *edit* Ahh, there's the horrible 3inch disks!
I know right? The first one looked like something the military would use as a worst case scenario machine that's really reliable. Probably because it reminds me of the tech in the original alien films
I don't know, my Chromebook doesn't look like the average metallic slab that most posh laptops look like. It's an Asus C202 model, aimed at schools and has a really lovely rubber bumper all round it which gives it a nice look.
Because it saves about 12p in manufacturing costs and incredibly few people want it. The last time PC's regularly had midi ports, was before motherboards had built in sound. Soundcards used to have a weird joystick/midi connector, you needed an adapter to connect it to anything though.
Pook365 - Yeah, I knew all that apart from the 12p saving. It would be good to have back. My old Amiga 1200 had an adapter for a MIDI keyboard, also my old sound sampler could be connected too. I used OctaMED and (I think) SoundStudio. :)
Pook365 It would be more than 12p if you account for the design, board layout, parts, assembly and testing costs. Plus you'd lose 2 to 4 USB ports. Better for the .1% of people who need it to buy an external converter.
I think the Atari ST models with built in MIDI support stayed popular with electronic musicians right the way up until DAW’s for your “bog standard” Windows and Macs became a lot more readily accessible- I know at the very least Norman Cook, he of Fatboy Slim, Mighty Dub Katz and a great many more aliases/bands fame, was still using one to write tunes at least up until 1998 (most of You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby was written using one, according to interviews he’s done over the years). They were absolutely the backbone of the early rave scene, for folks who wanted some software integration to go along with their samplers, synths, and drum machines (it’s down to personal opinion on ravey music as to whether that was a good or a bad thing).
Actually, Cassette Man ISN'T a knockoff of G1 Soundwave! That was the name given to the Microchange original from Japan. That's a pre-G1, pre-Transformers as a whole!
Don't worry about those whinging about the sponsored content, they majority of us know that you have to make a living and appreciate what you do. It's great that you found something applicable to your job to advertise. That White couch however....
That side port on the TI99/4A is for the mighty VOICE SYNTHESIZER MODULE. Which you should get and play some of the games that used it because they're great and quite funny.
I've got the TI99/4A and the Voice synthesizer. I bought a TI99 bundle at a car boot in the 1990s for about £5-10 and got a load of game carts with it too.
Clay3613 I do the same thing and I don’t even know why! I have 0 connection to 70s and 80s computer game controllers yet it’s such a soothing video for me.
People throwing tantrums about sponsored content, I have to wonder if they remember "The Proxy". This is Ashen's job, he's entitled to make a living, particularly given he is pretty upfront with sponsorships.
I have a Ti-99/4a right next to me that I still plug in and use, I freaking love it. Found some magazines online with programs I can type in, troubleshoot, then save to a cassette. Not sure if youtube flags imgur links but I have an album I can share.
YES!!! A TI99-4A! That was my first computer, but I hardly see one today. I actually owned most of the games for it, and wrote a ton of games for it as well. It actually was one of the first computers I learned how to code on. That one seems to be in immaculate condition. Basically, your video out hooked up to your TV, just like an old Atari console. I had a cassette drive for mine and a speech synthesizer, so it could "talk" in a very odd digital voice. I remember that it did also have a modem available, but my parents wouldn't get it because they said "why would you want to connect to another computer?" Plus, nobody else I knew had one. Now, I run an IT company, build computers, and do coding all the time. I have even reprogrammed Windows 10... sans all the bugs and bloatware, plus many other features. But, it was all due to that machine right there. Still want to get one to add to my collection... mine died back in the 80s. Oh, one last thing, there was a magazine devoted to it, but I can't recall the name of it, and a catalog to buy all the games. Some where cartridges, but a lot also came on cassette. You should really check them out.
I remember the Domesday project. It 'toured' the schools in the area. Expanded BBC Master and a Laserdisc drive that looked so futuristic. There was a bit where you could walk around a virtual tour of a village or something, and it blew our minds. Then it was gone, and we were back to Granny's Garden and the RM Nimbus.
I had one given to me by my first boss, back in 1991 - it was our stocktaking/ordering computer. I sold it to Trash Converters, wish I hadn't *in some way* - but then... what ON EARTH would I use it for?
About all it's good for is running Infocom text adventures. It's all that'll work halfway well on the built-in screen.(I assume it might work with the monitors for the desktops? But even then the best you'll get it EGA)
Back in the late 80's I used to work at the Amstrad User Group. On the odd occasions we actually sold one of those portables we used to do a whole 24 hour "Soak test". Switch it on then check it was still on the next day.
It's great to ashes get sponsorships where nearly all his videos get claimed I don't want to see his channel disappear maybe consider a patreon ashens.
The "tube" on a BBC Micro allows the plugging in of extra processors. For instance, there was a tube interface device that contained the exact processor as the Micro and relegated the one in the computer to a co-processor that handled I/O, and sped up the machine considerably, since the CPU didn't have to check I/O states all the time. You could even get a 68000 for it later on, if I remember rightly.
I recall the annoyance from users who bought the Amstrad CPC664, that it was only available for 6 months before being replaced by the CPC6128 with twice the RAM. Fondly remembered, the CPC6128 was the first computer I owned that _didn't_ have some glaring deficiency such as low resolution and rubbish BASIC (Dragon), or graphics that used up all the RAM (Acorn Electron).
Being 16-bit is not really about "running slower" or "running faster"; that will depend on clock speed. It's about how much memory it can address and how wide the CPU registers are. The memory bus width also influences speed (because a wider bus can transfer more data in the same number of cycles), but being "16-bit" was mainly about being able to use _more_ RAM.
The company I worked for bought a CCP 640 and it was hardly ever used as it was crap, we also ha a QL but the microdrives where always screwing up. ST stood for Sam Tramiel the Atari owner.
If memory serves, the TI machines used TI’s own microprocessor that had almost no on-board registers but instead used blocks of memory as big, versatile, and rather slow sets of registers. More interesting than practical...
The reason the TI-99/4 did not take off in britain apart from terrible performance it came with a monitor as it would not work on UK TV at first and cost around £1,000. The Tube on the BBC Master was used to connect a 6502 second processor
My boyfriend managed to find his old TI-99/4A today, actually, and spent the better part of the afternoon repairing it. We dunno if it works, and we know that there's a damaged key in it, but it does turn on, so that's good. Hope he can get it up and running; he was literally making simple programs on it at 3 years old, and even has the voice synthesizer unit for it, so that's all funky.
3:53 to skip the selling out EDIT: the selling out bit was a joke. I thought we could all be mature adults and understand that. Apparently not. I have no problem with Ashens accepting sponsorships.
ah yes, earning money to live is "selling out" idiot... Also who in the right mind would turn down a sum of money for just spending a few mins talking about something
Didn't scroll through the comments to check, but surely I can't be alone in thinking 'Fujitsu Ten Car Marty' has very similar energy to 'Antonio Stella Bottom Tile'.
The 'tube' was a light pen, BBC would send programs across the air on the TV, You'd stick the 'tube' over the area in the top corner and it would record the program. You could then run it. It was a flashing dot in a black circle I think.
'Tube' on the BBC was like an intranet, well more like a remote desktop used for schools, the teacher could connect to any students computer to assist with learning (That's what i understand, i may be wrong)
I had a Ti-99 4a when I was young. I have fond memories of Mash, Chisholm Trail, Hunt the Wumpus, Parsec, and Microsurgeon. If you can get your hands on the speech synthesizer, Mash and Parsec have actually some clear speech. Which was pretty crazy for the time. Also of note the expansions all sort of daisy chain off that port on the right hand side of the system.
Great video Ashens. I love the vintage computer videos. Keep doinG paid promotions . Do what you gotta do to keep making vids. People keep mis-using the term selling out any time anyone makes money. Like are they mad you're not working for free? your videos are worth watching a little paid promotion. We love you Ashens.
Also, I kinda wonder how many Doctor Who jokes the BBC received over the fact that they named one of their computers the "Master." I wouldn't be surprised if they, at one point, had to issue a statement clarifying that they weren't gonna make a "BBC Doctor."
Sucks you're having to do ads now but I'm hoping most people don't take it too badly, I know this is what a lot of RU-vidrs have to do to make their money now in any reasonable manner.
Sam T It's not about the app, it's about the sponsorship. If there was even ONE thing that was said during the sponsorship to make you use snupps, then the money going towards Stuart would have been earned. But to each his own.
I am sure you feel much better for pointing out something which: # Immediately outs you as someone extremely superficial and tactless. # Immediately shows us what kind of people to IGNORE in life, lest we should take their unnecessary comments to heart.
