A while back I took a look at a TI-99/4A computer that was donated to me. In this video I finally get around to trying out some games, graciously loaned to me by a viewer. Enjoy, and don't forget how to do the "Alligator Mix"!
Yeah he needs to re do parsec and use the keyboard not the controller. when it would talk to you and say "great shot captain" was awesome back then. Also I seem to remember playing standard attari cartridges as well.
Whoever that was must've been a bit bias, because the Gameboy has some of the best games on it. Like "legend of zelda link's awakening" and my only complaint with the brick is that the screen was hard to see. Other than that, it was small (compared to the competition) had a fantastic battery life, and a headphone jack for true stereo! Also, tetris.
That startup screen always reminded me of the cover on a pack of construction paper. It had the same bars of color and it always made me feel like the TI-99 was just raw material you could make anything on. Then you look at that cartridge slot that is 3 times bigger than any cartridge and I am just like, nope. LOL
Moon Mine, Alpiner, Parsec and some others supported the speech synthesizer. Moon Mine is a pretty much endless game. Once in a while you have to send your guy out to retrieve something and get back before a critter shows up. It will say "Zygonaut approaching" then that ball thing shows up and says either "You'll never get me!" or "Ha ha ha ha!", which I'm pretty certain was recorded and used for Dr. Goldfire in the DOS game "Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold". He's popping in and out on the boss level, alternating between those two sayings. TMS9918A had a resolution of 256x192. 15 colors plus transparent. 32 sprites with vector motion control independent of direct CPU control. Essentially "fire and forget", they keep moving until the program code does something to change the motion. Maximum of 4 sprites on the same line, IIRC if you want to have 8 sprites in a row you'd stagger 4 of them up or down one pixel. The 5th+ sprite wasn't visible, not just to the eyes but also to software. This bug was described as a difficulty enhancing feature in "Chisholm Trail". The VDP had several display modes but no true bitmap mode. The 8x8 pixel character blocks were divided into 8x1 pixel rows, each of which could have two colors. This made drawing programs pretty crappy. Sound chip was TI's own SN76489, originally designed for the 99/4. With three square wave tone generators and one noise generator that can do white or periodic noise it or clones or other TI made versions were used in the PCjr, various Tandy PC clones and Sega game consoles. The TI had a most odd RAM arrangement. The CPU could only directly address 256 bytes of RAM. The 16 kilobytes was all VDP RAM and what wasn't used for the video display was where program code got stored. With any of the TI and 3rd party BASICs, the powerful CPU was essentially serving as a data shuffler for the VDP. Assembly language was where the TI shined. Well written 9900 assembly programs could be super fast as more efficient methods of CPU access to the VDP RAM were available, and the 32K expansion was also a big help. With assembly the 256 bytes of CPU RAM could be used for things like rapidly switchable pointers. There's a maze game that can have from one to a pretty large number of levels and level switching is instant thanks to assembly language and using CPU RAM to best advantage. Many of the cartridges from TI, especially the educational ones (especially the ones with 1970's copyright dates) are "canned" console BASIC programs. That's why they're so slow, and the 1970's ones are the worst because they were made for the 99/4 instead of the 99/4A. The oddball design of these computers came about because TI was attempting to design a CPU specifically as a companion for their TMS9918 (no A) Video Display Processor. They developed a special language for the VDP called GPL (no, not GNU Public License) or Graphics Programming Language. When the GPL CPU project failed, TI had to Do Something so the SEC wouldn't get on their ass like they did all the while Mattel was failing to produce their home computer. So they did a hack to their 16 bit 9900 mini-computer CPU to shoehorn it into the 8 bit machine. But rather than Redo From Start a new programming language to take best advantage of the fancy CPU, they wrote a GPL to 9900 interpreter. So console BASIC is written in GPL. Programs get interpreted from BASIC to GPL then to 9900 code. TI Extended BASIC is not written in GPL, plus it uses tokenized commands to save RAM space. The console OS is in some GROM (Graphics Read Only Memory) chips and cartridges may have either GROM, ROM or both. Plus it's possible to add RAM (4K plus more with bank switching) to a cartridge. TI's "Mini Memory" had a battery and allowed simple assembly language programs to be written, compiled, and stored in the cartridge's RAM, but only one program at a time. But the most forward thinking aspect of the TI-99/4 and 4A is the peripheral expansion system. The console OS only knows about the hardware and interfaces contained in the console. For the expansion it has several "ports" in memory which get scanned when the computer is turned on. Peripherals have built in drivers, called Device Service Routines or DSRs. Without a floppy controller if you try to SAVE a BASIC program to DSK1 you get an error message because the OS knows nothing of such a device. But plug in a floppy controller and the OS is seamlessly extended with the code in the floppy DSR. TI had perfect Plug and Play. Unlike other microcomputers that tried to pack in all the peripheral support into the console firmware, the TI's expandability is unlimited, all one needs to do is write a DSR that can present the peripheral hardware to one of the ports and write software to use it. If you wanted to make a peripheral with some LEDs to blink and be able to operate them from BASIC the DSR could have devices called LED1, LED2 etc and commands to use them would be accessible to any BASIC, like CALL LED1 ON or CALL LED1 BLINK 2 or however you wanted to structure commands to turn on/off, blink etc. Could probably make a peripheral to control a bunch of neopixels.
Some of the games like alpiner were much better with the speech synthesizer module. In fact this actually was the same computer I learn to program basic on
Adventure is a text adventure game... the games were on cassettes... It gets warm because the PS is right under that cartridge slide. Parsec uses the speech synthesizer if you had one.... Extended basic has extra commands and a ram expansion
Donkey Kong on TI-99/4A has all the levels from the arcade but they're ordered weirdly. The first loop of the game only has the 25m and 100m levels, then the next loop adds the 75m level, and lastly the third loop adds the 50m (pie factory) level.
You need to release a record, a cassette and a cd with this instant hit and after some time newspaper headlines: "Alligator mix reached number one on the Billboard list and stayed for an incredible 421 weeks"
If you had a voice synthesizer some games like alpiner would talk to you! Fun fact, the synth has a door in the plastic originally for vocab expanders and maby different languages, bu it was never implemented and now there is just a random door as they could not afford to throw all those cases away! Also the intro in alpiner can be skipped by pressing a button for example the fire button on the joystick. An interesting addon for the ti is a big box called the "PEB; peripheral expansion box" and you can slot in cards for more ram, floppy drives and there is even a serial card that can be used with a terminal emulator cartridge! the cable coming out looks like a fire hose and the voice module has a passthrough for connecting the peb. I got a ti99 recently from a friend who got it and a broken one along with an osborne1 from another friend. Now i have 2 different types of 994a with one of them being broken, along with a crap ton of books, binders full of info and even a commodore monitor! There is something called the finalgrom99 that can have an sd card put into it so you can run nearly every game and program on the cartridge port + some modern test programs and games. I would have a look at it, could make a cool video!
Knew if I went far enough in the comments someone would tell him about Alpiner. I think one of the reasons that they never added the expansion port to the voice synth addon was that they added an extra chip, piggy-backed to the rom, in the addon, that contained all the allophones necessary to make all the words in the English language. Word packs were kinda pointless after that.
@@justin.campbell Had to go and look it up to make sure I was remembering right: The extra ROM is just additional words, to fully program the voice synth chip with all the allophones you need the Terminal Emulator II cartridge.
The "tape drive" for these things were just ordinary audio cassette recorders, preferably with a relay switch in the motor circuit so that the computer could use the relay to control the actual motor. You still had to set the "tape function" manually, but even Walmart's "shoebox" recorder seems to at least have the _jack_ (2.5 mm headphone, as opposed to normal 3.5) for the remote. If you can find the wiring (just needs the right DIN, two 3.5 mm, and one 2.5 mm), a relay (I've found them at auto part stores & "Tractor Supply" type places), + a diode for flyback protection on the coil, then you could probably make the entire thing in maybe 30 minutes.
The "remote" jack was a result cassette tapes originally being meant as dictation machines- if you don't have anything in the remote jack then it bridges the tip and sleeve connections, so you can either have nothing in it and have the machine work like we're all used to them working, or you can stick in a plug and connect the wires from the plug to an ordinary light switch or something. It was extremely simple, and you could basically make the remote control as cheap as you wanted.
A friend of mine gave me a new one in box a few years ago. Never got to run it thought because I didn't have the AV cable. Got the BASIC guide, software catalog with Bill Cosby, and the manual
@@fenikso It was a step above other home PCs, but the jack was also it's Achilles heel. The jack wasn't very robustly built and the wires inside the sleeve broke off too easily.
When I was a kid I learned to program on this sequential cassette tape...LOL. We had TI invaders, Donkey Kong, Parsec, Hunt the Wompus along with the speach module. I so loved this old CPU. Thanks for the video :)
By the way, I have two power supplies for these things and neither one has a plug built into the brick like yours does. Instead it has a cord coming out of the other end just like a Commodore's, which "ends" in a plug that's just, like, _welded_ onto an extension cord that has an inline mini-box that I'm told contains a fuse. The two power supplies came with a later cheapo beige TI and an original silver-and-black one, respectively, so I have no idea what era yours must be from.
My classmate Thomas got a fully kitted TI99 in 1985 with expansion box and floppys and all that jazz.. He returned it after a week and got a C64 like the rest of us. It was a system out in the margin already by 85. Fun video as always!
to have had space invaders on a home computer in early 80s would have been amazing!!! I used to play on table consoles at arcades along with kong and of course pinballs. my first job in 1983 we didn't have pc's just terminals hooked to a mainframe, giant printers that were placed their own cone of silence. That TI99/4A was advanced for its time is my geuss
My first computer was this one. The games I had back then were Munchman, TI Invaders, and Donkey Kong which ran just fine in my opinion. I also learned how to program in the Basic Language cause of the book included in the box. By my freshman year, my programming skills were more advanced than my fellow peers. My programs had movement, color, and sounds which the Apple 2E's at school could not do. My TI, and later, my Commodore 64, could do more than the Apple's at school. It was good time my life that eventually increased my desire to go to college and major in computer science.
And man is this video hitting me in the feelers. Had one growing up and when I would get in trouble my parents would take away all the games but I could use basic. I thought I was finding a workaround when I would program games to only realize that they were just letting me learn how to code
The big "landing pad" for the cartridge was designed to support a Multi-Tap device. It was a deck that could hold 6 cartridges vertically, with a switch on the side allowing you to jump from game to game. At least that's what little I remember about my TI-99/4A.
The TI-99/4A was TI's *second* foray into the home computer market. The first machine they released was the TI-99/4 which features a chicklet keyboard and no bitmap graphics.
Hi Ben, how are you? I am currently working on a pi4 handheld and was wondering if it’s possible to cut the pcb board in to bits to move the analogs and buttons and triggers to where I would like to place them, with out using the GPIO pins with lots of wires? Thank you
it's almost amazing how much better the Donkey Kong is than all the other games. It's the only one that really outdoes typical games on the very humble Speccy.
Ah fine memories of my childhood playing games on the TI99/4A. Munchman was a fun Pacman like game for the system. I still have the old TI computer and a bunch of carts(and a tape deck and speech synth) for it.
Gotta love how so many old games just used classical music for their soundtracks. I have one called _Jawbreaker II_ that uses Mozart's _Turkish March_ for the menu. I also had a Commodore 64 game called _Bristles_ that sampled a bunch of different pieces from the Nutcracker Suite.
My TI 99/4a is still up in my attic but I haven't looked at it in thirty five years. My favorite game was Parsec, but Alpiner, Frogger, Burger Time, Q*Bert, Miner 2049er, and Hunt the Wumpus were great fun too. The best thing about the TI 99/4a was its speech synthesizer which is still to this day better than any computer generated voice I have ever heard. I finally realized you don't have the speech synthesizer module plugged into the peripheral bus port. No wonder you didn't think Parsec was any good. My TI 99/4a was tricked out with everything but the tape drive which I didn't need since I had the Disc Drive and the Memory Extension modules. LOL I also had the analog modem for connections to archaic dial-up bulletin boards.
Blasto was the first game I ever played. The music made a big impression on me. My grandma told me it was a version of, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and explained what the Civil War was. I was about 5 or so.
The music on all those games seemed to be pretty good! Alligator Mix was my favourite, but it might not beat Fraction Muncher (I hate myself, but I just looked it up and it seems to be a real game). Why didn't you have your tape drive ready though ?! That Alligator Mix Outro was freaking amazing, I might use that as my new alarm sound or just general party song!
I owned a TI 99 4a in 1984. I only had four games for it. Amazing, a randomly generated mouse maze to escape with a lot of options from simple to complex maze, cat avoidance, and cheese collection goals, Ti Munchman, a very well done Pac Man clone, Pole Position, a very well made translation from the orignal arcade version, and Tombstone City. Tombstone City was fun but the difficulty ramped up quickly. The goal was to of course stop the aliens. You win each round by clearing all the aliens on the screen. Sounds simple but it was more complex than that. They would move around and you had to avoid touching them or die. While in the city you were safe as they couldn't enter it, but you ran the risk of being trapped inside. Why? Did you notice they turned into cactuses when shot? If you shoot an alien by a city exit, that path is blocked permanently. Block all the exits and you lose as you can't achieve your goal of killing them all. This forces you to go outside the city to attack the aliens who are constantly trying to get to you and time your shots well to avoid trapping yourself in cactuses. The strategy is to kill them all while staying alive, and don't allow yourself to be trapped inside the city or you can't kill all the aliens in the level. The TI Extended Basic cartridge wasn't to speed things up but to give you more powerful BASIC commands and allows for executing more than one command per line. I think the limit was four commands. This was very useful for making more efficient use of the amount of RAM you had giving room for more code. Some of the game carts could also doubled as RAM expansion. One of the carts I had I think added an additional 4k of RAM to my PC. The catch is you can only have one cart at a time so it was useless with the Expanded Basic cart.
My brother has substantial developmental disabilities (he lives in a 24-hour staffed group home), but he played Amazing SO MUCH, that he could finish a simple maze in 3.7 seconds!
Hey Ben Heck Hacks do you know anything about the Sony SMC-777, its bascially like a japanese pc made by sony and its very rare. If you do please do a review on the Sony Smc-777 for everyone
Man, I had one of these back in the very early 90s. My dad found it on the side of the road with a bunch of accessories. Sadly, he threw out most of the accessories, but kept the computer, the monitor, and the cartridges. I was too broke to afford any modern games, like NES, so this thing held me down and it was alright. The games were EXTREMELY basic, though. I had cat and mouse, soccer, and I cant remember what else.
Once I played BLASTO on the highest density. One particular screen came up extra dense. (I had been playing a while.) I twitched and shot without thinking. The entire screen cleared in ONE SHOT. Never duplicated it.
Parsec is a great game, way better if you have the speech synthesizer. I still have my TI along with all my games, joysticks, speech synthesizer and tape drive cable.
Parsec had synthesized voices if you had the voice synthesizer connected. Blasto was meant more as a two player game making it more of a cross between combat and bomberman. I always liked Hunt the Wumpus though. Also the M.A.S.H. game was decent or at least I played a ton of it in my youth.
There was a separate floppy drive bay for that system that allows you to play basic games etc off the floppy. So for an atari-like computer, it was really only limited by the willingness of the software developers to make software for it. Nice to know that it was most similar to a Colecovision or similar. My dad had a Star Trek game for floppy/Basic on it that was decent. You had to blow up Klingons with photon torpedoes.
Hi Ben, I know it's a big ask, but when you mentioned the MSX Computer, I thought it would be great too see you do a build of the Omega MSX2 kit. How about it? :-)
This used a TMS9919. Later it used a SN94624, which is identical to the SN76489 that was used by many other systems such as the Colecovision, IBM PCjr and the Sega Genesis (used as a secondary sound chip)