The TI-99/4A Home Computer. Who's used this bad boy? (youtube)

C

C_A

CAGiversary!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S4k2g6Mm1Q[/media]

Had over 130 game cartridges. A long forgotten powerhouse 16-bit, 16 color system.
 
I used a Commodore 64 for a footrest. I bought it at a Goodwill and the damn thing didn't have an AC adapter. :(

I threw it away about eight years ago before moving away from Florida but I probably should give that system a go sometime.
 
Wow that's a pretty powerful system for (very) early 80's...

I love those nostalgic computer commercials... they're always all about "home finances," and "help you with your diet" because when you've got about 3mHz of power, that's about all you can do.
 
I had one. My parents bought it for christmas in 83 when they were about to stop manufacturing the machine. I was in 3rd grade at the time. I had all sort of stuff for it.

I had the joysticks, the speech synthesizer, I had a ton of games like parsec, munchman, car wars, hunt the wumpus and a bunch of other educational titles and I also had the a tape recorder to save off basic programs that I typed in basic, plus I had the extended basic cartridge.

Man, the memories :)
 
This was my first computer when i was about 7 or 8.....at 10 i got a c64 and at 13 got an apple IIe.

Lots of fond memories....even had the speach synth.
(Ah 4ty-----sounded like farty....oh the giggles commenced)
 
We dad had an Atari 800, and I owned a Commodore 64, and later an Atari ST.

I saw these in stores, but as a little kid, I never could get one. Plus, I thought the Vic-20 was cooler for some strange reason.

Anyone remember the Timex-Sinclair, or the Tandy Color Computer?

Ah, the days of using graph paper to design sprites!
 
I have one sitting in my closet at the moment. My grandparents bought one for my family as a Christmas present around the time that TI was ending production. Most of the games I have for it are educational, with the exception of Parsec and Pole Position.

Every so often I will hook it up and play around with it. Parsec is still a great game and using it with the speech synthesizer is a lot of fun.
 
It looks like, from the tech demo posted above, that this system would destroy even the later arriving C64 and various Apple models...

Maybe the video demo was just well put together but it's certainly got (much) better sound and graphics than our families mid 80's IBM PC XT and AT. 33mHz baby... and when you get that TURBO switch your hair would blow back with the raw hot fucking power of 66mHz.

God, all I wanted was a freakin' Amiga, and I never got one. I was fairly inconsolable until this little Origin's game you might have heard of called Wing Commander came out and we got a soundblaster card. Then I was a-ok with our PC.
 
I had one. It was like a 2600 and a IIc all in one. Chisolm Trail...I still remember that game. I wish I could pick one up for free.
 
my father had one...used to be a treat when he would let me play some games on it, i loved Hunt the Wumpus (i think that was the title)
 
My uncle had one and eventually gave it to me. We used to like playing Munch Man on it. I really don't remember what I did with it though.
 
I had an Atari 800 back in the day. Some of my favorite games back then were:

Zork (any of the Infocom games really), LucasArts Rescue on Fractalus, Lode Runner, Blue Max, Karateka, Necromancer, Bruce Lee, Boulder Dash...there are tons more. I do remember 'Hunt the Wampus' which Darkside H mentioned.
 
Over this past summer I aquired the Commodore 64, a Ti-99, an Atari 800XL and some other Atari and TI computers. I even got the voice synthesuzer for the TI-99. I just cant get that thing to work though.

Over all I think that all the old computers are infinitly cool. I even got a drawing pad thing for the Atari. Hell yeah! I was drawing pictures all over the damn screen! Woo!
 
My family got one for Christmas from my uncle. I think I was around 3 ('81). Good times:
- Programming stuff in BASIC was super easy, and allowed even for a young kid to mess around. I love how you'd type "goodbye" to go back to the main menu.
- I think it used typical serial controllers, so they were easy to find. We also used the speech synthesizer and a cassette drive. I remember the 300 seconds of odd noises as my TI booted up a cassette game.
- Some of the games we had: Dig Dug, Parsec, some text-based Pirate game, Tunnels of Doom, Hunt The Wumpus, TI Invaders (Space Invaders), Munch Man (awesome Pac-Man clone), Super Demon Attack, Defender, Picnic Paranoia, A-Maze-Ing, some kiddie math games, and Shamus.
- At least one of my folks' friends had it, too. We played Alpiner over there sometimes.

I played Tunnels of Doom on some TI emulator a while back. Still a great dungeon-crawler. I'll always have a soft spot for my first computer/game system.
 
I'll do you all one better: I have one hooked up to a TV right now! I never had one as a kid, but my cousins had one and we would love playing awesome games like Alpiner, Parsec, TI Invaders, Fathom, Tombstone City, etc etc. All of those still hold up well today by the way. There were a ton of educational games, but somehow we didn't play those too often! We also did some BASIC programming and saved via audiotapes...wow.

You should be able to get one of these pretty cheap if interested. I got mine with a ton of extra stuff, great condition, from Goodwill a few years ago for under $20. Most of the games are very cheap, a la Atari VCS games, and there are a fair number of these around. The speech module is a must, especially playing Alpiner ("Getting tired already?" "Great move, sport!").
 
[quote name='yukine']Check this site out: http://www.videogamehouse.net/gamemain.html

It reviews many of those TI-99 games, and also has sound clips as well as some screenshots.[/QUOTE]

Oh man, this kicks ass. Thanks!

[quote name='ViolentLee']Another good TI site: http://www.harmlesslion.com/cgi-bin/showprog.cgi?search=Classic99[/QUOTE]


Yeah, I downloaded Classic99. The titles included are very limited and I don't know if any other site actually carries ROMs for the other games. I won't look though.

Also no speech synthesizer emulation. Blarr
 
I learned how to program in basic on this machine by typing in programs from library basic programming books. Eventually, I earned enough money to buy my own 99'er magazine subscription.

I made decent clones of frogger, moon patrol, and dig dug after my dad finally sprung for the extended basic cart, but damn, they ran pretty slow. It took almost as long to play a game as it did to load one from audio tape. I always dreamed of owning a disk drive...
 
My friend had a TI-99. We used to play Burgertime, Moon Patrol, and a few others whose names I can't recall. I remember going over there and being really pissed if my friend wanted to play Moon Patrol, because I hated that POS game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top