30 Jun
2014
30 Jun
'14
12:43 a.m.
On 30 June 2014 05:36, Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> wrote:
Of all the computers and accessories I've pulled out of attics,
garages, storage units and hoarder's dungeons - and there have been
many - the TI-99/4a is by far the one I've found most often complete
and in the box. That should tell you something about its popularity.
Perhaps that people played with it for a few weeks, and dumped it in
their closet? (;
Those things were *dumped* on the market, massively below cost. I
remember you could get one for about $150. That computer was a
massive disaster for TI, and one of their own making.
That said, I think the 4a + PEB makes an interesting
system. You
can't say TI didn't build the PEB and its enormous expansion cards as
robust and solid as their more professional lines.
I'm sure that's true. A friend of mine had a 4A and that huge
expansion card cage, full of cards, and the system they had made a
very reasonable computer. A 99/4, without the big expansion box,
wasn't very useful... unless you wanted to play games of cartridges,
like Terry points out. It was, bascally, a video game system with a
keyboard. The games were pretty good.
You could also type about a bit and write some simple BASIC programs.
I mean, that's great. It wasn't what I wanted as a kid, I wanted to
be able to get into the machine and hack about with it. Maybe write
something in assembler or whatever. It's just the wrong computer to
do that, unless you spend a ton of money. That wasn't really my idea
of what a computer should be... at the time.
I'm not here to bash old systems, or be nasty to people who care about
them... at all. I'd love to have a TI to play with... I'd want the
expansion cage and the extended BASIC and all the rest.
And like almost all home computers, there is still a
loyal "scene" for
it out there. In fact, the annual TI Worlds Faire is right here in
the Chicago area: http://www.chicagotiug.com/tiki-index.php
That's really cool. I'll check it out.
--
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems: "The Future Begins Tomorrow"
Visit us at: http://www.yoyodyne-propulsion.net
--------
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this
sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." -- Jonathan
Swift