30 Jun
2014
30 Jun
'14
8:53 a.m.
On 30 June 2014 16:22, Marc Howard <cramcram at gmail.com> wrote:
"There was absolutely no way to actually get into
the innards of the
machine as the BASIC had no peek or poke commands... and CERTAINLY no
way to write even basic assembler routines..."
Actually there was an assembler cartridge (
http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/software/s_carts/editor.html); I actually
owned one. My reason for getting it was different however. I had build at
TMS9900 computer from scratch in 1976 but I didn't have a real assembler
for it. However since I didn't have a good way of moving binary files from
the 99/4 to the 9900 it wasn't of much use.
I stand corrected... I guess, kind of. Yeah. I knew you could get an
assembler for it... or you could pop in a extended BASIC cartridge.
I'm not sure when they became available... and I'm not sure, but I
think the assembler cartridge required a disk drive, therefore it
required the big expansion thing.
Of course, my personal problem with all this is that my dad wasn't
going to buy all that stuff, after spending the best part of $1000 on
a computer in 1979/80. If I could have talked him into the Apple //,
he would have probably gotten a disk drive and spent way more money.
of course, in theory, you could do stuff deep in the heart of an Apple
without a disk drive... if you were insane enough to hand assemble it
or use the mini assembler. At least you could peek and poke things
without having to buy extra stuff. (:
Unless you wanted floating point, of course. Anyway, the thing was
clunky and slow out of the box.
--
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