I noticed Lubbock TX on the shipping label. Mine was a hand me down from Dallas. This makes me wonder, how far from TI did these things go? Worldwide I'm sure, but I'm the only person I can think of that even knows what this is. Just a thought, meaningless as it may be. lol
@myclanders I can relate to that. At the time, I knew only like 3 other people that had a TI-99, which is actually a lot. I lived in a small town near New Orleans, and when I got that little Speech Synthesizer parcel in the mail from Lubbock, TX, it felt like the most delightful thing a kid of age 12 could get!
My grandparents found one of these the other day and mailed it to me as a Christmas present. They told me that they were going to do it, but what they didn't tell me is that it has its original box. That box is now on display in my room, and the computer itself is hooked up to the TV.
Mine is a later model than yours- it's plastic instead of metal.
@Segasaturn95 good fortune! I have run across the plastic ones here and there, very cool. You'll notice mine had a replacement beige keyboard, like the plastic case systems, instead of its original black keyboard with white letters.
I programmed a pretty fun 2 player TRON game with the Extend Basic module. Even used the joysticks for input. My TI99/4A ended up in an university biochemics lab, where I wrote a short programm to calculate a formula, so the students didn't have to do it manually all the time. It even played ride of the valkyries and showed a dancing stickman when printing the result :)
what a brilliant machine. i used to go to mi mates house all da time just to play games on it . . . and by the way Dave if you're out there : No you didnt beat me at Pacman.
Great video! I scored one at the local goodwill along with the recorder, both great condition in their boxes. Also grabbed a TI-99 to rca cable off goodwill, can't wait to start messing around with it!
@ionmyke Good luck and have fun! The 99 was a unique and charming morsel of home computing for its time. Admittedly, it's hard to keep a system so large set up in one place for any extended period of time. I just got Puchicon (BASIC programming language) on my 3DS, and it takes me right back to those days of making funny little blocky games and animations on the TI.
@tonstad39 Technically, the 99/4 was introduced in 1979, yes, but this one, the 99/4A, came out two years later. Whichever model you might have had, I hope it made for an enjoyable time.
@theincrediblepeep It certainly did (the 4A), and I spent loads of hours entering all those programs contained in the books and binders that came in with the 4A, only to loose everything again once i switched it off as I hadn't yet adquired the cassette recorder, let alone the peripheral box and synth. I loved it in all it's cyan screen glory! It's build quality was phenomenal.
@theincrediblepeep TI came up with a cut-down beige version of the 4A a few months afterwards, but it was a dying breed unfourntunately and in Canada at least, it was becomming hard to get accesseries, etc.
Wow watching your video brought back memories of my childhood! Had this instead the Commodore or the Atari as my parents wanted me to play games in which I can actually do some learning at the same time. Thanks for this gift to the world!
I am going to be getten a ti99/4a system Real soon I ordered it on ebay but i dont know how to hook it up. Can someone help I went to the thirt store and brought an old tv to hook it up to
in the mid 80's i was playing parsec and hunt the wumpus! haha! oh and learning about sprites on TI extended basic #LOL. when i wasnt playing with the computer, i was riding my BMX bike haha
such a beautiful machine. I fondly recall mine as a kid. Of course, when i went to college, my parents sold it (along with tons of carts and speech processing) for probably 5 dollars at a garage sale. sigh. Now re-acquiring..
Just bought one on ebay today. Probably have it early next week. Your video has gotten me jazzed up and I wish it was here now. Vintage computers are getting pricey these days.
we had a TI Speak and Spell when the 99/4a came out so, when my dad got the computer for us, we named it TI2 as the TI SnS was refered to as TI1. He told us if we wanted a game we had to first wright the code. Never the less, I became the MunchMan pro. In order to be fair, if you died in game you would have to play musical chairs for the next kid to play. Has anyone seen level 40 on Munchman?, I know it rolls over at lvl 20, but it does keep going faster. Parsec was another favorite.
Munch Man and Car Wars were a staple of my youth. I also remember some sort of math teaching program - which is why I did so well in differential equations!! (yeah right).
LCD's make excellent monitors for the 99/4a! Just to let you know.. to further make the 99/4a more like a 21st century machine from the depths of time, you can also get an RS232 to USB cable and do amazing stuff! I am in the process of restoring 3000 programs I once had with my 4A. This thing is built to last! You can also use 3.5 inch drives to replace the 5.25, but why would u? Well, how about 2880 sectors per disk?
Love your video! Just bought a working Ti99/4A and wondered if I could hook it up a flat screen tv. As your video indicated it can. What inputs does it go into on the tv? Thanks!
The TI 99 comes with its own RF modulator that has two U-shaped leads that connect to the TV (as you would connect an old fashioned rabbit-ear antenna). Newer TVs only have coaxial input -- essentially the same thing -- and it is a matter of connecting one lead to the collar and the other to the tip. There are some "converters" out there, but you could make your own conversion by splicing a small coax cable shielding and core each to one of the leads of the RF modulator. Good luck!
@theincrediblepeep I have a bunch of cables, but I am not sure if I am missing something... Just got a whole setup with cables, booklet, and ref. cards, but I don't know how to hook it up. It has a box that says channel 3/4 with one brown plug similar to an RCA connector, but it's a female end.
Awesome! I remember programming my own games from a booklet that came with it. We couldn't save the files to anything so each time we had to start over. :( I seem to remember we had it hooked up to a tape recorded of some time?
Also had a game cartidge but it had to run in tandem with the tape deck? It was some type of text game? I could only play through one side of it and then it asked me to swtich the tape, but it would never work. Loved this thing back when I was small child.
So I noticed you have swapped out the keyboard. When did you do it? I am in the process of swapping mine out too, I just wish I could find a black keyboard but the beige one only cost $5.
Good catch! I took my TI on a road trip around 1985, and when I got to the destination, one of the keys on the original black keyboard didn't work anymore. I was stunned to find they had replacement keyboards at Radio Shack at the time, and I was able to swap it out with very little trouble. Similar to your experience, all they had was the beige ones.
Nice video. I have a question though. I have come across the chance to get a TI-99/4A with speech synth, Expansion box like the one you have, Controllers, expander to hold 3 carts at once, software and games and all the hookup for it plus some other things with it all for Free, and there is nothing wrong with it at all. Would you consider this a good deal and would you take the offer if it was you. The reason I ask is the fact I already have a Atari 7800, Though it did notice it has moonpatrol.
I'll take it if you don't want it. =) Let me know where to send money. hehe... but yea, you'd be stupid to let it go for free. If you get it and don't want it, I'll buy it from you
Thank you for the response, I have not gotten it yet. I meet the person who is getting rid of it at college and he said he would bring it to me before the end of the semester. so sometime before may.
Well it sounds like a great little setup, and well, you can't beat free. The 3-cart expander that you talked about is quite an interesting piece; I remember seeing it for sale in the old Triton catalogs back in the day!
Thank you for the quick response. I have another question though about a different computer. I have been thinking about getting a Atari computer I can not decide between the 1200XL,800XL or the Atari 1040ST what is you opinion. Thank you for your time.
It is the standard Texas Instruments disk controller. When I got the peripheral expansion box in 1996 or whenever, it came with 32k expansion and RS232 interface as well. The interface contacts are getting a little worn, so like yesterday when I tried to get the RS232 interface to work, I had to pull the card out and put it back in.
I used an LCD monitor that has a built-in TV tuner, so after getting putting the RF to coax adapter, I was able to connect it using the RF modulator that came with the TI. Being 28 or so years old, the plastic around the RF wires has become very fragile!
I had to load/save programs on the cassette recorder. I remember if you screwed up the counter-clock, you had to rewind the tape, reset the counter-clock to 0, and fast-forward again to where you saved your program!
There were a few adventure-type games you could order on cassette - wish I knew what happened to those!
Loved this machine. Used to do simple programming on it from the old computer magazines when I was 9. Pretty elegant design for the time, too lol.
slapdaddy1234 3 weeks ago
I noticed Lubbock TX on the shipping label. Mine was a hand me down from Dallas. This makes me wonder, how far from TI did these things go? Worldwide I'm sure, but I'm the only person I can think of that even knows what this is. Just a thought, meaningless as it may be. lol
myclanders 1 month ago
@myclanders I can relate to that. At the time, I knew only like 3 other people that had a TI-99, which is actually a lot. I lived in a small town near New Orleans, and when I got that little Speech Synthesizer parcel in the mail from Lubbock, TX, it felt like the most delightful thing a kid of age 12 could get!
theincrediblepeep 1 month ago
My grandparents found one of these the other day and mailed it to me as a Christmas present. They told me that they were going to do it, but what they didn't tell me is that it has its original box. That box is now on display in my room, and the computer itself is hooked up to the TV.
Mine is a later model than yours- it's plastic instead of metal.
Segasaturn95 2 months ago
@Segasaturn95 good fortune! I have run across the plastic ones here and there, very cool. You'll notice mine had a replacement beige keyboard, like the plastic case systems, instead of its original black keyboard with white letters.
theincrediblepeep 1 month ago
Dislikes?
Really?
Good work.
jimhale777 2 months ago
Thanks for the videos and the memories.......... But how does it feel to have wasted your Youth on the TI994A?!
c64 for life BIT*H!!!!!
resmediamarketing 2 months ago
@resmediamarketing Ah, I've spent a little time behind the Commodore 64 as well. I didn't own it myself, so... my bonus points revoked. :)
theincrediblepeep 1 month ago
The good Ole Days... I remember hours writing programming codes for that bad boy... Fun
diballn804 3 months ago
I programmed a pretty fun 2 player TRON game with the Extend Basic module. Even used the joysticks for input. My TI99/4A ended up in an university biochemics lab, where I wrote a short programm to calculate a formula, so the students didn't have to do it manually all the time. It even played ride of the valkyries and showed a dancing stickman when printing the result :)
blueybean 6 months ago
5 1/4"? I just bought some 8" floppies. Pretty nifty :P
KkF00 7 months ago
Love the vid. Mine would lock up after a few hours from heat build up. Too bad they didn't put fans on them...
Thanks for the memory.
jimhale777 9 months ago
what a brilliant machine. i used to go to mi mates house all da time just to play games on it . . . and by the way Dave if you're out there : No you didnt beat me at Pacman.
bopkick5 9 months ago
Great video! I scored one at the local goodwill along with the recorder, both great condition in their boxes. Also grabbed a TI-99 to rca cable off goodwill, can't wait to start messing around with it!
ionmyke 9 months ago
@ionmyke Good luck and have fun! The 99 was a unique and charming morsel of home computing for its time. Admittedly, it's hard to keep a system so large set up in one place for any extended period of time. I just got Puchicon (BASIC programming language) on my 3DS, and it takes me right back to those days of making funny little blocky games and animations on the TI.
theincrediblepeep 1 month ago
Mr Bojangles, anyone?! LOL
den2003 10 months ago
@den2003 Who could forget that favorite of favorites, TI's 8x8 little man, walking his pixel legs into the home computing hall of fame.
theincrediblepeep 1 month ago
Love the juxtaposition of seeing your 4A connected to a lcd monitor! What's with the white keyboard on your 4A, BTW?
den2003 10 months ago
Actualy it was 1979 when it was invented
tonstad39 10 months ago
@tonstad39 Technically, the 99/4 was introduced in 1979, yes, but this one, the 99/4A, came out two years later. Whichever model you might have had, I hope it made for an enjoyable time.
theincrediblepeep 10 months ago
@theincrediblepeep It certainly did (the 4A), and I spent loads of hours entering all those programs contained in the books and binders that came in with the 4A, only to loose everything again once i switched it off as I hadn't yet adquired the cassette recorder, let alone the peripheral box and synth. I loved it in all it's cyan screen glory! It's build quality was phenomenal.
den2003 10 months ago
@theincrediblepeep TI came up with a cut-down beige version of the 4A a few months afterwards, but it was a dying breed unfourntunately and in Canada at least, it was becomming hard to get accesseries, etc.
den2003 10 months ago
Comment removed
den2003 2 weeks ago
Wow watching your video brought back memories of my childhood! Had this instead the Commodore or the Atari as my parents wanted me to play games in which I can actually do some learning at the same time. Thanks for this gift to the world!
MrXon 10 months ago
I am going to be getten a ti99/4a system Real soon I ordered it on ebay but i dont know how to hook it up. Can someone help I went to the thirt store and brought an old tv to hook it up to
rodjterry123 11 months ago
in the mid 80's i was playing parsec and hunt the wumpus! haha! oh and learning about sprites on TI extended basic #LOL. when i wasnt playing with the computer, i was riding my BMX bike haha
worldtravel101 1 year ago
such a beautiful machine. I fondly recall mine as a kid. Of course, when i went to college, my parents sold it (along with tons of carts and speech processing) for probably 5 dollars at a garage sale. sigh. Now re-acquiring..
sonick808 1 year ago
Just bought one on ebay today. Probably have it early next week. Your video has gotten me jazzed up and I wish it was here now. Vintage computers are getting pricey these days.
satanicmechanic86 1 year ago
we had a TI Speak and Spell when the 99/4a came out so, when my dad got the computer for us, we named it TI2 as the TI SnS was refered to as TI1. He told us if we wanted a game we had to first wright the code. Never the less, I became the MunchMan pro. In order to be fair, if you died in game you would have to play musical chairs for the next kid to play. Has anyone seen level 40 on Munchman?, I know it rolls over at lvl 20, but it does keep going faster. Parsec was another favorite.
PauliesCustoms 1 year ago
Man I would love a peripheral exspansion unit-they are rare here in the uk
SPFXsynthesisers 1 year ago
Munch Man and Car Wars were a staple of my youth. I also remember some sort of math teaching program - which is why I did so well in differential equations!! (yeah right).
m015094 1 year ago
i remember my memories :-)
songsforeveryone 1 year ago
LCD's make excellent monitors for the 99/4a! Just to let you know.. to further make the 99/4a more like a 21st century machine from the depths of time, you can also get an RS232 to USB cable and do amazing stuff! I am in the process of restoring 3000 programs I once had with my 4A. This thing is built to last! You can also use 3.5 inch drives to replace the 5.25, but why would u? Well, how about 2880 sectors per disk?
Nadav34 1 year ago
Love your video! Just bought a working Ti99/4A and wondered if I could hook it up a flat screen tv. As your video indicated it can. What inputs does it go into on the tv? Thanks!
tgaskill 1 year ago
The TI 99 comes with its own RF modulator that has two U-shaped leads that connect to the TV (as you would connect an old fashioned rabbit-ear antenna). Newer TVs only have coaxial input -- essentially the same thing -- and it is a matter of connecting one lead to the collar and the other to the tip. There are some "converters" out there, but you could make your own conversion by splicing a small coax cable shielding and core each to one of the leads of the RF modulator. Good luck!
theincrediblepeep 1 year ago
@theincrediblepeep Thanks!, just got the ol' Ti working on the flat screen. Looks great!
tgaskill 1 year ago
@theincrediblepeep I have a bunch of cables, but I am not sure if I am missing something... Just got a whole setup with cables, booklet, and ref. cards, but I don't know how to hook it up. It has a box that says channel 3/4 with one brown plug similar to an RCA connector, but it's a female end.
illkillyoubitch 7 months ago
@illkillyoubitch oh the guy said 15 bucks for me, but I gave him 20 since I thought it was a great deal.
illkillyoubitch 7 months ago
4:55 Good composition!
mrmikerotch 1 year ago
loved the ti-99 4a it was my first computer
upyr1 1 year ago
I was playing my ti-99 4a
upyr1 1 year ago
great video!
cathplyr 1 year ago
Awesome! I remember programming my own games from a booklet that came with it. We couldn't save the files to anything so each time we had to start over. :( I seem to remember we had it hooked up to a tape recorded of some time?
Also had a game cartidge but it had to run in tandem with the tape deck? It was some type of text game? I could only play through one side of it and then it asked me to swtich the tape, but it would never work. Loved this thing back when I was small child.
Odseus 1 year ago
So I noticed you have swapped out the keyboard. When did you do it? I am in the process of swapping mine out too, I just wish I could find a black keyboard but the beige one only cost $5.
snume 1 year ago
Good catch! I took my TI on a road trip around 1985, and when I got to the destination, one of the keys on the original black keyboard didn't work anymore. I was stunned to find they had replacement keyboards at Radio Shack at the time, and I was able to swap it out with very little trouble. Similar to your experience, all they had was the beige ones.
theincrediblepeep 1 year ago
loved it!
achaney 2 years ago
Check out my youtube videos for the TI-99/4a. I've got 30 or so. GREAT VIDEO HERE MAN. =) Glad to see you getting the ol' TI out. =)
Opry99er 2 years ago
Nice video. I have a question though. I have come across the chance to get a TI-99/4A with speech synth, Expansion box like the one you have, Controllers, expander to hold 3 carts at once, software and games and all the hookup for it plus some other things with it all for Free, and there is nothing wrong with it at all. Would you consider this a good deal and would you take the offer if it was you. The reason I ask is the fact I already have a Atari 7800, Though it did notice it has moonpatrol.
ATARI800XLfan 2 years ago
I'll take it if you don't want it. =) Let me know where to send money. hehe... but yea, you'd be stupid to let it go for free. If you get it and don't want it, I'll buy it from you
Opry99er 2 years ago
hey hows it going with your new ti994a ???
bopkick5 2 years ago
Thank you for the response, I have not gotten it yet. I meet the person who is getting rid of it at college and he said he would bring it to me before the end of the semester. so sometime before may.
ATARI800XLfan 2 years ago
Well it sounds like a great little setup, and well, you can't beat free. The 3-cart expander that you talked about is quite an interesting piece; I remember seeing it for sale in the old Triton catalogs back in the day!
theincrediblepeep 2 years ago
Thank you for the quick response. I have another question though about a different computer. I have been thinking about getting a Atari computer I can not decide between the 1200XL,800XL or the Atari 1040ST what is you opinion. Thank you for your time.
ATARI800XLfan 2 years ago
Unfortunately, I won't be of very good help with your Atari question. The only Atari I ever spent time at was the Atari 2600. A lot of time.
theincrediblepeep 2 years ago
@ATARI800XLfan Get an Atari XEGS. Cool looking (and different looking) computer.
slugnbozo 1 year ago
What kind of disk controller do you have in the PEBOX?
Nadav34 2 years ago
It is the standard Texas Instruments disk controller. When I got the peripheral expansion box in 1996 or whenever, it came with 32k expansion and RS232 interface as well. The interface contacts are getting a little worn, so like yesterday when I tried to get the RS232 interface to work, I had to pull the card out and put it back in.
theincrediblepeep 2 years ago
How did you set up an lcd screen? What do I need to use an lcd screen with my 99/4a?
Nadav34 2 years ago
I used an LCD monitor that has a built-in TV tuner, so after getting putting the RF to coax adapter, I was able to connect it using the RF modulator that came with the TI. Being 28 or so years old, the plastic around the RF wires has become very fragile!
theincrediblepeep 2 years ago
A true TI dream system. I never could afford the disk drive. Course I was only 12 at the time. Thanks for making the video!
NewChannels 2 years ago
No expansion box for me either!
I had to load/save programs on the cassette recorder. I remember if you screwed up the counter-clock, you had to rewind the tape, reset the counter-clock to 0, and fast-forward again to where you saved your program!
There were a few adventure-type games you could order on cassette - wish I knew what happened to those!
dbodiford 2 years ago