Texas Instruments TI-99

[GWhiz99]

Me: a middle school student when this 1980s Texas Instruments commercial with Bill Cosby shilling for the TI-99 computer aired. Never athletic or romance love-machine type in school, I gravitated toward technology and tried desperately to find partners to share that interest. Whatever the role of ACORN or electronic voting machine-maker Diebold (pronounced “Dee”,not DIE) in the result, Cosby said he voted for Barack Obama in SHElburnE, MA and now Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is First Lady

[GWhiz99]

watch?v=DneHIDDFMpY: Bill Cosby links NFL QB Tim Tebow & good weather for 3/31/12 Denver date. Cosby doesn’t seem tech-savvy. Still, I wonder what he thinks about the possibility of voter fraud via electronic voting as companies like Diebold(pronounced “Dee”,not DIE) gaining popularity. On NBC’s 1/11/09 “Meet The Press with David Gregory”, he talked of pride in a SHElburnE Falls, Mass voting booth with photos of his parents & brother James, selecting Denver-nominated Barack Hussein Obama in 2008

[Combatarms423]

i got one of these today for free!! and it works!

[MattTheSaiyan]

This looks like a very cool retro-computer. Wasn't there a computer at the time that itself cost $100? Was it a Timex-Sinclair?

[SkyfireTheFox]

$100 rebate? I'm sold!  Where can I buy a TI Computer?

[TheLegoTrio]

BILL COSBY! I LOVE YOU! :D

[moogandfender]

If anything this certainly was a bad marketing ploy for TI. Give $100 rebates on a really great computer (at the time) and then sell crappy software at a rediculous price inorder to make up for it. No wonder this computer went under when people went elsewhere to get software for it.

[TheLoadingScreenz]

That's like 20 years from now they will be making fun of the little space we had now and how much it would cost.

[blazejewiczk]

i still think bill cosby does not know how to use a computer

[callmemarc]

Why would he care about the rebate when he already has a TI99?

[7tnorris]

I got that rebate. They started doing that when sales started to decline I think. Sounds funny now but those systems were expensive as hell and $100.00 was a lot of dough in '83! Commodore finally beat TI though but I loved mine until it blew up & I bought a Com 128.

[sean0101a]

@7tnorris Yes they were losing money on every unit sold or made, and hoping to regain it on software sales. This is also why the cheaper beige TI-99/4A came out. The old metal one had an LED on the power switch, the cheaper one didn't. And it was marketed as being more modern, but was really to cut costs. The machine is a lot more powerful if you have the expansion box.

[Mapleholic]

LMAO

[kengorski]

damn that's a big bowtie

[sammyandjack123]

i know it's bill cosby stop bugging me!

[sammyandjack123]

is that bill cosby?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?­!?!?

[sammyandjack123]

is that bill cosby?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?­!?!?

[KJ0012]

I just found this at a store, with 9 games! Only the Av cable, isn't really an AV cable... its like this "to tv receiver" and it only works for black n white TV's older then 1970! it said so rite on the Receiver.... thats crap! It doesn't make any sence what-so-ever! Im gunna go find a AV cable...

[Ironsixx]

zip zob zobbity bob!

[ericaesop]

what he said

[MildApplause]

I used to love that computer.

[margotdarby]

My point, if I had one, was that Bill Cosby was an inappropriate pitchman. Let's see: Apple got Alan Greenspan, Commodore used Bill Shatner and Henry Morgan, Mattel had George Plimpton--just to pitch a game machine. And Texas Instruments went for...Bill Cosby, the smarmy Jello Pudding comedian. What, Mister T was booked that day?

[fjccommish]

@margotdarby You mean the well know, very popular Bill Cosby.

[margotdarby]

Yeah, but why Bill Cosby? Where's the credibility? TI's heart was not in the TI99/4A and the advertising people didn't know what they were selling. Almost ss soon as this ad ran, TI announced it was ditching its home computer. It was the only 16-bit personal computer available prior to the IBM-PC.

[NotMarkKnopfler]

Just another victim of the "8 bit" wars (even though the TI was 16 bit) - TI decided to compete with the Commodore Vic 20... Suicide... NONE of them were making any money, not even Atari... However, Commodore WERE making money ;-)

[lovemylogics]

@margotdarby Why Cosby? Because, rightly or wrongly, parents trusted him and felt he was honest - he didn't need any 'high tech' credibility with them - TI was aiming the ads squarely at mom and dad to buy for the kids, so Bill Cosby makes perfect sense as a computer pitchman.