Adventures In Retro Computing - The TI-99/4A Speech Synthesizer, Do I Or Don't I?

[djdiggla]

I can't believe u opened that... I always open stuff, but you can find these anywhere for $9... U had one that hadn't been opened even after in 30 years... I woulda resold it to a collector at the very least... but Whatevs... I bet it wasn't even really unopened... FAKE

[MaximumRD]

Cool. I just ordered a Ti99/4a. Will have to get one of these at some point.

[drazil91]

Open it.

[Ogma01]

Oh, I opened it ages ago, thus the little annotation around 3:36 or so. :-)

[drazil91]

Whoops, missed that. I am having such fun reliving all those days way back when.

[seanschilling]

Yes, open it, it won't damage it at all.

[Pilotgeek]

Just open it. I hate it when people collect things just to have them in bubblewrap in their basement. Keeping them nice is important, but I've never really understood the whole mint condition thing. The speech synth was made to be used. It's like when people have classic cars but never drive them. It's one of my pet peeves. But hey, it's not mine, have fun with it either way =)

[Ogma01]

I opened it about six months ago (posted about that, as well) and I've been enjoying it. Very nice speech quality!

[megamanfan3]

I first discovered a picture of a TI-99/4A computer in the book The incredible Machine by Nat. Geo. on page 232. It shows two elementary school students using two of the same model of the TI-99/4A.

[hyunchoi98]

What is a speech synthesizer anyway?

[Pilotgeek]

It basically takes the words and runs them through an algorithm matching the individual sounds a word makes and then outputs sound. Wikipedia probably has an article on it.

[marceloyanez111]

i got one just like this at goodwill for only 1.99

[Opry99er]

Hey man... great get on that unopened speech synth. =) I am a 99er to the core... love it, live it. Check out some of my videos... I recently posted one showing off a little bit of the speech synth capabilities.

[theincrediblepeep]

Nice! I held on to my original Speech Synth box too. Something was special about getting it in the mail from Texas Instruments, back in the day. If you can score an Alpiner cart from somewhere, that's another great speech game. Have fun!

[Gvcova]

Use it, and pos a video.

[Ogma01]

I've tried it now with Parsec, Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator and Micro Surgeon and it sounds pretty great! I haven't played with it via Basic yet, but I like the idea of a video, so stay tuned!

[MaximumRD]

LOL! I was just thinking to reply that I would open it when I saw the annotation at the end that you had LOL! I been thinking of the Ti99 myself for a while too..............

[iVolkswagen]

Awesome score. Got a demo video of it?