Forgotten fun: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer

[ScrewTerminal]

Thank you so much for this, Kevin. I really felt myself get younger.

If only you could go back in time and show the kids a BBS or two.

Chicago area BBS in 1979 with a first off-the-belt TI99-4A.

We were kings, then.

[anidude98]

I found one of these at a goodwill branch... didnt have money for it. But now I'm getting a c64 for 20$ from a friend!

[slapdaddy1234]

ahh the memories!

[sahlaboohlas]

awesome awesome awesome presentation and machine. perfect man..

[bteeuwen]

never growing up with a computer this was actually my very first computer i bought one in the the early parts of 1998/1999. Was pretty fun to mess around on!

[gruntlover2]

i want one

[thwyter]

i used to have this computer, i was only 3 or 4sims3 and my game i remember the most was hunt the wumpus

[ON4LPF]

Nice video. Also this computer had a very complete BASIC programming language that was great for beginners

[TheQuindecillion]

Awesome video, by the way.

[TheQuindecillion]

I had one. It was a lot of fun. A chip must have blown, though, because after about a year the video went screwy.

[stickdude5677]

I'm getting one for christmas from my grandparents. I love vintage computing and I currently own an AST advantage pro, a Tandy 2500 XL, and a commodore 64

[patrickimo1]

Thanks for sharing. I was a 99'er from the early 80's to the early 90's and presently own two of the black/silver consoles. I was recently able to snag a peripheral expansion box for $10 from a thrift store. I was also fortunate to find a mint copy of MS Multiplan, Excel's ancestor. Parsec and Wumpus were my favourite games.

[capricious71]

Me and friends used to go to department stores and play on the machines like this, Vic20, C64, Dragon 32, Oric and my favourite the ZX Spectrum.

Computers were so much fun in those days.

[amythediva]

This really brought back memories...I had all of these games as a kid and LOVED this computer. Thanks for sharing this!

[GPatsos]

very good review!

[arcadeshopper]

not forgotten by many.. active user groups around the country have kept it alive for many years including the chicago group having it's annual TI Fest on Nov 5th.. Also there is an active online user group on yahoo groups

[slicker41]

lol texas logo at 6:18

[SuperWeaponR]

For Parsec, to re-fuel hit the number 2 or 1 key to soften your lift.

[fjccommish]

My father used to calculate his bowling league averages on this, using a program my brother wrote. It took over an hour to calculate averages for about 30 teams, 120 people.

[TheBladeJunker]

You're not missing much without the TI joysticks, very stiff stalk and a soft fire button that I can't tell if I'm pressing it. :)

[barf245]

@TheBladeJunker that's what she said...

[choperudo]

parsec and congo bongo great!!!

[winfr34k]

My calculator in school is a TI but not graphical.

[roccet2115]

I remember having this unit my Dad bought it at SEARS Wow

[sonick808]

nice haul!

[dylbyl1234]

lol the graphics on that thing r better then the nintendo wii

[thezob101]

at 3:23 i think i saw a few tandy joysticks :~D

[cheetawolf]

6:34 LOL

[thecooldude9999]

edit: i still have my amiga

[thecooldude9999]

i remember my old amiga GREAT games

[thecooldude9999]

my dad got something like this shipped to him when he was in the army but instead of carts it had a tape deck which broke thanks to the army's crappy shipping..

[khyron62]

damn!! cheap in the US.....in other countries, is almost impossible to get these things. Nice video

[Yarach]

Those old keyboards typed like a dream. No even apple nor logitech can get close

[ThisGuyFrritz]

Holy Shishkabob! I remember playing the games you played when the TI computer was in stores. I played TI Invaders and Munchman. I can also remember TI Trek on a 5" floppy disk (where you decide to navigate, fire torpedoes or phasers, warp, check out the status of your ship and all that). Tombstone City was another game I played. It sounds like an old west type game. Actually, it was more sci-fi like as you would see monsters and you gotta zap 'em.

But I prefer playing games on the C-64.

[Lachlant1984]

I do believe TI also made IBM compatible computers in the 90's, I know they made laptops at one point. Maybe the voice synthisizer uses the same voice chip as the Speak And Spell, but to me it sounds more like some of the Vtech toys like Talking Lesson One and Pre Computer 1000 Junior. I'm assuming the TI 99/4A was available down here, but I've never used one.

[yushatak]

Very unique sound chip in that box. I've heard a lot of machines, and none quite like that one.

[vwestlife]

@yushatak It's basically the same sound chip that was used in the IBM PCjr, Tandy 1000 series, and Sega Master System. All of these used later revisions or clones of the TI sound chip.

[Mr1p0d]

@vwestlife The sound chip used in these 2 computers and the Sega Master System is the SN76489 and it haves 3 tones of square waves and white noise. Is a PSG chip.

[RetroGamerVX]

That's a dam good looking box :o) Off to work and don't have time to watch it all here so downloading to watch at work :o)

[ReviewTechUSA]

i had one of these when they were brand new....Was sold at a yard sale eons ago...what a mistake...

[bakonfreek]

comments:

i'm gonna have to use a graphing calculator next trimester...10th grade math is overrated.

looks like a fun system.

[uxwbill]

Cool. Never saw a 99/4A running before, just the computer itself. And I never knew there was a beige version.

The second "mountain" game reminded me of SkiFree (in reverse) when that dog walked by.

[tom611]

Nice overview. A game to look out for would be Star Trek, fairly decent game of exploding Klingon ships, and the speech synth can pull off a fair impression of Leonard Nimoy (for a 80's home computer anyway).

I quite enjoyed Tunnels of Doom - 3D dungeon crawler(2D combat though) as well when I was younger, but I don't think it'd hold up for anyone without nostalgia for it. Plus, you need a working computer cassette player(regular players are iffy to use) or a disk drive to load levels.

[Dell0304]

If you dont expand the description, it says:

......popular home computer in the early []s

[uxwbill]

@Dell0304 Looks like an encoding error...probably a Youtube thing. Not sure why.

[Dell0304]

@uxwbill It's because Youtube is buggy and runs on linux.

[talldude123]

Luckily I was able to use one of these, my elementary school had one in use in 1994 when I was 6 years old. But most people on YT here won't remember this!

[hackhp]

I have a colecovision! It has an amazing 64x32 resolution in color games and 96x64 in monochrome

[pcwalker]

That does look fun. I might need one when I move into my house...finally. :)

[vwestlife]

@pcwalker It shouldn't be too difficult for you to find one locally, since it has your state's name on it! :-)

[pcwalker]

@vwestlife LAWL! Yes, perhaps it shouldn't be very difficult at all. :)

[MrPowertorque]

I've got a TI, TI-34 calculator its a great calculator and very colourful as well. :)

[talldude123]

@MrPowertorque I wasn't smart enough in high school to use those, me and my friend's use Casio scientific calculators.

[UmaBlinky]

One of the carts I have is Parsec which used the speech synthesis. I do not know if the stuff is any good, it will need to be cleaned up since it smells musty. A spray with contact cleaner may be all it takes. TI's are soooo slow. The Commie was a better deal back then, more bang for the buck. But TI was the next best thing, and my brother got a clearance deal at KMart for 50$ on the baige version. Later on I got a Tandy CoCoII package deal which was pretty kewl.

[UmaBlinky]

Last week, I found a box of TI99/4a accessories in the dungeon (basement). It had the speech, cassette cable, joysticks, software, carts, and some other junk. IF my daughter did not sell it on Craig's list, I will be glad to give it to you. It may be in crappy shape since it was in the dank basement for a long time, I forgot I had it. I got it at a yard sale. My first confuser was the black TI99er - back in '83.

[TheTerminatorT101]

Computer: "Do you want to read this story again"

Kevin: "Nooooo"

xD haha :D

[wildbilltexas]

Nice demonstration! Texas Instruments made some huge blunders with this computer. They almost sunk the company completely trying to compete against Commodore.