Gary from OPA

Getting there slowly. 4 months of freedom. got finally a desk and chair yesterday. now next step is to get my own place. and then finally unpack my ti99 and other retro systems. but at least now i can sit down and do some online work via my laptop. thanks everyone!

I still have secured hosting and more then willing to setup a proper ti99 community forums, I still have licenses for XenForo and Vbulletin, that I am not using. I agree with @Schmitzi it should be "community of heirs" so not one person is in control, as I myself am already 54, god forbid but life is short, we see too many 99'ers pass away over the last few years. We already do have alot of good other resources, like WHTech, etc. all tho most of them don't have the same nice look and feel like AtariAge does, as this site been updated and moved into the modern era of internet, whereas alot of other other dedicated ti99 sites are still back on web1 days, like visiting geocities. But, we should not be quick to throw the new owners under the bus here either, but I do agree there should be a proper backup plan, or a central modern site at least that secured and at least archiving everything, and like I mentioned above, I am willing to help if and when the time comes that it is needed or a plan is put together.

Yes, you can share your videos, and a link to the game files. you can't upload them (at least not yet on X), and videos are limited in length as well, but you can link to youtube ones if they are longer. Anything TI99 related you can share. Looking forward to seeing you post your work. Thanks.

Dropping in, I been busy promoting my X (Twitter) account: https://x.com/bowser_garyopa as I try to built up things in my life, enough to hopefully rent a place, and get to doing some cool work, and I been going 3 times a week to physiotherapy to get my left leg treated, and the local Ontario Govt. here since I am on welfare as put me back to school on every Thursday to better my skills to get myself a job, ugh, 54 years old and dealing with a bunch of twenty-somethings and learning things in school I already know like python which I can code in my sleep. So that leaves me basically, only Tuesday and my weekends to relax. But, when I heard the news that Atari bought AtariAge, I thought I would come over here and make sure everything is still running ok as this is were basically all the 99'ers are, hopefully nothing will change. Anyway, here a shameless-plug for X (Twitter), since I am now a 'blue checkmark' account, I decided to startup a community on there for TI99 stuff, since there was none, check it out: https://twitter.com/i/communities/1699227713251197153 Nothing much there yet, but I will be slowly filling it up with content, and if you happen to have a X (Twitter) account, please join it, and share when you bored and not always logged on here. Thanks again, every for all your love & support, and I pray by November I should be finally back on my feet, its now been 3 months and 2 weeks since I became a freeman and back in Canada. -=(Gary)=-

it is on youtube, you can watch it here: love the new thread title. -- All tho I am still POOR, money wise, still trying to secure my own place, and get my life restarted, you can follow my recent progress on my Twitter and on my https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life and if you just bored and want to chit-chat, you can always find me hanging around my own discord server: https://discord.gg/ca8wgG3scz BTW for those that love my interview with darknet, I also recently did a short one with cybercrime radio, you can listen to it here: Enjoy, and hopefully once my gofundme reaches its final goal, its almost there, just a bit more to go, i going to secure my own place, buy a table, chair, desk, bed, and get back to doing some cool new things for TI99 and other retro computers. Stay tuned. -=(Gary)=-

A good article was published recently about my life history on TorrentFreak, check it out: https://torrentfreak.com/gary-bowser-how-a-1980s-hacker-became-nintendos-nemesis-decades-later-230702/ And I also setup a discord for my future retro projects, you all welcome to join it: --> https://discord.gg/ca8wgG3scz Thanks -=(Gary)=-

Just a quick update, I gotten setup a new twitter, so follow me on there if you are a TI99 on Twitter , and I also setup a small 'GoFundMe' for those willing to support me a bit to help secure a roof over my head, and I also setup a Patreon which once i am back on my feet, will be releasing various retro items on there on an ongoing basis, as i start to work on new projects. Almost a month of being a free man, its slow going, but things are coming together. Thanks everyone here for their kind words and welcome backs.

maybe -- one thing i want to try out once a secure my own place and move my things for storage into it. - i ordered a tipi and raspberry but never got even a chance to unbox it, its still waiting for me untouched in storage along with a few other cool new ti99 items.

yeah, these days i bet the AI can do it faster than me, just tell it to google 'garyopa' and write a story based on the 14,400 search results out there. long time ago, back in the early '80s, i wonder if i still have it laying around someplace on cassette or old printout, i write a very simple (simple now, but back then complex) News-Generating-AI program for the TI99 in X/Basic, i filled it at the time with all the local and world events, and list of everything famous at the time, and it would randomly generated News Headlines in like stock ticker type printout along with weather and other tidbits on a screen that look very similar to a local community cable news channel, one of those just plain text with limited graphics layouts, no video, and then i hooked it up to powerful UHF transmitter in canada you could broadcast your own signal on any unused channel without a license as long as it was under a 1 mile radius, but i was of course living near the local CBC news station, they picked it up, and did a short community program about it, i wonder if its buried somewhere on old beta tape in the archives, anyway, long story short, it was very close at times in predicting real news events, coming up with random headlines that then happened!

I just might do that, once i get back on my feet and have a roof over my head, right now i been busy getting all my ids updated with new photos and such, been a long progress, still not finished on that, everything i do requires reviews and time, hopefully by the weekend i will at least have a bank account again, in the meantime been working on my resume, updating my linkedin page and got my little website going and got back my youtube, and got a twitter working and also a patreon and gofundme, hopefully by end of month i will have all my documents in order, and some funds and be able to rent a small place to live here in toronto, then i can sit back and relax a bit and see what to do next, and take all my things out of storage and get back to doing some real coding and design of cool new things for everyone.

Thanks it is good to be free, all tho it still hard getting going again in life, but only been day under 3 weeks, so not much time as freeman, i think within another month i should be basically back on my feet! :0

Many thanks, i will let everyone know once i am settled into my own place, instead of daily sofa crashing like i am doing right now! yep, good to be able to breath outside free air again, all tho it is hard on your body with summer now here and the hot weather and sunshine and rain and pollen things i have not experienced for a few years!

many thanks for your good wishes it is good to be back, but so many wonderful new ti99 things to catch up on once i am settle into a place

tough going, but i will pull thru it. thanks!

thanks it is good to be back!

i had a chance to briefly try out some of your new amazing versions back in 2019 when i got my ti99 stuff up and running again, and i look forward to checking out your latest masterpiece as well, even tho i have classic99 on this laptop i am using, my focus first is securing a place and getting either my disability or small online LEGIT job going, before i can relax and enjoy trying out some amazing things like RXB again.

first step is to secure and find a place to live, and then i will unpack my ti99 stuff from storage, see what is working, and if i am missing anything that might be useful or needed to have, i will let you know, but right now going to be at least i think another couple of weeks before i can secure my own place and be less stressed and thinking about doing some ti coding and designing again. i got alot done in the week i been a free man already, but still slow going, not easy at all coming back to canada after almost 13 years, and after spending almost 3 behind bars, just breathing outside summer air is a challenge at times.

thanks. i am looking forward to getting my ti99 items out of storage, once i have secured a place to live, and get back to doing some real work, going to be tough to get back on my feet but one step a a time

Thanks, I do see it now. -- As shown in this thread I got released from federal prison, and then moved to ICE as alien, where finally on May 25, they flew me back to Toronto, were now I am trying to restart my life, broke and homeless but free! You sure been hyping alot of wrong info in this thread. I know I made mistakes in the past, and I have haters, but at least get your facts right. I never fled Canada because I was going to face charges. I left Canada because I got tried of cold weather and the high cost of living (which is even worse now that I am back here, just a small apt. is over $1500 a month) and originally I went to Dominican Republic to help out a long-time friend with his real estate down there, and I fell in love with the place, I was not running away from the law, and I don't have any outstanding issues back here in Canada.

Yes, one of the best out there! -- i still use it myself. than and rag linker.

This would be a great help, i need one place i can order all the parts to complete my 4000b

Very nicely done. 3 cheers for details.

that is correct. -- if you want more help in how it works, let me know.

i used to have a 99105 working setup, i plan to assemble one again soon, parts are on order. the 99105 if the A version with TMS in front should be fine, there was some buggy ones but that are labelled normally with TMP or TMX and the 99115 was also buggy, the native p-code addon had errors in it.

please let me know when you ready to sell off the extra boards with parts, after the pre-orders are done, i will for sure take at least one!