[IRATA.ONLINE and TI/99 development possibilities.]

Ok, I've dug into PCD2, and while it's there, it shouldn't be run. at all.

 

While files can still be made with it, the PCD2 authoring system has "year" issues, and won't work much beyond approximately 1986, it looks like.

 

I verified this by creating a nameset to the PCD2 specifications, and going into the environment. While editing appears to work, the authoring environment will crash at different points in the program, corrupting ECS and CM, and leave the system in an unusable state (nobody can log on). The only fix is to literally stop MASTOR, idle NAM, unlock, checkpoint the system, step, shut down, and do a fresh deadstart of the machine.

 

I will ask anyone who is on IRATA to PLEASE not use PCD2, as its crashes literally affect everybody on the system.

 

-Thom

So it works with the date set back to before 1986?

 

If anyone else wants to try figuring out how to use this, download your own copy of CYBIS at http://www.control-data.info/CybisRelease.html so we don't crash IRATA.

[Plato PCD2]

Here it is, but I don't know how hard it would be to get its output to work with TI PLATO.

[IRATA.ONLINE and TI/99 development possibilities.]

Now THIS is interesting...

[IRATA.ONLINE and TI/99 development possibilities.]

To get to where I took those screenshots, press g at the main menu, then type 0gbrouter and press enter. Press enter again to get to the main menu, then choose option "b... descriptions of clusters". That seems to have everything from disks PHD 5201-PHD 5264.

[IRATA.ONLINE and TI/99 development possibilities.]

Interesting to see how things changed from the original to the TI-99/4A version.

 

[One liner contest]

1 ON 0/0*0+1 GOTO 1

[Decoding Basic Source Code from Cartridge Binaries]

What does CALL {5}(X) mean? When I type that in TI BASIC with plugged-in PRK I'm getting a BAD NAME. Or does {xxx} mean the ASCII character with value xxx?

I meant the character with value 5.

[Decoding Basic Source Code from Cartridge Binaries]

100 CALL CLEAR
110 FOR I=0 TO 21
120 CALL {Char 10}(I,A$)
130 PRINT I,A$
140 NEXT I
150 GOTO 150

[Decoding Basic Source Code from Cartridge Binaries]

Here's a small program showing what CALL {Char 5}(X) does.

100 X=0
110 CALL CLEAR
120 CALL {Char 5}(X)
130 CALL KEY(0,K,S)
140 IF S<>1 THEN 130
150 X=X+1
160 IF X=4 THEN 150
170 IF X=110 THEN 190
180 GOTO 110
190 END

test.zip

[Off Topic :) TI Personal Computer]

Here's some information I found about that terminal:

http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/ti/terminal/TI-334A-10M_Silent_700_Model_732_733_Specifications_Jul_1973.pdf

[Karate Challenge]

Here's the disk:

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/Vendors/Asgard/KARATE.ZIP

[How to print from a TI emulator via RS232 to text or PDF ?]

Why do you start mame64? You still have mess64.

 

Edit: should read -peb:slot8:hfdc:h1 generic

Thanks, that works.

 

I used mame64 because the last binary release of MESS for Windows was 0.161. Everything after that is the combined MAME and MESS.

[How to print from a TI emulator via RS232 to text or PDF ?]

Please check the release notes and http://www.ninerpedia.org/index.php/MESS_version_history(<- really important, since I put all relevant changes on that page. Please bookmark!)

 

MAME/MESS 0.164 features a re-implementation of the hard disk system with higher emulation precision. The obvious difference to earlier releases is that you must specify the hard disk device that is attached to the HFDC.

 

There are currently four devices: generic (auto-adapts to the CHD that you mount), ST-213, ST-225, and ST-251. The latter three require a CHD file that exactly matches the geometry of the drive. You should therefore make use of generic, unless you have a CHD that really has the correct geometry.

 

The HD device is specified as follows:

 

 

mess ti99_4a -peb:slot8 hfdc -peb:slot8:h1 generic -hard1 myharddisk.hd

As we have some changes here, remember to do a backup of your CHD. Please do a backup. A backup is definitely recommended. If I did not mention it yet, yes, you should do a backup.

 

It's still not working.

 

C:\Users\Kerry\MESS>mame64 ti99_4a -peb:slot8 hfdc -peb:slot8:h1 generic -hard1 tihd.chd
Error: unknown option: -peb:slot8:h1
Error: unknown option: -hard1

C:\Users\Kerry\MESS>mame64 -?
M.A.M.E. v0.164 (Jul 29 2015) - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
Copyright Nicola Salmoria and the MAME team

[How to print from a TI emulator via RS232 to text or PDF ?]

In MAME 0.164, I can't seem to use hard disks with hfdc.

[The Asgard Software Archive]

Awesome!!! ....I hope Doom Games 1,2,3 are in that pile

Are you talking about these?

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/Vendors/Asgard/TODGAME1.ZIP

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/Vendors/Asgard/TODGAME2.ZIP

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/Vendors/Asgard/TODGAME3.ZIP

[raspberry pi and emulation]

 

I am pretty sure Wine requires a intel processor.. not ARM so won't work on a PI.. DOSBOX maybe

 

Greg

Wine doesn't require an Intel processor, it requires an ARM build of Classic 99. As will Windows 10 for the Pi.

[Bitmap mode.]

 

I remember TML from a long way back, I think I even had a copy. Anyway I wanted to try this on R.I., but was only able to locate the manual for it on WHTECH.

So, I'll just have to ask, how long did it take to complete?

I didn't time it, but it was about an hour on unthrottled MESS.

 

Here's The Missing Link: http://www.retroclouds.de/atariage/The_Missing_Link_2_0.zip

[Bitmap mode.]

I decided to try it in Extended Basic with The Missing Link:

 

140 CALL LINK("CLEAR")
150 XP=144 :: XR=4.71238905 :: XF=XR/XP
160 FOR ZI=-64 TO 64
170 ZT=ZI*2.25 :: ZS=ZT*ZT
180 XL=INT(SQR(20736-ZS)+0.5)
190 FOR XI=0-XL TO XL
200 XT=SQR(XI*XI+ZS)*XF
210 YY=(SIN(XT)+SIN(XT*3)*0.4)*56
220 X1=XI+ZI+160 :: Y1=90-YY+ZI
230 ON ERROR 270
235 CALL LINK("PD") :: CALL LINK("PIXEL",Y1*.75,X1*.75)
240 CALL LINK("PE") :: CALL LINK("LINE",Y1*.75+1,X1*.75,144,X1*.75)
250 NEXT XI :: NEXT ZI
260 GOTO 260
270 RETURN 250

[Ken Gilliland's Speech Synth singing disks...]

Patsy Cline:

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/Gillilan/PATSYCLINE.ZIP

 

South Pacific:

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/TonyZ/TIDEMO/DEM0230B.ZIP

[Does anyone really play the old BASIC games?]

Does anyone remember the XB where you're jumping across the roofs of a train? You're some kind of spy or something. It was AWESOME! I think it originated in the UK so possibly not well known outside of UK/Europe. EDIT: Found a reference to it (but not the game itself) here.

 

Another reference here (showing the pretty graphics).

 

Here's that game.

SECRETAGENT.DSK

[Am I losing my mind (searching for a program in vain).]

Realizing that you're most likely the only person in the world to ever load one of Weird Al's polka melodys into an emulated TI-99/4A cassette in MESS is a weird feeling.

 

(Polka Gangnam Style!)

[Mini Memory Line-by-Line Assembler]

When I was a kid,I got mini memory after begging for it for a long time. I was very disappointed that the manual didn't go into detail about how to program in assembly language. I mainly used it to save basic programs (and watch LINES).

 

A few months ago, I decided to finally learn TMS9900 assembly language, and did so with Compute!'s Beginner's Guide to Assembly Language on the TI-99/4A. I think using the Line-by-line Assembler helped by making me think about what I wrote due to the difficulty of changing it later.

 

I never want to use it again. The Line-by-line Assembler got my assembly skills into shape, so now I can appreciate the conveniences of using editor/assembler, instead of thinking about how e/a is so primitive compared to modern tools.

[Am I losing my mind (searching for a program in vain).]

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/Vendors/RyteData/MC2026.ZIP

 

I am a bit surprised that it works on MESS.

[Moldy, Oldies (Where's The Craphics?)]

Pretty amazing...

I seem to vaguely recall that you had created a loader for XB to allow the display of these bitmaps from within that environment so that XB programmers could add fancy splash screens to their programs. Am I correct in this?

Yes, his converter can create an XB program from a picture. After it shows the picture the program needs to RUN another program as pretty much anything else will cause extended basic to crash.

[Moldy, Oldies (Where's The Craphics?)]

I've come across a number of disks with various graphics in the massive collection of 11602 disk images at ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/.