dphirschler

Ksarul, I'd love to see a demo of that. Any chance you could make a video and upload it to YouTube?

I would like to buy one if these, please. Still learning to solder, so I am at the mercy of the hardware guys. But I can assemble a cart/provide my own shell. Darryl

Thanks! I might have to take you up on that. I have to troubleshoot my floppy controller card. Darryl

I fixed the Hulk, Spiderman, and Bucky ones. I forget how though. Questprobe_fixed.zip Darryl

- load interrupt switch mod - internal speaker mod - Atari joystick cable

I might have spoken too soon. I am not finding Alpiner on disk yet (other than my GK rip). I am still certain I have it though. I have a whole mess of floppies I cannot read at the moment. In the mean time, I will try my hand at ripping the cart the way we used to. The switch in the Speech Synth was the key. I remember it now. We'd load MEAT, hit the switch, swap in the game cart, un-pause it by hitting the switch again, game cart would be written to 32K high mem. Then hit the switch again, swap in EA and load MEOW which would write 32k high mem to disk. Cart ripped. All I have to do is find the two programs. In the mean time, I found two other programs that similar to MEAT and MEOW. Isn't there a way to convert the GK rips to EA5 games? It's the same data, isn't it? Darryl

I am now suspecting the FDC. :-( It's a Myarc too. I need to get this thing repaired. Actually, what are some XB calls I can make to the card just to see if it is alive? Darryl

Here are some more recent pictures of a recent LED mod. This time I used a white LED. Darryl

What happens when I connect the VGA output (640x480, right?) from an F18A to a widescreen monitor? I would expect it to NOT be stretched, thus preserving the aspect ratio. Perhaps this is a DIP switch setting? Darryl

Yes. Before this test, I was assuming I'd need an amplifier. But clearly, I don't. I will try one more test with a small speaker (and no amp) to see if it's loud enough for an internal speaker. Oh, and you will probably be interested to know that the "processing sounds" were in the audio... which is just as I remember it when I was younger. But I thought you'd like to know in case you might be thinking it was coming in through the amplifier circuit. Darryl

OK, I just alligator clipped a set of earbugs to the mobo and it was loud as hell. In my opinion, it does NOT need an amplifier. It was easily as loud as any PC audio jack with the volume all the way up. I think I am going to put a volume wheel on it and wire it straight to an audio jack. Darryl

Of course! Why didn't I think about that? I even have Adventure Editor. LOL <smacks forehead> Darryl

I am testing out my PE box and I wanted to load some floppies and stuff. I put in DM2 and inserted a disk. I got I/O error. I pulled the drives (still connected though) and I see the motor spinning when I put in a disk, but as soon as I close the latch, it stops. And when I get a catalog from the disk, it never spins. Are these drives dead, or do they just need some lube or something? Darryl

Having a blast with my old TI and you guys! This group has the feel of the old user groups. Great spirit of cooperation and innovation. Thank you everyone. Darryl

Is this the amplifier you used, Vellman K8066? http://www.vellemanusa.com/products/view/?id=521723 Is 3W mono enough? Now I need to find a good volume wheel. I'd rather have the wheel than a knob. How about this, 10K-Ohm wheel potentiometer? http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3064080&utm_source=GooglePLA&utm_medium=pla&utm_term=2710001&cid=iP:PLA:RSO:Google&gclid=CPLtzLvOm8ACFWiG7AodP2UANA&gclsrc=ds Darryl

Also just found an unused label for the memory expansion, and another RS232 label. We must've known somebody on the inside... Darryl

I am also planning on removing the a/v connector in the back left corner. I will put either an RCA there or a 1/8" audi connector. I might install a small amp and a volume wheel too. Darryl

You could show him the Lines demo... That's sort of Qix-like. Darryl

I'll find out. I think they might be dsk/var which was just a text/data file, right? EDIT: Here is the listing from the disk: COUNT 40 PROGRAM 10198 P GHOSTTOWN 40 PROGRAM 10042 P ODYSSEY 40 PROGRAM 10042 P PYRAMID 40 PROGRAM 10114 P SAVAGE1 40 PROGRAM 10042 P VOYAGE 40 PROGRAM 10218 P FUNHOUSE 41 PROGRAM 10466 P MISSION 41 PROGRAM 10434 P PIRATE 41 PROGRAM 10360 P VOODOO 41 PROGRAM 10296 P ADVENTURE 42 PROGRAM 10646 P SAVAGE2 49 PROGRAM 12488 P LOAD 42 PROGRAM 10638 P AVOCADO 48 PROGRAM 12235 P IRONHEART 49 PROGRAM 12298 P BUCKAROO 37 PROGRAM 9451 P CLAYMORGUE 38 PROGRAM 9670 P SPIDERMAN 41 PROGRAM 10422 P HULK 42 PROGRAM 10525 P I want to get Claymorgue, Ironheart, and Avocado off the disk and into cassette form. I don't even remember what Ironheart and Avocado are. And I can't remember solving Claymorgue (The Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle). Anyways, they are not D/V. I guess PROGRAM means it's in some compressed bin format. I doubt they are executable. Darryl

Still looking for the Alpiner program on disk. I know I have it somewhere. Was it a problem cart to rip for so.e reason? I am surprised it's not already out in the wild in disk form. You may be right about the interrupt switch. I discovered a small microswitch under the lid if my speech synth. I think I remember holding that in while we swapped carts. Thus might have also involved using Mini Mem. I've contacted my friend to get more details. No doubt he remembers it better than I do. Darryl

Removing the chips will be a snap. My coworker has a professional desoldering station and wouldn't mind taking a few mins to remove those chips. My main concern is identifying the bad chips so I can throw them out. The good chips I want to keep on hand as spares, or possibly sell them on EBay. Darryl

I forget how to load the music demo that comes with TI-Forth. I am sure somebody here remembers it. I want to hear “The Little Fugue In G Minor” again. It’s so impressive. While I am on the subject, does anybody remember the Forth demo put on at the user group meetings (by TI folks?) showing off the TI-Forth hardware and the 12 music voices? And each voice was represented by a colored rectangle on the screen. I remember being blown away by that demonstration, and I could not wait for Forth to arrive. And then when it did, it was only a diskette and a manual… which was still cool, but not 12 voices of music cool. And the music demo was standard TI 3 voice + noise, with no colored rectangles representing the voices. All that being said, the music demo with TI-Forth is still so impressive. Anyone remember the command to launch it? Darryl

F18A fixed it! Check out this pic. Can I safely desolder the old video RAM chips? Darryl

I would just like to throw my name in the hat for one of these when/if they become available. Especially since I just accidentally sold my last EA cart on Ebay. So I'd like to load it up with XB, EA, TE2, MM(?) and several other utlities and a shit ton of games.. But I don't know how to do any of that. I'd need help. But I am drooling over this cart. Darryl

Sounds simple enough. Is it really that easy? Sounds like it's time to brush out the cobwebs! It's been a long time since I programmed XB. Darryl