pixelpedant

August 1, 2023

On 7/30/2023 at 8:57 PM, chris36 said:

Almost a year late in discovering this. Just ordered from physical from @arcadeshopper. Glad there are still copies left. Thanks @pixelpedant for helping me find something fun to do while hiding indoors from the hot summer.

Cool that folks are still discovering it! And I seem to have produced enough copies to address relatively long-term demand. Though I'm kind of glad demand hasn't kept up indefinitely. Recording and testing and producing the pack-in materials was rather time-consuming.

Two threads talking about it this week means more encouragement for me to actually finish the sequel, eventually. Which is all to the good.

August 1, 2023

TI seems to use the term "console" or "control console" or "system console" pretty widely in its 990 materials as well.

See for example:

July 31, 2023

The "displaying one room at a time (upon opening any of its doors)" exploration mechanic was initially just forced by how long it would take to generate an entire floor all at once. Given not just the dimensions but also 1) the contents of the room and 2) their positioning, and 3) the positions of any new doors also need to be determined, then drawn. But in the long run, it's also just more interesting to explore as you go, I think, so as much as it was forced, it was also what I wanted.

Procedural dungeon generation in TI BASIC continues to be a fascination of mine, and one which will be further elaborated on if I ever finish Hell's Halls' sequel (Hell's Heart), which uses a freer and more organic (less "grid-like") dungeon generation system.

July 30, 2023

Huh. Basically a "solid state software" 99/4A in all regards, but missing the joystick port and power switch.

July 16, 2023

1 hour ago, acadiel said:

Yep, great spelling game for the kids! This is the 16K cart I actually used back in the day (along with Carlos’ 8K one) as a template to create the first 16K Guidry cart board many moons ago! Has a 16K eprom and 74Ls379 in it 🙂

Cool bit of trivia there. Thanks for that.

It and Stargazer 1, 2 & 3 are probably my top third party education games (and I do have both). So I guess John Phillips gets the nod in that category, for me.

July 16, 2023

The Great Word Race is actually pretty rare. $35 doesn't seem bad to me for a good condition cart:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314714637808

image.png.bbe313f6b9f3cc45abae3d0363b984d1.png

July 5, 2023

Incidentally, for anyone looking to compose midi for TI PSG with actual in-application TI PSG audio output behaviour identical to that in the TI-99 (i.e., relevant tone and noise types, relevant restrictions on voices, frequency, etc.), I would recommend using the Socalabs SN76489 VST. Hosted by whatever relevant VST Host (I use LMMS and VeSTige, but this is just one option).

A main benefits of this for me is being able to play notes on a MIDI (i.e., piano style) keyboard, with direct TI PSG output, within a MIDI-oriented application.

July 4, 2023

I'd recommend LMMS, especially since multiple SN76489 implementations exist for it. But that having said, I'm not sure I'd fall it "easy to use", especially in this context.

One problem is, a list of CALL SOUND statements is a list of sound events of specified duration which may be interrupted (via negative duration) or played to completion (via positive duration) as desired. While a MIDI file is, on the simplest possible level, a series of statements specifying when any given instrument begins to play and ceases to play respectively. With these being two separate events.

So translating a MIDI file to CALL SOUND statements is non-trivial, since you need to infer the duration of each note based on the difference between the time code at which an instrument begins and ceases playing, for every instance of this occurring.

It can be done. And I've written a script to do it in the past, as have others I expect. It's just a really big pain.

July 1, 2023

Here is a relatively high resolution (5700x2500) TI-99/4 promotional spread I've gone to the trouble of photographing in segments, combining and retouching. And individual games aside, I think this one would make for a good framed TI-99 wall item.

Fairly rare 99/4 promo flyer, from what I can tell. The release flyer's the more common one.

That and the other 99/4 promo stuff is on my catalogues/manuals site. But those are generally paginated as PDFs, and not saved at as high a resolution as this.

June 30, 2023

Now that I look at the image sources, it appears they're being directly served by Facebook. So that makes sense now. As I outright block Meta's cross-site content. Though I don't know if Facebook allows cross-site image embedding regardless.

June 30, 2023

35 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

I think he was saying these were water-damaged from storage.

Perhaps, but here is how I see the original pics:

June 30, 2023

2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

What happened to the pics??

Atariage does weird things with embedded images sometimes. Or maybe it's the source host. Regardless, here they are as simple attachments:

June 28, 2023

High-quality retouched scans of all MBX overlays are also available in my MBX resources thread, so even if you acquire a cart without overlay, you can print one (and laminate, if you're being thorough).

June 27, 2023

23 minutes ago, Atari_Bill said:

Is the software for the MBX especially hard to find?

Not really, for the most part, so far. There have usually been copies of various carts kicking around on Ebay. Partly, I would say, just because some carts can *only* be played with an MBX, so their market is inherently vanishingly small, even if their number is also pretty small.

They're all relatively uncommon in TI cart terms, but none of the released titles (for which stock was in most cases dumped to employees and a couple vendors very hastily, after the product's cancellation) are all that hard to get.

I have assembled a repository of MBX information in this thread here, should you need more:

June 21, 2023

Nice! So it does sound like most of them at least were built and sold (albeit in absolutely tiny numbers).

June 20, 2023

20 minutes ago, John Phillips said:

VM stands for Video Magic, the DBA entity I formed in Collin County, TX after I had left TI.

Oh, hey John. Nice of you to show up here! I have another couple quick questions for you:

A bunch of your games were advertised by Sunware/Exceltec for a little bit circa 1984, long before DBT sold them. Do you know if those carts (Face Chase, Star Trap, Stargazer 1 2 & 3, Beyond Space, etc.) were actually sold by Sunware/Exceltec?

And were you duly paid by Sunware and Databiotics for the ones that sold, in each of those cases? Kind of an ugly question, but people not getting paid for their work certainly did happen in that era. Possibly a moot point in some of the Sunware cases though, since I'm not sure they even built any carts, for many of their announced titles.

June 13, 2023

Video Chess has no such issues for me (across many games) with SAMS and F18A installed. But that's not surprising. There's really no reason it should.

June 8, 2023

One that snuck up on me in recent times: Midnight/Midnite Mason. I played the DBT cart back in the day, but I didn't much see the appeal. Nowadays though, the interplay between the need to manipulate enemy movement and the need to restructure the level to facilitate that makes for a really cool dynamic, which is a combination of the good things about Pac Man and Lode Runner. But it doesn't have the problem (in our case) TI Runner has, that once you've solved a level, you've pretty much solved it.

June 6, 2023

2 hours ago, retrocanada76 said:

nothing smaller eh ? 😅

Alright, well you asked for it. Here is a much more interesting and much more compact, but drastically more abstruse example of TI BASIC music, of my own devising:

10 N$="JA>7A>74>7'!47"
20 GOSUB 100
30 END
40 GOSUB 70
50 I=A-64
60 RETURN
70 A=ASC(N$)
80 N$=SEG$(N$,2,LEN(N$)-1)
90 RETURN
100 GOSUB 40
110 FOR X=1 TO LEN(N$)
120 GOSUB 70
130 A=(A*A*A/14400+25)*4
140 FOR V=11 TO I+15 STEP 50/I
150 CALL SOUND(-425*I,A,V,A+2,V,A*3.81,30,-4,V-I)
160 NEXT V
170 NEXT X
180 RETURN

Using a few key techniques essential to exploitation of the SN76489/TMS9919. Detuning, use of periodic noise for bass accompaniment, and an attenuation envelope (attack and decay) done in software.

June 6, 2023

One nice little TI Console BASIC music demo (for unexpanded TI-99) is this one, which is a New Years 1983 "Auld Lang Syne" demo.

But probably needless to say, 95% of music demos are Extended BASIC. All of Sam Moore Jr.'s best stuff.

100 REM  **AULD LANG SYNE**
110 CALL CLEAR
120 CALL SCREEN(4)
130 CALL CHAR(96,"000101030307070F")
140 CALL CHAR(97,"0F1F1F3F3F7F7FFF")
150 CALL CHAR(98,"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF")
160 T=600
170 CALL SOUND(T*1.1,262,5)
180 CALL CHAR(104,"00030F1F3F3F7F7F")
190 CALL CHAR(105,"7F7F3F3F1F0F03")
200 CALL CHAR(106,"00C0F0F8FCFCFEFE")
210 CALL CHAR(107,"FEFEFCFCF8F0C0")
220 CALL SOUND(T*1.5,349,5,262,12,175,15)
230 CALL VCHAR(8,5,98,9)
240 CALL VCHAR(8,4,96)
250 CALL VCHAR(9,4,97)
260 CALL SOUND(T/2,349,5,262,12,196,15)
270 CALL SOUND(T,349,4,262,12,220,15)
280 CALL CHAR(108,"7F3F1F070F1F3F7F")
290 CALL CHAR(109,"FEFCF8C0F0F8FCFE")
300 CALL SOUND(T,440,5,349,12,175,15)
310 CALL HCHAR(8,10,98,3)
320 CALL HCHAR(8,9,104)
330 CALL VCHAR(9,9,98,3)
340 CALL SOUND(T*1.5,392,5,330,12,131,15)
350 CALL HCHAR(12,9,105)
360 CALL HCHAR(12,10,98,3)
370 CALL VCHAR(8,13,106)
380 CALL VCHAR(9,13,98,7)
390 CALL SOUND(T/2,349,5,294,12,131,15)
400 CALL SOUND(T,392,5,330,12,131,15)
410 CALL HCHAR(16,13,107)
420 CALL HCHAR(16,10,98,3)
430 CALL HCHAR(15,9,98)
440 CALL HCHAR(16,9,105)
450 CALL SOUND(T,440,5,330,12,131,15)
460 CALL HCHAR(8,17,104)
470 CALL HCHAR(8,18,98,3)
480 CALL HCHAR(8,21,106)
490 CALL VCHAR(9,21,98,3)
500 CALL SOUND(T*1.5,349,6,220,12,175,15)
510 CALL VCHAR(9,17,98,3)
520 CALL HCHAR(12,17,108)
530 CALL HCHAR(12,18,98,3)
540 CALL HCHAR(12,21,109)
550 CALL SOUND(T/2,349,6,220,12,175,15)
560 CALL VCHAR(13,17,98,3)
570 CALL SOUND(T,440,4,349,12,175,15)
580 CALL VCHAR(16,17,105)
590 CALL HCHAR(16,18,98,3)
600 CALL HCHAR(16,21,107)
610 CALL SOUND(T,523,3,349,10,175,13)
620 CALL VCHAR(13,21,98,3)
630 CALL HCHAR(9,25,98)
640 CALL HCHAR(8,25,104)
650 CALL SOUND(3*T,587,2,349,8,233,10)
660 CALL HCHAR(8,26,98,3)
670 CALL HCHAR(8,29,106)
680 CALL VCHAR(9,29,98,3)
690 CALL HCHAR(12,27,98,2)
700 CALL HCHAR(12,29,109)
710 CALL VCHAR(13,29,98,3)
720 CALL HCHAR(16,29,107)
730 CALL HCHAR(16,26,98,3)
740 CALL HCHAR(16,25,105)
750 CALL HCHAR(15,25,98)
760 CALL SOUND(T,587,2,349,8,233,10)
770 CALL SCREEN(8)
780 PRINT " `b   hbbbj   hbbbj   a"
790 CALL SOUND(T*1.5,523,3,349,10,220,13)
800 PRINT " ab   b   b   b   b   b"
810 CALL SOUND(T/2,440,4,349,12,175,15)
820 PRINT "  b   b   b   b   b   b"
830 CALL SOUND(T,440,6,349,12,175,15)
840 PRINT "  b   b   b   b   b   b  b"
850 CALL SOUND(T,349,6,220,12,175,15)
860 PRINT "  b   ibbbb   lbbbm   b  b"
870 CALL SOUND(T*1.5,392,6,330,12,131,15)
880 PRINT "  b       b   b   b   bbbbb"
890 CALL SOUND(T/2,349,6,294,12,131,15)
900 PRINT "  b       b   b   b      b"
910 CALL SOUND(T,392,6,330,12,131,15)
920 PRINT "  b   b   b   b   b      b"
930 CALL SOUND(T,440,6,330,12,131,15)
940 PRINT "  b   ibbbk   ibbbk      b"
950 CALL SOUND(T*1.5,349,6,294,12,147,15)
960 PRINT
970 CALL SOUND(T/2,294,7,220,12,147,15)
980 PRINT
990 CALL SOUND(T,294,7,233,12,117,15)
1000 PRINT
1010 CALL SOUND(T,262,8,233,14,131,16)
1020 PRINT
1030 CALL SOUND(3*T,349,8,220,15,175,17)
1040 PRINT: : :
1050 CALL SOUND(T,587,5,349,12,175,15)
1060 CALL COLOR(9,5,1)
1070 CALL COLOR(10,5,1)
1080 CALL COLOR(2,7,1)
1090 CALL SOUND(1.5*T,523,5,349,12,175,15)
1100 FOR I=1 TO 25 STEP 5
1110 CALL HCHAR(6,I,42)
1120 NEXT I
1130 CALL SOUND(T/2,440,6,262,15)
1140 CALL SOUND(T,440,6,349,12,175,15)
1150 CALL HCHAR(4,13,42)
1160 CALL HCHAR(4,17,42)
1170 CALL HCHAR(2,11,42)
1180 CALL HCHAR(2,19,42)
1190 CALL SOUND(T,349,6,110,18)
1200 CALL HCHAR(4,8,42)
1210 CALL HCHAR(2,6,42)
1220 CALL HCHAR(4,22,42)
1230 CALL HCHAR(2,24,42)
1240 CALL SOUND(1.5*T,392,6,330,14,131,16)
1250 FOR I=1 TO 25 STEP 5
1260 CALL HCHAR(18,I,42)
1270 NEXT I
1280 CALL SOUND(T/2,349,6,294,12,131,17)
1290 CALL SCREEN(8)
1300 CALL SOUND(T,392,7,330,15,131,17)
1310 CALL HCHAR(20,13,42)
1320 CALL HCHAR(20,17,42)
1330 CALL HCHAR(22,11,42)
1340 CALL HCHAR(22,19,42)
1350 CALL SOUND(T,587,6,330,14,131,16)
1360 CALL HCHAR(20,8,42)
1370 CALL HCHAR(22,6,42)
1380 CALL HCHAR(20,22,42)
1390 CALL HCHAR(22,24,42)
1400 CALL SOUND(1.5*T,262,6,349,14,131,16)
1410 CALL HCHAR(4,3,42)
1420 CALL HCHAR(2,1,42)
1430 CALL HCHAR(4,27,42)
1440 CALL HCHAR(2,29,42)
1450 CALL COLOR(9,7,1)
1460 CALL COLOR(10,7,1)
1470 CALL SOUND(T/2,440,7,131,16)
1480 CALL SOUND(T,440,6,349,14,175,16)
1490 CALL HCHAR(20,3,42)
1500 CALL HCHAR(22,1,42)
1510 CALL HCHAR(20,27,42)
1520 CALL HCHAR(22,29,42)
1530 CALL SOUND(T,523,5,220,15)
1540 CALL SOUND(3*T,587,3,349,12,233,14)
1550 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1560 CALL SOUND(T,698,2,349,13,233,15)
1570 CALL COLOR(2,12,1)
1580 CALL SOUND(1.5*T,523,3,349,12,220,14)
1590 CALL COLOR(9,11,1)
1600 CALL COLOR(10,11,1)
1610 CALL SOUND(T/2,440,4,349,13,175,15)
1620 CALL SOUND(T,440,4,349,13,175,15)
1630 CALL COLOR(2,5,1)
1640 CALL SOUND(T,349,5,262,13,110,15)
1650 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1660 CALL SOUND(1.5*T,392,5,330,13,131,15)
1670 CALL COLOR(9,14,1)
1680 CALL COLOR(10,14,1)
1690 CALL COLOR(2,7,1)
1700 CALL SOUND(T/2,349,5,294,13,131,15)
1710 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1720 CALL SOUND(T,392,5,330,12,131,15)
1730 CALL COLOR(2,12,1)
1740 CALL SOUND(T/2,440,5,330,13,139,15)
1750 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1760 CALL SOUND(T/2,392,5,330,13,139,15)
1770 CALL COLOR(2,3,1)
1780 CALL SOUND(1.5*T,349,5,294,14,147,16)
1790 CALL COLOR(9,16,1)
1800 CALL COLOR(10,16,1)
1810 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1820 CALL SOUND(T/2,294,6,220,14,175,16)
1830 CALL COLOR(2,6,1)
1840 CALL SOUND(T,294,7,233,15,117,17)
1850 CALL COLOR(2,14,1)
1860 CALL SCREEN(11)
1870 CALL SOUND(T,262,7,165,15,131,17)
1880 CALL COLOR(2,12,1)
1890 CALL SOUND(T*4,349,6,220,15,175,17)
1900 CALL SCREEN(8)
1910 CALL COLOR(9,7,1)
1920 CALL COLOR(10,7,1)
1930 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1940 CALL COLOR(2,14,1)
1950 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1960 CALL COLOR(2,11,1)
1970 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
1980 CALL COLOR(2,7,1)
1990 CALL COLOR(2,16,1)
2000 CALL COLOR(2,6,1)
2010 GOTO 1930
2020 END

And also, here's a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, from a pretty cool TI BASIC game called Adventures in Oz:

100 REM  *RAINBOW* TI BASIC
110 REM  FOR USE WITH ADVENTURE IN OZ GAME
120 REM  FROM PROGREMS FOR THE TI HOME COMPUTER
130 REM  COPYRIGHT (C) 1983 BY STEVE DAVIS
140 CALL SCREEN(2)
150 CALL CLEAR
160 FOR I=9 TO 14
170 CALL COLOR(I,2,2)
180 NEXT I
190 CC=96
200 FOR I=1 TO 24
210 CALL HCHAR(I,1,CC,32)
220 CC=CC+8
230 IF CC<129 THEN 250
240 CC=96
250 NEXT I
260 CALL COLOR(9,7,7)
270 CALL COLOR(10,12,12)
280 CALL COLOR(11,13,13)
290 CALL COLOR(12,5,5)
300 CALL COLOR(13,14,14)
310 GOSUB 410
320 CALL SOUND(230,40000,30)
330 GOSUB 410
340 CALL SOUND(115,40000,30)
350 GOSUB 720
360 CALL SOUND(10,40000,30)
370 GOSUB 410
380 CALL SOUND(1000,40000,30)
390 CALL CLEAR
400 STOP
410 A=0
420 B=6
430 C=9
440 CALL SOUND(922,196,B,233,B,311,A)
450 CALL SOUND(922,392,B,466,B,622,A)
460 CALL SOUND(461,294,B,466,B,587,A)
470 CALL SOUND(230,294,B,392,B,466,A)
480 CALL SOUND(230,294,B,440,B,523,A)
490 CALL SOUND(461,294,B,466,B,587,A)
500 CALL SOUND(461,277,B,523,B,622,A)
510 CALL SOUND(922,208,B,262,B,311,A)
520 CALL SOUND(461,156,B,392,B,523,A)
530 CALL SOUND(461,156,B,370,B,523,A)
540 CALL SOUND(461,196,B,349,B,466,A)
550 CALL SOUND(461,196,B,311,B,466,A)
560 CALL SOUND(461,175,B,294,B,466,A)
570 CALL SOUND(461,165,B,277,B,466,A)
580 CALL SOUND(922,156,B,208,B,262,A)
590 CALL SOUND(922,175,B,311,B,415,A)
600 CALL SOUND(461,233,B,311,B,392,A)
610 CALL SOUND(230,233,B,262,B,311,A)
620 CALL SOUND(230,233,B,294,B,349,A)
630 CALL SOUND(461,233,B,330,B,392,A)
640 CALL SOUND(461,233,B,277,B,415,A)
650 CALL SOUND(461,220,B,294,B,349,A)
660 CALL SOUND(230,220,B,247,B,294,A)
670 CALL SOUND(230,220,B,262,B,311,A)
680 CALL SOUND(461,208,B,294,B,349,A)
690 CALL SOUND(461,208,B,294,B,392,A)
700 CALL SOUND(1383,196,B,233,B,311,A)
710 RETURN
720 CALL SOUND(230,466,A)
730 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,311,C,392,A)
740 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,311,C,466,A)
750 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,392,A)
760 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,466,A)
770 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,262,C,392,A)
780 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,262,C,466,A)
790 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,392,A)
800 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,466,A)
810 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,415,A)
820 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,466,A)
830 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,415,A)
840 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,466,A)
850 CALL SOUND(230,233,C,294,C,415,A)
860 CALL SOUND(230,233,C,294,C,466,A)
870 CALL SOUND(230,233,C,294,C,415,A)
880 CALL SOUND(230,233,C,294,C,466,A)
890 CALL SOUND(922,156,4,392,4,523,A)
900 CALL SOUND(1383,311,4,392,4,523,A)
910 CALL SOUND(115,40000,30)
920 CALL SOUND(230,466,A)
930 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,311,C,392,A)
940 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,311,C,466,A)
950 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,392,A)
960 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,466,A)
970 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,262,C,392,A)
980 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,262,C,466,A)
990 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,392,A)
1000 CALL SOUND(230,156,C,233,C,466,A)
1010 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,440,A)
1020 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,523,A)
1030 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,440,A)
1040 CALL SOUND(230,262,C,311,C,523,A)
1050 CALL SOUND(230,185,C,311,C,440,A)
1060 CALL SOUND(230,185,C,311,C,523,A)
1070 CALL SOUND(230,185,C,311,C,440,A)
1080 CALL SOUND(230,185,C,311,C,523,A)
1090 CALL SOUND(922,349,4,466,4,587,A)
1100 CALL SOUND(922,311,4,370,4,587,A)
1110 CALL SOUND(922,349,4,523,4,698,A)
1120 CALL SOUND(922,294,4,370,4,523,A)
1130 RETURN

June 3, 2023

Kind of. I've just grabbed this from my Twitter banner where it's obviously cropped to suit the purpose, but these are boxes I actually have displayed on my wall:

With the clear plastic covers absent, as those have usually born the brunt of the wear (but happily, as a result, having preserved what's inside).

June 3, 2023

Here is a better view of the Milton Bradley Expander (MBX proto) demoed at CES, as it appeared in Electronic Fun (April 1983):

May 30, 2023

42 minutes ago, arcadeshopper said:

Pcode PEB cards aren't rare, working ones are

I have 10 broke ones here..

Much appreciation for your hooking me up with a working one, so I could do that video some while back, though.

May 30, 2023

Very much agree on how personal holy grails are, in this community. So while we're talking about those, here are my own, best as I can figure off the top of my head:

Hardware (nearly impossible): CC-40+

Hardware (extremely unlikely): P-System Sidecar

Hardware (merely improbable): Myarc HFDC

Software (nearly impossible): CC-40 wafertape software library

Software (extremely unlikely): Arcturus (Exceltec/Sunware)

Software (merely improbable): Legends 1.0 and 1.1 (complete)

May 30, 2023

Impossibly unobtainable: Dimension 1 & 4 (pre-99/4 prototype)

Almost impossibly unobtainable if you don't already have one: TI 99/8 (99/4A successor prototype)

Among carts, I would say the Arcturus cart from Sunware/Exceltec (only a few out there, and it's a genuinely interesting game).

This all being said, this community is less "collector" oriented than more popular systems. Most people are coders or hardware developers - not people collecting game carts. So the "rare collector's item" category isn't all that well defined, just because almost nobody is a "TI-99 cart collector" sort of thing, first and foremost.

Profiles

Forums

Blogs

Gallery

Events

Store

Posts posted by pixelpedant