pixelpedant

I'm really sorry to hear that's the case. The game really made an impact on me with its graphics, on my original TI-99. And seemed to control rather nicely, with fun enemy patterns. Consequently, I’ve always thought of it very fondly. So I’m sorry to hear that it doesn’t follow through where real long term challenge is concerned. But honestly, I was never very good at any of the classic TI-99 games I owned, and didn’t really expect to be. So in that limited scope of lazy, periodic, inept novice gameplay, Super Demon Attack always seemed to hang with the best of them. And I’ll probably continue to think well of it, consequently.

Here's a video of the gameplay with speech, on real iron. It really is fantastic. Tragic it was removed.

Will grab some on real iron tonight when I have the chance and if none turns up by then, as I love everything about the game. The huge, sprawling background. The enemy patterns. The big sprites. The hilarious speech. Pretty sure the copy on my FinalGROM has speech. Which quite surprised me, at some point, but less so for the fact that I never had a speech synth module with which to hear it regardless, on my original TI-99.

As for me, I suppose an option I might consider for very old PCs would be adding a boot menu option for launching V9T9 directly. In the conventional DOS boot menu style, where my Win311/DOS PC's boot menu is currently But an option would be added to this to just start V9T9 (with Soundblaster and Adlib audio, and PC Card flash media drivers for removable CF storage) That having said, my initial brief attempts to get V9T9 running have not been successful, so I may or may not take another stab at it (being a pretty frivolous exercise, admittedly).

And as far as super old computers, or ones on which one does not wish to replace the operating system, I suppose there's PC99 and V9T9, for DOS machines. Never considered it, but now I'm tempted to install one of them on my Win31 system.

Just had an appealingly bonkers idea for an additional feature: add voice synth notifications for certain events during active use. The reasons this is appealing being 1) This would give the TI-99 a way to provide any useful or important immediate information on service/signal status without interrupting the video feed. 2) Since the TI-99 has the means to control its own (and everything else's) audio routing, it could briefly route itself to a necessary audio output for the sake of the announcement, then immediately restore the original feed. 3) This further contributes to the pleasant sense that the TI-99 ruling with an iron fist (or a robot voice, anyway) over the other systems.

Over the last while, I’ve been working on a personal project, and I thought people here might be interested to see the result as a case in point for the TI-99/4A as an automation interface in the present day. The goal of the project was the creation of an aesthetically and functionally appealing control centre for accessing and managing a/v signal processing, routing and power distribution for an array of interconnected devices which exist in the service of various game and computer systems. A TI-99-based entertainment centre home screen, basically, for a very big and complicated entertainment centre. An explanation and demonstration which I tried to make accessible to general audience is in video form here, on YouTube. If you want to cut out the basics and the jabbering and just get to a demonstration of the interface, you can find it here , at 4m30s. But the solution in somewhat more textual detail is this: I have a fairly large number of (mainly Extron) a/v signal processing and routing devices which I use with my computers and game consoles, mostly with 15KHz signals but with some 31KHz and oddball 31KHz-40KHz signals as well, in a mix of RGBHV and RGBS. The a/v routing as a whole looks like this, with three main matrix switches as the primary “hubs”. Now, out of these, seven systems account for almost all my usage. Namely, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear (VGA and controller modded - not used as a handheld), Sega Saturn, a DOS/Win311 PC, Atari 2600, and most of all, TI-99/4A itself. So if I’m automating things via my TI-99/4A, those are the ones I’m going to focus on having immediately at hand and ideally configurable, via a control interface. The nice thing about this signal processing hardware is that essentially all of its functions can be (and in some cases must be) managed via RS-232 text commands. And my TI-99/4A has an RS-232 port, via its NanoPEB. So wouldn’t it be nice if I could manage it all via a GUI on my TI-99/4A? The problem there, obviously, is that an RS-232 port is not a network interface, and a TI-99/4A is not particularly well-suited to the creation of GUIs. So I was going to have to get my TI-99/4A talking to everything via an intermediary that *could* talk to all of it, and I was going to have to bone up on my understanding of 9918 graphics. As far as signal handling goes, I could go with either an RS-232 switch, like the ones made by WTI... Or with a software RS-232 switch and command interface of my own creation (python scripts on a connected PC, which is the TI-99’s “one to many” intermediary). I went with the latter, both for cost and flexibility reasons. And I’m glad I did, as it’s easier to debug a complicated RS-232 traffic situation when you can produce live reports as needed. Which is to say, generate this sort of thing, as you go: It also contributes to space economy, as device connections are via PL2303 USB->RS232 adapters, making the cable runs USB rather than D-sub. So I have a one-to-one-to-many setup, in the end. Basically, this: And I just needed to create a GUI I was satisfied with, and get the command sets and signal routing sorted out. The GUI I came up with is this one: XB256 was used for its various benefits to the XB developer. Many thanks to Harry Wilhelm for providing the community with that tool. And Magellan was used to keep track of assets. Many thanks to Rasmus for maintaining that tool. The picture-in-picture is done in analogue with an Extron DVS 304, which has a strong picture-in-picture feature set, but which I also use as a scaler for its own sake, so that’s really just a useful side-benefit. Because the DVS 304 only supports 15KHz picture-in-picture signals on 31KHz or higher backgrounds, when necessary, PIP input signals are (as you'd expect, via commands to relevant devices via RS-232) downscaled to 15KHz RGBHV via an Extron VSC 500, first, before being converted to YPbPr and fed to the DVS304 as such. I haven’t compiled the source, but I don’t feel it’s necessary. The only animation used runs at the right speed as is, all the main assets are cached to disk on first execution to enhance load speed, and modifying source as needed is pretty key so it kind of makes sense to access it as “living” rather than static code. What Next: - Could come up with some hack for doing something similar via TIPI. But not just yet I don’t think. - All desired command execution features are implemented, but additional status reporting features might be considered. - Could clean up command execution timing and sequencing a bit, to minimise sync drops during signal routing changes. - Now that all functionality is complete, consider additional GUI fluff. Still have 10 or so free patterns. Probably plenty more if I clean up unused/underused/duplicated cruft or colours (e.g., grey on transparent) that are barely used.

In XB256, if you want to duplicate the patterns (and only have the colour differ) you could VREAD the patterns for the appropriate range (e.g., for the A-Z patterns), then VWRITE them to the desired destination range. The memory map for the pattern RAM is in the documentation. That'd be super quick.

Well, you can do it with XB256. Which gives you access to a second screen, with its own fully remappable 256 character pattern table.

For me (and everybody's going to be different) what it comes down to is that the NanoPEB offers the necessities I actually use literally every day, while the TIPI offers novelties which, while cool, I don't actually have much use for. NanoPEB: - RS232 (I use this a lot - you might not use it at all) - Three disks in a removable format - File sharing via CFHDX, so you don't have to meddle with physical media once installed. - 32K - Fairly Cheap - Small footprint (this does matter quite a bit, in my physical setup) TIPI+32K: - Tremendous extensibility - Cool emerging development in new and unexplored territory - Mouse and web connectivity offer remarkable possibilities - Fairly expensive - Larger footprint So for me, the TIPI is a legitimately brilliant futuristic concept car I'm not sure I really need, while the NanoPEB is a boring early 2000s stick shift sedan which just happens to have all the features I actually want and use. So I have absolutely no difficulty at all seeing what's so great about the TIPI. And I even feel a bit odd about the fact that my NanoPEB's currently connected, and my TIPI's sitting on the desk beside it. Like I'm leaving the Tesla in the garage and driving my 2001 Honda Civic. But if it does what you need, it does what you need.

Here's one I'm pretty sure nobody else is going to say: Black Hole (1987, Databiotics). Because it was the best two player game we had. Don't often hear folks speak nostalgically about two player games and gaming experiences here. But yeah, that was definitely a key one for me, and probably my most played. After that, Munchman, TI Invaders and Midnight Mason, in declining volume of play. Still have all the carts. Those aren't favourites of mine these days at all though. Partly, any TI gaming is solo. Partly, I arrived at new favourites once I explored the fuller library.

Worth noting I guess that Tim Worthington's NESRGB and 2600RGB both feature a palette switch for selecting from multiple palettes (well, as an option, but it'd be weird not to install it). And the 2600RGB palette is reprogrammable. So there's precedent for this kind of thing.

Seems realistic to project a future where almost everybody who's actively and regularly using a TI99 is using an FPGA VDP, though. I mean, if F18As had never gone out of production, that'd probably be the case today. So it's maybe worth thinking about optional tweaks to the colour space in that context. Especially something like an alternate colour mode which switches out dark red for brown (seems really popular), or makes dark yellow a less bilious shade. Which shouldn't really even really "break" most existing designs if left on for legacy games. But if the alternate palette mode isn't on by default, that's not really even a concern. That having said, I was mostly asking this as a thought experiment. Now it's just got me thinking.

But I feel like to keep up with the NES, which after all kind of defined game graphics in the popular imagination of the late 80s, what the TI really needs is *nine different identical blacks*. Anything else just wouldn't be keeping up with the Joneses.

Yeah, I feel like dark red is an okay brown, at least as far as what you can reasonably expect from a 15 visible colour palette goes. That being said, a true brown would surely be more useful than whatever shade of red, yellow or green one likes the least.

As boring as it sounds, I think I’d be tempted to add a dark grey. Probably at the expense of one of the greens, or reds. I feel like four greyscale shades (a la CGA) go a lot farther than three.

I’ve used several VGA switches, selectors, RGB amps, and KVMs, over the last several years, with my TI99. My main standby which is the biggest hub of my connectivity (and connects directly to my TI99) is an Extron MVX88 matrix switch. This is a fantastic product in this category, as most of Extron’s products are, being a fully matrix switched (any to any) device which is controllable via plain text RS232 (and thus, via TI99 RS232, though I presently route my TI99 RS232 through my own software RS232 matrix switching scripts on a connected PC, so it’s not connected directly and rather controls devices like this via commands passed to the RS232 “router” PC, which sends the messages back and forth as needed). Importantly for me, audio and video can be switched separately on the MVX series (which makes sense, since audio and video signal processing devices sometimes do one, or sometimes both). A minor downside is that as with a fair amount of professional a/v signal processing equipment, audio out uses terminal block (phoenix) connectors, to allow for balanced or unbalanced audio wiring as desired. So you’re generally going to have to wire your own audio. I also use an MVX44 (same thing, but 4x4 switching) to matrix switch my analogue display setup (where the MVX88 is more backend signal processing). And I use a Binary BT-100 8x8 HDMI matrix switch for digital display and capture and whatnot, subsequently. And a supplementary 2x4 switch which is really just duplicating a specific signal right now. The setup as a whole looks like this: I additionally switch my legacy PCs (but not my TI99) using a [Trendnet 423K](https://www.trendnet.com/products/product-detail?prod=165_TK-423K), which is a VGA/PS2/Audio switch. PS2 KVMs which support audio switching are somewhat annoying hard to come by, so this is a really fantastic product, for me, for switching PS2, VGA and Audio together (mainly for DOS and Win16). In a perfect world, it’d have DB9 too, but you can’t have everything I guess. And no RS232 scripting support, unfortunately, but switching is achieved via assigned keyboard shortcuts on the connected keyboard, so that’s convenient enough. I’ve also used an Extron Versa Tools VSW 2VGA switcher, and a Kramer Tools VP-211DS (VGA autoswitcher) with my TI99 and other sources. But I do not at present.

Thanks Tursi. And for all your work on Classic99. I'll probably just switch which system I do development on, under the circumstances, since I am a fan of it. Since there's no reason it shouldn't be that one. And it's easier to switch which monitor I code on than muck about with unseen DirectX system settings and hidden GPU behaviours.

For reasons which are unclear to me, on one of my systems (which is a pretty lightweight Windows system with a 3200x1800 display, if that signifies anything insofar is Classic99 is concerned), Classic99's screen image appears filtered/softened when Stretch mode is set to DX, i.e., DirectX (and Filter Mode is None). Here's the thing though - I actually like this look (which resembles F18A CRT graphics on a 15KHz monitor, which is what I'm used to). I just have no idea how it's being achieved (and this system does not have a real dedicated GPU, and has never been used for gaming, so any DirectX behaviour is out of the box Intel-integrated-graphics-on-Windows-10 behaviour). Of course, turning on TV Mode enables output resembling CVBS and featuring the accompanying defects. And setting Stretch Mode to DIB results in a pixel-perfect screen image. But I'd like to know if this DX filtered appearance is reproducible functionality. Because I actually would reproduce it if I could. Is this softening likely just a DirectX bug which happens to have desirable effects? Or is this in some form intended functionality? Anyone know? Here's an example:

Works just fine for me. NanoPEB v1 and FinalGROM with the August firmware. Non-QI unit with F18A.

Yeah, I’d love to see more exploration of what GUIs designed even using standard mode 9918A assets might look like, taken to their most lavish extreme. And it does seem like a TIPI mouse is one inspiration towards exploring that. Since there’s not much excuse for exploring any complicated GUI designs if you’re just doing everything with key input anyway. Basically, I find my apparently perverse imagination asking “what does Microsoft Bob for the TI-99/4A look like?”

Ooh, cool thread idea. Glad it got resurrected. In the spirit of it, here's the main background art associated with my current project, which is an RS-232 based game system control, selection and management system and launcher for my favourite systems, whose sprite/background graphics were designed principally in Magellan:

And after all, the XB 2.7 Suite itself has a good selection of classic cart games, so even if one is playing the odd classic in between coding, it's got you covered in some cases there, too.