Upgrading My New TI99

[zunebuggy]

I was given a TI99 (never used in original box), the data cassette recorder/player and connecting cables, and the big gray tower with the giant black cable. The tower has a 5 1/4" floppy drive and an RS232 serial and/or paralell card in it. (Really not sure if it's serial or paralell). It has extended memory too.

 

I was able to connect the old screw type RF connector to a 2 screws type (I dont know what this screw down antenna type connector is really called) to F-type connector and connect that F connector to an old VCR. The VCR had RCA output. I connected the RCA cables to my TV and incredibly, it came up with the TI screen and right into BASIC. It came with the Extended Basic cartride, plus many others.

 

I have a ton of old COMPUTE! and RUN magazines and I am itching to get started with typing some of the TI99 games and saving them to floppy or tape and playing some retro games. I am even interested in buying some old game cartridges on eBay.

 

Is there a way (besides opening it up and soldering that $99 modded video chip in it) to get this to connect to my PC monitor that has a DVI and a VGA cable?

 

Also, this is a dumb question, but, that gray tower thing has a lot of space left in it. Any way I can mount a hard drive (like a 20GB) in it and put everything on that instead of the 5 1/4" and data tape?

 

ANOTHER DUMB QUESTION... Has anyone ever successfully connected the TI99 to the Internet and if so, how difficult is this task? It does have some sort of old modem.

 

I want to upgrade this whole system and make it as modern as possible, but not spend a fortune. I may eventually get that $99 VGA video upgrade, but I am afraid I will mess it up and it's in such nice condition. I have really begun to get into retro gaming, emulators and vintage computers, but mainly with Commodore 128s and Amigas so I have very little knowledge of the TI99. I did manage to figure out how to do the RUN "CS1.PRG1" command and get some programs on the tape to load and run. It looks like a really fun system.

 

Sorry, final question, is there a way to get the TI99 ROMs found online, onto the data cassette or floppy disks?

[Tursi]

Is there a way (besides opening it up and soldering that $99 modded video chip in it) to get this to connect to my PC monitor that has a DVI and a VGA cable?

 

No soldering needed, the VDP is socketted in the TI, but you do have to take it apart. Without replacing the VDP, the best output quality you have is composite video (assuming North American machine here). It is possible to upscale that to VGA with some converters out there, but I don't have any particular recommendations.

 

Also, this is a dumb question, but, that gray tower thing has a lot of space left in it. Any way I can mount a hard drive (like a 20GB) in it and put everything on that instead of the 5 1/4" and data tape?

 

Yes, but hard drive controllers are rare and the most common one is MFM, meaning drives are hard to come by. There is a much more recent IDE controller but it's a little unclear to me how many functional boards were ever assembled, or whether more are available. Someone will happily correct me on that.

 

ANOTHER DUMB QUESTION... Has anyone ever successfully connected the TI99 to the Internet and if so, how difficult is this task? It does have some sort of old modem.

 

"connected to the internet" can mean a lot of things. The most common thing people have done is use a serial->tcp/ip converter and a terminal program to access a shell account somewhere, and in the past the same thing was done, but using a dial up modem. To date, there's no ethernet or similar direct connection available, though it's one of my (apparently very) long term plans. There's also no dial-up networking stack available.

 

I want to upgrade this whole system and make it as modern as possible, but not spend a fortune. I may eventually get that $99 VGA video upgrade, but I am afraid I will mess it up and it's in such nice condition.

 

The F18A is well worth it. The video output quality of the 99/4A is not very good at the best of times, and the DRAM that the video chip uses is starting to fail. I'd recommend it, unless you really must stay pure.

 

I have really begun to get into retro gaming, emulators and vintage computers, but mainly with Commodore 128s and Amigas so I have very little knowledge of the TI99. I did manage to figure out how to do the RUN "CS1.PRG1" command and get some programs on the tape to load and run. It looks like a really fun system.

 

Unlike the Commodores, the tape system has no filenames, so just "CS1" is all you need. The 'RUN' command only works like that from Extended BASIC, in TI BASIC you have to load and run with separate commands. Load is "OLD CS1" and, if you type something in, save in both of them is "SAVE CS1". Disk systems do use filenames the way you indicate there, the first disk drive is usually DSK1

 

Sorry, final question, is there a way to get the TI99 ROMs found online, onto the data cassette or floppy disks?

 

I will let someone else tackle this as I've done rather little of it in any traditional manner. The most common means, I /think/, are PC99 which lets you mount a floppy drive in your PC, if it supports it, and read/write TI disks directly, and the CF7 device, which doesn't transfer to floppy or tape, but at least gets images from the PC to the TI. That's for files, anyway.

 

For cartridges, you'll have to build hardware if you want to run them. Jon Guidry has a nice multicart system that manages ROM-only games. GROM support I've coded but not finalized for the next cart yet, I'm afraid I'm holding that up :/

 

[matthew180]

Is there a way (besides opening it up and soldering that $99 modded video chip in it) to get this to connect to my PC monitor that has a DVI and a VGA cable?

 

One of the primary motivations I had for making the F18A was the lack of success in previous attempts to generate an acceptable modern video signal from the 9918A. You can get a scan converter, but they cost just as much and the results are a grab-bag. Also, an external video solution will not provide the enhancements that the F18A has, like no per-line limit for sprites, the GPU, and replacing the system's DRAM (which, as Tursi mentioned, is prone to failure after so many years). Also, the F18A runs cooler and draws less power than the original 9918A.

 

I apologize for the high cost, but they are expensive and time consuming to make. As soon as I get a demand for 1 million units, Xilinx will cut me a break on the FPGA. Retro and classic computers are a low-demand low-volume hobby, so things are going to cost more, especially the new hardware that people are working on.

 

As for installation, again like Tursi mentioned, the 99/4A does not require any soldering. The original 9918A VDP is in a socket, so you only have to remove it and plug the F18A in. If you take your time and are careful, the install is really pretty simple. Check out MainByte (http://mainbyte.com) for some nice photos and graphics of the 99/4A and how it is put together. I also have some install images in the F18A thread and on my website (http://codehackcreate.com)

 

I may eventually get that $99 VGA video upgrade, but I am afraid I will mess it up and it's in such nice condition.

 

Messing up your system by doing and F18A install depends on your comfort level and modding skills really. Removing some screws and a little plastic cutting are all that you really need to do.

[+Vorticon]

IMHO, it's worth every penny. It literally gave a new life to the TI.

[matthew180]

Thanks Vorticon, much appreciated!

[RXB]

One of the best devices ever made for the TI99/4A was the Wester Horizon SCSI controller card.

If you have one you can also buy a SCSI to IDE converter device from several outlets including Mouser then add a IDE to SATA converter device.

LOL you get a TI99/4A with a SATA drive that way. (Of course 99% of the drive space is wasted)