TI-99 4/A newbie here

[toptenmaterial]

I just scored a boxed TI-99 4/A from work! It is in excellent condition and appears to power up. Now, I have some questions about it. First of all, can I get an adapter to plug it into a coaxle? Also, it doesn't have the joystick. Does it need one to play games, or can I use the keypad? Thanks!

[Dripfree]

The 99/4a is a neat little machine I've stumbled across 2 myself (the steel and the grey) with a bunch of games and I like them very much. They came stock with an rf coax adapter so yours must have gotten misplaced over the years. If you can get one they can use the same composite adapter as the vic 20 or c64. I use my vic 20 composite for my TI and its much nicer than the coax was. If you got soldering skills make your own there are pin outs online and its very easy. The joystick is going to be a the bigger problem for you. Not all games need it but many do. TI uses there own joysticks. They are two odd uncomfortable joysticks linked into 1 db 9 connector (similar to the atari paddle's if your familiar) . You can use a standard atari stick if you build or buy a splitter. Honestly Ti 99's are cheap. Even on Ebay you can probably buy a whole new system with games and joysticks for about the same price as just the joysticks. Good luck Its a fun little computer and if your good you can build an adapter to hook up any cassette player with a mic and speaker jack. this will make it alot more useful to you.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Dripfree

[+retroclouds]

You also might want to take a peek here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/forum/119-ti-994a-programming/