Possible TI-99/4 and 4a history book - thoughts?

[Iwantgames:)]

I just recently got a TI-99 and got a PEB on the way so I'd love to learn more about it so will definatly be getting this book

[RangerG]

The CoCo book was excellent. It was well-written and had a lot of interesting inside information. I hope this one is similar.

[Bill Loguidice]

The CoCo book was excellent. It was well-written and had a lot of interesting inside information. I hope this one is similar.

 

Thanks. I wouldn't have decided to finally do this if I didn't think I could match or exceed the quality of the CoCo book. I feel the things that need to be in place to write this the right way are in place.

[+Ksarul]

You might want to try and talk to Mike Bunyard (in Texas). He was the chief engineer for the 99/8 project, and also did a lot of development on the /4A (he was the engineer that designed the OSO, POLLO, MOFETTA, and AMIGO chips for the /8 and the HOMBRE chip for the 99/4B, also known as the 99/4LCP(Lowered Parts Count)). I talk to him every once in a while. Blaine Crandell is another possiility, as he was one of the corporate side folks. He shows up selling stuff on eBay a lot (he has a Hex-Bus Interface up at the moment).

 

I have the development documentation collections from three of the engineers who worked on the /8 (and I scanned most of that documentation and put it up on the WHT FTP site), acquired directly or indirectly from them over the years. I've also got one of the most complete collections if TI-99-related literature on the planet (in six languages). I was also close to the owners/developers for several third party TI developers in the US while they were still active, and most of the major European Users Groups from the mid-eighties until now.

 

I like your idea--and if I had the time, I probably would have tried to do it myself sooner or later. . .

 

BTW, some oddball little tidbits of TI-related data. There was another 9995-based computer developed at TI: the Powertran Cortex. It was developed by three engineers in the Semiconductor Division. They were told to drop the project, but asked for permission to give the design to a magazine for kit builders instead (they were in Great Britain). They got that permission (with the caveat that they should leave no references to an origin at TI in their design docs) and gave it to the Electronics Today magazine in late 1982. Powertran sold the kits, in two flavors. I have a couple of Cortices. I also have all variants of the 9995-based Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta, and one of the only 9900-based S-100 machines, a Marinchip S-9900 (on which the earliest version of AutoCAD was written/sold).

[Bill Loguidice]

Thanks, Ksarul.

[RobertLM78]

Glad you're still thinking of doing this Bill. I am going to have to buy a copy .

[carlsson]

There was another 9995-based computer developed at TI: the Powertran Cortex. It was developed by three engineers in the Semiconductor Division. They were told to drop the project, but asked for permission to give the design to a magazine for kit builders instead (they were in Great Britain). They got that permission (with the caveat that they should leave no references to an origin at TI in their design docs) and gave it to the Electronics Today magazine in late 1982. Powertran sold the kits, in two flavors. I have a couple of Cortices. I also have all variants of the 9995-based Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta, and one of the only 9900-based S-100 machines, a Marinchip S-9900 (on which the earliest version of AutoCAD was written/sold).

 

The Swedish electronics magazine Elektronikvärlden (previously Radio & Television) also published the Cortex project in mid-late 1983. They even made it appear like it was a computer designed by a staff member at the magazine, but perhaps that was part of the deal with TI that every magazine who published it should pretend it was their own design... I've scanned some of the articles in case you're curious.

 

Although borderline off-topic, they claimed the Cortex with its VDP didn't suffer the same colour restrictions with 8 characters per colour group as e.g. TI-99/4A, Colecovision etc. I suppose it may depend on which video mode it operates in, or perhaps the VDP can be equipped with memory in different ways to change its operation even in text mode.

[+Ksarul]

I am definitely interested in those scans, Carlsson, as I can compare them to the ones from the UK magazines (and if you have any for Cortex peripherals, I could use those as well) and add them to my repository of Cortex lore.