Omega-TI Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Lately, I've been wondering if I'm in that "mid-life stage" where I'm reliving my youth. With all that's been going on in the TI realm lately, the excitement level is high, just like in my first go around with the TI. We have 'The Mole' with his Alex Kidd project and Rasmus with his Sabre Wulf project keeping the feelings of expectation up. There are all kinds of hardware hacks available, new cartridges coming out, etc. For an older guy, I sure do appreciate all of you in this TI community. I'm starting to feel younger! THANKS! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 One word answer-YES!!!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertLM78 Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolio Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Not only our second childhood, but I found the TI is a great computer for my young kids. They learn about computers, the 7 year old even dabbles with BASIC. I don't have to worry about "parental controls" and "in app purchases". 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 I never made it out of my first childhood. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 I never made it out of my first childhood. I'm with you on that! ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dphirschler Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Having a blast with my old TI and you guys! This group has the feel of the old user groups. Great spirit of cooperation and innovation. Thank you everyone. Darryl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 This group has the feel of the old user groups. Great spirit of cooperation and innovation. I agree, it's only missing one thing, the monthly newsletter. I wish I had more time, I'd take the highlights of every months postings, turn them into articles and make a PDF and post it. Then if someone wanted to print it off on their personal printer for themselves.... Just this first half of this month alone has a lot of content that would blow away those old newsletters. Combine all that info with modern word processing and graphics, well, it would be awesome. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Not only our second childhood, but I found the TI is a great computer for my young kids. They learn about computers, the 7 year old even dabbles with BASIC. I don't have to worry about "parental controls" and "in app purchases". both of my kids also love the machine, they have both gotten good use out of the educational titles and Q*Bert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I am more like on my 'fourth' childhood, every 10 years, it all restarts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idflyfish Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 (edited) The question I have is how many of you would pick the TI-99/4a as your 8bit platform of choice if you had the choice of any other late 70's to mid 80's 8bit platform. Edited August 19, 2014 by idflyfish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 I never got into the TI-99/4A back then, but it is on my emulator buildup list now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Regardless of your smile, the TI is not an 8 bit platform. It is a 16 bit platform by all reasonable kinds of definitions. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 The question I have is how many of you would pick the TI-99/4a as your 8bit platform of choice if you had the choice of any other late 70's to mid 80's 8bit platform. I initially moved away from th TI because it was no longer viable in terms of software and hardware availability(not as big of a problem for you U.S citizens), I would have stuck with it longer if the prices and availabilty had been a bit more realistic. As it was-I moved over to an Atari 800XL with 1010 tape and 1050 disk, I genuinely loved that set up, I then moved to a Commodore 128 and within a few weeks of owning it I began to regret having gotten rid of the Atari. I have them all back now plus quite a few extra!!!, I still keep going back to my first love though-the shiny 4a with all it's flaws holds my interest more than any of the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertLM78 Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Regardless of your smile, the TI is not an 8 bit platform. It is a 16 bit platform by all reasonable kinds of definitions. Like Sometimes said, "16-bits shoehorned into an 8-bit bus." It's heart is 16-bit without a doubt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 The "8 bit myth" about the TI has been continued for decades mainly by non-TIers, partly due to misinformation, maybe also to make the world simpler. We should not allow it to be carried on, neither in quotes, nor with smilies or terms like "actually" or "almost". It is a 16 bit platform. No one starts a discussion like this when speaking about Intel chips which also know bus multiplexing for a long time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 (edited) The "8 bit myth" about the TI has been continued for decades mainly by non-TIers, partly due to misinformation, maybe also to make the world simpler. We should not allow it to be carried on, neither in quotes, nor with smilies or terms like "actually" or "almost". It is a 16 bit platform. No one starts a discussion like this when speaking about Intel chips which also know bus multiplexing for a long time. You couldn't program or load machine code games on the stock home computer via a cassette deck - which was almost standard with systems of that era. You were stuck with TI Basic, which had no sprites and ran rather slow. You could expand your TI, it would of course cost you money, - you wouldn't have to do that with other systems. Many bright future programmers turned away or turned off. Still it's 16 bit at heart and then crippled in so many ways. - Actually I think it's okay for people to perceive the TI-99/4A as an 8 bit machine. It's like going on about it having 32 sprites and the Amiga only having 8 (sprites/Denise). Here's a benchmark from Creative Computing. You'll find TI Basic and TI Extended Basic near the end of the list. Edited August 19, 2014 by sometimes99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Whether touted as an 8-bit or 16-bit computer, the TI is from that era where many machines were indeed 8-bit. Personally, it doesn't matter if someone misrepresents the processor unless the person is trying to carry on a technical discussion requiring a more in-depth understanding. To me it's like telling the average user what processor is running in their phone - most could care less nor do they need to know, and it does little good to argue the nuances. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Whether touted as an 8-bit or 16-bit computer, the TI is from that era where many machines were indeed 8-bit. Personally, it doesn't matter if someone misrepresents the processor unless the person is trying to carry on a technical discussion requiring a more in-depth understanding. To me it's like telling the average user what processor is running in their phone - most could care less nor do they need to know, and it does little good to argue the nuances.But, But, you know that we are not "average users"! ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 You couldn't program or load machine code games on the stock home computer via a cassette deck - which was almost standard with systems of that era. You were stuck with TI Basic, which had no sprites and ran rather slow. You could expand your TI, it would of course cost you money, - you wouldn't have to do that with other systems. Many bright future programmers turned away or turned off. Still it's 16 bit at heart and then crippled in so many ways. - Actually I think it's okay for people to perceive the TI-99/4A as an 8 bit machine. It's like going on about it having 32 sprites and the Amiga only having 8 (sprites/Denise). Here's a benchmark from Creative Computing. You'll find TI Basic and TI Extended Basic near the end of the list. Creative_Computing_v10_n05_1984_May_0009.jpg Some good figure for the BBC micro there-punching it out with the big boys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted August 19, 2014 Author Share Posted August 19, 2014 I'd like to compile a listing of creative CRACKS people have come up with over the years to bypass Texas Instruments attempts at locking the old girl up in a Chastity Belt. There is of course the "Sandbox" deal, the GROM buster and a couple of others, but I had other things going on and was not paying full attention. Also, are there any other locks that have been 'unpicked' yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 (edited) Traditionally the amount of bits in a computer is how many bits the processor core is. That holds true today. Edited August 20, 2014 by Keatah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idflyfish Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Regardless of your smile, the TI is not an 8 bit platform. It is a 16 bit platform by all reasonable kinds of definitions. It's not? See I thought that it was originally designed for an 8bit processor but when that processor wasn't ready for release they shoehorned in a 16bit processor. Is this not the case? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idflyfish Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 The "8 bit myth" about the TI has been continued for decades mainly by non-TIers, partly due to misinformation, maybe also to make the world simpler. We should not allow it to be carried on, neither in quotes, nor with smilies or terms like "actually" or "almost". It is a 16 bit platform. No one starts a discussion like this when speaking about Intel chips which also know bus multiplexing for a long time. Wow....touchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 The TMS9900 is a 16-bit microprocessor. By all classic and contemporary computing conventions the TI99/4A is a 16-bit computer. To say otherwise is simply twisting semantics around - like claiming a gaming PC is 1024 bits because it has 2 graphics cards that have a memory bus width of 512-bits each. Or calling an I7 a 256-bit processor because it has 4 cores that are 64-bits. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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