PDF reference material(s) for the NEW or Returning TI'er

[Omega-TI]

While having a manual printed up at Office Depot, I had and idea... many people getting back into the TI might want printed materials for reference, but without having to pay the Ebay prices for each and every individual manual. (i.e. P-Box, FDC, RS-232, Extended Basic manual, etc.) or whatever they might not have the time to hunt down and download.

 

What manuals would you consider a MUST HAVE? If they were all cleaned up, possibly updated and combined into an all inclusive PDF available for download here at Atari Age, newbies could download it, get it printed and 'be off to the races'.

 

A NEWBIE PRIMER, scattered around the Internet might be a cool item as well, sort of an answer to all the most asked questions. Of course this one would have to list "ti.99.atariage.com" as a way to direct more people here.

 

What would you suggest be included in either?

[am1933]

I think the hardware manuals were all pretty straight forward but it if it was a kind of kit for "newbies", I would probaly suggest the TI Users Reference Guide, Beginners BASIC, the XB manual and a few non TI related books to get folk going, I personally like the books that Compute! put out. Compute!'s Beginners guide to assembly is a really good book that focused on Mini Memory and the line by line assembler-the Mini Memory is still fairly easy to come by and requires less of a financial outlay than it's E/A counterpart, particularly in this neck of the woods where the PEB is as rare as hen's teeth.

[+Ksarul]

You could also do a set of things--one set with the books initially included with the console, another with the hardware manuals for the PEB (and including as many of the 3rd party PEB card manuals as we have access to as well, so that the PEB book becomes a one-stop manual), and a programmer's set with the XB, E/A, Pascal, Forth, Small C, and other tools (and maybe links to additional resources). A final one might be a prototyper's book with as many prototyping and homebrew resources as we can identify/document. That way, if someone is interested in a project, they have a resource that shows how it has been done before--and can build it as originally designed or extend it into something new. . .

[Opry99er]

For a beginner or returning member, definitely the Users Reference Guide, Beginners BASIC, XB manual, and probably a game-maker's guide (like Compute's First Book of TI Programs) to get them in the groove. globeron just won this one last month in the High score contest.

[+Schmitzi]

Maybe we just add the missing things here ?

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/153704-ti-994a-development-resources/

 

...but maybe it is too much in direction to developer/technical,

(as the request here is likely "Re-Beginners")

[Omega-TI]

Maybe we just add the missing things here ?

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/153704-ti-994a-development-resources/

 

...but maybe it is too much in direction to developer/technical,

(as the request here is likely "Re-Beginners")

 

Right! Eventually a newbie will work his way to the Development Thread, but when they first discover or re-discover the TI, 'ya gotta make it simple' for them. I suppose even just packing some of the best (re-done high quality PDF's) in a zip file would help. Then posting a download link for those interested. Once they open the primer up, see the nice photos, links to Atari Age and all the reference material.... well, you get the idea.

[+Schmitzi]

Maybe you start a "comparable" thread here in the main forum, same style, optics and navigation, also pinned on top ?

With all infos and files directly inside the first post, maintainable, and all comments and Q & A´s below....

 

 

"TI-99/4A fundamental resources" or so, with cool tags like the other thread, easy to find,

[Omega-TI]

I doubt the redoubling of information here would be necessary. I guess what I'm trying to describe is a combination 'advertising pamphlet' like, "You and the TI-99/4A in the 21st Century" to get people excited... and then the basic information they'll need to get started without overloading them. They could get it printed up (if they wanted) or just use it in electronic form. Now once they make it to Atari Age and look around, they'll find and explore all the goodies at their own speed... at that point we'll hook a good percentage of them.

[+Schmitzi]

yes, 21st Century sounds great

[+jedimatt42]

I would have loved to have seen something that pointed me here. I probably ran into Atariage a time or two, but without sticky threads also covering this sort of thing, it wasn't inviting. I didn't land here until I saw the thread on the new Tunnels of Doom editor from Fritz.

 

It was certainly the content on this forum that stimulated my purchase of real TI equipment. Largely sifting out the floppy emulators, and seeing that there was the UberGrom, and Fred Kaal's HDX board.

 

Before that I was largely focused on MESS and ninerpedia. Only seeing the classic hardware as exposed there and on mainbyte.

 

An index of the TI in the 21st century as you say would have been awesome... I'm sure there are many things since 2000 that people are unaware of.

 

Once people land here, it would be awesome to see more detail in sticky threads. An inventory of completed forum developments would be totally appropriate at the top.

 

A tutorial on how to bootstrap by going to arcadeshopper and buy yourself an XB2.7 suite cart, and use CF-DM2k and your PC to get files form whtech onto your real-iron.

 

And of course, the light treatment, for the casual user, pointing at Classic99, and (forgive me for not remembering it's name,) the web based emulator for instant experimentation.

 

The Geneve could be covered as well. Even though I doubt I'll ever see one for sale again, it would be nice to know what genmod is, and what has been improved in MDOS... so that when Ebay does alert me, I'll know just what I'm getting. Or more likely, someone has a Geneve that has been dormant, and wants to see why they should fire it up again, and get back into it.

 

A list of the killer apps/games...

 

Youtube is another way that I was enticed back into TI hardware. Vectrex Roli's reviews of some of the newest games, and the F18A, are all good resources to point potential new or returning users at.