TI99 and Tomy Tutor similarities

[fabrice montupet]

The Mark 2 was a commercial failure, sold some months before Tomy decided to pull out of the Home Computer market. Very few people used it. The MKII has a better keyboard (however lower than the 99/4A, /5 and /8 keyboards) but Tomy shot itself in the foot making a stupid choice by killing the video composite and audio connectors. Using the computer on a TV set via the RF signal, in 1984, is an abomination. TI made the same choice with its 99/2 Basic Computer. As soon as, I received mine, I modified it to get a composite signal, much better.

Edited May 23, 2018 by fabrice montupet

[ColorComputerStore]

Hi

I've made RAM & ROM Cartridge for Original Pyuuta. You can play on ePyuta now.

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/tanam/20171230/1514598212

 

TINY BASIC

Pitfall!

Door Door

 

tanam

 

Subarashii.

[tanam1972]

 

Thanks Ksarul, sounds like a plan. I'll contact you when the Pyuuta has arrived.

 

Did you play PITFALL! on Pyuuta? If no, then I can send you one ; )

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/tanam/20170305/1488681650

 

Thanks,

tanam

[+retroclouds]

 

Did you play PITFALL! on Pyuuta? If no, then I can send you one ; )

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/tanam/20170305/1488681650

 

Thanks,

tanam

Yes please, I am interested. Would love to play it. Have a special relationship with Pitfall.

[+retroclouds]

Hi people,

 

today I bought a Tomy Pyuuta Tutor (japanese version) for cheap (118 USD including shipping)

Normally they are a lot more expensive, I've been watching ebay for more than a year now.

 

The idea is to tinker with it and I would at least like to see my Pitfall version running on it

 

So the question is, can someone point me to the direction where I can get a homebrew cartridge board?

 

Also does anyone know, if it would be possible to turn a japanese Tutor into the american version by swapping ROM's ?

Ofcourse would be great if I can swap keyboard too, but I guess that won't be so easy.

 

Also have been wondering; what is the TI machine that comes closest to the Tutor? Would that be the TI-99/4a, TI-99/5 or TI-99/8 ?

 

ok, people so a while a back I got the Tutor delivered from Japan. This is a though one, got it on ebay real cheap compared to the prices you normally see.

The thing is, it's in such a good condition. The operator manual looks brand new and I'm pretty sure the unit was never (or barely) used at all. Joysticks are in pristine condition too. This makes it hard for me to tinker with it.

 

Anyway I'm still in the process of getting a voltage step-up regulator so that I can run it in Europe.

Here's some pictures. Oh, and big thanks to @tanam for his great gifts. Really looking forward to play with these.

 

[+acadiel]

The cartridges have many similarities to the TI ones...

 

• The back has an edged side like TI ones
• The spring loaded piece
• The bottom and the plastic 'clips' that hold the sides
• The font on the labels "16 Bit Graphics Computer"

 

[+Ksarul]

A TI Cartridge case will fit perfectly into the cartridge opening for a Tutor as well, as the thin part of the TI case is the proper size to fill the cartridge well on a Tutor.

[+retroclouds]

Are the physical paths the same as well? I mean would it take a lot of effort to for example turn Ralphs final rom cartridge in a tutor compatible version?

[+Ksarul]

I imagine it would be possible, but the pin out is definitely different. . .

[ColecoFan1981]

According to the Tomy Tutor article on Wikipedia, the sound specs describe: four onomatopoeia (or mimicry of everyday sounds) and three chords. I've never seen this seemingly unique description anywhere else. The soundchip (or PSG) used on both this and the TI-99/4 series is the TI SN76496, which is different from the similar SN76489 used in the ColecoVision and Sega SG-1000 only by the "AUDIO IN" pin (pin #9) for integrated audio mixing.

 

~Ben

Edited July 27, 2022 by ColecoFan1981

[JB]

59 minutes ago, ColecoFan1981 said:

According to the Tomy Tutor article on Wikipedia, the sound specs describe: four onomatopoeia (or mimicry of everyday sounds) and three chords. I've never seen this seemingly unique description anywhere else.

Betcha they were machine-translating japanese sources to grow the article, without any real knowledge of the computer.

 

Four voices, three tones. And then the babelfish did its best, but it wasn't very good.

[ColecoFan1981]

1 hour ago, JB said:

Betcha they were machine-translating japanese sources to grow the article, without any real knowledge of the computer.

 

Four voices, three tones. And then the babelfish did its best, but it wasn't very good.

Thank you, what you describe is more like it.

 

~Ben