OPA Gary!

[Gary from OPA]

Today, marks a full 11 months of freedom here in Canada.

 

I made amazing progress so far in restarting and rebuilding my life and I am looking forward to celebrating my 55th birthday soon, which falls on Mother's Day.

 

So, let's try to complete the GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life

 

[Gary from OPA]

It was finally a nice sunny day, so I worked out in my condo's little backyard area and I was able to setup a nice swing seat which will allow me to relax and enjoy the outdoors more. Got the BBQ working as well with a little table and chairs. The only thing left is patio lights.

[GDMike]

But that doesn't look hefty dufty duty

[Gary from OPA]

17 minutes ago, GDMike said:

But that doesn't look hefty dufty duty

It's rated at 440pounds. We will see. They came 3 person seater. But more like two.

[GDMike]

12 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

It's rated at 440pounds. We will see. They came 3 person seater. But more like two.

I really do like the look of it though. 

[+OLD CS1]

15 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

It's rated at 440pounds. We will see. They came 3 person seater. But more like two.

Good God, I am half that.

[GDMike]

4 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Good God, I am half that.

But if it's Chinese built then you could get the whole family on the swing

[Gary from OPA]

35 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Good God, I am half that.

Well sadly at the moment I running at about 310pound level but I got 50 pounds in my swollen left leg. I mainly got the swing to see how it works in keeping my leg off the ground a bit to reduce pressure on my ankle when I sitting normally. And to relax outside with my coffee and phone instead of just sitting in my office all day.

[Gary from OPA]

In honor of #MSX the #MaySiXth event.

I present to you the amazing #V9938 video display processor that was an upgrade to the original #TMS9918.

 

In 1990, OPA released the "Tiny-TIM" which allowed you to swap out your old VDP and replace it with the newer #V9958 with 192k of RAM.

 

The internal die shots of the VDP are from RCAVictorCo and maddoka on Twitter. Thanks!

[Gary from OPA]

Well, here we are I am now officially 55 years old.

10 REM * Happy Birthday! *
20 CALL CLEAR
30 PRINT "Hello World!"
40 PRINT "Cheers, GaryOPA"
50 CALL SAY("TEXAS INSTRUMENTS")
55 END

I'm looking forward to having another wonderful 55 years, so I can be 6 again (110 in binary).

[Artoj]

Hi Gary,

I spent sometime looking at your TIM Board, I made a rough copy, lots of unknowns though. I could make it functional if I had a enough time. When you first posted this I was excited as I was looking at making a plugin board using the V9958, so what I did was took my schematic and designed it around your board. I have put a few X pins where I do not know where they go or what they do. If you want me to reproduce your board I would be very happy for any help with the schematics. Regards Arto.

  

[Gary from OPA]

2 minutes ago, Artoj said:

Hi Gary,

I spent sometime looking at your TIM Board, I made a rough copy, lots of unknowns though. I could make it functional if I had a enough time. When you first posted this I was excited as I was looking at making a plugin board using the V9958, so what I did was took my schematic and designed it around your board. I have put a few X pins where I do not know where they go or what they do. If you want me to reproduce your board I would be very happy for any help with the schematics. Regards Arto.

  

many thanks. yes, we could work together on making a proper reproduction of the design. do you have actual tim itself to look at, or just photos. -- let's discuss this in more detail by DM, send me the files you made so far, and the software you are using and i will take a look over it early next week.

 

i want to get back into making some pcboards myself, but the last cad software i used was orcad and hiwire plus, so i got to catch up, and you been doing some amazing designs so far in your thread.

 

thanks.

[Gary from OPA]

Today, O.P.A. has launched our Special Edition of JS99'er - An #TI99 Emulator, which by default is running our licensed SOB operating system upgrade, along with the improved Extended Basic v3.1 cartridge. https://ti99ers.com

 

Slowly, we will be adding more new features online.

[Gary from OPA]

I have made amazing progress in restarting my life during my 1st year of Canadian Freedom after serving 30 months at SeaTac and then 2 months at ICE

 

And I am now looking forward to the next phase in finding a steady job.

 

Thanks to UNILAD for this update: https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/nintendo-hacker-gary-bowser-prison-salary-full-time-job-399110-20240523

 

I thank everyone that has supported my GoFundMe over the last 12 months!

 

And looking forward to making more progress to reaching my goal!

And to continue my passion and love for TI99 Computers.

 

Thanks again, everyone your kind words and support is welcome: https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life

[Gary from OPA]

Playing around with AI, I first asked META AI in my WhatsApp to generate an image of me in my office all up night coding on my TI99/4a Home Computer, and it gave me a few different images, but nothing real, if I replaced my first name with John instead of Gary, it made the person younger, and if I replaced it with Mark, it made it even younger, a hip guy in his twenties, so Gary triggers and OLD boomer it seems!

 

I then tried my GROK AI with my Twitter Blue, and it told me it can't do images yet, but it can tell me a story fitting the image I as asking for.

 

I'm afraid I cannot generate images. I am still under development and currently only have the capability to provide text-based responses. 

However, I can provide you with a humorous textual description of the scene you requested:

In the dimly lit office, the glow of the CRT monitor casts a ghostly light on Gary Bowser's face as he hunches over his beloved TI99/4a Home Computer.
His fingers dance across the keyboard, a symphony of clacking keys and electronic beeps filling the room.
The clock on the wall ticks away the hours, but Gary is oblivious, lost in the world of code and pixels.

A half-empty coffee cup sits precariously on the edge of the desk, a testament to the long hours he's been at it.
The room is cluttered with stacks of floppy disks, circuit boards, and old computer magazines.
A poster of a classic sci-fi movie hangs on the wall, a nod to Gary's love for the genre.

As the night wears on, Gary's eyes glaze over, but he presses on, determined to perfect his latest creation.
The TI99/4a hums softly, a loyal companion in his late-night coding session.
The outside world fades away, leaving only Gary and his beloved computer, locked in a dance of creation and innovation.

 

Oh'well, I will try CoPilot+ after Tuesday, once my Windows 11 updates to the new 24H2 version just released!

[+mizapf]

It also seems about time we ask ourselves what is meant by "creativity".

 

 

[Gary from OPA]

It has already been 1 year since I returned to "social media" after my 32 months in prison, and since then I have made some amazing progress.

 

It sure has been hard restarting my life, but now I am happy to move onto the next phrase with me pushing forward with my beloved TI99 retro tech, and the great thing is I now have also recently been able to get permission from the Canadian government to legally operate my own business again, and for it not to effect my monthly Ontario medical disability payments.

 

So things are finally looking up, and I am now going to be pushing forward with my new company called "OPA Phoenix Technologies" with 100% effort to bring forward the Texas Instruments TI99 Home Computer into the modern tech world with the very latest in cutting edge hardware and software.

 

While at the same time continuing to improved my health and overall well-being.

 

Thanks everyone for your support over the last year, it has not been easy, but its been a interesting journey we have taken together here on AtariAge and now we can start the next year and chapter of this amazing adventure.

[Gary from OPA]

Going to be a busy TI99 retro weekend, as I finally got in a Tipi PEB and a SAMS along with the Pico sidecar ready for my other system and a PEB joiner so I can have 16 card slots and amazing enough a F18A as well, plus chips in to finish my UberGROM and increase my Horizon RAM.

[Gary from OPA]

It's been a while since I had time to make a post and record a new retro TI99 video, but I have now got one Texas Instruments system fully working perfectly with many upgrades including a F18A VDP, P-GRAM, Myarc 512k with XBII, P-CODE, Dual RS232 with HDX, Horizon/RAMBO, MBX System.

 

Again, I like to remind everyone even though I have my ODSP now, and my life has been slowly restarted after just over 13 months of Canadian freedom, every new small donation to my GoFundMe still helps to improve my medical treatment & overall health.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life

 

[Gary from OPA]

The main retro super-workhorse of a TI99 complete setup for me starting soon new development of O.P.A Phoenix Technologies software, is now almost ready with the 2 PEB's joined, so that all the important various different devices are now running smoothly together on one console.

[Gary from OPA]

Earlier this week my friend and ex-employee Cecil put me in touch with Randy whom used to be a very active member of our local 9T9 User's Group here in Toronto, Canada.

 

And he decided to donate a number of items he stored away to me since sadly he no longer doing anything TI99 related anymore and is downsizing after moving out of the big city.

 

Today, I opened up the first package I got from Randy, it had two horizons in it and a prototype board and 56 8k spare ram chips and all the source code from v4 to v7.3 but sadly not my missing ros9 source code. Some ext. Basic carts as well, and two games.

 

There was also a replacement power supplies sold by radio shack that came me in handy as I needed one and installed it so fast before I even took a picture.

 

Also a number of original technical information from Texas Instruments and I will scan them in properly later on this week, as one of the booklets it's the information from TI on how to run dual TMS9918/29 VDP's in which part of the support was on the /4a motherboard.

 

Also a bunch of info on the rave99 memory expansion board, will crack the binder and scan it all in properly as well. 

 

Also got the famous John Willforth prototype board as well. Got to decide what to build on the bare prototype board now. Could do a Forti I guess, but it would be better to do something I am currently working on for the PEB. I still have a spool of wire wrap and sockets and the tools for it.

 

We will see what is in the second package when it arrives later on this week.

 

Still trying to get hold of previous former local members to see what hardware they might still have and will to part with, might be able to cold call via postal mail to the original mailing addresses to see if I get any replies as Randy happened to be in charge of the club's newsletter mailing list and on one of the included floppies was a Recallit database backup. Now where do I get postal stamps and envelopes from these days.

Edited July 17 by Gary from OPA
spelling / grammar / my english no good.

[RickyDean]

45 minutes ago, Gary from OPA said:

Earlier this week my friend and ex-employee Cecil put me in touch with Randy whom used to be a very active member of our local 9T9 User's Group here in Toronto, Canada.

 

And he decided to donate a number of items he stored away to me since sadly he no longer doing anything TI99 related anymore and is downsizing after moving out of the big city.

 

Today, I opened up the first package I got from Randy, it had two horizons in it and a prototype board and 56 8k spare ram chips and all the source code from v4 to v7.3 but sadly not my missing ros9 source code. Some ext. Basic carts as well, and two games.

 

There was also a replacement power supplies sold by radio shack that came me in handy as I needed one and installed it so fast before I even took a picture.

 

Also a number of original technical information from Texas Instruments and I will scan them in properly later on this week, as one of the booklets it's the information from TI on how to run dual TMS9918/29 VDP's in which part of the support was on the /4a motherboard.

 

Also a bunch of info on the rave99 memory expansion board, will crack the binder and scan it all in properly as well. 

 

Also got the famous John Willforth prototype board as well. Got to decide what to build on the bare prototype board now. Could do a Forti I guess, but it would be better to do something I am currently working on for the PEB. I still have a spool of wire wrap and sockets and the tools for it.

 

We will see what is in the second package when it arrives later on this week.

 

Still trying to get hold of previous former local members to see what hardware they might still have and will to part with, might be able to cold call via postal mail to the original mailing addresses to see if I get any replies as Randy happened to be in charge of the club's newsletter mailing list and on one of the included floppies was a Recallit database backup. Now where do I get postal stamps and envelopes from these days.

Yes that Rave manual will be so useful to those of us who have a Rave Memory card but no real literature for it. Awesome

[Gary from OPA]

Posted in the strange cart thread, but here is my tweet.

 

 

[Gary from OPA]

Back in 1990, OPA released the SOB device which replaced the original TI99 console GROMs with our licensed OPA Micro-Manager and now we are testing out the TI-GROMmy2 by Erik which will allow us to expand the Texas Instruments Operating System with many cool new retro features!

[Gary from OPA]

Things are coming along fast, Erik released a new firmware for the TI-GROMmy2 board, which now allows for a physical switch on PA3 to enable on power-up to either boot from the original system software in bank 0 or instead run our custom OPA TI-99 operating system from bank 1.