New 99-er, I have some basic questions (and BASIC questions)

[WACOMalt]

Hey everyone! I'm excited to have a TI-99/4a as I've been in love with the looks of this computer since I first saw it. I got a great deal at a local flea market with an In-Box, mint condition TI-99/4a for only $30! I was a bit unprepared to dive in already, but I knew it was a good deal so I went ahead and got it.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't find any expansions or command modules for it at the same place, so I've been on the hunt for various things.

So far I've found:
- Speech Synth in great condition (unable to test it yet, but looks like it should work)
- PHP2700 Program Recorder and cables (Will be here in a couple days)

- FinalGROM cartridge (Shipping from the UK so will be awhile getting here)

- 1MB SAMS with 44pin port for TiPi (More than two weeks out, preorder)

- A TiPi board assembled (More than two weeks out, preorder)

- Terminal Emulator II New in box (hopefully gets here this week so I can test the speech synth)

 

Things I'm still searching for:
1. F18A VDP replacement (Seems these are still a long ways off due to supply chain delays? If anyone knows where I could find one of the previous versions I'd be extremely grateful!)

2. Disk Drive + PEB box (or sidecar enclosure? what are my options?)

 

Are there any other accessories you more seasoned 99'ers would recommend?

In the meantime I'm using the computer and Classic99 emulator to familiarize myself with BASIC, and have been reading several of the original manuals/BASIC references. I've got a couple questions...
1. Is there any way to change the boot screen? Personally the bright blue, as iconic as it is, is very hard on the eyes after a short moment of coding. I'd love it if I could make the boot screen and TI BASIC background/characters be White on Black instead. Is there any way to change this permanently?

2. If I want to make a game with as much graphical resources as possible (character slots, speed of sprite management, etc) which flavor of BASIC is the best? I know I can compile my Basic to speed it up but I think that only works with XB and XB256? I'm still a bit lost on the differences between every available version of BASIC I could choose.
3. Can you point me to any good references for sprites in assembly? It may be too big of an undertaking for me to mess with assembly, but I'd like to try my hand at at least drawing a few sprites.

4. My system runs great at the moment, with no signs of capacitor failure. Is it recommended to go ahead and get a recap kit anyways, or should I just keep using it until it shows signs of distress?

5. The 1MB SAMS expansion card, does that functionally replace the original 32K expansion? or do they serve different purposes/behave differently with software?

6. For saving/loading programs, is a cassette writer acceptable? Its all I could find for storage at the moment without needing a lot more hardware. Once the TiPi gets here I assume I'll have no need for it, but I wanted to get programming as soon as possible.

7. For voice, I know there's the speech editor command module, but I've read the Terminal Emulator II cartridge is the best option since it can speak outside of its included vocabulary. Is there any other software you'd recommend for building and running speech data, and what version of BASIC is best for running these speech commands in terms of speed and timing? I want to make it sing

 

Thanks everyone for any info you can share to this newbie 99'er, and happy to meet you all!

 

[RXB]

1. Changing the boot screen is possible using hardware but would suggest you leave it alone.

2. I created RXB that is designed with beginners in mind but is only one that supports SAMS.

   More advanced versions like like XB 2.9 or SXB are available so depends on your willingness to learn assembly.

3. There are a ton of assembly sources on AtariAge and Github.

4. I have several TI99/4A and very rare for any to go bad, but it can happen. Never replaced caps yet.

5. SAMS takes the place of 32K, factually it should be default for memory.

    RXB has built in support for SAMS and has demos you can run and a game that runs from SAMS using up to 864K.

6. Get a TIPI to use as storage, it uses the SD RAM card so a 128Gig SD card will never run out of space.

7. And XB has some speech you can use as soon as you hook up Speech to side of TI99/4A.

    As for singing TI that is quite a task as the Speech is not designed for that, but can be done.

[matthew180]

Welcome to the forums.

 

1 hour ago, WACOMalt said:

1. F18A VDP replacement (Seems these are still a long ways off due to supply chain delays? If anyone knows where I could find one of the previous versions I'd be extremely grateful!)

At first the FPGA (Spartan 3E250) was available for a while, but even the old parts are out of stock everywhere now.  I can't even buy single quantity to build prototypes, let alone bulk quantity for board runs.  And the Spartan-6 for the MK2 was out of stock even faster.  Sadly, we can only wait until parts are available again.

 

1 hour ago, WACOMalt said:

2. Disk Drive + PEB box (or sidecar enclosure? what are my options?)

You only need a PEB if you want to have real iron, or read/write real floppy disks. Otherwise the TIPI you have already ordered will satisfy most of your disk needs, and then some.

 

1 hour ago, WACOMalt said:

1. Is there any way to change the boot screen? Personally the bright blue, as iconic as it is, is very hard on the eyes after a short moment of coding. I'd love it if I could make the boot screen and TI BASIC background/characters be White on Black instead. Is there any way to change this permanently?

 

The Master Title Screen (a.k.a. MTS) is built into the console ROM.  There are some brute-force ways that a cartridge or side-expansion hardware can take over the console at power-on, and some of those might let you modify the MTS, but it will only be in effect when using that particular cart or hardware.  Otherwise you would have to replace the system ROMs with your own custom version.  With and F18A you can modify the palette, but it will not survive a power-cycle.  In short, it will not be easy to change the MTS, and any means to do so will be dependent on specific extra hardware.

 

1 hour ago, WACOMalt said:

2. If I want to make a game with as much graphical resources as possible (character slots, speed of sprite management, etc) which flavor of BASIC is the best?

That is a problem on the 99/4A, since most BASIC dialects use VRAM for other than just graphics information, i.e. program and variable storage, disk buffers, interpreter use, etc..  If you want to get the absolute most from the machine, especially when it comes to graphics, you are going to need to consider assembly.  Otherwise there are many options you will need to survey based on your personal requirements.  Some people only want to use stock capability (no carts, no XB, etc.), some are ok with XB and maybe some assembly support, others will use the compiled BASIC options, some go for 3rd party solutions like RXB, Forth, LOGO, etc..

 

2 hours ago, WACOMalt said:

3. Can you point me to any good references for sprites in assembly? It may be too big of an undertaking for me to mess with assembly, but I'd like to try my hand at at least drawing a few sprites.

Check the "References" sticky thread in the development subforum, lots of good stuff in there.  The Lottrup Book (COMPUTES! guide to assembly) and the E/A (Editor/Assembler) manual have some examples of using sprites in assembly.  Asking specific questions on the forum is also a good way to get info.  Assembly on the 9900 is pretty straight forward and can be very rewarding, just don't try to do too much all at once.  There is nothing complicated about sprites, but it can help to know how to write a game to begin with, before trying to add the complexity of learning assembly at the same time.  There are tons of threads here where other people have done exactly what you are talking about, so do some searching around.

 

2 hours ago, WACOMalt said:

4. My system runs great at the moment, with no signs of capacitor failure. Is it recommended to go ahead and get a recap kit anyways, or should I just keep using it until it shows signs of distress?

The failure mode of the 99/4A tends to be DRAM, or a few other stressed ICs.  I don't know that I have every heard of a console failing due to bad caps.  Cap-Kits are more of a CRT monitor or power-supply update.  ArcadeShopper might have some views on this topic.

 

2 hours ago, WACOMalt said:

5. The 1MB SAMS expansion card, does that functionally replace the original 32K expansion? or do they serve different purposes/behave differently with software?

 

I should know the answer to this, but I can't recall.  SAMS works by paging certain memory in an out, but I don't recall which memory segments are paged.  Someone will chime in and give the details I'm sure.  However, software does have to specifically be written to take advantage of the SAMS expansion.

 

2 hours ago, WACOMalt said:

6. For saving/loading programs, is a cassette writer acceptable?

Ooph, that is going to be rough.  Maybe consider using emulation until you get the TIPI.  Storing programs on cassette is an exercise in patience and frustration.  Make sure you have a really good recorder and quality tapes.  A new tape deck would be best, since it will have new rubber and belts that have not stretched or deteriorated, etc.  IDK, others might have had better luck, but all my personal experiences with cassette storage have been horrible.

 

2 hours ago, WACOMalt said:

7. For voice, I know there's the speech editor command module, but I've read the Terminal Emulator II cartridge is the best option since it can speak outside of its included vocabulary. Is there any other software you'd recommend for building and running speech data, and what version of BASIC is best for running these speech commands in terms of speed and timing? I want to make it sing

The XB cart gives access to speech, as well as the TE-II cart, as you mentioned (not sure why the TE-II has speech support, that always confused me).  Of course you can program speech in assembly as well.  There are some threads related to speech, and generating speech data seems to be an ongoing conversation.  I never got into it much, but others will certainly chime in with some details about how to do this and what you can expect (and what the main hurdles are).

 

 

[WACOMalt]

2 hours ago, RXB said:

...XB has some speech you can use as soon as you hook up Speech to side of TI99/4A.

31 minutes ago, matthew180 said:

...The XB cart gives access to speech...

Unfortunately I have no command modules at all yet. So there's no way in just the built-in TI BASIC to test the speech expansion? (even if its not a functional test but rather just checking if its even detected)

Thanks both of you for all the help! Very informative answers.  I've already been using Classic99 to write some software, so I'll see how long I can hold out using that if the cassette is causing me issues. Hoping my TiPi ships soon!

Edited July 12, 2022 by WACOMalt
spelling error fix

[pixelpedant]

With no carts or other expansion hardware, the only way to test the speech module in any way shape or form would be to write a tiny scratchpad program (residing in available areas of the 256 byte of CPU RAM) and do something very rudimentary there. This would be a relatively technical exercise.  Unlike Extended BASIC, TI BASIC (the one built in to the console) provides no inbuilt support for loading machine language programs, and so abuse of an exploit is required to load code via Console BASIC and cassette, and writing such a program would require a good understanding of the hardware. 

 

That having said, there are *tonnes* of speech carts, and most of them are dirt cheap.  So this isn't a question I've ever run into before.  With any given handful of worthless, very common TI-99 carts (education carts and such), you've usually got a couple that use speech.