Comments on VCF-SE 9.0

[+OLD CS1]

Photos of my TI-99/4A exhibit this year, featuring Dragon's Lair on a 10" TI monitor and large projection screen, a SuperSketch, the Don't Mess With Texas megademo, and a free-play console with a dozen recent home-brew games.

 

 

I think I am going to shuffle around the display placards a bit and remove a couple of the more wordy ones.  I created the instruction guide for the SuperSketch this year, which is pretty much identical to the guide included with the device.  I postulated prior to and observed during the event that people were still having problems.  Same with Dragon's Lair, so next year I will have some cheat-sheets up which give actual examples and simple instructions for each.

 

I had two visitors who also gave me some feedback.  First, a young girl who spent some time at the SuperSketch told me that it would be easier if the monitor sat in front of the tablet rather than off to the side in front of the computer.  I had the SuperSketch on display like it was a peripheral to the computer rather than the center of attention.  So I fixed that and she approved.

 

Second, as I was discussing the 2-color-per-8-pixel limitation of bitmap mode, a guy told me it was really difficult to visualize what I was explaining.  I think a display with an actual visual of that as part of a 9918A sheet is in order.

 

Also, I had brought my F18A-enhanced unit as a back-up, and I did wind up swapping it into place for the game machine so I could demo Super Mario TI99.  It was a pretty big hit and a good draw for people, as was Flappy Bird.  But I had no display sheet for the F18A, so I plan to correct that next year.

 

I may expand my exhibit to five consoles next year.  Though, I promised some people that I would bring my Commodore SX64 which takes up room, too.  I might also have a Geneve to display, but if I do I will need some of the Geneve gurus to help me work up a visitor-driven display (no one cares about another computer running another command prompt.)

 

Twitch sucks.  It flagged my two videos as having music copyrighted by some band, which is utter bollocks.  So far its has not responded to my appeal, so next year I might just stream on Twitch and host the "VOD"s myself.  Or just drop Twitch altogether as it is now owned by Amazon, and Bezos can get stuffed.

 

I am going to break down the SuperSketch and try to adjust it and grease it up a little bit.  The tops of the sample tracings sit above the top of the screen, and I am sure this is not correct.  My mileage may vary

 

Next year I will not give my chairs away.  I need them for the playable demos.

 

For whatever reason, my Jedi32K units decided they did not want to work with my consoles (non-MDF mounted) and Speech Synthesizers using the system as the power source.  This was going to be a serious problem.  It so happened I had my side-car SAMS and it worked like a charm.  Not sure what that was about but I am going to look into it.

 

People did ask about another run of Dragon's Lair.  I told them the 155 was the final count under the original license, but there were rumblings of @Albert looking into helping out.  That brought smiles to their faces.  Oh, and I am going to experiment with some ways of shading the projection screen so it is easier to see.

 

I got a to meet a few people from AtariAge, which was awesome.

 

Atlanta is a schlep, but only about five hours.  As much as I hate big cities and the craziness, congestion, and lack of parking around the area, it was fun to be back this year.

[+acadiel]

... and you got to be next door to my exhibits with your exhibits!

 

 

I had two (playable) Tomy Tutors on display, one with a multicart (Mr. Do I believe), and the other playing Door Door.  Inbetween them was my 99/2, which people did try and program some BASIC in.  On the side, I had my CC-40+ as well as a Hexbus peripheral stack.  (And a 1A2 phone system with 7 hooked up multiline phones which proved to be immensely popular!)

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

tbh fam, totes jelly of Mr. Do!

 

It was fun watching Zoomers try dialing on the rotary phone.  Shame it does not actually dial the VoIP TA.

[+OLD CS1]

Over pizza talk Saturday night, I posited it would be cool to have a guest book.

[+OLD CS1]

I also may have recruited a new exhibitor for next year.  She and I noticed a serious lack of Atari and Apple II representation, and it turns out she has a few good Atari systems.  Hope it works out!

[+Vorticon]

That sounds like a lot of fun!

I've been mulling about creating a display with all the various interfacing projects I've done for the TI:

• Credit card reader
• Light pen
• Image capture with a Raspberry Pi camera
• Slot car controller
• Radio Shack Microcomputer Trainer interface
• X-Y plotter
• Oscilloscope graphics
• Wireless weather station
• Wireless robotic control of Heathkit Hero Jr robot
• Robotic arm control

The biggest issue would be transporting all that material and setting it up. I bet the slot car controller and the robot would be a hit or maybe capture a face image of attendees with the camera device and print it using the X-Y plotter

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

@Vorticon Do it!  Come to Atlanta next year!

[+OLD CS1]

3 hours ago, acadiel said:

Inbetween them was my 99/2, which people did try and program some BASIC in.  On the side, I had my CC-40+ as well as a Hexbus peripheral stack.

With Jim's Hexbus peripheral, you could have some simple demos set up for people.

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, acadiel said:

And a 1A2 phone system with 7 hooked up multiline phones which proved to be immensely popular!

 

9 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

It was fun watching Zoomers try dialing on the rotary phone.  Shame it does not actually dial the VoIP TA.

I am pretty certain my Cell2Jack Bluetooth device does support rotary.  If you want, I can bring it next year paired up with one of my phones for your third line.

[+OLD CS1]

@Vorticon FWIW, I likely will not be coming to Chicago any more.  It is far too expensive for a single day.

 

Speaking of, since Northwestern's home schedule is available, do we have a date nailed down for the Faire??  October 22 and 29, and November 12 are away games.