a refresher of 4 carts: TE II, TI Extended Basic and Parsec, TI Invaders

[newTIboyRob]

So I just today dug out the ole 4A out of a 3 year storage hibernation.  I could have sworn I had the TI Extended Basic and TE II carts, but they were nowhere to be found. (Of course I will find them AFTER I rebuy them..) But I could use some cartridge guidance, so I thought I would explain how I would like to use my TI these days and perhaps you could offer your thoughts and suggestions.

 

The first thing I was painfully reminded of upon booting her up is how even-slower-than-molasses the basic is on this thing. I mean it is SLOW. Reeeealy slow. Since it is much slower than what  I am used to in fact, and since I have been spoiled by the quicker speed of the other vintage computers in my collection, all I really envsion doing with the 4a programming-wise is to type in some basic programs from the many programming books and old magazine articles I held onto over the years, and save those programs to tape. Thus I don't want to do any heavy ultra complex, innovative programming by myself... just simply do what we did in the old days: typing in the programs from the magazines (and usually wait an issue or two for the corrections!).  That being said, my first question is:

 

1) Do I really need the TI Extended Basic cartridge for that, or would I get by just fine with regular TI Basic?

 

2) I do have the speech snyth module connected though, and would like to have one cartridge to take advantage of this concept. If I do choose the Extended Basic cart, I would get a nice taste of that with it, correct?

 

3) The TE II cart, from what I recall, is even more heavy duty oriented into speech driven programs, it being a speech cartridge... , but is it exclusively for speech programs, or does this cart also contain some elements of the TI Extended Basic cartridge, making it the better speech-related cart I should choose?

 

So to sum up 1-3... which of those 2 carts would I get the most mileage out of, in hearing a little speech snyth AND doing the type of programming I mentioned?  The consensus will dictate the winner here.  

 

 

4) Parsec is just... well, cool. Still. Always.  This game would be a great use of the speech snyth too!   I found the homemade joystick connector a forum member was great enough to make me a few years ago.  Only question here is... for this cart, can I use the standard Atari 2600 black joysticks I have, or do they have to be TI specific joysticks to play?

 

5) TI Invaders... I just want to have it again, for one of the few actual "video" games I will own, based on the graphics alone.

 

 

I would MUCH rather buy a few of these from a forum member than on Ebay, paying those recently even more than usual astronomical shipping charges. More importantly, I'd rather simply stay in the community. I am aware that some of the special carts above can get quite pricey if bought individually, but I thought I would try here with someone who maybe has spares, or doesn't use these anymore, and maybe we can work something out?   I thought it at least worth a shot. Can you shed some light here?   Thanks!

 

P.S.  There is still a chance I still may find the TE II and Extended basic in the basement, but I wouldn't bet the ranch on that.

 

 

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

1) Do I really need the TI Extended Basic cartridge for that, or would I get by just fine with regular TI Basic?

TI Extended BASIC has the benefits of more commands and faster execution.  It is backward-compatible with TI BASIC to an extent, the extents of which are described in the manual.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

2) I do have the speech snyth module connected though, and would like to have one cartridge to take advantage of this concept. If I do choose the Extended Basic cart, I would get a nice taste of that with it, correct?

TI Extended BASIC uses the limited vocabulary built into the Speech Synthesizer, along with the ability to use crafted LPC codes.  YMMV.  But, more to your question, yes, you get a nice taste of speech with TI XB.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

3) The TE II cart, from what I recall, is even more heavy duty oriented into speech driven programs, it being a speech cartridge... , but is it exclusively for speech programs, or does this cart also contain some elements of the TI Extended Basic cartridge, making it the better speech-related cart I should choose?

Terminal Emulator II is exactly that: a terminal emulator.  It is primarily meant for telecommunications and has special features when used with TE-II on both ends.  However, it does have a custom speech synthesis system built into it, by way of the SPEECH and ALPHON devices.  You can send free-form text to the SPEECH device and it will speak it just like any text-to-speech program.  You can also include commands for things like changing pitch.  The ALPHON device works with allophones, so you can deliberately construct speech.  Lastly, no, there are no elements of TI Extended BASIC in this cartridge.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

So to sum up 1-3... which of those 2 carts would I get the most mileage out of, in hearing a little speech snyth AND doing the type of programming I mentioned?  The consensus will dictate the winner here. 

There is no winner here.  Each cartridge will serve its own purpose: TI Extended BASIC is a programming language, TE-II is a tool which only offers new devices to TI BASIC.  However, with the Text to Speech library for XB, you can perform custom speech construction analogous to the TE-II's SPEECH device.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

4) Parsec is just... well, cool. Still. Always.  This game would be a great use of the speech snyth too!   I found the homemade joystick connector a forum member was great enough to make me a few years ago.  Only question here is... for this cart, can I use the standard Atari 2600 black joysticks I have, or do they have to be TI specific joysticks to play?

Would be?  IS!  You can use standard Atari 2600 and compatible joysticks with the TI by way of a special adapter.  They are not directly compatible.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

5) TI Invaders... I just want to have it again, for one of the few actual "video" games I will own, based on the graphics alone.

Do it.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

I would MUCH rather buy a few of these from a forum member than on Ebay, paying those recently even more than usual astronomical shipping charges. More importantly, I'd rather simply stay in the community. I am aware that some of the special carts above can get quite pricey if bought individually, but I thought I would try here with someone who maybe has spares, or doesn't use these anymore, and maybe we can work something out?   I thought it at least worth a shot. Can you shed some light here?   Thanks!

You will likely get a better audience over in the TI-99/4A sub-forum.  These cartridges are commons, though TE-II is a slightly less common, and someone will have them available to you for reasonable prices.

1 hour ago, newTIboyRob said:

P.S.  There is still a chance I still may find the TE II and Extended basic in the basement, but I wouldn't bet the ranch on that.

Godspeed.

[newTIboyRob]

@OLD CS1... first of all, glad to see you are ok from the recent FL devastating weather.   Thank you for taking the time to dissect and explain the above.  (I unfortunately just saw the TI-99 4/a mentioned in this section, as this was the first area I saw when I scrolled down, but you are definitely right, (I just hadn't come down to it yet), so I will repost this question there for others' comments. I appreciate your time and expertise with the answers too, thank you very much as always!

Edited September 27, 2023 by newTIboyRob