JagFan422 Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 I picked up one at a flea market over the weekend, it looks to be in perfect shape, but it didn't come with any of the plugs. Now the AV plug for my VIC-20 fits, so i should be good there, but the power plug i don't know what will work. I did notice that the colecovision plug fits and i tried it and nothing happened, so my question is, is there another systems power supply that can work with the TI/99? Does the colecovisions power supply actually work and i have a dead system? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 The VIC-20 AV cable should work, if I recall pinouts right. The power is pretty much gonna require another 4a supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 The Colecovision and TI-99/4A both use the same kind of plug, but they're wired totally different. If you try using a TI power supply on a Colecovision, it'll kill it dead as hell. I don't know if a Colecovision power supply would do the same to a TI. Hopefully you didn't harm it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) I did notice that the colecovision plug fits and i tried it and nothing happened, so my question is, is there another systems power supply that can work with the TI/99? That's probably not a good thing to try. TI power pinout (looking at plug) 4 3 2 1 According to this power supply here: Pins 1,2 18V 22VA Pins 2,4 7.5V 1VA Not sure offhand what the CV pinout is - but it uses +5/-5 +12 I believe. Edited July 3, 2006 by remowilliams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagFan422 Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 i don't think it did anything, nothing popped or hissed or anything, plus i only flipped it long enough to see if the red light came on. So i guess i'm off to try to buy a power supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Went to Chicago's Museum of Science and INdustry over the weekend, and in the Granger Hall of Basic Science, they had about 10 interactive exhibits... Powered by TI 99/4A's! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitch Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 (edited) I replied to your marketplace post also but thought you might look here first. If you're looking for an online seller I'd have to recommend Tex*In Treasures They have new PSUs for 6.95 and just about any other part you might need. EDIT: darn cut & paste. here's the actual link: Tex*In Treasures Edited July 5, 2006 by glitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Thanks for that link! There's a few TI things that I'd like to pick up from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Went to Chicago's Museum of Science and INdustry over the weekend, and in the Granger Hall of Basic Science, they had about 10 interactive exhibits... Powered by TI 99/4A's!Heyyy ... nice! I also saw somebody on eBay not long ago who was selling a 99/4A that had been modified to be some sort of light synth machine and was used as part of a live performance. It looked nice but was a bit outside my price range. It's so great to know people are still finding creative things to do with the 99/4A. It was my first computer and I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for it. I'd also put in a good word for Tex*In Treasures; I've bought from them several times and have always received excellent service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieAtari Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 The link is great, I had no idea such a store existed, now to try their export service and order some desperately needed expansion stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brasky Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 The TI-99/4A is totally underrated and completely overlooked as a classic gaming system. If you dig through all the educational titles, there's a bunch of great, Colecovision quality games on the system and arcade exclusives. I wish I had gotten a TI-99/4a back in the day when they were blowing them out for $50 new and games were easy to find. I'm glad I discovered it through emulation now though. I'd take a TI-99/4a as a gaming system over a lot of the other classic consoles that get more respect. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 (edited) The TI-99/4A is totally underrated and completely overlooked as a classic gaming system. If you dig through all the educational titles, there's a bunch of great, Colecovision quality games on the system and arcade exclusives.Actually, the ColecoVision could be considered a distant relative of the 99/4A: Coleco used a lot of TI silicon in the ColecoVision, and I believe its video and sound chips were direct descendants of the ones used in the 99/4A. Coleco also had the good sense to use a mainstream CPU like the Z80, which is what TI probably should have chosen for the 99/4A. Edited July 5, 2006 by jaybird3rd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 EDIT: darn cut & paste. here's the actual link: Tex*In Treasures The link is great, I had no idea such a store existed, now to try their export service and order some desperately needed expansion stuff. I highly recommend TexInTreasures. I've done a bunch of business there and Mike is a real honest and friendly guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 The TI-99/4A is totally underrated and completely overlooked as a classic gaming system. If you dig through all the educational titles, there's a bunch of great, Colecovision quality games on the system and arcade exclusives. I wish I had gotten a TI-99/4a back in the day when they were blowing them out for $50 new and games were easy to find. I'm glad I discovered it through emulation now though. I'd take a TI-99/4a as a gaming system over a lot of the other classic consoles that get more respect. The 4a was my first gaming system, actually. I've got a big pile of carts for it. Parsec rules all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Coleco also had the good sense to use a mainstream CPU like the Z80, which is what TI probably should have chosen for the 99/4A. The TI-99/4A was originally designed with a different processor in mind. The original processor couldn't make it out of development and into production, though. It had some flaws that kept it from ever being manufactured. So TI used a different processor that wasn't the best suited for a computer. That's why the TI was such a strange design, with nearly all the system memory going through the video processor instead of the CPU. And there's a lot of information that says that the TI was originally designed with Milton Bradley to be a game console. And the design also included wireless joysticks! The Call Joyst command still has the numbers in it for controlling the wireless controllers, but the hardware was taken out of the specs before the 99/4A went into production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_8bit_16bit Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 I got one back in 1990, it had hunt the wumpus, chisholm trail, blasto, and a-maze-ing. Anybody remember any of those games? I've still got all of the above, and it works, but haven't since added anything to my collection... I haven't thought about it in a while. I think you mightve inspired me to bust it out and dust it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 I got one back in 1990, it had hunt the wumpus, chisholm trail, blasto, and a-maze-ing. Anybody remember any of those games? All 4. Hunt the Wumpus scared me as a kid. Now I just laugh at the giant monster teeth eating the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_8bit_16bit Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 I got one back in 1990, it had hunt the wumpus, chisholm trail, blasto, and a-maze-ing. Anybody remember any of those games? All 4. Hunt the Wumpus scared me as a kid. Now I just laugh at the giant monster teeth eating the screen. yeah, it used to wierd me out, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Farquhar Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 I remember when I was in grade school, a classmate was trying to put together a gaming rig with a TI-99/4a. The peripherals were really expensive though. The computer was $50 but the disk drive was something like $450. So if you wanted to do anything other than cartridge games, it was still expensive. I'm not sure what he ended up doing. The video and sound chips in the Adam and Colecovision were very similar to the 99/4a, and I believe the sound chip (or a close relative) ended up in the PCjr and Tandy 1000. With a less quirky processor and a freer attitude towards third-party publishers, it would have really given the C-64 a run for the money. The decade could have turned out very differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetset Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 The TI-99/4A is totally underrated and completely overlooked as a classic gaming system. If you dig through all the educational titles, there's a bunch of great, Colecovision quality games on the system and arcade exclusives. I wish I had gotten a TI-99/4a back in the day when they were blowing them out for $50 new and games were easy to find. I'm glad I discovered it through emulation now though. I'd take a TI-99/4a as a gaming system over a lot of the other classic consoles that get more respect. It certainly is! I just re-entered the world of TI a few months back and had forgotten how much I loved it. Actually though, we did better than $50 bucks (well, my parents did at least!) My mom bought me one back when they dropped the price to $99 bucks, BUT, TI had a rebate on them for $100.00 so it ultimately wound up being FREE! (Well, would have been for me anyways since she bought it...I think I was 11 or 12 at the time.) I didn't have many carts, but me and my buds used to buy the programming books at the mall and type in our own games and trade cassettes. Some of those super-simple games were the best!! I also bought a cassette recorder and some books with my recent TI, but have found myself too damn lazy to input any games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagFan422 Posted July 6, 2006 Author Share Posted July 6, 2006 i'm getting the power supply from the tex*treasures, and i'm getting a bunch of games in the mail within the next few days. One more question: will 2600 controllers work with the TI? Looks like the same plug in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candiru Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 You have to have an adapter to use 2600 sticks. The TI sticks are crap and most of the time don't work anymore since the internal contacts seem to be just metallic paint on a sheet of flexible plastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauber Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Went to Chicago's Museum of Science and INdustry over the weekend, and in the Granger Hall of Basic Science, they had about 10 interactive exhibits... Powered by TI 99/4A's! Well...I seem to remember seeing a TI 99/4A at the Smithsonian -- AS ITS OWN EXHIBIT! heh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitch Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 i'm getting the power supply from the tex*treasures, and i'm getting a bunch of games in the mail within the next few days. One more question: will 2600 controllers work with the TI? Looks like the same plug in. You have to have an adapter to use 2600 sticks. The TI sticks are crap and most of the time don't work anymore since the internal contacts seem to be just metallic paint on a sheet of flexible plastic. I have to agree, get the adapter the TI joysticks are not that pleasant to use and seem fairly flimsy although I haven't broken a set yet. The TI joysticks combine 2 sticks into 1 plug. I've seen both 1 joystick adapters & Y cable adapters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 It's a real shame, but the TI sticks DO suck. I WANT to like them, but the feel is just so horribly bad that I can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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