【Hacker News搬运】8位时代的怪异叔叔：TI-99/4A

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Title: The 8-Bit Era's Weird Uncle: The TI-99/4A

8位时代的怪异叔叔：TI-99/4A

Text:

Url: https://bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com/2025/02/15/the-8-bit-eras-weird-uncle-the-ti-99-4a/

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Post by: rbanffy

Comments:

geocrasher: I'll never forget the TI-99/4A. I was 8 years old, in second grade in Southern California. We had a "computer lab" which was a mobile building with 13 or 15 TI-99/4A's, and about half of them had color TV's and the rest, B+W. Nobody really knew anything, but we did have books to copy BASIC programs out of.One kid entered a program that flashed colors and patterns on the color TV. Our teacher was epileptic, and this sent her into a seizure. Myself and another kid ran to get the 5th grade teacher who'd been a doctor at some point (don't ask, I dont know, I was and he came running and attended to her. She was fine.I'd always been interested in how things work, taking things apart, playing with my 30-in-1 electronics lab from Radio Shack. But this new computer thing... this was something. That experience flipped a bit in my 8 year old brain. All because of a TI-99/4A.

geocrasher: 我；我永远不会忘记TI-99；4A。当时我8岁，在南加州读二年级。我们有一个&quot；计算机实验室”；其是具有13或15TI-99F的移动建筑；4A；s、大约一半的人有彩色电视；没有人真正知道任何事情，但我们确实有书可以复制BASIC程序 一个孩子参加了一个在彩色电视上闪烁颜色和图案的节目。我们的老师癫痫发作了，这让她癫痫发作。我和另一个孩子跑去找五年级的老师；我曾是一名医生（别问，我不知道，我8岁），他跑来照顾她。她很好 我；我一直对事物的运作方式很感兴趣，把东西拆开，和我在Radio Shack的30合1电子实验室一起玩。但是这个新的电脑。。。这是的东西。那次经历在我8岁的大脑里有点翻转。这一切都是因为TI-99；4A。

buildsjets: I still have my TI-99/4A! I received it Christmas morning of 1983, although a Timex/Sinclair had been on my wish list. Sears had them marked down to $50 during the 8-bit wars. Mom had been up all night hand-typing in a BASIC demo so it would be running in the morning. Many Wumpuses were hunted that day.Today, it has a F17A video processor that enables VGA output: <a href="https://dnotq.io/f18a/intro.html" rel="nofollow">https://dnotq.io/f18a/intro.html</a>And a FinalGROM99 cartridge, so I can have an SD card with all the program cartridges loaded. <a href="https://endlos99.github.io/finalgrom99/" rel="nofollow">https://endlos99.github.io/finalgrom99/</a>There's still a community of fairly active development for retrogames, and some of them are quite good given capabilities of the hardware. My niece particularly enjoys a marble game called Skyway, try it on the online emulator at <a href="https://ti99ers.com" rel="nofollow">https://ti99ers.com</a>

buildsjets: 我仍然有我的TI-99*；4A！我在1983年的圣诞节早晨收到了它，尽管它是Timex；辛克莱一直在我的愿望清单上。在8位战争期间，西尔斯将它们的价格降至50美元。妈妈整晚都在用手写BASIC演示，这样它就可以在早上运行了。那一天，许多Wumpuses被猎杀 如今，它有一个能够实现VGA输出的F17A视频处理器：<a href=“https:&#x2F；dnotq.io&#x2F18a&#x2F；intro.html”rel=“nofollow”>https:&#x2F；dnotq.io；f18a；intro.html</a>和FinalGROM99墨盒，这样我就可以有一张装有所有程序墨盒的SD卡了<a href=“https:”endlos99.github.io“finalgrom99”rel=“nofollow”>https:”&#x2F；endlos99.github.io；finalgrom99</a> 这里；s仍然是一个相当活跃的复古游戏开发社区，考虑到硬件的功能，其中一些已经相当不错了。我侄女特别喜欢一款名为Skyway的大理石游戏，请在<a href=“https:&#x2F；ti99ers.com”rel=“nofollow”>https:&quot&#x2F；ti99ers.com</a>

PaulHoule: I guess next week they're going to get to the interesting bit which is how weird the architecture actually was on that thing...<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A</a>Particularly it only had 256 bytes of RAM attached to the CPU but had (I think) 16 kb of RAM attached to the video controller which the CPU could read and write through I/O registers. You could use this for non-video storage but you couldn't access it directly.Coding in BASIC could, at the very least, hide the insanity from you.

PaulHoule: 我想下周他们会；我们将进入一个有趣的部分，那就是那个东西的架构实际上有多奇怪 <a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org:wiki:TI-99:4A”rel=“nofollow”>https://&#x2F；en.wikipedia.org；维基；TI-99；4A</a>特别是它只有256字节的RAM连接到CPU，但（我认为）有16kb的RAM连接至视频控制器，CPU可以通过I读写；O寄存器。您可以将其用于非视频存储，但您不能；不要直接访问它 用BASIC编程至少可以掩盖你的疯狂。

iwanttocomment: I have such mixed feelings about the TI-99/4A.It was our family computer. We rented games for it, and that was fun. I learned BASIC. I tried to create things with it, as advertised, and sort of only semi-succeeded repeatedly.My parents saw that I was running into the limits of the system, and got me both the Extended Basic and Terminal Emulator II cartridges. I dug into Extended Basic, and was able to write "games" with actual sprites that could be manipulated! There they were, flying around, those sprites. That being said, these games always ended up being quite bad, and there wasn't a clear path for them to being much better. We were part of a users group, and the Extended Basic games others were making were perhaps more refined but also honestly not much better.At the same time, Atarisoft were releasing epic cartridges for the TI. A strangely OK Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac Man, as good or better than on the other home computers. It was clear there was no path at all from whatever was going on with the Extended Basic cartridge to whatever magic voodoo allowed for the TI ports of these arcade games. (To be honest, I still don't really understand it, other than something to do with... GROM? Assembly?)On the other hand, Terminal Emulator II, which my parents bought me so I could fool around with the TI's speech synthesizer, taught me about the need to connect to online services via a modem. I asked my parents about getting a modem, and they were like... "no".My pre-teen brain was like "I need to buy myself a modem as soon as I can!"I bought a 1200 baud modem out of Computer Shopper for mere dollars when I was 16. It changed my life. I got on boards, and then the Internet, before most - and probably you. I learned networking and architecture. No regrets.But I still have no idea whatsoever how those TI programmers bridged the gap between my horrifically bad Extended Basic programs, where I felt I had maxed out the capabilities of the computer, and the magnificent games and arcade ports available via cartridge. It sort of haunts me. What even?

iwanttocomment: 我对TI-99有着复杂的感情；4A 这是我们家的电脑。我们为它租了游戏，这很有趣。我学了BASIC。我试图用它来创造东西，正如广告中所说的那样，但反复尝试只取得了半成功 我的父母看到我已经达到了系统的极限，给我买了Extended Basic和Terminal Emulator II墨盒。我深入学习了Extended Basic，并能够写作&quot；游戏”；带有可操纵的真实精灵！那些精灵就在那里，四处飞舞。话虽如此，这些游戏总是很糟糕，而且没有；对他们来说，这不是一条变得更好的明确道路。我们是一个用户组的一部分，其他人制作的Extended Basic游戏可能更精致，但老实说也没有好多少 与此同时，Atarisoft正在为TI发布史诗般的墨盒。一个奇怪的OK Donkey Kong和吃豆人女士，与其他家用电脑一样好或更好。很明显，从扩展基本卡带的情况到这些街机游戏的TI端口所允许的魔法巫毒教，根本没有任何途径。（说实话，除了与GROM？Assembly有关之外，我仍然不太理解它。）另一方面，我父母给我买的终端模拟器II，这样我就可以摆弄TI了；语音合成器，教会了我通过调制解调器连接到在线服务的必要性。我问父母买调制解调器的事，他们说&“；没有&quot 我十几岁之前的大脑就像“；我需要尽快给自己买一个调制解调器&“ 我16岁时从Computer Shopper买了一个1200波特的调制解调器，只花了几美元。它改变了我的生活。我登上了董事会，然后是互联网，比大多数人——可能还有你。我学习了网络和架构。没有遗憾 但我仍然不知道这些TI程序员是如何弥合我糟糕透顶的Extended Basic程序与通过卡带提供的精彩游戏和街机端口之间的差距的，我觉得我已经最大限度地发挥了计算机的能力。它有点困扰着我。甚至什么？

whyenot: I have dim memories of going to a show in San Francisco’s Brooks Hall(?) called TI-Fest. It was a show all for TI’s home computers and they had the speech synthesizer and some kind of expansion chassis and lots of other stuff. My dad was looking for a home computer that me and my brother could use, so he brought us along. The show was exciting, at least that’s the way I remember it. There was this feeling that something big was happening.Dad ended up buying an Atari 800 instead of a 99/4A. It was a good decision.

whyenot: 我对去旧金山布鲁克斯厅参加一场名为TI-Fest的演出有着模糊的记忆。这是一场为TI家用电脑举办的展览，他们有语音合成器、某种扩展机箱和许多其他东西。我爸爸在找一台我和弟弟可以用的家用电脑，所以他带我们一起去了。这场演出很激动人心，至少我是这么记得的。有一种感觉，有什么大事正在发生 爸爸最终买了一台Atari 800，而不是一台99x2F；4A。这是个好决定。