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Reviews (1)
Nov 08, 2017
One of the best home computers you can buy...
5 of 5 found this helpful In 1978. Sort of. It's a bit lacking in RAM but head over to AtariAge and talk to the fine folks there about the essential peripherals you'll need. If you're only just now getting into the white-hot 39 year old computer hobbyist world, the TI99 is a great starting point with a lot of exciting new peripherals available with even cooler things coming up on the horizon.
This is only half sarcasm. Obviously if you're buying a ~40 year old home computer, you'll have some idea of what you're getting yourself into. The bad news is that the TI99/4A (you're going to want a 4A, the actual 1978 TI99 is much more rare and lacks some pretty improvements that the 4A got) lags behind consoles like the C64 which came out the same year as the 4A variant but which has the superior MOS VIC-II graphics and SID 6581 sound chips.
That's a bit of a bummer, *however* homebrew accessories for the TI99/4A such as RAM expansions, disk emulators, flash carts, DIY cart burning kits, and even a graphics chip upgrade (which bring the graphical capabilities of the system up to that of about a SNES) so if you're looking at one of these as a way to get into the surprisingly active retro-computing scene and you want something that:
-Is legitimately "retro" (None of that "but the P4 came out almost 20 years ago" nonsense!)
-Is historically significant (First 16-bit home computer, last home computer made by Texas Instruments, was the spiritual progenitor of several modern technologies, and was part of a pricing war that helped drive the price of home computers down to the level approaching affordable for more people)
-Has a huge library of original and homebrew software
-Has an active and friendly homebrew hardware/software community
Then the TI99/4A is a good choice, even if you don't have specific nostalgia for it.
If you do pick one up, you'll want to look into the following peripherals:
-JediMatt's 32k expansion (JediMatt is presently working on a daughterboard for this expansion that allows you to connect a Raspberry Pi to the Ti99 in order to emulate virtually any kind of peripheral you might want)
-The NanoPEB, which is a replacement for the ATX PC-sized Peripheral Expansion Box which contains a 32k expansion, an CF card-based floppy disk emulator, and an RS232 port.
-The F18A graphics upgrade, which is an FPGA re-implementation of the original graphics chip which removes a lot of the limitations of the original chip, extends its capabilities (for homebrew), provides VGA output, and gives the system the ability to run in 80 column mode. It's got some neat tricks like scanline emulation as well.
The best place to start finding out about these things is the Atarage forums. Arcade shopper is a very reliable and responsive place to buy homebrew gear, though the NanoPEB is almost always easiest to get on eBay.
In conclusion, the TI99/4A is an interesting and versatile home computer from a bygone era that has a knowledgeable, active, and friendly homebrew community. If that kind of thing sounds like it's up your alley, I highly recommend buying one and climbing down the homebrew rabbit hole.