Dec 20, 2015
The TI-99/4A - History, with Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills
This is the second in a multi-part series on the TI-99/4A computer. For this history segment, I was lucky enough to find a couple of people who have an incredible history with the TI-99, Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills. Jim has an extensive, multilingual library of all things TI and possesses some very interesting hardware items related to the TI-99. Mark is the author of TurboForth for the TI-99/4A and has been involved in the TI-99/4A scene pretty much since 1983. He’s also English, living in the UK, so he has a rather British take on the home computer wars. I will cover TI-99 history with the help of these two gentlemen. I think you will find this very interesting!
Links Mentioned in the Show:
Intro
- Bill Degnan’s VintageComputer.net - http://www.vintagecomputer.net
- Bill Degnan’s “History of Commodore Computers” Poster - http://www.vintagecomputer.net/poster_detail.cfm
New Acquisitions
- Tricky Tutorial #5 (Player/Missile Graphics for the Atari - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-tricky-tutorial-no--5-player-missile-graphics_28271.html
- Tricky Tutorial #6 (Sound and Music) for the Atari - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-tricky-tutorial-no--6-sound-and-music_28278.html
- Tricky Tutorial #11 (Memory Map) for the Atari - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-tricky-tutorial-no-11-memory-map-tutorial_28283.html
- Atari Logo - http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n6/logo.html
- Atari 130XE Package from Ron Luks - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208571288938997&set=gm.1662349070709066&type=3&theater
- REX for M100 - http://bitchin100.com/wiki/index.php?title=REX
- Club 100 - Club for the TRS-80 Model 100 - http://www.club100.org/
- TRS-80 Model 100 Mailing List Subscription Page - http://lists.bitchin100.com/listinfo.cgi/m100-bitchin100.com
- HP-85B Owner’s Guide and Programming Manual - http://www.greendyk.nl/hp85/
News
- Stan Veit Audiobook Podcast, published by David Greelish - http://www.classiccomputing.com/CCPodcasts/Stan_Veit/Stan_Veit.html
- RetroChallenge 2016/01 - http://www.retrochallenge.org/
- The M3SE Project by Peter Bartlett - http://bartlettlabs.com/M3SE/
- Vintage is the New Old - http://vintageisthenewold.com
- VCF Southeast 4.0 - April 2 & 3 2016, Roswell, GA
- VCF East - April 15-17, 2016 - InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/
- 25th Annual Last Chicago CoCoFest - http://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ - April 23 & 24, 2016, Heron Point Convention Center, Lombard, IL
Feedback
- Quantum Link - https://www.tinytickle.co.uk/quantum-link/
History
- Bill Gaskill’s TI-99 Timeline - http://www.ti99ers.org/timeline/timeline.htm
- Ron Albright’s “Orphan Chronicles” - https://archive.org/details/tibook_the-orphan-chronicles
- Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A