10 Amazing Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Facts

[@kgontech2061]

I was one of only six designers of the TMS9918 (started design in 1977). I designed sprite processing. I then became the lead designer of the TMS9995 (started in 1979). The TMS9995 (which was to be used in both the 99/8 and 99/2) was designed in Bedford, UK (at TIL Bedford), and I worked there for six months in 1979. I appreciate that you found out so much about it and were able to find some of the TMS9995 usages. Karl Guttag

[@TheLairdsLair]

Wow, that's cool, thanks for stopping by! I actually live really near to Bedford so that's even more interesting to know.

[@ecdhe]

That is really cool! I started looking at the TMS9918 capabilities on the MSX but eventually want to go further. Any resource to do a deeper dive or debugger that can show the VDP for the TI99 / Coleco / MSX that you would know of? Also, it's my understanding that, back in the late '70s, Nolan Bushnell had an exclusive contract with both TI and GI for their graphics chips. Both wanted to sell to Atari but Bushnell did that to lock the whole market and block competition, stringing them along by asking to make minor changes. Once he left, Ray Kassar cancelled those contracts. Did you ever hear about this?

[@PeBoVision]

40 years later, a 4A still sits in my dining room, and gets booted up at least once a day. It is a different machine today, with an updated VDP (with VGA out), wi-fi, a whopping 1MB of memory and even an add-on board containing a sid chip for those wonderful(?) chiptune files. It remains a daily driver, and my favourite way to play games (despite having a modern gaming PC). Not to mention its Bang and Olufsen design aesthetic remaining a head turner 40 years after the fact. Thank you for not allowing it to fade into retro-tech obscurity. With all it's quirks (of which there are countless) it remains a fine example of early consumer electronics, and a look at how once major players envisioned the computer industry would enter the home - as a living room appliance.

[@cyberclaude]

The Ti99/4A was my first computer. Loved to create programs and games in char basic and since i did'nt a floppy disk reader, everything was recorded on a cassette tape. When i reiceved the monthlu magazine 99rs i would start typing the new game or program code top see what the program was all about. These were my freaking out moment, so much fun. Later i had an apple 2c and today i enjoy the "little" evolution of it all, with a very powerfull gaming PC and a laptop with a OLED screen. Who would have known 50 years ago how fast the technology would evolve. Computer fan 1 day Computer fan forever!

[@colinmcdonald2499]

Parsec was briefly the best looking side-scrolling shooter any family in town had, at home, around 1982. There was a dungeon crawler I liked playing at my Parent's friends house. No recollection of what it was. 3 classes of players, fountains to get healed is what I remember, maybe random generating dungeon levels each time.

[@arcadeshopper]

Tunnels of Doom

[@Viktory2k1]

There were a few more chapters to the TOD series (Hells halls I think was one?)@@arcadeshopper

[@gstcomputing65]

My elementary school decided to buy about 8 TI-99/4A computers in 1984. They probably paid very little for them considering that's when they were discontinued. But, considering my elementary school didn't have air conditioning (and it is in the South US), it really doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

[@ITGuyinaction]

😀👍🍻 You have great channel and you spend a lot of time doing research for your videos! It's visible. Why then you have so less viewers?

[@brandong.1857]

First computer I ever typed a BASIC demo program into. It was magic to see my program come to life.

[@angsta22]

TI994a was the first big purchase i ever made at 12 years old. I bought it all on my own from mowing lawns and saving damn near every dollar.... I was so proud of it. Extended Basic was the first cart i bought since i was really into programming already with my friends setup.

[@JohnPhillipsCIO]

That was fantastic and I enjoyed seeing several of my games displayed in there, Well done!

[@TheLairdsLair]

Awesome, thank you!

[@tjf7101]

I remember geeking out to Parsec at a local Kmart. We never had this machine. But I never realized it had such a history. I thought it looked nice too.

[@mp-kq3vc]

My family got the TI-99/4a when the price dropped to (I'm pretty sure) $150 with a $100 rebate. Bad times for TI Home Computer Division no doubt, but we got Tunnels of Doom on cassette and that sound of the tape loading was like a gateway into the future. We listened to that "song" very many times until we could even predict when the next section of the "song" would be. When disk drives came into the picture, I remember thinking "But where's the loading song?"

[@timwilcox5158]

teriffic video. much under-rated computer which i would love to add to my collection.

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

One thing I was not aware of what that the 9918A in the 4A had an extra mode that the original 9918 in the 4 didn't. MIT developed Logo for the TI99/4 and the turtle kept "running out of ink" since at most 256 of the 786 characters could be non blank. Too bad they never did a 4A version without this limitation, but I suppose that the focus of TI Logo was the sprites and not the turtle as in all other machines.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

These things are still very cheap, which is odd since retro computers are really expensive for the most part. I guess because these are kind of forgotten in the retro community. I just got one last week. It's the ugly beige model, but luckily not the QI model. You did a excellent job on the video. I learned more about the TI99/4a from this video than any video I have seen. I'm really looking forward to using my new computer more once I get the cartridges I ordered off eBay.

[@TheLairdsLair]

They are much harder to find here in the UK. I thought I had found one on Marketplace a little while back but the seller would never respond to my messages, which was really annoying. Glad you enjoyed the video and got something out of it, enjoy your TI99!

[@troy2478]

I bought one of the $49 Ti99/4As, it started me on a lifetime of computing.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

There was also a TMS99105A CPU which had on chip FPU to allow processing IEEE754 math.

[@BigMoTheBlackDragon]

This was my first ever computer in 1986 (it was second hand). "Cool" fact #11: it ran hot enough to keep hot chocolate or coffee hot (not just warm --hot, as in steam coming off the top of the liquid) if you placed it on the top of the casing. That heat issue eventually led to the computer overheating & having some of the internal components to partially melt. That was in 1992. It was another 3 years before I got another computer (again, used).

[@RapideWombaticus]

Recently, I've watched more and more of your content. Being born in 1978, your videos are relevant to me and nicely done. When I was a lad, we had a Commodore 64, the Ti was a bit before my time and I'm not sure if it was released here in Australia?

[@AgentM79]

TI Invaders by itself is sufficient reason to purchase a TI99/4A. This game is like potato chips or M&Ms.

[@BryanChance]

SO that's the infamous Bill Cosby. LOL

[@martindejong3974]

The TI99/4 was originally designed to use the TMS9985, but there were problems with it so TI was forced to switch to the TMS9900. The TMS9985 was never released.

[@jeffhyche9839]

The Ti-99/4a was not supported by many major software publishers. It was supported by two if I remember, Colico and Atari. Even then this support came late in the life of the Ti-99/4a when the system was already in sharp decline. The reason there was so few 3rd party support for the Ti was because Texas Interments went out of its way to block 3rd party publishes on the platform. The last incarnation of the Ti-99 4/a was specifically designed to block 3rd party support. The lack of 3rd party software, and the cost of expansion option is widely regarded as the leading causes of failure for the computer. Since most of the software had to published through Texas Instruments the library that was available was very lack luster. As a kid I remember reading through copies of Electronic Games magazine bewildered at the number of games available for the Atari, Apple, then Commodore computers. We watched membership in our Ti Users club diminish weekly when Commodore came out with the C-64 and 1541 disk drive for the cost of about one Ti expansion box.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Yeah I mentioned that in the video, there were a few other like Milton Bradley, TigerVision and Imagic, but certainly nowhere near as much support as Atari, Commodore and Apple had.

[@captaincat1743]

TI99/4A was a 16 bit machine years before 16 bit consoles became available. It was a shame that it did not have the game range of its rivals at the time, because as far as I know Atari was the only 3rd party that had the license to make games for it. I did have Pole Position though. Parsec was probably my favourite. Incredibly smooth. I believe it used vector graphics to achieve that, though I might be wrong.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Milton Bradley did too, but as I explained in another video they were somewhat involved with the creation of the TI99. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3zRgmR9acxrosU&ab_channel=TheLaird%27sLair

[@rafaelgadret]

thanks for the amazing video!

[@grinbrothers]

I have little knowledge on Texas Instruments computers aside from that they existed so it was interesting to learn more about them. I was really impressed by the visual abilities of the system showcased here, particularly with how it doesn't quite match up to the mental image you get in regards to it's 70's based components. The Texas vs Commodore war was interesting to learn about and the 17:49 mention of a Texas Instruments based console does have me curious.

[@TheLairdsLair]

TI's original plan was to make a console to compete with the 2600 and a computer. At some point the two teams merged together and decided to go with a low-cost but powerful computer that could play games too.

[@grinbrothers]

@@TheLairdsLair Thanks for informing me of that. Despite growing up with an A1200, I far prefer consoles, so it's always fascinating to learn about the computers that had or almost had console versions.

[@mrt.7146]

18:10 - Shamus ... so amazing a game 🤩

[@anticat900]

I thought the price war began with the Timex Sinclair, outselling the Vic and everything else? This didn't last long once everyone dropped their prices, but it did initiate the price war that continued until many were no longer viable - like the ti 99 4a.

[@angsta22]

I thought then and still think today the Sinclair was complete garbage... the TI's keyboard was bad enough, the Timex keyboard was a downright joke... I doubt I would have used a sinclair for more than a day even if I got one free back in the day lol 0/5 stars.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

13:19 Bill Cosby no doubt also joked how easy it was to get other things if you spiked a lady's after dinner drink with quaaludes.

[@tursilion]

Most of the facts were pretty good - which is unusual for videos about the TI. ;) Also nice to see so many of the modern games. - the 99/4 has the same video out port as the 99/4A. It shipped with a monitor because TI had not yet gotten FCC approval for attachment to a television (as you mention). This same modulator works fine on the 4. - memory page mentions the 16KB video RAM but not the 32KB CPU RAM expansion (the V9938 board you do mention was an unlicensed, homebrew expansion. There was also a 9958 expansion, though far less common.) - external video input was a capability of the VDP, but was disabled on the motherboard and could not be enabled without significant modification - I see my Dragon's Lair in there during the talk about the speech synthesizer. This is a little misleading, as Dragon's Lair does not require the speech synth or any other accessory. The audio is generated through the built-in sound chip.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Thanks for commenting Tursi, good to see you here! With regards to Dragon's Lair (great work by the way) none of the video clips are meant to exactly relate to what I am talking about (if they do it's a bonus) they are simply there as a background.

[@dgro949]

Like the jab at Steve Jobs in the ad at 0:46!

[@captaincorleone7088]

Great work, this was almost a documentary! I learned a lot about the 4A - as far as I can remember I only saw the machine once and that was on display in Harrods where I played TI Invaders and only knew of one person in the UK who owned this machine. Now I fully understand why Tramiel is credited as the gravedigger for TI's computer division. What a guy!

[@TheLairdsLair]

Thanks, this probably required more work than any video I've ever made!

[@TheSulross]

yeah, Tramiel definitely lived his life by the Hebrew Bible's ethos of "an eye for an eye".

[@marccaselle8108]

Lol. Bill Cosby shilling for a TI994A computer and not shilling for Jello chocolate pudding pops. I wasn't born when these TI commericals we're on the air.

[@tarstarkusz]

3:20 the CPC wasn't released until April 1984. That advert is not from 82 or 83, probably

[@ecdhe]

I am surprised that they released a computer preventing unlicensed games from running. Atari also wanted to prevent third party software with their 400/800 (although they threatened to sue, they didn't use hardware) but that was in 1979. It seems like TI followed the same idea much later.

[@TheLairdsLair]

The original TI99 came about the same time as the 400/800

[@ecdhe]

@@TheLairdsLair yes, but did this model prevent users from running unlicensed games? I thought it was a latter model

[@TheLairdsLair]

Ah good point, I'm not sure actually.

[@smalltownMainer]

i like the looks of the beige one, but they are harder to find.

[@AllGamingStarred]

had they not hired cosby, the commercials would've aged like wine

[@TheSulross]

hmm, this retro computing channel punches way above its viewer totals

[@tron3entertainment]

The TI-99/4A had some short comings. With BASIC's speed being a major setback. But the games excelled beyond the Atari 2600.

[@neilthomas8070]

A funky looking computer; not sure if I used one.

[@samk2266]

cool machine, but the Commodore 64 came out & destroyed it. With the Ti99 it came with 16K, but you needed to buy that big box to get it up to 48K + you could get a disk drive & other accessories plugged into the big external box.. so for software developers, most just opted to use the cartridge slot because if you designed the (usually games) to use the full 48K most Ti99 users didn't have enough memory. The C64 came out with built in 64K & then you just needed the 1541 disk drive which had more memory inside of it.. that meant that developers could just create software on diskette and most C64 users could get it, much simpler approach.

[@kenwheeler3637]

I really wish I would have known about those deep discounts back then. I must have been focusing on something else at the time. It was a decent system. It's a shame that Texas Instruments didn't manage things differently. They might have been able to stay in the game a bit longer.

[@ItsCrapContent]

I remember my cousin having one of these and it was really cool machine but very short lived in the uk …cool vid x

[@TheLairdsLair]

I was playing on one today actually, which was cool. Never knew anyone who had one back then though sadly, shame because, as you say, it's a cool machine.

[@RetroJack]

The synthesised voice was amusing at first, however, by the time I'd reached halfway through the video, I'd simply heard it too many times and had to bail.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Sorry, you could have just skipped ahead though if it was that annoying.

[@RetroJack]

@@TheLairdsLair True, but that would've been a lot of skips and I'm lazy. 😋

[@colinmcdonald2499]

I thought you were talking about playing the actual Ti99 in 1983!!! It was pretty much the same thing even as an 8 year old!

[@PinkOrangeRed]

what are the games @9:15 and @18:10 ?

[@TheLairdsLair]

Moonsweeper and Shamus

[@PinkOrangeRed]

thank you! @@TheLairdsLair

[@davidroikit8121]

I found a T1-99 shirt on Amazon yesterday for anyone else interested.

[@baladinbaladin2549]

Mon premier PC personnel en +-1981 et ma TI 30 TEXAS INSTRUMENT

[@waynemorellini2110]

Did you know the Commodore had a serial bus (before usb) based on an HP scientific bus?

[@arcadeshopper]

actually there's some really cool expansion options for the Peripheral Expansion Box (PEB) you should check out the TI-99/4A FAQ on my website ..

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

O got to use a proper 9900 computer (the Fluke 1720A) for a couple of months and it was a pretty fast machine. It tipped the balance towards the TI99/4A when I decided to move from my Sinclair ZX81 later on, but the performance was very disappointing. I later got my hands on the schematics for the 4A and saw the 8 bit hack which explained it.

[@soviet9922]

Remember the first time that got to check out a TI when i was like 12 got to a friend house and experienced the saddest excuse for games and the slowest basic ever created in history.

[@anticat900]

It seems odd about 70% of the games look like many of the other machines with this video chip, ie with single colour sprites. But the remaining ones, seem graphically far more advanced being multi colour and with smooth scrolling and upto the level of a c64 ie unridium and dragons lairen

[@jmr5125]

The 30% are modern homebrew games. The 4a most certainly couldn't do something like Dragon's Lair in 1980. There are a number of "making of" videos for the 4a Dragon's Lair available on KZbin, but in short it works with an absurdly large bankswitched cartridge and the 4a only need to copy bytes to the VDP.

[@TedSeeber]

You did a retrospective of the 4/a and did not cover Tunnels of Doom?

[@TheLairdsLair]

This isn't a retrospective, it's a trivia video, I have done separate videos on games that are linked in the description.

[@dingusbingus7463]

I feel you shouldve pointed outthst Cosby was "now disgraced" as kids or pepple who dont know anything about that era wouldnt understand he was very popular for families woth his cleam comedy, so it was a huge marketing move to get him to sell their computer to the masses. We all know what he did now, but it might confuse anyone who doesnt know to think he mightve made ti the unpopular choice. History is history, besides that its a great video with great information that covers really everything in not that long a time, compared to other videos ive seen that cover some but not all

[@retrogamestudios6688]

Doesn't their graphing calculator share the same model number

[@joejacobsonwales]

Never knew anyone who had one of these, quite a quirky computer, I'd still rather have a BBC.

[@johneygd]

It’s clear that texas instruments just did made some absolute dumb decissions along the way on purpose, then they rectified things in later models but did cut things on other parts so neither of their models were the best,or they had less ram or less rom or it was only compatible with their own games , etc,,, (did they tout to make money that way to force people to only buy their own games and programs??) Texas instruments was clearly just too desperate in what they were trying and doing so all losses they made is clearly their own fault, If they had just came up with a friendly system at a acceptible price,they could,ve be waaay more successful.

[@TheLairdsLair]

TRS is Tandy Radio Shack, this is a Texas Instruments computer - totally different company.

[@robertlinder6414]

You overused the TI voice.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Nah

[@bcburnettcom]

I remember in the '80s I was in the Navy, and the Commissary was selling them for $1.00

[@TheLairdsLair]

Wow, that's pretty incredible!