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

(bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com)
168 points rbanffy | 1 comments | 16 Feb 25 18:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.264s | source
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rbc ◴[20 Feb 25 02:28 UTC] No.43110387[source]▶
I wanted the TI-99/4 that was marketed at the beginning of the 80s. As it turned out, I didn't own a computer until buying a Tandy PC-6 pocket computer in the mid-eighties.

Fast forward to buying the later TI-99/4A in the beige case in 2023. Booting it up into the Basic prompt gave me a nice flashback to learning Basic in High School on the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I.

I've also bought its cousin the TI-74 BASICALC. Given hindsight, the TI-74 is my favorite TI-99 for retro computing, even though the similarity is limited to a subset of the TI Basic from the TI-99 family. The TI-74s are rugged and available. It's very useful as a desk calculator.

replies(2): >>43110597 #>>43120447 #
1. progmetaldev ◴[20 Feb 25 03:01 UTC] No.43110597[source]▶
This seems like an expensive hobby, but one that chases that feeling we first got off our first system! I often wish that I understood hardware a bit more when I learned Atari 8-bit BASIC, in the late 80's/early 90's, and would have known to keep everything wrapped up in an environment that wasn't humid. I feel the one I learned on, owned by my dad, was probably moved to the basement storage and is completely corroded at this point.