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

(bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com)
168 points rbanffy | 4 comments | 16 Feb 25 18:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mkovach ◴[20 Feb 25 12:35 UTC] No.43113965[source]▶
I had one of these growing up, until it was replace with a Tandy 1000 from Radio Shack. Well, I kept it around until I moved into my second house.

I had TI Forth, the huge accessory box, a disk drive, the works. It was fun, I learned quite a bit and have forgotten most of the Forth that I learned.

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1. abecedarius ◴[20 Feb 25 16:23 UTC] No.43116619[source]▶
I had a similar setup eventually with Wycove Forth -- can't remember even the existence of TI Forth. Anyway playing with that was my foot in the door to a summer job at FORTH, Inc. as a teen.

Lost all of that code because my 99 system got stolen a few years later.

replies(2): >>43117611 #>>43120352 #
2. mkovach ◴[20 Feb 25 17:29 UTC] No.43117611[source]▶
Oh man!

I still booted my system up occasionally when I had it to remind myself that you didn't have to write HUGE programs to do stuff.

Now, I want to write a text adventure game again. Where are my Turbo Pascal disks?

3. OhMeadhbh ◴[20 Feb 25 21:20 UTC] No.43120352[source]▶
Didn't TI-Forth have a mode where it would use a 3x7 font so you could get 64 characters per line? I still have nightmares. But... you have to appreciate the work that went into it.
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4. abecedarius ◴[20 Feb 25 22:31 UTC] No.43121203[source]▶
Really if I ever knew it existed, I've forgotten. But https://oratronik.de/atariage/TI_FORTH_Manual-2ndEd(LES).pdf says yes on page 14. General discussion at https://99er.net/tifaq2.html#TIFAQ011

(I used Wycove Forth in 40-column mode, though I have a dim memory of trying something like your 3x7 font...)