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  • TI-994A

    From Mike Dippel@316:36/57 to All on Thu Dec 16 23:49:56 2021
    A friend gave me a TI-994A for Christmas as well as the terminal emulator and some
    game cartridges. This was the year that Texas Instrument was discontinuing its
    production.

    I got a lot of enjoyment from it. I subscribed to Boardwatch magazine and spent time
    copying the code line by line from the magazine just to make a sprite move across the
    screen. I joined a Users Group that met in a library and befriended someone who had
    the complete Plato series. Plato was educational software that I insisted my son use to
    help him learn.

    My wife and I even flew to San Francisco in 1996 to attend the BBS Convention where I
    met Mr. Dvorak, the king of BBS'ing at that time.

    I hated to get rid of it, but I didn't have a use for it once I purchased my first computer
    (a Packard Bell 286) which of course was more useful to me. That new computer came
    with a years free subscription to Prodigy, the start of my real love for computers.

    Any one else own a TI-994A?

    Mike Dippel


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  • From Ford Prefect@316:36/44 to Mike Dippel on Mon May 30 00:25:25 2022
    Re: TI-994A
    By: Mike Dippel to All on Thu Dec 16 2021 11:49 pm

    Any one else own a TI-994A?

    Hi, MIke! I had a beige TI-99/4a computer starting in 1982. It lived until 1989/1990 which included a PEB, Speech Synth expansion card, GRAM Kracker, two DS/DD floppy drives, 128K expansion card, and way too many other options. My father went crazy with it, even started using the GRAM Kracker to start hacking away at some of the games and programs, etc.

    Ultimately, the TI was a great computer and served its purpose. TI should've put more time, money, and effort into developing more for it, even to the point where they started talking about a more "advanced" version of it. Ultimately, they didn't. I think I kept using the TI as I loved some of the games and programs and I found that dialing into BBSes with the 4a in 80 column mode was a lot more enjoyable than using early versions of Telix in DOS. Oh, well.

    Glad you enjoyed it!

    Brian Klauss (Ford Prefect)
    42bytes.net a Synchronet BBS
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    * Origin: 42bytes - 42bytes.net - Don't Panic! (316:36/44)