3 ms·

At the same time, the 4a didn't have Vector graphics...you HAD to program with sprites with the included basic. So much graph paper...so much conversions of bi

At the same time, the 4a didn't have Vector graphics...you HAD to program with sprites with the included basic. So much graph paper...so much conversions of binary to hex.

bitwize 5y ago
The 4A did have a framebuffer graphics mode, it was just not available from BASIC. Vector graphics were thus available in software such as TI Logo II. You could even use sprites with it. Bitmap mode, as it was called, was also used for the graphics in games such as Parsec, where a fast software scrolling routine provided the game's smooth scrolling background. The 4A was a nerfed machine in general: its powerful 16-bit CPU could only access directly 256 bytes of RAM, with the rest being mediated through the video chip. Its built-in BASIC was both slow, being written in GPL bytecode, and nerfed in that it provided virtually no direct access to the machine's features and actually locked you out of some of them, like bitmap and multicolor mode and even sprites. Extended BASIC got you sprites and some other features, but you still needed the expensive PEB in order to load machine code routines. These limitations were tragic, as the machine itself was rather powerful even compared to machines from a few years later, and there wasn't much reason to limit it except that TI saw it as a giant version of their calculators and wanted it to be cartridge-driven with only the barest allowable user programmability.
- chasil 5y ago
  The DNOS minicomputer division demanded that the 99/4 be absolutely crippled, so powerful operating systems could not be run on the machine. I was "lucky" enough to get a 99/4a early on, then a job at Deere converting DNOS systems to Xenix and TI System V on 68000 NuBus. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-DNOS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-DNOS
  - Damogran6 5y ago
    Holy cow!
- Damogran6 5y ago
  That's unfortunate...as a kid in the styx with the documentation that came with the computer by default, I would have loved a little more accessibility to it's capabilities...I couldn't rationalize how it came with a 'powerful 16 bit TMS-9900 processor...but it was pig slow doing anything compared to the 8 bit Apples I was using in school and the graphics weren't great...and 3 months after we paid $350 for ours, they were going for $50 on fire sale.
  - bitwize 5y ago
    Yeah, that's the thing, the TMS9900 was a TI-990 minicomputer CPU in a single-chip design. Per another comment, the minicomputer division didn't want competition from a home computer, so they had the TI-99/4A engineers cripple the design in various ways. But you look at that fast scrolling routine in Parsec, or something like "Don't Mess with Texas" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSUhE03XFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSUhE03XFw) and you wonder what might've been.

At the same time, the 4a didn't have Vector graphics...you HAD to program with sprites with the included basic. So much graph paper...so much conversions of binary to hex.

bitwize 5y ago

The 4A did have a framebuffer graphics mode, it was just not available from BASIC. Vector graphics were thus available in software such as TI Logo II. You could even use sprites with it. Bitmap mode, as it was called, was also used for the graphics in games such as Parsec, where a fast software scrolling routine provided the game's smooth scrolling background. The 4A was a nerfed machine in general: its powerful 16-bit CPU could only access directly 256 bytes of RAM, with the rest being mediated through the video chip. Its built-in BASIC was both slow, being written in GPL bytecode, and nerfed in that it provided virtually no direct access to the machine's features and actually locked you out of some of them, like bitmap and multicolor mode and even sprites. Extended BASIC got you sprites and some other features, but you still needed the expensive PEB in order to load machine code routines. These limitations were tragic, as the machine itself was rather powerful even compared to machines from a few years later, and there wasn't much reason to limit it except that TI saw it as a giant version of their calculators and wanted it to be cartridge-driven with only the barest allowable user programmability.

chasil 5y ago
The DNOS minicomputer division demanded that the 99/4 be absolutely crippled, so powerful operating systems could not be run on the machine. I was "lucky" enough to get a 99/4a early on, then a job at Deere converting DNOS systems to Xenix and TI System V on 68000 NuBus. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-DNOS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-DNOS
- Damogran6 5y ago
  Holy cow!
Damogran6 5y ago
That's unfortunate...as a kid in the styx with the documentation that came with the computer by default, I would have loved a little more accessibility to it's capabilities...I couldn't rationalize how it came with a 'powerful 16 bit TMS-9900 processor...but it was pig slow doing anything compared to the 8 bit Apples I was using in school and the graphics weren't great...and 3 months after we paid $350 for ours, they were going for $50 on fire sale.
- bitwize 5y ago
  Yeah, that's the thing, the TMS9900 was a TI-990 minicomputer CPU in a single-chip design. Per another comment, the minicomputer division didn't want competition from a home computer, so they had the TI-99/4A engineers cripple the design in various ways. But you look at that fast scrolling routine in Parsec, or something like "Don't Mess with Texas" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSUhE03XFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSUhE03XFw) and you wonder what might've been.