Resources for your ti-99/4a home Computer

Worldwide Web

There are several sites on the web that offer information about the 4A. Even Texas Instruments has a page devoted to its orphan!

A good place to start is the “TI-99/4A Home Computer Page.” This page, maintained by Richard Polivka, contains a wealth of information, video clips of TI software in action, and many links to other sites. You can find it at http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/994apg.html. I asked him why he started this page.
“When I started the page, it was just for nostalgia. I had started searching the web for ‘TI-99/4A’ and didn’t find much. As a matter of fact, I think all I could find was ‘The TI and Parallelcomputing Page’…You might want to contact him – I’m pretty sure that he was the first 4A page…I didn’t know that the newsgroup existed and was thrilled to find that there were still 99/4A enthusiasts out there. I started the page because I missed the good old days of programming on my 4A, and also because I wanted to try to archive as much 4A information as possible for all of the current and former 4A users. Things have slowed down a bit now, but the majority of the e-mail that I got wasn’t from those who still used their TI. It was from people who told me that they had used their 4A when they were in their teens, and credited it to getting them into their current field of electronics or computers.”
“I…usually get anywhere from 1000 to 2000 hits per month but past that I don’t keep too much track….I’m always one of the top 10 most requested directories out of those hosted by my ISP.”
This site includes several links to other sites. Some of the other sites listed below came from the list on Richard’s TI page.

http://www.ultranet.com/~mike-tom/ti.shtml

This is a decent page with some interesting content. Of particular interest is the Extended BASIC program of the month. Worth visiting if only to look at what program will be featured next!

http://www.concentric.net/~Alxevans/ti99_4a.html

This page features the 9900 MICROPROCESSOR Instruction Set Summary.

http://www.ecn.ou.edu/~peberrym/ti99/ti99.html

This site has some large pictures, including the Title Screen, a nice picture of some cartridge manuals, but not much else. However, the owner of this page promises more soon!

http://www.ti.com/calc/docs/994a.htm

Yes, you read that address correctly. This is TI’s own page devoted to their orphan, the 4A. It includes technical support and repair information. There is also a list of vendors and a “true stories” section, where owners of the 4A detail their experiences with technology. It’s altogether a great site to visit (even if you hate TI).

http://www.enter.net/~bsnyder

This page by Brad Snyder features software to download and the TI Chat Page. The Chat Page is a live-chat room, along the same lines as IRC or other online chat rooms.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7374/ti.html

The TI-99/4A Shrine is an excellent page to visit. There are links to several other pages, descriptions and instructions on the use of tons of software and hardware items, a list of upcoming events, an “Emulators” section, pictures, and even sounds such as the Parsec “Press Fire to Begin.” An excellent assortment, well put together in a nice-looking format.

http://www.ftech.net/~kevan/collection/manufacturer-ti.html#TI-99/4A

Addatex Software features programs written by Malcolm Adams. There are complete descriptions and screen shots of the software.

http://people.delphi.com/eicher/

This page has very little information regarding the 4A. It does, however, have one very interesting picture. There is a 4A console in the black and silver style. However, the only thing black on the console is they keyboard! Everything else is silver. Wow!

http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~zapf/tigene.html

Don Eicher’s page features information on the CC40. It’s basically a page of links with some interesting archives to download and a nice table of vendor names and phone numbers.

http://www.sonyx.com/wht/

This site has some interesting software and documents to download. There is also a page devoted to the upcoming projects of Michael Zapf, which includes an implementation of TCP/IP on the 4A and Geneve.

http://www.zdnet.com/cshopper/filters/9609/punwha.html

Even publishing giant Ziff Davis gets into the 99er act! This page contains the article, “Whatever Happened to the TI 9900 CPU?” that appeared in an issue of Computer Shopper.

http://www.datalynxil.com/orgs/99ers.htm

This little page currently lists the contact info and meeting times/places for the Decatur 99er Home computer user group. They may add more content later.

http://www.mgl.ca/~jvweelie/index.htm

This is another “page of links” but contains many interesting tidbits of information.

http://www.startext.net/homes/calthar/columns/sn0996_1.htm

This is something I love to see. This website is a web version of the Dallas 99er user group. Their entire newsletter is posted every time a new edition comes out. Fabulous!

http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~axc/MACHINE-ROOM/

The Machine Room is a site devoted to old computers. It includes many I haven’t heard of. It also includes information on the 99/2, 99/4, 99/4A, and 99/8. The pages include history, detailed specifications, and photos. A great site that lets us see how our line of products stacks up against other computers from this period.

http://www.netten.net/~garycox

This page has a wealth of information on a variety of topics. Definitely worth reading for the multitude of interesting articles. Includes info on repairing the 4A as well as BBS and User Group listings.

http://www.umr.edu/~khigh01/994a.html

Right now, this page only lists a few sites. More is promised, so check this site for details and new info.

http://sys00.ti6.tu-harburg.de/~ti6hk/hobby/

The TI and Parallel Computing Page is believed to be the first web page devoted to the 4A. There is software to download and a programming challenge.

http://www.ncsc.dni.us/fun/user/tcc/cmuseum/cmuseum.htm

This site is similar in concept to The Machine Room. It is a collection of information on older computers, and has a small section devoted to the 4A. There are some interesting photos as well as a brief history and some other historical information.

http://www.freeflight.com/fms/comp/

Another listing of old computers, this includes some limited 4A information.

http://www.cais.com/fmg/bobbitt/clb.htm

This is Chris Bobbitt’s Home Page.

http://firewall.fh-rosenheim.de:8888/~aurora/ti99.html

Most of this site seems to be the same old page of links. However, there are complete specifications of the 4A…in German!

http://www.io.org/~opanit/

This is the site for OPA. I could find very little TI specific information here anymore, but may be worth a visit.

NOTE: The web is volatile at best. New web pages are always going up, and old ones are always coming down. While I was compiling this list, I had several people give me their own lists of 4A web pages. Some links worked and others said they were no longer available. One of the best things I can suggest is to try the above links, then search for your own.
You can do a web search by visiting the following locations:
Yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com

Lycos at http://www.lycos.com

WebCrawler at http://www.webcrawler.com

There are several other “search engines” online for you to try. You can enter any or all of the following keywords to try to locate information on our little 4A: TI-99/4A, TI, 4A, Texas, Instruments, Home, Computer, Computers, Old, Flea Market, TI99, Classic. Different combinations of some of these will produce different results.